of York to inherit the Imperial Crown of England and Ireland which Bill was upon the 15th of November carried up to the Lords by the Great Lord Russel attended by almost all the Commons My then Station as a Grand-Jury-Man my Duty and my Oath obliging me thereunto and I imagining that the just Prosecution of the Duke in the Court of King's-Bench might facilitate the passing that Exclusion-Bill which was then set on soot and carrying on by the great Council of the Kingdom as the only humane Security for our Religion and Liberties I brought in a Bill of Indictment which the present Mr. Serjeant Rotherham drew up against the Duke as a Popish Recusant This Indictment was found by that Grand Jury and presented to the Court. That the defeating of that highly necessary Bill of Exclusion laid the Foundation of all the Calamities which the three Kingdoms do to this day so sensibly feel and groan under will not be now controverted and 't is as certain that hence sprung my future Sufferings It may not therefore be impertinent to remember the World in this place how it fared with that Bill in the House of Lords and I shall do it in the very Words of an Author who in his Preface asserts that the Nation is not a little obliged to Sir Roger L'Estrange a Person who says he might be compared to some Pictures that are placed too near the Sight to discover their true Value and that he is consident that the next Age who will behold him at a more advantageous and impartial Distance will have a truer and far greater Esteem of his Merits This very Author obligingly tells us that on the second reading of the Exclusion-Bill in the Lords House it was debated till 11 a Clock at Night the King being present all the while and then thrown out by a Majority of about 30 Votes in which Majority were all the Bishops then present which were 14. The foregoing Account may be found by the Reader in a very villanous Book wrote by James Wright Esq entituled A compendious View of the Tumults and Troubles of this Kingdom from the beginning of the 30th to the End of the 36th Year of his late Majesty King Charles the second of blessed Memory page 90. printed 1685. Much good may do my Lords the fourteen Bishops with the Honour here done them by this their Admirer But I cannot with-hold my self from observing that the before-mentioned Bill was read once in the House of Lords and being ordered a second reading Blessed Memory above-mentioned that never-failing Defender of the Protestant Faith did in Person sollicite the Popish Cause and by his Influence and by the helping Hand of the fourteen Fathers we were fairly kidnapp'd to Rome and are yet to seek in what Court to bring our Writ de homine replegiando in order to the obtaining a Capias in Withernam against them But 't is out of doubt that the Prosecution of our Deliverance hath already besides a Sea of precious Blood cost the Nation more Treasure than the said Bishops Lands are worth a hundred times over Some modest Reflections on the first Section THE two great Points that Mankind ought in this Life to be most careful in and concerned for are first his Duty to and Worship of his God and the second is like unto it his Duty to his Neighbour which is not only in particular to his Country and Country-men but to all Mankind in general Now the Laws of England bind every Man in his Station to maintain defend and preserve the Civil Government and the Protestant Religion and to let and hinder what in him lieth that may endanger either of the same In the Year 1678 was a discovery of a dangerous and hellish Plot of the Papists that threatned the Ruine of the Government with all our Civil and Religious Rights this wrought in most Men great Thoughtfulness which way to secure themselves and the Nation from this threatned Ruine some were for this and others were for that but in fine the Parliament saw no other way to secure the Nation but a Bill of Exclusion against the Duke of York he standing next in Succession to the Crown upon which the Papists built great Hopes and were mightily emboldned and encouraged by him and their Priests to carry on their Designs for the rooting out the Northern Heresy as they called the Protestant Religion And as the Parliament was herein busied so every honest Man looked upon himself in Duty bound to assist them in so necessary and good a Work I being then on the Grand Jury attending the Term and all Men do or should know a Grand Jury is a Jury of Enquiry I taking notice how illegally the Chief Justice the Term before prevented the Indictment against the Duke of York and perceiving what Heats and Quarrels it begat in City and Country about drinking his Health some affirming he was a Protestant and others refusing it As he was a Papist I thought it my Duty being then on the Jury and being satisfied in my Conscience of his being a Papist I did upon a Political Account bring in a Bill against him which was proved by Witness and found by the Jury The Reasons that moved me to bring in this Bill were as followeth 1. As he was next Heir to the Crown which if he came to would endanger the Overthrow of the Protestant Religion both at home and abroad in regard of his Jesuitical Bigotry and fast Friendship with the French King 2. As he was Brother to the then present King Charles the Second on whom he had a mighty Influence and who himself also had as good a Mind to the Work but acted more craftily and was not willing to go his Brother's pace but take slow and sure Steps for I then could as well and by substantial and credible Witness have proved him as much a Papist as his Brother but that was none of our Work nor lay before us for that a Law was made in the 13th Year of his Reign making it a high Misdemeanour for any to say the King was a Papist or Popishly affected 3. The finding this Bill and the farther Prosecution of it would animate and put Life into the Protestants and be a Check to the Romish Zeal in their Designs and would also put the King upon considering of not venturing all upon the Cast of a Dye especially the Parliament's being then awakened to encourage it and to back it with a Bill of Exclusion And I declare to all the World had the Duke of York been a private Person he might have lived and died a Papist without the least disturbance from me it being always my Judgment not to disturb or prosecute any Man barely for his private Opinion so he were not prompted thereby to Designs for disturbance of the Government and publick Peace But by my doing this I knew the War was begun and my Name in the black Book and I had hereby
Work is to preach the Gospel of Peace Love and Unity and show your Flocks the way to Heaven your selves also being exemplary in all Morality and Godliness and our Work is to govern the State And this is a convincing Argument to me that a Nation where the Governours thereof have ill Designs against the Constitutions of the Government to alter and change it and to help them herein stand in need of some Church-Ministers to be their Tools to forward their Designs they cannot miss finding some worldly unthinking-Men for their by-Ends that shall lead their silly Flocks to be helpful in this Work and thereby miserably divide a Nation to serve a Court's Design in order to set up Popery as was lately our Case As in all Civil so also in all Religious Orders of Men there are good and bad they are like Isaiah's Figs them that are good are very good and them that are bad are very bad even the worst of Men if they have not Gifts and Graces fitted for their Function and so called and sent of God they are fitted for the Work and sent by the Devil if they are not Angels of Light they are of Darkness the Firebands and Incendiaries of Hell and if they do not most good they do most hurt as by sad Experience hath been shewn And indeed this is no new thing for if we do but consider and look back that ever since the Reformation the Order of Jesuits have like Moulds under Ground been undermining us to bring back these Nations to the Church of Rome the Mother-Church as they call it Consider in Queen Elizabeth's Reign their several Attempts privily to assassinate her and publickly by the Spanish Armada to destroy us and in King James the First 's Reign the Powder-Plot to blow up King and States all at once And in King Charles the First 's Reign what Massacres were then in Ireland and Wars in England all fomented by them But now in King Charles the Second's Time what Work did they make by the help of his Hypocrisy for he engaged to the Jesuits when on the other side of the Water to set up Popery in England if ever he came to the Crown and was himself then reconciled to the Church of Rome though through Cowardice he durst not here shew it But yet by debauching the Nation and by his great Hypocrisy in pretending to be a Protestant what Cullies he made thereby of Parliaments and Church-Men to be his Tools to crush and ruine the honest and sober English Men that for Real Religion Liberty and Property stood in his way How many Plots were carried on in his Reign to destroy the Protestants And how were they wonderfully by God discovered And the Papists having prepared and ripened Matters for Execution in breaking down all our Hedges and Fences and dismantled our Charters and Franchises and had raised up the French King at Sea and Land to his Greatness now saw it high time to take off King Charles and set up King James Here the Mask is thrown off and King James declares for Rome and riding Post thither and Father Peters and his Order publickly set up to rule the Roast Yet all was well whilst he was crushing the Dissenters all was Passive-Obedience and Non-resistance and no fear of Popery until he came to touch the Churches Interest then they began to be sensible of Popery and all the Pulpits and Presses rang out O Popery Popery Others felt it and saw it long before And these Men now at last God be thanked came to a sellow-feeling and now Passive-Obedience and Non-resistance must turn out of doors And now to your Tents O Israel and pray to God to stir up the Heart of his Highness the Prince of Orange to come and help us against the Mighty And God be thanked he heard us and God by his mighty Hand hath brought about this mighty Revolution and Deliverance Now is all done we promised and vowed to God we would do in the Day of our Affliction and Trouble No surely Are we not still daubing with untempered Mortar Are there not some Wedges of Gold some Babylonish Garments amongst us When God by the Hand of his Prophet Samuel sent a Message to Saul to destroy the Amalekites out of the Land Saul told him he had performed the Commandments of the Lord says Samuel to him What meaneth then this bleeting of the Sheep and lowing of the Oxen in mine Ears Mauger all the Tobias's and Sanballat's of the Age that God that hath so gloriously begun his Work will carry it on and he that hath so wonderfully laid the Foundation of Deliverance will also finish the Building and lay the Top-stone thereof that all Nations shall to him cry Grace Grace God will have plain Dealing in his Work without the carved Work of trinkling Shams and Tricks in Church or State and let the Drunken Swearing Whoring Passive-Obedience Non-resistance Priests have a care of using any more new Designs lest they bring the Weight of the Nation to fall on them which if they do they will be ground to Pouder therefore let it be the Care and Study of all English Men to defer no longer the Use of right Ways and Means to our honest Settlement lest we provoke God to send a Sword in our own Bowels I pray God to prevent it I desire not to see that woful Day O Lord thou knowest But if our Sins should bring it upon us it would be bloody Work for then will be called to remembrance old Wrongs Injuries and Oppressions Therefore as we have Work enough and brave Work on our Hands and our King is hearty and couragious with us in it to pull down that Monster of Men and Tyrant of the Earth the French King which our late Reigns with the help of our Passive-Obedience Priests have set up to his Greatness And still these and their Party are the great Grumblers to part with their Morey towards this Work at this Day But they must part with a great dea more and thank God they scape so too for they set up this Jack of Lent in the last two Reigns and now the Bodies and Purses of the Nation must pay for knocking him down again for as Matters stand now he or we must down But some flattering Priest will say you deal coarsly with a crowned Head I tell that Baal's Priest I will not change Estate and Condition with the French King Lewis le Grand and I dare be bold to say without Breach of Charity that brave Stephen Colledg will not change Crowns nor Kingdoms with the late King Charles the Second I will pay as much Respect and Deserence to a good Man and a good King as far as I am in Duty bound as any Man shall but I hate all Flatterers and Flattery which are the Bane and Pest of Kings and all Men For all Men are naturally proud and by Flatterers too too apt to be puffed up Now having finished what I intended and though the subject Matter hath cost my Purse dear and I have run great Hazards of Life for you yet I shall think it the best Money I ever parted with and all my past Hazards will no more be thought of than the Pangs of a Woman in travail when the Man-child is born if you will but make right use of them for your selves and Posterity and will now in a good Reign be like provident Joseph making Provision against a bad one I have lived in the World near 54 Years have experienced a great deal of it and see very little in it worthy the desire of living longer than only for these two Things The first is more affectionately and sincerely to love and serve my God And the second is to be doing more good and serving of my Generation For 14 Years past ever since I saw plainly your Ruine was determined by Popish and Jesuited Councils I dedicated my Life and all that is dear to me and my Family to your Service to the Truth whereof God bears me witness herein that I lie not and notwithstanding the many Hazards I have run for you and Damages in Estate suffered for you and the coarse Usage I have met with since my Return to you yet I am no ways discouraged hereat from doing my Duty to serve you but am still as ready as ever to run through as many more Dissiculties for you if Occasion be or Necessity require God assisting me All Glory and Praise be to God on High Peace on Earth and Good-will to Men. Amen Amen FINIS
Cunning of the Jesuitical Priestcraft were the Nick-names and Distinctions of Whig and Tory trump'd up and under those two Names were listed Persons of all Ranks like as among the Italians were the Names of Gwelf and Gubeline and such Heat between Whig and Tory and such Folly and great Partiality that no Reason nor Moderation could take place but the Tories had the advantage of the Whigs having the Court and Judicial Government on their side but to speak the Truth modestly the Whig had the Law and Equity on theirs however there was too much of Warmth and Passion in either Party But to return The Midsummer Quarter-Sessions drew near and great were the Expectations of both Parties what Proceedings would be against the Prisoners in the Tower for High-Treason the Friends of Shaftsbury and Colledg bethinking themselves what honest just and reasonable Methods were to be taken SECT IV. I Being returned upon the Pannel of Jurors for this Sessions and appearing at Guild-hall according to the Summons I was sworn Fore-man of the Grand-Jury After the Dispatch of the City-Business there the Jury were adjourned to the Sessions of Oyer and Terminer at the Old-Baily where there was a great Appearance of the Nobility and no less than eleven of the Twelve Judges The first Day was chiefly spent by the Judges Mr. Attorney-General Sawyer and the King's Counsel in Debates with my Lord-Mayor Sir Patient Ward and the Sheriffs about the Pannel of the Grand-Jury It was insisted upon to have a new Pannel or one or two at the least of the Pannel struck out and others taken in The By-standers who knew not the Intrigue of the Court were put into admiration at this unusual struggling to change the Jury but the Plot-managers did well remember that I had brought in a Bill against the Duke of York for Recusancy and therefore was not a sit Person to serve the present Turn The Judges pressed the Matter upon the Sheriffs with all imaginable Vehemency but Sheriff Bethel made answer that he knew the Duty of his Place by Law and told the Judges positively that he would not change one of the Jury Whereupon Mr. Attorney said Well if you will not part with any of the Jury we will try them with one Bill and so slung into the Court an Indictment of High-Treason against Stephen Colledg and moved that the Indictment might be read and the Witnesses heard in open Court which was granted Reflections on the fourth Section THere was in this juncture of Time such a Turn to be served as scarce any Age can parallel 'T is certain no History since the Reformation shews any thing like it We had had a manifest Discovery of a hellish Popish-Plot that had been prosecuted and three successive Parliaments had been intent upon the Exclusion of the Duke of York as the head of that Plot and the fountain of all the Mischiefs thence threatning these Kingdoms But now the Conspirators took heart the Plot must be no farther prosecuted but to divert from it the Nation is to be amuzed with a sham Protestant-Plot and proper Judges being placed on the Bench there only wanted Juries for the Purpose The worthy Sheriffs of London Mr. Bethel and Mr. Cornish not gratifying them therein we here find the Judges and King's Counsel attempting to usurp their Office and in effect to assume to themselves a Power to return Juries for what difference is there between the doing that and the taking out and putting into the Pannels at their pleasure The Honesty and Courage of the Sheriffs can never be sufficiently commended Had not they stemm'd the Design what a torrent of Mischief what a Sea of Blood should we have instantly beheld but being here happily check'd Mr. Attorney said in a Passion He would try the honest Jury now returned with one Bill from whence we may fairly infer that as they had a Set of Witnesses such as they were so they had Indictments and Accusations enow at hand SECT V. THE Witnesses produced were Sir William Jennings now in the Service of the French King the two Macknamars Smith called Narrative Smith alias Barry Bernard Denis and Brian Haines Some of the Jury took their Evidence in Short-hand the Substance whereof was That the Lords and Commons of England were ingaged in a horrid Plot to seize the King at Oxford wherein they swore 40000 were listed besides Housholders and that they had provided 100000 Arms and 1500 Barrels of Powder besides some particular Arms which Colledg had in readiness for himself The Witnesses having told their Tales to the Court before the Jury withdrew I moved the Judges that the Witnesses might attend the Jury in the Grand-Jury-Chamber to the end that they might ask them some Questions if upon the Debate of the Evidence which had been given it should be found requisite that being granted by the Court the Jury retired to consider of the Evidence some of them declared that they observed the Witnesses to have Papers in their Hands in the Court that while one was giving his Evidence the others were conning their Lessons and most of their Papers appeared to be much interlined and all of them to be written by one and the same Hand-writing as near as could be guessed The Jury called the Witnesses in before them one after another and demanded of them to rehearse the Evidence given in Court and those that took it in Short-hand to observe whether they varied and wherein they were also put to answer such Questions as were proposed to them When the Jury had dispatch'd the first of the Witnesses they directed one of their Officers to take him aside that none of the others might speak with him until they had sinished with them all but by that time they had half done the Lord-Chief-Justice sent a Message requiring me to attend him and coming before his Lordship he said Mr. Foreman I understand you imprison the King's Witnesses To which I answered My Lord I understand no such thing we only keep those we have examined apart from those we have to examine that we may find out the whole Truth and be able to do Right and Justice both to the King and to the Subject The Lord-Chief-Justice reply'd thereupon You had best have a care what you do and so I returned to my Brethren and we went through the Examination of all the Witnesses and then compared what they had sworn in Court with what they had now sworn before us and found them greatly disagreeing and contradicting one another in many Particulars whereupon every individual Person of the Nineteen which were upon the Grand-Jury gave his Verdict Ignoramus which I as the Fore man endersed upon the Indictment Reflections on the fifth Section HEre the tragical Show and Scene of Swearing begun even to make the Hairs of thousands stand an end according to the Phrase of the Irish Men and sure I am many seemed sad in Countenance and struck with Fear not knowing