you Jack I doubt you are out in your Topick in this point as well as in your Head of the Church But I perceive by your pious Opinion that the Grand Seignior will make as good a Head of the Church as any of them all and then too I am sure you will be on the Government side if possible you can you are so good a Christian Page 8. Since James the Second took the Coronation Oath c. Here the Fellow mounts the high Rope again and tells us that it is true The King did take the Coronation Oath but it was by his own free choice and might have chused whether he would or not But let me tell him that this is a gross Lye for it is not Condescension and Choice in the King to take it but an Indispensible duty neither are the Subjects obliged to take the Oath of Allegiance till he hath taken that For as he swears to preserve them in their Rights and Priviledges so they swear to stand by him in the Execution of the Laws so that the Oath of Allegiance and the Coronation Oath are Reciprocal and Equally binding And the King is defective in divers points of his Duty and Power till that is performed and done And let me tell you Mr. Jack the Subjects have a Right as well as the King and both by the same Law. And if the King refuseth to be a King by Law there is neither reason nor necessity for them to swear Obedience for the Obedience due to him as King by Law doth also oblige him by the same Law to protect them in their Lives Liberties and Estates So that it is unreasonable that the Law should force the Subjects to swear to obey and maintain a Prince in his Right and not compel him to give them assurance by Oath that they shall enjoy theirs also And if it were otherwise it would shew great weakness in the Legislators of England to bind the one and leave the others to his Will when the Government of both is by Compact But I perceive my Friend John builds his opinion on Filmore such another sorry Sycophantizing Fellow as himself who hath many flourishes and words and but very little Law and less Reason and Honesty However he and Jack together would form a most admirable sort of Government for a Kingdom or Nation to be governed by Dragoons and converted by Booted Apostles Thus you may see what a special Englishman our Friend is and a hopeful Casuist that can guard and defend their tottering Cause with nothing but Lyes Page 9. Since Judge Street 00000000000 Tresilian How now Jack What are you turned Advocate for Westminster-Hall are those Benches supply'd with such Ignorant Fellows that they must make use of a Scribler to defend them with Arguments of downright Impudence This is a fine Credit for your Law and your King. Well Jack you tell us of a Riddle and that you have been the Oedipus to unfold it And you say the eleven Cyphers with Tresilian at the end of them shews that eleven of the twelve Judges must be hanged Why really Jack you are in the right for that is the meaning of it and it doth not only shew the merit and fate of the Villains but it is also a piece of Prophecy that will shortly be accomplished But pray observe When the Fellow hath unfolded the Riddle and told them that hanging is their due lest they should faint under the Consideration of their destiny and think themselves into their Graves and cozen Tyburn He licks them up with some Oyl of Fool and calls them Loyal Judges and Reverend Sages and then perks up with a strain of his accustomed Impudence and asketh what they have done Done ye Slave What have they not done to make themselves compleat Traytors in all kind of Villany and Treason that lyeth within the Sphere of their power and action First They have by their Suffrage given the King a power Superior to Law for which Crime Tresilian was hanged For it is one thing to connive at the Non-execution of the Laws and another to take away their Obligatory Force one thing to supercede a Law wherein his own benefit is concerned and another to dispence with Laws made for the Safety and Security of the Kingdom Religion and Subjects and this they have done in giving their Opinions that the King may dispence with all Law as he sees good You may remember Jack that when Richard the Second had pick'd a pack of Judges for his purpose suppose such as these or not quite so bad and those were Tresilian Belknappe Holt Fulthorp De Burgh Lockton and others the Duke of Ireland the King's Creature with the rest of his Consorts formed the then design into ten Queries under the power of which being granted they intended to manage and carry on their cursed Plot and on the 25. of August in the eleventh year of the King in Nottingham Castle the said ten Queries were propounded to the foresaid Judges to which they all consented and when they had signed and sealed according as they were desired Belknappe broke out into this Expression and said Now I want nothing but a Ship a nimble Horse or an Halter to bring me to the death I deserve for my Treason against the Nobles of the Land. Which ten Queries and the thirty four Articles of Treason which they were after charged with you may find Printed in the Life of Richard the Second which are too long here to insert And when you have considered both their Crimes you will say that the Judges under James the Second have outdone those of Richard the Second and yet this Man asketh what they have done Secondly They have used their utmost endeavour to bring in Popery they have not only connived at the base Actions used to encourage the Popish Party in their present damnable designs to overthrow the Government and alter Religion but have also given advice and direction for the doing of it and visibly shewed their Endeavour by encouraging base and unjust Prosecutions Fining Hanging c. all those that have stood in the way of it And when any such Cause came to be tryed where the Defendant was looked on as an Enemy to the Government as they usually call all those that they are minded to ruin they never used to consult Rastal Pulton or Keble c. in the true Law that did relate to the merit of the Cause But took their direction from the Lord Kings-will Sir John doe-it and Sir William ' Tis-well all of them great Lawyers at White-hall And is not the Defendant or Prisoner in a fine Condition in such a Case as this But that which leaves them without excuse is that they know the Laws which are made and still in force against Popery against all those that are reconciled to the Church of Rome and those that do but assist in any thing that concerns the promotion of the See of Rome in England Thirdly
to the Test are Traitors notwithstanding the Judges Opinions and the Kings Dispensing and this the Papists know full well Secondly that this dispensing power can last no longer than the King lives and then those that are offenders with the Judges c. will hardly escape the Gallows But I wonder my Adversary is so confident as to say the Test was made to exclude the Duke of York from the Crown when he was the only person therein excepted by name but indeed it is no wonder if we consider his Folly and Impudence in every thing else Likewise the Nole prosequi that he mentions it is of the same nature wich his power to pardon and both ought to be used only in particular Cases of Necessity to save or relieve the Innocent but not to make a common practice of either to protect known Villains Thieves Murderers and Papists from Justice and so I have done with the Ridiculous Obligations false Assertions and impertinent Arguments about the Chronology made of John Gadbury the present Advocate for the base Actions and Treasons of the Enemies of England and the Protestant Religion I come now to take notice of the rest of his Malicious Stuff which I find so Idle that I shall pass by most of it and only take notice of some of the most absurd things to shew you how Malice and his new Religion hath transported the fellow and made him forget to write truth In Page the 18th he tells us of the great plenty and abundance of Fruit and Herbage in the year 1687. When says he have we had a more peaceable calm and quiet year when were we blest with greater plenty of fruit and herbage Now observe for in the pag. next following the Summer Ingress in his Almanack for the year 1688. he says We have had great Scarcity of Fruit and Herbage every year since the great frost in 1683 / 4 and particularly he says that the two last years of 86 and 87 wheat yielded almost two thirds less than it used to do in other years Now do you think that this man understands his own non-sence himself For first he comes with a when were we blest with a greater plenty than in 1687 and then in his other Libel he says When have we had more Scarcity than in the years 1686. and 1687 Thus you see what a kind of fellow I have to deal with but Papists may say any thing at this time He also calls it a peaceable and quiet year but for my part I have not known the Nation in a greater Convulsion for many years than it was this last and is still How many worthy Honest Gentlemen were turned out of the Commission of Peace Lord Lieutenants Deputy Lieutenants Governours of Towns Commanders c. Men of Honor turn'd out and Scoundrils put in Tory's turn'd out and Whiggs put in Whiggs put out and Papists put in English Gentlemen turn'd out and Bogtrotters put in Law destroyed Religion invaded the Fundamental Laws and Rules of Government turn'd up by the Roots the Liberties and Rights of Cities and Vniversities seized by force and all to bring in Popery And yet this Fellow calls it a peaceable quiet year Then he Blusters up again and Asketh when was Westminster Hall less thronged in term time than now Alas Jack that is not from Jupiter in the 7th as you fondly imagin but the people are sensible that the Judges who sit there are neither wise nor honest And what wise man will put his Cause or Estate into the hands of Fools and Knaves if he can help it for let a Papist be Plaintif and an Enemy to Popery the Defendant you may know who will carry the Cause without setting a Figure And this is the present Case of poor Ireland which Gadbury says is in a very good Condition And perhaps so it may in his sence that is to destroy the Protestants Page 24 and 25 he makes a long impertinent story in order to abuse Commonwealths and after he hath emptied himself of his frothy stuff he comes in page 26. to give reasons why Commonwealths are to be abhorred and Monarchy preferred because says he if God had intended a man should have been in love with a Commonwealth he would have created him with a head on each shoulder A very learned Reason and then by the same Rule if God had intended the world should have been governed by Arbitrary and Lawless Monarchs he would have sent all Princes and Kings into the world with Boots and Spurs on and all Subjects should have been born with Saddles on their Backs that they might have been rid without Controule as their Riders had seen fit A second Reason is If Government like the body natural should have many Heads it would be a Monster and would it not be the same if it had but one Head and that a great deal too big for the body or a very ugly one for a single Head may be a Monster as well as two Heads A third Reason is because there is one Sun and but one Sun in the Firmament ergo c. What the Fellow brings in this for to prove Monarchy seems to me a Paradox and especially such a King as he pleads for which is to consume his Subjects Wealth to destroy the Laws he is sworn to maintain and to bring in and impose what innovations in Religion He thinks fit or rather what the Villanous Priests of Rome shall perswade him to that is most advantageous to their Cheating Trade under the notion of Religion But the Sun is the universal body of Light and like a steward in trust doth disperse and dispence it to all Stars and to the World likewise but doth receive from none also the Sun preserves the Order and Government of Nature which God ordained in the beginning but destroys none Lastly let him make the best of it and the Sun is no more than a Stadtholder or a King by Compact For the Moon hath as great a share in the Government of the World as he hath and Saturn Jupiter Mars Venus and Mercury as much as either of them So that by his impertinent notion there ought to be as many Kings as Planets in the Government of every Nation .. Because there is but one Sun one Moon one Saturn one Jupiter c. For each Planet hath his share and power in the production of men and things neither would the order of Nature be perfect if either of them were wanting for God made nothing in vain But to tell you the truth of all this is an Arbitrary Notion which he learned of Sir George Wharton above thirty years ago and therefore he might have told us here also that he spoke in that Gentlemans Cant as well as in the Powder Plot. c. But one thing I cannot pass by without taking notice of it And that is in Page 27. he tells us that a Commonwealth is the Bramble of Confusion alluding there to the
They have not only shewed how willing they are to have Popery introduced but also their readiness to assist in that work as may be seen by their Carriage at Oxford where they may shortly hear of a piece of Burglary by them committed at Maudlin College and other kind of Violences without any pretence of Law unless it were that of the Ecclesiastical Commission which at the best can be but an Abortive sprung out of the ruins of Star Chamber Tyranny Which was long since declared to be against Law and an Oppression to the Subject Fourthly In the West in 1685 when the Prisoners were brought before them to be tryed they compelled them to plead guilty right or wrong or else they threatned to hang them up presently such a piece of Barbarity that all the Histories of England can give no parallel of it To hang men immediately unless they would confess themselves guilty of such Crimes that under the pretence of Law they might hang them a day or two afterward and this divers persons were forced to do that were innocent and yet they were hanged for all that So that after this method they destroyed more men in a fortnight or three weeks than Tresilian and all the rest of those kind of Rogues did in two hundred years before without the least remorse or extension of the dispensing power this impertinent Fellow so idlely and so knavishly pleads for By which I apprehend that he would have it allowed for no other end but to protect and maintain such Creatures as he and they are that for Lucre and Malice will undertake any thing they are put upon and then they are sure to be safe in their Villany But observe my Friend John chargeth Tresilian with cruelty for inditing 2000. persons at Coventry which was indeed a great piece of Villany but alas that was nothing to these Judges for he did but pick their pockets of a little Mony but these Villains murdered the men and pickt their pockets too So that Jeffry's need not doubt but History will record him for a famous Fellow and the rather because he hath out-done Tresilian And yet this man Gadbury their Advocate asketh with whom they have conspired what Countries they have injured what single person they have oppressed and wherein they have given the Council of Tresilian and then bids me speak if I can Now Sir I have spoke and so much truth too that all your shams will never be able to gain-say to clear your villanous Clients But the Fellow says That they all most happily draw in a Yoke together for the good of the King and by the Grace of God they may all live to be drawn together and yoked for the good of the Nation And then they 'll think him their best Friend that can separate one or more of their necks from the Yoke and also find the Effects of declaring a power in the King to dispense with all Law and a good pair of heels will be then of more service to them than all the Arguments that can be raised to justifie their Treasons either by themselves the Popish Priests or their great Advocate Jack Gadbury and so I will present them with a New-years Gift DIgnify'd things may I your leave implore To kiss your hands and your great Heads adore Judges you are but you are something more May I draw near and with a rough hewd pen Give a small draught of you the worst of men All of your merit and your mighty skill And how your Charms all Courts of Justice fill Your Law 's far stronger than the Common Votes And finely flows through your dispensing Throats What Rome will ask you must her not deny If Hell commands you too you will comply There 's none but you would in this Cause combine Things made like Men but act like Bruits and Swine Law-books are trash A Student he 's a Drudge Learn to say yes he 's the accomplisht Judge He wins the Scarlet Robe and wears it too Ay and deserves it well for more 's his due All that compleats a Traytor dwells in you Thus you like Villains to the Benches get And in defiance to the Law you sit And all base Actions that will please commit There must you toil for Rome and also try Your Irish Sence and Cobweb Policy Compleat your Crimes and then you 're fit to dye True Loyal Babes Pimps to the Church of Rome Tresillians Heirs Heirs to his Crimes and Doom Was e'er that Hall fill'd up with such a brood All dipt in Treason Villany and Blood Worse than Fanatick Priests for they being prest By a wise Prince preacht to Repeal the Test Then here 's the difference 'twixt your Popish Tools You 're downright Rogues they only Knaves and Fools Deus dabit his quoque funem Page the 10th Since the King could dispense with the Test c. Here my Adversary makes a long Harangue about the dispensing power lodged in the King which was never questioned as ever I heard especially in that part which concerns himself in particular For example In the case of Murder the King can pardon the Injury done to him in the loss of a Subject but he cannot wholly indemnifie the Malefactor from the rigor of the Law. As you may see in the Case of Appeal which hath hanged those that the King hath pardoned So in the case of Treason he can pardon that part of it which is against Him but all Treason is against the Subjects as well as the King and by my Adversaries leave that is out of the King's power to pardon tho e says many have experienced it but I know none except Papists Priests and Jesuits but for Protestants he can name few or none and them that have bought it with their penny as cheap as they could get it of some Miss or other Favorite But suppose this were granted which he pleads for what would he then make of it doth that part of the Prerogative also impower the King to dispense with those Laws made by the three Estates for the security of the Kingdom and Religion Certainly no. For when the Consent of the three Estates is passed into an Act every individual Man as a Subject is bound to keep and obey it and the King to see it executed And there is no Dispensing nor Repealing that Act but by the consent of the three Estates that made it And this the Papists well know which makes them try so many tricks to pack a Parliament to have it done And notwithstanding the Judges have given their Opinions that the King may dispense with the Test and other Laws also in any Case where he thinks fit Yet the Court the Priests and the more knowing sort of Papists are not you see satisfied with that but are still using their utmost endeavours to have it done by a form of Law from whence the Reader may observe two things First that whosoever takes any place of Trust c. contrary
Murdered 300000 Protestants in the Kingdom of Ireland Here Gadbury falls to his old way of quibling again and gravely tells you That it must be either lawful or unlawful if the latter all good men will bewail the Misfortune but if the former he would very fain know how men acting under a lawful Authority and not going beyond their Commission can be guilty of Murder So that at the first dash the Fellow tells us that they were Murdered by Order and says that it is not Murder if they do not go beyond their Commission Here he shews himself a right Saint of Rome and a Casuist for the Devil The meaning of his words is no less than this that if any Popish King shall give a Commission to his Banditi Jamsaries or Murderers to cut the Throats of all his Protestant Subjects if they do not go beyond that Commission and cut the Throats of more than all then it is no Murder Why because he tells you it is done by a Lawful Authority and this calculated for the Meridian of England So that you see he is not for denying the thing nor the person but justifies it to be Lawful because done by Commission And then asketh how I will prove it or whether I can shew any one of the Commissions c. In answer to this There needs no other proof that the Massacre in Ireland was done by Authority than the late Kings Letter to the Court of Claims in behalf of the Lord Antrim the Chief Commander in that horrid Murder Where he tells them that the forementioned Lord had done nothing but what was by the Order of his Father the Royal Martyr and his pious Queen Besides when the charitable Collections were made in London and other parts for the relief of the distressed Protestants that had escaped the Murderers hands and were sent away in order to go for Dublin they were all stopt at Chester and there rotted and perished under the Wall of that City Now by whose power this was done I will leave to the Readers Judgment and for its truth 't is beyond all question Now Countrymen is not this a good warning to Protestants to look to themselves seeing they are told by so notorious a Papist as John Gadbury is that the cutting the Throats of 300000 Protestants in pursuance of the Kings Commission is not Murder Page 6. Of the Murder of Sir Ed. Godfrey at Somersethouse How now Jack what deny that Murder to be in Somersethouse thou dost act thy part as if thou hadst been a Papist these 40 years an absolute Juggler what hath thy new Religion so suddenly inspired thee with its Master-piece of Impudence Thou out-dost all thy Wafer-Godmakers for they perswade us to believe but a little kind of a Cheat about Conjuring Bread and Wine into Flesh and Blood by the vertue of hoc est corpus that is Hocus Pocus but thou dost endeavour to out-face a Truth that no man but those concerned in it can have any cause to question The King Lords and Commons Judges Juries and all unconcern'd persons that have ever heard the Evidence are assured of its truth beyond the least doubt But thou armed with Pardon Pension Guilt and Impudence dost declare to the world that thou wouldest be of any side for Mony. And for Prance's pleading guilty to an Indictment of Perjury I wonder you are not ashamed to mention it if you consider that we know he was hired to do it and that by the Priest at White-hall c For I saw the Letter in his own hand that was sent to him by the order of his Wife 's two Brothers both Popish Priests and others of that Tribe in Which they promised his Pardon and that he should again live like a Man if he would come over and tell the truth about that Murder he then being at Amsterdam upon this he said That to tell the truth in their sense was to forswear all he had swore before and desired Ged to renounce him if all he had sworn about Godfrey 's Murder were not true and that if he should ever deny it he desired us all that were then in Company which were about five or six to call him perjured Rogue and let him deny this if he can Thus Reader you see what stress they lay on the Perjury of this poor deluded Rascal Yet neither he nor this man nor their Wafer-Godmakers themselves have hitherto been able to give better Answers and Arguments to desprove it but to say they are mere Stories And for the vizzanded Villains he speaks of one of them is well known namely the then Queens Confessor who there brandished his Sword on the Scaffold for joy the King was beheaded Page 7. Since that Pious Prince Charles the Second dyed a Roman Catholick and yet Head of the Church of England Here my Friend at the first dash doth confess that pious Prince did dye a Roman Catholick Really the old Gentleman is mightily obliged to him for his kindness to tell it so impudently that he lived a Hypocrite and died an Idolater For it is well known he did communicate three times every year with the Church of England in the Sacrament And yet by this Man he is affirmed to be a Roman Catholick Now confider if he was a Papist Do you think he was not a precious pious Head of a Protestant Body and the Church of England in a fine condition to be protected and defended from Popery by a Prince of that perswasion and the Holy Sacrament of our Lord is by the Lords Annointed made a Decoy to cheat the People into the belief that he was a Protestant But my Adversary says that the Traytors plotted against him while he was not declared to be a Papist and mentions the Rye-house Truly Jack if you did not know or at least believe he was a Papist then you were a very ignorant Fellow for it was was well known that he was so at his first coming into England in the year 1660. And when he talks of the Rye-house Plot he says The King 's precious Life was in danger Why was it more in danger at that time than when Jack Gadbury was in the Meal-Tub scouring Dangerfields Kettle with Mrs. Celier to prepare him for the Murder of that pious King c. I think not but besides the Fanaticks did but talk of killing him but the Papists did it effectually In the conclusion my Adversary takes care that I may know what the Church of England is and therefore directs me to a Treatise called Good Advice c. written by William Pen the pretended Quaker who is a Socinian as appears by his Sandy Foundation shaken where he downright denys the Trinity and a Papist as all men may judg by his Promotion and Favour at White-hal at this time of day so that I am like to be well informed of the Doctrine of the Church of England by such a Fellow as this is And to be plain with