had a Sight of every private Writing by which they came not only to know our Hands but had oftentimes Hints the better to frame their Accusations I say notwithstanding all these Accidents there has not been found any ill Letter any Commission any Bill of Exchange any Money any Arms any Horses or any Thing else suspicious but to the Confusion of our Enemies an Innocency a Patience and a Loyal Zeal beyond Example I have been my Lords and Gent the more particular with Oates though as I said I have not half done to the end you might see not only how impossible it was That he should have any knowledge of a Plot had there been one but that his whole Information also is a most vain Fiction and consequently if 100 Men and all of them of some repute should vouch and justify his Fopperies it could but show us what Encouragements and Temptations will do For since he has most evidently Lyed all along how can their Testimony make him to have spoken Truth If therefore upon force you must judge thus of all that shall witness for him though their Credit should be a little Tollerable of which I 'le assure you we have no Apprehension what are we to think of his declared Coadjutors and Partizans who are so known and not one whit behind him in any impudent or apparent falsity As for Bedlow's part nothing can be a greater proof of it than that he should at first solemnly profess to the very Secretaries in his Examination upon Oath That he knew nothing of the Plot further than of Sr. Edm. Godfreys Murther Besides when he was askt where they laid his Corps in Somerset house he mention'd the Room next to that where the Duke of Albemarle lay in state but being caught Tardy there because it belong'd to my Lord Ossory's Protestant Servants he went and show'd them another in which he was yet more unfortunate it being the common place for Pages and other forraign Attendants and had to boot during the Queens stay Centinells still by it Prance also you see for I must be very brief in my Instances acquaints us of God knows how many that menton'd the killing the King to him and this as a trivial matter even whilst they were buying Spoons Candlesticks and the like And to confirm the raising an Army by us he come's to the very number of men it was to consist of to wit Fifty Thousand and yet there are not so many Men Women and Children of our Religion in England nor were we to expect much help from abroad seeing the Kings Navy was not only then in a good forwardness but all forraign Princes were together by the Eares and wanted Recruits as they still do who are in an actual War But considering Dugdale is the Junior of all for as to Jenison I shall only add this at present to what I have said before That he has already demanded a PENSION for his Services which shews both his plentiful Condition and his Aim I say as to Dugdale he is no ill Proficient I 'le assure you in proceedures of this Nature Having had the luck as well as the rest of the Fraternity to be proved in Open Court a Villain For at the last Staffor'd Assizes Mr. Sambige a Protestant Gent together with Mr. Philips the Parson of the Parish represented to the Court That Dugdal never mention'd to them the killing of a Justice of Westminster as he deposes in Sir George Wakeman's Trial and least such a Testimony should endanger the spilling of Innocent blood they were willing to swear to the Truth of this Averment nor could this ill man say any thing then to it only after some days search he got two wretched fellows of his Gang who privately made Oath That Dugdal had told them the said Deponents that Story which contradicts nothing had their Depositions been true of what Sambige and Mr. Philips attested to his Confusion and how Mr. Chetwin also who makes Mr. Sambige in the Jesvits Trial his Author will avoid this Blow let any man tell me that can Besides were there no such persons as Mr. Sambige and M. Philips living is not yet the Lie most apparant and clear for how is it possible as I mention'd before That Dugdale that was so greatly concern'd in the Plot and so surpris'd and disturb'd as he assures us at this Murther least it might ruin the whole business should run the very next morning after Mr. Ewers had forsooth with great Secresy told him of it and proclame to no manner of purpose at an Alâ— before any man dreamt of it in the Countryâ— Thus stands our Case my Lords and Gent thus you see that no good Protestant can be safe if such notorious Perjuries shall be countenanc'd Nay if Popery should be thus deprest could it be do you think either for the Honour or Interest of your Religion since the History of all Country as well as our own for no Tittle of this can fall to the ground and be unrecorded will like the Ghost of a Murther'd man be ever haunting you which must raise in yours and your childrens thoughts great Detestation and Horror For to what Height is the Effrontery of these Sons of Perdition come when they can threaten Juries for not going against their Consciences and tell Judges of WRITS of EASE if they take notice of most apparent and impudent Contradictions Have not they then destroy'd all Law And will not our moderate and excellent Government if these Precedents stand good be the most despotical uncertain one that ever was but to add yet to our Amazement who could have ever thought unless it were to make the folly every where proportionable that we who have so eminently hazarded our ALL for the King that have so entirely Loved his person have so constantly even doted on Monarchy should be accus'd as the grand Parricides and that they that are generally reputed to hate King and King-ship should be now the Sticklers and Zealots for both Is there not then some further Trick Design in this new Loyalty And may not the Papists as the Dogs in the Fable be thought too great a safety for the Fold Yes certainly for as the Apologist has long ago observ'd The Prerogative never suffer'd no great States man has ever been disgrac't nor the Church of England it self nâ—â— the Libertyes of the People ever wounded but a fearful Out cry against Popery has still preceded And now that I speak of the Liberties Rights of the People shew me an Instance in Story even in the reputed Worst of Times and therefore you may see what Judgments ever follow the falling upon the Innocent that whole Corporations as appears now in the Buckingham case in other Places also were ever before publickly Libell'd for their Choice which takes away the chiefest Liberty and Priviledge we can possibly pretend Therefore for Liberties sake for Monarchies sake for
as also of their never having such Hopes since the Dayes of Q. Mary with the like Rhetorical Flowers Mr. Coleman being then found Guilty upon the account of his Letters for my Lord Chief Justice told him as I already mention'd †That the Cause hung not on the Matter he insisted upon to wit on the Consult of August which Oates pretends him to be at He was next day Condemned at the same Bar where he declar'd with all the Execrations imaginable That he told the House of Commons all that he knew of this Business That he never heard of Proposition or knew of any to Supplant the King or Government by Invasion Disturbance or the like That he thought 't is true by Liberty of Corscience Popery might come in and that every Body is bound to wish all People of the Religion be professes with much more to the same Purpose Then being carryed back to Prison where his Wife had only private Admittance he was on Tuesday the Third of December brought to Tyburn where he made the following Speech Mr. Coleman's Speech IT is now expected I should speak and make some Discovery of a very great Plot I know not whether I shall have the good Fortune to be believed better now than formerly if so I do here solemnly declare upon the words of a Dying Man I know nothing of it And as for the raising of Sedition Subverting the Government stirring up the People to Rebellion altering the known Laws and Contriving the Death of the King I am wholly Ignorant of it Nor did ever I think to advance that Religion which People think I am so Zealous of hereby I thank God I am of it and declare I dye of it nor do I think it prejudicial to King or Government But though I am as I said a Roman Catholick and have been so for many Years yet I Renounce that Doctrine which some say the Remish Church doth usher in to promote their Interest That Kings may be Murder'd and the like I say I abominate it Here Mr. Coleman being interrupted by being told that if he had any thing to say by way of Confession or Contrition for the Fact he might proceed otherwise it was unseasonable to go on and spend time with such like Expressions Mr. Coleman then reply'd No! But he thought it was expected then being told to the contrary he concluded with these few words following I do say I had no intention to subvert the Government or to act any thing contrary to Law but what every Man of a contrary Religion would do in a peaceable manner if he could And if I may be believ'd the Witness that Swore against me did me wrong and that Witnesses that swore He was with me in Sommerset-House-Gallery upon the words of a Dying Man I never saw his Face before Being afterwards ask'd if he knew any thing of the Death of Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey He also declared on the words of a Dying Man he knew nothing of it Concerning Mr. Ireland Grove and Pickering WIth these three Mr. White the Provincial and Mr. Fenwick Procurator of Saint Omer's held up their Hands at the Old Baily on the Seventeenth of December and though they were charg'd home by Oates yet Bedlow had so little against the said Mr. White and Fenwick that after a Tryal of several Hours they were for want of two Witnesses as the Law requires in Treason remanded to Newgate where we will leave them till by and by being now only to treat of the others Oates then not only repeats the beforementioned April Consult at the White-Horse-Tavern his comming over with Sir John Warner Sir Thomas Preston Fa. Williams Nevil Hildesley and others his lying close in the time of the said Consult at Groves's when as the Prisoners attest that he was then actually at Saint Omers but he further deposes that Mr. Ireland was caballing in Mr. Fenwicks Chamber about a Fortnight or ten Days in August and that the said Mr. Ireland gave him particularly on the first or second of September twenty Shillings Then He sayes that two Jesuits were sent into Scotland to stir up the Presbiterians there That at the aforesaid April meeting there was a formal Resolve drawn up by Mico their Secretary signed by at least Forty and entered into a Book or Register That Grove and Pickering should go on with their Attempt to Kill the King and that the first should have 1500 l. and the other 30000. Masses That it was to be done by long Pistols something shorter than Carbines and that the Bullets were Silver which Grove said he would champ that the wound might be uncureable That Pickering had mist an opportunity in the preceding March by reason his Flint was loose for which he underwent a Penance of twenty or thirty stroakes with a Discipline That the Duke was also to be deposed if he were not vigorous for the Cause That he saw in their Entry book that Sir George Wakeman had accepted of 15000. l. to poyson the King if the others fail'd That he perus'd the Entry-book of the Peter-pence which Grove and Smith had gathered That Grove told him that he fir'd Southwark and that his the said Oates's business of comming now over was to Kill Doctor Tongue for Translating the Jesuits Morals Bedlow being called acknowledges the Entry-book and adds that Mr. Langhorn was the Register That the Earl of Shaftsbury the Duke of Buckingham the Earl of Ossory and Duke of Ormond were to be kill'd That Mr. Ireland was at Mr. Hartcourts Chamber in the latter end of August where it was agreed the other Plot not succeeding Coniers should go with Pickering and Grove to New-Market to kill the King in his Morning-walk there That Pickering Grove were also present in the said Chamber that his Brother James Bedlow heard him often talking of the Prisoners and as one acquainted with Priests and that he brought him as the said James attested Fifty and Sixty pòunds at a time from the Jesuits The Charge was solemnly deny'd by them all and besides their own constant Loyalty they alledg'd that of their respective Relations who had been great Sufferers both in their Lives and Fortunes for the King and Pickering as to his particular protested he never Shot off a Pistol in his Life which by his very mine and looks seem'd not very improbable to the Spectators Then Mr. Ireland after Answers to the several other particulars affirm'd That he was constantly out of London from the third of August till above a week after the beginning of September which he prov'd by three Witnesses got together by chance by his Sister He also urg'd that he had Witnesses that there were more Witnesses but that he and the rest were kept so strict that they were not permitted to send for any body nay that he was
price and value of an Almanack I mean by one of the Common London-Gazets For was it not a home Blow and a just one also that in the thus publishing of his Erroneous Book to the Nation which pretends Popery so destructive to Kings there should be there proclaimed even in the very next Advertisement The Trials of Twenty-nine Protestant Regicides as Deposers and Murtherers of their Glorious Soveraign under the cloak of Justice a Villany of a Dye which the worst of Papists never yet arriv'd to But to go on yet further in our Vindication Was there ever on the one side any Catholick Country or Pope that has censur'd either Man or Book for the denying the said Deposing-Power of the Church And have not the Venetians on the other side openly profest it in their very Writings Has not Mariana's Opinion been Condemned in Spain and yet his Lordship cites this Author against us Has not Sanctarellus's Book been censur'd in France with all the Formality imaginable as also Bellarmine Suarez Schoppius and others of the same Subject And have not the College of Sorbon the Vniversities of Paris Caen Rheimes Poitiers and God knows how many others joyn'd in this Condemnation Nay does not Bishop Moutague himself tell us That not only Becanus was Corrected at Rome but that no State dis-own'd this Independency or Power of Kings This then being Matter of Fact and this being the publick Declaration of the Church of Rome may I not with Justice call upon his Lordship to turn to our Religion seeing in the very last Paragraph of this his Book he professes That if any Popish Priest or Gentleman can make it appear that the Church of Rome by any publick Declaration has disown'd such Principles and damn'd them as Erroneous and Impious he will turn one of the worst sort of Christians viz A Roman Catholick Truly my Lords and Gentlemen I shall expect this of him or he is not as good as his word Besides I do here declare that supposing the Premisses to wit That the chief Reformed Doctors have speculatively taught this Deposing Doctrine That they have actually depos'd and murder'd their Princes upon account of Religion That the Catholick Princes are more absolute than the Protestant That our Monarchy of England is not a whit safer or powerfuller than formerly That Catholick Kingdoms and States have condemned the said Doctrine That no Catholick Country or Pope has censur'd any that have done so and that no Council ever imposed it on our Faith I say granting these Premisses which are also of themselves evident I do here declare That I my self will turn Protestant if his Lordship shews me but one Single Paragraph in all his Book in relation to our dangerous Principles which is the Scope of the Whole that is not here either fully answer'd or does not at least wound the whole Protestant Party by its consequence more than Vs And more-over I must tell his Lordship He may find a great deal more to this purpose in the before-mention'd Reply to the Answer of the Catholick Apology To conclude Let me once more remind his Lordship of his Promise and then tell him for I know he is a Man of Parts what Dr. Taylor said to a Friend of mine concerning his Disswaâ—â—e from Popery viz. That though 't were lik'd yet 't was but turning the Tables and he could write a Book twice as good HAving thus my Lords and Gentlemen run over in hast the odd Pretences and Accidents that have been so advantagious to the Saviours of the Nation I shall desire you before we part to take a second Consideration of them for second Thoughts are still the best and then you will find more Extravagancies in their Relations than in any Romance extant For ' bating the Ridiculousness Of the Army we were raising when the King had Forty Thousand Men in pay besides a very considerable Fleet and ' bating the Wildness of Civil and Military Commissions granted as both Oates and Bedlow have it to a whole Nation by the General or Superior of Religious Men and seal'd with the very Seal of their Order Things that would make not only a Canonist but any Forreigner run mad to hear of and ' bating the carrying on by Eighty-six Men and Women the Fire of London in as great a Method as the Machins move in Baâ—tholomew-Fair without any Bodies being ever yet taken in the Action and bating Oates his particular Story of the Jesuits Plundering during these Fires to the value of several Thousands of Pounds Of Magazins full of stolen Goods orderly brought and received Of their taking a thousand Carracts of Diamonds from a Man who escap'd and run away after they had knock'd him down and no words ever made in London either of him or the Loss Of their Bancâ— of One Hundred Thousâ—nd Pounds and lending it out at Fifty per Cent Of Entry-Books for all the Treasonable Debates and Resolves Of Acquittances of Money received for Killing the King Of poysoning of Silver-Bullets by chawing of them Of gathering Peter-pence and of a Thousand such unconceivable Whimfies Which appear in the Trials in the Journal of the Lords and in the Narrative Printed by Oates his Special Directions and also solemnly sworn to by him I say â—bating this ridiculous and unconceivable Stuff How was it possible that the Jesuits should make this Fellow so particular a Confident when the whole World sees he is Master of no one thing that could render him in the least Advantagious For being a Beggar he could not tempt them with Money being a Weaver's Son and like one of Jeroboam's Priests of the meanest of the People he had no Relations to Countenance or help them being no manner of Scholar but as ignorant as any other poor Curate may be imagin'd for I will be a Bond Slave for ever if he can Translate six Lines into Latin without a Solaecism these Jesuits could not have the least Hopes of him that way Being no greater a Linguist than his Mother made him there was little Expectation of his proving a good Trouchman or Interpreter In fine Being also Ill in his Mine and Behâ—viour Ill in his Elocution Ill in his Writing and Ill in every thing else that can recommend one Man to another How was it possible as I mention'd That they should make him such a particular Confident as he pretends and especially send one of this Guise Ambassadour to the Crowns of Spain and France I mean to Don John and Fa La Chaise as he has sworn Now though these English Fathers should be such easy and silly Men How came it I would fain know or what wonderful Advantages could be propos'd to the General and his Assistants at Rome that they must grant him those Privileges that were never before heard of since the Institution of their Order to wit That a Lay-man should be admitted into their Congregations and Consults and more-over
an Artifice to cheat the World and manifestly to damn their Souls even according to their own profest Doctrine and Tenets Besides do not our Adversaries by this wild Dream show not only their own Barbarity and Ignorance but affront and call Villains the greatest and the most eminent parts of the Civiliz'd World and certainly should one of them say to a Knight of Maltha or to a Teutonick Knight or to any other Catholick Cavalier That he was not to be belieâ—ed since he might by his principles lye anâ— forswear at pleasure he would I must tell him be soon Kick'd and bastanado'd for it But my Lords and Gent if this Calumny which carrys some Alleviation in it as having the Ignorant and Rabble for it's chief Abettors be never the less shocking what must the Aspersion do which is reviv'd by a Nobler and Learneder hand I mean by the present Bishop of Lincoln Yet if it be a breach of CHRISTIANITY to crush the bruised Reed and of GENEROSITY also to Trample on the Oppressed I wish his Lordship may be found Guilty of neither and that there never rise any such who in hopes of Applause shall contrary to the Light of their own Consciences reprint a Martyn-Marprelate a Cobler of Glocester or any Scandalous Pasquil should EPISCOPACY by some foolish Accident or Misfortune fall again within the Fury of the people But who could think that his Lordships heat against us should force himeven to a TITLE that has confuted his whole Book viz. That Popish Principles and Positions when really believed are destructive and dangerous to all Kings especially Protestants for he cannot Term them Principles of Faith because they were never thus believ'd by any Catholick nor never thus approved of by the Church and consequently nothing to his purpose But if on the other side he means that there have been Popish Doctors of the Opinion That Princes might be deposed upon the Account of Religion what advantage I would fain know can that be to his Lordship or his Treatise since not onlyall the prime Leaders of the REFORMATION as Luther Calvin Zainglus Beza c. have in express Termes held the same and in pursuance of it rais'd Rebellions and Confusions in all Countrys where they had footing but also since very great Pillars of the Church of England it self have taught it too as appears in Queen Mary's Case in that of the Queen of Scots who was at least the Vndâ—ubted Heir and in later Efforts also of the same nature and doubtless he that believes he can disinherit a Lawfull Successor with Justice upon the account of Religion will hardly find Arguments of Force to keep the Prince in being on his Throne when ever this happen's to be imputed to him Nay we have several Protestants here who cry up the Bishop of Lincoln's Book at a strange raâ—e and yet avow this printed Doctrine That God not only rais'd Johu to purge the Idolaters of Ahab's House c. but That there is no Reformed Church from the first Waldenses to this Day that have not held such a Procedure lawful These things consider'd as they have been often I dare say by his Lordship he expected not certainly of us to think that he believ'd what he writ for then we should he knew have requir'd him to shew us at least some Catholick Potentate or other nor want they Worldly Wit or Inclinations we see abandoning this pretended dangerous and troublesom Religion either out of Ambition or Safety No my Lords and Gentlemen that is now a thing hardly within the reach of Speculation for Who find themselves so Flourishing and Great as they Or can it be said That the Monarchy of England has gotten by the Reformation when Protestants acknowledge and what desperate Enemies that has Created us may be easily imagin'd That nothing but Popery or at least its Principles can make it again emerge or lasting Does not his Lordship therefore play at Cross-purposes with us and is not his Meaning in truth this That Protestant Principles when really believ'd are-destructive to all Kings and especially to Catholick ones since we see that the Lawful Monarchs and Princes of England Scotland Swedland Denmark the Vnited Provinces Transilvania Geneva c. have been actually Depos'd by their Protestant Subjects not only as Florimundus Raimundus and Popish Writers shew us but as Dr. Heylin and other Protestants have laboriously made it appear Nor has the Pope in all that time pretended to the giving away of any Crowns except those of France and England For the Defence of which several zealous and noted Catholicks appear'd as well with their Swords as Pens Nor could this Imputation have been worse timed as to his Lordships purpose by him seeing there was a Protestant Rebellion then actually in Hungary to the great Danger of Christendom and another newly broken out in Scotland for the Subversion of the English Monarchy and this also usher'd in by the Barbarous Murther Of the Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews What Parity then is there between VS and our Adversaries either in our Actions or Books of this Nature And truely we are so far from holding the Deposing Power of the Church an Article of Faith that the Greatest Defenders of it have absolutely declared the contrary For does not Cardinal Peron in his famous Speech to the Nobility of France tell us That the Proposition is PROBLEMATICAL and does not C. Bellarmine the Pope's great Champion in his Answer to Barclay who writ so smartly against it call the Assertion only ARROGANT and TEMERARIOVS In short There is no Writer though never so zealous for the Opinion that sayes That Men of the contrary Sentiment are out of the State of Grace as in truth they are that asseâ—t not to Articles of Faith This also plainly shews that no Council ever impos'd it on our Belief seeing it has been and is still without Censure denyed even by those that would dye for the Pope's Supremacy Nay besides former Authors the Catholicks â—f England have written four Books since the King's Restauration to this very purpose I say the Catholick's of England have done it who are so scrupulous in Doctrines of Faith that they deem it Damnation to deny the least Article and therefore will not you see to save their Lives and Estates profess one thing and believe another But his Lordship which adds nothing to his Ingenuity is so far from answering these Authors by shewing their Fallacies and Errors that he never so much as cites them to this purpose so that we must conclude them unanswerable for he could not but have heard of them when we find him pretending to so great an Insight in all our Books that to shew his Reading he has quoted our very Almanack But since his Lordship has mention'd this notable Tome I hope he will not take it ill if I say That his whole Work has been already answered by a Treatise of the