hereunto he falls a buying and purchasing at certain and annual Rates the Votes of the Members at what time the greatness of the number of those who stood ready for Sale as well as their Indigencies and Lusts made the Price at which they were to be bought so much the easier Now being thus hir'd by his Majesty with their own free Offerings of the Nations Money How many Bills did they pass into Acts for enslaving and ruining a third part of the Kingdom under the Notion of Phanaticks and Dissenters and all this in gratitude for their Sallaries and to accomplish the Will and Pleasure of their Lord and Master the King whose bought and purchas'd Vassals and Slaves they were All this while what can we say or think other but that the Purchaser as well as the Sellers were equally guilty of betraying the People who had entrusted them And then to make a President by Law for Tyranny those Hirelings empower'd the Iustices of the Peace to disseize Men of their Estates without being convicted and found guilty by Legal Juries of the Transgressions whereof they stood accus'd By which they not only overthrew all the Common and Statute Law of the Land but they subverted and altered the Fundamental Constitution in making English Men liable to be ruin'd at the Arbitrary Pleasure of the King And as an addition to this those Mercinary Members by the Orders and Directions of their most Pious and Protestant Paymaster the King past another Law which was stiled the Act for Corporations by which Men of Principles and Integrity were debarred all Offices of Magistracy in Cities and Corporate Towns The woful Effects of which the Kingdom not long after both saw and felt in the Surrenders of Charters and betraying of Franchises by Persons upon whom the Government of the Corporations came to be devolv'd by Vertue of that Act. For that had it not been for that Act which excluded so many honest able and vertuous Men the Persons whom the King for his by-ends nominated for fit and loyal Men would never have risen above the Office of Scavengers or Headboroughs or Constables at the highest To this as a thing that mainly contributed to the King's design of enslaving us we may subjoyn their passing an Act whereby they did both limit and confine the number of those that were to present Petitions to the King not to exceed Ten Persons Let the Matter to be represented be ne're so important or the Grievance to be redress'd never so illegal and oppressive yet it was made no less then a Riot if above Ten Persons address'd themselves to the King to crave the Benefit of the Law A Trouble which the King carefully provided against knowing how many Laws he had to break and how burthensom and oppressive he must be to the People before he could compleat the Fabrick of Slavery and Popery which he was erecting Nor was this all for the King strenuously pursuing his Design of being sincere and cordial to the destruction of his People had so bephilter'd them with his Potions of Aurum Potabile that they pass'd another Act to his Hearts desire whereby they plac'd the whole and sole Power of the Militia in the King not only encouraging him to use Force in compassing his Arbitrary Designs but binding up the Hands of the People from defending themselves against armed Violence upon their Religigion Liberties and Lives Add to this the vast sums which they gave him beyond what the Support of the Government or the Defence of the Nation requir'd Which might have produc'd fatal Consequences but that the King knew as little a Measure in spending as that unhappy Parliament did in giving The King therefore conscious of his own Failing and finding that through his own Wastfulness and the Importunities of his consuming Misses he could not depend upon any limited and definite Sum for accomplishing his Promises to his Holy Father the Pope and his trusty Confederate the French King got Two Bills prepar'd and carry'd into the House the Passing of which had compleated the Nations Misery and made him Absolute The one was to empower his Majesty upon Extraordinary Occasions of which he would not have fail'd to have been the Judge as often as he pleas'd to raise Money without a Parliament And the other was for setling a Universal Excise upon the Crown The Passing either of which the King well knew would have soon â—nabl'd him to have govern'd by Basha's and Ianizaries and redeem'd him from having any further need of Parliaments or any apprehension of having the Instruments of his Tyranny impeach'd by Them But what the King had so finely projected to enslave the Nation and obtain whatever he had a mind to prov'd the Ground of their Disappointment and the Occasion of the Nations Escape from the Snare that was laid for it For the Mercenary Members foreseeing that the passing these Bills would have put an end to their Pensions by rendring them useless for the time to come consulted their Gain and preferring it above what the Court styl'd their Loyalty fell in with the Honest Party and so became assistant in throwing out the Bills However the very bringing the Bills into the House was as clear an Evidence of the King's Intention to alter the Government and enslave the Nation as if they had pass'd into Laws And some of his Minions that knew the King's Drift and the inside of his Heart were so zealous for him to have gain'd this Arbitrary Power that they would have it argu'd and spoken to in the House of Lords And who but the Popish Lord Clifford should be the Man that ventur'd to undertake the Business And accordingly he made a long Harrangue in praise of Absolute Monarchy and how much it would be for the Interest of the Kingdom to have his Majesty entrusted with a more unlimited Authority Which some of the Lords resenting with a Warmth and Indignation becoming Persons who by the Constitutions of the Governmeut were design'd for a Bulwark against the Encroachments of Regal Power and as a Fence about the Liberties of the People the Motion not only dy'd without being seconded but Clifford even by him who had encourag'd him in his Attempt was call'd a rash Fool for his pains However Pious AEneas finding the Nation grew sensible of his covert Intentions and Encroachments upon their Laws and Liberties and despairing to get any more Acts pass'd in Parliament toward the promoting his Designs resolv'd to husband the Laws he had already obtain'd as much as he could to the Ruine of the Nation and where they fail'd of being serviceable to his Ends to betake himself to other Methods and Means And therefore besides the daily impoverishing confining and destroying of infinite numbers of honest and peaceable People under pretence of executing the Laws he made it his Business to invent new Projects to tear up the Rights and Liberties of the People by ways and means which had not the least
who but he who in his last wheedling Speech to pick the Nations Pocket had promised to Consenâ— to any Laws against Popery at the bottoâ— of it Who but he the Suborner and Instructer of Fitzharris and the Gratifier of him too with his own Hand And why was W p readmitted to his and his Brother's Favour but to be the principal Broker for Witnesses and grand Minister of Subordination for the carrying on this bloody Design that since he could not advance his Fortune by the prostitution of his own Daughter he might do it by betraying the Innocent to slaughter What a crew of Devils in the shape of Men a Regiment of Miscreants in whom all the Transgressions of the Law and Morality were muster'd together I say what a band of such Caitiffs were rendevouz'd and with that Money which Parliaments gave to promote the Security of the Kingdom carress'd and pamper'd even to excess for the destruction of the Innocent And all this at the expence of him that bore the Stile and Character of our Gracious Soveraign For full proofs of which there needs no more than to look into the Tryal of Fitzharris himself and observe the Shuffâ—ng and Hectoring of Portsmouth and her Close-stool Wench Mrs. Wall when they were ask'd the Question about the Money that was given him at White-Hall and yet one would have thought that the modest and humble Address and Petitions of so maâ—y Parliaments to secure the Lives and Religion of his people that the care and tenderness which they had still out of mistake for his person that the prostrated Complaints of a distressed Nation and that the foresight of these dismal Calamities he was bringing upon three spacious and opulent Kingdoms might have interceded for some Compassion had there been a grain of common Humanity in his Adamantine Heart or that the heat of his Lust had not petrified all his pity And yet as horrid as this Plot was which nothing could equal but that horrid Plot of his own which this was contrived to coveâ— and stifle by excelling it was carried on with all the vigour imaginable insomuch that the more fatal Libel than the Gorgon's Head that was to kill unseen was ready prepared for the Work and the Train ready to take fire had not Everard's Jealousie of some design upon himself outwitted Fitzharris and first betrayed him to save his own Bacon To recite the particulars of a Design already so well known and publickly exposed to all the World would be a repetition altogether needless This however was observable that we were come to the height of Tiberius's Reign when Informers and 〈◊〉 Accusers a sort of Men found out for thâ— Ruine of the Publick and for the punishment of which no Laws can be too severe were encouraged and courted with Rewards Nullus à poena hominum cessavit dies decreta accusatoribus precipua premia nemini delatorum fides abrogata omne Crimen pro Capitali receptum etiam paucorum simpliciumque Verborum No day passed without some punishment inflicted great Rewards given to Informers no Informer but what was believed all Crimes were adjudged Capital though merely a few idle Words Such a Harmony there was between these times and the pernicious Reign of that Master in Cruelty and Dissimulation Tiberius But the Roguery being discovered while Fitzharris thought to have put Everard upon this Dilemma either to hang or prove the Libel upon others he came to run himself into the Noose Lord into what an Agony it put the King the Duke his dear Brother and their then juggling Instruments that the King who a little before was so overjoyed with the accompt of the Contrivance which was given him at White-hall that he could hardly contain himself from displaying the Raptures of his Soul was now so highly incensed against Fitzharris that he was heard to say He should die if there were no more Men in England But his Confession to the Recorder Sir George Treby and others what the design of the Conspiracy was that is to say to thrust papers into the pockets and Lodgings of such and such Gentlemen and then to seize them with the papers about them so enraged his Employers that he was presently lockt up in the Tower out of the reach of all Men but the Lieutenant to damn him for spoiling so hopeful a Design and Secretary Ienkins who was only admitted to him either to threaten or cajole him with fair promises into a Recantation But above all things there was such a dread among the Conspirators lest the Parliament should come to the knowledge of the depth of the Design that their resolute insisting to have the Cognizance of the Crime within their own jurisdiction was the occasion of their sudden Dissolution After which a Chief Justice was exalted on purpose to hang Fitzharris out of the way to prevent his farther discovery though the rejecting of Fitzharris's Impeachment by the Lords was a thing so new and unusual as to the Proceedings of Parliament that the Commons who knew the Law as well as the Judges voted it a Denial of Justice and that no Inferior Court should dare to try an Offender by them impeach'd But the Judges over-ruling the Law and the Court over-ruling the Judges no sooner was the Parliament Dissolved but Fitzharris was Hanged and by that means many a Mystery of Iniquity concealed The dissolution of this and the foregoing Parliament was justified by a Declaration in the King's Name which being published with all the severity and reproach that could be cast upon those worthy Patriots verified the Report of what the King had been heard to say That he would make the name of Parliaments to be forgotten in England However the Parliament being blown up and the King running away in a pretended pannick fear from Oxford to colour the ensuing projects of Plotting and Subornation no sooner was he settled again at London and Fitzharris Hang'd to the great joy of those that adored him before but the Gazett was cram'd with Addresses from all parts of the Nation to thank the King for his expressions and promises to Govern by Law which was no more than his Duty But those Addresses were only signed by the unthinking loose and rascally part of the people who were not sensible of the mischief which was thereby intended which was to make the Nation out of Love with Parliaments thereby to unhinge the Government and to introduce Tyranny and Arbitrary Power And that th Addressorse were only the Canaille of the Kingdom with only a Tool of Quality at the Head of them the Conspirators well knew which was the reason they never durst adventure to call any more Parliaments upon the Credit of their Addresses notwithstanding the mighty brags of their Number and Reputation in the Countries As for the Tryal of Fitzharris I shall say nothing of it as being already in Print Only this is to be observed by the way That no Attorney or Sollicitor-General durst
Liberties of Scotland as himself Such Exorbitancies of Injustice and Arbitrary Power that his Brother could never have endur'd in a Subject had they not been acted all along with his knowledg and consent Otherwise had not the King been strangely infatuated to believe that whatever his Brother did was for the advancement of that Cause to which he was so well affected himself he could never have been so unapprehensive of the Danger he was in from a Brother so actually in a Conspiracy against his Life For which Reason he was by the E. of Shaftsbury said to be a Prince not to be parallel'd in History For certainly besides the early tryal which the King had of his Ambition beyond-sea he had a fair warning of the hasty Advances which he made to his Throne in a short time after his Marriage to the Queen For no sooner was it discover'd the Queen was unlikely to have any Issue by the King but he and his Party make Proclamation of it to the World and that he was the certain Heir He takes his Seat in Parliament as Prince of Wales with his Guards about him He assumes the Princes Lodgings at White-hall his Guards upon the same place without any interposition between him and the King so that the King was in his Hands and Power every night All Offices and Preferments are bestowed upon him and at his disposition Not a Bishop made without him After this he changes his Religion to make a Party and such a Party that his Brother must be sure to Dye and be made away to make room for him And for the undeniable proof of all this at length the Plot breaks out headed by the Duke his Interest and Design Plain it was that where ever he came he endeavour'd to remove all Obstacles to his intended Designs out of the Way And therefore some there are who attribute the extremity of the Duke's rigour toward the E. of Argyle to the great Authority which the Earl had in the High-lands and the Awe which he had over the Papists as being Lord Justiciary in those Parts and his being able upon any Occasion to check and bridle the Marq. of Huntly from attempting the Disturbance of the Publick Peace or the Prejudice of the Protestants However this is observable That notwithstanding the height of Severity which was extended to him there was as much Favour shewn the Lord Macdonald whose invading the Shire of Argyle with an Armed Force merely because he was required by the said Earl as being a Papist to deliver up his Arms was never so much as questioned nor so much as a Reprimand given him for what he did tho when the Council sent an Herauld to him to require him to disband his Forces he caus'd his Coat to be torn from his Back and sent him back to Edinburgh with all the Marks both of Contempt of themselves and Disgrace to the Publick Officer But his Religion was sufficient to atone at that time for his Treason And now the Duke having a standing-Army of Five Thousand Foot and Five Hundred Horse in Scotland at his Devotion as well as in England and the Parliament the main Object of his Hatred and his Fear being dissov'd back he returns into England where under the Shelter of his Brother's Authority he began in a short time to exert his tyrannous Disposition and play the same Unjust and Arbitrary Pranks as he had done in Scotland and because it was not seasonable yet to make use of armed Forces he set his Westminster-Hall Redcoats like Pioneers before a marching Army to level the way for Popery and Arbitrary Controul to march in over the ruin'd Estates and murder'd Bodies of their Opposers The Judges were his Slaves the Juries at his Beck nothing could withstand him the Law it self grows Lawless and Iefferies-ridden plays the Debaushee like himself Justice or something in her likeness Swaggers Hectors Whips Imprisons Fines Hangs Draws and Quarters and Beheads all that come near her under the Duke's displeasure Alderman Pilkington for standing up for the Rights and Liberties of the City and for refusing to pack a Jury to take away the Earl of Shaftsbury's Life is prosecuted upon a Scandalum Magnatum at the Suit of the Duke Convicted and Condemn'd in a Verdict of an Hundred Thousand Pounds And Sir Patience Ward for offering to confront the suborn'd Witnesses is Indicted of Perjury for which he was forced to fly to avoid the Infamy of the Pillory though in all his Dealings so well known to be a Person of that Justice and Integrity that for all the hopes of the Duke he would not have told an untruth Sir Samuel Barnardiston for two or three treacherously intercepted Letters to his Friends in the Country fin'd Ten thousand Pounds which he was not suffer'd to discharge by Quarterly Paiments but the Estate seiz'd by the Duke's Sollicitors to the End they might have an Opportunity to be more prodigal in the waste of it But his hunting after the Lives as well as the Estates of other was more intolerable and that by the prostituted Testimony of Suborn'd Irish Rogues and Vagabonds and when that would not take the desir'd Effect by the forc'd Evidence of persons ensnar'd and shackl'd under the Terrors of Death till their drudgery of Swearing was over Men so fond of Life that they bought the uncertain Prolongation of a wicked Mortality at the unhallow'd price of certain and Immortal Infamy And therefore not knowing how to Die when they knew not how to Live accounted it a more gainful Happiness to quit the Pardon of Heaven's Tribunal for the Broad Seal of England By this means fell the Virtuous Lord Russel a Sacrifice to the Bill of Exclusion and the Duke's Revenge and yet of that integrity to his Country and untainted course of Life of whom never any spoke evil but those that knew no Evil in him only because he was one of those that sought to exclude the Duke from the hopes of Tyranny and Oppression the Duke was resolv'd to exclude him from the Earth But then comes the Murther of the Earl of Essex for that it was a most Barbarous and inhuman Murther committed by Bravo's and Bloody Ruffians set on hir'd and encourag'd by Potent Malice and Cruelty the pregnant Circumstances no less corroborated by Testimonies wanting only the confirmation of Legal Judicature has been already so clearly made out that there is no place left for a hesitating belief A Truth so conspicuous as stands in defiance of the Ridiculing Pen of R. L'Estrange to sham it over with the Buffoonry of his Bantring Acquirements It cannot be imagin'd but that so black a Deed of Darkness was carried on by the Contrivers with all the secrecy that could be studied by humane Wit But never yet was humane Wit so circumspective but that the most conceal'd of Villanies have been detected by strange and little Accidents which all the Foresight of humane Sagacity could never prevent More
to a higher Scrutiny The Justice of Heaven perhaps not minding a present Revenge of his Death who had not only prevented the Presecution of Noble and Innocent Essex's Blood but so severely punish'd the Industrious Enquiry after it Only this is further to be remark'd that the Irish Papists could for some time before fix upon the utmost Period of his Reign and the D. was sent for in haste out of Scotland without any apparent Reason for it besides that the King's Permission was obtain'd with some Difficulty However by the violent and tremendous Death of his Brother he at length arrived at the long-long wish'd for Haven of his Ambitious Desires and beholds himself mounted upon the Pinacle of Royalty only that his Fall might be the more conspicuous He was no sooner Proclaimed but he declared his Religion openly to his Privy Council however he began with a mild and caressing Declaration which he afterwards broke in every Line of it A meer Trap baited with Indulgence to Tender Consciences on purpose to catch the Dissenting Mice to deliver them when caught into the Paws of his ravenous Popish Cats but no sooner was he Crowned but as if his Coronation-Oath and all his Promises so lately made had been no more than so many Pills of Opium and believing himself environed with Power sufficient to maintain his Tyranny and Oppression he invades Property by Expulsion of the right Owners tramples upon the Laws by his pretended Prerogative of Suspending Power and goes about to pull down the Stately Structure of the Protestant Religion by the Suspension of one and imprisoning and Arraigning at his Criminal Bar no less than Seven of the most Eminent Fathers of the English Church And by a strange Alteration of the Face of Government Treason over-rules the Law and Traitors impeached are fetched out of Jail to sit Triumphantly dominering at the Helm of State and Iefferies the Daniel that in some measure might be said to be taken out of the Lions Den for the Cruelty of his Nature is advanced in open Hostility to Justice to wage War with the Fundamental Constitutions of the Kingdom A mean Spirit insulting over his Inferiors but a Spaniel to his Superiors who tho he knew himself no more than a Tool in the hand of the Popish Artificers the Shadow of Grandeur lofty under Contempt and domineering only in publick yet having pawn'd his Soul for the hopes of an Embroidered Purse rather than recoil to Goodness carreers on in Mischief and as if his Robes had not been Scarlet enough dies them more deep in Innocent Blood and becomes his Master's Vassal to enslave the Nation Such Counsellors as these hurried on the New Crown'd King with such a Rapidness to accomplish the great Work of introducing Tyranny and Popery to which his own Fears of leaving the Papists worse than he found them as furiously carried him that he threw his Brother into his Grave as if he had not had leisure to bury him or as if he had deem'd him not worth a Funeral whom he thought not worth a longer Life Unless perhaps he thought the Hypocrisie of Pompous Obsequies would have but the more provok'd his Brother 's Injur'd Manes with which as common Fame had spread it he was already too much pestred I will not here dispute the Truth of Apparitions nor insist upon the vulgar censures about the Town upon the Priests for not detaining him in the half-way-Prison but singing him out of Purgatory to make his Brother melancholy by facing him several times and giving him an astonishing stroke upon the back as he was going down a pair of Stairs in Whitehal yet this may be asserted That Guilt accompanied with Terror forms those Apparitions in in the Mind which work the same Effect and obtain the same belief when once divulg'd among the Credulous as if they were real However it were it shew'd he thought himself but little beholding to him for living so long and consequently no way oblig'd to retaliate a Succession so late in the Year with so much Loss of Time And now the first influences of his Tyranny and Fury against the Protestants flew into Scotland where whatever Indulgence he shewed in England he issued forth a Dreadful Proclamation against the Dissenters under the Notion of Enemies to the King and Government and Destroyers of the British Monarchy sufficient to have given a more early Alarm to the Dissenters in England had they not been lull'd asleep by the Softness of a present Repose and the Charms of their Decoy-Duke Penn the effect rather of their Simplicity than their Policy But the first Act of his Revenge in England brake forth upon Dr. Oates He could not forget the Doctor 's detection of his Conspiracies against the Kingdom And because he could not find out a way to hang him his Chief Iustice Iefferies found out a Punishment to gratify his Royal Fury worse than Death it self and till then unknown among Christians in Imitation of the Roman Fustuarium by which the Roman Souldiers were often drub'd to Death or if they scap'd sent into perpetual Banishment as the Doctor was first of all Scourg'd by the Common Executioner beyond all Precedent and then Condemn'd to perpetual Imprisonment A Sentence so void of all Christian Compassion that only Iefferies could have invented and such a Beast as Withens could have pronounced A goodly sight to see Protestant Judges condemning a Protestant and the Detector of a most Horrid Popish Plot upon the Evidence of known Papists and some of them nearly Related to the Executed Traytors and this for Perjury too upon the Testimony of Witnesses already falsifi'd As if Justice were a thing that never had been Naturaliz'd in Heaven but only depended upon the Will of the Prince a Kind of Tool to be us'd by his Bene-placito Slaves at his or their Discretion or the grand Poppet of the World to be shew'd in various Dreâ—ses and Disguises as the force of Judicature requir'd But as for Dangerfield he had been once his Darling frequently admitted to kiss his Hand while he was in Conspiracy with him to Suck the Blood of the Innocent But there was no Atonement for his revolting and revealing the Hidden Mystery of Iniquity Therefore he must dance the same Dance that Oates had done only the King did him this small Piece of Justice to throw away an Inconsiderable Roman Catholick to Satisfy the general Discontent upon his being Murder'd In the next place he calls a Parliament and renews his Assurances and Promises to preserve the Government both in Church and State as by Law Establish'd and Vows to hazard his own Person as he had formerly done in defence of the just Liberties and Properties of the Nation But still the Burden of his song was More mony Which the Parliament willing to Engage him if possible by all the Testimonies of their Duty and Loyalty or at least to shew that nothing should be wanting on their part readily granted
him to say with his Grandfather of the same Name Let me make what Iudges I please and I will easily have what I please to be Law No wonder then these Judges having Instruments drawn up by Brent which pass'd the Great Seal to Indemnifie them for whatever they did or said Illegally affirm'd it to the King for Law That the King was an Independent Prince That the Laws of the Kingdom were the Kings Laws That the Kings of England might Dispence with all Laws that regarded Penalties and Punishments as oft as necessity required That they were Iudges and Arbitrators who have Power to Iudge of the Necessity which may induce them to make use of these Dispensations And Lastly That the King of England could not Renounce a Prerogative annexed to the Crown By Vertue of which Concessions and Opinions of the Judges all the Laws in England made in the Reigns of four several Princes for the security of the Nation against Popery and Arbitrary Government were rendred of no Effect By Vertue of these Concessions Arundel of Warder was made Lord Privy Seal Alibone a Judge and Castlemain was sent with great Pomp an Embassador to Rome to be there contemn'd and despis'd by his Holiness for the bad name which his Master had among all the Princes of Europe and the ill Opinion the Pope himself had of him By Vertue of these Concessions it was that the greatest part of the Kingdom 's Military Safety and Defence was put into the hands of persons incapable to be intrusted with them by the Express Laws of the Kingdom and that the Execution of the Ancient Laws and Statutes of the Realm against divers sorts of Treasons and other hainous Crimes was stopt By Vertue of these Concessions Sir E. Hales was made Lieutenant of the Tower to Terrifie the City with his Mortar-pieces and level his Great Guns to the Destruction of the Metropolis of the Kingdom when the Word should be given him By Vertue of these Concessions it was that Peters was made a Privy Councellor to outbrave the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London that he had his four Provincial Bishops and that the Priests and Jesuites swarm'd in all parts of the Kingdom Built themselves Convents hired Mass Houses made open Profession of their Foppish Religion in the Chief City of the Nation and in several of the Great Cities and Towns of the Kingdom and publickly Ridicul'd the Scripture in their Pulpits All which Transgressions of all the Laws of the Land both Civil and Ecclesiaâ—tick are so fully Represented in the Memorial of the Protestants to their Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Orange That they cannot be more fully noâ— more sensibly repeated But the Inundation stopt not here it was to be a general Deluge or nothing at all To which purpose all Obstructions that oppos'd the â—orrent were to be levell'd or remov'd out of the way for effecting of which there could be no Engine thought sufficient but that of the Ecclesiastical Commission so arbitrary in its Origâ—nal that it had nothing but the Pillars of the Prerogative to support it and manag'd with that Arbitrary Fury by Iefferies That he look'd like a Monstrous Titan Warring against the Heaven of Law and Justice For he had no way to carry Illegality with a high hand but by arrogant Domineering and surly Incivility while he had nothing to offer to any Person that offer'd Law to him but Sic Volo Sic Iubeo To tell a Peer of England and the Bishop of London so much his Superiour only that he Sate upon the Throne of his Commission he that was not to be mentioned with the Bishop in the same day was such a foul piece of Exeuberance of his Guildhall Eloquence which only could have dropt from the lips of Insulting Barbarism All that can be said for him is this That as many men commit Absurdities when loden with Wine this was one of his Extravagancies in his Drink of Honour And indeed after he had tasted of that potent Charm the whole Course of his Behaviour seem'd to be a meer Intoxication which made him afterwards make use of the same Receipt to drown both his Life and his Dishonour together However the Suspending this Noble Peer and Bishop contrary to all pretence of Law for refusing to obey the Kings unjust and illegal Command was no such Advantage to the King's Cause that he had so much reason to thank the Chancellor or Peters either for putting him upon committing a greater Act of Injustice to justify a less The Bishop was too well and too generally belov'd among all the professors of Protestantism for the Papists to put such an Affront upon so Eminent a Father of the Protestant Church for them not to resent it even the more prudent Papists thought it a Proceeding too harsh and unreasonable and the more moderate look'd upon it as too base and unworthy so that the Hot-spurs of the King's Council were losers on every side And besides it was such a stabbing contradiction to the King's Speech in Council upon his Brother's Death That since it had pleased God he should succeed so good and gracious a Prince as his dear Brother he was resolv'd to follow his Example more especially in that of Clemency and Tenderness to his People That the barbarous suspending this Bishop was one of the main things which destroyed the solemn verity of Royal Word Which though he had falsified already in his severity to Otes and Dangerfield yet the Person of a Peer and Bishop and a Star of the first Magnitude in the Church of England render'd much more conspicuous But the King was under a necessity he had declar'd one thing to the Protestants but he had bound himself to do another for the Papists If he falsified with the Protestants the Papists could absolve him If he prov'd unfaithful to the Papists they would never forgive him And in this Dilemma he resolv'd to follow the Maxim of his Profession Not to keep Faith with Hereticks Neither were the steps he made the steps of State-convenience now and then upon an exigency but all in a huddle out of his Zeal to make large steps for fear he should dye and leave the Papists worse than he found them These severe Proceedings against the Bishop of London were the Violation of that part of his Declaration wherein he promis'd the Preservation of the Ecclesiastical Government as Established by Law But the Barbarous usage of the Gentlemen of both Maudlin Colledges was an unsanctified breach of another part of his Declaration wherein he no less solemnly engaged to maintain the Protestants in all their Properties and Possessions as well of Church as Abby-Lands as of all other their Properties whatsoever Notwithstand all which how he turn'd those Gentlemen out of their Legal Freeholds by the Arbitrary Power of his High Commission how he violated the Constitutions of the deceased Founders and with what an embitter'd rage and fury he rated