the Gates of Hell and Rome shall not prevail against it 'T is true Sir before the Discovery of the Popish Plot in the time of King Charles the Second many loose People some also of Note were perverted to the Church of Rome but when that Villany was detected then a Check was put for a time to the Popish Parties making such a number of Converts till the Priests saw that King Charles the Second did not Prosecute the Discovery of that Conspiracy he being in every part and particular thereof but that of his own Life then they let loose their Seducers who were not only incouraged but also recompensed for such a piece of Treachery But when the late King invaded the Crown then large steps were taken to ruin the People and to Pox them in their Religion Upon your Majesties Landing in the Year 1688 the Keeper of the Prison of the King's-Bench gave me some liberty and I went amongst some of the most substantial of my Friends who did inform me under what a Consternation our Great Conspirators were and how ready they were to have given up all their Ill-gotten Estates by which they had been enabled to prosecute the wicked Designs of the late King to subvert our most Excellent Religion and none of us did question but that they would have been called to an account for all those trayterous Devices of theirs of this I am sure they would have given up their All to have saved their Lives But your Majesty being resolved not to begin your Reign with Blood was inclined not to make any severe Examples of these Men which a thinking Man might judge would lay such an Obligation upon them all of Gratitude and Obedience to your Majesty and Government nay these above-named fresh Instances of the Papal Tyranny in Religion might have been enough to have cautioned the Kingdom from giving them little hopes of being able of being brought to restore King James who was so bigotted to the Arbitrary Proceedings of the Romish Synagogue our Noble-men some of them had a great part of Church Lands in their hands our Clergy-men great Preferments all which must have gone notwithstanding their Zeal for the Divine Right of Succession and Passive Obedience and Non-resistence Therefore the Consideration of Temporal Interest one would have thought might have gone a great way to have engaged them to be true to their own Cause and Quarrel In a word a Man that observed the Insolencies of the Popish Party against those Prelates that were committed to the Tower would have made them for ever to have declared an everlasting War against that Party of Red-letter'd Men and heartily have come into your Majesties Interest in order to have secured our Liberties Properties and Religion But to conclude this Head the Excellency of that Religion of which some of the Conspirators had made a Profession since they were English that had Bodies Souls and Estates to save and found your Majesty resolved if they had pleased to save all they upon the score of your Royal Grace and Mercy to them shewed at the beginning of your Reign and continued Clemency would have invited to have joined in with your Majesty to have preserved that Religion they profess and not in stead of that to have attempted the Murther of your Person and the Invasion of your Realm with a Foreign Power in order to restore an Abdicated King who hates their Religion and will violate their Liberties I come Sir now to observe to your Majesty the Excellency of this Civil Government which these Conspirators would change into Slavery The Kings of England Rule not upon the same Terms with those of our Neighbour Nations who having by Force or by Fraud Usurped that due share which their Subjects had in the Government are now for some Ages past in Possession of an Arbitrary Power which yet no Presciption can make legal and Excercise it over their Persons and Estates in a most Tyrannical Manner but here in England the Subjects do retain their Proportion in the Legislature and the very meanest Commoner of England is represented in Parliament and is a Party to those Laws by which the Prince is sworn to Govern himself and his Subjects No Mony is to be levied but by common Consent no Man is for Life Limb or Goods or Liberty at the discretion of the Supream Magistrate but we have the same Right modestly understood to our Property that the Prince hath to his Regality In all Cases where the King is concerned we have our just Remedy as against any private Person in the Neighborhood in the Courts of Westminster-Hall or in the High-Court of Parliament his very Prerogative is no more than what the Law hath determined His Great Seal which is the Stamp of his Legitimate Pleasure yet is no longer current than upon the tryal it is found legal he cannot commit any Person by his particular Warrant he cannot himself be Witness in any Cause the ballance of Publick Justice being so delicate that not the Head only but even the Breath of the Prince would turn the Scale nothing is to be left to the King's Will but all is subjected to his Authority by which it follows that he can do no wrong nor receive wrong and a King of England keeping these measures may without Arrogance be said to remain the only Intelligent Ruler over a Rational People in recompence therefore and acknowledgment of so good a Government under his Influence his Person is most Sacred and Inviolable and whatever Excesses are committed against so high a Trust nothing of them is imputed to him as being free from the necessity or temptation but his Ministers only are accountable for all and must answer it at their Perils He hath a vast Revenue constantly arising from the Sweat of the Labourers and the Rent of the Farmer and the Industry of the Merchant and consequently out of the Estate of the Gentleman a large competence to defray the ordinary Charge of the Crown and maintain its Grandure and Lustre and if any extraordinary occasion happen or be but with any probable descency pretended the whole Land at whatsoever season of the Year doth yield them a plentiful Harvest So forward are the People to give that a Foreigner would think that they could neither will nor chuse but that the asking of a Supply was a meer piece of Formality the People of England being so ready to give it The King of England is the Fountain of Honour and hath the distribution of so many profitable Offices of the Houshold of the Revenue of State of Law of Religion of the Navy and when it is necessary that the King hath an Army he disposeth of a multitude of Military Offices that it seems as if this Nation had scarce Men of Abilities to supply all these Employments So that the Kings of England are nothing inferior to other Princes saving in being abridged in injuring their own Subjects but have as large
Popery and this was done by our Priests blind admonition to the people of obedience to our Governors be it good they command or be it evil whatever they command it must be obeyed And what Nation soever came under the misfortune of being robb'd of their Rights and Liberties it was chiefly brought to pass by Priest-craft in preaching up blind obedience and extolling Vicious Kings and calling them excellent tho the vilest of Tyrants who were riding Post to swallow them up This was the Practice of our Pulpit-hunters in the time of the Reign of your Brother and in the beginning of your Usurpation of the Government and so they would have done to this day had not the Tythe-pig been in danger Nothing I say contributed more to the confirming and establishing the late King your Brother's Alliances with France as that progress your Priests and Jesuits made in perverting the people as to their Religion and our Ecclesiastical Brokers debauching their Morals by their immorality and looseness of living and enslaving their minds by their damnable Doctrines of Passive Obedience and Non-resistance and the Divine Right of Succession to the Imperial Crown of the Realm 7. He being fully resolved to follow his Pleasure he left the Administration of the Three Kingdoms to your self and Cut-throat Party who were Enemies to the people of England and were in a damnable Conspiracy against his person and Government and the Protestant Religion That he was resolved upon his Pleasures you nor no man can deny and that you had the ascendency of him it is too plain and manifest to admit of the least doubt or scruple But that which was most wicked you kept him plied with those vile Wretches who promoted that Vice in him And tho he was the vilest of all the Kings that went before for his many Immoralities yet how did his Ecclesiastical Parasites flatter him and admire him as a Prince of the greatest Virtues a King of Peace they called him and a King of Righteousness I am sure he engaged the Government in two unjust Wars against the Dutch and thanks be to God he was by them worsted in both those Wars and it proved fatal to the Conspirators for the great Design of ruining the Dutch was the advancement of Popery and Arbitrary Power here in England which you durst not attempt till they were weakened you fearing their joining their Forces together to rescue us from your damnable Designs against our Religion Laws and Liberties as you know they did and that to very good purpose the effects of which will not be gotten out of your old Bones as long as you live Before I conclude this Head give me leave Sir to observe that whilst the King your Brother was swallowed up in his Pleasures you and your Minions did make it your business to beget in the people a low opinion of the method of Governing and by your Priests you taking opportunity by reason of our then villanous Caterpillars of the Church countenancing it in a very high manner to beget in the people a mean opinion of the Protestant Religion and Interest and you may remember you gained not a few to your Party Therefore when we consider our danger we cannot but be astonished at our deliverance For had your Banditti been avowed Papists our danger might more easily have been conquered for some nay the most of them when the Test came in force quitted their Imployment at Court amongst them Sir your sweet self quitted the Office and Title of Lord High Admiral of England but Sir you had gotten a Crew about you that did undertake with you to ruin and destroy the Government which lay under no temptation of Religion these joined their Forces and Interest against King and Kingdom and truly I think our greatest danger was from them You having this fair opportunity of your Brother's being so addicted to his Pleasures and he leaving the Administration of Affairs to you and your Hellborn Crew it was a great wonder you did not strike sooner and leap into the Chair an Age or two before the time you did It 's certain you came not in without Murther and Murther would have been but Murther if it had been done ten or a dozen years before Truly tho you had Villains that one would have thought were bad enough yet you had not enough for so black a Design as the overthrow of the Government and the Protestant Religion they were not I say ripe enough your Popish Party at home were keen enough but they wanted a good back to their edge therefore Sir you fearing your strength at home you applied you self abroad to the French King he being indowed with all those Qualities which in a Prince may pass for Vertues but in any man of a private Station they would be capital He being a Champion for Popery and Arbitrary Power with him you joined to ruin the Government and the Protestant Religion your damnable Conspiracy being a Project every way suitable to the Inclination and Interest of that Bloody Monster of Mankind You may remember the Trayterous Correspondencies you maintained with him and he with you by your most Excellent Secretary Coleman who you honestly left to be hanged for that great piece of secret Service he did you in that time 8. We well remember how careless he was in the maintenance of our Religion Truly when Princes are given up to their Pleasures it is no great matter what Religion they profess you may well call to mind what breaches you and your Party made upon our Religion through his carelesness and remisness how you advanced the Popish Interest and discountenanced the Protestants and as your Secretary Coleman observed that you would not forget the Tricks the Parliament of England had playd with you so we cannot but remember what Tricks you plaid with us for it is plain that there was not a considerable Preferment in the Church that fell but either he that was preferred was one of no Religion or else that which was worse he was a person that engaged in your unrighteous Cause and Quarrel Sir by your means and the means of your Partisans such men were made use of in the Church that through the ignorance and insufficiency of some of them and oscitancy and remisness of others to whom the Guardianship of her was committed our Religion and Worship became lamentably dismantled misfigured and defaced and this well nigh in all the integral and principal parts of it more or less insomuch that a man that understands the Doctrines and holy Intentions of our first Reformers from the Synagogue of Rome and shall compare things with things could nor yet can hardly be able to say this is the Protestant Religion But how can any man wonder that King Charles the Second should be careless in the support and maintenance of our Reformed Religion since that he was in his heart and soul engaged to the Doctrines and Communion of the Church of Rome
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
of your Brother's time and in the beginning of your time they were given up to such a secure state and judicial blindness that the Protestant Religion was in greater danger of being supprest than ever it was since the Reformation notwithstanding your Promise of maintaining and preserving it 7. Another Indication of your Care for the maintenance of the Ch. of England was the breaking thro' those Laws which forbid the erecting Churches and Chappels for the exercise of the Popish Religion and also against Monasteries and Convents and more particularly against the Order of the Jesuites for you did contrary to your Oath and Promise made to support the Ch. of England give out arbitrary and illegal Orders to erect Monasteries and in contempt of the Law you set up several Colledges of Jesuites to corrupt the Youth of the Nation Nay Sir that you might not leave your self without Witness of your stedfast Resolution of maintaining supporting and defending the Ch. of England you rais'd up a Jesuite that was in the Popish Plot in which the death of the King your kind and loving Brother was plotted and contriv'd and the subversion of the Government both in Church and State to be a Privy Councillor and a Minister of State By all which you did evidently shew that you were restrain'd by no Laws and therefore the Ch. of England must perish you being so well seconded in your Popish Progress by your most excellent Commissioners of Ecclesiastical Affairs But to conclude this Paragraph how those Villains that acted in that Commission of yours can look Mankind in the Face after they have done so many things against all Law Honour and Conscience I do not understand The truth is those that are yet alive have with the Whore in the Proverbs wiped their Mouths and say They have done no wickedness and without all doubt if they might be trusted would with as great earnestness appear against your Cause and Interest as they did wickedly in your time espouse it but they would be such a Reproach to an honest Government as would render the best and most honest Cause suspicious if engag'd in it IV. I come now to consider a 4th Passage in your Speech to the Council wherein you were pleas'd to say That you had been reported to have been a man for Arbitrary Power but you did assure them that you would preserve the Government in Church and State as by Law establish'd And That you knew that the Laws of England were sufficient to make the King as great a Monarch as he could wish How you preserv'd the Government of the Church is plain enough nothing indeed is more plain than this that you intended its Destruction and utter Subversion and that nothing less would serve your turn notwithstanding its Principles were for Monarchy and its Members had shew'd themselves Loyal Subjects How fared it then with the State Surely the Civil Government was preserv'd since the Laws of England were sufficient to make the King as great a Monarch as he could wish In truth Sir there was but a lamentable account to be given to your more than Glorious Successor of your management of Affairs in the Civil Government all things were out of order at his accession to the Crown which you may have forgotten therefore Sir be pleas'd to remember in the first place your Villains of your Council and of your Ecclesiastical Commission As they were in a Conspiracy against the Ch. of England to turn our Religion into downright Popery so they were in a Conspiracy against the State to turn the well establish'd Government of this Land into downright Slavery and this not secretly as if those Rascals were not asham'd of what they did for they had that matchless Impudence to act in an open and undisguis'd manner and to carry on your villanous purposes you and your Accomplices set up the Dispensing Power by vertue of which you might suspend and dispense with the execution of the Laws at your pleasure and in order to give this devilish Maxim of yours and your Conspirators countenance and credit you so manag'd that matter that you obtain'd an Opinion from the Judges most of which were mercenary Rogues who declar'd their opinion That this Dispensing Power was in the Kings of England as if it were in the power of these Villains to offer up the Laws and Liberties of the whole Nation to your self to be dispos'd of by you arbitrarily at your pleasure and expresly contrary to those Laws that were enacted for the liberty of the Subject In order to obtain this Judgment your Conspirators did before hand examine secretly the Sentiments of the Judges and procur'd such of them as could not in Conscience concur in so villanous an opinion or sentence to be turn'd out and others that had neither Law nor Conscience were substituted in their rooms so that by changing of hands they found out 12 matchless Rogues from whom you obtain'd that wicked Judgment which if my Memory fail me not was laid down in these 5 particulars 1. That the Kings of England are Soveraign Princes 2. That the Laws of England are the King's Laws 3. That it is an inseparable Prerogative of the K. of Engl. to dispense with Penal Laws upon necessity and urgent occasions 4. That the K. is the sole Judge of that necessity 5. That this is not in Trust given to the K. but 't is the ancient Remains of the Crown which ne'r was nor can be taken from him Give me leave Sir to examin these Particulars and let the world see how you were abus'd and how you abus'd the Government by the Opinions of these 12 mercenary Rogues 1. That the Kings of England were Soveraign Princes What then Must you by a Dispensing Power do what you list were you not subject to those Laws which you were sworn to keep And if you had not fled might you not have been call'd to an account Might not the People from whom you deriv'd your Authority have had any Power over you And was it not dangerous both to Church and State to have a Popish Prince so mighty that no Protestant House of Peers or Commons dare controul him Truly Sir I own that the Kings of England are soveraign Princes yet the Nation by their Representatives did ne'r allow the Kings of England to do what 12 mercenary Judges should deliver as their Opinions for Sir it was ne'r intended when you assumed the Government that your Will and Pleasure should stand for a Law for the Laws that support the Grandeur of the Crown limited your Will to Reason and ty'd your Commands to the Word of God the Laws of the Realm and the Weal of the People And since Sir you regarded not these things but follow'd the Sentiments of your corrupt Judges your Will was unlawful and Commands unjust The Kings of England always have been and still are Soveraign Princes but what makes them so Is it not the Law of the Land And
doth not the Law set a boundary to their Government as well as to the Peoples Obedience Is there not a mutual Contract between King and People Now when any K. shall by a Suspending or Dispensing Power dissolve this Contract and break in upon our Laws and overturn the Government the People cease to be his Subjects and he to be their King It is your own case Sir by your Dispensing Power you did not only pretend to be above Law but also that you were not bound by Law tho' by your Oath you were as much bound to observe the Law as a King as your People were bound to observe the Laws as your Subjects But the People of England seeing that it was in vain to expect any Justice or Righteousness from you for means of reformation was propounded but was denied to be comply'd withal several noble Lords saw themselves slighted their Counsels rejected and the Protestant Religion upon its last Legs they therefore did implore the help of the Prince of Orange now our Gracious King he comes over seizeth your Treasure your fortified places Navy and Naval Stores and with one Consent of the People of England was made our Sove Lâ—rd and King and hath his health very well without the help and aid of a Dispensing Power God send him a long and prosperous Reign 2. The Laws of England are the Kings Laws if your Dispensing Vermin did mean by the Laws being your Laws that is that you were intrusted with the Conservation and the Execution of them then we agree with the Rogues but how doth this Trust reposed in the King for the time being intitle him to Suspend and Dispense with these Laws but if by the Laws being yours they understood that they were your Property either to Execute or not Execute either to keep or break at your pleasure I pray Sir to what end were they made and to what end were you Sworn to keep and maintain these Laws why was there the trouble of an Oath to keep the Law But Sir here they laid down a notorious falshood for the Laws of England are the Laws made by King and People as the Rule of the Government of the King on the one hand and of the Obedience of the People on the other 3. That it is an inseparable Prerogative of the King of England to Dispense with Penal Laws upon necessity and urgent Occasions this was laid down as good Law But Sir I pray consider were not all the Laws of England Enacted by the King and the People of England met in Parliament for the security of the Government and of the Subject how then could these Villains give you a Power of annulling these Laws at your Will and Pleasure since you could not suspend or dispense with them but by the same Authority by which they were made It is true the King of England for the time being may pardon a Punishment that a Transgressor hath incurred and to which he is condemned as in cases of Fellony and Treason yet it cannot be inferred from hence with any colour of reason that you or any other King could intirely suspend the Execution of those Laws relating to Fellony or Treason unless Sir your villainous Judges could have proved by any other Authority than barely their Opinions that you were cloathed with a Dispotick and Arbitrary Power and that the Lives and Liberties Honours and Estates of the People of England did depend wholly upon your good Will and Pleasure and were intirely subject to you which must infallibly follow on your having a Power to suspend the Execution of the Laws and to dispence with them It may be Sir some of your Dispensers may say That you were not well informed when you took the Coronation-Oath to maintain the Laws of the Land and that you had prejudiced your self greatly by yielding to the Oath and that you had weakened your Authority too much in submitting your self to the observation of those Laws These things were much talked of by some of your Bully Conspirators when they little dreamed of your taking the Air at St. Germains Nay some of the Devils Brokers roared this out of their Pulpits by the direction of Old Hodge their guide But Sir I pray inform me how it could be that you should not be well informed when you yielded to take the Oath at your Coronation to observe and keep the Laws of the Land It is impossible that you should be ignorant of that which all the World knew and all your Predecessors before you as it was almost impossible that you should not be acquainted with the Oath that you were to take and the Laws you were to preserve by that Oath So this know that you were bound to those Laws immediately upon taking the Oath and I wonder much that you should be a stranger to the Coronation Oath and to the Laws by which you were to defend your Government that had been twenty four Years a looker on in the Reign of your Brother Therefore this Plea is as frivilous as the Opinion of your never to be forgiven Judges was Impudent and against Law But this is one of the madest Thoughts that ever you or your villainous Judges could be guilty of that it was a blemish to the Sovereign Power of the Kings of England to submit to the Laws I pray Sir What blemish would it have been to your Sovereign Power to have submitted to the Laws of your Countrey which your Predecessors were contented to acknowledge and observe You derived your Authority to your self by virtue of the Laws Why then was the Observation of the Laws such a prejudice to you and your Sovereign Power But we saw the Laws broken and you forsworn and your Subjects deposed you In this I am sure you have found a greater blemish and prejudice than the observation of the Laws would have been But to be short you may plead for your self and your Judges That were under a necessity and an urgent occasion Well What was that necessity What were those urgent occasions that could put you upon forswearing your self and bringing your self under the guilt of Perjury In truth Sir your necessity you lay under was the subversion of the Protestant Religion and bringing in Popery and the subversion of the Civil Government and bringing in Tyranny and Slavery Is not Perjury a most grievous Offence but much more grievous when it is voluntarily committed And then a King committeh Perjury willingly when he doth any thing willingly against the Oath he hath taken not by force but by freewil not unadvisedly but with great consideration not to his hurt but to his advantage not to perform a thing that was impossible or dishonest but to bind himself to a condition that is honest and possible too Now when a King breaketh such an Oath there can be no colour or pretence of necessity or urgent occasions to excuse his Perjury 4. That the King of England is sole Judge of
that necessity I never took you so much behind hand in Sense and Reason but that you might plainly see that this is but a bantre of these Rogues for they neither stated the necessity and the urgent occasions you had to forswear your self and never inquired whether any necessity or any urgent occasions could excuse you from lying under the guilt of Perjury Then they came off with an impudent lye and say the King is sole Judge of that necessity He is sole Judge of nothing but what he is intitled to by the Law where the Law makes him a sole Judge there I do and own my self bound to obey him as such But once more Sir Where was this necessity of which you were to be sole Judge When did it spring Out of what part of the World I believe if you could have convinced the Nation of this necessity and these urgent occasions they would not so readily concurred to your going to St. Germains were your Popish Friends oppressed And did the necessity arise from thence If it did Why did you not tell the Parliament of this Oppression Were they in want of Places at Court and Imployments under you which they could not hold Truly a great many Protestants went without them notwithstanding their being qualified Oh! but the Priests of the Church of Rome were in danger of the Law I never could yet see that day If they would be quiet and the Religion of the Church of Rome was your Religion Well if it was Had you not better to have refused the Crown rather than to have taken it with such Incumbrances and Clogs as should expose you to such necessities and urgent occasions of Perjuring your self and Damning your Soul and Ruining of three Kingdoms It was well you were the sole Judge of the necessity for if an honest English Parliament had sat in the time of your necessity and urgent occasions they would have made these Rogues have swung for their villainous Advice 5. That this is not in Trust given to the King but the Antient Remains of the Crown which never was nor can be taken from him you nor no King in England ever had any thing but what you received in Trust from the People of England in Parliament assembled therefore this was the greatest of Impudence that these Twelve ignorant Devils could be guilty of for what Authority Power or Riches have the Kings of England but what they received from the People and it is plain the Power and Authority that you received was for the benefit of the People and not for the ruin and destruction of the Laws you consented to you were intrusted with the Conservation of them not to Suspend or Dispense with them at your will and pleasure But what King of England was there since the pretended Conqest that was not Sworn to keep the Laws and defend the Rights and Liberties of the Church and People of England and who Administred this Oath to them but one or more in the behalf of themselves and all the People of England Your Brother though bad enough took the Government as a trust reposed in him by his good People of England what part was it then that was not a Trust they trusted him with vast sums of money they trusted you but with a very little I pray Sir would your Scoundril Conspirators but tell me what parts were the Remains of the Crown and how they came so to be if they cannot it is all Cheat and Nonsence By your management notwithstanding all that might have been said to the contrary even in your Reign without the danger of being hanged you obtained from your Judges this wicked Opinion I suppose you were not Idle but was resolved to proceed according to this Judgment of theirs for you presently invaded the Liberties both of Church and State I have given you some instances of your Invasion upon the Rights of the People of England in relation to Matters of the Church Now let us proceed to see how you carried your self in reference to the Civil Rights and Liberties of the People of England which brings me to a second Instance of your invading our Civil Rights 2. As your Brother did begin and made a very great Progress in so you went on to invade Priviledges and to seize the Charters of the Towns that had a right to be represented in Parliament and by your Tools procured Surrenders of them to be made to you especially where they were poor and not able to defend them And a Gentleman that valued himself upon his Oath that he had made to a Corporation whereof he was a Magistrate and therefore refused to deliver the same you rewarded him with a two or three years imprisonment and had not God interposed it had been to the ruin of himself his Wife and Children By these Surrenders Sir you caused all the Magistrates to give up their Rights and Priviledges to be disposed of at your pleasure and the pleasure of your Villains the Conspirators and by this means you placed in several of these Towns Popish Magistrates notwithstanding their incapacity or such as were Popishly affected and willing to concur with you in all your evil Designs and Purposes assuring your self that when necessity or your urgent Occasions should force you to call a Parliament you might have such a Parliament returned as should at once set up Popery and Arbitrary Power Nay Sir our danger in your time and in the time of your loving and kind Brother did most and doth still arise from those Beggarly and Paltry Borroughs that either are by Charter or Prescription enabled to send Members to Parliament 3. That you might not fail in the Counties of obtaining your wicked ends you gave Orders to Examin all Lords Lieutenants Deputy Lieutenants Sheriffs Justices of the Peace and all other that were in any Publick Employments if they would Concur with you in the Repealing the Test and Penal Laws and those whose Consciences would not permit them to comply with your wicked Designs and Purposes were turned out and others who you found would be more compliant to you in your intentions in defeating the End and Execution of those Laws which had been made with so much Care and Caution to preserve not only the Protestant Religion but also our Civil Rights and Liberties and into many of those places you put in Papists and other persons of Arbitrary Principles notwithstanding the Law had incapacitated the former and the other for want of Reputation and Interest could do their Country but little Service unless like Devils they could do mischief by serving your Designs and the Purposes of your Conspirators so that this Nation was in a deplorable Condition and must have perished had not God raised up the Prince of Orange now our King to come over and deliver us out of your Hands 4. As your Brother in his time hated the Peoples Petitioning him for the redress of their Grievances and had a
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
them and you could not have added to or detracted from any thing in such a manner perfected without the consent of the people with whom you made this Contract for we were to have been benefited by this Oath and Contract of yours and not deceived again If Princes may break their Oaths and Contracts made to and with their Subjects How can we deal with such a King How can we tell when we obey We must be then at great uncertainties and so by consequenue we cannot be safe Furthermore Did it not lye at your door to have preserved your self from Scandal and Fraud Of which you took no care therefore you made no Conscience of of your Oaths and Contracts Again Sir we must suppose you to be a reasonable Creature and if so we must also conclude you ought to have submitted to Reason that you might have at least have had the reputation of a Man and not be signalized with the Character of a filthy Monstrous Beast Hence it is that Tyrants in sacred Writ are called Beasts because they will not submit to nor be governed by the Rules of right Reason In the last place Sir other Men may in their Oaths and Contracts have an Eye to their Profit but you ought to have had an Eye to your Honour and to have had an especial regard thereof Now what can be more Dishonourable in a King than to break his Word falsifie his Faith and violate his Contract And was not your Word Faith and Contract confirmed by a solemn Oath 3. There was a third Doctrine that was much promoted by your Conspirators that although Kings should be strictly bound to stand to their Contracts and their Oaths yet if they were induced to make a Contract and to take an Oath in things wherein they were not well informed or if the Contract and Oath do contain things too much derogating or diminishing their Jurisdiction or Authority Royal or if they have made a Promise that may be prejudicial to their Greatness they may then lawfully break their Contract Faith and Oath This Doctrine was very industriously spread about by your Party especially by your Jesuits and your Jesuited Papists and Passive Obedience Men. But certainly Sir your Conspirators represented your understanding to be but of Irish Standard and to be of the same Scantling with their Honesty Give me leave to ask you this one fair Question Was you not well informed what you were to do and what you did promise to do when you took the Coronation Oath to defend the Protestant Religion and preserve and maintain the Laws of the Realm and by them to govern this great People you took the Charge of Can any Man think Sir that you should be the only Man that was Ignorant of that which all the Nation knew and what your Grand-father Father and Brother had done before you Where Sir was the Dishonour or Blemish that might fall upon you if you had kept your Oath and made the Laws of the Land the Rule of your Government If you had been a good King you would have delighted to have been bound by the Laws of the Land and have rejoyced the Hearts of the People of England and then you would not have at this time have been obliged to France for your Subsistance But Sir God in his just Judgment gave you up to believe these lies and therefore you violated those Laws by which you were Sworn to govern to gratifie your Popish Hellborn Crew they have got you to themselves We have a King that thinks it no Blemish to his Regal Authority to maintain and keep our Laws he judges it no Dishonour to preserve the Liberties of his People and their Honours and Estates You have the reward of your Unrighteousness I wish you much Joy of it 4. Some of the Doctors and Casuists of your Synagogue of Rome say that Princes who may dispense with others may give a sufficient Dispensation to themselves and so revoke their Contracts and break their Oaths for that they have Might and Power and Authority there is no Law no Judge that can compel them to keep their Oaths and observe their Contracts It is manifest that you did take upon you to dispense with others and to give your self a Dispensation too and we own that we were not then in a Condition to call you to an Account but you were Admonished very often by the best and greatest of your Subjects to reform all that was amiss But after all this Admonition you did remain incorrigible then what could we do but make your Actions Cruelties and Tyrannies and Perjury known to the World And we implored the Aid and Help not of the French King but William Prince of Orange who came and suppressed you as an incorrigible Oppressor and Tyrant And your Party appearing bare-faced to murther our King and invade the Kingdom with a Foreign Force in order to enslave us will be treated as Villains and Common Rogues and receive the just recompence of Reward for all their Treasonable Conspiracies against our King and the well established Government of the Kingdom and the Protestant Religion To conclude this point How detestable and odious hath your Perjury made you it hath excluded you from that great Honour to which you arrived and it hath removed you from your native Country in a word it hath clothed you with so much infamy that it is impossible for you to attain that Honour Power and Authority and Majesty you have lost And therefore it is highly unreasonable for you or your Conspirators ever to attempt your Restauration 2. As your Perjur is an argument why it is not only impossible for you to be restored and folly for you to attempt it so in the second place we are Protestants And what can a Popish Apostate do at the head of a Protestant Interest The Popish Queen Mary she no sooner obtained the Crown by a Protestant Interest but she destroyed that very Interest by which she was advanced to the Throne This we well remember Sir and we need not burn our Fingers again the third time Suppose Sir that we should have so little sense as to try you once more and should succeed What Monsters must we appear to the World a Body of Protestants with a Popish Head This doth much astonish me that our little Prick-ear'd Priests of the Church of England have so much admired your Cause and pleaded it with such earnestness when as they cannot but conclude that you must of necessity deal by the Church of England as you would with an impudent Harlot Your Brother was careless in the maintenance of our Religion because he was a Papist though a loose one And can we otherwise conclude but you who have at all times and in all places whereever you have come shewed your self a bigotted Papist will not only discountenance the Protestant Religion but destroy it with all that Zeal that is consistent with the Principles of a perverse
or the thing real when I think on a Prince in such an Age as we live in to be converted to such a degree of Zeal and Piety as not to regard any thing in the World in comparison of Christ These are the Discoveries of your Old Servant Mr. Coleman but to rivet the Matter I pray consider what Discoveries you were pleased to make of the Union of your Interest with that of the French King which Sir will put the Matter out of dispute Give me leave to put you in mind of your Letter you wrote to the French King's Confessour wherein you were pleased to own that the Interests of the French King and yours were so clearly linck'd together that those that opposed the one should be looked on as Enemies to the other and that the French King had told you that he was of the Opinion that neither the Lord Arlington nor the Parliament were in his Interest nor yours 2. As it is as clear as the Day that your Interest is not an English but a French Interest so now I must tell you in the second place that your Interest being a French Interest it will render your return impossible and the attempt in order to it very foolish and irrational You know that the English Nation is never safe unless a check be put upon the growing Greatness of France Therefore do but observe the Address of the House of Commons March 10. 1676 they put the King your Brother in mind of the great Danger that the Nation was exposed to by reason of the growth of the French King's Power and Greatness Now any Man that is in the Interest of the French King his Interest is no ways reconcileable to the Interest of England 1. As to its Peace 2. As to its Trade And the Consequence of both these are the Riches of the Nation which must be consumed by a Prince that is of an Interest different from that of the People 't is true the present War with France hath proved very chargable to the Nation but here is our Happiness that we have a King that advanceth the Interest of our Trade his People and He go Hand in Hand Their Interests are the same with His and His the same with Theirs which to me is an Argument that when it shall have pleased God by His Arms to reduce the French King to Reason that then no Nation under the Heavens can or will be more happy than the English Nation But if a Prince shall instead of pursuing the Interest of his People pursue their Destruction by setting up and advancing the Interest of a Foreign Power his Government cannot stand This Sir was that which lost you your Crown And can you then expect by that Interest to regain the Crown of England by which you strangely lost it Therefore to conclude this Head let not your Conspirators think that it is either probable or possible that ever the People of England will ever be brought into a French Interest or ever admit you to resume the Throne and Government since that you purely lost it for the sake of that Interest Your Scoundrel Abettors here at Home are such a sort of Animals that the Reformed Nations Abroad are at a stand and cannot tell what to make of them their Carriages of late Years have been so unaccountable and since it hath pleased God to put it into the Hearts of most of the Princes of Europe though of the Romish Communion heartily to embrace the late Revolution in England as the last Effort for the Common Liberty of Europe and have entered into the strictest Alliance with our King though of a different Religion to support it it looks like a Dream to meet with Men that call themselves English Protestants embarqued in your Interest in opposition to the Interest of their Native Countrey A little Priest of the Church of England in a Sermon of his on the Day your Father made his Exit was pleased to threaten us with an endless War that would be entailed on the Nation he is a mighty Votary for your Cause and Interest notwithstanding his Oath to King William to the contrary But Sir a thousand such Fellows can never reconcile your Interest with that of England nor would your Restoration put an end to his supposed War for it is not reasonable to imagine that so many Noblemen and Gentlemen who have associated and by their Association have engaged to support the Interest and Cause of our King will tamely submit to your Restoration Or that King William will ever abandon his Throne or that its possible that the Common Cause of Europe will ever be suffered to sink in such a manner as to comply with the Pride and Ambition of your Self or of him whose Cause you have espoused and whose Interest is the very same with yours When you were upon the Throne your Aim was to destroy the Interest of England but we have been too many for you and the Throne is filled up with one that will maintain and support our Interest notwithstanding the vain Efforts of your Crew both at Home and Abroad to the contrary And therefore that Loggerhead of a Cathedral Priest hath not made one single Convert to your Cause and Interest by the Noise he made of disputed Titles and endless Wars I will observe this to you that the Rascal hath more Preferment than Learning or Honesty but what can we expect of an Apostate 4. We are Freemen and therefore we can never be supposed ever to admit you who have always been a Person of Arbitrary Principles to govern this Nation You cannot but remember that the English Nation hath a very great Security for its Liberties and that is the Government it self with a good King at the head thereof and that is our present Happiness for our King Rules not upon the same Terms as your Brother of France doth for he by Force Usurps that share which his People ought to have in the Government and for several Ages past hath been in possession of an Arbitrary Power which yet no prescription can make Legal and he exerciseth it over the Persons and Estates of his People in a most Tyrannical manner And this your loving and kind Brother and you aimed at Witness your Dispensing Power that you took upon you when you ascended the Throne But our King hath so ordered it that his Subjects shall retain their Proportion in the Legislature the very meanest Commoner of England is represented in Parliament and is a Party to those Laws by which our King is Sworn to govern himself and his People 'T is true you Swore but you made no Conscience of your Oath nor did you in the least boggle at the Violation of our Laws you hated that way of Government which you had solemnly promised to maintain and defend Witness the Names you used to give the Parliament of England Now according to the Laws of the Realm no Money is raised but by
Hell shall prevail he hath secured us our Liberties Laws and Religion he hath brought himself and Government to that Perfection notwithstanding the vexatious War which lies hard upon us that he is capable of doing good to all Mankind and he hath totally disabled himself from doing hurt to any he wants not the French King's Purse nor his Friendship he wants not his Interest for his Interest is his Peoples and his Peoples his by which they are so united that the attempts of your Scoundrel Crew for your Restoration will be in vain the Hearts of the Nation are set against you and for your perfidious dealing both in Church and State the People of England will trust you no more Sir We have Sworn Allegiance to this King we chose in your stead and we are bound to stand by him our choise of him was from a Principle of Love to God and the Protestant Religion which he hath asserted You kept not your Faith with us and therefore our Allegiance ceased to you your Actions have been very plain and open and so pernitious that it was a Wonder of Wonders thaâ— we and our Religion have been delivered from Blood and Oppression And Sir I would let you know that we are not afraid of you and your Adherents for I believe the Protestant Religion and Protestant King will stand notwithstanding alâ— your Attempts and if you had brought your French Dragooning Apostles oâ—er to us yet we would and should have maintained our Ground and destroyed â—â—em and you We value not your little Two-penny Stuff that you have left â—â—hind you to plead your Cause your impertinent ignorant Non-juring Clergy-men can never preach us out of love to that Loyalty that we owe to K. William â—e have scarce a Williamite Cobler but can baffle them all These things consiâ—ered How can you ever expect any thing less than that Judgment the Psalmist â—rays for to be inflicted upon his Enemies Hath not God already set a wicked Tyrant over you Have you not been Judged by the Lords and Commons of England and Condemned Was not your Reign short And hath not another taken your Office In time Sir the Judgment may be compleated upon you There is of your Issue that have had no Hand in our Miseries and for this Cause our Eyes are set upon them for good and we shall pray for their long Life But as for you that God would cloth you with Shame and Confusion of Face and that he would upon the Head of our Protestant King let the Crown long florish And I do not question but God will hear the Prayers of his Faithful Subjects and will by his means bring the Nation to such a Settlement that our Allegiance will be firm to him and his Successors notwithstanding all those villainous Attempts that you and that Monster of Mankind your Brother of France by his and your Traiterous Accomplices have made to deprive us of so great a Blessing Which brings me to a Sixth Consideration 6. The last Reason I shall give you why it will be impossible for you to return to the Administration of the English Government and that all Attempts of that nature will be in vain because of your late barbarous and villainous Attempt you by your Conspirators have made upon the Person of our King and your purpose of backing that intended Murder by an unnatural Invasion you had some that pittied you but now our Hearts are shut up against you and are hardned against all your Cursed Adherents For now your Plot is discovered and it is a Plot and a Villainous One nothing can be plainer no Man of Common Understanding but must see your Conspiracy to bring in Popery and Slavery and to destroy the Protestant Religion and the Liberties of England We know Sir the Doctrine of your Popish and Non-juring Priests too well and your wicked Practices and we are now assured that you will not stick at any thing that may bring your wicked Designs about You must excuse me if I am plain with you I would not asperse you with hard Words if they were not very true I should not have been so Hot if you had not been concerned in the late wicked Design of murthering our King but if you had succeeded it would have been no more than you did to your Loving and Kind Brother but all this as well as the other is owing to you and your Popish Traiterous Crew who have debauched Mens Understandings overturned all Morals and destroyed all Divinity What shall I say of you and your villainour Party What is your Charity such as to destroy Kings And where was the Humility of insulting over the Nation The Mystery of Iniquity is revealed and you are disappointed The Nation sees that you are no Changeling as to yâ—â—r Vices and you will find that English-men are no Changelings Therefore it wâ—ll be in vain to make any more attempts to be Restored again for the future To conclude this Memorial Sir give me leave to tell you that I have thus fâ—â— laid open the Conspiracy against our Religion and Government and indeed it waâ— more than time it should be discovered for I think here hath been nothing asserteâ— but what hath been and can be made out we see how the French have been courted by you and your Party with what Ease have they been assisted and witâ— what Difficulty the Dutch both in your Brothers and your Reign We see your Brother and you abandon the Prince of Orange now our King in compliance with his and the Nations Enemies How can any Man think upon the French Depredations and Cruelties exercised at Sea upon the Subjects of England without Regret Call to mind your notorious Treacheries in that Affair Remember the constant Irregularities and Injustice from term to term of those who should have administred Justice between King and People Remember the search you made throughout the whole Kingdom to find Men of Arbitrary Principles that would bow the Knee to Baal in order to their being promoted to all publick Commissions and Employments and disgracing and displacing all those that durst in so universal a Depravation be honest and faithful in their Trust and Offices We saw to our great Grief the Defection of considerable Persons both Male and Female to the Popish Religion as if they enter'd by Couples Clean and Unclean into the Ark of that Cursed Synagogue not more in order to their Salvation than for their Temporal Advantage and Safety Sir the State of Ireland managed by your Brother and you would require a Volume to represent it and in your Time we could not but observe that all your Affairs and Councils in the Nation tended to a Popish Revolution And by the Foresight and Civility of the Man of Sin there was an English Cardinal prepared like Cardinal Pool to give us Absolution Benediction and to receive us to the Obedience of the See of Rome It is true your Conspiracy had taken effect had you not met with many Disappointments but the last Disappointment was the overturn of all your Designs at once which was occasioned by the Arrival of the Prince of Orange Guilt made you to flee The Sense the Nation had of your wicked Intentions against our Laws and Liberties caused the People of England to make choice of our Deliverer to reign over us He is anointed our King and as God hath set a Crown of pure Gold upon his Head so we question not but the same God will satisfy him with long Life and Happiness and that he will give him the Spirit of Wisdom Knowledge Zeal and Faithfulness to do what in him lies to the bringing on the New Heavens and the New Earth wherein Righteousness and Peace shall dwell by repairing the Breaches and decayed Places that you have made and caused amongst us And from hence Sir remember that though Hand join in Hand yet the Wicked shall not go unpunished they are Gods own Words who hath also declared with the greatest Solemnity that there shall be no Peace to the Wicked Isa 57.21 You have leisure to consider of these things and so Farewell FINIS
Liberties of your Subjects since they profess an Allegiance out of Conscience to a contrary Sovereign who destroy'd our Laws and Liberties and made them sharers in his many Designs and Conspiracies against us Or how can your Majesty expect Truth and Sincerity from these Conspirators where Treason and Lies are Virtues and Merits You have in this Tract many Tragical Instances within fresh Memory of their Wicked Purposes and Designs look back but to the beginning of your Majesties Reign since which time your Majesty cannot but remember how many Proofs they have given out of their own Mouths of their more than Villainous Disaffection to your Majesty and Government and Trayterous Intentions against your Royal Person both at Home and Abroad nay before your happy Accession to the Throne I may without offence to your Majesty take notice to you of your being abandoned by King Charles in Compliance with the French King at the Instigation of the then Duke of York and his Popish Adherents and not only so but your Ruin and Destruction when you only had the Title of Prince of Orange was designed by the Popish Party my Affection and Respects to you then though wholly a Stranger to your Person made me then discover the Conspiracy against you but none of the Council took any notice of what related to your Self but Prince Rupert and the Earl of Arlington and another considerable Peer who I suppose did transmit the same to you when in Holland But blessed be God your Majesty as a Monument of the Mercies of the most High is once more delivered out of their Hands and in your Deliverance we that have Espoused you are delivered and we question not but you will remember to distinguish between those that have testified their Sincere Loyalty to your Majesty and those that have openly appeared Traytors to your Royal Person and Government and question not Great Sir but that God who hath now so Miraculously delivered you and in whose hand are the Hearts of all Kings and Princes will fully Convince your Majesty of all the unworthy Principles of your secret Enemies and of my Integrity too how strange soever they have endeavour'd to represent me to your Majesty till then with all Patience and Humility I shall commend my Cause to the All-seeing Judge with a Resolution to persevere through his Assistance in my Truth Integrity and Loyalty against all Discouragements or Terrors or Neglects or Blandishments either to my last gasp What Peace can these Brutes have in their Souls and Consciences that do surrender their Liberties and Religion to the Mercy of a Person that would have inslaved them and being through the Mercy of God to us driven out from these Kingdoms for his Tyranny he neither can nor will he own them if he were to return It is strange to any thinking Man that of these Conspirators who profess the Protestant Religion that they should not consider the whole Series or Course of Life of that pretended King for whom they venture Body and Soul hath been a continued Conspiracy against them and their Religion Why should they not sit down and consider his Contriving the Burning of London his instigating a Confederacy with France and two ungodly Wars with Holland his fomenting the Popish Plot and contriving the Murther of Justice Godfrey to stifle it his forging of Treason against Protestants and suborning Witnesses to swear the Patriots of our Religion and Liberties out of their Lives his hiring execrable Villains to Assassinate and Murther the Great Earl of Essex and causing several others to be clandestinely Murthered in hopes to conceal it his advising and procuring the Prorogation and Dissolution of Parliaments in order to prevent inquiry into his Crimes so that he might escape the Justice of the Nation Why should not these Protestant Professors remember his Poysoning the King his Brother in order to his Invading the Throne his Murdering Algernoon Sydney Esq upon the Deposition of one scandalous Witness and the cutting off the late Loyal and Brave Lord Russel and Murdering him for Crimes alledged against him in reference to which if all had been Truth which was sworn against him yet there was nothing that according to Law could have reached his Life Give me leave Great Sir to acquaint your Majesty that none murmured more against the Proceedings of the late King than the Protestant Jacobites did I can remember how confounded they were when he began his Reign with a bare-fac'd avowing himself of the Romish Religion and calling into the Nation a multitude of Priests and Jesuits and empowered them to Exercise their Idolatries Nay who were so much concern'd as some of these Men and in my own hearing have owned that he was ill advised to trample upon those Laws which concern our Property seeing that by two Proclamations whereof the one required the Collecting of the Customs and the other the continuing the Excise which was to expire at King Charles's Death he violently and against all the Laws of the Land broke in upon the Estates of many of the People of England and they did own that the seven or eight suborn'd and forsworn Judges that countenanc'd him in doing so vile a Thing ought to have been hanged and they have often said that if he proceeded thus he would soon bring the Kingdom about his Ears and he must take it for his pains How can these Men look Mankind in the Face who have been in a barbarous Conspiracy for the restoring of a King that had thus acted in oppressing his People and for the Murdering of your Majesties Person that had delivered the Nation from these Oppressions When I reflect upon the Reign of that late King I cannot but be filled with the greatest Horror to think that there should be a number of Men left in England that should so much as attempt his Restoration when they well knew that he had precluded his Subjects of all hopes of Redress in Westminster-Hall and deprived us of all Succour where our Ancestors found it I thought that all Men would have joined with your Majesty to have declared the late King James a Tyrant Traytor and Murderer and all that did adhere to him should have been treated as Banditti and Freebooters and not as Gentlemen and English Men but instead of this that in the compass of seven Years behold two or three Conspiracies against your Majesties Person and Government detected and proved and yet these People will scarce so much as blush at the self-contradicting Carriage of themselves and Party Some of these Protestant Jacobites have been at St. Germains and then they must Experience the late King's usage of his Protestant Friends there and if a certain Writer may be depended upon their usage is hard and severe first he denied them a Protestant Chappel and Chaplain nay if a Protestant be any thing zealous for his Religion they want not Irish Papists to swear a Plot upon them and so they are confined
notwithstanding their Quality and the signal Services performed for their pretended King Many Instances might be given of this nature and a reasonable Man might have judged that the many Instances of those Slights and Contempts that have been put upon them should have convinced them of the Folly and Madness of any of those that pretend to the Protestant Religion and Church of England who should Espouse the Cause of a Man that hates their Religion and Liberties Can they think that the present Misfortunes that the late King James lies under would if he should be re-invested with Power frighten him to alter his Measures and Resolutions of invading our Laws and Liberties for time to come seeing that neither the abandoning of Wives Children and Estates nor the hazarding nay loss of Life in his Service can render him just and favourable to those Protestants who have made a Sacrifice of all these things to follow him and yet that these Men should be found in so Villanous a Conspiracy to Murder him that delivered the Nation What Tongue can speak for such brutish and sensless Wretches I must leave to the Judgments of wiser Men than my self And what can they expect from a Man whose Father's Misfortunes his Brothers Exile wherein he himself was a sharer have not wrought a Reformation in him Can we expect that ever he will be more cautious of violating our Laws intrenching upon our Liberties or subverting our Religion or that ever he will be made more pliable For if he denies Men that have followed him into France the Exercise of their Religion what hopes have they of obtaining and enjoying it whenever he shall return Nay what then must your Majesties Protestant Subjects expect who have renounced him and associated to defend your Majesty as our Lawful and Rightful King against this pretended King and all his Wicked and Trayterous Adherents But Sir give me leave a little further to plead with your Majesty concerning these People that certainly never give themselves leisure to think I am sure no Man in his right Wits but must judge it the highest degree of Stupidity and Folly that these very Men should expect good Terms from a Person who doth not only treat his Protestant Adherents very ill who have followed him in his Misfortunes but also whose Religion lays him under the necessity of using them thus What Obligations did our Church lay upon him when he was a Subject Did she not like a Prostitute save him from being Prosecuted for the Popish Plot and from being Excluded from the Succession to the Crown Who were so Hot in that point on his behalf as the then Prelates in the House of Peers and afterwards from being driven out of the Kingdom by the late Duke of Monmouth yet all those Obligations were of no more value with him than his Coronation-Oath which he violated without the least regret and spared not to invade the Protestant Religion in general but the Liberties of the Church of England in particular What wicked Traytors are these wretched Men that shall assist the Popish Party in their attempts to pervert the Church and to bring that about in effect which even to mention makes every Loyal Subject of your Majesties to tremble For certainly had these Conspirators been all of them avowed Papists your Majesties Person and Government had not been in that danger but some of them that have undertaken this Horrid Design are such as lye under no Temptations of Religion Men thought to be secure that these now the Mystery of Iniquity is revealed are found Men obliged by all the Sacred Ties of Malice and Ambition to assist in the advancing your Majesties Ruin and the Ruin of the three Kingdoms and much better qualified than others under the Name of Good Church of England Men nay Preachers of Passive Obedience and Non-Resistance will not be shut out of this Hellish Conspiracy for Wranglers but will have a hand against your Majesty's Person rather than so Eminent a piece of Service shall go unperfected Give me leave therefore Sir with the greatest Duty and Submission to observe to your most Excellent Majesty the Excellency of that Religion they would subvert by shewing the Vileness of that they would introduce and the happy Government they would destroy in the attempt they have made upon your Majesty's Person These Conspirators that say they are Protestants cannot but own that we are exceeding happy in relation to our Religion since by your Majesty's happy Accession to the Throne that we are once more freed from the Romish Yoke which so great a part of Europe do yet draw and labour under that Popery is such a thing as cannot but for want of a Word to express it be called Religion nor is it to be mentioned with that Civility which is otherwise decent to be used in speaking of Differences of Humane Opinion about Divine Matters were it open Judaism or plain Turcism or honest Paganism there is yet a certain Bonafides in the most extravagant Belief and the Sincerity of an Erroneous Profession may render it more pardonable But this Popery is a Compound of all the three an Extract of whatsoever is most Ridiculous and Impious in them incorporated with more peculiar Absurdities of its own in which those were deficient and all this deliberately contrived and knowingly carried on by the Rascally and Villainous Clergy under the Name of Christianity The Wisdom of this fifth Religion in this last and most Insolent Attempt upon the Credulity and Conspiracy against the Liberty of Mankind seems to all Understanding Men principally to have consisted in their owning the Scriptures to be the Word of God and the Rule of Faith and Manners but wickedly prohibiting at the same time their common Use or the Reading of them by those of their Communion there being no better or more rational way to frustrate the very design of our Lord Jesus Christ who first planted by the miraculous Power and extraordinary Gifts of the Holy-Ghost than to forbid the use of them in such a Language as the People could understand for having the Scripture which by all Christians are avowed to be of Divine Authority but appointing it to remain in such hands as were intrusted to undertake and carry on their holy Cheat they had the Opportunity to vitiate suppress or interpret to their own advantage for the support of their Villainous Priestcraft those admirable Evidences by which the common People hold their Salvation and they having by this Fraud gained their Point there was from that time nothing so monstrous to Reason and so abhorring from Morality or so contrary to Scripture which they might not in prudence venture on The Idolatry of Adoring and praying to Saints and Angels and worshipping Pictures Images and incredible Miracles and palpable Fables to promote that Veneration The whole Liturgy and Worship of the blessed Virgin the saying of Pater Nosters and Creeds the Honour of Saints and Ave-Maries too not to her
a Field as any of external Felicity wherein to exercise their own Virtue and to reward and encourage it in others In a word your Majesty hath enlarged our Liberties in consenting to the Bill to Regulate Tryals in Cases of High-Treason in which there are large Immunities granted to any that fall under that black Circumstance that their Lives may not be at the mercy of a Mercenary Judge or Judges if God should in his Judgment leave poor England to such Men But your Majesty hath begun and I question not but your Royal inclination will carry you on to compleat our security from such Vermin Therefore to conclude what a Government is this we enjoy than which nothing can come nearer the Divine Perfection The Monarch enjoys a capacity of doing all the good imaginable to Mankind but under a disability of doing any thing that is Evil. This Scheme of the Civil Government the Late King did well know and therefore in Council on the day of his Accession to the Crown he was pleased to say That the Laws of England were sufficient to make the King of England as great a Monarch as he could wish or desire so that your Majesty may see that he could own that the Greatness of the English Monarchy had its Birth and rise from the Laws Who then would have lessened himself as he did by breaking in upon those very Laws that had made him Great And who would have broken so excellent a Government as made him Secure and Happy And what Subject of England Papist or Protestant that would lose such Immunities and Privileges by joyning in with that unhappy Man to destroy themselves Were they so in love with King James that they were not satisfied till they had him Nay he and they waded through King Charles's Blood that he might Reign Why then did they not keep the terms of the Government which would have been the most effectual way of continuing him on the Throne Besides all this we cannot forget that the Parliaments under Queen Elizabeth King James King Charles the First and King Charles the Second made it Treason in whosoever that should attempt to Seduce any one of the meanest of your Majesty's Subjects to the Church of Rome And the Long Parliament held in the time of Charles the Second to all Penalties of the Statute Law added an incapacity for any Man to say that that King was a Papist or an introducer of Popery What Lawless and incapable Miscreants were these What wicked Traytors were those Men who did indeavour to pervert the whole Body of Protestants and to bring that about in effect which even to mention was penal at one Italian stroke attempting to subvert the Government and Religion to kill the Body and damn the Soul of the Nation Your Majesty finds to this day there are such a Set of Men in this Nation who have undertaken and have made it their business under your Majesties happy legal and perfect Government by the intended destruction of your Royal Person to introduce a French Slavery and instead of so pure a Religion that your Majesty ventured hard to preserve to establish the Roman Idolatry either of which Crimes are of the highest nature for if we look upon the Government if the Murther of your Royal Person be a fact so horrid as no Man can find words enough to declare his detestation and abhorrence of it how much more then is the Murther of your Royal Person with an intent to Assassinate the Kingdom And Sir none will deny but that to alter the Monarchy of these Kingdoms into a Republick is High Treason So by the same fundamental Rule the Crime is no less to Murther your Royal Person in order to make the Monarchy Absolute Sir I beg your Majesty's leave to tell you that my Heart is much enlarged to your Majesty I beseech your Majesty that your Royal Heart may be for this one time enlarged to me in your Grace and Pardon for this trouble I now give your most excellent Majesty Let me undertake upon serious inquiry to give your Majesty some satisfaction who these Men are that have from the Year 1660 to this day attempted to Subvert our Government and our Religion Had these Men been the old honest Cavaleers that fought for Charles the I. or suffered much in the time of Charles II. it would have been allowable in them as oft as their Wound did break out at Spring or Fall to think of a more Arbitrary Government as a sovereign Balsom for their Aches or to imagin that no Weapon-Salve but that of the Moss that Grows on an Enemies Skull could cure them or could they to have kept their Hands in ure have fought their Cause over again since they saw they were neglected and left to Starve yet their Age and times they lived in and their unjust usage they met with from two Kings might have pleaded something on their behalf in mitigation of Damages But Sir give me leave to make this Remark to your Majesty concerning those Gentlemen that they were and are still if any of them remain too Generous too good Christians and Subjects too affectionate to the English legal Government to be capable of such an Impression whereas these Conspirators that carried on the design of subverting our Religion into Popery and changing the Government into downright Slavery are such as have not one drop of Cavaleer Blood or no Bowels at least of a Cavaleer in them but such as starved the Cavaleers to revel and surfeit upon their Calamities making their Persons and the very Cause by pretending to it themselves almost Ridiculous Or had these Villains been all of the Popish communion and avowed so to be give me leave to say it over again to your Majesty your danger would have been the less their Religion would in some measure have been answerable for the Errors and Extravgancies they might have been guilty of to promote it but these render their intended Villany more black they were Protestants and of the Church of England too that joyned with Papists to Assassinate your Royal Person What can any Man say for them Your Majesty knows what to do with them These Villains because I perceive they lye under a great difficulty to find Accomplices enough at home to Mutiny and Rebel and Murther your Majesties true and loyal Subjects therefore they put themselves under the Banner and Pay of the French King to compleat their wicked designs and purposes to bring a foreign Enemy to Invade us that King being endowed with all those which in a French Prince or in an Abdicated King may pass for Vertues but in any private Man they would be Capital and moreover so abounding in Zeal for Popery and Slavery above all other Princes that none else could engage both Body and Soul in such a Villanous Undertaking to which Consideration adding that their Interests are both one and the one is and the other would be the Master of
witness his being reconciled to that Church by Father Richard Huddleston who was related to John Huddleston of whom the said King Charles had such a tender care and not only so but Receiv'd the Sacrament from Father Ireland the Jesuit in the Duchess of Portsmouth's Lodgings and the same day afterwards he receiv'd it according to the Usage of the Church of England it being the Sunday called Easter-day In the last place witness those Papers that were found under his own hand in his Strong Box all which testify his inclinations were bent that way and therefore how can any man wonder at his being careless of supporting the Protestant Religion Nay Sir I must not forget one Instance more of his being of the Romish Persuasion that is that most Excellent Memorial that he put in by his Protestant Envoy to the Court at Poland wherein there was a passage to this effect That he had a great Esteem of the Roman-Catholick and Apostolick Religion as being most consistent with Monarchy give me leave to Cite a passage of a Letter of his to the Governor of St. Omers when it was by Conquest reduced to the Obedience of the French King which was That he should take care of the Jesuits according to the Contract he had made with his Master they being men upon whom the hopes of England did depend Give me leave Sir to put you in mind of his promises he made to the Jesuits in Spain after he was reconciled to the Church of Rome upon their Contributing Three thousand Pistols for his support of restoring the Catholick Religion when ever he should come to the Enjoyment of his Right in England and not only to them but to the Nuns in Ghent when he borrowed Money of them for which they waited several Years Then I say he declared he would restore their Religion when ever he should come to his Right When the Princess Henrietta came to Dover you know what her Errand was to press the King to restore the Romish Religion here in England and that the breach of the Peace with the Dutch was then and there contrived by you and your Conspirators and consented to by the King and all in order to the reducing those State to the Catholick Faith And it was determined to begin the Publick Exercise of the Romish Religion in Ireland and to facilitate that work you may well remember who was sent over Lord Lieutenant Upon all these Considerations a Man may not now wonder at King Charles's carelesness in the Support and Maintenance of the Protestant Religion You well remember that you your self and your other Conspirators had begot in the King your Brother a full persuasion of the Truth of this Proposition That the Roman-Catholicks were the greatest favourers of Monarchy therefore in his Letter to the French King bearing Date June 1676. that he resolved to be like his Neighbours in Religion but you know that he was prevented by the Lord Arlington and the Parliament for which you were pleased to tell Father Lacheise in your Letter of July 1676. that the Lord Arlington and others by a Thousand deceits endeavoured to break the good Intelligence that was betwixt the King your Brother and his most Christian Majesty and your self to the end they might deceive you all Three and therefore the Parliament and the said Lord Arlington and his party were by you declared in that Letter as useless and dangerous for that the said Arlington and his Friends did work incessantly to advance the Interest of the Prince of Orange and the Dutch and to lessen the Interest of the French King Now the King your Brother being a man unsteady in his resolutions he sometimes failed your Brother of France as well as your self and other Conspirators 9. We in his Life-time saw there was no likelihood of his having any legitimate Issue to Succeed him in the Government Truly Sir I think I may say that was contrived by your Father Clarendon and your self and in it you intended the hurt of the People of England but God who governs the World hath made his want of legitimate Issue to be the greatest Blessing that ever England saw for by that means we have a King that well knows that it is most certain and evident to all men that the publick Peace and Happiness of any State or Kingdom cannot be preserved where the Laws Liberties and Customs Established by the Lawful Authority in it are openly Transgressed and Annulled more especially when the alteration of Religion is endeavoured and that a Religion which is contrary to Law is endeavoured to be introduced Upon which those who are immediately concerned in it are indispensably bound to endeavour to Preserve and Maintain the Established Laws Liberties and Customs and above all the Religion and Worship of God that is Established among them and to take such an effectual care that the Inhabitants in that State or Kingdom may not be deprived of their Religion nor of their Civil Rights which is so much the more necessary because the Greatness and Security both of Kings and Royal Families and of all such as are in Authority as well as the Happiness of their Subjects and People depend in a most especial manner upon the exact Observation and Maintenance of these their Laws Liberties and Customs This Sir is the Sentiment and Blessed Resolution of King William and this he and his Ministers put in Execution which is a blessed Change which we could not have lived to enjoy had Charles your Brother left any Issue behind him that had been capable of the Crown but that which you contrived for our Mischief is turned to our greatest Good for we have the best of Kings upon the Throne and the worst of Men taking of the Air at St. Germains 10. The late King Charles your Brother did obstinately refuse to enter into a League with those who intended to uphold and maintain the Protestant Religion This I must say of the Dutch that ever since they delivered themselves from the intollerable Yoke of the Crown of Spain their great aim and design hath been to promote the Interest of the Reformed Religion and have endeavoured to make Alliances with those Princes that were and are of the Reformed Religion and have endeavoured to make good these Alliances but how King Charles your Brother your self and the rest of your Partisans treated the Dutch ever since his Restoration to the Crown it is well known and how he in the compass of Ten years made Two ungodly Wars but as I said before I must say again The Dutch did most commonly send us home with broken bones Our Cause was Wicked and God gave us Success suitable thereunto and for what ends and purposes these Wars were made you and your most Christian Brother can very well tell but least Sir you should have forgotten those Wars give me leave to give you a brief note of them In the year 1665. it is well known that
to that of England Holland and the Reformed Churches of Europe to the Support of the Protestant Religion which You and the French King were to destroy by the Name and Title of the Northern Heresie I pray then what signifies a Nephew and a son-in-Son-in-law in such a Case as this Can any Man that ever knew you believe that natural Affection should interpose and prevent your destroying him since your natural Affection and Bigotry were and are still no Strangers in England or Holland Consider once more and then I have done with this Point You may remember that the French King did most generously offer you the use of his Purse to assist against the Designs of those that were Enemies to you and that Monarch Nay you know he protested That those that opposed you he should look on them his Enemies and you did as well protest That those who opposed him you would look upon them as your Enemies and it was the Opinion of the French King that the Parliament of England was neither in his Interest nor yours and you entirely agreed with him in that Thought of his so that it was your Opinion that it was necessary for you both to make use of your joint and utmost Credits to prevent the Success of the Parliaments Evil Designs against you both What Designs against you and the French King Yes Designs against you and the French King nay that which is more a dangerous Plot. Who are the Plotters And what was the Plot my Lord Arlington was at work without ceasing to advance the Interest of the Prince of Orange and the Hollanders and to lessen that of the French King And that he and several others were endeavouring to break the good Intelligence between Charles the Second the French King and your self wherefore you earnestly solicited the French King to assist with the Help of his Purse to prevent such Rogueries Thus Sir you make a Tripple League and set it up in Opposition to another In the one King Charles the French King and your sweet Self are engaged in the other the Parliament of England the States of Holland and the Prince of Orange are engaged The French is to furnish you with Money which is the Sinews of War the Parliament are declared Enemies King Charles stands as a Cypher only and therefore the French King and your self put your selves under the solemn Engagements to perform what was stipulated and strenuously to assist each other against the Designs of your and the French King's Enemies for that there was a dangerous and desperate Design on foot to advance the Prince of Orange and to lessen the French King And therefore can any think that it was unreasonable in you to endeavour to destroy him since his Advancement was of such a desperate and dangerous Consequence to the French King your Self and Romish Religion These things duly considered no Man that hath his Thoughts and Judgment keeping pace with each other but must from the Premisses rationally conclude That you and your Incendiaries must have a design of destroying the Prince and his Party and Protestant Interest in Holland notwithstanding any Excuses you may make to the contrary or your Party for you II. IRELAND Since Sir you have not left so good a Name in Holland as you might have pretended to it is much to be feared that upon enquiry your Name and Memory will not be very precious here in Ireland If you please to give me your Company thither I 'll assure you if you deserve it you shall have my good Word from thence for all the old Favours I receiv'd from you in the Day of your Power here amongst us but I suppose I shall find sad havock there made by you and your Plotters of the Protestant Religion and of the Civil Rights Liberties and Customs of the English and Protestant Interest Sir it pleased King Charles the Second to send the Lord Roberts as his Vicegerent into Ireland who was a warm Man and not at all Popishly affected and therefore not for your Turn or one that would gratifie the Conspirators in any one Point of countenancing Popery and therefore you procured him to be removed so that Ireland was put into such Hands as your Heart and Soul could wish for For whoever was Deputy or Lieutenant your Conspirator Boyle an Archbishop was the Governor a Fellow ' tho' of the Communion of the Church of England yet was a well-wisher to the Romish Mathematicks So Ireland was in a fair way to be Over-run and Ruined to all Intents and Purposes by yours and the Procurement of the Jesuites Upon the Removal of the Lord Robarts afterwards Earl of Radnor you remember who succeeded him and what Promises was made by this Successor and what Terms you required from him and how he complied and who it was that recommended this new Lieutenant as a Person fit to all Intents and Purposes to execute your Designs These things are worthy of consideration I assure you for we have considered them and what could be done in so little time as our King hath had many of those Abuses have been corrected and amended This Tool brought the Kingdom of Ireland into a sad condition by encouraging the Popish Recusants who are the profess'd Enemies to the Protestant Religion and English Interest by his or rather your Encouragement they grew more Insolent and Presumptuous than before that Tool of a Lieutenant came there which was of a dangerous Consequence to that Kingdom and the Protestant Religion and English Interest And it was like to have proved Fatal to that Kingdom had it not been in some measure prevented by the sending in his room that Great and never-to-be-forgotten Earl of Essex whom you and your Party procured to be Murthered in the Tower to make the Murther of the Good Lord Russel less difficult 1. For in the First Place in the Month of January 1672 3. you procured a Commission of Enquiry into Irish Affairs containing many Powers that were new and extraordinary not only Prejudicial to the English whose Estates and Titles were liable to be questioned but in a manner to Overthrow the King's Acts of Settlement which Commission you caused to be pursued to the great Charge and Attendance of many of the Protestants there And by this means you shook the Peace and Security of the whole Kingdom of Ireland It is well known Sir that you gave the Jesuites great Hopes of making a fair Step to establish the Romish Religion and old Gray the Jesuite in a Letter of February 1672. exhorts the Fathers at St. Omers to be very thankful to God that he had put it into the Hearts of the King and Duke to remember the sad Estate of the Catholick Religion in Ireland and that now there was some Hopes of Establishing it there since the Lord-Lieutenant was so well disposed towards it by the especial Care of His Royal Highness II. You were pleased to cause the Popish Party to be armed
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
you to be a man for Arbitrary Power to invade the Properties of a great part of the Subjects of England by your Proclamation what Value you had for the Rights of the Nation for whom you had ventur'd your Life in a Coiled Cable and what Regard you had to its Laws that at your first step in your pretended Government you bring in a Proclamation equivalent to those Laws that expir'd as aforesaid by which the Excise and Customs in the time of the Reign of your kind and loving Brother had been setled and paid 2. You said That you would follow the Example of your Brother in his Clemency and Tenderness to the People of England What your Brother's Clemency and Tenderness to the people of England was I am yet to learn What was his Clemency to his old Cavaliers that had serv'd both his Father and him in the Wars to the ruine of themselves and Families spending their Substance in both their Services and not so much as looked upon when you were restor'd After that Sir John Webster a Merchant had lent him 150000 l. Sterling did not he after much Importunity reward the said Sir John with the refusal of a Land-waiter's Place and graciously suffer'd the poor man to starve as a Reward of his Loyalty Was not his Clemency such that within the compass of a very few years all his whole Interest was melted down into a small Regiment of Pimps Whores and Bawds on whom he lavishly confer'd great Honours and on them he profusely spent the Treasure of the Nation Remember Sir how his Clemency was extended to those Ministers that brought him home and to that Party of Men that restor'd him to his Crown and Dignity Mr. Jenkins is a notable Instance of his Clemency who ventur'd his Life for his Restoration in that Cause that Mr. Love lost his What a Tenderness he had for Mr. Jenkins was seen in his murdering him in Prison notwithstanding all the humble application made to your tender Brother for his release in order to preserve his Life His Clemency to Sir Henry Vane was admirable for rather than Vane should not be sent to Heaven he broke through an Act of Parliament lest the Martyr should find delay in his passage thither What can you say of his Clemency to Great Essex and Noble Russel whom he basely and barbarously murder'd I think that Sir Thomas Armstrong is another Instance of his Clemency And so you were as good as your word in following the Example of his Clemency and Tenderness to the People of England For upon your entering into the Regal State you let England have a taste of your Clemency I must begin with my own Case I sufficiently tasted of your Grace and Favour after that with the hazard of my Life I had discover'd a Damnable Conspiracy carried on by the Popish Party for the destruction of the King your Brother and the Protestant Religion and the Government of the Nation how you used me let all the World judge notwithstanding the Credit the Parliament had given me as you may rememember in the Vote of March 15. 1679. Resolved Nemine Contradicente by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in Parliament assembled That they do declare that they are fully satisfied by the Proofs they have heard that there now is and for divers years last past hath been an Horrid and Treasonable Plot and Conspiracy continued and carried on by those of the Popish Religion for the murdering of His Majesty's Sacred Person and for subverting the Protestant Religion and the Ancient Establish'd Government of this Kingdom Notwithstanding all your Clemency and Tenderness to the English Nation produce such a Vote for the Justifying your Reputation in the Nation and for ought I know you may perswade your self that the Nation may be enclin'd to receive you into favour again and admit your tender Government of them once more But to return to the Point Notwithstanding the Power of Truth and the Credit of this Vote with what implacable Malice did you and your Banditti pursue me How often did you attempt to take away my Life by the Testimony of False Witnesses With what Importunity did you prevail upon the King your Brother to withdraw that Protection and Subsistance that the said King allow'd me at the request of several Parliaments so that I might starve for want of Bread Nay to express your Clemency and Tenderness how warmly did you prosecute me in an Action of Scandalum Magnatum for speaking this Notorious Truth of you That you were reconciled to the Church of Rome and that it was High Treason to be so reconcil'd And what a noble Verdict a pack'd Jury of your Conspirators upon the prosecution brought in against me of One hundred thousand Pound Damages And thereupon you generously Charged me in Execution in the Kings-Bench Prison And was you afraid that I was Able to have paid the Debt and Charges and as Willing as Able Well to prevent it you resolv'd that I should not want your Clemency and Tenderness you therefore to justifie those Vertues to be inherent in you you prevail'd with King Charles the Second to give you and your Conspirators Leave to prefer two several Indictments of two pretended Perjuries in my Evidence concerning the Popish Plot but your Villains would not let the King your Brother live to see those Indictments try'd therefore they were brought to tryal in your tender Reign What sort of Witnesses did you produce against me but those very men that had been in no less than three Tryals prov'd and judg'd to be False Witnesses the Religion they professed no ways admitting them to be Credible and therefore as they were not believ'd when they gave their Testimony without an Oath so they were not to be believ'd when they were upon their Oaths for you know tender Sir they were of a Religion that could dispense with Oaths tho' false for the sake of your Catholick Cause These Sir were your Witnesses and you had two Juries of Men that had as large a Faith to believe as the Rogues had Consciences to swear and so I must averr Juries and Witnesses to be alike for he is as criminal and is as much damn'd that believes a Lye as he is that makes one and swears it too for the Rogues your mercenary wicked Judges and the Villains that were Witnesses and your pack'd Hell-born Jury-men were all in as it were a Confederacy to be reveng'd on me for the discovery of the Popish Plot and to cast a Reproach upon the Wisdom and Honour of four successive Parliaments and upon the publick Justice of the Nation Well Sir I was convicted notwithstanding the Witnesses I brought in who were brow-beaten abused by that Villain Jefferies who had neither Law nor Sence nor Manners but had the Impudence of Ten Carted Whores therefore nothing now remained for me but Judgment which was your own appointing with the Advice of your twelve Villains that were
Set of Men ready to Abhor and Detest such Popular Petitions though it was the Subjects Right to Petition the King for the redress of Grievances under which they groaned in his Reign So you was pleased to shew your aversness to Petitioning witness your proceeding against the Archbishop of Canterbury and the other Bishops who offered a most humble Petition to you in terms full of Respect and exceeded not the number limited by Law in which they set forth their Reasons for which they could not obey a certain Order which you by the Advice of your Popish Villains sent them to appoint their Clergy to Read in their Chruches the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience they were sent to Prison and afterwards brought to a Tryal as if they had been guilty of some enormous Crime they were not only obliged to defend themselves under this Persecution but also to appear before four Villains one Professed Papist and the other three had not taken the Test and by Consequence were Men whose Interest and Inclination too led them to Condemn them And the Judges that gave their Opinion in favour of those Prelates were turned out thus you may see a fourth Instance you have given us of your invading our Civil Rights But Sir while I speak to you of these things give me leave to plead with you What King was there that ever reigned that was too great to be petitioned by the meanest of his Subjects It cannot be pretended that any Kings how great soever their Power hath been and how Arbitrary and Dispotick they have been in the exercise of this Power have ever reckoned it a Crime for their Subjects to come with all submission and respect in a due number not exceeding the limits of the Law to represent Reasons why they could not execute such or such an Order Deal freely with the World send to your Dispensing Rogues and ask them whether it were one of the remains of the Crown that impowered you to wrest out of the Hands of the Subject this undoubted Right of Petitioning the Prince for theredress of Grieveances 5. How did you treat a Peer of this Realm Was he not used by you and your villanious Conspirators as a Criminal only because he said That the Subjects were not bound to obey the Orders of a Popish Justice of the Peace Tho it was evident that such being by Law rendred uncapable of all such Trusts No regard was due to any of their Orders This being the security which the People of England had and still have by the Law for their Lives Liberties Honours and Estates that they are not subjected to the Arbitrary Proceedings of Papists that were contrary to Law put into any Imployment Civil or Military This was another instance of the invasion you made upon us in respect of our Civil Rights and Liberties and manifested your self to be a Man for Arbitrary Government in subjecting our Persons and Estates to the Arbitrary Proceedings of Popish Magistrates and Officers under you 6. You apprehending that the great Remedy of your Grievances and Security of our Religion was a Free Parliament and least you might lie under a necessity of calling one you and your Accomplices did endeavour to make it impossible or at least very difficult to be obtained for you could not but apprehend that a Lawful Parliament being once Assembled would call you and your Villains to an account for all your open Violations of the Law and for your Plots and Conspiracies against the Protestant Religion and the Lives and Liberties of the People of England you endeavoured under the specious pretence of Liberty of Conscience first to sow Divisions between the Protestants of the Church of England and Protestant Dissenters the Design being laid to engage all Protestants that are equally concerned to preserve themselves from Popish Oppression into mutual Quarrellings So that by these some Advantages might be taken by you to bring about your Villainous Designs and Purposes and that both in the Election of Members of Parliament and afterwards in the Parliament it self for you could not but see that if all Protestants did enter into a mutual good understanding one with another and concur together in the preserving our Civil Rights and Liberties that it would have been possible for you and your Banditti to accomplish your wicked Ends. What could we expect from you when you struck at the Foundation of all our Civil Rights and Liberties in the hindring the Nation of the Choice of a Free and Lawful Parliament For did you not require all Persons in the several Counties of England that either were in any Imployment or were in any considerable Esteem to declare before hand that they would concur in the repeal of the Test and the Penal Laws and that they would give their Voices in the Elections to Parliament only for such as would concur in it such as would not thus pre-engage themselves were turned out of all Imployments and others who entred into these Engagements were put into their Places many of which are Papists and contrary to the Charters and Priviledges of those Burroughs that have a right to send Burgesses to Parliament You ordered such Regulations to be made as you thought fit and necessary for the assuring your self and your villainous Conspirators of all the Members that were to be chosen by those Corporations and by this means you gave your self and Tribe hope to avoid the being called to an account for your Villanies though it was then and is still apparent that all Acts made by Popish Magistrates are Null and Void of themselves so that no Parliament could have been lawful for which Elections and Returns had been made by your Popish Sheriffs and Mayors of Towns and therefore as long as the Authority and Magistracy was in such Hands it was impossible for us to have had a Lawful and a Free Parliament You might have known that the Constitution of the English Government and Custom time out of mind All Elections of Parliament Men ought to be made with an intire Liberty without any sort of force or the requiring the Electors to choose such persons as should be named to them and the persons thus freely Elected ought to give their Opinions freely upon all Matters that are brought before them they having the good of the Nation before their Eyes and following in all things the dictates of their Consciences Therefore you having usurped an illegal Authority and resolving upon the utmost Violations of our Laws you would not give us the least hopes of having our Grievances redressed by a Free Parliament legally called and chosen It is true you would have called one in which all Elections should have been carried by Fraud and Force and might have been composed of such persons of whom you and your Trayterous Crew would have been well assured in which all things would have been carried on by their Direction and Interest without any regard to the Good and Welfare of
this Nation which I prove to you and your Villainous Crew both at home and abroad For did you not try the Members of the pack'd Parliament that sat down in the Year 1685 to gain them to consent to the repeal of the Test and Penal Laws And did you not dissolve that Parliament when you found that you could neither by Promises nor by Threatnings prevail with these very Members to comply with your wicked Designs and those who would not comply were branded as if they were Disturbers of the publick Peace For you may remember that though the Prince and Princess of Orange did endeavour to signifie in terms full of Respects and Duty to your self the just and deep regret all your wicked and ungodly Proceedings had given them and in compliance to your desires they had signified their Thoughts concerning your Repealing the Penal Laws and Test which though they did it in such a manner that they had just Ground of hope that they had proposed an Expedient by which the Peace of England Scotland and Ireland and a happy Agreement among the Subjects of all Perswasions might have been certainly settled You and your Hellborn Crew put such Villainous Constructions upon their honest and sincere Intentions as that you were not ashamed to condemn them both as persons that designed to disturb the Quiet and Happiness of the Kingdom But Sir the people of England always Testified a most singular Affection and Esteem for the Prince and Princess of Orange as persons zealously Affected with and concerned for the Advancement of the Protestant Religion and Interest and therefore many of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and many Gentlemen and other persons of Note laid our miserable Case before them and beged their Aid and Assistance The Prince of Orange upon due consideration of our deplorable State to which we were brought by you and your wicked Accomplices found that in point of that Duty he owed to God and in return of the great Value the people of England had for him that he could no way excuse himself from espousing our Cause or Quarrel in a Matter of such high Consequence and from Contributing to the utmost of his Power for the maintaining both of our Religion and our Laws and our Liberties and to secure us in the perpetual Enjoyment of all our Rights Therefore he came over with a Force sufficient which through the Blessing of the Great God was sufficient to suppress you and your villainous Conspirators You know Sir that as you and your Conspirators were not only full of Cruelty and Guilty of the greatest Inhumanities and Barbarities So you and they were full of lies and deceit for upon the coming over of this Great Prince you were sensible of the Greatness of your Guilt and had no great Confidence in your own Forces which induced you to offer to the City of London some seeming Relief from their great Oppression you hoping thereby to beguile us of a firm Establishment and full Security of our Laws Liberties and Religion and finding that the Kingdoms Eyes were fully opened then you and your Hellborn Crew gave out with as much Mallice as Falseness that the Prince of Orange intended to Conquer and Enslave the Nation No Sir the Design of that mighty Deliverer was the security of our enjoying our Religion Laws and Liberties and that there might be no danger of the Kingdoms relapsing into the like Miseries for the time to come Well Sir you remember that the Prince arrives and you fled before him He no sooner comes but he was bid welcome by all True Protestants You run away A Convention was called and he to our great Joy was chosen our King A Parliament sits down and his Majesty joyned with them in making such Laws as have secured us and our All he Fights our Battles he Loves our Nation and we Love our King and we shall not refuse any thing that may be for his Honour Greatness and Content You are deposed as useless in the sight of God and driven from amongst Protestants to graze at St. Germains where you may take your ease till the French King shall be as weary of your Company as we were of your Wicked and Tyrannical Government You have made many attempts to be restored sometimes you Threaten us at other times you would Flatter us to a second Entertainment but that is but a foolish thought of your Counsellers at St. Germains which brings me to the last point of my Memorial which is to shew you 3. The Unreasonableness of your attempting of your Return hither on which particulars I hope you have leisure enough to reflect and to advise about with your worthy Ministry you have attending your Person there but least they should not have Honour and Honesty enough to deal plainly with you I will lay down Six undeniable Arguments why it is morally impossible that you should be ever readmitted to reign over us 1. Because we cannot bind you by the most Solemn Oaths 2. Because we are Protestants 3. Because we are English-men And 4. Because we are Free-men 5. Because we have a King of our own Religion and Judgment to whom we have sworn Allegiance who goeth out and in before us and fights our Battles for us 6. Because of your Attempt upon the Person of our King in employing your Traiterous Assassins to murder him 1. Because we cannot bind you by the most Solemn Oaths we saw our Laws over-turned our Liberties seized our Religion corrupted and subverted and you Forsworn The Laws of Nature taught us to provide for the defence of our All which was at Stake And can any Man think it hard that the Kingdom laid you aside And we laying you aside for the Breach of your Contract and Oath made to the People of England Can you expect that we should in the least be guilty of so base a Compliance as to submit our selves to the Government of a Man that by his Abominable Perjury dissolved his own Government You have time now to consider that Perjury in a King is a most Grievous Offence against God and his Own Crown and Dignity but much more Grievous when it is volantarily committed And when a Prince committeth Perjury willingly when he doth any thing willingly against his Coronation-Oath taken not by Force but by Free-will not unadvisedly but with great Consideration not to his Hurt but to his Advantage not to perform a Thing Dishonest or Impossible but that which is both Possible and Honest For when a Prince not being forced thereunto by just Fear or irrisistible Necessity breaketh such an Oath as there can be no colour to excuse his Perjury it arguing him and convincing him of Fraud and Deceit and gave occasion to all thinking Men that you had no manner of regard to your Coronation-Oath so it puts you under an absolute Incapacity of being Restored since the both Houses of Parliament upon the breach you made of your Contract have thought
common Consent But you were pleased to raise Money upon the People by your Proclamation The very Day after you had promised to invade no Mans Property Now no Man is for Life Limb Goods or Liberty at the Sovereigns Direction but how soon it would have been had not a period been put to your Tyranny For your Sycophant Parasites were very zealous to have delivered up those Priviledges in to your Hands judging it would not be well with England till you were as Absolute as the Monster of France by which we might easily understand your Intentions For Sir who knows not that the inclination of a Prince is best known either by those that are about him and most Favour with him or by the current of his own Actions Those who were nearest to you and most your Favourites were your Irish and French Courtiers and your Popish Priests and Prelates who these Men stood affected to Your Discretionary Dispotick Power can never be forgotten No Man but may remember that in their common Discourse were for advancing your Will and Pleasure over your Subjects to be equal with that of the King of France is over his This was but a Copy which those Villains had industriously taken from your own Words and Actions In Scotland you did publickly set up for that Power and openly declared you would be obeyed without reserve The attempt you and your Conspirators made in the time of the Lord Chancellor Hyde upon our Liberties is never to be forgetten a Bill was prepared to enable the King your Brother in the time of any interval of Parliament to raise what Money he pleased upon an extraordinary occasion as the Dutch War was pretended to be This had taken its much desired effect had not that Lord Chancellor been awakened by an intimate Friend of his who understanding what was doing in the House of Commons came to him and shewed him what the Consequences were which such an unheard thing would produce and he using one Argument above all the rest in telling him he came to his Honour and Greatness by the Gown and not by the Sword and if that Bill passed he advised him to consider what his Gown or all the Lawyers Gowns in England were worth which that Lord Chancellor though one of the Actors with you to enslave the Nation being a Man of Sense had that Honor as to think it no Dishonor to retreat from that Devilish Invention which he to comply with your Ambition and Pride had set on foot to destroy us at once So that Bill though once read in the House for enabling the King your Brother to raise Money at pleasure was by the Providence of God and the Prudence of that Noble Penitent Lord droped so far as that it dwindled into a Bill of 75000 l. not exceeding a Months Tax No doubt but you had procured this Bill to be dressed in the French Mode for emergent Occasions yet had it passed in the same manner as you and your Accomplices designed there would not have wanted emergent Occasions and extraordinary Services to have given Colour for keeping that Power on foot until Dooms Day in the Afternoon The French King whose Example you followed in this particular got his Power by such a villainous Stratagem but he hath not been at leisure yet to call his Parliament to dispute that Point I question not but that your loving Brother and you would have found other Matters of moment to have diverted you from that way of raising Money so England must have taken leave of Parliaments for ever and we must have submitted all we had to your French Discretion But through the Blessing of Heaven and the Care of our Legislators we are delivered not only from your Government and your intended French way of Governing for we continue to have the same Right modestly understood in our Propriety that our Prince hath in his Royalty and in all Cases where the King himself is concerned we have our just Remedy as against any private Person in the Nation in the Courts of Westminster-hall or in the High Court of Parliament for his Prerogative is not like that you would have usurped but what the Law hath only determined His great Seal which is the legitimate Stamp of his Royal Will and Pleasure yet it is no longer currant than upon the Tryal it is found to be according to Law and Justice The King cannot commit any Man by his own particular Warrant he cannot be himself a Witness in any Cause whatever tho your Brother would have been one against me The Ballance of publick Justice being so delicate that not the Head only but even the Breath of the King would turn the Scale nothing is left to the Win of the King but every thing is subject to his legal Authority by which means it follows that as he can do no Wrong nor can he receive Wrong But you by your Dispensing Power put your self in a state of Wronging the Nation and destroying your self and Government but had you kept to the Measures of an English King you might have remained to this Day to have been the only intelligent Ruler over a rational People your Person had been Sacred and Inviolable and whatever Excess had been committed in your Reigh would not have been imputed to you as being free from the Necessity and Temptations Your Ministers would have been only accountable for all and must have Answered it at their Perils You had a vast Revenue and if any emergency of Affair should have appeared you had at your Call a number of Men to have advised with a supply would have been readily granted You were the Fountain of Honour the disposer of many profitable Places both in Church and State but this would not serve your turn for you would not be abridged the Power of injuring the People of England but against all Law invaded our Rights and designed nothing so much as enslaving us and our Posterity for ever And we that have tasted so much of the sweetness of Liberty and on the other hand have smarted under your short but cruel Tyranny will never be intangled again with the French Popish Yoke of Bondage but stand in defence of the King we have chosen and the Liberty we have recovered as long as we have a Being in this World Therefore consider with your self the impossibility of your return to that Government you abused to the Administration of those Laws you violated to a Nation that you made a Field of Blood and if you had remained for ought I know England might have been a Howling Wilderness In fine then I am sure if you should make any attempt to return it will be in vain and appear very rediculous 5. We have Sworn Allegiance to King William who is of the same Religion and Interest with us who delivered us out of your Hands and the Hands of your villainous Conspirators and hath fixed us upon those Foundations against which France Rome nor
of Parliament for your necessary Ease and Help in this day of your Just War with the French Nimrod and Destroyer of Mankind It was a great Blemish in the two last Reigns to those two Kings for that rather than they would trust in a Parliament according to the fundamental Constitution of this Realm they chose rather to follow the Advice of their never to be forgotten corrupt Ministers of State who pretended great Loyalty to those Princes in their several Reigns or rather Compliance with the Humours and Humane Frailties of those two Monarchs but they were neither true to those Kings nor their Country or themselves herein for they erected and preferred an Imperial Paramount Self-end or Lust before all which those two Kings were brought unworthily to serve and promote to the disturbance of the Publick Peace and Welfare of the Nation It was a false Suggestion that those Conspirators did use to those Kings that a King that Rules by his Will is more great glorious or strong than a King that Rules by Law the quality of the Retinue best proves the State of the Lord the one being but a King of Slaves while the other like God is a King of Kings and Hearts notwithstanding that Hellish and Trayterous Doctrin made such an Impression upon the Hearts and Souls of those Princes that nothing prevented them from putting that sort of Doctrin into Practice but the want of a competent Stock with which they would have certainly set up the Trade especially since they saw the Example of such an Allie whose Interest and theirs was all one but God that hath preserved your Majesty in so many Dangers hath also preserved you from such wicked Councils and Councellors too which is a great Specimen of your long and happy Reign over us Sir my Pen hath transgressed the Line and Law of my Intentions these confined me to a much narrower Compass in this my Epistle Dedicatory to your Majesty and prohibited me the troubling your Majesty to such a degree as now I have done the truth is my Zeal Duty Loyalty and hearty Affection to your Majesty hath interposed and occasioned this Transgression Your Majesty knows that Love is bountiful and I trust will produce a Pardon from your Majesty as it hath brought forth this Transgression from me in which I have with all my Heart designed nothing but what may be consistent with your Service and Interest And I must say thus much that your Majesty being thus often marked out for Destruction by these Conspirators shews that your Majesty is neither a Friend to these Men nor their Principles either in Religion or in Politicks and that we ought to make use of it as a proof of your Majesty's Affections to the English Nation and as an acknowledgment thereof by me be pleased to accept of this poor Endeavour of mine and give me leave in all Humility to lay these Papers at your Royal Feet Many of your Loyal Subjects are capable of presenting your Majesty with what is more Suitable to the greatness of your Understanding but nothing can be laid before you that may satisfie your Majesty of the truth of those things which these Conspirators stood guilty of for these twenty Years last past and have now given your Majesty a plain demonstration how Restless they have been and still are notwithstanding all the Arguments of Grace and Mercy that have been used to reduce them to Reason and Obedience There is now no more danger if your Majesty pleases from these Men that have Conspired against your Life for the danger of Conspiracies lyes in being Concealed none ever Perished by a detected Plot but such as have abandoned themselves to be Destroyed and this was the Case of Charles the Second he chose rather to desert himself and Safety rather than the Discoverer should not be exposed to the implacable Malice of those who Conspired against his Person and Government But Sir with your Majesty it is clear another thing you will let the World know that you are not joyned in this Conspiracy by any Personal Accession as that unhappy Prince was in that that was against him Therefore Sir it is past the Malice and Strength of your Adversaries either to destroy your Royal Person or subvert your Government Besides Sir your Majesty using those Endeavours that becomes so great a Prince to have these Conspirators farther detected and brought to Justice puts your Majesty within the promise of the immense Wisdom and Almighty power to interpose to save and preserve you I have great grounds of assurance that your Majesty is fully satisfied of the Duty and Affection of your ever dutiful and Loyal Protestant Dissenting Subjects who have been for many Years Persecuted for the Testimony of a good Conscience in the two last Reigns for no other reason but because they would not part with their Civil Rights as English Men nor their Spiritual Rights as Christians to these Murderers of the Soul and Body of the Nation Nevertheless in the two late Reigns they continued more quiet under their many and great Persecutions and Oppressions than the Conspirators did under their daily Favours and Caresses The Principles of your Dissenting Subjects teach them to obey a Lawful Authority whilst the Principles of these High-Church Non-Juring and Popish Cut-throats carry them on to Murder Kings and Invade their Countries with a Foreign Force and Power They could not find one of these Loyal Men that would so far undervalue themselves as to have the least acquaintance with these Villainous Cut-throats much less to engage with them in such a barbarous Design and no Man questions but that your Majesty will now put a distinction between those Men who would if they might serve your Majesty and those who would have Traiterously destroyed your Person and subverted your Government by introducing Popery and Slavery among us That your Majesty may long Live to assert and preserve Laws the Laws of the most High God in your own Soul to your Eternal and the Laws of the Land to the Temporal high Peace and Felicity of your Majesty and People and abound in all the Blessings of this and the other Life Health Grace Wisdom Wealth Power and Victory over all your Enemies both at home and abroad shall ever be the Prayers of Great SIR Your Majesty's most Humble most Loyal and Dutiful Subject and Servant TITUS OATES 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Or The Picture of the Late King JAMES SIR THE Kingdom in general and my self in particular having received so many indearing Obligations from you and your Partisans that I judge my self concerned to take notice to you and your Friends at St. Germains That since you left us or rather by the Just Judgment of Heaven that the Kingdom was departed from you you were pleased not to forget us but from Year to Year till 1693. you were pleased to bless your old Friends with a Declaration or Letter in which you were pleased to express
your self in a different stile In some of your Papers you write your Heart and Soul in words at length and not in figures then it 's your pleasure that we are to know to what we are to trust when ever you shall return to your Native Countrey and enjoy your pretended Right Sometimes you intimate as if England were to be the Field of Blood and that Man Woman and Child should be a Sacrifice to your Revenge which made your little scoundrel Party here to prick up their Ears and look as if a Leg or an Arm were not sufficient to appease your Wrath or a Carts Arse or a Pillory could not make satisfaction to your self and Party for the wrong you and your Friends have suffered from us nothing less than death and damnation of the Honest Nobility Gentry and Commons of England can attone for the delivering themselves from your Tyranny and the Oppression they suffered from you and you Insolent Party Nay the poor Fishermen men of Feversham must not escape your Fury and Vengeance But in your latter Papers you are pleased to express your self in softer terms and the Vengeance threatned in one Year's Papers is hushed up and fairly laid to sleep and I remember in the last you are pleased to give us a French Grimass and smile upon us as if you were made up of nothing but Grace Mercy and Peace and unparallell'd Humility in order to create in us a good thought of the bitterness of death being past notwithstanding you have in some of your former Papers given us to understand That in regard you have sustained such Affronts from the People of England you might justly have proceeded severely with us yet in your younger Papers you think fit by a more gentle Method to use means to regain us to your self which is the first Born of all the Cunning you and your Friends at St. Germains have been pleased to bless this Nation withal But Sir it hath been your will and pleasure not to give your self the trouble of emitting any more Declarations of your good Intentions towards us for these two or three Years last past therefore I do think fit to acquaint you and your Trusty Friends and Councellors at your Court at St. Germains that are now with you for I understand some of your old Partisans have sometime since left you that you must have but a very mean and low opinion of the English Nation if you think ever to return hither again upon the strength of your last Bantering Paper called A Gracious Declaration to all your loving Subjects For the People of England have not forgot but very well remember That for divers Years in the Reign of King Charles the Second your dear Brother that there was a horrid Design carried on by him your self and your Party to change the Lawful Government of England into an Absolute Tyranny and to convert the Established Protestant Religion into down-right Popery than both which there can be nothing more destructive and contrary to the Law and well-being of this Nation And whilst you your self was pleased to usurp the Throne these Three Kingdoms were highly sensible with what violence you and your wicked Party overthrew our Laws Liberties and Religion and what Ruin and Vengeance attended these poor Nations notwithstanding all your Oaths and Promises made to the contrary in Council and in a Packt Parliament that met in May 1685. which as bad as it was it could not keep pace with you and your Popish Cut-throats in your Intentions of enslaving the People of these Kingdoms and of totally overturning our Laws Liberties and Religion Before I begin my designed Method of laying before you yours and the Practices of your Accomplices to put you in mind of some Passages in your Brother's Reign of which the Parliaments of England had just cause to complain as worthy of your Consideration and when they did address they found it was to very little or no purpose for no redress could be obtained from him And by whose Advice and Counsel such Misdemeanors were committed your self can best tell that it was your self King Charles the Second was no sooner restored but contrary to the Expectation of all those good men that were the Instruments of his Restauration they found to their sorrow 1. That Justice was corruptly administred and Offices appertaining to Justice dearly bought and sold 2. Benefices and Ecclesiastical Dignities unworthily collated upon Men that deserved no other Titles than of common Rogues and Cheats Men that were many of them unskilful in the Word of Righteousness and others that were Persons of unsound Principles and of worse Morals their Doctrines tending highly to enslave the Nation and their Morals to debauch it This was the Advice of an old Friend of yours and a great-Prop of the Church of Rome Cardinal Mazarine whose Counsel and Advice it was To debauch the Kingdom of England and make them Atheists and then they would be soon good Papists This was in the Year 1654. at which time you and your Party were but at a low ebb but how much you pursued the Counsel of the old Cardinal I leave all reasonable and unbyassed Men to judge and how your sneaking Eccleastical Parasites contributed towards it It is plain enough to any man that will look back into those Times There was one Jones your Chaplain who you ruined because he would have contributed to the advancing the Protestant Religion in your Family according to his Office and Calling of a Minister in the Church of God You may remember by whom Bishopricks and other Ecclesiastical Dignities were thus procured truly by your Popish self and Popish Whores Popish Pimps and Popish Bowds and not without Money or some Promise to favour your Catholick Designs and how they suffered your quondam Consort to apostatize to the Church of Rome it is well known But they poor Prelates are gone to their Places and there let them remain till God shall reckon with them and others of that Oorder for betraying of God's Cause which they pretended to espouse tho in truth they were Enemies to him and his Gospel 3. In the third place They saw new Impositions daily invented and levied and the Publick Treasure of the Nation and the Revenues prodigally consum'd Sir you know how 200000 l. was spent and in order to what and the Parties that receiv'd the same were in a Conspiracy against our Laws Liberties and Religion And did not you your self join in the wasting of the King's Treasure and procured great Summs of Money to be issued out of His Majesty's Exchequer to keep your Priests Jesuits Monks and to find your Irish Officers with Subsistence-money till that you should have occasion to make use of them for those Ends and Purposes that might advance your Cause and wicked Purposes against the English Interest and the Protestant Religion Well therefore might you in your Speech to the Council Feb. 6. 1684. call Charles the Second your
kind and loving Brother for he joined with you in those wicked Designs and Purposes which you were carrying on to destroy and enslave us and too often took your Faults upon himself to screen you from the publick Justice of the Nation 4. They saw old Officers unjustly displaced and men of base Quality unworthily advanced by which Contrivance you Sir may very well remember you created a great disaffection in the King 's best Friends both of the old Nobility and Gentry and others that had espoused the King your Brother's Quarrel upon just English Principles and chose rather to advance a parcel of base Irish Papists and vile Frenchmen to the great discouragement of the English and those that heartily would have served the King your Brother upon English Protestant Principles It is well known that some of those you preferred were so insolent that when they came to have and enjoy great Places in the Ministry of King Charles the Second's Government that they assumed to themselves by your direction the Regal Power treating in Matters of War and Peace with Foreign Ministers and Ambassadors giving Instructions to the said King Charles's Ministers abroad without communicating them to those that ought to have been privy to the same contrary to Law and all this I can prove hath been done by your direction How many honest Old Servants were displaced by the influence you had on the King your Brother some are yet alive to tell especially those who were well affected to the Protestant Religion and in Parliament had appeared for the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom in opposition to Popery and Slavery 5. They saw King Charles the Second carried away with Vanities and wholly governed by his Whores You may remember that some of those Whores you your self put upon him as Jenny Roberts who was in part kept by you as a Spy upon him and for this end at your Command she turned Papist and when she could be of no use to you nor was constant to King Charles you and he put her off and left her to starve Cleveland and Porismouth two Metropolitan Whores that governed him as they pleased and what Sums of Money through the ascendency they had over him they obtained from him I shall not need to tell you and how many Bishopricks they disposed of we have not forgotten And in all this Sir it is plain you promoted them to advance your Cause and Interest 6. He entred into a League with England's mortaâ— Enemies the French and such strong Alliances were made with that Savage Prince and Nimrod of Europe by which means we were hurt in our Trade and impaired in our Riches and Greatness and to effect this Work what Arts and Contrivances you and your Conspirators did use by introducing French Whores French Fashions and Customs and French Officers and French Servants whom we have nourished and cherished with all the Caresses imaginable and to the meanest Valet de chamber or Contemptible Lacquey or Fidler who pretended to be but alamode de France your Parasites paid more respect to than to our brave Englishmen nay so amorous too had your fine but debauched Ladies been of a French Kick shaw that they have even hugged them in their very Bosoms and have lamented the loss tho but of the meanest French Skips witness the Tears that fell from divers great Personages of the Feminine Sex that on their Knees made supplication for that insipid High way-man Du Vall who at last though with great difficulty was hanged at Tyburn for Robberies committed on the Highway It is true he was a man of excellent Parts and singular Learning only he could neither Write nor Read But had this been all I should not have mentioned this Particular There wae more in this then some unthinking men at that time were aware of for you and your Accomplices made further steps to maintain this strong Alliance with the French our mortal Enemies for you did not only introduce the Modes and Customs of France amongst us but the Yoke of France that must be put on too I have heard of a cer certain Knight called Sir James that in a Coffe-house was heard to say That it would never be well in England till our King was as Absolute as the King of France He was an Alderman of London and Sir your very humble Admirer and at that time you had made a very gracious promise to him of obtaining of your Brother the great Park near Dublin for him for the great Services he had done your self and the French Interest And truly Sir he hath deserved that Boon at your hands were it but for the aforesaid wise Saying of his and had that Rascal had but Brains suitable to his Impudence a man might easily have taken him for one of the Chief of the Conspirators with your self against the Religion Laws and Liberties of the People of England This Fellow I say was an Alderman of London and his Residence was in the City but by his Discourse a man would have sworn he had always lived with your Conspirators at St. James's or at Whitehall or with the French Taylor an old Companion of yours who thanked God That his great King of France could send for his Head and his Estate when he pleased Blessed be God Sir your Residence is in that sweet place of St. Germains where you enjoy your self and Friends in a most comfortable manner and you have your health as well as if you had 100 Sail of Ships at your Devotion and an Army of 50000 men which is a mercy I pray let me ask you What sort of People are your French Neighbours Is there not such a slavish temper in those poor Wretches as is astonishing Just to such a slavish and knavish Temper you were about to bring the People of this Nation to your Conspirators had made a considerable progress in this mighty Work and had not Divine Providence interposed you had compleated the same Your Party to compleat this Work found out the only true way which was first to enslave our Souls by subjecting them and our Reason to the blind Superstition of the Church for that Priest craft having once so far won upon Englishmen as to make them trust and pin their Faith and Reason upon their Sleeves they may after that bring them to any thing that they shall direct and therefore as in your Day so in all Ages heretofore nothing did shew more the Cunning of your Banditti than to drive on these two together Popery and Slavery only sometimes they have driven on the one by the other sometimes Popery led the Van to bring on French Slavery and sometimes French Slavery led the Van to bring on Popery Your Friends well knew that Popery and Slavery like two Sisters they go hand in hand sometimes one goes first and sometimes the other In England your Council resolved that Popery was to bring in Slavery in Scotland Slavery was to have brought in
shame and disgrace if ever they were capable of any that King was himself informed a little before he was executed that the Jesuits at a general Meeting at Paris in revenge for his condescending in the Treaty at the Isle of Wight to pass some Bills in prejudice of them and the Romish Religion had unanimously resolved by the Power and Interest and Influence that they had in and upon the Army to bring him to Justice and get him executed and accordingly when the stroke was given both one that was a Romish Priest and Confessor brandished his Sword and proclaimed that now their greatest Enemy was cut off and destroyed I suppose Sir you and your Party will be convinced if you observe a Passage from one that knew those Transanctions and see what he saith in his Letter to a Reverend Divine of the Church of England it bears date Aug. 9.1673 This I may safely say and will do it confidently That many Arguments did create a violent suspicion very near convincing Evidences that the Irreligion of the Papists was chiefly the occasion of the murther of that Prince the odium whereof they would file to the Account of the Protestant Religion However Sir your Popish Conspirators having not only escaped the legal Arraignments upon this account but having since the Restoration of K. Charles the IId been esteemed by your self and some other pretended Friends of that King they have thereupon arrived at more respect and to carry on your damnable Designs they have enjoyed more peace in their Persons and Estates than they were in possession of at any time since the Reformation 4. But how little they deserved this Honour and Peace both in their Persons and Estates you may see in a fourth Particular and that was in the Escape of the King your Brother from Worcester 1651. how did they above all men endeavour to betray and sacrifice that King unto the hands of his Enemies And who was to pay the 1000 l. promised for his being discovered and taken but Father Joseph Symmonds and Father Carleton Compton both Jesuits and whence that Money came Sir you well know as did the Queen your Mother for you know that your Mother and your self was in a plot against his Life that you might wear the Name and Title of a King as being the more likely to perform what your Brother had so lustily promised to the Popish Party It is true Sir that one or two of the Romish Persuasion amongst many loyal and faithful Protestants both Male and Femâ—le might then have contributed to that King's Deliverance but such Sir have been by your self and Party well chidden reproached and discountenanced and called Fools for this grain of Loyalty more owing to their English Blood than Romish Principles 5. Since my hand is in give me leave to add a fifth Instance of their Loyalty to your Family That Popish Lord is not unknown nor yet forgotten who brought a Petition to the late Protector signed by about 500 Principal Papists in England wherein they promised upon condition of a Toleration of the Popish Religion here by a Law their joint Resolution to abjure and exclude the Family of the Stewarts for ever from enjoying the Crown This Sir you know startled you when you heard of that Attempt a man that hath but an Irish Understanding may easily judge from hence of the Loyalty of that Party of men I would willingly Sir appear to any one of your dear Joys and stand by his Judgment in that Case 6. One Point more and then Sir I shall have done upon this Head and that is the Loyalty of your Popish Conspirators who to ingratiate themselves with the Government of the said Protector procured Manning to be a Spy upon your Brother and he was not only allowed well by that Party by your direction but also had a very Bountiful Pension too by the said Protector but he was in due time found out and executed by your Brother he was of the same Red Letter with your self and therefore when dead he had Masses sung for him as the usual Reward and Playster There were other Specimens of their Loyalty but I forbear to mention them now because there are some other things to be discoursed with you but this I say That we should have forgotten and forgiven all these soul Proceedings of your dearly beloved Popish Party and we should not have envied the Security they enjoyed or the Favours through your procurement they had attained to provided they had not abused them in joining with you to subvert the Protestant Religion and Government in turning the one into downright Popery and the other into French Slavery but alas good men and true such an opportunity of promoting the Catholick Religion was not to be lost they having a Prince converted to such a degree of Zeal and Piety as not to regard any thing in the World in comparison of the Conversion of England that hath a long time been oppressed and miserably harassed with Herery and Schism to accomplish which you would assassinate the King's Person destroy our City murther his Majesty's Subjects subvert our Religion and disturb the Peace of Mankind and your present Design that is discovered doth prove beyond all manner of objection and doubt That that Sir throw your Brother's and your grace and favour they did then carry on their Designs for advancing the Power of the Pope and French King to advance the Religion of the one and the Interest and Government of the other none daring to suggest the least thing to bring them under jealousie who would not be aspersed for being Maligners of the King 's best Friends and your Fellow-Conspirators till one appeared and took the Popish and French Interest by the Collar and gave it such a deadly wound that it could not recover it self to this day but you were even with him for it when you usurped the Government and so I conclude this Head 2. A second thing that gave you and your Popish Conspirators such an advantage for the carrying on you wicked Designs and Purposes was the unhappy Divisions amongst us poor Protestants for as the Conspirators improved that little Stock of Credit they had by being for Charles the First in the Civil War against himself and Parliament and the Priests Jesuits and Fryars made use of that Credit to reduce us to the Obedience of the See of Rome so you and the rest of the Popish Crew made use of our Divisions amongst our selves to carry on the same Design Now Sir there were two main things which did greatly administer to this unhappy Division 1. The Parties divided were come to a more equal Ballance as to numbers on each side respectively than at any Season heretofore For Sir consider this That during the Reigns of Q. Elizabeth K. James I. and K. Charles I. the Dissenters from the Established way of the Church of England were but few in comparison of those who were for Prelacy
carry'd it for your going therefore a Command was sent to you all of a sudden That it was your Brother's pleasure you should be gone This Sir fill'd many with amazement who knew not for what ends such Counsels had been taken and it filled others with great Joy they now believing that the King your Brother and his Court would have been purg'd from Popery and his Popish Councels and the Popish Fabrick which had been so long a building would again tumble down when they saw you that were the chief supporter of it had left your station Well Sir away you go for Flanders as if you had been going into another World but your Conspirators were not a whit daunted but resolv'd to stick as faithfully to you as you had done before to them And tho' by this departure of yours many of your Conspirators for whom the Kingdoms were too hot and who ought to have danced a Gambrel at Tyburn under the pretence of being your Servants yet notwithstanding the hardiest and boldest of your impudent Crew staid behind and watch'd Affairs at home letting nothing be done that was material but what was done by your Advice and Direction and theirs and by your being abroad they had the opportunity of studying and advising what was fit to be done at home This Sir I must observe to you by the way that before you could be prevail'd upon to go you were faithfully promised that nothing of value or moment should be done or acted without you nay the Speech that was to be made at the Opening of the Parliament was concluded on before you went Yet for all this at the Meeting of the New Parliament which was now become almost a Wonder in this Nation a great panick Fear was struck in all or most of your Crew and they certainly had so much Fear upon them from the least to the greatest that they were even ready to cry Quarter or at least to offer terms of accommodation the Nation being in a very great ferment and your Party that had rely'd so much upon the mighty Mind of the French King for Mony began to curse him for driving them upon these Extremities nay you your self did not spare to revile him for the same The King your Brother happening to be indispos'd at Windsor which being posted over to you you return with all speed and unexpectedly and being here you had but a little inclination to return to Flanders again but the King pleasing you with some private Resolutions of his you did submit to return again to Flanders where you was as coldly received as at first but your stay was not long there for the Coast being then clear you resolved upon returning home and did accordingly return and the design you know was then to fix the Sham Protestant Plot you and your Conspirators had contriv'd But that would not keep you in England for it was resolv'd that you should go to Scotland to settle the Protestant Religion there where you receiv'd the sad News of the baffling the Sham-Plot that you and yours had thought to charge upon some Protestants which made you take new Measures and you resolv'd to part with a small spell of Mony to get the Parliament prorogued for some longer time and a greater Sum was pressed from France but without success for the Duke of Bucks spoil'd that Design for which piece of service you owed him a Cake and was resolv'd if it had not been timely prevented you would have bestow'd upon him a whole Loaf But that by the way Well you arrive in Scotland I pray how were you receiv'd with great Joy to your Banditti there Nay the most excellent Protestant Bishops receiv'd you with tokens of Welcome and highly resented the Affront that the Parliament of England had put upon you when they went about to exclude you and very honestly declar'd against it and tho' the Commons of England were so dim sighted as not to see that the only way to settle the Protestant Religion was by a Popish King yet they could see it and declare it as an undoubted Truth Now Sir it was expected that you should admire the Fabrick that your old Friend Lauderdale had so delicately contrived and in reward of his good Service advance his Interest No no you no sooner got into Scotland but you were designing against Lauderdale he being the great Instrument of sending you thither for you never forgave him that Affront so that after your arrival in Scotland his Interest much dwindl'd away Thus you rewarded one of your old Friends who had sold Body and Soul and all to the Devil to serve you and your Cause he is gone to his place I fear in sure and certain expectation of Wrath and Vengeance for the many Villanies he had committed against the Religion Laws and Liberties of his Country Whilst Sir you were in Scotland you and your Conspirators made your Designs to go on to your full content tho' much diligence was us'd and pains were taken in the point and to give you and your Accomplices that which is your due you never did spare your Pains for the bringing on your wicked Devices to perfection and you thought it good Policy and your best way to make sure of something that if England should be too hard for you yet you resolved to make sure of Scotland And to repeal those Laws that were in force which did debar a Popish Prince from inheriting that Crown therefore you got a Parliament call'd and your self made High Commissioner Upon this you labour the Point for the choice of the Commoners that should be fit for the purpose and to cajole some of the Lords you entice Hamilton to come into your Interest You mounted the Throne as High Commissioner without regarding the Law or due Qualifications necessary in taking the Oaths for that was below you And the King having furnish'd you with Letters you are admitted into the Council without taking the Oaths But being got into the House you carried all before you and got your Succession to the Crown of Scotland secured by an Act and you got a Test passed by which all were to swear not to endeavour to alter that Government either in Church or State and all such as refused were to lose their Employments In a word you made every thing to pass that you and your Crew had a mind to As you were a Privy Councillor in that Kingdom you wheedled in the Duke of Hamilton and admitted him one of the Council who was very zealous for the Protestant Religion formerly but then began to be very cool And so were the rest of the cajoled Lords they all put on the Temper that Scotchmen usually are attended withal that is to be false to the Cause that is persecuted for upon the rising of the Parliament they suffer'd the poor Dissenters to be squeezed to death and suffer'd all imaginable Severities to be used towards them You succeeding so well in
Kingdom From all which it 's apparent what you did when you were Duke of York was in order to compleat the Work when you came to be King James These great and insufferable Oppressions of the poor Protestants of that Kingdom and the open contempt of all Law Justice Sence and Reason together with the sad Consequences that most certainly followed upon it did put those poor People under great and just Fears and did thrice make them offer at such lawful Remedies as were Allow'd by the very Law of Nature tho' it was not with that effect that was desir'd Lauderdale and your other Conspirators did endeavour to make all men to apprehend the loss of their Lives Liberties Honours and Estates if they should go about to preserve themselves from your great Oppressions by Petitions Remonstrances or other means the Law did allow of So you did by several Scotch Noblemen and Gentlemen to their utter ruine therefore what Obligation you have laid upon the Kingdom in general or any one Protestant in particular both before and since your pretended Reign there I leave it to your self and Conspirators to judge And therefore blessed be God for delivering that Nation from your Tyranny and Oppression IV. ENGLAND NOW we have seen your particular Projects that you and your Conspirators pursued to ruine Holland Ireland and Scotland I think it will not be unnecessary to put you in mind of the Pranks you and your Party play'd both before and since you usurped the Imperial Crown of this Kingdom and then you will see whether you can expect that any honest Englishman should ever engage for your return again in Peace to this Nation Therefore I shall use this method 1. I shall shew you how far you were engag'd in the Conspiracy of turning the Civil Government into downright French Slavery and our Protestant Religion into Popery before you took the Crown And 2. I shall shew you what you contributed to it after 3. I will shew you the unreasonableness of the attempting your return hither On which Particulars I hope you have leisure enough to reflect and advise about with your worthy Ministry you have attending your person at St. Germains I. I will shew you how far you were engaged in the Conspiracy of turning the Civil Government into downright French Slavery and our Protestant Religion into Popery before you took the Crown When God was pleased to restore you and your Brothers you may remember that you came into a Land flowing with Milk and Hony for its Plenty and a well-govern'd Country for Religion and Virtue But this agreed not with the Complexion of your Souls you had another Game to play and this I found in a Letter of yours from Breda to old Courtney the Jesuite That you would follow the Directions that Mazarine had given you and then you question'd not but to bring the People to receive the Roman Catholick Religion This Sir was your Project and how you pursued it let all the World judge Therefore 1. Your Conspirators were resolv'd to remove all those who had been eminent in Virtue and Sobriety from any Command or Place of Trust in the Government I must not forget the Usage of those who had been great Instruments in that Work viz. Two thousand Ministers in one day laid aside that room might be made for those whose Doctrine should enslave the People and whose profligate Lives should render Men Atheists enough to be of any Religion but of that which was according to Godliness Make them Atheists said Mazarine aad you will soon make them Papists Nay the love of Debauchery created such a Prejudice in your Brother the King against the Marquiss of Argyle that it was the chief Obstacle to his being pardon'd for he had reprov'd Charles for offering Violence to a sober Lady in Scotland in the year 1650 for which Reproof he never forgave Argyle to his dying day Nay give me leave to remember you that when that unfortunate Lord was in Custody and humbly requested but to speak one word with the King before he was carried for Scotland to be murder'd you took upon you to reprove any that should move the King with this Jeer. That Argyle was one of the Godly Party it was not for such fellows to see the King Or to that purpose and the King your Brother was pleas'd to say Let my Lord Argyle be content he shall see the Maiden e're long his own dearly beloved Invention And nothing was a greater Argument for his Destruction than his Piety Sir I can prove that those men who were concerned in Judging and Condemning your Father to death tho' that was the Pretence or handle you took to have them cut off yet the great reason why they were not spared was that if they lived and as long as they lived they would have been great Obstacles in your way of debauching the People and that was the reason of their being cut off for old Courtney being at London and admiring their demeanour and deportment in their Confinement gave you an account of their Piety and Devotion And so did old Hitchcock the Monk but what Answer you made them was remarkable your Brother and your self would never have had them excepted had you not been fully satisfied that as long as they lived you could have no manner of prospect of settling the Government and advancing the Catholick Religion both which have told me of their stedfastness and resolution to the last degree and could not forbear shedding of Tears when they discoursed that matter to me and if you remember it was the weaker part of those men that had their Lives given them not but that some of them were worthy persons but they had not arrived to those Experiences of God and true Religion as the others had done that laid down their Lives in that Cause But the truth is I never found many of them had so little Grace as to repent of what they had done Nay your Rage did not cease here for you by all the Wrong imaginable pack'd a Parliament together of greenheaded young Gentlemen the Sons of some Cavaliers whose Parents suffer'd in the late War and so were haters of Dissenters from whom an Act was obtained to empower Commissioners to displace all Officers that they should judge not to be firm to the King's Interest and Proceedings By this Knack you had all Justices of the Peace and Corporation Magistrates that had been forward in punishing Prophaneness and Ungodliness in their respective Places and had been great Promoters of Religion and Holiness of Life turn'd out and in their rooms were put all profane and ungodly Wretches Swearers by and Blasphemers of the Name of Almighty God these being Men for your Turn that you might the more easily enslave and so pervert the People And it was come to that pass that none could have any Employment unless he could swear and damn for the Church tho' they never came within the inside of
long and large Attestations therein made against the Merchants of the several Factories concerning the Matter of Fact before mentioned and other Letters were dispatch'd to Daniel Armstrong at Valladolyd and John Cross then at Madrid in which they were order'd to confirm this Attestation made or to be made by the Fathers in England and of the English Seminary at St. Omer's and of the said Stapleton together with that of the said Fonseca the abovenamed Spanish Agent who then lived at Bruges in Flanders Therefore 1. In this Villanous Contrivance to disturb the Nation in the Spanish Trade your Servant Coleman was very active in your Name and on your behalf and engaged that your Letter to Villa Hermosa should be procured 2. It is well known that your Brother and your self were so engag'd with the French King that it was all one to you what became of the King of Spain's Concerns in Flanders but you were both grieved to see the English Nation enrich'd with the Trade it had with Spain for during the time of the Riches and Plenty of England it would be very difficult for you and your Conspirators to bring in Popery and Slavery upon us 3. What Agents you make use of to carry on this Wicked Design to ruine Trade Even Fonseca that hated the English Nation and much envied her Greatness and that she might be in a condition to be brought under the French Yoke you tamper with him that tho' a Spaniard by Nation yet he was wholly in the French Interest 3. A third Instance that I shall remember you of by which you intended to ruine our Trade and that was in the adulterating debasing and clipping the Coin of this Kingdom It may be said by you and your Partisans That it is very hard you should be charged with this vile Act but Sir it can be prov'd that the Merchants Goldsmiths Brokers Bankers and the other Traders that the Jesuites dealt with all was by your Advice and Direction and that your Servant Coleman had in your Name promised them the management of the Mint So that your Conspirators were to be the Judges of good and bad Mony and were to manage the same to the best advantage for your Cause and several Materials for Coining was provided by Smith your Agent and lodged at Mr. Longhorn's Chambers in the Temple And this Sir I must observe to you for publick Good that there hath been few or none that ever hath been executed but hath been of your Religion or Interest That our Mony hath been abused is notorious And all this you did in order to impoverish the Kingdom and destroy its Trade 4. A fourth Instance of you and your Traytors to disturb the Trade of the Kingdom was the Fire of London I have treated of that already As it was the Habitation for several Thousands of good Protestants that stood in opposition to Popery and Slavery and as by the destroying this City you endeavoured to weaken the Protestant Interest so now give me leave to tell you it was with this design to ruine the Trade of the Nation for you know that London was the Metropolis and Fountain of Trade and when she was destroy'd you could not but conclude that the Trade must be disturbed with which the other parts of the Kingdom were made happy through the great devastation that the Fire that was carried on by your Wicked Instruments had made IV. A fourth Project that you had to accomplish your Wicked Designs was the Attempt of maintaining of a standing Army contrary to the Laws and Liberties of England in the times of Peace and labour'd that point much with the King your Brother to lay down the legal Force of this Kingdom viz. the Militia as useless to the Government and therefore you and your Party advis'd him to lay them down and to have Forces in every County under Pay and they were to be your Conservators of the Peace And Sir had the Revenue of the Crown been able to have born the Charge you your self projected a standing Army to keep the People in due Obedience Now what that due Obedience was I shall not need to explain to you for it was a standing Army alamode de France nay they were to have the Power of the Civil Watch in the Night which you said would excuse many ancient useless Men from that Service And for the accomplishment of your wicked Enterprize you advis'd that the greater part of the Army should consist of French and Irish and that the Officers of this Army should consist of as many Roman Catholicks as could well be gotten to serve in that Army and you had several of that sort of Cattel that you kept in half-pay in readiness whenever your Brother should have agreed to your Advice It was not for want of Good will but for want of Mony that your Design did not then take 5. A fifth Project that you had on foot to enslave the Nation and that was the advising and contriving with your damnable Conspirators the seizure of the Charters Franchises and Liberties of the Cities Towns and ancient Corporations of the Kingdom It was Sir your self and your Conspirators that invaded the Privileges and seized on the Charters of most of the Towns that had a Right to be represented by their Burgesses in Parliament and by over awing some of them you procur'd Surrenders of them to be made to the King your Brother by which the Magistrates deliver'd up all their Rights and Privileges to be dispos'd of at his pleasure and the pleasure of your self and Conspirators Upon this you procur'd new Magistrates to be placed in those Places as would carry on your wicked designs and purposes of advancing Popery and Slavery 6. It was your Advice together with your Conspirators that put the late King your Brother to turn out of the Commission of the Peace and the Lieutenancy of the Counties all such who had been zealous for the defence of the Protestant Religion and Liberty and had appear'd vigorously against Popery and Arbitrary Power as persons disaffected to the Government both in Church and State and represented them as Fanaticks and Favourers of such by which means you got in Men of Villanous Morals and such heartily joyned in with your Conspirators to ruine the Protestant Interest and to overthrow the Laws and Liberties of England This was done in the year 1679. 7. Notwithstanding some of your Conspirators represented you as a person whose Judgment was for Liberty of Conscience yet because the Protestant Dissenters appear'd earnestly in the asserting the Laws and Liberties of England and gave Countenance to the Discovery of the Popish Plot to King Charles your Brother who was in it in every part and particular thereof excepting that of his own Murther you and your Conspirators stirred up that King to raise a terrible Persecution against those men by which means you were the ruine of some Thousands of Families who by the severity of
of what they had confess'd against themselves others that had been in actual Arms hundreds of them were hang'd in the principal Towns and their Quarters hang'd up in the Highways as lasting Monuments of your Grace and Compassion And you being glutted with Blood you then thought of other Punishments for some other of those Offenders many Men and Women were order'd to be whip'd publickly in the Market-Towns others had their Estates seiz'd and a great number were sold into America to serve all days of their Lives so that there was nothing but the Voice of lamentation and weeping to be heard In a word your Grace Clemency and Tenderness was such that several of the Western Counties were made so many Fields of Blood and Butchery Nay Sir those who escaped your Mercy by vertue of your Proclamation were forced to retire to the Woods and desolate places their nearest and dearest Relations not daring so much as to harbour or relieve them so that several starved to death or perish'd with cold for want of things necessary for the preservation of Human Nature Some fled to the Dutch for shelter and were not only kindly receiv'd but as civily entertain'd till you began to have some Shame in you and pardon'd some in hopes that they would be of use to you and others came over with the Prince of Orange who by the Just Judgment of God upon you and your Adherents banish'd you the Kingdom and the Lords and Commons of England deposed you as useless to God and Man But Sir this is notorious that you never entertain'd the least Remorse of Conscience for the murther of these men in the West for those you pardon'd paid a Price sufficient for their Pardons or if you gave them Pardon freely it was to prevent their setting up their Trades in other Countries And Jefferies your Tool that you ought to have hang'd you let him go off with no other Punishment than to be made Lord High Chancellor of England who also did enrich himself with the Sum of 15000 l. extorted from one person who wanted a Pardon for nothing else but the not delivering his Country which he might have done for half the Mony I am more sorry that Jefferies got the Mony than for that Gentleman 's losing that Sum. Truly Sir I was in hopes that the Time of that Villain Jefferies had been come in which he should not only have paid his Debt to Nature but to his Faults too but he is gone to his Place and thereby he hath sav'd the Hangman a Labour but had he liv'd he would in my opinion have been made an Example for all his Villanies that he had committed both as a corrupt Judge and a trayterous Chancellor 3. You were pleased in the years 1687 1688 to publish a Declaration for Liberty of Conscience and professed in both the said Declarations That it was always your Judgment that no man's Conscience should be restrain'd in Matters of Religion Now Sir if that were true why then did you persecute the Protestant Dissenters for their Conscience from Feb. 6. 1684 till the latter end of the year 1686 And if it were not your Judgment why then did you proclaim Liberty of Conscience as your Judgment But Sir to deal truly in the point you had a Popish Fabrick to erect and you wanted Liberty of Conscience to be the Scaffold and when you had done your business of settling Popery you would have laid Liberty of Conscience aside as your Brethren abroad of the Popish Religion have always done And this was the Clemency your Brother was pleas'd to shew to Dissenters and afterwards he and you could with great Tenderness suffer them to perish in Prison and you your self when you were in the Chair persecuted them to the ruine of some Thousands of Families you surfeited your self and Party with the murder and ruine of so many Men and yet you pretend to Clemency and Tenderness To conclude this particular your Brother and you made two Declarations for Liberty of Conscience for no other intent but to cheat the People of England into Slavery and Popery to the end that you might damn the Body and Soul of the Nation at once From such Clemency and Tenderness I trust God hath deliver'd this Nation and will preserve her under the present Government all your pretences to the contrary notwithstanding 4. What shall I say of those worthy persons that you kept in Jayl for the pretended Damages of 100000 l. and others of 10000 l. and others for one Fine or another What shall I say of the Murther of the Lady Lisle and Alderman Cornish Mr. Ayliff and Mr. Nelthrope and poor Disney These were Monuments of your Clemency and Tenderness 3. You promis'd in your Speech to the Council That you would maintain the Church of England as it was establish'd by Law Nay I think if you had not wrong done you you swore it too at your Coronation And Sir if you please call to mind how you kept your Promise and Oath in relation to the Church of England and the Protestant Interest nay you gave a reason for your Promise it being the only Reason that you ever gave in your Life I will put you in mind of it Because said you Her Members had shew'd themselves Loyal Subjects and that the Principles of the Church of England had been for Monarchy Therefore 1. How did you maintain the Church of England as by Law establish'd Were there not Laws in force for the preservation of the Church of England that had been enacted in the Reigns of several Princes that were your Predecessors amongst which Laws as a security of the Church of England against Popery That all persons whatsoever that were advanced to any Ecclesiastical Dignity or to bear Office in either University as likewise all Civil and Military Officers should declare they were not Papists but of the Protestant Religion and that by taking the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and the Test yet you and your Conspirators annulled all those Laws that were made to secure the Protestant Religion against Popery Was this to defend the Church of England and to maintain Her Laws I leave it to all men to judge But you and your villanous Commissioners thought your selves so wise as to reconcile Contradictions and therefore you were resolv'd to try your Skill upon the Church and the Nurseries of Learning which prov'd fatal to you and your Party by the Just Vengeance of Almighty God 2. Did you not against express Law and against the Promise of your maintaining the Church of England set up an Ecclesiastical Commission and impower the Persons named in that illegal Commission to take cognizance and to give arbitrary directions in matters Ecclesiastical in which Commission there was one who profess'd the Popish Religion and others that were Abettors of Popery and Popish Superstition therefore to what deplorable condition was the Church of England reduc'd that a Commissioner for the Church
of England's Affairs should publickly abjure the Protestant Religion by which means he was not only very unfit but also uncapable of holding any publick Employment And did not the Banditti give you such proof of their submission to your Popish Directions you gave them that they had continued in their Places to this day had not God of his Infinite Mercy deliver'd us from them and your self For they were men of an agreeable disposition to have furthered your designs of Popery notwithstanding all your Promises to maintain the Church of England for they took care that none should be prefer'd that had any zeal for the Protestant Religion for if you will be serious in considering who they were that you prefer'd to the Dignities in the Church and upon what terms you must own that they were men of such Morals and Principles as render'd them a very scandal to that villanous Design that you and your Conspirators were carrying on against the Church of England 3. I pray Sir was the suspension of the Bishop of London another demonstration of your Purpose and Resolution to maintain the Church of England Let any of your trayterous Crew stand forth and answer for you Was not that Prelate suspended for refusing to obey an Arbitrary Order sent to him by your Banditti Commissioners for the suspending of Dr. Sharp now Archbishop of York for preaching against Popery according to his Office and Calling without so much as citing the said Dr. Sharp before him to make his defence or observing any common forms of Process commonly us'd in such cases The Bishop comply'd with your Suspension and what damage it was to him he can tell better than I but it did work for our Good and hasten'd our Deliverance but it shew'd that you had but little regard to your Oath and Promise to maintain the Church of England 4. Another Specimen you gave us of your pious Resolution of maintaining the Ch. of England as by Law establish'd was the dealing with Magdalen Colledge in Oxford In the first place you turn'd out the President who was legally chosen by the Fellows of the Colledge who if I mistake not are sworn to chuse one from among themselves to bear that Office then you turn'd out all the Fellows for refusing to chuse one of your recommendation without so much as citing them to appear before any Court that could take legal cognizance in that affair or obtaining any Sentence against them by a competent Judge and the only reason you gave for the turning them out was because they had refus'd a person that was a Papist who was not only uncapable by the Laws of the Land but also by the Statutes of that Colledge of bearing the Office of a President or Fellow of that Community And having expel'd both President and Fellows you put the said Colledge into the hands of Papists that you might the better maintain the Rights and Liberties of the Ch. of England as by Law establish'd But I hope it may be a warning to that Community and to all others of that University how they advance the Prerogative of the Crown so high and nourish those two pestilent Doctrins of Passive Obedience and Non-Resistance and the Divine Right of Succession lesâ— those Doctrins do expose them to a greater Danger than the last 5. Another demonstration that was given by you of your stedfast Purposes of standing by and maintaining of the Ch. of England was your proceeding against the Vice Chancellor of Cambridge 1687. You had a great Favour for one Francis a Benedictine Monk a Rogue that was fit for any Villany that you could put him upon to act him you sent to Cambridge to corrupt the Youth there and no doubt but for his time he did the business for which you sent him You planted him in Sidney Colledge where you had placed one Basset a Papist in that House as Master but your Monk had an Apartment wherein he perform'd the Office of a Priest according to the Ch. of Rome but being a Fellow that had taken no Degrees in any University either at home or abroad you were resolv'd that he should be a Master of Arts in the University of Cambridge and in order to this you sent a Letter to the said Vice-Chancellor to admit the said Father Francis to be a Master of Arts without taking the Oaths which the Vice-Chancellor refus'd as contrary to the Law of the Land and the Statutes of the University Upon this you caus'd the Vice-Chancellor and the Delegates of the University to be summoned before your Commissioners of Ecclesiastical Affairs where that Villain Jefferies contrary to all Law or Reason pronounced Sentence that the Vice-Chancellor being guilty of great Disobedience to the King's Commands and other Crimes and Contempts should be depriv'd of the Office of Vice-Chancellor and suspended of his headship of Magdalen Colledge in the said University of Cambridge Thus Sir you were pleas'd to maintain the Ch. of England by suffering the Learning and Gravity of that University to be trampl'd upon and by letting in a parcel of silly impudent and illiterate Popish Priests and Fryers who were to joyn with you in supporting the Protestant Religion as it was then by Law establish'd Unless your Commissioners of Ecclesiastical Affairs judg'd that to destroy the two Universities as to Learning and to break in upon their Laws made to preserve their Communities would be a means to preserve the Church of England I cannot but wonder at those extravagant Proceedings in the last years of your Tyranny against them since they had so highly espoused your Cause when you were Duke of York against the Sence of the whole Nation 6. Another Reason you give us to believe that you did design to stand by and support and maintain the Ch. of England was your proceeding and causing to be summoned before your Ecclesiastical Commissioners all the Chancellors and Archdeacons of England and requiring them to certifie the Names of those Clergymen who had read the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience as well as the Names of those who had refused the same without considering that the reading of it was not enjoyn'd the Clergy by the Bishops who are their Ordinaries So that this was another way you intended even by these extrajudicial Proceedings in your Court of Commissioners Ecclesiastical to maintain the Liberties of the Ch. of England This was one great cause why several Persons of Quality both in Church and State refused to be concern'd in this Commission for they at last clearly saw that this damnable Commission tended to nothing less than the total Subversion of the Protestant Religion for you us'd it to no other end and purpose than to oppress such persons as were eminent for Learning and Virtue that should at any time or season preach against Popery Superstition And it was God's great Mercy to the Protestant Interest that they did at last see for sure I am that in the latter part
and the Rites and Ceremonies required by Law in their Worship and Service of God so that there being little or no jealousy of any danger to the Church of England from the Protestant Dissenters how zealous soever they might be in their way yet the watchfulness of the Prelates and their Curates were chiefly exercised upon those of the Romish Communion But the Protestant Dissenters since are like to the People of Israel in the Land of Egypt very much multiplied to that degree that they are come nearer to the other Party than heretofore they did the main care therefore of the Prelates and their inferior Clergy together with old Roger their Guide did much abate towards their old Friends of the Church of Rome and exerted the same to the Protestant Dissenters 2. But another great Cause of the dividing the Protestant Interest was the very severe but just Entertainment the Prelates with the Scandalous and Ignorant Clergy met with from the Protestant Dissenters in the late Times of Reformation when they were restored by the return of your Brother from Exile they measured the same again to the Protestant Dissenters when they had the Law on their side and your Grace and Favour into the bargain they remembred all the old Scores by which great Animosities and Heats have been between Party and Party the Prelates aiming then at the ruin of the Dissenters for aiming at the reformation of Prelacy and Superstition By this I say a difference is risen that in all humane probability can never be made up We cannot but from hence very easily not only by Reason but by Experience gather the great use you and the rest of the Popish Party made of them to carry on their Designs for the subverting the Religion and Government of this Nation For as the pretence of these Divisions hath been made use of as an Argument to pervert such as knew not that the Divisions of your Synagogue of Rome are more numerous and their Fewds more irreconcileable than ours so subtile have your Conspirators been by winding themselves into all Companies nay mustering themselves in all Parties endeavoured both to heighten the Differences to make their Annimosities not only hotter but more immortal and while the one Party of Protestants have been crying out against the other for their Schism and the other crying out against them for their Superstition and Persecution you and your Party to the reproach of both were undermining that holy Faith which they equally center in and carrying a Design of destroying the one as well as the other they being in you esteem both equally Hereticks 3. A third thing that contributed much to your bringing of Popery and Slavery into these Kingdoms was the general Prophaneness and Debauchery which had overspread these Nations beyond what in any former Reign had been observed Sir You in this by and with the Consent Advice and Example of the King your Brother and your Conspirators followed the Counsel of Cardinal Mazarine in the Year 1654. at Paris when the Popish Party were but at a low ebb in England That the only way to accomplish the Work in England was to debauch them first and make them Atheists and when that was done they would soon make good Papists for this you well knew and so did your Popish Party That a prophane debauched Person is truly of no Religion and therefore indifferent to seem to be of any as Interest and Temptation sways him so it is plain that no man cares to be of that Religion which condemns all those Ways and Practices which he is resolved to pursue with his utmost vigour Do but take notice that the Popish Religion was such as would allow them in all those wicked ways to which their vicious Inclinations led them and doth secure them from the horror and dread of Eternal Wrath and Vengeance for your Religion maketh those to be no Sins tho committed by some against the express Command of Christ himself If they are such things as the Word of God hath set a mark upon as enormous then they are made Venial Offences only and if they are Sins which your Synagogue calls Mortal which are indeed the most daring and prodigious Enormities through their Doctrines of Pennance and Absolutions and Papal Indulgences you are secure from the Pains of the damned in the other World By this means Sir you and your Conspirators increased the number of your Converts and strengthened your hands so far that you boasted to Beddingfield your Confessor That you did not doubt but in a very few years to have such a number of Catholick Gentlemen and others tha you feared not but to have a Catholick Army sufficient to suppress the Factious Protestant Party in case they should rebel this saying of yours Beddingfield the Jesuite communicated to the Jesuites at Wild-House upon the 24th of April 1678. Nay Your Zeal was such for the Popish Religion that poor Mr. Jones your Chaplain-Naval and Domestick for opposing Popery was by you turned out of his Imploy and left as a Sacrifice to that wicked Prelate of Winchester Dr. Morlay for saying That it was his fault that your Dutchess turnest Papist and that the said Morlay might have prevented the Dutchess of York 's being seduced to Popery if he pleased and that her turning Papist was to be laid at his door You therefore would not for a long time pay him his Wages tho that most Christian Prelate had sued him upon the Statute de Scandulis Magnatum to the poor man's utter ruin for his Living was extended and he left to perish for want of Bread And he had never received his Arrears due to him in your Service had I not shamed old Sir Allen Apsley publickly in Westminster-Hall for it you pretending it was referred to him Moreover I told him If he did not pay Jones I would fetch it out of his old Bones it was a time Sir when Men began to observe your steps and perceive your Designs so Jones much against your Will got his Money and after that Jones had suffered several years Famine from that Villanons Old Priest of our Church and he could not hold his Living from him any longer he most Graciously delivered Jones from the extent but Jones being so ill used by Morley he died within a year or two after he had his Living restored but by the way Sir by the Dutchess of York I mean her that was the Daughter of the Earl of Clarendon sometimes Lord Chancellor but the two Ladies your Daughters were by God's Providence saved from being corrupted by you and your Conspirators Now Sir it remains that I tell you or rather put you in mind what Steps your Conspirators took to ruin these Nations they were Sir your Favourites and of the same Religion and of the same Interest with your self for you having made such Advantages from the three Heads before-mentioned and by these means strengthened you Hands to dispose you to do the Three