This Lamentably-Complaining Address the Old Vein I perceive of Popery and Calamity Conspiracy and Destruction runs quite thorough it And what Misery soever has either Threatn'd or Befall'n the King the Government the Church or the People is All-Charg'd upon the score of This Almighty Plot as the First Cause and Mover of it And which was the spite on 't no Averting of Those Impending Miseries but by the Kings Parting with his Honour his Crown Natural Affection Humanity Gratitude In short His Ministers His Friends His Prerogative Reasâ—n and Iustice 'T is Urg'd that the Councels were Evil and Destructive that Mov'd his Majesty to a Prorogation and Then to a Dissolution of the Foregoing Parliament How could it be Evil and Destructive in the Advising and not so in the Doing too Or what matters it whether it be done Without Advice or With it so long as the Venom of This Address Wounds the King Equally under the Cover of his Ministers The Want of That Advice and Resolution in the Parliament of One and Forty Cost the Royal Father his Life and the Son Probably upon such a Concession would not have come-off much Cheaper Unless it shall be Imagin'd that he might have found Better Quarter in the House then in the Field from the very same Persons that were Now in Councell and Afterwards in Arms against him It is pretended that the Commons were ready for the Tryal of the Five Lords at the Dissolution of the Last Parliament Now This was only Bubbling the Multitude for the Commons Themselves would not Yield to 't unless the Earl of Danby might be Try'd First But to say All in a word The King was Vndone if he did Not Prorogue and the Republicans if he Did. As to the Possibility of more Witnesses Coming in it cannot be Deny'd that according to the way of Summons that was then in Fashion the Common Iayles nay Newgate it Self in the Case of Prance were Consulted for Evidence and they could not well fail of as many Witnesses as either Malice Faction Countenance or Reward could Prevail upon to Forswear themselves But a Material Evidence it seems was lost by 't Bedloe they mean. A Fellow known for a Blasphemous Atheistical Wretch A Thief a Cheat and in fine a Scandal to the very Alms-Basket What a Dismal VNFORTVNATE Loss was This now of so Material an Evidence in Good Time upon the Plot in General which Material Evidence in the True Intent of it is no Other then a Rogue that would Swear any thing But against the Five Lords they say in Particular And if there had been Five times Fifteen Hundred more of them he should have Sworn against 'em All at the Same Price I can hardly look back upon the Parting Complement without Thinking of the Addresses and Declarations of One and Forty for the making of Charles the First a Glorious King they are so Very Very Alike But so much for the Bus'ness of Prerogative And now for the Other Great Point the Matter of Exclusion let the Bill Speak for it self 'T is Long But it Carries the Heart in the Face on 't and 't is Pity but Posterity should have it Entire The Bill amended as the House had order'd was read Intituled An Act for securing of the Protestant Religion by disabling James Duke of York to Inherit the Imperial Crown of England and Ireland and the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging WHEREAS James Duke of York is notoriously known to have been perverted from the Protestant to the Popish Religion whereby not only great Encouragement hath been given to the Popish Party to enter into and carry on most Devilish and Horrid Plots and Conspiracies for the Destruction of his Majesties Sacred Person and Government and for the Extirpation of the True Protestant Religion But also if the said Duke should succeed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm nothing is more manifest then that a Total Change of Religion within these Kingdoms would ensue For the prevention whereof Be it Enacted by the King 's most Excellent Majesty by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in present Parliament Assembled and by the Authority of the same that the said James Duke of York shall be and is by the Authority of this present Parliament Excluded and made for ever uncapable to Inherit Possess or Enjoy the Imperial Crown of this Realm and of the Kingdoms of Ireland and the Dominions and Territories to them or either of them belonging or to have exercise or enjoy any Dominion Power Iurisdiction or Authority in the same Kingdoms Dominions or any of them And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That if the said James Duke of York shall at any time hereafter Challenge Claim or attempt to possess or enjoy or shall take upon him to use or exercise any Dominion Power or Authority or Iurisdiction within the said Kingdoms or Dominions or any of them as King or chief Magistrate of the same That then he the said James Duke of York for every such offence shall be deemed and adjudged guilty of High Treason and shall suffer the Pains Penalties and Forfeitures as in case of High Treason And further that if any Person or Persons whatsoever shall assist or maintain abet or willingly adhere unto the said James Duke of York in such challenge claim or attempt or shall of themselves attempt or endeavour to put or bring the said James Duke of York into the Possession or Exercise of any Regal Power Iurisdiction or Authority within the Kingdoms and Dominions aforesaid or shall by Writing or Preaching advisedly publish maintain or declare That he hath any Right Title or Authority to the Office of King or Chief Magistrate of the Kingdoms and Dominions aforesaid That then every such Person shall be deemed and adjudged guilty of High Treason and that he suffer and undergo the pains penalties and forfeitures aforesaid And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid that he the said James Duke of York shall not at any time from and after the 5th of November 1680. return or come into or within any of the Kingdoms or Dominions aforesaid And then he the said James Duke of York shall be deemed and adjudged guilty of High Treason and shall suffer the pains penalties and forfeitures as in case of High Treason and further that if any Person or Persons whatsoever shall be aiding or assisting unto such return of the said James Duke of York that then every such person shall be deemed and adjudged guilty of High Treason and suffer as in cases of High Treason And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That he the said James Duke of York or any other Person being Guilty of any of the Treasons aforesaid shall not be capable of or receive benefit by any Pardon otherwise than by Act of Parliament wherein they shall be particularly named and that no Noli prosequi
Monarchy it self And here comes the Expedient My Lords and you the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons THat Royal Care which his Majesty hath taken for the general quiet and satisfaction of all his Subjects is now more evident by those new and fresh Instances of it which I have in Command to open to you His Majesty has Considered with himself that 't is not enough that your Religion and Liberty is secure during his own Reign but he thinks he owes it to his People to do all that in Him lies that these Blessings may be transmitted to your Posterity and so well secured to them that no Succession in After-ages may be able to work the least Alteration And therefore His Majesty who hath often said in This place that He is ready to consent to any Laws of this Kind so that the same extend not to Alter the Descent of the Crown in the Right Line nor to defeat the Succession hath now Commanded this to be further Explained And to the end it may never be in the power of any Papist if the Crown descend upon him to make any Change either in Church or State I am Commanded to tell you that his Majesty is willing that Provision may be made first to distinguish a Papist from a Protestant Successor then so to limit and circumscribe the Authority of a Popish Successor in these Cases following that he may be disabled to do any harm First In reference to the Church His Majesty is content that care be taken that all Ecclesiastical and Spiritual Benefices and Promotions in Gifts of the Crown may be conferred in such a manner that we may be sure the Incumbents shall always be of the most Pious and Learned Protestants And that no Popish Successour while he continue so may have any power to Controul such Presentments In reference to the State and Civil part of the Government as it is already provided that no Papist can Sit in either House of Parliament So the King is pleased that it be provided too That there may never want a Parliament when the King shall happen to Dye But that the Parliament then in Being may continue Indissolvable for a competent time Or if there be no Parliament in being then the last Parliament which was in being before that time may Re-Assemble and Sit a competent time without any New Summons or Election And as no Papist can by Law hold any place of Trust so the King is content that it may be further Provided That no Lords or other of the Privy Council no Iudges of the Common Law or in Chancery shall at any time during the Reign of any Popish Successor be put in or displaced but by the Authority of Parliament And that care also be taken that none but sincere Protestants may be Iustices of the Peace In Reference to the Military part the King is willing That no Lord-Lieutenant or Deputy-Lieutenant nor no Officer in the Navy during the Reign of any Popish Successor be put out or removed but either by Authority of Parliament or of such Persons as the Parliament shall intrust with such Authority 'T is hard to invent another Restraint to be put upon a Popish Successor considering how much the Revenue of the Successor will depend upon consent of Parliament and how impossible it is to raise Money without such Consent But yet if any thing can else occur to the Wisdom of the Parliament which may further secure Religion and Liberty against a Popish Successor without defeating the Right of Succession it self His Majesty will most readily Consent to it Thus Watchfull is the King for all your safety and if he could think of any thing else that you do either want or wish to make you happy he would make it his Business to effect it for you God Almighty Long continue this Blessed Vnion between the King and his Parliament and People NOt to Descant beyond Good Manners upon this Wonderfull Offer The Government seem'd now Cross or Pile whether it should be a Monarchy or a Common-Wealth But all Treating and Propounding pass'd with them for Dodging So that they put-off the Consideration of it Day after Day till the 11 th of May following and Then upon a Sundays Uote they came to a Resolution of having A Bill brought in to Disable the Duke of York to Inherit the Imperial Crown of This Realm Which was follow'd with the Revenging Vote in the Tayle on 't Now this was rather a Mockery then an Answer and a Proceeding that had more of Haughtiness and Insolence then of Prudence for it was their Interest to have been more Mannerly and Modest But their Bus'ness was Matter of Power and Command not Grievance and Redress and the Kings Complyances in this Matter were Worse then Flat Denyals For the more He Yielded the Harder They Press'd him and the Inference was Reasonable Enough from the Gaining of One thing after Another by Importunity to the getting of All at Last In short they had set their Hearts upon the Exclusion and their Reputations too were so far at Stake upon 't that the Carrying of That Point Either way was a kind of Victory on the One side or on the Other They had said they Would have it they had Tun'd the People to the Expectation of it and therefore Have it they Muâ—t Insomuch that More any Other way seem'd Less to 'em For to be Refus'd and to sit down with That Repulse would have been to Lose Ground And they were upon Any Terms to Uphold the Credit of their Authority and rhe Reason of their Demands as well as the Opinion of their Power Delays are Hazzardous and they were rather for One Kingdom in Hand then Two or Three in Reversion upon the Emprovement of the Project But they reckon'd without their Host it seems for that Bout and so left the Stage and the Debate Re Infecta UPON the Meeting of the Next Parliament they Open'd a little Wider Declaring in an Address of December 21. 1680. That in Truth the Exclusion Alone would not do the Bus'ness without an Association to Back it Nay and This was not sufficient neither for As some further means says the Same Address for the Preservation both of our Religion and Property We are humble Suitors to your Majesty that from hence-forth Such Persons only may be Judges c. And so it proceeds to the Purging and Regulating of Courts of Iustice the Choice of Lord-Lieutenants Deputy-Leutenants and Iustices of the Peace Military Officers both at Sea and Land with an Express Exception all this while to Men of Arbitrary Principles and Countenancers of Papists and Popery c. That is to say Always Excepted the Pernicious Advisers of Proroguing Parliaments and Rejecting Bills of Exclusion So that in fine the Devil a Dram of Popery was here to be found upon the Foot of This Account nor any thing else but Sedition under a Masque
against Sr. W. Scroggs as One Article Ingredient to the making up of his Treasons Now certainly there was something Extraordinary in 't that more then That Number of Noble Lords should be Declared Pernicious Advisers Promoters of Popery and Enemies to the King and Kingdom for only Ioyning with the King Himself in Opinion against the Exclusion And that the Same Persons should Arraign the One that Brought-off the Other So Mortal a Sin was it accounted in Those days to Serve the Crown and the Royal Family and so Venial a Slip to Endeavour the Overturning of the Government I do not remember so much as any One Instance that Vary'd from This Rule And never was any thing so Constant that came by Chance To give These Political Operators their Due there was Nothing Wanting to their Purposes that either Fraud Industry Confidence or Hypocrisy could Furnish They made the People afraid of Infallibility and Arbitrary Power and at the Same Time look'd them in the very Faces while they Assum'd the One and Practis'd the Other Themselves the Former under the Authority of the Wisedom of the Nation and the Latter in the Right of the Commons of England For Every Vote was in Effect a Sentence of Law Reason and Power Sovereign Absolute and without Controll And it was but saying that This or That Is at This Time Grievous to the Subject a Weak'ning of the Protestant Interest an Encouragement to Popery and Dangerous to the Peace of the Kingdom to make the Resolution Authentique with a Non Obstante of never so many Laws to the Contrary If a Vote say that the King Cannot Pardon That Subjects shall not lend him Money Or That the Refusal of the Lords to Proceed in Parliament upon the Commons Impeachments of any Peer or Commoner for Treason or any other Crime or Misdemeanour is a Denial of Iustice and a Uiolation of the Constitution of Parliaments Here 's the King Law and Lords Over-rul'd and the Votes made Presidents Cited and Pleaded for the Prerogative of the House of Commons in all the Clubs or which is the same Thing the Peoples Courts of Iustice throughout the Three Kingdoms And it could not well be Other so long as Green-Ribbon-Committees and Caballs Without doors had such an Influence upon what pass'd Within and that the Principal Managers of Otes'es Plot were the very Oracles that were Consulted for Direction and Resolution upon All the Conspiracies that were then in Agitation These Evidences upon the Transactions of the House it self drawn from the Prints that they Themselves Order'd to be Publish'd and that were Publish'd accordingly as an Appeal to the Whole World in Iustification of their Proceedings and to Prevent False Copies and Reports These very Papers are the Evidences as their Unlucky Starrs would have it that are now Arisen in Iudgment 1against them and Faithfully Deliver'd-over to Succeeding Times as the Only Sure Means of Vnriddling the Mystery of This Wonderfull Intrigue And certainly No better way to let the Reader into the Secrets of This Affair then by the Key it self that was Made Originally to the Cypher I Have by this Time Trac'd the Likelyhoods of a Deliberated Design upon the King Church and State thorough all the Steps of Probability and Strong Presumption up to the Highest Degree of Certainty and Demonstration Were not All the Violent Asserters of the Duke of Monmouth's Pretended Interest and the Opposers of the Indubitable Right of his Royal Highness Embarqu'd in the Same Bottom of Enmity to the Government and of Kindness to the Faction How many were there in Both Houses that had the Same Hearts towards the King in a Committee of Parliament that they had afterward in a Clubb or in an Army And still Otes'es Plot the Support of All their Pretences And what was the Countenance of That Plot at Last but that the King was in Danger of being Assassinated by the Papists and therefore the Posse of the Three Kingdoms was to be Rais'd to Prevent that Murther Now whoever Believes That Story to be True must of Necessity draw this Conclusion from it That the Same People Stickled for the Saving of the King at Whitehall that were for the Killing of him in the West That is to say unless they can Bear the World down that there was No Rebellion Or that None of the Leading Members of Either House were Concern'd in 't but for That there was never any thing made Plainer then This Affirmative not onely from the Mouths of their Confederates but from the Confessions of the very Parties Themselves For the Truth of This I may further Remit my self to Divers Proclamations Declarations and Other Acts of State that have been Issued out by the Order and Authority of the Late Blessed King and of his Sacred Majesty that is now in Being But as a Supplemental Explanatory to All the Rest the Paper of Association that was found in the Late Earl of Shaftsburies Closet and Prov'd upon him if ever Light it self was made Manifest That Paper I say may serve without any Violence to the Text for a Comment upon All the Dark Passages of That History for it is in the Frame Order and Matter of it no other then a Compendious Abstract of the Debates and Resolutions that had pass'd the Commons upon the bus'ness of the Plot and the Succession Insomuch that there is hardly a Syllable of any Moment in the One that is not Answer'd and Eccho'd in the Other and whoever Lick'd it into Form the Project was the Cubb of a Close-Committee and it was kept in Reserve for a Forc'd-Put The French Holy League was look'd upon in those days as a Master-piece but the Devil was as yet a Novice The Scotch and English Holy League and Covenant came an Age Later into the World and Refin'd upon the French One and Then some Forty Year after that came the Noble Peers Association that Out-did them Both. But there 's no Reading upon 't 'till we have the Piece it self Before us in its own Dimensions Words and Colours The Paper which was Seized in the E. of Shaftsbury's Closet by Francis Gwin Esquire One of the Clerks of His Majesties Privy-Council and Read November 24. 1681. at the Old-Baily before His Majesties Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer WE the Knights c. Finding to the grief of our Hearts the Popish Priests and Iesuits with the Papists and their Adherents and Abetters have for several years last past pursued a most pernicious and Hellish Plot to root out the true Protestant Religion as a pestilent Heresie to take away the Life of our Gracious King to subvert our Laws and Liberties and to set up Arbitrary Power and Popery 2. And it being Notorious that they have been highly encouraged by the Countenance and Protection given and procured for them by J. D. of Y. and by their expectations of his succeeding to the Crown and that through crafty Popish Councils his
Study'd and Endeavour'd to Prevent and Avoid are Done on the One Hand and falln upon us on the Other That is to say an Vnruly Zeal has brought us to the Sight of our Error and the man is Blind that does not by this Time Reade his Mistake in his Punishment Without any more ado Hinc Illae Lachrymae But it is My Fortune still to bear the Burden of Other Peoples Faults while They if I may set the Truth against the Vanity Reap the Fruit and the Credit of My Services How have I been Loaden with Reproaches of being Popishly-Affected for Advising the Surest the Fairest and the most Christian way of doing Right Honour and Iustice to the Church of England while Those very People set-up for the Pillars of the Protestant Religion whose Heats and Intemperances have the most Endanger'd it I Write and Speak my Mind with the same Singleness of Meaning and Simplicity of Thought at This Day that Ever I did and I do not find in the Change of my Master any Change in the Tye of my Allegiance I reckon my self Bound by the Laws of God and in Common Decency Prudence and Duty to Preserve a Right Vnderstadning betwixt my Religion and matter of Civil Obedience and Respect The Divine does not Discharge the Subject neither does Christianity pretend to Cross the Measures to Trouble the Peace or to Thwart the Order of Government The Frame of a Political Body is as Nice and Delicate as That of a piece of Clock-work It will hardly endure so much as Breathing upon It must be kept Clean as well as Whole and from Dust or Cankering as well as from Falls and Bruises For Scandal is a Step toward Sedition and the Blackening of a Prince in his Reputation is next door to Drawing Bloud of him A man can hardly make Subjects Think amiss of their Sovereign without Disposing them to Vndutifull Actions too and there are Ways of Calumniating so Artificial and so Effectual that the Greatest Mischief in the World seems to be done Many times for Gods sake and the Irreverence to be Hallow'd by Scripture and by Conscience Common Men will not bear the Assront of being told that there are none but Knaves and Fools of their Opinion But yet at the same Time there will be No Exception taken at Mens Supporting their Own Sense of Things without Falling Foul upon Differing Iudgments The Question is whether I 'me in the Right not whether Another is in the Wrong or No. And 't is the Part of a Sober Man to keep himself within his Own Province 'T is so far from Meritorious Modest Charitable or Discreet for Men that set-up for the Reputation of a Protestant Zeal and Purity to be still Crying-out upon the Comparison Lord we are not as the Idolatrous Perfidious and King-Killing Papists that our Saviour in the Parable of the Phaâ—isee has Expresly set forth for our Instruction his uttermost Abhorrence of those Boasting Services and Vncharitable Devotions Lord I do This and I do That he Cries and Lord I am not as Other Men Are nor even as This Publican Why here 's a kind of a Iustification by Works without either Grace Faith or Good-manners and a Religious Pretext Advanc'd upon the Ruins of Brotherly Love. But as I was a saying can it be Imagin'd that a Prince will bear That from a Subject that One Private Man will not Endure from Another There 's no Libell so Bitter so Moving so Provoking and so Contemptuous withall as the Wounding of a King by a Figure The Addresses of some of his Late Majesties Parliaments were Master-pieces that way Now the thing that I Labour'd upon the Last Great Change of Staâ—e both by Reasoning Industry and the most Pressing Application of Councels and Interest was the doing of All that was Possible to make the People Think Well of the Church of England without Lashing-out against the Church of Rome Especially upon Those Capital Points that are commonly made use of to Transport the Multitude beyond all Terms of Honesty Moderation and Patience Such as Idolatry for the purpose where Every Cobler shall bring ye so many Texts against Idols Put in for a Reformer and make himself Iudge of the Controversy Now upon the Truth of the Matter the Managing of a Religion is in this Case a Political Point as it Influences the Affections of the Common People with a Regard to the Honour of the Prince the Peace and the Well-being of the State. Hard Words upon the Articles of the Sovereigns Persuasion cannot but Glance Hard Thoughts upon his Person And there can scarcely be a Scorn or an Odium Reflected upon the One that does not Reach the Other and Consequently Expose the Publique to a very Great Risque without doing any manner of Good Beside that it is no longer Religion as I have Touch'd upon 't already but a Spice of Faction to Irritate and Whip-up the Mobile into a Violent Aversion for any thing that they do not Vnderstand 'T is a Dangerous Practice to make them the Iudges in the Point for they 'l be taking the Same Liberty with Arbitrary Power that they do with Popery and make themselves Arbitrators in matters as well of State as of Religion and All upon the License and Encouragement of Intermedling in things of Government which they have no Skill in The Lesson and the Advice of Alaham to Heli in a Tragedy of the Lord Brooks falls Extremely pat to This Purpose and I cannot Close-up the Topique Better then with a Passage in 't that I have now in my hand Alaham was upon a Design to Overturn the State He gives Heli his Instructions what to do toward it and the World could not have thought of a Surer or a Readâ—er Way for the Compassing of his End. The Discourse follows Alaham. Misfortune Piec'd grows more Vnfortunaâ—â— And Parents Laws must Yield to Laws of State. Heli. Then see the Means For though the End were Good Yet for a Private man to Change a State With Monarchs Sleights to Alter Monarchy Seems Hard if not Impossible to Mee Alaham. Impossible is but the Faith of Fear To make Hope Easy fetch Belief elsewhere Yet lest These Sparks rak'd-up in Hollow Hearts Should spread and Burn before their Fury show Keep on the Course which you have US'D to go Preach you with Fiery Tongue Distinguish Might Tyrants from Kings Duties in Question bring 'Twixt God and Man where Power INFINITE Compar'd makes FINITE Power a Scornfull Thing Safely so Craft may with the Truth give Light To Iudge of Crowns without Enammelling And bring Contempt upon the Monarchs State Where Streight Unhallowd ' Power has Peoples Hate Glance at Prerogatives Indefinite Tax Customs Wars and Laws all-Gathering Censure Kings Faults their Spies and Favourites Holyness has a Privilege to Sting Men be not Wise Bitterness from Zeal of Spirit Is hardly Iudg'd the Envy of a King Makes People LIKE Reproof of Majesty Where GOD seems GREAT in
the Multitude My Iobb had been done and All my Discoveries of their Treasonous and Seditious Plots and Conjurations would have been so much Breath thrown into the Air and Three or Four Thousand Rheme of Papeâ— Condemn'd to the Necessary House No No! True-Protestant-Otes and Bedloe were Hard and Shot-free against any Popish Silver Bullets Screw'd-Guns or Daggers And their Knights of the Post Their Sham-Plot Their White-Horse-Consults Their Somerset-Hoâ—se-Adventures were True-Protestant-Rogueries that Câ—uld only be Blown-up and Confounded by a Church-Pâ—otestant Hand In fine If they could but have made-â—â—t the Proofs of the Plot half so well as I have made-out the Reasons why they would have Me to be a Papist they might have gone-on for ought I know in a Comfortable way of Drawing Hanging and Quartering in Saecula Saeculorum Since the Finishing of the Paragraph next above and with the Pen yet in my Hand came a Gentleman to me with a Fresh Piece of Intelligence which is that I have taken Pet at the Toleration and thrown-up my Observator because Things would not Work My Way and I have lost All my Friends at Court upon 't Now the Malice of this Suggestion is well enough Apply'd but the Story Groundless and the very Pinch of the Case Monstrously Mistaken For my Discourses upon Toleration have not been made a Question of Religion but of Government and the Main Point in Debate has been This Whether Liberty of Conscience be a Challenge in the Right of the People or an Act of Grace and Indulgence Issuing from the Prerogative of the Supreme Magistrate My Conclusion runs throughout in favour of the Latter and bears an Exact Conformity to the Present Resolutions of State. As for Example All Indulgences In or About Externals in Religious Matters Saving in Cases of Stipulation Laws Promises and the like are Meerly Gratuitous and Wholly Dependent upon the Grace Will and Pleasure of the Civil Magistrate And once again now This does not yet Hinder the Right of the Civil Magistrate to Interpose in such Indulgences as may Stand with the Peace and Safety of his Dominions Nay and I am Persuaded that over and above the Natural Softnesses of Generosity and Good Nature there are other Inducements to it that are yet Stronger and Founded upon Principles of Piety Religion it self Civil Prudence and Honourable Justâ—â—e But where the Subject Challenges Those Graces and Diâ—pensations as of Right belonging to the People theâ— are not Worthy of them Neither Effectually have they any Title to them For when they come to Struggle once for That as a Due which is onely a Grace 't is no longer a Question of Conscience but a Competition for Power And a Prince cannot Grant any Indulgence upon those Terms without Maâ—ming his Prerogative and the Cession of an Incommunicable Prâ—vâ—â—ege of his Crown This is the Doctrine that runs thorough All my Writings upon This Argument and they are Open for any man to Examine and if he Can to Disprove what I say Though 't is a little Hard methinks for one to be put to Vindications and Defences thus In Season and out of Season and 't is not Every man's Body neither that will Endure the Stripping and a Reading upon 't in the Market-place But after All This Warmth now let me go-off like a Christian. I Forgive the Whole World All the Willfull Deliberate and Malicious Lies that any of the Wicked Part of it have told of me with all their Scurrilities and Inferiour Slanders over and above But I cannot so easily Forget them and I Phansy I shall hardly ever Trust ' em I have not the least Vnkind Impression for those that have Reported the Ill-Things they have Heard of me without Knowing me And for the Rest So help me God as I have No Thought or Wish of Revenge in the Heart of me I have drawn out This Preface to a Length much beyond the Measure that I Propos'd to my self And since I am Dipt thus far in the Merits of the Main Case I 'le throw out my Hand and Contract into This Preamble the Substance and Marrow of what I had Design'd for a larger Discourse We have had several Essays by Snaps here and there as the Author pleas'd upon Divers Walks of the Plot but little has been done as yet to the framing of a Iust and Formal History of it or to the laying of the Axe to the Root There are in the Three Parts of These Observators more Remarques upon the Train the Conduct and the Dependencies with the Characters of the Witnesses and of the Patrons of it then are perhaps to be found any where else As in the Contradictions of Otes upon the Main Plot and so of Prance Bedloe c. about the Murder of Sir Edmund-Bury-Godfrey But there was so much Picking-Work in the Case so much Puzzle in the Comparing of Evidences Times Places and Persons such a Latitude left for Exception Distinction Evasion Partiality of Comment and Interpretation So much Allowance for Pretext of Surprizes Slips of Memory c. and upon the Whole so strong a Prepossession in Favour of the Plot and Against any man that should presume to Thwart it that People were Believ'd without Opening their Mouths and Taught their Lessons before-hand for fear they should be Out in their Enformations They had their Rolls and Private Practices by Themselves before ever they came to Play their Parts in Publique for Good and All. So that upon the Whole Truth was as good as Gagg'd and the Plot insurâ—d and a Conscientious Evidence against an Affidavit-man was in much more danger of a Gibbet then the Other of a Pillory for there needed no more then a Good Round Oath and a Trusty Second fortify'd with the Vnaccountable Inferences of an Ambulatory Committee to do any Honest man's Bus'ness and Oaths by This time were Grown as Cheap as Stinking Mackrel The Imposture was Christen'd a Narrative or a Discovery and the Impostors Themselves according to a True-Protestant Heraldry were styl'd the Saviours of the Nation A man could not say Black was Ote'es Eye but he was made an Invalidater of the King's Evidence A Ridiculer of the Damnable Hellish Popish Conspiracy His Mouth Stopt with Votes and Proclamations and in Danger of a Councel for Arraigning Four Parliaments and the Wisedom of the Nation In few words Such was the Awe and the Power of the Faction and such the Tyranny of That Season that there is no Perfect Memorial to be Expected of Those Times and whoever should take upon him to Gather-up and put together the very Imperfections and Fragments of That History would find Work enough for an Age And Matter enough for the Bulk of the Book of Martyrs Sixteen times over Beside the Squabbles that would arise upon the Variae Lectiones and the Impossibility of Reconciling Several Doctors Opinions for want of Authentique Papers and Instruments to proceed by But though the Maddest Creature in Moor Fields would
him to get acquainted among the Papists and when he had done so then my Father told him there had been many Plots in England to bring in Popery and if he would go over among the Jesuits and Observe their ways it was possible it might be One now and if he could make it out it would be his Preferment for ever But however if he could get their Names and a little Acquaintance from the Papists it would be an Easy matter to stir up the People to fear Popery And again My Father and He Dr. Otes went and Lodg'd at Fox-Hall at one Lamberts a Bell-Founder which House was call'd by the Neighbours the Plot-House And there Otes 's Narrative was Written whereof several Copies were Written very Different from the Other and the Four Jesuits Letters wherein Oates pretended was the whole Discovery were Counterfeits c. To the Instances above I shall Add One More for the Further Reputation of All the Rest which is That when Otes'es Credit ran High and the Faction as Bold as Ever upon May the 15. 1682. I Publish'd This Following Advertisement And it went down without either Check or Controll If any Man Woman or Child will be so Kind and Generous as out of an Affection to the Protestant Religion and the Vindication of Dr. Otes to call Simpson Tonge to a Legal Account for Endeavouring to Destroy the Credit of the said Doctor and his Evidence by Scandalous Reflexions upon Both Roger L'Estrange does hereby offer Himself out of a Zeal to the Publique Good to Furnish Authentique Papers and Memorials toward the Prosecution of the Work. THe Whole Party were as Mute as Fishes after This Publication which they would never have been if they durst have put the Reputation of Otes'es Evidence to the Test. To say Nothing of the Congruity betwixt the Method and the Drift of their Open Proceedings in the Case and the Scope of Tonge's Private Enformations For the Father and Otes Acted the Same Part before the Commons which Young Tonge said they did betwixt Themselves and the Mortal Malice of the Cabal struck at the Duke of York too just according to the Report of His Papers Insomuch that while His Royal Highness was Wounded for the Pretended Sake of the Roman-Catholiques The Romanists Themselves were likewise to be Sacrific'd for the sake of the Duke of York and Both for the Common Interest of the Change they Design'd After this Preparatory to a General Vnderstanding of the Case here under Consideration it will be Proper and Needfull to set forth what such a Plot Is before I come to a Resolution that This Damnable Hellish Popish Thing of Otes'es was in Truth such a Plot That is to say a Plot upon the Life of the King The Frame of the Government and the Destruction of the Protestant Religion And to This End Parliamentary Uotes will be as Good in Payment I hope as Fox-Hall Narratives and as Current in the Uindication oâ— the Royal Family as the Other were to the Defaming of it The Plot-Faction Design'd the Ruine of the Late King and to Compass it by leaving him neither MONY POWER CREDIT nor FRIENDS WHat 's a Prince I would fain know without MONY without POWER without CREDIT without FRIENDS And what are Those People that Endeavour to Robb and to Strip their Sovereign of All These Necessary Supports Or what can any man do More toward the Execution of the Malice of the Pretended Popish Plot then to enter into a League and to Ioyn in a Conspiracy to All These Execrable Ends If the Project of doing All This may be call'd a Plot If to Labour the Doing of it be to be In a Plot And if This was upon the Wheel and Actually a Doing by Otes and his Confederates and Founded upon His Counterfeit Plot too And if I make All This Out from Publique Acts and Orders as Credible as Records the Question and the Reputation of This Sham is at an End for Ever And so I shall Proceed to the Four Heads above mentioned in Course as they lye No Mony. AS to the Matter of MONY How many Addresses were made by a Prevalent Majority of the House of Commons for Reward to the Discoverers of Godfrey's Murder Five Hundred Pound Reward to Bedloe Dangerfield to be Pardon'd and Rewarded And so for Turberville Bourk Sampson Macknamarra Eustace Commins c. Beside the Horrible Charge of Pensions for the Entertainment of Otes Bedloe Dugdale and Forty more But after all these Expences not a Penny to be either Supply'd by Bill or so much as Borrow'd upon Anticipations unless upon Terms Worse then Death as by These following Votes will Appear Resolved That his Majesty in his Last Message having Assured This House of his Readiness to Concurr in all other Means for the Preservation of the Protestant Religion This House doth Declare that untill a Bill be likewise passed for Excluding the Duke of York this House cannot give any Supply to his Majesty without Danger to his Majesties Person Extreme Hazzard of the Protestant Religion and Vnfaithfulness to Those by whom This House is Intrusted Resolved That whosoever shall hereafter Lend or Cause to be Lent by way of Advance any MONY upon the Branches of the King's Revenue arising by Customs Excise or Hearth-Mony shall be Adjudged to Hinder the Sitting of Parliaments and shall be Responsible for the same in Parliament Resolved That whosoever shall Accept or Buy any Tally of Anticipation upon any Part of the Kings Revenue or whosoever shall pay such Tally hereafter to be Struck shall be Adjudged to hinder the Sittings of Parliaments and shall be Responsible therefore in Parliament In the Address of Decem. 21. 1680. The Commons Insist upon the Excluding of the Duke of York and an Act of Association Or otherwise see what Follows Without these Things the Allyances of England will not be Valuable nor the People Encourag'd to Contribute to your Majesties Service From hence it does abundantly Appear that his Late Majesty was Driven upon Expence and Hinder'd of Supplys by All Arts and Shifts Imaginable and the Readiest way of finding to what End All this was done will be to look into the Grounds and Reasons of their so doing The Lords sent down a Vote to the House of Commons for their Concurrence Declaring that their Lordships were fully Satisfy'd that there was a Horrid and a Treasonable Plot Carry'd-on by the Papists in Ireland Unto which Vote the Commons Agreed with an Addition in Manner Following This House does Agree with the Lords in the said Vote with the Addition of These Words That the Duke of York being a Papist and the Expectation of his Coming to the Crown hath given the Greatest Countenance and Encouragement thereto the Irish Plot that is as well as to the Horrid Popish Plot in This Kingdom of England Resolved That it is the Opinion of This House that there
is no Security or Safety for the Protestant Religion the King's Life or the Well-Constituted and Established Government of This Kingdom without Passing a Bill for Disabling James Duke of York to Inherit the Imperial Crown of England and Ireland and the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging and to Rely upon any other Means and Remedies without such a Bill is not only Insufficient but Dangerous Here 's the Horrid Popish English Plot made the Ground for the Excluding of the Duke and keeping the King short of Mony according to the Intent of the Votes of Ian. 7. 1680. above-mention'd And That 's made the Foundation likewise for the Refusal in the Address before-Cited in the very Syllables of the said Address That your Majesties Sacred Life is in Continual Danger under the Prospect of a Popish Successor is Evident not only from the Principles of Those Devoted to the Church of Rome but also from the Testimonies Given in the Prosecution of the Horrid Popish Plot against Divers Traytors Attainted for Designing to put Those Accursed Principles into Practice against your Majesty There needs no Subtlety of Quirking or Reasoning upon this Case of MONY the Spite of it lying so Open that Every Common Eye sees thorough it and that the Terms the Republican Cabal Treated upon in some of those Parliaments were no other then a Tryal of Skill to see if they could bring his Late Majesty to a Composition for his Crown For the King was to have No Mony but upon Conditions of Disinheriting his Brother and more yet as I shall shew in Due Place Contrary to all the Tyes of Conscience Gratitude Iustice and Prudence And All for fear of a Damnable Hellish Popish Plot. We shall see now how they Dealt with his Majesty likewise in the Matter of Power No Power THE Power of a Prince Exerts it self in the Means of an Ample Revenue to Answer all the Necessities of the Crown to Pay his Troups and to Reward Honourable Services In the Privileges of Sovereign Authority the Love and the Reputation that he has in the Hearts of his People In the Arms of his Militia the Command of his Subjects and the Chearfull Obedience of his Friends They had allready Maim'd and Disabled his Late Sacred Majesty in the First Great Point of his Revenue That which comes-on Next is to see how they dealt with him in respect of his Power of Prerogative in General and as to his Forces both by Land and by Sea in Particular and whether the whole Proceeding was not still Grounded upon the Damnable Bug-bear of the Popish Plot. How they us'd him upon the Matter of his Credit and Friends shall come-on in due Time. But to Proceed now to an Enquiry how they handled him upon the Subject of his Prerogative First in the Case of the Earl of Danby The Kings Prerogative of Pardoning Question'd REsolved That an Humble Address be made to His Majesty Representing to his Majesty the Irregularity and Illegality of the Pardon mentioned by his Majesty to be Granted to the Earl of Danby and the Dangerous Consequence of Granting Pardons to Any Persons that lie under an Impeachment of the Commons of England Here 's the Kings Power of Life and Death shaken at the very Root and what 's the Unpardonable Crime at last but This among Others That he is Popishly-Affected and hath Trayterously Conceal'd after he had Notice of the Late Horrid Plot or Conspiracy Contrived by the Papists against his Majesties Person and Government and hath Suppress'd the Evidence and Reproachfully Discountenanced the Kings Witnesses in the Discovery of it in favour of Popery Immediately tending to the Destruction of the Kings Sacred Person and Subversion of the Protestant Religion There happen'd no Evil under the Sun in those Days but the Late Horrid Plot or somewhat like it had still a Finger in the Pye But from Pardoning in my Lord Danby's Case they proceeded afterward to a Bolder Step in my Lord Staffords and to make a Moot-Point of it whether the King by his Prerogative could so much as Remit any Part of the Sentence but Sir W. I. gave his Opinion upon 't in Favour of the Prerogative upon a very Weighty Reason This House says he lyeth not under any Obligation to Offer at any Opposition nor concern themselves herein Especially at This Time when such a Dispute may End in Preventing of the Execution of the said Lord Stafford And therefore I do humbly Conceive you may do well to give your Consent that the said Writ be Executed according to its Tenor. The Short of the Bus'ness was This Sentence of Death was pass'd in Form upon my Lord Stafford and the Kings Writ to the Sheriffs Commanded only his Head to be Sever'd from his Body Bethel and Cornish the then Sheriffs of London and Middlesex Apply'd themselves by Petition to the Lords to know whether they should Obey the Writ or Not The Lords found the Scruples Vnnecessary and Declar'd That the Kings Writ ought to be Obey'd After this to the Commons Stating the Matter under These Four Following Quaeries I speak upon the Credit of the Collection of Debates above-mention'd 1. Whether the King being neither Iudge nor Party can Order the Execution 2. Whether the Lords can award Execution 3. Whether the King can Dispense with any part of the Execution 4. If the King can Dispense with some part of the Execution why not with All Upon the Debate it was in the Conclusion Resolved That This House is CONTENT That is to say it does VOVCHSAFE and with MVCH A-DO too that the Sheriffs of London and Middlesex do Execute William Late Viscount Stafford by Severing his Head from his Body only The Story of these Insolencies will never be Believ'd in After-Ages but however we are upon the Foot still of the Trayterous and Execrable Conspiracy for the Imprisoning Deposing and Murdering his Sacred Majesty and the Raising and Disposing of Men Monys Arms and other Things Necessary for their Wicked and Trayterous Designs and Namely a Commission for William Viscount Stafford to be Paymaster of the Army HEre 's a Dreadfull Bus'ness as the Good Woman said about this same Trayterous and Execrable Conspiracy Pray the Lord it be all True at Last for the Government was Mightily off the Hinges about it and the Fountain of Mercy and Power seem'd to be quite Dry'd-up The Sheriffs were become the Peoples Officers and the Commons made Iudges of the Validity of the King 's Writ The Style of Authority was no longer We Charge and Command but Resolv'd upon the Question and the Power of the Keys dropt into St. Stephens Chapel Parliamentary as well as Pardoning Power Encroch'd upon AND that they might not seem Partial to One Prerogative more then Another They struck at the King's Power of Parliaments as well as of Pardons and finding that an Everlasting Parliament Agreed so well with their Predecessors
they had a Months-mind to make Tryal of the Same Experiment Themselves too as may be seen by the By in their Parliamentary Addresses and Votes but most Expresly in the Throng of Popular Addresses to his Majesty and in the Libel of Vox Patriae where so many of the Members got themselves Address'd to in a kind of an Association to That very purpose As for Example In the Address against Sir George Ieffreys the Earl of Hallifax and several Votes upon the same Occasion We your Majesties most Dutifull c. in hopes to bring the Popish Conspirators to speedy Iustice were about to Petition to your Majesty in an Humble Dutifull and Legal Way for the Sitting of This Parliament c. And so again We c. being deeply sensible of the Manifold Dangers and Mischiefs which have been Occasion'd to This your Kingdom by the Dissolution of the Last Parliament and by the Frequent Prorogations of This Parliament whereby the Papists have been Greatly Encouraged to Carry on their Hellish and Damnable Conspiracies c. Resolved That Whosoever Advised his Majesty to Prorogue This Parliament to Any Other purpose then in Order to the Passing of a Bill for the Exclusion of James Duke of York is a Betrayer of the King the Protestant Religion and of the Kingdom of England a Promoter of the French Interest and a Pensioner to France What is All This but Overturning and Overturning Confusion like Waves following One upon the Back of Another and the Cabal so Intoxicated with Passion in the Logick of This Last Vote that the very Despite of being Defeated made them Forget their Ordinary Prudence For the Conclusion is never to be Reconcil'd to the Premisses All that can be said for This Worrying Vote is that they were then in their Last Agonies for they were That Day Prorogu'd from the aforesaid 10th of Ianuary to the 20th in Order to a Dissolution And in All Mischievous Creatures the Convulsions of Death are ever the Strongest But for the Rolls of the Written Addresses of Those Days they are most of them Peremptory for Sitting 'till they might be Effectually Secur'd and That 's One Main Condition too of the Countrys Addresses to their Members And the Address of Sir Patience Ward then Lord-Mayor c. to his Majesty Himself Your Petitioners were Extremely Surpriz'd at the Late Prorogation whereby the Prosecution of the Publique Iustice of the Kingdom and the Making the Provisions Necessary for the Preservation of your Majesty and your Protestant Subjects hath received an Interruption c. They do therefore most Humbly pray c. That the said Parliament may Sit from the Day to which they are Prorogued untill by their Councels and Endeavours Those Good Remedies shall be Provided and Those Iust Ends Attained upon which the Safety of your Majesties Person The Preservation of the Protestant Religion The Peace and Settlement of your Kingdoms and the Welfare of This your Ancient City do so Absolutely Depend What is This now but the Counter part of the Bill for Continuing the Parliament that was Pass'd in Forty One and Chiefly upon the very Same Pretences too Viz. That Publique Grievances might be Redress'd and Iustice done upon Delinquents before the Parliament should be Dissolv'd Or in short The King was Not to Prorogue Adjourn or Dissolve This Parliament without Consent of Both Houses And there 's Another Parliamentary Point yet to Come in the Vote of Unqualifying the Members for the Receiving of any Beneficial Office from the King. 'T is a kind of a Scandalous Incapacity for a Subject to fare the worse for his Master's Commission And too much in all Conscience for the Same Men to Tye-up the King's Hands from Any Act of Grace and Bounty toward his Subjects that had before Ty'd-up the Peoples Hands from Supplying his Majesty The Vote was This Resolved That no Member of This House shall Accept any Office or Place of Profit from the Crown without the Leave of This House nor any Promise of any such Office or Place of Profit during such time as he shall continue a Member of This House An Eminent Member that Started This Motion made it his Observation upon the Long Parliament That All Those that had Pensions and most of Those that had Offices Voted All of a side as they were directed by some Great Officer c. If That Gentleman had taken as much Notice that the House had but Two sides and who Voted on the Other he would have found a Noble Peer to have Weigh'd against his Great Officer and the Matter to be no more then the Old Discrimination over again of King and Parliament It may be a Question now the Tendency and Intent of This Touch duly Consider'd whether they made the King or the Member in such a Case the Greater Delinquent of the Two. And they were not Contented here neither without a Further Essay upon the Choice of his Majesties Ministers and Officers of State War and Iustice After the Copy of the Old Nineteen Propositions The King not to Chuse his own Officers and Ministers NO Judges but men of Ability Integrity and Known Affection to the Protestant Religion And They Themselves to be Iudges of the Iudges Their Offices and Salaries to hold Quamdiu se bene gesserint c. No Lord-Lieutenants but Persons of Integrity and Known Affection to the Protestant Religion the Religion of the Associators that is No Deputy-Lieutenants and Justices of the Peace but so Qualify'd And moreover Men of Ability Estates and Interest in their Country uâ—der the Same Character still None to be Employ'd as Military Officers or Officers in his Majesties Fleet but men of Known Experience Courage and Affection to the Protestant Religion All Parliament-Proof still and of the Same Stamp To say nothing of the Habeas-Corpus Bill and other Encroachments upon the Prerogatives of the Crown for fear of being too too Tedious We 'le see next how they Beâ—av'd themselves in the Bus'ness of the Militia and the Kings Guards over and above the Step they made to have the Approbation of All Officers Themselves After the Blessed Example still of Old Forty One Nay and in the very Method too Beginning with an Address for Guards as follows They offer at the Militia and the Guards WHereas the Safety and Preservation of your Majesties Sacred Peâ—son is of so Great a Consequence and Concernment to the Protestant Religion and to All your Subjects We do most humbly beseech your Majesty to Command the Lord Chamberlain and All Other the Officers of your Majesties Houshold to take a Strict Care that no Vnknown or Suspicious Persons may have Access near your Majesties Person and that your Majesty will likewise please to Command the Lord Mayor and Lieutenancy of London to Appoint sufficient Guards of the Train-Bands during This Session of Parliament and likewise the Lords Lieutenants of Middlesex and Surry to appoint
War That Repriev'd the Plot and the Conspirators Was it the Papists that Suborn'd Witnesses against Shaftsbury and College for That 's their Meaning And was That the Case of Subornation that This Address Strikes at Was it the Papists that Ruin'd All for not Yielding to the Exclusion of the Duke Was it the Papists again that they make Answerable for the Bloud and Desolation Threaten'd in This Address because They Would not do the Things which only the King Could do How could Any man Believe These Calumnies and at the same time keep his Thoughts of his Prince within the Bounds of his Duty Or how could any man Disbelieve 'em without the Vttermost Abhorrence of so Diabolical a Practice upon the Honour of their Sovereign They stript the Late King of his Friends too AND the Malice of the Conspirators was not Satisfy'd Here neither unless after the Stripping his Majesty of All Other Means of Supporting Himself they Depriv'd him of the Vse and Service of his Friends too which Friends of his may be Properly Divided into Papists Convict and Suspected or Reputed Papists The Former were Visible and Known The Other were a sort of People of their Own Creation For whoever was not for their Turn they could make such a Papist of him at pleasure We shall see in Good Time how it far'd both with the One and with the Other while the Remaining Body of the Nation was only a Party of so many Vnited or Associated Protestants that were Link'd in One Band of Confederacy and Wag'd War to the Everlasting Reputation of the Plot under Otes'es Banner But to come to the Matter I shall begin with the Former Sort of them and Carry These Two Points Before me First The Story and Secondly The Ground of their Sufferings And bring the Whole into as Few Words as Possible in a Consistence with Candor Truth and Iustice. PApists or so Reputed were to be Banish'd BECAVSE of the Bloudy and Traiterous Designs of Popish Recusants To be taken into Custody and Disarm'd Their Names Taken Rewards given to the Discoverers of their Arms BECAVSE of the Damnable and Hellish Plot for the Destruction of his Majesties Person c. Papists to be Disabled from Sitting in Either House of Parliament BECAVSE of the Restless Conspiracies of Popish Recusants against his Majesties Person c. No Popish Recusants to have a Residence in his Majesties Palace or Access unto his Presence BECAVSE his Person is in Danger at This Time from Popish Conspiracies All Popish Recusants or Iustly Suspected Papists to be Apprehended Disarm'd and Secur'd BECAVSE of the Pernicious Plots and Contrivances of Popish Persons Resolved That if any Popish Recusant Convict shall Receive any Commission he shall be Deemed a Felon And shall be Pursued Apprehended and Executed as such Popish Delinquents to be brought to speedy Iustice BECAVSE of the Manifest Danger to his Majesties Sacred Person c. from the Notorious Conspiracies of Popish Priests and Iesuites Pickering to be Executed and all Papists or Reputed Papists to be Banished Twenty Mile from London and Westminster for Six Months BECAVSE of the Horrid Conspiracies of Popish Recusants London and the Parts Adjacent to be Freed from Popish Inhabitants At this rate they Proceeded against Papists Convict in the Quality of Papists and put That Part of his Majesties Friends out of Condition of either Serving their Master or Helping Themselves But then tâ—e Distinction of Suspected or Reputed Papists Swept the whole Remainder of tâ—em to a Single Man for One Wry Word of Otes or of his Works was enough to bring any Mans name into the Black Roll. Whoever Adher'd to the Duke of York Oppos'd the Exclusion was Suppos'd to Advise a Prorogation or Dissolution Deny'd the Plot Spoke Coursly of the Evidence and in fine Whoever was not an Associator or a Friend to That Interest was Popishly Affected But before I proceed to That Part of the Division of the Kings Friends there are Certain Qualifications of Papists and Popery under Other Circumstances that are to be taken in the way An Address to be Presented to his Majesty that his Royal Highness may Withdraw himself from his Majesties Person and Councel Resolved That a Bill be brought in to Disable the Duke of York to Inherit the Imperial Crown of This Realm And then follows immediately The Resolve Nemine Contradicente of the Revenging Vote In the Next Parliament they were at the very same Sport again Resolved Nemine Contradicente That the Duke of Yorks being a Papist and the Hopes of his coming such to the Crown hath given the Greatest Countenance and Encouragement to the Present Designs and Conspiracies against the King and the Protestant Religion The Next Resolve is the Revenging Vote and after That the Disabling Bill These Three Successively So that the Matter and the Order of it were Evidently Fore-laid and the Caball in Both Parliaments agreed upon 't before-hand Nay the Queen her self was brought into the Conspiracy to the Eternal Infamy of the Believers as well as the Reporters of That Sacrilegious Scandal and an Address Resolv'd upon as follows We Your Majesties most Dutyfull c. having received Enformations by Several Witnesses Otes and Bedloe of a most Desperate and Trayterous Design and Conspiracy against the Life of your Sacred Majesty wherein to their Great Astonishment the QVEEN is particularly Charged and Accused In Discharge of our Allegeance and out of our Affections and Care for the Preservation of your Majesties Sacred Person and Consequently of the whole Kingdom do most Humbly beseech your Majesty that the Queen and All her Family and All Papists and Reputed Papists be forthwith removed from your Majesties Court at Whitehall And then follow'd a Resolve of the Same Date That an Humble Address be Presented to his Majesty that All Papists and Suspected Papists within the Several Counties of England and Wales and Town of Berwick upon Tweed may be Apprehended and Secur'd This was a Ready way now to have a Clear Stage to Themselves And the Wickedness of That Age Stopt at Nothing when the Four Evangelists came once to be made a Stale to the Bus'ness and when Murder was Super-Added to the Hypocrisy and Perjury of the False Witnesses and their Confederate Patrons and Abettors I come now to the Address that was made upon the Revenging Vote WE do humbly Represent to your Majesty that being Deeply Sensible that the Greatest Hopes of Success against our Religion in the Enemies thereof the Papists are Founded in the Execrable Designs which they have laid against the Sacred Person and Life of your Majesty which it is not only our Duty but our Interest with the Greatest Hazzards to Preserve and Defend we have Apply'd our selves to the making such Provisions by Law as may Defeat those Popish Adversaries their Abettors and Adherents c. And while any such Laws are
in Preparation and bringing to Perfection it is our Resolution and we do Declare that in Defence of your Majesties Person and the Protestant Religion we will Stand by your Majesty with our Lives and Fortunes and shall be ready to Revenge any Violence Offered by them to your Sacred Majesty It is to be noted that the Vote was Soften'd in this Address For as it was Worded at first Whoever had Kill'd the King the Papists should have Gone to Pot for 't which Hint did as good as say Get but over This Iobb my Masters and y 'ave done your Bus'ness But the Conspirators found a way however to Supply That Restrictive Distinction by Murdering him Themselves and giving it out that the Papists had done it according to the Evidence of the Republican Conspiracy which says it was so Determin'd if the Rye House Project had Succeeded The Conspirators were to go to several Persons and Ask them Supposing that the Papists should Rise or that there should be a General Insurrection or a French Invasion Are you in a Posture of Defence This was the very Practice and the Imposture in the Case of the Militia the Double-Guards and the Rout they made among the Papists But Keeling a little Lower in the same Tryal puts it into somewhat Plainer English. These Men says he where to be in a readiness and it was Design'd that the Thing should be laid upon the Papists as a Branch of the Popish-Plot Which may serve for an Excellent Commenâ— upon the Present Text. Upon the 15th of Dec. 1680. There was no way with 'em but immediately to Banish All the Considerable Papists in England out of the Kings Dominions And it is to be Suppos'd that they would not have Forgotten his Royal Highness in the Number Especially Considering how Mindfull they were of him in Other Cases Insomuch that there was hardly any thing done by the Conspirators that had Worm'd themselves into the House but for Countenance-sake and to While away Time that had not the Ruine of the Duke and consequently of his Royal Brother in the Bottom of it and they were so Eager upon 't that all they could do without it was to no purpose Resolved Nemine Contradicente that so long as the Papists have any Hopes of the Duke of Yorks Succeeding the King in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and the Dominions thereunto Belonging The Kings Person the Protestant Religion and the Lives Liberties and Properties of all his Majesties Protestant Subjects are in Apparent Danger of being Destroy'd And then follows Another Resolve upon the Necessity of such a Bill Excluding and Proroguing Two Great Points THE Refusal of This Bill and the Last Refuge that the King had left him of Proroguing Parliaments were Two Terrible Rubbs in their way For with the Help of the One they could have done the Bus'ness of the Roman Catholiques at pleasure and made as many Reputed and Suspected Papists of the Rest of his Majesties Subjects as they found Averse to the Popular Design And Then under the Countenance of a Sitting Parliament they had a Thousand Tricks and Devices by their Printed Votes Papers and Intelligences to make their Principals Fall down and Worship them as the Bulwark of the Protestant Religion the Heroes and Patriots of the Common Cause and the Saviours of the Nation But the Cunning Snapps of the Faction finding that the King would not let go his Power of Calling them and sending 'em away again as he pleas'd and that Prorogations and Dissolutions were but as Sentence and Execution to them They had the Wit to make a Provision of Parliamentary Guards for the Oxford Meeting under Colour of Securing the Protestant Members from having their Throats Cut there by the Papists And it is more then Probable that if his Majesty had not very prudently taken Two Steps at a Time and Dissolv'd them upon the very Spot and Instant without the Antecedent Ceremony of Proroguing them they would have found under the Colour of a House of Commons yet in Being Another Game to Play. There had been a Heavy Cry made upon all their Former Disappointments in Pamphlets Papers Discourses Addresses upon Surprizing Prorogations Popish and Amazing Prorogations c. which humour they did Notably set forth in an Address to his Majesty of No. 11. 1680. IN relation to the Tryalls of the Five Lords Impeached in Parliament for the Execrable Popish Plot we have so far Proceeded as we doubt not but in a short time we shall be ready for the same But we Cannot without being Vnfaithfull to your Majesty and to our Country by whom we are Intrusted Omit upon This Occasion humbly to Enform your Majesty that our Difficulties even as to these Tryalls are much Increased by the Evil and Destructive Councels of those Persons who Advised your Majesty first to the Prorogation and then to the Dissolution of the Last Parliament at a time when the Commons had taken great pains about and were Prepar'd for those Tryalls And by the like Pernicious Councells of those who Advised the Many and Long Prorogations of the Present Parliament before the same was permitted to Sit whereby some of the Evidence which was prepared in the Last Parliament may possibly during so long an Interval be Forgotten or Lost and some Persons who might probably have Come-in as Witnesses are either Dead have been Taken-off or may have been Discourag'd from giving their Evidence But of One Mischievous Consequence of those Dangerous and Unhappy Councells we are Certainly and Sadly Sensible Namely that the Testimony of a Material Witness against every of Those Five Lords and who could probably have Discover'd and brought-in much Other Evidence about the Plot in General and Those Lords in Particular cannot now be given Viva Voce forasmuch as That Witness is Unfortunately Dead between the Calling and the Sitting of this Parliament To prevent the Like or Greater Inconvenience for the Future we make it our most Humble Request to your Excellent Majesty that as you tender the Safety of your Royal Person The Security of your Loyal Subjects and Preservation of the True Protestant Religion you will not suffer your self to be prevail'd upon by the Like Councell to do any Thing which may Occasion in Consequence though we are Assured never with your Majesties Intention either the Deferring of a Full and Perfect Discovery and Examination of This most Wicked and Detestable Plot or the Preventing the Conspirators therein from being brought to speedy and Exemplary Justice and Punishment and we humbly beseech your Majesty to rest Assured Notwithstanding any Suggestions which may be made by Persons who for their Own Wicked Purposes Contrive to Create a Distrust in your Majesty of your People that Nothing is more in the Desires and shall be more the Endeavours of us your faithfull and Loyal Commons then the Promoting and Advancing of your Majesties True Happiness and Greatness NOW to Observe a little upon
their Sovereign like a Pupil and turn off his Ministers like so many Footmen because they are of OPINION that they give him This or That Advice and that such Advice is Pernicious If Matters be thus Manag'd what 's become of the Imperial State of This Government Here 's Opinion and the Opinion of Subjects too without Proof without Power without Prerogative and shortly without any Foundation Taking upon it self to give Laws to the Majesty of a Sole Governour and if they could have Carry'd That Point it would have been as good as a Title Gain'd in the Account of the Multitude to the Government of the Three Kingdoms For nothing less then the Exclusion would serve their Turn and the Confounding of all Those that were Against That Exclusion Nay and That it self would not have Done at Last neither as we shall see by and by So that once for all having the Modelling the Iudging and the Discriminating of the Friends and Enemies of the State Themselves and in their Own Right as they pretended what betwixt Associating on the One side and Seizing Banishing Disarming Imprisoning Opining Suspecting Reputing and the Sweet Comfortable Methods of Swearing Hanging and Quartering on the Other there would have been little more for the Conspirators to Do then to Kill and Take Possession and to lay Violent Hands upon the King under the Colour of a Rescue BUt Religion and Loyalty was still the Burden of the Song A Company of Rogues to Blunderbuss his Majesty Burn Protestant Cities and Massacre Poor Innocent People This was the Voyce that was Lifted up and the Outcry that Caused so much Weeping and Wailing among us While the Witnesses in the mean time were All-to-be Colonell'd Doctor'd Captain'd and Squir d for the Credit of the Story It was a most Remarkable and an Auspicious Resolution taken to set a-part Gods Day for Gods Cause as it was Blasphemously Christen'd when they Postpon'd the Consideration of the Lord Chancellors Speech of Apr. 30. 1679. Time after Time untill Sunday the 11th of May following which was so Arrant a Forty-One-Banter that I presently told my Friends without going to a Wizzard the very Dunstable Meaning of it and the Plot-Leaders were so kind to me in That as well as in Other of my Predictions that they made a Prophet of me But I shall have another Touch upon this Particular by and by Upon Nov. 8. 1678. They Resolv'd upon an Address to Desire his Majesty that there might be a Particular Prayer or Prayers Composed for the Cities of London and Westminster relating to the Plot and Conspiracy Contrived and Carry'd-on by the Papists against his Majesties Person and Government Upon Sunday the 10 th following they Complain'd That in the Prayer there was no mention made of the Papists who says the Vote are the Contrivers of These Damnable and Hellish Plots c. And they humbly Desire his Majesty to give Effectual Order c. After this and in the Next Parliament they had Another Tour of Passe-Passe of the Same Stamp with the Former which went a Great way toward the Moving of All Those Passions that might be Serviceable to the Project of That Season as will be better seen upon the Reading of that Address it self or which is all one of Another Address for a day of Humiliation on Nov. 25. 1680. in the Following Parliament which Address is within a very little of Word for Word with the Former We your Majesties most Dutifull c. being Deeply Sensible of the Sad and Calamitous Condition of This your Majesties Kingdom Occasioned Chiefly by the Impious and Malicious Conspiracies of a Popish Party who have not only Plotted and Intended the Destruction of your Majesties Royal Person but the Total Subversion of the Government and True Religion Established among us c. All which Our Many and Grievous Sins have Iustly Deserved and being now by your Gracious Favour Assembled in Parliament c. do in All Humility beseech your Majesty that by your Royal Proclamation one or More Days may be Solemnly set a-part wherein both our Selves and All your Majesties Loyal Subjects may by Fasting and Prayer Seek a Reconciliation with Allmighty God and with Humble and Penitent Hearts Implore him by his Power and Goodness to Infatuate and Defeat the Wicked Councils and Machinations of our Enemies c. HEre 's just the Style of the Old Blessed Times over again when Days of Humiliation were used to be set a-part for the Kings Success against the Rebells A Body would have thought by the Solemnity of the Wording of it that there had been Sword Pestilence and Famine Earthquakes and Fire and Brimstone in the Case Now Every Thing help'd to Move Terror Iealousie Mortal Animosities Indignation and Transports of Ardent and of Vindictive Zeal Even to the Degree of a Temptation to break through all the Barrs of Duty Shame Modesty Conscience and Respect Beside that upon the making of God Almighty a Party to the Quarrel Temporal Power Thrones and Magistrates are no better Accounted then Dirt under the Feet of Enthusiastique Bigotts To Conclude the Addresses for One Day of Humiliation should have put the Kingdom Methinks upon Petitioning for another for the Sin of the very Addresses At least if the Plot should in the End Prove False at the Bottom But after all this Dust and Scuffle now betwixt Petitioners and Ahorrers True-Protestants and Pensioners Whigg and Tory Observator and Trimmer there are several more Difficulties yet behind to be Enquir'd into It is a Thing Evident without Dispute that a Prince Cannot be more Affronted and Endanger'd then by Pinching him in his Revenue Paring and Cramping his Royal Prerogative and Power Lessening him in his Reputation and putting him out of Condition of Receiving the Servicâ—s of his Dutifull Friends and Those Friends out of Condition to Support and to Maintain the Honour and Dignity of their Master Now all this has been Attempted and Pursued with the Vttermost Industry and Bitterness Imaginable But here was a Dev'lish Plot it seems and for That Dev'lish Plots Sake the Heir of the Crown must be Disinherited and the Roman Catholiques in a manner Exterminated from off the face of the Earth and no other way in the World to Save our Prince and our Religion as the Infallible Oracle of St. Stephens Chappel gives us to Vnderstand but by a Fair Riddance of all the Kings English Subjects of That Persuasion which by Pursuivanting Messengering Sergeanting Cooping-up Squeezing Rifling Plundering and Oppressing they had well-nigh Effected already Only the Late King stuck at the Exclusion of the Duke But however the Faction had such an Offer made them by the way of a kind of Composition for the Exclusion as would certainly have put them into the Possession of Their Own Wishes If they had not been most Providentially Infatuated into the Neglect or Refusal of it to the Preservation of the Crown the Duke the Royal Line and the
Oppose and Pursue unto Death and Destruction All such as aforesaid But what are these same Ioynt and Particular Forces they speak of Whence do they Come Who Raises them Who Leads ' em By What Authority by What Law is all this done The People are To follow such Orders as they shall from time to time Receive from This Present Parliament while Sitting and the Major Part of it when Prorogued or Dissolv'd and to Obey such Officers as shall be set over them by the Authority aforesaid And This they do Knowing Themselves to be Intrusted to Advise and Act for the Preservation of his Majesty and the Kingdom and being persuaded in their Consciences that the Dangers are so Eminent and Pressing that there ought to be no Delay of the Best means that are in their Power to Secure the Kingdom against them WHat is all this now but King Monarchy Parliaments Laws Liberties and Properties Cut-off at a Stroke The Papists Destroy'd under the Colour of a Plot the Duke as the Head of the Papists the King as an Adherent to the Duke The King's Friends for their Fidelity to their Master the Laws Over-rul'd by a Uote The Oath of Allegeance made Void by a Subscription to an Association Kingly Government Sunk into a Common-Wealth One Part of the Two Houses Enslav'd to the Other And this Iust and Pious Work as they Call it Is in the Presence of God set a-foot for the Preservation of the True-Protestant-Religion His Majesties Person and Royal State Our Laws Liberties and Properties And this to be Pursu'd by the Subscribers During Life too upon pain of being by the Rest Prosecuted and Suppress'd as Perjur'd Persons and Publique Enemies to God their King and their Native Country Here 's in One Breath an Oath that Makes them All This and an Oath that They will Never be Other This Paper Begins with an Oath Against a Conspiracy and Concludes with an Oath Of Conspiracy It begins with an Exclamation against Iesuites Priests and Papists and Ends in the Dissolution of King Lords and Commons Upon the Whole it speaks neither More nor Less then the Sense the Design and within a little of the very Syllables of the Votes Themselves And to say all in a Word the One is but the Model or the Minutes of the Other THere was likewise found among my Lord Shaftsburies Papers as I have formerly Noted in some of my Writings a Book of the Several Counties of England Ranged in Alphabet under the Heads of WORTHY MEN on the One side and MEN WORTHY on the Other which was Intended and Made use of for a Discriminating List of the Royalists and the Republicans Under the Cypher of Men Worthy was Couch'd the Conâ—eit of Men Worthy to be Hang'd Now the Probable Advantage that they intended to make of This Distinguishing Register if Rightly Understood may serve to give some Light to the Dark and Mysterious Part of the Oxford-Plot upon the King's Person The Mercenary Forces and the Papists Adherents in the Style of Those Times By the Virtue of This Roll and Distinction at hand they could any time at a Week or Ten days Warning Flush-up an Vniversal Plot Get it Authenticated upon the Oathes of Half a dozen of the Sons of Belial that they had in Pay Put All the Considerable Men in the Kingdom into the Catalogue and File it at last to the Account of the Conspirators whose Names did not Occurr at present to Otes upon his Calculation of his Narrative A Thousand ways might have been Contriv'd by giving a Hot Alarum to have taken 'em All in their Beds before they were aware And at the Same time to Beset the King with Petitions upon their Knees to give 'em leave to Provide for the Preservation of his Majesties Person and Royal State to the Tune of the Association There would have been no more Need of Voting the Duke to be Banish'd or the King's Ministers to be Remov'd from his Majesties Councells and Presence for ever but there would have been Downright Commitments and Impeachments and more Work for One Poor Executioner then Twenty Dextrous Knaves could have Turn'd their Hands to Three or Four Home-Oaths and Warrants Immediately Dispatch'd away for the Seizure of the Conspirators would have left the Government at Mercy Nothing can be Clearer I think then that the Oxford Plot was a Branch of the Capital Design And that by the Help of Shaftsbury's List they might have Infinitely Facilitated their Work. Now if it be Reasonable to Believe that This was a Course to turn to Account it is As Reasonable to Believe that they Intended to make Vse of it and Emprove it as the Best Means they had Before them There needs no more towards the Satisfying of any man over and above the Evidence in the Foundation and Truth of the Oxford-Design then to Consider how the Whole Faction were Startled at the Summons Thither and the Pressing the Importune nay and the Menacing Instances of Application to his Majesty that the Meeting might be at Westminster These Considerations upon the Noble Peer's Book and the Oxford Conspiracies may seem to be a Digression but whoever duly Weighs them will find that they hang All on a String and are only Several Members of the Same Plot. Reflections upon the Whole I Shall now pass some Necessary Reflections upon the Whole There never was perhaps since the Creation of the World so much Confusion Wrought by so Mean so Scandalous and so Ridiculous Instruments Lowzy Greazy Rogues to be taken into the Arms of Princes Porters and the Coursest of Letter-Carryers to be made the Confidents of Publique Ministers Starving Indigent Varlets that had not Credit in the World for a Brumigen Groat and liv'd upon the Common Charity of the Basket to be a matter of Seven Hundred Pound out of Pocket in his Majesties Service as Otes and Bedloe pretended Sots to find Treason in Words at length in Common Post-Letters The Four Ruffians to have but Twenty Pound a Man for Murdering the King by Assault and Sir George Wakeman Fifteen Thousand Pound only for Poysoning him without running the Fifteenth Part of the Risque Nay and Bedloe Fifteen Hundred Pound for but Lending a Hand to the Helping away of a Dead Iustice. These and a Thousand Incredibilities more must be All Believ'd or the Witnesses found to be most Damnably Forsworn Unless it were for the Evidences sake that they had Credit given 'em for the Matter of 〈◊〉 under Such Circumstances was Morally Impâ—â—â—ble to be True And for the Probity of the Witnesses they were already as well known as the Whipping Post for a Pack of Swearing Lying Cheating a Prostitute and an Abandon'd Sort of Mercenary Villains And yet such was the Infatuated Credulity of the Common People at that Season and such the Bold and Shameless Hypocrisy of the Managers of That Imposture that there was no Place for either Truth or Honesty to Appear The Inference I
draw from This Preposterous way of Proceeding is that the Whole Story from End to End was a Practice that the Suborners of the Perjury were also the Protectors and the Patrons of it Both under One And that they had their Accomplices in the House of Commons upon This Crisis of State that play'd the same Game which their Fore-fathers had done upwards of Forty Years before The Earl of Shaftsbury a Busie Man in our Late Troubles BUt after the History of the Wickedness of These People it will be Needfull to look a little into the Woe they Wrought us Or at least to Compute upon the Calamitous Infelicities of That Season and Whence they took theâ—r Rise The Man knows little of the Histoâ—y of Our Troubles that 's a Stranger to the Life Practice and Character of the Late Earl of Shaftsbury who had the Wit in All Changes and Revolutions of State still to Turn Tail to the Weather and Swim with the Tyde And he did This too by Nature as well as by Application for beside the Advantages of a Mercurial Humour a Ready Tongue And a Dext'rous Address he had none of Those Vulgar Barrs upon him of Honour Shame or Conscience to put any Checque to the Impetuous Course of his Ambitious Lusts I am not upon the Story of his Life but it shall serve My Purpose to say that thorough All the Vsurpations from Forty to Sixty he came Sailing down still before the Wind and so from that time forward steer'd by the same Compass ON November 17. 1672. His Lordship being already Chancellour of the Exchequer and one of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury was further Advanc'd by his Majesty to the Keeping of the Great Seal with the Title of Lord Chancellour of England And upon the 8th of November 1673. He was Discharg'd of That Commission Upon the Opening of the Parliament Feb. 5. 1672. His Lordship in a Large and Elegant Speech Blesses God and the King as follows LEt us Bless God that he hath given us such a King to be the Repairer of our Breaches both in Church and State and the Restorer of our Paths to dwell in That in the midst of War and Misery which Rages in our Neighbours Countrys our Garners are full and there is no Complaining in our Streets c. Let us Bless God that he hath given This King Signally the Hearts of his People and most Particularly of This Parliament Let us Bless the King for taking away All our Fears and leaving no room for Jealousies for those Assurances and Promises he hath made us Let us Bless God and the King that our Religion is Safe That the Church of England is the Care of our Prince That Parliaments are Safe That our Properties and Liberties are Safe What more hath a Good Englishman to Ask but that This King may Long Reign and that This Triple-Allyance of King Parliament and People may never be Dissolv'd HIs Lordships Matters as yet went Merrily on and his Good Humour kept pace with his Good Fortune But so soon as ever the Wind came about All these Blessings were thrown over the Left Shoulder The Clouds began now to Gather and soon after Discharge themselves in a Storm upon Papists and Publique Ministers In This Mood they brought-on the Bill about the Test whereof Andrew Marvel for the Honour of his Noble Patron gives This Account The Parliament having met the 5th of Feb. 1672. Prepared an Act before the Mony-Bill Slipt thorough their Fingers by which the Papists were Obliged to Pass thorough a New State-Purgatory to be Capable of Any Publique Employment Vpon this Occasion it was that the Earl of Shaftsbury though then Lord Chancellor of England yet Engaged so far in Defence of That Act and of the Protestant Religion that in due time it Cost him his Place and was the First Moving Cause of all Those Mis-adventures and Obloquy which since he lies ABOVE not UNDER IT deserves a Note the Libellous Deduction Marvel gives the World of the Kings Administration of Affairs as well Before as After This Celebrated Exploit of my Lord Shaftsbury's in a flat Contradiction to his Lordships Character of the King and to his Report of the Happy the Safe and the Peaceable State of the Government For whoever reads That Pamphlet will find it only an Artificial Scandal Imposture Cast-out to the Multitude upon set Purpose to make his Majesty Odious to his People One would have thought that the Gaining of the Test-Bill should have set their Hearts a little at Ease but That was not sufficient without calling for Fast upon Fast Raising the Militia Voting down the Guards Enquiring into Publique Grievances c. which being Said and Done with a Noverint Vniversi in the Eyes and Ears of the Nation is all one in many Cases with Ringing the Bells Backward and Firing the Beacons as if the Town were a Burning or an Enemy Landed and as far as Black-Heath in their March to London And all upon the Old and Everlasting Ground of Iealousie and Apprehension still That is to say BECAVSE The Restless Practices of Popish Recusants threatn'd the subversion both of Church and State. The Wheel was now in Motion and they drove like Iehu 'till they Dropt at last into Otes's Bottomless Plot. Shaftsbury had been a long time at the Trade of Fast and Loose and what with Industry Craft Malice and Experience the Fittest Man perchance in the Three Kingdoms to be the Head of a Faction And he was the Fitter for 't because his very Inclination prompted him to Mischief Even for Mischiefs sake It was his Way and his Humour to Tear All to pieces where he could not be the First Man in Bus'ness Himself And yet All this while his Faculty was rather a Quirking way of Wit then a Solidity of Iudgment and he was much Happier at Pulling-down then at Building-up In One Word He was a man of Subtlety not of Depth and his Talent was Fancy rather then Wisdom His Arts were Popular and after All his Politiques he was as great an Hypocrite in his Vnderstanding as in his Manners But the Best Incendiary yet upon the Face of the Earth for he had an Excellent Invention and a Protesting Face without either Faith or Truth Now when the Common People are to be Couzen'd One Imposture puts off Another and False Conclusions follow Naturally upon False Premises This is the Brief of his Character from those that knew and understood him Best and a man cannot do Right to the History without giving the Next Age a True Account of a Person that had so Great a Hand in the Confusions of This 'T is with the Mobile as with the Waters the very Blowing upon them makes them Troublesom and Dangerous and in the End to Overflow their Banks His Author sets him forth as the Great Advocate and Champion for the Bill of the Test and makes him Effectually
Innumerable the Principal Abettors of Otes'es Sworn Plot for the saving of the King were Themselves Conspirators in an Vnder-Plot for the Destroying of him and there needs no more for a Final Proof of This then a Short Summary of what I have Deliver'd allready THey did all they could to leave the King neither MONEY POWER CREDIT nor FRIENDS To Strip him both of his Parliamentary and his Pardoning Prerogative the Command of his Militia and the Choice of his Officers They made it Penal even to Assert his Regalities or come Near his Person and when they had gone as far as the Plot and Popery would Carry them they Join'd in an Express League of Association to take up Arms against the King Himself and to lay Violent Hands upon the Government So that as they Began with the Necessity of Excluding the Duke for fear of the Plot They Ended in the Opinion of as Absolute a Necessity of Dissolving the Monarchy for fear of the King. By These Methods they proceeded from Bad to Worse 'till they had pass'd Gradually thorough all the Degrees of a Seditious Progress from the Hypocritical Pretence of a Tenderness for the Life of their Sovereign to the Last Peremptory Determination of taking the Crown off from his Head. If either Thought Word or Deed Project Contrivance or Execution might pass for the Proof of any thing here is a Plot under a Plot made as Clear as Truth it self A Plot in a Westminster-Committee as well as in a Kings-Head Club. There was all done by the Plotting Part of them toward the Ruine of the King that Spite Art and Industry were Able to do Wée the Knights c. in the Association was in Plain English We the Conspirators for the Members of the Present Sitting Parliament took upon Themselves the Authority of Subduing Expelling and Destroying Issuing out of Orders and Raising of Forces Or in Case of being Prorogu'd or Dissolv'd the Majority of the Subscribing Members were like Cromwells Major Generals again to Govern in the Counties Cities and Burroughs for which they were Chosen Now the Bus'ness had never come to an Association it seems if his Majesty would have Hearken'd to his Parliaments for the Danger was timely foreseen they say by several Parliaments And Notwithstanding all the Continual Endeavours of Parliaments to Deliver his Majesty from the Councells and out of the Power of the said Duke of York Yet his Interest c. Even in Opposition to the Advice and Order of the Last Parliament And so again We have Endeavour'd in a Parliamentary-Way to Barr Exclude and Banish him for ever c. But the First Means of the King and Kingdoms Safety being Rejected c. We have thought fit to Propose an Vnion of Mutual Defence and Assistance c. From hence it appears that they Aim'd at the Same Thing upon the Main in their Votes and Addresses that they did in the Association and that they were Both Govern'd by the same Influence and that the whole Tract was but the same Conspiracy So that it is now somewhat a Clearer Case Who they were that Design'd the Murther of the King then Who Burnt London the Opinion of the House Ian. 10. 1680. notwithstanding It would be Pleasant enough if it were not allmost Inhumane to take any Pleasure in a Discourse upon this Subject to see how direct a Counter-part the Truth of the Story was to the Fiction for They Themselves were to do all those Things which they charg'd upon the Papists There were to be Sham-Plots Cutting of Throats and Burning of Towns. How did they Tamper and Practise with the Witnesses Bribe Suborn Forswear All these Things were laid at the door of the Papists while they Design'd and Did those very Things Themselves Witnesses says the Address are Attempted to be Corrupted and not only Promises of Reward but of the Favour of your Majesties Brother made the Motives to their Complyance Was not this the very Course they took with Otes with Prance with Fitz-Harris and briefly what were All their Mediations for Their Secret Examinations Importunities for Reward Recommendations to Deaneries and the Good Word of the Committee still in their favour What was all This I say but the same Saddle set upon the Wrong Horse Divers of the most Considerable of your Protestant Subjects have Crimes of the Highest Nature Forged against them the Charge to be Supported by Subornation and Perjury that they may be Destroy'd by Forms of Law and Iustice. Was not This the very Case of the Duke the Lords and other Persons of Honour and Quality Were not the Priests the Iesuits and the Other Pris'ners upon the Account of the Plot Outrag'd at their Tryals in the very face of the Bench by the Scomms and Execrations of the Rabble When the Insolencies of the Mobile to the Scandal of That Popular License made it liker a Bear-Garden then a Court of Iustice And then when False Witnesses had Suppress'd and Out-fac'd the Truth and Shamm'd the Imposture both upon Bench and Iury the Authority of Four Parliaments is Vouch'd for the Credit of the Abuse Nay the Invention was so Pompous a piece of Trumpery that Effectually they made it a kind of Raw-head-and-Bloudy-Bones to the Common People We can only Ascribe it they say to an Over-ruling Providence that your Majesties Reign is still Continu'd over us and that we are yet Assembled to Consult the Means of our Preservation As who should say 't is e'en a Mercy that we have not had All our Throats Cut in our Beds by These Bloudy Papists When yet all this while not so much as a Popish Mouse durst peep out of his Hole for fear of an Evidence or a Catch-pole for they had their State-Weazels Ferreting up and down in every Corner A Short History of Otes AS for Otes now that was no man of Form and Ceremony but according to M. Hunts Quaint Character of him rather Incurious and Apert the said Mr. Otes I say never stood upon the Scruple of the Parenthesis in the Revenging Vote WHICH GOD FORBID but like a Son of Thunder call'd a spade a spade and by the Dint of Oaths and Maledictions Carry'd Three Kingdoms before him A Plain Blunt Man they cry'd He did not love to Mince matters This was his Character He was for Freedom of Speech and so it appear'd upon the Executing of a Writ of Enquiry at the Bar of the Kings-Bench at Westminster Iune 19. 1684. The Duke of York having brought an Action against him upon the Statute De Scandalis Magnatum But we 'le see some of his Flowers there THe Duke of York 's a Traytor says he fol. 9. A Rascal a Papist and a Traytor fol. 17. A Traytor again and in the Plot. 19. He shall be Hang'd fol. 13. I shall Live to see him Hang'd fol. 16. And Hang'd fol. 17. We 'le have no more regard for him then if he were a Scavenger of Kent-street
and keep themselves upon the Reserve Habernfeld Propounds the Intercepting of a Pacquet at Bruxelles Our Iesuits Five Letters to be Intercepted at the Post-House at Windsor p. 3. are the very same Project Habernfeld's Letters are Characteristically Written Ib. And so are the Letters in Tong 's Plot-Hand Reade is to Vncypher them p. 4. As Otes Vncyphers Forty Eight Sixty Six Ciocolatti Mum and Mustard-Balls as Reade is to do the Same Office for Habernfeld P. 4. Or if it falls out that Reade upon the Question will rather Hang then Discover more then he Knows 't is but Allowing him Thirty Thousand Masses for the Health of his Soul and All 's well again The Searching of Reades House for a Congregation Ibid was so much Out-done by Our Discoverers that for Habernfelds One Reade and One Congregation they have shew'd us Forty Habernfeld takes Great Care for fear of trusting Popish Pursuivants Ib. For which Reason the Searching of our Houses for Priests and Popish Trinkets was Committed to Otes Bedloe Dangerfield c. instead of Constables and Ordinary Messengers Habernfield Advises the Abolishing of All Bitterness of mind that the Intestine Enemy may be Invaded on Both Parts p. 4. Which Tongs Friends in the Westminster Parliament Translated into the Vniting of Protestants against the Common Enemy We shall come now to the General Overture and Discovery of the Plot Bearing date Hague Sept. 6. 1640. sent with Sir W. Boswells First Letter p. 6. and see how the Counterpart Answers it Head by Head as it lies The General Overture and Discovery of the Plot c. 1. That the Kings Majesty and the Lord Arch-Bishop are Both of them in Great Danger of their Lives p. 6. So says Otes'es Consult 2 ly That the Whole Common-Wealth is by This Means Endanger'd unless the Mischief by Speedily Prevented Ibid. A most Natural Consequence and so says the Consult too 3 ly That These Scottish Troubles are Raised to the End that under This Pretext the King and Arch-Bishop might be Destroyed Ibid. Father Moor and Father Saunders sent into Scotland to This very End. Otes'es Narrative Ar. 43. 4 ly That there is a Means to be Prescrib'd whereby Both of them in This Case may be Preserved and This Tumult Speedily Compos'd Ibid. This was the very Proposal on the Other side too and the Means found out to Save All were Swearing Iayling Drawing Hanging and Quartering 5 ly That although these Scottish Tumults be Speedily Compos'd Yet that the King is Endangered that there are many ways by which Destruction is Plotted to the King and Lord Arch-Bishop Ibid. And All is not Safe neither though Scotland were Quieted for there are many other ways Plotted to Destroy the King As Pickerings Gun Conyers'es Dagger Wakemans Poyson Invasions Insurrections Assassinations c. 6 ly That a Certain Society hath Conspired which Attempts the Death of the King and Lord Arch-Bishop and Convulsion of the Whole Realm Ibid. This same Certain Society may be heard of at St Omers Weld-House The White-Horse-Tavern and the like 7 ly That the same Society Every Week Deposites with the President of the Society what Intelligence Every of them hath purchased in Eight Days search and then Confer all into One Pacquet which is Weekly sent to the Director of the Bus'ness p. 7. Pacquets for the Provincial and Letters of Intelligence are a Great Part of the Narrative Intrigue 8 ly That All the Confederates in the said Conspiracy may verily be Named by the Poll But because they may be made known by Other Means it is thought Meet to Deferr it till hereafter Ib. Otes could have Poll'd All the Conspirators Man by Man if he had thought fit but some New Men and Things must be left for Bedloe to Discover some for Prance some for Dugdale with an Allowance to Otes for a Roll of Conspirators Whose Names do Not Occur at Present as well as for those whose Names Do Occurr at Present Narrative fol. 61. 9 ly That there is a Ready Means whereby the Villany may be Discover'd in One Moment The Chief Conspirators Circumvented and the Primary Members of the Conjuration apprehended in the very Act. Ibid. Otes has his Ready Means too for the Ordering of the whole Work in an Instant Grove and Pickering we know were to be Taken in St. Iames'es-Park and the Ruffians had been Dogg'd to Windsor as Tong Assur'd the Earl of Danby if One of the Horses had not got a Slip in the Shoulder Or at worst 't was but Picking-up Priests Papists and All Suspected Persons Plundering their Baggs and their Houses Rifling their Papers Cooping-up the Popish Lords in the Tower and then Swearing them All into the Treason 10 ly That very many about the King who are Accounted most Faithfull and Intimate to whom likewise the most Secret Things are Entrusted Are Traytors to the King Corrupted with a Forreign Pension who Communicate All Secrets of Greater or Lesser Moment to a Forreign Power Ibid. This was Otes'es Method too to make Traytors of Those that the King Accounted his Best Friends and Consequently to make Loyal Subjects of Traytors And then the Old Westminster Parliament Supply'd the Pensioners 11 ly These and other most Secret Things which shall be Necessary to be Known for the Security of the King may be Revealed if These Things shall be Acceptable to the Lord Arch-Bishop p. 7. This Article is an Expletive and Signifies just nothing for how many of these Secrets did the Kings Witnesses Promise to Reveal that never came to Light and in Truth never had any Beeing in the Nature of Things But the very Noise and Amusement was enough to do the Work. 12 ly In the Mean Time if his Royal Majesty and the Lord Arch-Bishop desire to Consult well to Themselves they shall Keep These Things only Superficially Communicated unto them most Secretly under Deep Silence Not Communicating them so much as to those whom they Iudge most Faithfull to them before they shall receive by Name in whom they may Confide for else they are safe on No side p. 8. Just at This rate were the Superficial Communications and the Injunctions of Silence in the Case of Tong and Otes and what was the Condition at last too but that the King should Trust No Other then such as the Discoverers or which is all one the Conspirators should Name As Otes Excepted to such and such Persons by Name out of the Committee that was to Examine him 13 ly Likewise they may be Assured that whatsoever Things are here Proposed are No Figments nor Fables nor Vain Dreams but such Real Verities which may be Demonstrated in every small Tittle For Those who Thrust themselves into This Bus'ness are such men who mind no Gain but the very Zeal
But in regard the Publisher Affirms that the Kings Minister and the Arch-Bishop if not the King Himself were fully Satisfy'd in the Reality of it we shall first Examine upon what Grounds the Publisher speaks And after That come to a Fair Reasoning upon the Main Matter in Issue which cannot be so well done as by Delivering the Several Letters at Large and then making a Judgment upon the Whole Proceeding We are got thus far Onward of our way now thorough the Parallel And the Next Question will be This. CHAP. V. Was Habernfelds Modell it self an Historical Truth or a Fiction WHoever looks Narrowly into Habernfelds Plot and the several Parts of it will find it to be rather a Lesson or a Project then the Iust Account of an Historical Truth The Bus'ness of Conscience Oaths of Secresy Enformation and the Circumstances of Who What Where When How c. are only matters of Course for there must be Persons Things Places Time and Manner Assign'd even to the most Extravagant Fiction that ever was in Nature This was the Composition First of Habernfelds Discovery and afterwards of Tong 's Counter-part of it He furnishes Otes with Lights and Instructions Gives the Contrivance the Name of a Conspiracy Titus Plucks up a Good Heart and Swears to 't and so there 's a New Plot made of an Old one It must be Observ'd that This Intelligence of Habernfeld was set afoot when Charles the First was at York in September 1640. to Advise with his Great Councill of Peers about the Scottish Rebellion The Kings Affairs were upon a Pinch and there never was more need of a Forgery to Cast the Scottish Insurrection upon the Papists and to turn the Peoples Hearts From and Against his Majesty then upon that Juncture Especially for a Preparatory to the Work of the Next Parliament that was to Meet Novem. 3. following Upon this Occasion Sir W. Boswell the Kings Minister at the Hague wrote to the Arch-Bishop about This Plot. The Letter is Long and so are the Other Papers upon This Subject but to satisfy the Readers Curiosity they may be seen at Large in the Pamphlet heretofore mention'd or in the First Volume of Dr. Nalsons Collections fol. 467. So that a short Abstract will be enough for my Bus'ness And I shall begin with Sir W. Boswells First Letter He sends Enclos'd in this Letter a Copy of Habernfeld's Enformation concerning the Plot wherein the Points that I shall Remarque upon are Principally These The Discovery was First made to him at Second-Hand and in Speech The Matter was soon after put into Order Avow'd by the Principal Party and Deliver'd him in Writing by Both Together Vpon Promise and Oath to Reveal it only to his Grace and by him to his Majesty Habernfeld remits himself to the Arch-Bishop with a most Earnest Charge of Silence and that No Person be By or within Hearing at the Communicating of it to his Majesty and No Mortal else to know of it There must be no Asking of Names nor of Further Discoveries nor Advertisements nor the Discoverer upon any Terms to be so much as Pointed-at for fear of spoiling the Whole Bus'ness For the King Government and Religion are All at Stake and the Enformer will run Extreme Hazzard of his Person and Life No it must not be so much as Enquir'd How or by What Means the Discoverer came to Know All This. As to Sr William Boswells Opinion of the Matter he â—as these words As I May believe These Overtures are Verifyable in the Way they will be laid and that the Parties will not shrink c. And again If These Overtures happily sort with his Majesties and your Graces Mind c. The Rest is only Praying of Instructions Proposing a Cypher and so with a suitable Decency of Respect in such a Case he Concludes his Letter Hague September 9. 1640. Sti. Loci There was never less perhaps of Surprize or Astonishment the weight of the matter Consider'd then was Express'd upon This Occasion which shews Sufficiently What Opinion the Kings Minister Entertain'd of the Truth of the Story He was Sworn to Secrecy Himself and he Presses it to the Archbishop under the Conscience of That Obligation The Caution is Habernfelds Sr William Boswells Confidence goes no farther then I MAY Believe And then IF These Overtures happily sort with his Majesties and your Graces Mind and shall accordingly prove Effectual in their Operation c. Here 's No Contracting of Bowels No Loins trembling with Horror in the Stile of Habernfeld p. 4. and yet I persuade my self that the Kings Resident had as much Tenderness for the Kings Life as Andreas ab Habernfeld But here 's the Train of my Parallel still even through This Letter it felf Otes'es pretended Discovery was by a Second â—and by Tong And at First in Speâ—ch too which was the Case of Tong again to Mr Kirkby It was likewise Order'd by Tong and soon after Avow'd by the Principal which was Otes and Deliver'd in Writing also by Both Together And so was Otes'es True Narrative Vpon Promise and Oath of Secrecy which Agrees with Young Tong 's Paper of Ian. 5. 1681. When my Father and Otes came to Fox-Hall says he Mr Kirkby was taken in as an Assistant after he had been Sworn to Secrecy And This is Effectually Confirm'd again by Mr Kirkby's Own Narrative which says that Tong Earnestly requested him not to Acquaint any Other Person with it then the King. Nay Habernfeld takes upon him in some sort to Tutor his Majesty by Prescribing to him the very Measures of Faith Iustice and Prudence that he was to Walk by He must not Shew nor Trust nor be Over-heard nor Ask Questions but lay it home to the King as he will Answer it to God in a Case of Conscience c. So that not only Tongs Model but Otes'es Sawcyness was Copy'd after the President of Habernfeld Upon the Whole Matter here are so many Amusements Generalities and Restrictions and the Danger Spun out so far at length that Charles the First might have been Murder'd Fifty times over in the very Time of Habernfeld's telling his Tale And Charles the Second in the Parallel ran the very same Risque in the Discovery of Otes Upon the Receit of Habernfelds from Sr William Boswell his Grace of Canterbury Dispatch'd an Express away immediately to the King and received his own Letter again with his Majesties Directions in the Margent The Marginals are only Assurance of Secrecy Notes of Respect and Directions What to do without laying any Stress upon the Danger of the Conspiracy The Only Passages in the Archbishops Letter for my present purpose are These Following The Danger it seems is Imminent and laid by God knows whom but to be Executed by them that are near about you Now may it please your Majesty This Enformation is either True or there is some Mistake in it If it be True the Persons that
were manag'd while Sir E. B. Godfrey was missing toward the finding out what was become of him p. 202. VIII When How Where and in what Manner the Body of Sir E. B. Godfrey was found and what pass'd till the Coroners Inquest sat upon the View of it p. 212. IX A Jury Summon'd to sit upon the Body of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey and some Difficulty startâ—d about it p. 220. X. The Subject of the Debate and first of the Position of the Body as it lay in the Ditch p. 226. XI The Jury found Sir E. B. Godfrey to be Strangled and Not Kill'd with the Sword. The Surgeons were of the same Opinion and gave their Reasons for it p. 231. XII The Jurors Reasons for the Verdict they gave upon the View of Sir E. B. Godfrey's Body p. 242. XIII The Jury Adjourn'd the Debate for want of Evidence Quaere What Better Evidence they had the Next Day when they came to a Verdict then was produced the Day before p. 251. XIV Bloud or No Bloud was the Main Point in Issue though the Least Part of the Question either at the Inquest or at the Tryals p. 262. XV. The Enformations before the Coroner Examin'd and not onâ— word in them to the Point in Issue p. 274. XVI The Coroners Enformations Further Examin'd and not one Word in them of Bloud the Posture or any thing else material to the Question p. 285. XVII Notes upon the Mysterious Examination of Henry Moor Clark to Sir Edmundbury Godfrey p. 290. XVIII A very pertinent Evidence of Joseph Radcliffe's made worse thâ—n nothing p. 298. XIX The Opening of the Body had certainly Discover'd the Cause of Sir E. B. G's Death and it was Advis'd and Propounded by Doctors Friends and Surgeons but Rejected p. 312. XX. Mrs. Gibbon's Enformation compared with the Coroners Report and the Matter submitted to All Indiferent Men whether the Design throughout was to Discover the Truth or to Stifle it with an Appendix for a Conclusion p. 320. THE MYSTERY OF THE DEATH OF Sir E. B. Godfrey UNFOLDED PART I. CHAP. I. Sir Edmundbury Godfrey did certainly Dye a violent Death and William Bedloe and Miles Prance took upon them to Discover the Murtherers and the Murther THERE never was perhaps such a Mystery made of a Plain Case as we have had in the Bus'ness of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey That is to say Concerning the Manner of his Death The Time The Place The Occasion of it and by what Hands He Fell And All This only for want of Taking right Measures in the Tracing and Timing of Things For Whoever draws Inferences Hand-over-Head from Bold Allegations to Certainty of Fact or from Positive Oaths to the Truth of every Thing that is Sworn without Further Enquiry or Examination will find himself Mightily Mistaken upon the Subject here in Issue To do This as it should be done there must a Regard be had to the Order both of Time and of Connexion the Date the Series and the Succession of Things Apart with the Reasons and Countenances of Affairs as they stand in the Context It will Need but a very short Deduction to bring down the Course of This Story into the Proper Channel by laying open the Naked Fact of Sir E. B. G's Dying a Violent Death By shewing Who they were that took upon them to Detect the Murtherers and to Prove the Murther and how Godfrey's Name came Originally into the Story which as they pretended was the Occasion of his Death This is it that I propose for the Argument of my First Chapter and Thence to Proceed Step by Step and in a Natural Method from one Point to another The First Question will be Whether or No the Murther was Committed in Manner and Form as the Witnesses Swear it was at Somerset-house The Second Point will be This. In Case it shall appear that he was Not Murther'd at Somerset-house or by such Persons or by such Means or upon such a Grudge as Prance and Bedloe swear he was In what Place by what Instruments in what Way and by what Instigation Was he Murthered These Two Considerations shall be laid indifferently before the Reader in a Distribution of this Discourse respectively into Two Parts without Bespeaking One Partial Word or Thought upon the whole Matter As to the Two Witnesses that gave Testimony in This Cause they had no more Skill in the Merits of it then the Next Cast of Parrots in the Price of Almonds But there was an Intrigue of State driven on under the Cover of a Iesuitical Confederacy which render'd it Necessary at That Time to make the Papists as Odious as they could and to lay all Iudgments and Calamities as well Publique as Private at their Door As among others This Unhappy Miscarriage of Sir E. B. Godfrey for One So that we are to Consult the Popish Plot for the Popish Murther The Latter being made so Essential a Part of the Former that there 's No Disbelieving the One without Ridiculing the Other But how These Two came to be Incorporated into One Interest and Design will Deserve a Place by is self Dr. Tong was hardly ever without a Plot in his Head and a Pen in his Hand The One Bred the Maggots and the Other Vented them As his Royal Martyr for Example His Iesuits Assassins and other Writings of his under the Title of Cases or Narratives which Narratives were Transform'd with One Breath of Otes's into Damnable Conspiracies Now Narrative in those Days was only a Modish Name for a Romantique Forgery This was the Rise of the Doctor 's Popish Plot He took the Idea of it from Habernfeld Sent Otes among the Iesuits for Hints and Materials and so away Trudges he to Valladolid and after that to St. Omers where he stays a while and then comes back again to his Principal Charg'd with Minutes of Names Times Places Customs c. Tong Pounds them into One Confection and according to the Text Exod. Ch. 32. ver 24. There came out this Calf The Project being now form'd and Distributed into Articles Tong presented a Copy of them in a Narrative to his Late Majesty upon the Thirteenth of August 1678. Plying the King with Fresh Informations and further Importunities till toward the End of September following but instead of gaining Credit by the Pretence of Additional Confirmations and Discoveries His Majesty came by Degrees to be Fully possest in the Conclusion That the whole Train of the History was no better then a Down-right Imposture The King's Hardness of Belief was quickly smoak'd by the Plot-master and his Advisers Insomuch that though they could not Totally take the Matter out of His Majesties Hand They did what they could yet by a Side-Wind to Transfer the Cause from the Privy-Council to the Parliament where they made themselves sure before-hand of a Majority to bid it Welcom In Order hereunto Sir E. B. Godfrey was Earnestly pressed and with much Difficulty prevail'd upon Sept. 6. 1678. to
Signification and Import of Words and Actions in the Simplicity of their Meaning Sir Edmundbury Godfrey was too well acquainted with the Dismal State and Effects of his Fathers Melancholy to lay such an Emphasis upon his Own as still to call it Hereditary and at the same time not to have Other Apprehensions about him then the Fear of being Murther'd by the Papists There were No Tongs nor Otes's in his Fathers Days No Whole-sale Narrative men to deal for Treason by the Gross and yet so often as he found himself in any Extraordinary Distress and Anguish of Thought it was still his Fathers Melancholy that he Inherited That Dark Melancholy as he calls it and nothing but the Instance of his Fathers Melancholy would serve him for the Illustration of his Own. This was sure a very Vnhappy President for him to Copy out the Resemblance of his Own Distemper by for I find it Asserted upon Oath by Mrs. Gibbon and No Body knew the Family Better that the Father of This Miserable Gentleman though otherwise a very Good Man was so Overcome with Melancholy that he attempted several Times to kill Himself that she had seen him Bound in his Bed and that in One Fit of Distraction he wounded three of his Children almost mortally with a Cleaver This in Substance is Confirm'd by many Others And I could carry it further but it is a Calamity to be Compassionated and even This alone would have been too much if the Necessity of the Case and of the Argument had not Required it He says He was affraid of his Fathers Melancholy and this is only to shew what kind of Melancholy it was that he was affraid of Harry Moor the Clark speaks of the Father to the same effect To bring my Matters Now a little Nearer If it be True that Sir Edmundbury Godfrey Dy'd a violent Death and Certain that He was Kill'd either by Some body else or by Himself If No Animosity Private or Publique appear'd to make it either a Personal Act or the Malice of a Conspiracy Nay and that the Gentleman was Manifestly a Friend to That Party which the Faction would perswade the World he had so much reason to be affraid of it will be as hard to Believe at Last that This Gentleman Dy'd by the Hands of Papists as that he Dy'd the Somerset-House-Way which is as Impossible to be True as that Fire and Water should Ioyn in one and the same Body to Drown and Burn the World Both at Once I shall Leave it now to the Reader to Consider that if he did not Dye by Other Hands he Dy'd by his Own and if there was No Likelyhood at all of his being Cut off by the Papists whether there was any Ground or Not to fear he might be Destroy'd by his Melancholy Or in fine Since of Necessity it must be One of the Two Whether of the Two was yet the more Probable But People are still at a Loss they say how to bring him off from That Ordinary Ejaculation of his that upon all Discourses of his Vneasiness and Trouble of Mind was still the Burthen of the Song Mr. Robinson afterward Sir Thomas gave Evidence as I have Noted at Greens Tryal of a Discourse he had with Sir Edmundbury Godfrey and of Sir Edmunds speaking These Words to him Vpon my Conscience I believe I shall be the first Martyr Tryal pa. 14. In short Mr. Wynnel Captain Gibbons his Wife and Daughter Coll. Welden and indeed who Not have heard him speak Many and Many a Time to the same Effect Now 't is a Strange Thing if he reckon'd himself in Danger from the Papists that he should never so much as Mention This but to Otes Whose very Oath in the Affirmative Blasts the Credit of the thing he Swore to Especially as it was Hook'd in to serve the Turn of his Plot. A man might very well Content himself after what is said Allready upon the Ambiguity of This Expression and the Weakness of laying more Weight upon 't then 't would bear to Pass over the Question without any more ado But yet though it may seem a Thing Wholly Frivolous to Reason upon there is somewhat in it however upon the Point of Curiosity that may Deserve a Place in This Account of Things though but for Common Satisfaction Upon taking Tongs and Otes'es Depositions upon Sept. 28. 1678. though very Unwillingly as appears over and over Already Sir Godfrey reflected upon it that he had made No Formal Discovery of the Pretended Treason and finding now that the Bus'ness was come to be Publique the Matter being then brought before the Councel he came to be Every day more and more Sensible of the Danger of the Misprision and not without Several Hints by the By that he was like to be call'd to an Account for 't There being near a Month Past from his First Enformation Sept. 6. without any Regular or Effectual Notification of the Matter And he was the More Frighten'd upon it for the Disservice that he did to the Design of making a Plot on 't for he never Believ'd one Word of the Story and told All People as much where he thought he might Safely Declare Himself So that the Martyrdom he fear'd was the being made a Sacrifice to the Faction He was Sufficiently Sensible how Greedily the Multitude swallow'd This Bait of a Plot what Labour was us'd to make a Parliament Cause on 't And how Heartily Dispos'd the Majority even of That Parliament were to Entertain All Colourable Suggestions under so Popular a Pretence It must be added now that This Terrible Parliament it Self was to meet upon the 21 th of That October So that Sir Edmund had but a Matter of Three Weeks Time to Consider on 't There was an Vnlucky Circumstance More too in the Kings going to New-market upon the Second of That October When the Faction had Effectually the Shuffling Cutting and Dealing of their own Game and All things working toward a Common Ruine There never was a Concurrence of more Critical and Mortal Accidents toward the Ruine of One Poor Iustice of Peace then met upon This Single Occasion Adding to All the Rest an Hereditary and an Inseparable Melancholy to Work upon a Melancholy that he Complain'd of long before These Depositions came into the World as is Set forth already in the Depositions of Mr. Church But upon the Whole Matter however the Last day of his Life was the 12 th of October The 15 th Day from the bringing of the Plot before the King and Council and the 9th from the Meeting of the Parliament This was the Pinch of his Condition His Case lay Open to the Worst of Constructions and he was Morally Sure that his Enemies would make the most of any Advantage against him The Man was No Fool and his Head as well as his Humour lay for Practice and Bus'ness And who knows if he had Liv'd 'till the Meeting of the Parliament Whether he should