other than what he Pretended to be and it comes all to a Case as to the Truth of his Profession whether ye take him the One way or the Other There may be Another Note upon it which is that he would give to understand by This Profession that he had always Liv'd and that now he Dy'd the same sort of Protestant which is a Point-Blank-Contradiction to that which now follows Upon the Sheriffs Desiring him for the satisfaction of the World to declare what Church he meant whether Presbyterian or Independent or the Church of England or what His answer was Good Mr. Sheriff for your satisfaction for Twenty years and above I was under the Presbyterian Ministry till His Majesties Restauration Then I was Conformable to the Church of England when that was Restor'd and so continu'd till such time as I saw Persecution upon the Dissenting People and undue things done in their Meeting-Places Then I went among them to know what kind of People those were and I take God to Witness since that time I have used their Meetings viz. the Presbyterians others very seldom and the Church of England Last Speech By this it appears that College was a Presbyterian before the Late Rebellion as well as quite thorough it He saies nothing what brought him over to the Church of England at last but that it was the Persecution of the Dissenters that carried him off again And yet he told us but just before that he was of That Reformation which was Freest from Superstition and Idolatry though there was nothing of that we see in this Pretended Cause of his Relapse The Remainder of this Paragraph is Mysterious and Perplext and there is too much Reason to fear that it was Intricated on purpose that he might be Vnderstood one way and Mean another But however if there be any thing to be made out of it at all it is that he dy'd of the Presbyterian Persuasion I would not force any thing to Discredit the words of a Dying man but if any man can reconcile this Passage either to it self or with several other Expressions of his in Prison some two or three days before his death they will do him a Kind and a Charitable Office for I must confess I cannot bring them to any sort of Consistence A matter of two or three days before his Execution two Divines of eminent Piety and Worth gave the Prisoner a Visit and among other Discourses suitable to his Condition and the occasion It was ask'd him Q. What Church are ye of A. Of the Church of England Q. As by Law Establish'd A. No I am not Q. How d' ye mean the Church of England then A Presbyterian A. No. Q. An Independent A. No. Q. An Anabaptist A. No. Q. A Quaker A. No. Q. Where 's that Church in Christendom then that you will own your self a Member of A. That 's to my self I will not tell ye And he gave at another time his Reason for 't If it were known saith he what Church I am of my faults would be laid upon my whole Church How does this agree now with his Profession at the Place of Execution Or where shall we find that Individuum Vagum of Colleges Protestant There were some Circumstances concerning my Lady Rochester of which hereafter and others grounded upon the Information of a Somerset-shire Gentleman that have prevail'd upon many People to take him for a Papist which Information runs thus That the Informant Lodging at the House of one P. a Victualler in Wich-street in Michaelmas Term 1677. there came into the Room where he was upon a Sunday in the Evening a certain Person who was called by the name of College and sitting down there enter'd into a discourse concerning the Lord of Rochester whereupon the Informant told College that he heard the Lady Rochester was turn'd Papist who thereupon demanded what he meant by a Papist to which he answer'd One that maintain'd the Tenents of the Church of Rome mentioning some of them as Purgatory Prayers to Saints c. whereupon the other undertook to defend the said Tenents and with great Vehemence told him that he would bring him Books the next day that should overthrow all Arguments to the contrary And told him farther that his name was Gollege and not College and that he had wrought for my Lord of Rochester at Eumore But the Informant never saw him before nor since only his Landlord told him that he was a Joyner and liv'd at the back-side of his House Colleges Answer to this Point was that he believ'd this might be his Brother who was a Ioyner by Trade and dy'd a Papist in October 1678. He wrote his name Gollege Lodg'd near Wich street and as he conceiv'd had done work for my Lord Rochester at Eumore which seems to have been the ground of that mistake Beside that College had several times Confess'd that he had strong and frequent Impulses on his spirit against Popery Insomuch that if he did but see any book in defence of it he would prefently set all his work aside to get it answer'd declaring himself also against it at the place of Execution in these words I do with all my soul and did ever since I knew what Religion was Abhor and Detest the Church of Rome as Pernicious and Destructive of Humane Society I shall leave it now to the Readers choice whether a Papist or not Although for my part I am strongly persuaded of the Negative but what kind of Protestant to make of him we are yet to seek We shall see next how he stood affected to the Church of England but so as to separate his Opinions from his Practices which are reserv'd for another place He received his Sentence Aug. 18. and Suffer'd upon the 31. In this Interim the Bishop of Oxford provided all that was possible for his Relief and Consolation with infinite Compassion and Honour appointing several eminent Pious and Learned Divines to Administer unto him in his Distress The Reverend Dr. Marshal went to him first who being call'd away by bus'ness Dr. Hall supply'd his place from whose hand he receiv'd the Blessed Sacrament soon after his Sentence but his Devotion-duties were still distracted with some interjected Excursions of his own and he was heard to say that as he did not disdain the Prayers of the Church so he did not delight in such Prayers neither could he joyn heartily with those that did not pray by the Spirit It was observed by one of these Reverend Gentlemen that assisted him that when he came to the Prayers for the King Queen and the Bishops instead of Amen he said Lord have mercy upon them though he joyn'd in an Amen to all the rest Two days before his Execution one of them desir'd him to prepare himself for the Holy Eucharist to whom he return'd this Answer It is no more than a Shell and Form of your own making as if I eat a piece of Bread and
Sworn against me that I had a design to pull the King out of Whitehal and to serve him as his Father was serv'd or to that purpose The Loggerhead his Father or that kind of Language I did deny it then and do now deny it upon my Death Last Speech This Denial I suppose speaks to both the Members of this Period The Design upon the Person of the King and the Villany of the Foul Language upon his Late Blessed Father To the Former we have allotted a Section by it self and the Latter may be fairly concluded I think out of his own mouth First says he I thought that the Parliament that sate last at Westminster did stand up for the Peoples Rights after the same manner that the Parliament in Forty did Tryal Page 83. So that after a most abominable Scandal upon the last Parliament at Westminster in the Comparison he justifies the Rebellion in the Application And then again I did maintain says he that they the Parliament of Forty were an Honest Good Parliament and much of opinion with the Parliament that sate last at Westminster which was for the true Interest of the Nation Page 81. Now if I understand this matter aright It is Tacitly to call the King all the Tyrants and Murderers which that Traiterous Faction call'd him And besides What 's the meaning of Like Father Like Son in his Raree Show But First as appears by the Context to Involve them both in the same Fate And Secondly to represent them both under the same Character That is to say in short to apply all those Brutalities of Language which he has in that Libel and elsewhere bestow'd upon the Son to the Reproach and Dishonour of his Martyr'd Father To finish this point He had a kind of Idiome by himself and seldom Discours'd of his Majesty his Royal Highness the Hierarchy or the Privy Council but in the Style of Old Rowley Mack Tantivies and Tories Old Rowley says he is as errant a Papist as his Brother And this was his note at every turn Old Rowley says he again cares not a half-penny what becomes of the Crown or how he leaves it in Debt or what becomes of his People as to matter of Religion c. At an other time They are come says he to change Candles at Court already but we 'l make them eat 'em too before we have done When we have done with the Papists says he in another Company We 'l do well enough with the Bishops Now here 's another Passage to a very honest man of his own Trade and a Loyal Subject This person being out of Town about a week before the opening of the Oxford-Parliament fell into Company with College well Mounted and a Case of Pistols before him not far from Enfield Mr. College says he what will the Parliament do at Oxford By God says College I know what they 'l do They 'l begin with the Bill of Exclusion The King has no money and he gets not a penny without it Well says the other but what if his Majesty will not pass it We shall see then says College who are the Papists We 'l run them down first and then we shall do well enough with the Clergy We 'l level them with the Ground We are Ten to One. Is not this a Broad sign made at the King And does it not precisely answer the very Pinch of the Evidence And methinks he spake home to another Ioyner too that charg'd him with the neglect of his Trade and all the reply he made was the laying his hand upon his Sword as if he had said This is it that I intend to trust to There are so many instances of his Pragmatical medling Humor that the recital of them would cost more Time and Paper than the thing is worth A Gentleman in discourse with College in the Castle at Oxford was telling him after many professions of his Innocency Mr. College says he you know I have my self at Cornbury heard you many times talk undutifully of the Government Now methinks you that are but a Mechanick should not presume to meddle with things so much above ye Was it any harm says he for Amos to leave his Cows Nay he was so Bold and Inconsiderate when things went otherwise than he would have them that upon the Dissolution of the Last Westminster Parliament he went presently away to Dick's Coffee-House in a Hufl Well says he I perceive here 's no good to be done We must e'en draw our Swords and Fight it over again These were the words or to this effect The Turbulence of his Spirit was seen upon all occasions where there was but the least colour for the fastening of a Scandal upon the King the Church and his Majesties Ministers of State and Justice His Vein lay much toward Doggerel and Designing as he has plentifully given the world to understand in his Learned Drawings which are still charged with the utmost Rudeness Malice and Scurrility imaginable Insomuch that the Treason of his Heart is laid as open in those Cuts as that of his Tongue was at his Trial with this single Difference that the one was only a wish and the other an Overt Act and a declared Resolution This device call'd the Catholique Gamesters is a venemous Libel upon all the Orders of the Government and first upon the King himself charging all the Pretended Miscarriages of State in Shew upon the Papists but in Truth and Effect upon his Majesty It is a Libel upon the House of Peers by the Culling out of so many Lords by Name under the Title of Protestants and Representing in that number only Two Bishops that is to say Hereford and Lincoln implying all the rest to be Papists In the House of Commons he tells us of Pensioners who Voted by Contents got Bills to Pass against the Common Good c. And then he descends to the Bench and the Iury where he brings in the Pope speaking of the Priests and Jesuites in these words Hell keep the rest from Justice we call Fury And send them Wakeman's or a Gascoign Jury Pick'd Brib'd Instructed how to murther Truth From Grand St. Martins Bull and Cits Wide Mouth And take them quite through they are all of the same Style and Design And I would have any man tell me now if a body may not charitably enough conclude that whosoever Defames the Government at This rate wishes it Overturn'd and if he had but Power and Opportunity would do his part toward it I should be ungrateful now I am upon this subject if I should not acknowledge the Honor he has done me in divers of his Emblematical Pieces He has presented the world with Six Towzers and L'Estrange with Four Fair pair of Gallows Here 's nothing hitherto but what may very well pass for the Preamble to a Conspiracy and he that considers his Haunts the Company he kept the Access he had to the Private Cabals and Consultations of the
Faction together with his forwardness to thrust himself into all Popular Brawls and Contests and that Stubborn Obstinacy which was natural to him will undoubtedly look upon him as an instrument every way qualified for such a purpose As they were carrying away Sam. Harris about the Treasonous Libel that cost Mr. Fitz-Harris his Life and a Crowd of People about him a very honest Gentleman a friend of mine saw College whispering with a Person then in Power from whom he went immediately to make his way to Harris but the press was so great that he was forc'd to deliver his Message to him over Three or Four Heads and so call'd to him just over the shoulder of the Gentleman my friend Come Sam. says he take a good heart Mr. Such a one naming the person makes no doubt but to bring ye off And to shew ye now what Credit College had with his Party but to what purpose in this particular I cannot say He took his Hat which was very broad Brim'd and holding it in his hands with the inside upward I have given away says he twice as much money as this Hat would hold Brims and all Now I suppose this money was not thrown away to make Ducks and Drakes so that I cannot reconcile this Declaration of his to a certain Passage in his Last Speech viz. I take God to witness I never had one Six-pence or any thing else to carry on any Design and if it were to save my life now I cann't Charge any man in the world with any design against the Government as God is my Witness or against his Majesty or any other Person The Explication of this Clause depends upon the knowledge of what is meant by these words ANY DESIGN for the Expression is too large to be True if it be taken in the Latitude and if it be understood with a Restriction i.e. that he knew of no Design against the King or the Government the Principle of Forty one by him asserted in his Tryal brings him off when the Rebellion it self was declared to be FOR the King and the Government so that 't is but his placing the Government in the People or the Two Houses to Countenance the Equivocation And finally The disclaiming of a Design against any other person goes a little too far methinks for by his own Confession there was a Design carried on against the Papists It would be proper enough in this place to render some Account of his Deportment at Oxford in the Prison He was at first coming Stubborn and Captious Insisting upon the Rights of an English-man and Menacing his Keeper till he was brought to better Terms by telling him plainly what he was to trust to Nothing put him more out of Patience then telling him of his Pictures In his behaviour in Company he seem'd always to be very little concern'd but his Keeper says he had terrible Agonies when he was by himself that kept him waking sometimes whole nights A little before he dy'd Mr. Gregory the Sheriff came into his Room with an Order to have his Body deliver'd whole to his Friends Upon the sight of the Seal he leapt from his Bed with a great deal of Joy expecting it might have been a Pardon but upon finding the mistake he threw himself down again in a deep Disquiet He says in his Dying words Printed for E. College That the Messenger who brought him the Message of his Death told him he might save his Life if he would confess who was the cause of his coming to Oxford and upon what Account which was ill done of the Messenger for it was not only without but contrary to Orders He was in the main very ignorant of any thing of Religion and he would say that he found and that he was guided by the Spirit and this was his perpetual Refuge What Principles he had were Enthusiastical As for Instance He said that Eating and Drinking in the Eucharist and so washing in Baptism was to be understood in a Spiritual Sense aud declar'd that he receiv'd no benefit by the Prayers of the Church He spake of the Quakers as the People of God and particularly of one that had been with him as the honestest man that ever he knew It was reply'd to him by a Reverend Divine that the Quakers deny'd in effect Christianity it self As the Two Sacraments and a Succession of Ministers And next they deny'd both the Divinity and Satisfaction of our Saviour naming Pen whom College said he very well knew but did not own him in that Principle His Favourite was Mr. Baxter whom he heard more than Dr. Owen and his Opinion was that God had a Church in all the Sects in England § 7. College Iustifies the Grounds and the Proceedings of the late Rebellion AFter these Pregnant and Undeniable Proofs of so many Virulent and Audacious Outrages upon the Person and Dignity of his Majesty and the very Form as well as the Administration of the Government It remains now only to be considered how far the Malefactor was Principled toward the Actuating of that Malice and by what Methods he proponnded the putting of those Disloyal Inclinations into Execution First As to his Opinion of the Sovereignty according to the Constitution of this Kingdom we shall not need to look any further for 't than into his own words and the inevitable Conclusion which naturally arises from them He appeals from Mr. Masters to Mr. Charlton in St. Paul's Church-yard about his Justifying the Parliament of Forty and yet it is a known Truth that he has several times justify'd that Parliament in the hearing of Mr. Charleton He does acknowledge in his Tryal Page 82. That he said That Parliament did nothing but what they had Just Cause for and that the Parliament that last sate at Westminster was of the same opinion Now in saying this he takes upon himself the Owning of all the Principles whereupon they proceeded in that Controversie betwixt the King and the Two Houses And in so doing strips the King of all his Regalities and Lodges the Supremacy in the Lords and Commons The Papists began the War he says The Papists broke off the Treaty at Uxbridge and the Papists cut off the Kings Head Page 81. And in that case He Justifies the Old Parliament What can be clearer now than that if this King should have been press'd upon the same Terms with his Royal Father After the same manner as the Papists Began and Pursu'd the Former War and brought his Late Majesty to the Block Just so it should have been call'd another Popish Exploit the Reducing of this King to the same Extremities And as they made the Late King the Church and the Royal Party Papists in the One Rebellion they would have treated this King Church and all his Faithful Subjects too as Papists too in another Rebellion These are the Oxford Papists fairly Expounded And under this Ambiguity it is that he Covers and Disguises his pretext
of Faith and Affection to the King and his Government That is to say as he intends the Kings Authority to be Virtually Resolv'd into the Two Houses And this Seditious Maxim is a little more expresly set forth in his Raree Show In which Libel there is a Figure of a Man with a Chests at 's Back which he Explains to bemeant of the King with the Lords and Commons in a Box and Pluck'd down in the Mire by Three Fellows with these words to illustrate that Passage So so the Gyant 's down Let 's MASTERS out of Pound c. In which two Verses is laid open both the Design of Dethroning the King and in the word MASTERS the Doctrine of the Supremacy of the Two Houses Now for a further Confirmation of his Opinion He declar'd to Mr. Crosthwait in the Castle at Oxford That he believ'd it lawful to Resist the King in case he should invade his Property and he endeavour'd to defend it by several Arguments till at length he was at least seemingly Convinc'd of his Mistake This makes it abundantly Evident what he thought of the Lawfulness of such Resistance if the Case of Property should come to be the Question And it rests only now to make it out that he did take Property to be the Question and then all his Pretensions of Respect to the King and to the Government fall to the Ground As what 's the meaning of that Passage in his Raree Show where he charges the King with Fleecing Englands Flocks Long Fed with Bits and Knocks c. but to denote the King to be a Tyrant and an Oppressor Now to sum up briefly what is already delivered Here are all the Fore-runners of and Dispositions to a Rebellion as clear as the Noon-day and College deeply engag'd in every Point First the General Pretence of a Design upon the Protestant Religion as the Foundation of a Popular Discontent 2dly That General Religion in such a manner as it is represented is not any where to be found 3dly Under the Notion of the Papists to Invade this Religion the Church Establish'd the King and his Party are most apparently struck at 4thly All manner of Defamatory Libels are Contriv'd Publish'd and Promoted by College himself toward the Enflaming of a Sedition 5thly It is Remarkable Colleges Shuffling and Equivocating to Evade the Charge which is nevertheless made out against him at last 6thly There is an Undeniable Discovery of his Disaffection even to the Degree of a Mortal Hatred both to Church and State And 7thly Considering the Method of Colleges Proceedings with the Tendency of his Practices Principles and Persuasions what could any man believe less even without any further Evidence than that College Meditated and Designed the Improvement of all Occasions to the Subverting of the Government and in such manner too as it is imputed to him §. 8. There was a Design upon the King at Oxford and College manifestly Engag'd in the Conspiracy THat there was a Plot to be Executed at Oxon will be granted I presume by any man that has but eyes in 's head and looks that way And this a Republican Plot too carried on under the pretended Apprehension of a Popish one But the Multitude were to be mov'd and prepar'd for 't And see the course now that they took to work upon the Passions of the Common People The first thing to be done was throughly to possess them that the Papists had a Design upon the Parliament at Oxford and consequently upon the Protestant Religion the Liberties and Properties of the English Nation To this purpose How many Impudent and Ridiculous Shams by Counterfeit Tickets and Letters were Expos'd in the daily Papers of Intelligence which at that time were swallowed whole as the very Oracles of the Vulgar Several Papers says the Protestant Mercury Numb 24. have been dropt about the City that there would be a Massacre at Oxford on the 25th instant and that the 5th of November will be turned into the 25th of March 1681. and one of these was thrown into a Shop in Grace-Church-street But you shall now have the Letter it self at large with all its appertinences London March 16. This very morning Letters were found in several places in this City unseal'd purporting a warning of a Dangerous Design to Destroy the Parliament particularly one Letter was found in Mr. Brett's Shop a Linnen-Draper in Grace-Church-street which was supposed to be put in at a Cleft in the Window His man finding it when he open'd the Shop Communicated the same to his Master who caused him to subscribe the Paper that he might be able to testifie it was the same that he found and then Presented it to one of our City Magistrates who we suppose by this time has made his Majesty acquainted with the Contents which were as followeth To all the Noble Members of this most Honorable ensuing Parliament in General Noble Lords and Gentlemen Though I dare not nor am I in a condition to discover the whole substance of some Hellish Designs now on foot against his Majesties Royal Person and against you all at Oxford yet though I was sure to be Racked for it I must and will give you a Hint of them as followeth Remember the Fifth of November which is now to be the 25th of March which if not prevented will be the utter destruction of both King and Parliament and all True Protestants in his Majesties Dominions And if that fail beware of many thousands that lie in wait for your Lives whose Design is so closely carried that it will I doubt be a hard matter to discover it until it be too late Mark well what I say and make not slight of it as ye tender your Lives and Fortunes and the Kingdoms safety I say make not slight of it as you tender your Lives and Fortunes and the Kingdoms safety I am in a mean condition and under many Afflictions but cannot discover my self as yet Thus wishing you all happy success I take leave This Letter was Superscribed as followeth To all True Protestants who love the King and Parliament whosoever finds this Note let him with all speed repair to some Elected Members of the Parliament and present it to them Ben. Harris ' s Protestant Domestique Numb 107. You shall see now how the humor is followed Numb 110. A Letter importing some Cursed and Treasonable Designs still Carrying on by the Ever Plotting Papists against his Majesties Royal Person and the Protestant Religion being lately found in the Wood of Bally-Holly in the County of Cork in the Kingdom of Ireland by a Gentleman of the County of Lymrick as he Travelled through that Wood He thought it of that Concern to the Publique that he immediately gave it to the Earl of Barrimore to be by him transmitted to his Grace the Duke of Ormond Lord Lieutenant of that Kingdom which was done as we are inform'd by the said Earl accordingly A True Copy of which Letter
followeth viz. Brother David I received a Letter lately wherein I understand that we shall go on with our Design before Easter-day We shall have Encouragements to destroy Heretiques Lord Br. will be one of the Persons to destroy the Heretical King and Monmouth Encourage all our Friends to keep their Arm private I am Yours till death Allen Condon Jan. 8. Superscribed to David Raach Parish-Priest of Bally-Holly This was Publish'd April 1. 1681. There would be no end if I should go through with all the Cheats upon that Juncture of the same stamp One more only and I have done Letters from Ireland say that there was a Great Leading Priest a man of great Request among the Popish Party having been very Active in carrying on their Designs was somewhat troubled in Conscience being upon his Death-bed at some things which he had kept secret sent for some Protestants of the Neighborhood unknown to the Papists whom he had formerly been obliged to to come and see him e're he departed who coming according to his request the Priest Expressed himself to this Effect God hath put it in my heart to warn ye to have a care of your selves for you and all the rest of the Protestants are design'd to be Massacred It was to have been done some time since but an accident obstructed it so that the day is not certainly appointed though the thing is fully concluded on therefore defend your selves as well as you can The same thing is designed in England Ib. Numb 112. Now as all these Stories were only Forgeries and Contrivances to put the Hot-headed and credulous Fools of the Faction into a Ferment and prepare them for any violent Attempt the Project did so far also take effect as to draw together armed multitudes into a Resolution and Confederacy to oppose whatsoever should be presented unto them under the colour of a Popish Design And they that had so little Wit or Honesty as to run to Oxford and so Accoutred upon such an April-Errand would undoubtedly have gone through with their work upon a good occasion when they were so far onward in their way Here was a very extraordinary Concurrence of Palpable Impostures accommodated to the same End and meeting upon the same nick of time too And this is not all neither for there were several Printed Papers of Clamor and Complaint against the Kings taking his Guards with him under a Pretext that they would hinder the Liberty of Debates and over-awe the Parliament This Circumstance does very much favour the Presumption of a Plot upon the Government far if they were afraid of a Popish Attempt his Majesties Guards would have been a good Security against it and no inconvenience to them at all unless in case of a Phanatical Conspiracy so that their apprehension of the Guards is a very fair Interpretation of what they meant by the Papists If there was not a Plot what meant the Distinguishing Marks of the same-Colour'd-Ribbon in their Hats with No Popery No Slavery in them for their Motto and such quantities of them distributed for the discrimination of the Party And why that Motto either but first to intimate a notorious Scandal upon the King as if his Majesty were Popishly and Tyrannically Inclin'd And 2dly As an Ostentation of their Force and Resolution to Oppose any Power whatsoever even under the colour of that Bare Pretence From this Probability of a Seditious Design we shall come closer now to a Proof of the thing it self and see how far College was concern'd in 't both from his own Words and Actions and from the Agreement of other Evidences with the Points of his Accusation Not medling at all with the merits of his Cause as they appeared upon his Tryal As for what Arms I had says he and what Arms others had they were for our own Defence in case the Papists should make any Attempt upon us by way of Massacre or any Invasion or Rebellion that we should be ready to defend our selves God is my Witness this is all I know If this be a Plot This I was in but in no other But never knew of any Numbers or Times appointed for Meeting but we said one to another that the Papists had a Design against the Protestants when we did meet as I was a man of General Conversation and in case they should rise we were ready But then they should begin the Attempt upon us Last Speech It is to be noted first that they were all Armed 2dly That they Communicated among themselves and enter'd into a kind of League of Conjunction 3dly That they Reputed themselves strong enough to Encounter such a Body of men as if we may believe them threatned Destruction to the Government And 4thly That they were resolv'd to put it to the hazard if the Papists should attempt any thing So that here 's a Form'd Conspiracy acknowledg'd and so many men as good as listed but however link'd in a common Design without any Authority or Commission And we know very well what the Law says in this case let the intent of it be what it will We said to one another says he that the Papists had a design against the Protestants and then that we were Ready but They should begin the Attempt which may seem to qualifie the matter by making it only a Defensive War But still even that War it self without the Kings Commission is a plain Rebellion And this is not yet the worst on 't for in Vindicating the War of the Two Houses in 1640. c. and their Proceedings under the same disguise of calling the Kings Friends Papists and pretending that the King in his Person made War against his Authority in the Lords and Commons and under that colour representing themselves to be only upon the Defensive In Vindicating that War I say which was a Hellish Rebellion it is but Consonant to their Principles to justifie the same Proceedings over again under the same Pretensions He says further in his other Speech I never was engag'd in any manner of Plot or Conspiracy whatsoever in my life against the Kings Person Laws or Government or know of any that is or was the Papists only excepted It is utterly false that I was to have seiz'd the King either at White-Hall or at Oxon and I do here solemnly declare I knew not of so much as one single Person on Gods Earth that was or would have stood by me in that Attempt And to the same effect he says over again in his last Speech I shall not force these words of his beyond a fair Congruity with the tenour of what he says in other places upon this subject though the liberty he has taken throughout of speaking more or less than the just and naked Truth and wrapping himself up in Disguises and Reserves so as best to serve his purpose might justifie me in the freedom of taking him at the worst where there is any place for a double meaning He never
engag'd against the Kings Person he says c. Did not that Parliament whose Cause Doctrine and Proceedings College has so highly approved say the same thing And not only Disclaim their being AGAINST the Person of the late King but declare openly to the World the greatest Tenderness and Veneration for him that was possible What shall we say then of him that speaks their very Words upon the same Grounds and under the same Circumstances but that he has the same Thoughts also which he in truth Confesses too with those who under that pretence advanc'd a Rebellion against their Sovereign What does he mean again by saying that HE was not to have Seiz'd the King c. Is it that He himself was not to do it with his own hands Or that the Sovereignty being lodg'd in the Two Houses his PERSON might be Seiz'd and the KING remain untouch'd There is another Sentence in the same Speech that speaks a little plainer yet I did not understand says he but when I serv'd the Parliament I serv'd the King too Which in the Acceptation of Forty and Forty-One sounds as much as King and Parliament on the one side in opposition to Charles Stuart on the other Now as to the Plot of Seizing the Person of the King if the Witnesses had not made it out accordingly to the very Letter I should rather have suspected a design under the countenance of Loyal Service to interpose a Force betwixt his Majesty and some Pretended Danger And this officious zeal to be follow'd with seizing half a dozen perhaps of his Majesties most necessary Ministers and Friends And then a Proclamation immediately of some damned Hellish Plot a parcel of good Statutable Knights of the Post to make it good and there had been the work done This would have been no Ridiculous thing to imagine if his Majesty had not had over and above his Guards the Honour and Fidelity of the Two Houses of his Security There are a great many slippery Passages in Colleges two Speeches Had the Papists says he or their Party offer'd to destroy the Parliament as was sworn and fear'd they would I was there to have liv'd and dy'd with ' em Here 's a Disjunction of the Papists OR their Party which I cannot tell what to make of unless he ranges the Servants of the King and the Church in a Confederate subserviency to the Papists which is but consonant to what he has said elsewhere There is a doubtful Clause too in his last Speech Men says he speaking of the Presbyterians without any manner of design but to serve God serve his Majesty and keep their Liberties and Properties Now Colleges way of keeping his Property is to Fight for 't in case the King should Invade it as he profess'd to a Divine a little before his Execution Beside that the word KEEP seems to lean a little that way especially from a man that first supposes his Property to be Invaded and then declares his resolution to resist the King in case of such Invasion We shall now as briefly as may be apply matter of Fact to the Capital parts of his Charge The Designing of the Sculpture to his Raree-Show is prov'd upon him so point blank that he himself had not the face to deny it And that Draught made him as Guilty of and as Answerable for the Malicious intent of it as if the Ballad had been originally his own His Publishing of it was a further Aggravation of the Crime and the Pleasure he took in Singing it up and down as he did to several eminent Persons of quality and in Exposing it made all that was in it his own too In that Doggrel Copy there is Chalk'd out the very Train of the whole Conspiracy and so plainly too that it will not bear any other Construction As for example Help Cooper Hughs and Snow with a Hey with a Hey To pull down Raree-Show with a Ho. So so the Gyant 's down Let 's Masters out of Pound With a Hey Tronny Nony Nony No. Here 's first the King to be pull'd down under the Rarce-Show and Cooper Hughs and Snow being Officers belonging to both Houses are to represent the Lords and Comâ—â—â—â—s in the doing of it which reflects as odious a scandal upon the Two Houses as upon his Majesty In the next place he supposes the King to be down and to answer that phansie there are three Fellows in the Plate lugging of him in the Dirt And then follows Let 's Masters out of Pound which is only to say That now the King is down the Lords and Commons are to take upon them the Administration of the Government But let us see how he goes on And now y 'ave freed the Nation with a Hey c. Cram in the Convocation with a Ho With Pensioners All and some Into this Chest of Rome With a Hey c. The first line here makes the Freedom of the Nation to ensue upon the Deposing of the King The second sends the Convocation after him The third all those whom he is pleas'd to call Pensioners And the fourth makes them all to be Papists Here 's the King the Convocation and the Pensioners gone already Now see what 's next And thrust in Six and twenty with a Hey c. With Not Guilty good plenty with a Ho And Hoot them hence away To Cullen or Breda We have here the very Track of the Conspiracy as it was prov'd at his Tryal The Bishop's are to be dispatch'd away too and the Not Guilty-Lords in the Vote upon my Lord Stafford And at best to be all of them driven out of the Nation as the Late King was and a great part of his Adherents We shall now conclude this point with the two last lines Halloe the Hunts begun with a Hey c. Like Father like Son with a Ho c. I have in my hand the Manuscript of Colleges own writing from whence this Ballad was Printed where it is to be noted that instead of Halloe it was in the Original Stand to 't but that struck out and Halloe interlin'd in the place of it the other being too broad a discovery of the Violence they intended Let me further observe that this Song was Calculated for Oxford that is to say both for the Time and the Place When and Where this Exploit was to have been executed And now for a close What can be the meaning of Like Father like Son but a design and encouragement as appears from the Connexion to serve them both alike and to conclude both Father and Son under one and the same Condemnation The Faction did without dispute flatter themselves that they should find Friends even in the Parliament it self to Authorize them in their Enterprize but they were egregiously mistaken it seems in their measures And they grounded their Hopes upon the Interest they had made in most places of the Kingdom to secure an Election for their turn This Prospect and
drank a glass of Wine and at the same time remember'd my Saviour In this manner he refus'd it Nor would he suffer this Gentleman to pray with him at all upon the day of his Execution declaring that nothing gave him satisfaction but Extemporary Prayer The Doctor Administer'd to him by the Liturgy and so did Dr. Marshal pray with him likewise but still he would have sallies also of his own Little Schismatical Ianeway tells a long story and against himself too Num. 42. where he says that College was urg'd with divers Arguments to make a Publique Confession whereas it was only propounded to to him to Confess Conditionally and not Absolutely as he maliciously represents it True it is that he gave hopes at first of some tractable inclinations toward the Entertainment of the Liturgy but upon Munday morning there was found with him a certain unknown Quaker and from that time till the next Wednesday the day of his Execution he was harden'd against all Attempts and this Obstinacy of his was said to arise from a suggestion of the Quakers that without dashing the Credit of those Witnesses the Protestant Cause would be in danger to be lost He press'd very earnestly that Titmarsh the Preaching-Anabaptist-Tanner might come and Pray with him and he was privately sent for but not suffer'd to come at him You have here an account of the Protestant-Ioyners Religion from his own lips which is Resolv'd at last into a meer Enthusiastical Whimsie The Quaker pleases him the Anabaptist pleases him and yet he is neither the one nor the other nor a Presbyterian nor an Independent nor a Church-of-England-man and yet a Friend to all but the Right and Conciliable even to those Opinions that are yet at an Inconciliable Variance one with another Let the Reader now determine under these Circumstances whether that Protestant Persuasion that makes such a noise in this Controversie be a Religion or a Faction or how it is possible either to Destroy or to Defend that Religion which is no where to be found §. 3. What is meant by the Papists in Conspiracy against Colleges Protestants THE Protestant Ioyner has left us at a great loss in the fore-going Section about the meaning of his Protestant Religion But then he makes some amends for 't in telling us very plainly what he means by the Papists It is a part of his Charge That he reckon'd the Church the King and all his Adherents for Papists and we have his own Words and Papers to prove every jot as much as that amounts to even to the minutest Circumstances of the Accusation This says he is not the first time my Lord the Papists have design'd to take away my life though it be the first time they went about to take it away by a Law Tryal p. 39. What is this now to say but that the Ordinary Ministers of Justice in the Orderly Execution of their Duties are Murtherers and Papists And it is yet more explicitly set forth in the first Section as we have seen already How often has he been heard even in the presence of Mr. Harleton of St. Pauls Church-yard to whom he appeals from Mr. Masters's Evidence that old Rowly his Cypher for the King was a Papist and it was his common discourse in Coffee-Houses at a venture as numbers of Persons are able and ready to justifie if need should require it What 's the meaning of his drawing the King with Two Faces in his Raree Show one towards Popery the other towards Protestantism And the Two Houses at his Majesties Back in a Chest of Rome as he calls it in the Ballad What 's the meaning of the English Clergy Riding Tantivy after a Iesuite in another of his Prints With these words of Explanation Room for the Church For Rome Boys with this Conceit at the Church-door Out Phanatiques In Popery And the Bishop of Bath and Wells Personated in it with a Patch on his check and the mark upon him of a Church-Papist Or what say ye of the same Bishop again kissing the Popes Toe in another of his Pieces Entitled Hats for Caps with the whole Hierarchy in 't making Court to his Holiness for Preferment And then there 's the Learned device of a Scale to the Papacy 1. Servitor 2. Pupil 3. Batchelors 4 Master 5. Priest 6. Doctor 7. Dean 8. Bishop 9. Cardinal 10. Pope With these words to 't The Gradual way to make a Pope Infallibly All done by the Sign of the Cross and a little School Conjuring Here 's abundantly enough to shew What and Who they are that he calls Papists without need of any other Evidence or Explication But it will be said perhaps that these Pictures and especially the Raree Show are not yet prov'd to be Colleges §. 4. The Libellous Pictures and Particularly the Raree Show prov'd to be Colleges MY Lord says College as to the Papers Charg'd upon me to be mine I declare I know not of them Tryal pag. 74. I cannot deny but that they were in my House but that I was the Author or did take them in is as great a Mistake as ever was made Ibid. I know nothing of the Printing of them nor was I the Author of them Ibid. I do declare I know nothing of the Original the Printer nor the Author p. 75. There 's a great deal more of this stuff in the Tryal to the same purpose but I shall lay no hold of any thing he says in his Defence save where he Confesses But it will be allow'd I hope that some weight might be laid upon what he delivers in that which is publish'd under the Title of A True Copy of the Dying Words of Mr. Stephen College left in Writing under his own hand and confirmed by him at the time of Execution Aug. 31. 1681. at Oxford Publish'd by his own Relations and Printed for Edith College As to the Printed Papers says he which Dugdaie produced in the Court I do declare I never saw them call'd the Raree Show and Intercepted Letter in his hand before that time the meaning of these words in his hand I do not understand and therefore could not and did not decypher any of the Pictures to him It 's utterly false I was not the Author of those Verses call'd the Raree Show neither do I know who was or the Printer or ever own'd my self the Author of either of them Papers to him in my life Now by this train of wild Circumlocutions a body would think that College had been wholly Innocent of any hand in the Promoting of that Scurrilous and Malicious Libel especially considering some passages of his in the other Speech that was Printed for T. Basset I take God to witness says he and do freely acknowledge I have sought my God with tears several times to inform me if so be I had with any Word transgressed at any time He does not find himself Guilty it seems of so much as one Word amiss but appears to
his Crime is the Question As for example There be some other Scandalous and Malicious Reports thrown upon me as that I should own all that was Sworn against me except Hains's Evidence and the like To all which I have been examined by Dr. Marshal whom the Bishop of Oxon did voluntarily send to me the day after I was Condemned and that Worthy and Pious Dr. Hall who came to me and from whom I received the Blessed Sacrament on Sunday last to whom I did make the same Confession and Acknowledgment as I have here Inserted particularly the which I do again affirm is Truth as I shall answer it to God Almighty Only I did acknowledge as my fault I did believe I might have been Guilty on some Occasions and in heat of talk to have uttered some words of Indecency not becoming my Duty concerning the King or his Council and if so I do beg their Pardon Now the Reader is left to his choice whether to understand ONLY as an Exception to the Truth of his Confession as who should say 'T is all True but that or to take it for an acknowledgment of having been Intemperate that way Or otherwise as a bare supposition as if he had said I do rather incline to think I might sometimes lash out that way but if I did it was in a Passion and if I ever did any such thing I ask their Pardon So that here 's nothing clear and open to answer either the expectation of the world or the duty of a Person in his Condition but only a wandring vein of Ambiguity and Incoherence to amuse the Reader and to perplex the Period Or if it means any thing else it bears only the Countenance of a faint acknowledgment of a Mildemeanor in a direct Contradiction to what he delivered by word of mouth at his death Confirming the Truth of what he Confesses in the One Paper and denys in the other in his own words with his last bâ—eath and sealing it with his dearest Blood It is with great unwillingness that I have enter'd upon this office but since the Faction has taken the freedom to arraign the Justice of the Nation on the behalf of this Pretended Innocent I reckon'd it my duty on the other hand to expose in some measure the Fraudulent Practices of the Pris'ner and I make no doubt but to Evince unto any man whatsoever that will but hear and attend Common Reason that over and above the Proofs and Circumstances that appear'd at his Tryal there is in these Sheets sufficient to make out the Credibility of his Accusation But in my way to the main bus'ness I shall give ye in the next Section some short touches of his disingenuous proceedings in other cases §. 5. Colleges Doublings and Mistakes about the Bus'ness of the Lady Rochester and Father Thompson and his Entertainment of Mr. Sergeant Some Notes upon the Evidence of Sir William Jennings and Mr. Masters and his Complaints of Ill Usage I shall not charge my self with a Critical Dissection of all Colleges Disguises and Mistakes but make my Observations upon such and so many of them as may serve for a Foundation to the Reader for some competent judgment upon the rest And first to the Report concerning the Lady Rochester It pass'd for current here in the Town that the Lady Rochester upon her Death-bed declar'd that College was the man who first brought the Priest to her that Perverted her to the Faith of the Church of Rome which being a thing true in it self is not unlikely to have been in such manner declar'd by the said Lady but whether it was or was not so it matters not But this Rumour however open'd all Peoples mouths about the Town that College was a Papist Upon his Report College pretended to purge himself of that Calumny in both the Speeches afore said formerly cited and first in that of Edith Colleges in these words 'T is Reported I should be the occasion of Perverting the Lady Rochester and brought a Priest to her one Tomson alias Conyers I deny it all I did was at the Request of the Earl of Rochester who gave me a Letter to deliver to him which I did but knew not the Contents neither did that Lady report any such thing of me at her death There be a great many other strange Reports that I have heard since I have been a Pris'ner That I should be a means to Convert the Countess of Rochester by bringing one Thompson a Priest to her Truly all that I was concern'd in was some fifteen or sixteen years ago I Lodged at Col. Vernors that Married the Lady Brooks The Family were Papists the Brooks's were Papists and there was this Thompson and I did suppose him a Priest in the House though I never saw him at Popish Service or Worship though I was there half a year but comeing afterwards to my Lord Rochester's about some business I had to do for him and several other Persons of Quality he sent for me one Afternoon from the Parsonage in Adderbury to his House and his Lady and he stood together He sent to me and asked me if my Horse were at home said he I would have you carry this Letter to Mr. Thompson if you are at leisure this Afternoon My Lord I am at leisure to serve you So I took a Letter from his hand and his Lady 's too as I remember he made an offer that way Sealed with his own Seal and carried it to Thompson and deliver'd it to him and he told me that he would wait upon my Lord for it was for some Lands my Lord did offer to raise money for some occasions This is the truth of that Scandal Note that in the former Speech he says all I did was c. and in the other All that I was concern'd in was c. And at the bottom This is the Truth of that Scandal Giving the Reader to understand by this way of delivering himself that he had spoken the Truth the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth so help him God Now to Confront these Peremptory Assertions of his It is certain that the day before the Lady Rochester fell sick she said that College was a Papist in the hearing of several Persons having said the same thing also before publiquely at the Table of a Lady in that Neighbourhood as will be sufficiently attested by many People of unexceptionable Credit living near the place if the matter shall be in such sort question'd as that it may be worth the while to prove it and that the persons concern'd in the Enquiry shall think fit to own their Names The ground of this Honourable Ladies mistake is supposed to have been the Zeal of Colleges Interessing himself in the good Offices of bringing the said Priest unto the Lady That which he says of carrying a Letter to Thompson upon such considerations and in such manner as he represents it is probably a Truth But it is
not as he renders it All that he did or All that he was concern'd in upon that affair for he has several times told a worthy Gentleman a Trustee to the Lord Rochester and divers others That he the said College being about Fourteen years since a Trooper under the Earl of Rochester my Lord imploy'd him to bring one Thompson a Priest to his Lady to draw her to the Romish Faith and that he brought him to my Lady several times and that by this Thompsons means she was perverted This will be prov'd if Insisted upon by several Persons of Worth and Credit in and about Bridgwater The Inducement to the employing of College upon this Errand was his being in League at that time with a Maid-Servant of my Ladies who was afterward his Second Wife and made use of as a Proper Instrument for the Obliging of College to a Service of that kind Nor was this the only Letter as may be undeniably prov'd that College carried upon that subject We 'l see now what he says to the bus'ness of Mr. Sergeant It 's said I Harbour'd Priests and Iesuits and they instance in one Sergeant who lay at my House in Carter-Lane Nine years since by the name of Dr. Smith a Doctor of Physick brought to me by one Monless an Apothecary in the Old Baily and one Mr. Field a Wollen-Draper within Ludgate and was there as a Dr. of Physick and I knew for no other Speech by Edith College It is said that I had a Priest several years in my House viz. Sergeant that came over from Holland to Discover About some ten years ago that very same man came to me but was a Stranger to me and he came to me by the name of Dr. Smith a Physitian and there was an Apothecary in the Old Bailey and a Linnen-Draper within Ludgate that came with him They brought him thither and took a Chamber and lay about half or three quarters of a year at times by the Name of Dr. Smith and as a Physitian This is the Truth of that and no otherwise This is the Entertainment of Sergeant Bassets Speech Upon the comparing of these two passages you will find in the former that he denys the Knowledge of Sergeant any further than as a Dr. of Physick and in the latter slips it over with saying only that he was a Stranger when he came to him Now it is a certain Truth and proveable beyond dispute so to be that College knew this Dr. of Physick to be Mr. Sergeant even while he Lodg'd in his House And then for the Draper whom he makes to be a Linnen-Draper in the one Speech and a Woollen in the other It is absolutely averr'd as I have it from a sure hand that this Draper never knew where Mr. Sergeant Lodg'd till he himself told him his Lodging Next to the bus'ness of Sir William Iennings and Mr. Masters it is remarkable that though he fenc'd and shifted upon his Tryal and takes express notice of them in his Speech Printed for Edith College yet he makes no particular mention of them at his last Speech by word of mouth notwithstanding the weight and effect which those Witnesses had with the Jury But in his Written Speech which was Published by his Relations you have these words As to what Mr. Masters Swore he was Vnjust to me in omitting that part of our discourse concerning the Parliament in Forty For when he Curs'd them and the Last Parliament at Westminster also and said they were alike and charged them in Forty with beginning the War and cutting off the Kings Head I denied both and said it was the Papists that began that War and the Death of the King was the Fatal Consequence of it which Mr. Charleton the Draper in Pouls Church-yard countessisse the discourse being at the further end of his Shop and he present into which Masters seeing me go came apace from towards his own Shop and as I believe on purpose to Quarrel with me for which God forgive him I shall have occasion by and by to handle this Point more at large So that no more needs to be said at present but that College has several times in Mr. Charletons Company Iustifi'd the Proceedings of 1641. and pronounced the King to be a Papist as Mr. Charleton I presume will easily call to mind if there should be any occasion to refresh his memory upon that subject And that which he says to Sir William Iennings likewise is no more than an Empty Cavil without any colour of a Defence To come now to the Ill Usage that he Complains of I was says he in his last Speech under most strange Circumstances as ever any man was I was kept Pris'ner so close in the Tower that I could have no Conversation with any though I was certain the Popish Lords had it every day there though I could have none I could not tell the Witnesses that were to Swear against me I could not tell what it was they Swore against me for I could have no Copy of the Indictment nor no way possible to make any preparation to make my defence as I ought to have done and might have done by Law I had no liberty to do any thing as I am a dying man Now for the Truth of this I shall refer the Reader to his Two Petitions to his Majesty the one of Iuly 28. and the other of August 11. prefix'd to his Tryal and two Orders of Council thereupon In the Former he prays that leave may be given to Mr. Thomas Smith and Mr. Robert West to come to him and also to have the use of Pen Ink and Paper in order only to make his Legal and Iust Defence and also to have the Comfort of seeing his two Children which was all granted him as he desired In his Second Petition of August 11. he makes a Preambular Acknowledgment in these following words In full assurance therefore of the great Iustice and Clemency of your Majesty and this Honourable Board which he hath lately had some Experience of and doth with all Humility and Thankfulness acknowledge c. And then he further prays Your Petitioner doth humbly beseech your Majesty and this Honourable Board that he may have a Copy of the Indictment against him or the particular Charges of it That his Council and Solicitor may have free Access to and private Conference with him and because their own private affairs or other accidents may call away some of his Council from his Assistance that Mr. Wallop Mr. Smith Mr. Thompson Mr. Datnel Mr. West of the Middle-Temple Mr. Holles of Lincolns-Inn Mr. Rotherham Mr. Lovel Mr. Rowny of Creys-Iun Mr. Pollexsin Mr. Ward of the Inner-Temple may be assign'd him for Council and Aaron Smith for his Sollicitor and that he may have a Copy of the Jurors to be return'd upon his Tryal some days before his Tryal Hereupon it was Order'd by his Majesty in Council That the Friends and Relations of Stephen