to change Government it was lawful for the Catholicks to work that change for the advancing and securing the Catholick Cause in England by making away the King whom there was no hope to turn from his Heresie This was answered affirmatively after which the same persons went to Rome where the same Question being propounded and debated it was concluded by the Pope That it was both lawful and expedient for the Catholicks to promote that alteration of State c. When that horrid Parricide had taken effect the Pope commanded all the Papers about that Question to be gathered and burnt In obedience to which Order a Roman Catholick in Paris was demanded a Copy which he had of these Papers but the Gentleman who had time to consider and detest the wickedness of that Project refused to give it and shewed it to a Protestant friend of his relating to him the whole carriage of this Negotiation with great abhorrency of the Practices of the Jesuits And when these Jesuits returned from Rome they brought many more after them to help on the same Work which at last they effected to their great joy The Roman Priest and Confessor is known who when he saw the fatal stroak given to our holy King and Martyr flourished with his Sword and said Now the greatest Enemy that we had in the world is gone A Protestant Lady living in Paris was perswaded by a Jesuit to turn Catholick when the dismal news of the King's Murther came to Paris this Lady as all other good Subjects was deeply afflicted with it and when this Jesuite came to see her and found her melted in Tears for that Disaster he told her with a smiling countenance That she had no reason to lament but rejoyce rather seeing the Catholicks were rid of their greatest Enemy and that Cause was much furthered by his death Upon which the Lady in great anger put him down the stairs saying If that be your Religion I have done with you for ever and God hath given her grace to make her words good hitherto Many intelligent Travellers can tell of the great joy among the English Convents and Seminaries about the Kings death as having overcome their Enemy and done their main work for their settlement in England of which they made themselves so sure that the Benedictines were in great care that the Jesuits should not get their Land and the English Nuns were contending who should be Abbasses in England An understanding Gentleman visiting the Fryars in Dunkirk put them on the discourse of the King's death and to pump out their sence about it said That the Jesuits had laboured very much to compass that work To which they answered That the Jesuits would ingross to themselves the glory of all great and good works and of this among others whereas they had laboured as diligently and effectually for it as they So that both the Jesuits and Seculars had laboured to bring the King to death and the Army of Fanaticks were their Instruments to put it in execution Monsieur de Bourdeaux the French Embassadour being resident in London when General Monk had gotten the power of the City and the affections of the People earnestly desired to interest the King of France and Cardinal Mazarine in the Revolution of Government and made way for an Address to the General by his Brother-in-law Clergis to whom he imparted that Cardinal Mazarine would be glad to have the honour of his friendship and assist him faithfully in all his Enterprizes and that the General might be more confident of the Cardinal he assured him that Oliver Cromwel kept so strict a League with him that he did not assume the Government without his privity and was directed step by step by him in the progress of that action and therefore if he resolved on that course he should not onely have the Cardinals friendship and counsel in the attempt but a safe Retreat and honourable Support in France if he sailed in it But Mr. Clergis assured him that the General did not intend to take the Government upon him but to submit all to the determination of the next Parliament The King being in the Territories of the King of Spain when the General was minded to declare for him Sir Jo. Greenvil was dispatched by the General to his Majesty to desire him to depart out of the King of Spain's Dominions to Breda or some other place under the Government of the States of the Vnited Provinces for that he had certain intelligence he would be detained by the King of Spain's Ministers if he stayed in his Dominions Upon which Advice within two or three days he went to Breda where he continued till he was invited to his Kingdoms There was found in the Study of Francis Young after his death a Paper containing Advices given to him by Seignior Bellarini concerning the best way of managing the Popish interest in England upon the Kings Restauration The first Advice is to make the obstruction of Settlement their great designe especially upon the fundamental Constitutions of the Kingdom whereunto if things should fall they would be more firm than ever Secondly To remove the Jealousies raised by Prynne Baxter c. of their designe upon the late Factions and to set up the prosperous way of fears and jealousies of the King and Bishops Thirdly To make it appear under-hand how neer the Doctrine Worship and Discipline of the Church of England comes to us at how little distance their Common-prayer is from our Mass and that the wisest and ablest men of that Way are so moderate that they would willingly come over to us or at least meet us half way hereby the most stayed men will become more odious and others will run out of all Religion for fear of Popery Fourthly That there be an Indulgence promoted by the Factious and seconded by You. Fifthly That the Trade and Treasure of the Nation may be engrossed between themselves and other discontented Parties Sixthly That the Bishops and Ministers of the Church of England be aspersed as either worldly and careless on one hand or so factious that it were well they were removed All these Directions will appear to have been followed precisely by both Parties The Grandees of the Committee at Derby-house and the Army sollicite the detaining of the Prince in France and delaying his Journy for England lest he should trouble the yet-unsetled Kingdom of the Saints To negotiate which they have an Agent lying Lieger with Cardinal Mazarine who is so well supplied with Money and so open-handed that it hath been heard from Mazarine's own mouth that all the Money the Queen and Prince had cost the Crown of France came out of the Parliaments Purse with a good advantage It is likewise said Mazarine had an Agent here to drive on the interest of France in England Hist of Independ 2 part p. 112. And it is known that Cromwel's interest with France when the present King fled thither after
Worship may be established and secured by Laws and among other Priviledges and Rights the liberty of pure Worship may be one which being invaded by Violence may be defended by Arms. The Estates of a Kingdom may maintain their Religion against the tyranny and malice of the Prince This Doctor had the greatest influence on the Education of that Noble Gentleman being a Chaplain to the Family and Preacher at Covent-garden for many years It is also very observable what this Gentleman says in his Paper delivered to the Sheriffs where he blessed God that he fell by the Ax and not by the fiery tryal as if it were safer to die as a Traytor than a Martyr But he says Whatever apprehensions I had of Popery and OF MY OWN SEVERE and heavy share I was like to have under it when it should prevail The Lord Russel in all probability had some regard to the loss of those Lands which descended from his Ancestors but had been in the days of Henry the Eighth alienated from the Church and which by the return of Popery might be taken from his Family And he being perswaded as he expresseth it in that Speech I did believe and do still that Popery is breaking in upon the Nation and that those who advance it will stop at nothing to carry on their designe he on the other side would stop at nothing to keep it out This most likely made him so zealous for the Bill of Exclusion and unhappily engaged him the Bill being it self excluded in this other desperate Attempt for as Solomon observed It is a snare to a man to devour that which is holy And indeed there is no other means so likely to bring in Popery as the impotent and unlawful outcrys and endeavours of Fanatical persons pretending to keep it out Religion is for the most part made a Cloak and Pretence to serve Interest In Queen Mary's days when the Pope sollicited the Queen for a restoration of church-Church-lands and Dignities it was first proposed to the Cabinet-Council where the Lord of Bedford being present and knowing himself greatly concerned fell into a great passion and breaking his Chaplet of Beads from his girdle flung them into the fire swearing deeply That he valued his sweet Abbey of Wooharn more than any fatherly Counsel or Commands that could come from Rome Whereupon the Queen considering of what temper others of the Nobility might be was discouraged from prosecuting that designe This Lord delivered a Paper to the Sheriffs wherein he acknowledgeth that when he was at a meeting at Mr. Shepherd 's there was some discourse about the feasableness of seizing the King's Guards and several times by accident in general discourse elsewhere saith he I have heard it mentioned as a thing easie to be done particularly at my Lord Shaftsbury 's but never consented to it as fit to be done That the Duke of Monmouth told him he was glad that he was come to Town for my Lord Shaftsbury and some hot men would undo them all if great care were not taken That being at Mr. Shepherd 's with a Company that met there there were things said by some with more heat than judgment And it is by some inferred saith he that I was acquainted with these heats and ill designes and did not discover them but this is but misprision of Treason He says Nothing was sworn against him but some discourse about making some Stirs and this is not levying War against the King which is Treason and not the consulting and discoursing about it which was all that was witnessed against me and the designe of seizing the Guards was construed a designe of killing the King and in that I was cast Captain Walcot in his last Speech said I do neither blame the Judges nor Jury nor the Kings Council I onely blame some men that in reality and truth were deeper concerned than I that came as Witnesses against me He confesseth that he was invited by Col. Romsey to some meetings where some things were discoursed of in order to asserting their Liberties and Properties which they looked on to be invaded and violated That Mr. West often discoursed with him concerning lopping off the two Sparks meaning the King and the Duke and proposed it might be done at a Play saying that then they would die in their Calling That he bought Arms to that end and said they had fifty employed to that end That he told them the killing the King would carry such a blemish and stain with it as would descend to Posterity and that he having eight Children he was loath they should be blemished with it That by the Law of the Land he ought to die for being in those meetings where a War was debated Being asked by Dr. Cartwright whether the death of the King was proposed while he was there he answered It was so and that he and those Lords who were like to suffer were under general apprehensions of Popery and Slavery coming in And he confessed to the Doctor He was guilty enough to have his life taken away adding The same measure we mete to another that measure God will mete to us So that on this mans Confession if there were no other considering the circumstances wherein he was being a person formerly engaged in the Rebellion a man of Estate and Parts nothing can be more evident than both parts of the Plot viz. to raise a Rebellion and to murther the King and his Royal Brother Which was farther confessed by Mr. Hone who told Dr. Cartwright that he was guilty of the Crime according to the Law of the Land and to the Law of God that he was to meet the King and Duke of York but did not know at that time when or where nor what was his business and afterward that he told Mr. Keeling he was for killing the King and saving the Duke of York for which being asked a reason he answered As to that I think this That the Duke of York did openly profess himself to be a Roman Catholick and I did say I had rather dispose of the King than the Duke of York And being asked again by the Doctor Had you rather a Papist should reign over us as you take him to be than the King he replied I do not know what to say to that Captain Walcot it seems had said of Rous that he would die an Atheist and in truth such bloudy men are no better they are of the mind that Colonel Morly and some other Commanders in Cromwel's Army were who said They would cast themselves on any Prince even on the Turk rather than suffer themselves to be subdued by the King But this Mr. Rous did confess That since the Hurly-burlies concerning Parliaments going off and coming on he had been a hearer and understood too much of some kind of Meetings and especially of those that call themselves Protestants who are ten thousand times worse than any others and prayed God to forgive him that he
forced from him before but it was with such restrictions that they liked it not but took it on their own terms And indeed the King told them by one of his Secretaries You insist on something in Religion more than formerly you were contented with I am therefore commanded to let you know that were His Majesties condition much lower you shall never force him to any further Concessions to the prejudice of his Conscience and of the Protestant Religion in which he is resolved to live and for which he is ready to dye and that he will joyn with any Protestant Prince nay with his Rebels at home rather than yield the least to you in this particular And this was the joynt opinion of the Papists in England and Ireland that the King would give them all up as a Sacrifice to compass a Peace with his Parliament though they had been Loyal to him in his extremity The Marquess of Ormond and those that acted for the King under his Lieutenancy in Ireland was so prosperous in his endeavours to reduce that Kingdom to the obedience of the Crown that a Peace was made with the most considerable of the Confederate Irish But they being otherwise tampered with by the Parliament-party contrary to their Faith and promise the Popes Nuntio and some Irish Clergy prevailed with the Vlster-Irish under Owen Roe Oneale to refuse to come under the Kings Authority Of which the Author of the History of Independency p. 150. of the Second part tells us in the Margent that the Council of Officers endeavour to joyn interests with the Papists in England and Ireland And then says The King had offended the Papists in the last Treaty in granting so much to the Parliament for their suppression The Independents perceiving it and willing to joyn with any interest to make good their design it was proposed at the Council of Officers that the Papists should raise and pay Ten thousand additional Forces for the Army in recompence whereof all penal Laws concerning them should be repealed all Taxes and Contributions taken off and they to have the protection of the Parliament and Army Vnder the same notion they endeavoured to joyn interests with Owen Roe Oneale who commanded that bloody party of Massacring Irish with which they had formerly taxed the King They supplyed him with Ammunition and admitted O Rely the Popes Irish Nuntio to a Treaty here in England Sir John Winter was taken into imployment and the arrears of his Rent gathered for him by Souldiers to the regret of the Country Sir Kenelme Digby had a Pass to come into England and came as he was foretold by a Letter by an Independent Agent for the Army from Paris to an Independent Member of the House of Commons a creature of the Army dated 28 November 1648 and printed at the later end of The true and full relation of the Officers and Armies forcible seizing of divers eminent Members Walter Mountague was let forth on bail What becomes of this Negotiation whether those that played fast and loose with all interests in the Kingdom have not done the like with the Papists this Author shews in the following relation for p. 198. he says the under-hand combination between the Independent party and Owen Roe Oncale is now openly declared and avowed by their own licensed News books Owen Roe and Colonel M. are joyned says the modest Narrative Our party have permitted Three hundred of Onealâ— own Regiment to quarter in our parts among the Creats within two miles of Dundalk saith the Scout Owen Roe and Berne are come towardâ— Colonel Jones and Colonel M. 's quartersâ— he is so fair as to pay Contribution his quarters are to the Scots side of Dublin to prevent their giving aid to Ormond in his attempt up on Dublin Who can blame necessity Nor dâ— our Grandees now deny this Confederacy with the bloody Popish Massacring Rebels although they had the impudence to make the only supposition thereof one of the principal charges against the late King and to raise a great outcry against the Marquess of Ormond and Lord Inchiquine for their cessation with Preston which was to prevent the Cromwellists who offered to associate with him on conditions much more prejudicial to the Protestant Religion and English interest than the Marquess gave them they offered Oneale all the Lands in Ulster forfeited by his Grandfather Tyrone Shan Oneale and others attainted thereby destroying the British Planters there c. P. 2â—â— He refers to a paper called The Association between Oneale c. And another called The true state of the Transactions with Owen Roe Oneale as it was reported to the Parliament by the Council of State printed by Edw. Husbands 15 Aug. 1649. This was so abhorred by the English Souldiery that many there took occasion to forsake the English Parliament and many here disbanded rather than they would accompany Cromwel in so wicked an Expedition and I doubt not but the imposing on some of the Independent Officers such a vile drudgery did so much dissatisfie them as to make them after they had extricated themselves from their toyls to bethink themselves how they might serve a better Master I shall therefore beg pardon for transcribing the progress of this affair referring the Reader to the former Quotations Cromwel writes Letters to his Creatures of the Council of State complaining how much the miscarriage of that agreement had retarded his voyage desiring them for satisfaction of the Souldiery and people to treat with some body to take the whole business on himself and to clear the Council of State the Parliament and Cromwel himself from having any hand in it And to carry on the Scene this Agreement was with much heat of zeal complained of in the House of Commons by a Brother who had his Cue before-hand and by the Juncto was referred to the Council of State as was forelaid where after some private conference with him whom they had intrusted to accommodate the business they publickly voted their dislike of it Bradshaw reprehending him for it and at last they ordered that the whole business with the reasons for his justification should be reported by Tho Scot to the House of Commons which was done on Friday Aug. 10. whereupon their Commissioner was called to the Bar where the Speaker asked him What persons he meant in his Letter to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland wherein he saith he made the agreement with Oneale with the advice of some others He answered That he did it on his own score for so he was instructed and cautioned before and his life had been in danger if he had done otherwise without advice of any only having discourse with Colonel Jones he told him if he could keep Owen Roe and Ormond from joyning iâ— would be a good Service This Answer was taken for satisfactory The next demand was Whether he had any advice or directions from the Parliament Council of State Lord Lieutenant of
the time of their deliverance and Gods taking vengeance on their enemies was now at hand onely they must repent and be strong and of a good courage to fight the battels of the Lord. They also threatned in all places such as they thought were seriously active against them talking of great Changes and Revolutions in England and in publick places dropped Lists of the names of those men whom they had a mind should fall by Heroical hands particularly at Cupar the Shire-town in Fyffe a threatning Declaration was found while the Deputy-Sheriff was there demanding the legal Fines from those who had been convicted of frequenting Field-Conventicles and entertaining declared and attainted Traytors and Fugitives and intercommuned Rebels The Declaration was thus directed To all and sundry to whom these presents shall come but especially to the Magistrates of the Town of Cupar in Fyffe BE it known to all men that whereas under a Pretext of Law though most falsly there is most abominable illegal and oppressive Robberies and Spoils committed in this Shire Captain Carnegie and his Souldiers by vertue of a Precept from William Carmichael c. he being authorized and held on to it by that Apostate Prelate Sharpe who c. These are therefore to declare to all that shall any way be concerned in this villanous Robbery and Oppression either by assisting recepting levying or any manner of way countenancing the same that they shall be holden as guilty thereof And however they bethink themselves for the present secured being guarded by a Military Force and those that are thus robbed despicable yet let them take this for a warning that they shall be handled severely answerable to their Villanies and that by a Party equal to all that dare own them and that shortly as God shall enable and assist them whose names may be read in these following Letters A B C D c. to the end of the Alphaber On this followed the Murther of the Archbishop upon the third of May 1679. because as their first Declaration said It was appointed as a day of solemn Thanksgiving for setting up an Vsurper to destroy the Interest of Christ and assume the power which is proper to him alone These Assassinations were commended to this barbarous people by Mr. Knox of old who in his History of Scotland approves of the private murthering of the Cardinal Beton by Norman Lesley Son to the Earl of Rothsey and James Melvin calling it a godly fact and proposing it as an Example to be followed by Posterity And in a Scotish Pamphlet printed at the beginning of the late Wars called Sions Plea the Heroical Fact of Felton is commended as fit to be followed by the Nobles of Scotland saying God hath chalked out a way guiding you by the hand in giving this first blow will you not follow him Mr. Hunt and Baxter of later days insist on the same Example So that we see the Fanaticks come nothing short of the Jesuits in the practice of Assassinations and promoting Open Rebellions concerning which we have this ingenious Distick accommodated both to Ignatius the Founder of the Jesuits and Lesley the Champion of the Presbyterians Quam bello plus pace noces ad ocia versus Crudeles animum vertis ad insidias Scotiâ in mediâ conscripto milite regnas Diraque fraterna nomine bella geris How mischievous the designes of these men were appears partly by their obstinate persevering in their treasonable opinions and justifying their rebellious practices even to their deaths and refusing to save their lives by asking pardon and praying for the King and partly by the following Declarations which were taken with some of them The new Covenant taken from Donald Cargil a Field-preacher at Queens-ferry the third of June 1680. Sect. 4. SEriously that the hand of our Kings hath been against the Throne of the Lord and that now for a long time the Succession of our Kings and the most part of our Rulers with him hath been against the purity and power of Religion and Godliness and freedom of the Church of God and hath of late so manifestly rejected God his Service and Reformation disclaiming the Covenant of God and blasphemously enacting it to be burnt by the hand of a Hangman Governed contrary to all right Laws divine and humane exercised such Tyranny and Arbitrary Government oppress'd men in their Consciences and Civil Rights used free Subjects Christian and reasonable men with less Discretion and Justice than their Beasts c. We do reject that King and those associate with him from being our Rulers because standing in the way of our right free and peaceable serving of God according to our Covenant and declare them henceforth to be no lawful Rulers as they have declared us to be no lawful Subjects And that after this we neither owe nor shall yield any willing obedience to them but shall rather suffer the utmost of their cruelties and injustice until God shall plead our Cause and that upon these accounts because they have altered and destroyed the Lords established Religion overturned the fundamental and established Laws of the Kingdom taken away Christs Church and Government and changed the Civil Government of this Land into Tyranny So that none can look upon us or judge us bound in Allegiance to them unless they say also we are bound in Allegiance to Devils they being his Vicegerents and not Gods We do declare that we shall set up over our selves and over all that God shall give us Power Government and Governours according to the Word of God and especially to that Exod. 18.21 and shall no more commit the government of our selves and the making of Laws for us to any one single person and lineal Successor we being not tyed to one Family-government not being an Inheritance but an Office And we declare against enacting that blasphemous so Calvin calls that Supremacy of Henry the Eighth upon which this Prerogative is founded and scrilegious Prerogative given to a King over the Church of God A Declaration and Testimony of the true Prssbyterian Anti-Prelatick and Anti-Erastian persecuted Party in Scotland IT is not amongst the smallest of the Lords Mercies to this poor Land that there hath alway been some who have given testimony of every course of Defection which we are guilty of which is a token for good that he doth not as yet intend to cast us off altogether but will leave a Remnant in whom he will be glorious if they through his grace keep themselves clean still from Popery Prelacy Erastian Supremacy so much usurped by Him who it is true as far as we know is descended from the Race of our Kings yet he hath so far deborded from what he ought to have been by his Perjury and Usurpation in Church-matters and Tyranny in matters Civil as is known by the whole Land that we have just reason to believe that one of the Lords great controversies is That we have not
was such another Fast as those that were kept in the days of their Q Mary of which she was wont to say That she was as much afraid of a Fast of the Ministers as of an Army of Souldiers And yet if you will believe themselves or some Advocates of theirs nearer home there are not a more innocent peaceable and harmless people in the world as the Author of Naphtali said of the Rebellion of Pentland hills There hath not been in Britain such a company of men in Arms for the Covenant and Cause of God for sound Judgment true Piety Integrity and fervent Zeal and undaunted Courage But all this Zeal and Courage was still directed against the King and the established Government and Worship of God For in the year 1679. the Convention of Estates gave the King a Tax of 30000 l. to maintain a Regiment of Foot three Companies of Dragoons and three Troops of Horse to suppress the Field-Conventicles which met in Arms against which their Leaders preached saying It was given by the enemies of Christ to drive him out of his Kingdom and it would be as great a fin to pay it as it was in Judas to betray Christ and that now was the time to try them whether they would have Christ for their King or no. And the same Ruffians that murdered the Archbishop did several times lay wait for the Collectors of this Tax and they so perplexed the peoples Consciences that a Servant of the Earl of Dondonald fell distracted through trouble of mind for having assisted his Master in laying the Tax on Renscot This is that little Sister for whom the Noble Peer pleaded that having no Breasts she might like the Amazons have liberty to take up Arms and once more enter our Nation and rent us in pieces as formerly And it were easie to shew from the Writings of some of our own Nation that the same Principles have been preached to the people of this Land who have greedily swallowed and digested the same and think themselves under the same obligation of Covenant as those barbarous people Dr. Lake in a Sermon before the Lord Mayor says That discoursing some Rebels that were then in Goal in Scotland who did openly avow the Rebellion and refused to pray for the King He told them they were variously reported to be Jesuits or Jesuitically affected or to be Fifth-Monarchy-men wild arrant Fanaticks They told him they were neither one nor other but true Presbyterians according to the Covenant He replying That we had Presbyterians in our own Kingdom who yet did not obstinately maintain such King-deposing and murthering Doctrines They told him he did not understand them for they believed the same Doctrines but onely wanted Power and Courage to act them And at their execution they desired the people to take notice That they died true Presbyterians according to the Covenant It is another Artifice of these People agreeable to the practice of the Papists that they keep their People in ignorance and under the power of an implicit Faith and blind Obedience as the Papists do and bring them up in strong prejudices against their Governors Some have been so mad as to baptize their Children into the National Covenant which they are not ashamed to compare with The Covenant of Grace Mr. Alexander Gibson Clerk of his Majesties Privy-Council certified May 13. 1678. that one David Ferguson taken at a Field-Conventicle being asked why he kept not to his Parish-Church answered That he had sworn the Covenant whereby he was obliged not to hear Bishops Deans or Curats and that others being asked why they kept Conventicles answered To hear Gods truth and being demanded what that was they answered They could not tell And upon examination they could not say the Creed the Lords Prayer or ten Commandments Mr. Jo. Dickson preached to them That all the Bishops and their Clergie never did nor ever will convert one Soul They believe without farther enquiry being forbid to read the Books written for Obedience and Conformity that Episcopacy is Antichristian and Presbytery is Christs own institution They hold with the Papists That the actions of their Kirk and Teachers in Field-Conventicles and armed and fighting men is not Rebellion because the Presbytery is not subject to the Secular Power That the Subjects may enter into Solemn Leagues and Covenants without and against the Prince That Kings may be excommunicate and deposed which some of them have practised against his present Majesty That not the King in some cases but the Kirk have power to convocate and dissolve Assemblies and that they may make Laws without the King That Salvation is not to be had but in their Communion They injoyn new Articles of belief as That Episcopacy is an Antichristian Order and so are the Church-Festivals and Ceremonies That the Oath of Supremacy is an unlawful Oath and the People are absolved from it That the Power of the King is originally in the People and that there is a mutual obligation between them and if the King perform not his part the People are free from performing theirs That for the good of the Kirk and Gods Cause they may rebel against their Prince That the Prince nor any Secular Power can silence or deprive a Minister who is subject to none but Christ That Passive Obedience to the unjust commands of a Prince is as great a sin as Active Obedience to the same That a private person may kill a Magistrate by impulse of the Spirit after the Example of Phinees to deliver the Kirk from Oppression That it is lawful to kill Protestant Bishops and their Curates as enemies to true Godliness and such as would bring the Kirk to a slavish dependance on the King James Mitchel who was executed for attempting the murther of the Archbishop said in his dying Speech They are all blessed that shall take the proud Prelates and dash their brains against the stones as afterward some Ruffians did by the Archbishop These are their Principles and all these they have practised when they had opportunities They come little behind the Papists for equivocation and persisting in falsehood where they think their lives or the good of the Kirk concerned Jo. King being charged for bearing Arms against the King in the late Rebellion denied it until one that apprehended him swore that he had both Sword and Pistols To which he answered he did it not in an hostile manner which was a Jesuitical Equivocation He bore testimony against that woful Supremacy so much applauded and universally owned of such of whom better things might be expected as usurping on Christs Royal Authority spoiling him of his Royal Crown Scepter Sword and Royal Robe by taking those Princely Ornaments to invest a man whose breath is in his nostrils And both Kid and King bore their Testimonies against the Oath of Allegiance and Bond of Peace of which to satisfie the Reader I give him a Copy I A. B. for testification of my faithful