was to Man them The French King judged that too great a Point to be gained by King Charles upon him and wheedles with the Duke of Buckingham and offers him 100000 l. Sterling to consent that he should Man the Fleet against which the Duke urged it was against the Agreement the King his Master had made with him the French King and so would not accept the 100000 l. withal telling the French King That if he would let us be Neptune at Sea he should be Jove by Land The French King seemed contented and so the Discourse ended But the French King deals then with the Lord Arlington and gives him 60000 l. and Arlington prevailed Sir with you to press the King your Brother not to insist upon Manning the French Fleet with English for that it would be less charge to him if the French King did Man the Fleet himself and withal urged to the King That they were but low and they should have occasion enough for Money otherwise So Arlington got by the Bargain his 60000 l. and the French King the advantage of setting out his own Fleet. Well Sir you remember the French Fleet was set out and joined the English the English Fleet was commanded by your self and the French Fleet by Monsieur d' Estree and upon the 28th of May 1672. you were attacked in Soul-Bay by De Ruyter who commanded the Dutch with a great deal of Bravery and the Attack was made with great advantage on the Dutch side you did what you could to have beaten the Dutch and the French Admiral did what he was sent for and that was to look on till you both were well worried Vice-Admiral Montague was sacrificed and your Fleet so damnably mangled that a man would have thought you had met with another Smyrna Fleet but our Bells did ring for joy but God know there was no occasion on your side to boast of a Victory but you may see what it is to be in ill Company and I think they served the Dutch the same Trick when they joined with them in the Year 1666. a remarkable Year you know for what but of that in its proper place What is next You may be will not own you were beaten by the Dutch but it is plain that if you had a Victory it was not worth the name of one but we have no more fighting under your Command How fared it with your Brother of France truly very well for the rest of the Year passed with great success to the French but none to the English What shall we do now What did you begin that War upon Hopes yes and great hopes too the French King 's supplying us towards the carrying of it on and taking the Smyrna Fleet and a multitude of Dutch Prizes but Prob Dolor all these Hope 's vanished and the Revenue exhausted and the Exchequermoney spent then Sir you were put to your last shifts Since Liberty of Conscience turned to so little account well you resolved once more to permit your Brother's Calling his Parliament to set down on the 4th of February 1672 3. the very day appointed for God knows you were so disappointed that I wonder you were able to set out a Fleet that Year 5. You come to your last Project for the carrying on the War and that is the Parliament and so by the good leave of your Banditti they do set down but that which is the greatest astonishment to me that they could look a Parliament in the face after they had advised and compleated so many Rogueries in an interval of Parliament and how you your self could sit with ease in the House of Peers whereas you could not but be conscious to your self of abetting and joining in with these these Rogues in their Villany Well then What said your Conspirators to the Parliament truly they communicated the War to them and the Causes of the War the Necessity of the War and the Danger of the War if not supplied but not a word of your hopes of never wanting them any more not a word of the Design of Propogating the Catholick Cause you mentioned the Medals and Pictures and the Flag but the Devil a word of the Northern Heresy and the reducing the States-General to the Popish Religion Truly Sir this House of Commons took pity upon you and according to their never failing Loyalty to the Crown knowing that a good Gratuity would appear to themselves put you off with the small Pittance of 1250000 l. tho those Pensioners would wash their hands of the War and therefore would not give this Money for the carrying a War against the Dutch but for the King 's Extraordinary Occasions But was this all they did no it was not all there was something else done that did some what allay the growing Greatness of you and your Conspirators for tho they were to be supplied for their private Occasions out of the 1250000 l. they had given yet they were sensible that the Nation began to smoak the true Causes of this wicked War and the End for which it was undertaken There was an Act prepared before the Money-Bill was passed by which your Popish Conspirators were obliged to pass through a new State-Purgatory or to be uncabable of any Publick Imployment I remember when I was abroad what Curses were laid upon the Parliament for that scurvy Bill and upon the Earl of Shaftsbury who tho then Lord Chancellor yet engaged so far in that Act and in defence of the Protestant Religion that in due time it cost him his Place which notwithstanding the Popish Parties bitter Curses he won a fair Reputation and became to their great grief a zealous Assertor of the Rights of the People of England Was this all No your first step to the Establishment of Popery the Indulgence I mean was called in question and tho the Popish Party had contributed more than it was worth for the carrying on of the War the King was pleased to cancel it and promised that he never would do so any more and passed the Test-Bill Did he so Had he not promised the Princess your Sister that he would restore the Roman Catholick Religion and that he would begin first in Ireland in order to which you know the Lord Roberts was removed and another that was base enough to do such a Jobb was sent in his room and you in your Brother's Name engaged the same to your Popish Contributors and he engaged in his own name the like It is scarce possible to believe it how could he answer this to Lewis the French King For it was his Agreement with him to have the same Government and the same Religion truly he could not tell how to help it the Sons of Zerviah were too many for him And 1250000 l. was not to be lost for want of a compliance with the Parliament and to you the King promised that he would make it up to the Roman Catholicks another way but how and when I
deplorably deprived by the Re-establishment of Prelacy so it is evident not only to impartial Persons but to professed Enemies with what unparalell'd Patience and Constancy the People of God have endured all the Cruelty Injustice and Oppression that the Will and Malice of Prelacy and Malignants could invent and exercise And being most unwilling to act any thing which might import Opposition to lawful Authority or engage the Kingdoms in War although we have been all along groaning under the Over-turning the Work of Reformation Corruptions of Doctrine Slighting of Worship Despising of Ordinances the Changing the Ancient Church-Discipline and Government Thrusting out so many of our Faithful Ministers from their Charges Confining straightly Imprisoning Exileing yea and putting to Death many of them and Intruding upon their Flocks a Company of Insufficient Scandalous Persons Confining Imprisoning Torturing Tormenting Scourging and Stigmatizing Poor People Plundering their Goods Quartering upon them Rude Soldiers Selling their Persons to Foreign Plantations Horning and Intercommuning many of both Sexes whereby great Numbers in every corner of the Land were forced to leave their Dwellings Wives Children and Relations and made to wander as Pilgrims still in Hazard of their Lives none daring to Recet Harbour or Supply though Starving or so much as to speak to them though upon Death-bed without making themselves obnoxious to the same Punishments And these things acted under colour of Law in effect tending to banish not only all Sense of Religion but also to extinguish all natural Affection even amongst Persons of nearest Relations and likewise groaning under the intolerable Yoak of Oppression in our Civil Interest our Bodies Liberties and Estates so that all manner of Outrages have been most arbitrarily exercised upon us for a Tract of several Years past particularly in the Year 1678. by sending us an armed Host of Barbarous Savages contrary to all Law and Humanity and by laying on us several Impositions and Taxes as formerly so of late by a Meeting of Prelimited and Over-awed Members in the Convention of Estates in July 1678. for keeping up of an armed Force intrusted as to a great part of it into the Hands of avowed Papists or Favourers of them by whom sundry Invasions have been made upon us and most exorbitant Abuses and incredible Insolencies committed against us and we being continually sought after while meeting in Houses for Divine Worship Ministers and People frequently apprehended and most rigorously used and so being necessitated to attend the Lord's Ordinances in the Fields in the most desert Places and there also often hunted out and assaulted to the effusion of our Blood and killing of some whereby we were inveitably constrain'd either to defend our selves by Arms at those Meetings or be altogether deprived of the Gospel preached by Faithful Ministers and made absolute Slaves At one of which Meetings upon the First Day of June instant being the Lord's Day Captain Graham of Claverhouse being warranted by a late Proclamation to kill whomsoever he found in Arms at Field-Conventicles making Resistance did furiously assault the People assembled and further to provoke did cruelly bind like Beasts a Minister with some others whom he had found that same Morning in Houses and several being killed on both sides they knowing certainly that by Law they behoved if apprehended to dye they did stand to their own defence and continue together and there after many of our Friends and Countrymen being under the same Oppression expecting the same measure did freely offer their Assistance We therefore thus inevitably and of absolute Necessity forced to take this last Remedy tho Magistrates having shut the Door by a Law against Application that whatever our Grievances be either in things Civil or Sacred we have not the Privilege of a Supplicant do judge our selves bound to dcelare That these with many other horrid Grievances in Church and State which we purpose to manifest more fully hereafter are the true Causes of this our Lawful and Innocent Self-defence And we most solemnly and in the presence of Almighty God the Searcher of all Hearts declare that the true Reasons of our continuing in Arms candidly and sincerely are these First The defending and securing of the true Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Government founded upon the Word of God and summarily comprehended in our Confessions of Faith and Catechism and established by the Laws of this Land to which King Nobles and People are solemnly sworn and engaged in our National Solemn League and Covenant and more particularly the Defending and Maintaining the Kingly Authority of our Lord Jesus Christ over his Church against all sinful Supremacy derogatory thereto and incroaching thereupon Second The preserving and defending the King's Majesty his Person and Authority in the Preservation and Defence of that true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdom that the World may bear Witness with our Consciences of our Loyalty and that we have no Thoughts nor Intention to diminish his just Power and Greatness Third The Obtaining of a Free and United Parliament and a Free and General Assembly in Order to the Redressing of our foresaid Grievances for the preventing the eminent Danger of Popery and extirpating Prelacy from amongst us This therefore being the Cause we appear for and resolve in God's Name to own hereby homologating all the Testimonies of faithful Sufferers for the Truth in Scotland these eighteen Years by gone We humbly request the King's Majesty to restore all things as he found them when God brought him home to his Crown and Kingdoms and if that cannot be obtained then we heartily and humbly invite and intreat beseech and obtest by the Bowels of Jesus Christ all who are under the same Bonds with us to occur in this Common Cause and Interest and that they will not stand still and see not only us oppressed but this foresaid Cause ruined Adversaries proudly and highly insult against God and all good Men Friends of the Truth discouraged yea the Protestant Cause in Britain and Ireland and even your selves within a little time made a Prey of or else forced when we are broken which the good Lord prevent dreadfully to wrong your Consciences Finally because we desire no Man's hurt or blood we request our Country-men now the standing Forces of this Kingdom some of them being our Friends and Kinsmen not to fight against us least in so doing they be found fighting against the Lord whose Cause and Quarrel we are sure he will own and signally countenance seeing we fight under his Banner who is the Lord of Hosts This Sir you know was the Declaration of these Blessed Servants of God but you had not filled up the measure of your Sins and therefore God was pleased to deliver these miserably enslaved wretches into your hands and they were made a prey to your never to be forgotten Cut-throats and some of them sealed their Testimony of Jesus with their Blood You may remember what Havock your Popish Crew made of them
fit to lay you aside as a Person useless and dangerous to the publick Weal of the Three Kingdoms Your Pretences therefore to the Imperial Crown of this Realm are very foolish and frivolous for by the Laws of all Nations you having been guilty of the most notorious Perjury you are therefore Infamous and the Laws of your own Synagogue say that no Infamous Person is fit for the Execution of an Office of Honour and Dignity a perjured Man is always repelled from bearing witness in any Cause whatsoever because that being Convicted to have Forsworn himself in one Cause it is not only a Presumption but a sufficient Proof that he will Depose falsly in another And this is so true that altho he hath amended his Life yet he cannot be admitted for a Witness be it either in a Civil or a Criminal Cause So Sir you having once Forsworn your Self in subverting our Religion Laws and Liberties by the advice of a parcel of Men that feared not God nor reverenced Men How do you think that we can ever trust you again For if the Nation should be brought under such dismal and deplorable Circumstances which God avert as once more to submit to your Administration of the Government it would not only be a strong presumptive Conclusion but Proof that admits of no Objection that you would run again into the same Enormities if not worse for I fear and so do all True Protestants that by your Crew that you have with you you are possessed with strange and very vile Opinions And these are such as have not only in times past but are still entertained by you and your villainous Conspirators both at home and abroad about the Coronation Oath which you took when you entered upon the Administration of the Government of this Realm And they are these Four 1. That Subjects cannot receive an Oath of their Prince without the Authority of some Judge and that a Promise made before no competent Judge can bind any Man much less a Prince and they have affirmed that this was your Case I would have you remember Sir that he that administred you the Oath was a lawful and competent Judge because that Law and the Custom of the Realm had made him so and therefore to him you Swore and in Swearing to him you Swore to the whole Nation that you would defend their Laws and Liberties In a word this Coronation Oath you took was a lawful Oath and not only so but it was lawfully taken as well because general Custom hath the force and strength of a Law for the persons present do stand and are taken by general Custom to have Power to give and receive that Oath But a bold Assertor of your Cause was pleased once to tell me that there was no Parliament in being when you took this Oath What then When you took the Coronation Oath there were persons who upon your taking the Oath that did take the Oath of Fealty and Homage to you in the behalf of themselves and all the Nobility and Commons of England and this Oath must avail them though absent as though they were present and if they were to be bound by the one though absent then certainly you were bound by yours though they were not present 2. These wicked Conspirators of yours have Asserted That Princes being above the Law are not bound to observe Oaths and Contracts which have their full force and strength from the Law and that Princes may alter and change their own Laws at their Pleasure This Doctrine was carefully propogated by your trusty Roger and his inferiour Clergy by your Direction in order to bring about that wicked Design of yours of Subverting of the well established Government of this Realm and introducing French Slavery But Sir this you must now know that the Princes of England are not above the Law and therefore cannot alter them at their Pleasure without the manifest breach of their Coronation Oath I confess they may by their Judges interpret the Law in an Interval of Parliament and in time of Parliaments The Parliament are the best interpreters of the Law and not only so but the Kings of England by and with the advice and consent of Parliament and by the Authority of the same may Repeal and Abrogate Laws as they shall think fit But what you did was against Laws in force to the manifest breach of your Oath and you rendered your self odious to God and dispenced with those Laws that were for the preservation of Persons Honours Estates and Religion of the People of England and by this means you dissolved the Government and for which Cause you were hated of the People and at last the Kingdom departed from you you provoked that God that made you a Man and that People that made you a King But Sir your trusty Guide Hodge with his inferiour Clergy deceived you much and those who believed this Doctrine when they taught that your Oaths made to and contract made with the People of England had their full force and strength from the Law of the Land for they had their strength and force from the Law of Nature which binds Kings Princes Lords Priests and all Men whatever Therefore Sir did you not against the very Laws of Nature break your Contract with the People of England and the Oath you made to them Doth not the Law of Nature oblige all Princes to keep their Contracts even with their Enemies How much more ought you to have kept your Contract with your Friends and People How could you expect to wear the Name of an honest Man since that the Laws of Honesty charge Princes to keep their Oaths and Contracts There is nothing becomes them better nothing commendeth them more and nothing that Men require so much at their hands In the last place Princes Oaths to and Contracts with their Subjects and Allies are as good as Laws they have the same force as Laws they have the same strength and vertue against their Successours which they have against themselves nay let me tell you that they are of greater strength than Princes Laws for Laws may be Repealed but Contracts can never be Revoked and why so The Reason is plain That Laws may alter according to the necessity of Affairs but Contracts and Oaths can never be Revoked they admit of no Change no Alteration if once perfected they can neither receive Addition Substraction Diminution or Enlargement they must not be wrested but taken according to the true meaning of King and People But Sir you may say Why may not Princes break their Oaths and dissolve their Contracts made with their Subjects at their Coronation To this I give you this Answer Before you had Sworn to maintain our Laws Liberties and Religion you were free and before you made a Covenant with us you were at your liberty But when you had Sworn and when you had perfected your Contract then of necessity you were bound to keep and perform
could never learn But Sir was it not hard that they should be incapable of Offices and Employments since they had purchased them at so dear a rate but these Arguments prevailed not so the Bills were passed and the Parliament was dismissed till the 27th of October 1673. and good reason there was for their dismission for their sitting was grown very uneasy to your Popish Conspirators But Sir we could not but laugh in our Sleeves to see some of the Conspirators take up the Cross and quit their Imployments as the Lord Clifford the Lord Bellasis and Sir Thomas Strickland and others who had long appeared zealous Sons of our Church yet discovered to be of the Synagogue of Rome as soon as the Test or Purgatory Bill passed and truly Sir we were not sorry when you appeared to be of the same Complexion with those other Conspirators tho at the same time I must tell you That your going off did astonish many men there being no Record in History of any Prince that changed his Religion in your Circumstances But did your Conspirators stand still and put up the Sword that was drawn against the Dutch No they had got 1250000 l. therefore you and they strove with all imaginable strength to regain by the War that part of the Cursed Design that was lost by Parliament tho some of you forsook your Places rather than your Consciences yet Sir you never wanted some double-dy'd Sons of the Church of England to succeed in your Places upon the same Terms your Popish Conspirators held them so that they were but your Conspirators Deputies who followed the same Councels and carried on the same Design for this Year was a fruitful Year of Engagements with the Dutch the French carries all before him by Land but we got nothing from the Dutch but maimed Ships and broken Bones we had indeed changed our General but our Success was the same For you remember with whom we were in Conjunction we may thank our selves for keeping such ill Company So that in a word I may say those Heretick Dogs as they were termed by the Great Lewis were too many for our English Popish Conspirators What then Did we nothing by land had we not an Army at Black-Heath and General Schomberg at the head of them Yes we had but that good Gentleman when he saw the Army and understood that they were not an Army against the Dutch but were designed against London he fairly quitted his Post and the Kingdom at the same time as being ashamed of your Conspirators Intentions in the raising that Army He being a French-man you imagined he would join with you in bringing in the French mode of Government and your Irish Papist that was Major-General was to have brought in the Irish Religion the latter would have been true to the uttermost of his power and Irish Discretion but the former was a Protestant and so washed his hands of the business You will say that the French were on our side yes Sir they were but it is as plain as the Sun shining at Noon-day that the French in this second War against the Dutch intended nothing less than really to assist us for he was no Changeling for he had practised the same Art at Sea in the first War the Conspirators had against the Dutch when he was in league with them for his Navy never did them any service for his business was only to see us batter one another and it 's well known that when he pretended to be on our side and to assist us they then only took an opportunity to sound our Seas to spy our Ports and to learn our Building and contemplate our way of Fight to consume our Navy and preserve his own to increase his own Commerce and to order all so that the two great Naval Powers of Europe being crushed together that he might remain Prince and Lord of the Ocean and by consequence Master of all the Isles and the Continent into the bargain To which purpose you and your Banditti furnished him with all possible Opportunities as I shall by and by relate as well to put you in mind of what you and the rest of the Conspirators did do as to inform those of your Party here that are still ignorant of the Transactions of those Times Notwithstanding that we were always worsted by the Dutch yet they having a regard to the preservation of our Religion and Liberties which you had agreed to part withal to the French Court made strong Applications for a Peace and the Conspirators for a Supply to carry on the War and all Endeavours were by you and your Friends used to render the Dutch odious to the Parliament witness the Importunities that were used and great Assurances given In a word nothing but the Voice of War was in their Mouths But you know that there was an unhappy Accident fell out which I shall show you in its proper place that made the King put off the Parliament that sat down the 27th of October till the 7th of January following and in the mean time what Artifices your Accomplices used for to prepare the Parliament to have an ill Opinion of the Dutch you may see in the Speech made by that Villain of a Keeper who was your Tool to all intents and purposes you may remember how he represented the Dutch how averse they were to Peace and Reason and how uncivil and indirect in their Overtures of Treaty with His Majesty and therefore a demand was made of a proportionable and speedy Supply But the Dutch who sound themselves abused and obstructed and hitherto in a manner excluded from all manner of Application and whatever means they had used was still misinterpreted and ill represented they were so wise and industrious as by this time to have undeceived most of the Members of Parliament therefore the House of Commons were for a Peace to be made with the Dutch and in order thereunto would not part with one Penny judging that to be the best means for a Peace to follow and began to call some of your Rogues to an account that had been principal Contrivers of that most ungodly War this was an excellent but a new way of negotiating a Peace with the States-General I well remember that some of your Friends began to look blew upon the business looking every day to be called to an account for their Conspiracy against our Laws Liberties and Religion in the contriving and carrying on this War as aforesaid By this means Sir but full against your will I can tell how it grieved your Soul to see the general bent of the whole Nation to be against the War especially because the French were engaged in it In a word The House of Commons advised your Brother to a Just and an Honourable Peace with the States-General which the King put off till it could be no longer opposed then a Peace was concluded with the Dutch and when that was done the
Was this Sir to carry on the War or to go on in making of Alliances you know it was that Popery and the French Government might be advanced both at one and the same time so that Sir I have justified that head the unwillingness of King Charles's entring into and keeping League with those who would uphold and maintain the Protestant Religion but chose rather to make Alliances with France yea and keep them too with a King that had a mighty mind to destroy it 11. I come to the last Passage that I proposed in the beginning of this Memento to treat about and that is this That as long as King Charles lived what a dismal and difficult task had this Nation to suppress you and your wicked Popish and Popishly affected Accomplices and that when he died you were like to be his Successor and therefore the Commons took this into serious consideration and upon the whole that the state of Religion was desperate and that the Popish Conspirators would certainly be advanced and that there would be nothing less than the Nation to all intents and purposes ruined therefore I pray Sir remember the Vote passed Ap. 27.1679 Resolved Nemine Contradicente That the Duke of York being a Papist and the hopes of his coming to the Crown such hath given the greatest incouragement to the present Conspiracy and designs of the Papists against the King and the Protestant Religion Sir This Vote would have ground and beaten an ordinary Subject to Powder but it had not that effect upon you and your Party your Party was so prevalent at that time your Popish Party I mean that you and your Conspirators threw off all these Difficulties with scorn and impudence enough for it is plain enough that the Popish Party had such an influence upon King Charles as to favour them notwithstanding the notoriety of those Crimes both they and you stood charged withal For 1. The Popish Party had a great interest at Court upon the pretence of their pretended Loyalty in the time of the Civil War between Charles the First and his Subjects And again some few of them were instrumental in the escape of his Son Charles the Second from Worcester and the seeming readiness that was in that Party for the Restoration of the said Charles the Second in the Year 1660. this gave them not only a share of peace and Quiet under Charles's Government but procured from him a farther degree of respect unto them by this means they had a very great advantage of carrying on their Designs against the Interest of the Nation and Peace of the Government and this was the Argument Sir that you used for that part of your Banditti in order to join your Forces and strengthen your Party Give me leave Sir to observe to you how wicked a thing it was in you to embolden such a party of Rogues to ruin the Nation you used to say they were always loyal and therefore how many times did you procure great Indulgences from the Government against the express Letter of the Law for them while the rigor of the Law was let loose upon other Dissenters who yet continued more quiet and loyal under their Pressures and Provocations than those under Favours and Caresses and did not the King your Brother hazard the Hearts and Affections of his best Subjects and much of Royal Honour if ever he had any in appearing for his Indulgence of March 15. 1671 2 with frustration to engage if possible these everlasting holy Cutthroats but where was the Loyalty of these your Popish Conspirators For 1. Was it not at their instigation when they were in a Conspiracy against the Peace of this Nation with that Arch-Traytor Laud that was sometime Archbishop of Canterbury that the Uniformity of Service that was in England was against all Law Justice and Conscience pressed upon the Kingdom of Scotland which occasioned that breach with that Nation that was not without great difficulty and vast expence made up to the dishonour of King Charles the First and the English Nation You cannot but remember you have been informed who were the Prime Sticklers upon the occasion of that Service-book and other strange Impositions laid upon that people to foment the War between the two Kingdoms For in your Letter to Ashby the Rector of the English Colledge at St. Omers dated March 17 1676 7. to supply you with a dozen of such men as were used in Scotland in 1637 1638 1639. that would not stick at any thing to carry on the Catholick Cause in which you said that his Majesty of France your Brother and your self were ingaged for you then did want them and upon the receipt of your Letter the Scotch Colledge at Doway was consulted and 12 men were dispatched over for England for what Ends and Purposes you know well enough But to return to the Point in hand The Priests that were sent into Scotland in the time of your Father Charles the First you have been informed that they were sent by Cardinal Richlieu into that ancient Kingdom to enflame the Differences between the two Nations and the Motives upon which that great Incendiary was so earnest to kindle a War in the Dominions of your Father were sufficiently understood by those that lived and were actually engaged in publick Negotiations who have been so just as to leave them upon record to future Generations and they were the very same Motives that you and your Party made the grounds for the subversion of the Protestant Religion and our English Government these were your loyal Men that would have brought in a Religion upon us by a conversion of us with Blood and a Baptism with fire but the Good Lord I hope will keep the Land from the one and this great City from the other 2. Your Conspirators were men of undoubted Loyalty and this Englishmen will believe if you can make them because of their great zeal in commencing and carrying that never to be forgotten bloody Massacre in Ireland wherein so many thousand Protestants lost their Lives and were by your Hell-born Cut-throats basely and barbarously murthered Nay as a testimony of their Loyalty they renounced your Father's Authority and the Authority of his Lord Lieutenant of that Kingdom and assumed the Royal Authority to themselves owing only a dependance upon the Pope and his Nuncio yet these men for that piece of barbarity were by you and your Brother recommended to several Princes as men that had ventured their Lives and lost their Estates for promoting the Catholick Apostolick Religion in Ireland by the direction and express Command of your Royal Father of blessed Memory and many of them in their old age were at your Brother's request and yours made Priests to get Bread for that piece of Service 3. The Loyalty of your Conspirators did highly appear in that accession they had to the Death of Charles the First they did contrive it and this hath been made appear to their
the said Persecution were reduced almost to Beggery or to live upon the Charity of Friends Some were forced to fly the Nation and yet were more loyal under their Pressures and Provocations than your Cut-throat Papists were under their then Caresses and Favours received from your Brother and your self Nay a reverend Minister of the Gospel of Christ who had been very instrumental in your Restauration yea and ventur'd his Life for your Brother's Restauration in the year 1650 you suffer'd to perish in Newgate as a Reward for so great a piece of Service to your Brother and your self and Family and for no other reason but because he could not comply with some Rascally Ceremonies that our Ecclesiastical Vermin had borrow'd from the Church of Rome to Adorn our Protestant Worship and because he would not take the Oxford Oath lay'd upon the Nation to enslave it 8. Another Project you had for the ruining the Interest of the Protestant Religion and the Interest of England was the Advancing of Men that were Enemies to the Protestant Interest into the greatest Places of Trust As What a Sett of Villains had you made Judges of the Land by which means you brought all the Matters of Civil Justice into great Uncertainties by reason of the Tenour of their Commissions and the Ignorance of the Rogues you employ'd Therefore how miserable was the Nation who were obliged to Answer to such Judges that were forced to comply in all things with the Directions that were given by you and your Wicked Cut-throats or else to be turned out at yours and their Pleasure If we look further you had in your Brother's time the disposing of all Military Employments And how you did shew your Hatred to the Protestant Religion and the English Interest You did in his time raise a great many Persons to the greatest Military Trusts both by Sea and Land Strangers as well as Natives so that by these measures your Conspirators became Masters of the Affairs of the Government of the Nation and of the course of Justice and you had all the Church Vermin engag'd with you to subject the whole Kingdom to a despotick Arbitrary power and all these joyn'd together to execute your wicked Designs to enslave and debauch the People of the Land 9. To compleat the Work that nothing might stand in your way of Establishing your Popish Religion you murder'd your Brother who was uncertain in his Engagements in the Conspiracy for when he found it was not safe for him to appear in promoting Popery he soon left you Or if a Sum of Money could be gotten from a Parliament he commonly bless'd the Nation with a Proclamation or two against Popish Priests Jesuites and Popish Recusants or pass a Bill or so to the prejudice of the Popish Party as he did in 1673 when the Test-Bill passed as also another in 1678. This obliged you and your Conspirators to hasten his destruction which you had long contrived You found a fit Tool and as fit a Dose to do the Work in it you had your desired Ends and so you mounted the Throne Which brings me to the Second Point What you did in order to the Ruine of the Protestant Religion and the Government after your accession to the Crown II. Your Tyranny was very cruel but short yet full of strange and surprising Circumstances It was highly astonishing to see a Popish Prince ascending the Throne to rule a Protestant Nation and defend a Protestant Church but Sir you had no such Designs in your Head for you shew'd what you would do with our Laws when you could engage your Conspirators to dispense with part of the Oaths that you should have taken It is manifest and notorious that when you were upon the coming to the Crown you was receiv'd by all the People of England Scotland and Ireland as King without the least opposition for our Ecclesiastical Vermin had made your way clear by their Doctrine of Passive Obedience and Non-Resistance and the Divine Right of Succession and the possibility of preserving the Glory and Grandeur of their Church of England by a Popish Prince and that there was more danger from Fanaticks than from Papists and such-like scoundrel Notions You cannot but remember that King Charles your Brother having received the deadly Dose your Conspirators had prepar'd for him on February the 6th 1684 5 he went to his Place that very day Sir you were proclaim'd King to the sorrow of all that wish'd well to England and its Religion Liberties and Laws you then appear'd at the Council-Table as King and by all your Conspirators you was owned and saluted as such to whom you were pleas'd to make a sort of a Speech in which you were pleas'd to declare your self to this effect THat Since it hath pleased Almighty God to place you in that station and that you were now to succeed so Good and Gracious a King as well as so Kind a Brother you thought it fit to declare That you would follow his Example and more especially in that of his great Clemency and Tenderness to all his People That you had been reported to have been a man for Arbitrary Power tho' that had not been the only Story that had been made of you That you would make it your Endeavour to preserve Government both in Church and State as it was by Law establish'd That you knew the Principles of the Church of England were for Monarchy and that the Members of it had shewn themselves good and loyal Subjects and therefore you would take care to defend and support it That you knew the Laws of England were sufficient to make the King as great a Monarch as you could wish and therefore as you would never depart from the Just Rights and Prerogatives of the Crown so you would never invade any Man's Property And that you had ventur'd your Life very often in the defence of the Nation And that you would go as far as any Man in preserving it in all its Just Rights and Liberties This Sir is the sum and substance of what you were pleas'd to say at the Council board and one would have sworn that you would have taken up the Trade of being Speech wright-general to the whole Band of your Conspirators I am confident your old Friends the Jesuites that had been hang'd but a little before could not have outdone you though it had been to have saved their Lives Well it was a Speech and how true you were to this Speech you shall judge and your Conspirators too if you will but consider 1. You said You would not invade any man's Right and Property and that you would preserve the Nation in its Just Rights and Liberties And so you did for you the next day after your accession to the Crown publish'd a Proclamation for the continuing the payment of the Custom and Excise which were expir'd by the death of the King your Brother for several weeks after Did not this shew