practised to draw truth from them Yet these People will not endure any Suspicions of such Designs from them who are said thus to examine others themselves as the Captain would perswade were by like means upon himself Sound places will not matter such rubbing when sore parts shrink from the hand that touches them Well we have here some of the most satisfactory Evidences both of the vanity of mens Minds and the corruption of their Manners and that particularly in their having espoused a Cause and a Party and their being resolved right or wrong or however that Party act in all the ways of wickness yet still to hold on that side and bring all the Fig-leaves they can to cover its shame and nakedness That 1. They so readily receive the Information of an indigent cast Commander who stands corrupt in his Principles and whose Loyalty is turned to revenge or any other wretched Pamphlet stuffed full with Lyes and most palpable contradictions and all this against the King and chief Ministers of State against the Government and Justice of the Nation Notwithstanding these very Practices of blackning the King viz. in his Person Ministers and Government was the beginner and inlet of that Rebellion which cost so many thousand Lives and hath brought so much reproach upon all Religion And that it is the daily business of separate Congregations by the same cause to produce the same effect The plainness of such Designs and Practices should make all honest men that are not willing to encourage and therefore partake in those most damning sins of Rebellion Murthers Theft and all manner of Villanies that Rebellion leads to not to judge their Judges not to revile the Gods not to receive an Accusation or true Protestant Stories and Intelligences because it is from that foul corner that all vile Accusations fulsom Reports black Representations of all present Establishments and every Accusation of the Brethren which is the work of the Devil doth come I shall give you only one instance of the falshood of these Intelligences and that is in Langly Curtis who saith Numb 93. that the Association which is printed by His Majesties Command in the Lord Sh Hearing at the Old-Baily is only an Association for the Preservation of the King and Protestant Religion and was proposed in the House of Commons We will consider the thing in some Particulars As It ingages for the defence of the King but how 1. By Disbanding his Forces And 2. By excluding the King the Lords and those Commons that will not associate from the Government or to follow the associating Party exclusive of the rest which is directly to set up another rump-Rump-Parliament 3. It directly sets up Arbitrary Power and Government For 1. It ingages to follow the Orders of the associating Lords and Commons while they Sit when prorogued or after Dissolution whatever those Orders be or however contrary to all Fundamental Laws of the Land And 2. To pursue to destruction all that oppose it which the King and every honest Subject must do 3. For the effecting all which they ingage to obey the Orders and Officers which this supposed Rump of a Parliament shall set over them in the several Countries Cities c. all which is to be done while the King lives for it adds if any fail in the Prosecution hereof viz of the Association they shall be prosecuted and supprest as Enemies to God the King c. Ergo this must be put in Execution while the King doth live Therefore this is just such a defence of the King as the late Rebellion which pretended His Majesties Honour and Safety but we see in the end that men fought for King and Parliament till they brought the King to Destruction as this Association ingages to do And yet saith Langly Curtis this was proposed in the late Parliament I hope the next Parliament will give him no thanks for reporting them to associate in a Rebellion and consult matters of High-Treason as the thrusting the King from the Government and bringing His Majesty and all Loyal Subjects to destruction under the notion of Popish Adherents and Opposers of this Association Whether this doth not tend to the fastning some Reports upon the House let any judge Therefore I presume that as the Lord Shaftsbury doth not approve these things so the House will prove the True Protestant to be a Lying Mercury These are Religious Wheedles made to reconcile ignorant minds to the blackest Villanies and to throw Samuel's Mantle over the Devil of Rebellion A man should not be more careful of his Pocket when a Cheat is at his Elbow than he should of his Ear when a true Protestant whisper salutes it or a Libel approaches A doing so would argue an honest wary mind that stands upon its watch against the sly Insinuations and Devices of the evil one Whereas a receiving such because true Protestant Stories that is in plain English Religious Lyes is the giving up your selves to Delusions and a Reprobate sense 2. That men will believe the surmises whispers and inventions of a Jesuited Protestant rather than what all men see and know viz. the most candid proceedings of Authority and equal administration of Laws without partiality unless it be on their own side and by their own means Such are our Governours such are our Circumstances that any Nation in the World was it not for the mischiefs our selves do make would say of us Happy are the people that are in such a case For we have such a settled Religion that no reformed Church in the world will offer to condemn Such security of our Persons and Estates that nothing can be greater such increase of Shipping Merchants and Trade that we shame not only Complaints and Petitions that would be fastning some fault upon the the Government but even all Ages before us We have no fears but what are either of our own making or at a distance from us which the happiest and best governed Society in the World is exposed to What greater Argument is there of a reprobate mind a mind abandoned to all folly and mischief that can complain in such a Golden Age That can wish to run out of Gods Blessing into the warm Sun from such an happy State and Government into Confusion Plunders Oppressions and Arbitrary Government and all this out of hopes of a fine Chimaera of our own making This is exactly to play the part of a wilful Israel who would have left Moses and Aaron and have made themselves Captains of their own and have returned to their Flesh-pots in Egypt What greater Argument that God hath given up men to be their own shame and Executioners than this that they are so willing to follow those men who by lies perjuries and every evil method have destroyed the Government and themselves once already and are again taking the same measures and think nothing unlawful that serves to the same end Was there not a lying Spirit gone forth
ANIMADVERSIONS ON Capt. Wilkinson's INFORMATION Being highly conducive to the better informing and disabusing the Minds of Men and tending to the publick Peace and Safety He that is first in his own Cause seems just but his neighbour comes and searches him out Prov. 18.17 LONDON Printed for Walter Davis 1682. ANIMADVERSIONS ON Capt. Wilkinson's INFORMATION SINCE I saw this Information I have been big with Expectation of some notable Skirmishes with it But finding none so hardy as to incounter the Captain I have adventured to enter the Lists and take up the Gantlet against him To the Reader p. 1. he gives some account of his adventures and sufferings 1. His Adventures he had served his late Majesty of blessed Memory and his most glorious Majesty King Charles the Second and that particularly in being instrumental in his Restauration And 2. His Sufferings for with many others in the same Service he had the misfortune to be much impoverished Where we will observe that the Captain pleads Poverty and makes the cause of it to be His Majesties Service And yet in the very same Page Parag. 3. he owns that since His Majesties Return he hath been a great Projector and for the most part lost by his Projects And hath likewise spent above one thousand pounds in assisting one Mr. Castillian Morris Now if the Captain 's Estate had ever been considerable I doubt not but we should have had an account of it that we might withall have seen the greatness of his Sufferings But whatever that was his Poverty could not be great since he could afford ever since His Majesties Restauration to be a continual loser by Projects of his own and spend above a thousand pounds upon his Friend and after all be in a capacity of leaving his Country honourably p. 9. As for the Debts that make him a Prisoner they were contracted by his keeping a Ship his Family and above thirty Servants idle on the River from April till August together with his ingagements for other men and Actions brought upon him by Passengers who several of them Arrested him for damages in being so long delayed and together threw him into the Counter in Woodstreet to whom notwithstanding all he was still capable of offering fair and reasonable satisfaction which being not accepted he removed himself to the Prison of the Kings-Bench Sept. 17. Page 3. to the end How then was the Captain impoverished by His Majesties Service A loser he might be impoverished he was not It is an ease to some men to nick their private losses on the publick score Hereby they hope at least to wipe off from themselves all reproach of extravagancy and ill management of their affairs And men of more designing heads as the Captain seems to be think by such little Arts to fix themselves the faster in popular esteem who reckon that hope and revenge equally conspire to make them true to that interest they have now espoused and therefore do not fear their return to their Master who they tell them has cut off not like Darius their Lips Nose and Ears but their Houses Lands and Credit in the World But in case this had been true which yet himself evidently overthrows what need was there of that Parenthesis viz. with many others in the same Service unless to upbraid the King with ingratitude or to hint that miseries are the usual attendants on that Service and by both to affright others from their duties in the like nature Surely Soldiers might be content to lose their Arrears when all honest Subjects were hurl'd into a common ruine while the King himself did lose one his Life The other his Crowns The Parliament Army might have fared as bad had not the Commons whose they were paid them by Theft and Sacriledge Whereas had the King overcame themselves had been the losers while His Majesties Forces had been well and more honestly paid too But yet to the Reader Page 1. he grants that it was impossible for His Majesty to gratifie all that wanted his Royal bounty Therefore as his own Poverty is falsly placed on the account of his Service so the Poverty of others in the same Service is mentioned either to no purpose or to an ill end In the Information Page 2. 3. he acknowledges he had formerly desired to Farm something of His Majesties Revenues which it seems he could not attain to and doubtless for that reason was resolved not to come at the Court as he once and again declares Nor would trust any Courtier he knew for a Groat p. 3. And lest he should not sufficiently spit his venom he bespatters the whole Pamphlet with expressions of an ill nature that way as Page 4. that he would not trust the Promises of Courtiers And Page 8. that he could freely draw his Sword against them From which things together we may see the Man's Complexion viz. that he was an Old Cavalier but having by fond Projects wasted his Estate and missed expected rewards he is now grown sullen hath espoused another interest and in a pet removes from York-shire to London and here falls in with the concerns of Carolina Now all this while the Captain hath been industriously laying a twofold design As 1. To build a little Porch to the Fabrick of his following Discourse and by the specious pretexts of Loyalty and the boasts of former Services precariously to introduce a belief of the matter of his Information And 2. To satisfie the People that he is totally fallen off from the Court-Party as some love to speak and which in vulgar acceptation is the King Ministers of State and their Adherents viz. those who faithfully retain the Principles of Honesty and Allegiance Under which shade the People do herd and hug themselves in the thoughts of a Proselyte who forsooth must be believed in all he is pleased to say though for no other Reason but because he was once a loyal Subject or an honest man But a man's former Loyalty and Service if once he becomes a Male-content cannot in reason be allowed to derive Reputation to his present Discontents but must rather be judged an occasion of heightning the same and of hurrying him the faster into desperate Resolves Because when high thoughts of former Merits and the sense of present Neglects have drawn a man off to another Party he there is carried on not only by Interest as before but also by the accession of Revenge Thus when Pride Covetousness and desperate Fortunes had made Hereticks in the Church and evil Members in the State they were ever observed to have been worser Enemies than those who were born and bred amongst the Hetorodox in Faith and Loyalty Of which perhaps our own Times may afford some Instances And truly this seems to be the Captain 's Case as may be conjectured from several parts of his Papers and particularly from pag. 8. where he saith that he told the King he knew his duty to his Majesty and would not
Moreover it was sworn in Colledge's Tryal pag. 25. That the said Colledge who suffered at Oxford did say there were several Captains some of whom he there names with abundance more that would be ready for this Design upon the King and Government of whom about forty were there at the time the said Colledge spake these things Now from all these and perhaps some other Causes and Reasons it might well be suspected that one Captain Wil might be in the number To which he answers two things viz. 1. I could do no less than wait upon him viz. the E. of S who had been so kind pag. 6. Where observe that his answer gives a reason of his Attendance but not of his Arms Therefore it may be replied what need was there of his going armed no more I suppose than of Colledges doing so His respects were shown in his personal attendance not in his weapons 2. He answers pag. 9. That he could not be supposed confederate in such a design if any such was for at the same time he viz. Mr. Booth said this was to be which was when the Parliament was to be last at Oxford I had taken a Ship for Carolina Now that Parliament was dissolved March. 28. and at that time saith he that that Parliament was to sit I had taken a Ship ergo could not be supposed to be in a design then at Oxford This is a main Plea and which he seems to triumph in and yet to the Reader pag. 2. he tells you quite another story viz. that he hired this Ship in the Moneth of April and pag. 3. adds further that the Ship lay upon his charge from April to August ergo was not hired till April which was after the dissolution of that Parliament and the return of all Parties to their homes Now suppose this Ship had been hired in March it doth not prove but that the Captain might notwithstanding be in a Plot at the same time men may drive on a publick and private Design at once and truly the probability is still the greater since it is given upon Oath that the Captain designed not to go as yet to Carolina in his own person but at present to send his Son as appears in the Hearing at the Old-Bailey But here is a most manifest Contradiction whereby he brings himself under a greater suspicion than if he had said nothing for that cannot be Truth that needs a Lye But you will say Perhaps the Captain in the Preface mistook April for March. To which I answer There is no perhaps in the Case but contrariwise it is very plain and certain that in the Information he put March for April Because 1. In the Information he saith but once that it was in March but to the Reader he saith twice that it was in April 2. To the Reader the Captain sets himself to give you an account 1. Of his Preparations for his Voyage and also of all Particulars about the Ship pag. 2. as the time he hired her which was the Month of April her Name the Abigail of Colchester her Burthen about 130 Tuns and the Master's Name Thomas Wood. And 2. Of his Losses in this Project pag. 3. As particularly his having this Ship so long upon his charge viz. from the Month of April till August following And certainly where he sets himself to give you an account of his Misfortunes and Charges which he loves to do to all advantage it is not in reason to be supposed that he would cut off one Months Charge from the Account which yet he must have done in case the said Ship was hired at the Session of the Parliament at Oxford which was in March. Now here he purposely gives you an account of all the little Circumstances about the Ship and the losses he sustain'd Therefore there being no other Matter at that instant before him here was a free recollection of his thoughts and therefore no danger of a mistake in so plain and easie a Matter and yet in each place he saith April was the time he hired the Ship and the time her Charges took date upon him Whereas in the Information there was very complex Matter before him and he spoke of March incidently and in transitu to some other Matter therefore might more easily mistake than in the other if you will be so merciful as to suppose a mistake which you cannot do without the forfeiture of your Reason Because 3. To the Reader he could have no design in naming the circumstance of Time whereas in the Information he had a very great one in saying it was in March for hereby he would wipe off all Suspicions of his being in a Plot then Whence it is ten thousand times more likely that he should falsifie in the Information than mistake to the Reader and consequently in all reason the former Account was true viz. that the Ship was hired in April after all was over and possibly to carry him off from danger I would not judg the Captain but truly this Shift hath a wicked Aspect and such an evil Influence on the repute of his Loyalty that it will not easily be recovered Now after all this who can wonder that there was expectation above of some great Discovery that his Examination was so strict and pressing and that my Lord Chancellor was so close upon him when beside Oath made against him even himself had given so just an occasion of such strictness in the several Particulars before mentioned and now at last by putting off the Charge from himself by a very Lye Had the Captain been in some Places far less occasion would have brought him to Examination by Rack or Limbo therefore he might well be content as he is pleased to word it pag. 8. to run the Gantlet from one Place to another We see many times that in a Cause of so narrow a Sphere as not to reach any farther than a private Concern Witnesses are examin'd cross-examin'd and run this that and every way by close and subtil Queries are now affrighted and then dandled in their own humours and Matters applied in the most likely way to sift truth out of them that I have seen the man sweat and almost at his wits end and having spoke truth at first though others were not well satisfied he did so hath as much cause to suspect and complain that the Court would have frighted or perswaded him to Perjury as the Captain hath to reflect all that dishonour upon these Personages whose Parts and Integrity are under his Majesty the Glory of our Court and Age the Security of our Peace Properties and Religion and who therefore are honoured by good men feared and hated by the evil and admired by all And truly sometimes Truth is not discoverable without diligent Search strict and various Methods and repeated Examinations Therefore Fitzharris and many others of the Popish way had very frequent Examinations Promises Threatnings and all imaginable Methods