Oaths and forswearing himself in several instances has ruin'd his own reputation and labour'd as much as in him lay to perswade the Nation that his Narrative is a Lye and the Plot a sham for which if he be not return'd into the Crown-Office and answer for his misdemeanour at the Kings-Bench-Bar as it shall be none of my fault if he do not yet I hope there will come a Parliament and really I believe it will be a pleasant sight to see Doctor Oates brought up by Topham to answer at the Commons Bar the contempt of God knows how many Votes When the first discovery of the Popish Plot had alarum'd these Nations with a general consternation and horrour as reasonably it must I confess I bore a part for being in a Country viz. in Ireland where the Papists were very numerous and where forty years interval had scarce worn out the footsteps and bloody marks of their barbarous and inhumane Cruelty and execrable Rebellion methought the Protestauts there had all the reason in the world to be sensible of their Danger and to stand upon their guard seeing such a dreadful Plot was sworn to be upon the very brink of breaking out here in England But when after all Oates's Narrative and his Evidences against the Jesuits and others who suffer'd produc'd nothing but bare down-right confident Swearing a certain and infallible argument of nothing so much as his own traiterous disposition formerly I must confess my fears began to vanish and strong surmises to come in their place lest the Doctors Ears might be in greater jeopardy than our Throats To speak the truth the 40000 Black-Bills and the Army of Spanish Pilgrims and Military Commissions from General D'Oliva appear'd always to me so monstrously ridiculous that they offer an intolerable affront to the understanding of any man who has but a very indifferent account of the affairs of Europe I desire the Reader to reconcile if he can Oates's Depositions in Coleman's Tryal pag. 29th where upon Oath he delivers to us yea and repeats it for sureness sake That he never saw Langhorn after he had shewed him the Commissions which there he tells us was two days after the April Consult and yet in Langhorn's Tryal pag. 18th he swears he saw him twice or thrice after in July and August this last he thought himself oblig'd to swear that he might charge Langhorn with a new Treason contriv'd at a Benedictine Consult which the Doctor made to be in these months at the Savâ—… These two evidences upon Oath are plainly contradictory I am sure they can never both be reconcil'd to truth It never abated my honour and dutiful respects to His Royal Highness that Oates swore first for him and afterwards against him and notwithstanding his Doctorship's swearing through a double Door yet I have ten times more reason to believe the Doctor to be a Son of a than His R. H. to be a Son of the Church of Rome I have heard much talk and a great deal of Swearing there has been about the Commissions and a world of Letters brimfull of Treason sent by the Post too whose Date the Doctor remembers precisely and yet wisemen if they do not think he Lyes they cannot but admire that he should have never a scrip nor scroul to shew they wonder he should forget to bring at least a Copy along with him I would have been more generous my self than Sir John Gage was to him I would give twenty Shillings for the sight of that Commission for which Sir John gave but ten At Stafford's Tryal pag. he swore he never was really a Papist but a Counterfeit then in the first place I desire the Reader to consider what Religion he could be of during his residence amongst the Papists which of the Whiggish Tribes could he be oblig'd to for Communion or whether the Protestant Religion of the Church of England would own such a wicked Dissembler with God and Man who took all sorts of Tests of Oaths and Sacraments yea and committed abominable Idolatry in despight of his conscience who equivocated beyond Garnet and out-ly'd the Devil In the next place supposing but not granting him to have been then a Protestant pray Reader ask him the next time you see him why he did not carry the Resolves of the April-Consult concerning the assasinating his Majesty to one of the Secretaries of State or to some Magistrate He swears that he carried these Resolves from one Club to another subscribed by the several hands of the Persons who were at the Clubs could there a fitter opportunity offer it self to discover the Plot than at a time when he might have seiz'd all the Conspirators coop'd up together when he might so manifestly have convinc'd them by their names and manual subscriptions to the highest and express most Treason imaginable Nay moreover when a small delay threaten'd His Majesties sacred Person with an imminent if not certain destruction By his swearing himself to have been at that time no Papist I appeal to any man whether he doth not in effect make Oath that there was no such traiterous Consult for it seems not probable that there should be such a horrid palpable Conspiracy and such an excellent convenience for Discovery and yet a Protestant should conceal it But above all I can hardly find in my heart to forgive him notwithstanding His Majesties pardon the not preventing the Destruction of His Majesties sacred Person by Sir George Wakeman's Poyson or some other way by the four Ruffians at Windsor In almost all the Trials he sticks to this viz. that he saw 80 lb. told down to be carried to them and he saw a Guinney given for expedition and yet this bloody Villain never made nor attempted any discovery when it might have been seasonable every minute he expected to hear the blow was given and yet which is monstrous he never offered the least prevention Certainly Ravilliac and Jaques Clement were better Christians than this Rogue he Lyes if he says he was then a Protestant or else he Lyes in devising this Plot let him take his Choice At the first discovery of the Plot he was pleas'd to allow His Grace the Duke of Ormond a Guard of four such Ruffians as attend his Doctorship and he made his Grace at that time so considerable in the Protestant cause that he appointed him Fogarthy for a Physitian but this was in the dawning of the Discovery the Doctor is observ'd to make very considerable mistakes by Candle-light and so probably he might then mistake his Grace for a certain Noble Peer for afterwards when the Plot was arriv'd to the Noon of its discovery that People could see clearly who it was convenient to swear for or against His Grace was brought in as a favourer of that Religion which before the Doctor swore would have murdered him and God knows how many more were brought in upon the like account All the Clergy of the Church of England
were then seen tantivying it to Rome and the Dissenters and Conventicles were the only strong Holds and Bulwarks of the Protestant Religion whereas at the beginning the Doctor swears in his Narrative the Papists endeavour'd by all means to encourage these seditious Separatists and that the Meeting-houses were the lurking holes of the Jesuits where under the umbrage of the Toleration allow'd them they absconded themselves from the view of the Law Nay if the Doctor 's friend Stephen Colledge had been permitted to finish his Discovery of the Plot and his Raree show I do not doubt but his Majesty had been drawn into the Plot against his own Life The Learned Doctor may have read or heard at least that Charles Stuart has been before now charg'd with Treason against the Soveraign they had got pretty near the King when they made bold with the Queen and however the Doctor has not been positive as yet to this point yet he knows there is a time for all things All which arguments with abundance more too large to be here inserted drawn from the intrinsick matter of the Doctor 's Depositions were sufficient to restrain my assent to the Doctor 's Oathes how confident soever especially when I considered that he was a person no ways eminent for probity or honesty qualifications essentially requisite to all who aim at credit by Swearing but this villanous Doctor is notorious for all flagitious crimes and impieties imaginable Sir Dennis Ashbourn witnessed that he had one property of the Devil viz. that he was a Liar from the beginning he has serv'd an apprentiship to the trade of Leesing from his Cradle and Hastings his some time abode in Sussex and Bobbing in Kent will verify the old saying Quo semel est imbuta c. He has been observ'd wherever he has fortun'd to make his residence to sow dissention amongst Neighbours even where he pretended to be a Minister of peace a perpetual Make-bate upon which account and several others Sir George Moor turn'd him out of his Family at Bobbing and how he behav'd himself at Hastings the Records of that place are a demonstration and are so generally known that I shall not trouble the Reader with a recital only I have heard it wisht by an Inhabitant there for an experiment that he would bestow a visit upon his Quondam Parishioners he verily believ'd he said that all his Ruffian-like Mirmidon would hardly defend him from the resentments of the good House-wifes there who remember what a scarcity of Poultry was in that Town when he was their Minister Nay on my conscience I never heard any Person who pretended to know him who did not describe him by an evil character But these are Peccadilloes in respect of his monstrous lusts which would make a Satyre blush upon which account he is notoriously infamous both by Sea and by Land I have heard those who were aboard with him report that he has committed such crimes a-ship-board as have oblig'd the Captain a Gentleman of very fair conditions to wave all Civility usually bestow'd upon his Quality and to order him to be drubb'd and ty'd neck and heels and afterwards to be set a-shore And there are those living now who will witness that Knox and Lane were not the first or only Persons that could charge him with a Sodomitical attempt As for his Religion no man can tell what Creed he professeth The Reader may have heard of a blasphemous Villain who pronounc'd St. Athanasius a Creed-making Coxcomb I am morally certain the Salamanca Doctor has not as yet made publick satisfaction to the Church of England for his scandalous apostacy and that he has made no publick abjuration of the errours of the Church of Rome which sometimes he profess'd and I am sure that for a while he associated with the Socinians and was even by them disliked being scandaliz'd with his contemptuous and blasphemous talk of the blessed Trinity and he is very well known both by his Non-fensical harangue at the Weavers Feast upon these words Heb. 1. 2. By whom also he made the worlds as also by his prating in publick company to be obstinate in the Socinian perswasions though God knows he is very little capable to understand their arguments nay I have heard it credibly reported that this profane Wretch made it his business to go about fidler-wise amongst places of publick resort and ridicule preaching by a Presbyterian Cant and as the Fidlers us'd to press into companies and say Gentlemen will ye please to have a Lesson of Musick this Mountebank us'd to say Gentlemen will ye have a Sermon and when the reckoning came to be paid there was usually twelve pence left for the Fidlers and six pence for the Doctor This they say was one way he had of Living after he was turn'd from St. Omers before he laid hold of the Plot. And now I appeal to any unprejudic'd Reader whether credit ought to be given to his Depositions or whether the Life fortune or reputation of a man ought to be of so inconsiderable a value as to depend upon the breath a Miscreant destitute of Religion and Morality an utter Stranger both to faith and good manners But yet supposing the truth of these allegations should not appear so clearly to prejudic'd minds yea suppose they all should be false yet I am so fully perswaded of his malicious villany and false swearing against me that should the whole world oppose me I am resolv'd to be Athanasius against the whole world the glory of God the interest of Truth and the vindication of my own reputation oblige me to expose this Enemy of mankind and all that is good and to proclaim to all the world that Titus Oates is one of the wickedest and most malicious Villains in it who shews no dread of a God nor makes conscience of an Oath And this I shall demonstrate and offer a clear proof of to all unbiassed understanding persons who desire to be satisfied of the truth in the examination of his Depositions against me which though this cunning swearing-master has couch'd with all artifice that the truth might not be discovered swearing things by such circumstances which as they admit of no manner of probation but his own Oath so he thought his falshood would never be detected by reason of the difficulty of bringing arguments to prove Negatives yet the Devil who is indebted shame and confusion to all his Proselytes has taken occasion to pay a little in hand at present to his own child Titus by leaving him in some places of these his Depositions unguarded of that fence he had provided him with in most of his other Lies so that now he lies shamefully naked a foresworn wretch exposed plainly to the view of all who do not wilfully shut their eyes against the light of the truth To shew the Reader what truth he is to expect from Oates's Depositions he begins with a notorious untruth and prefaceth his false
He swears I confess'd I gave Poyson to my Patron this I deny and Oates is forsworn in saying so for I could not confess to Oates because I never saw him since I was at Cambridge which was before I rtavail'd And if he only heard so from others therefore Oates has sworn rashly to the truth of a matter which is false and of whose truth he had no means of being certain 4. He swears that after I had been in Barbary I return'd to Rome this is false and the Doctor in this is also forsworn for I have never been in Italy nor within two hundred Leagues of any part of Italy since I was in Barbary and the truth of this and the moral impossibility of the contrary will be attested by persons of worth and unexceptionable credit and veracity for in the year 1670 Doctor Zachary Cradock now Provost of Eaten who was then Minister to the English Merchants at Lisbon and Mr. Bulteel a worthy Merchant who then resided at Lisbon with others do remember me and saw me at Lisbon in the month of June before I embarkt in that Vessel in which I was taken and they can attest that I return'd back to Lisbon in September after I had made an escape Sir Martin Westcomb Consul of Cadiz is able to attest that in the beginning of September 1670 I arriv'd at Cadis from Mamora the place whither I escapt from Salle in a Spanish Barca-longa and that I brought a Letter from the Governour of Mamora to the Duke of Vergauas Governour of Cadis and that after a fortnights stay there he procur'd me passage in a Dutch man of war for Lisbon from Lisbon I return'd home in another Dutch man of war in which I embarkt about the middle of October and was carried to the Texel and so to Amsterdam in November about the beginning I refer my self to the testimony of Dr. Marshal Master of Lincoln Colledge in Oxford then Minister to the English at Dort who was pleas'd to assist my necessitous condition and Sir John Chichely then Envoy to the Governour of the Spanish Netherlands who remembers me and his servants with whom Sir John was pleas'd to grant me passage from Brussels to Ostend whence having been stopt there a fortnight by bad weather I return'd home and landed at London about the latter end of November 1670. There are several persons of Quality and worth who remember me and upon Oath can attest my residence ever since November 1670 so that it is morally impossible that ever I should have been at Rome since I was in Barbary and besides the business in which he engages me at Rome which he swears in the next place requires a time for its performance which it is impossible for any considering Reader to allow 5. He swears I made a Recantation at Rome this he swears positively and I swear he lyes abominably and this the Intelligent Reader may be easily convinc'd of by this short demonstration Every one who renounces the Christian and embraces the Mahumetan faith is immediately circumcis'd that being the essential form of iniitation into that Religion and an infallible character of all its Proselytes if therefore I am not circumcis'd then it is impossible that I could have been a Professor of Mahomets Law and consequently it is as impossible that I should have recanted it at Rome But I am not circumcis'd neither as a Proselyte nor otherwise which this Rogue 's unparallell'd impudence and villany has oblig'd me to prove by a demonstration not altogether so consistent I confess with the gravity of my Profession yet such as I have no great reason to be asham'd of since providence has made it instrumental for discovery of the truth and preservation of my own life and rescuing my fame from the imputation of a far greater moral turpitude than any natural I thank God I am guilty of Titus Oates is therefore palpably forsworn and to the shame and confusion of himself and all who dare stand up for him I can demonstrate it But further yet there are collateral arguments to convince the Reader of the falshood of this his Oath If I recanted my Apostacy from the Christian Religion how came I to escape the Inquisition at Rome which is a harder escape than from Salle and this the Doctor would be sure of if he were there There are none whether the Doctor know it or no who turn from the Romish Religion to the Protestant or as they term it Heretical who are received into the bosome of the Church of Rome upon a bare Recantation they are besides to endure a purgatory in the Inquisition much more if they revolt and apostatize totally from Christianity and most especially if they were Priests as the Doctor swore I was The Doctor therefore by being silent as to this particular how I got clear of the Inquisition which must have been very remarkable has given one main argument that I never deserv'd it and therefore that I never recanted and therefore that he is a malicious lying Rogue 6. He swears he saw this Recantation subscribed with my own hand and that he is well acquainted with my character every syllable whereof is false and he maliciously contradicts the truth swearing contrary to his conscience for he must certainly know that he never saw that which never was And besides if I had made such a Recantation it would have been very notorious and the News of the Prints at that time and for a further conviction I desire the Reader once more to take notice that hundreds can attest that my name was never known to be Elliot beyond Sea and Oates is ignorant by what name I went and how then he should know my hand or what I was is next to an impossibility In these six foregoing particulars the Doctor is manifestly forsworn and has shewn only the pregnancy of a wicked invention without any judgment by improving an innocent if not commendable passage of my life to a crime that is Capital and making me to deserve imprisonment and Death amongst Christians because I made a laudable attempt to escape from a Moorish Bondage and Captivity It is lamentable that amongst Christians in England I should meet with a faith worse than Punick and that Haggi Hamet Lucas a barbarous Moor should outvye a Doctor of Salamanca in Christianity But blessed be my good God who hath delivered me from the paw of the Lion and the Bear and I trust will likewise deliver me from this Vncircumcised Philistine he whose eminent providence has appear'd in my deliverance from the Monsters of Africa from the house of Bondage and slavery to cruel Masters will likewise vindicate my Innocence from the false swearing of this Monster of men who by wicked blasphemies defies the Armies of the Living God He proceeds on in his wicked lying and false sweating as if it were religion with him never to speak truth swearing positively that An 1673 when I liv'd in Kent I