great and Merciful Monarch kind as a giving God and bounteous as Heaven who preserved the first Encouraged the second and held the Ballance of the last Impardonable Ingratitude by what Name shall I stile thee By what Title shall I distinguish thee from those lesser Crimes that fill the Legends of the Infernal Deeps To call thee Rebellion or Treason how insignificant is the Name These imply some Cause some Oppression to Instigate them thine had none unless thy too great Tranquillity and Increase pampered thee and like the Ass in the Fable thou spurnest thy Feeder tell me ye unsatisfied Can any of you complain that you were hardly used Did you ever in vain Implead for your own and return from the Courts of Justice without Redress Did you ever Lament the loss of any thing that was Tortously wrested from your Possession Were you ever Plundered or Sequestred Imprisoned or Enslaved Banished or Ruined You cannot be so Impudently so Notoriously base to Answer in the Affirmative no 't was the lust of Power Inticed you and the embraces of a Throne that your Arms sought after whilst the gay Delusion like the wandring Fires that misguide the nighted Traveller lead you on through Boggs and Quagmires where that you might the more safely pass you disburthen'd your selves of those unnecessary Loads of Religion and Conscience that might retard you and changed the substantial part thereof for Shadows and Paints that deceive the Spectators and are less troublesom to the bearer wherefore to undeceive those whom your false Appearances have missed I shall hereby endeavour to expose the nakedness of your ends in the Repetition of what in matter of Fact hath been obviously enough proved and collect in a few sheets the work of Volumes to begin therefore with the miraculous Discovery of the late Popish Plot as the same was generally esteemed a work of Omniscient Power so did His Majesty and the great Council of the Nation as became Wise and Just Governours take the same into Examination and prob'd the Wound to its full depth applying fit Remedies thereunto for its cure not only by cutting off the Proud Flesh that grew about it but also healing up the Breach it had made and purging the state of that Body Politick it had reach'd from the remaining Infections the same by a new relapse might have fell into by such wholesom and Proper Methods as the quality of the distemper required when instead of Resting satisfied therewith the Dissenting part of the Nation under which Title I may Justly Rank the whole Phanatical Sect like Ignorant Quacks fell out with the Prescriptions and if they could not be admitted to destroy the patient by their unskil'd preparations nothing less would serve their ends Hence it was they began to assume to themselves that Liberty of aspersing their Superiours in Common Prints Libels and Pasquils at their very Gates whilst their Coffee-Houses and Tables afforded no other Discourse then the wise Methods of altering the Fundamental and Integral parts of that Government they lived under nor could any Man speak his own Judgment if the same was not tun'd to their lyre and danc'd to their Extravagant Measures at no less rates than the hazard of his Liberty Pennance to boot Incomparable Justice The Peoples Magna Charta and the Multitudes by Law yet such were the only Patriots who owned it such the Defenders of our Property who Intruded most arbitrarily upon it and those the honest Preservers of our Freedom who Thieved it from us till the Insolency of the Populace was grown to that height our great Master was threatned by it through the side of his Royal Brother forced at last to say as the Almighty to the Dissenting Waves Warring against the Establisht shore Hitherto shall ye go and no farther Nor was it less then necessary to prevent the inundation of that Throne on which he sat but as the Waves when so stopt murmur against the shore that bounds them and dash their sawcy Billows at it's Imperial Feet so did the Clamorous and Ill manner'd vulgarity by bold and Charter forfeiting Petitions stuft with little less then Treason and sufficiently with scandal approach the Sacred Seat of Majesty which I 'me afraid too many of them thought too strongly fixt and though the general Cry was Religion Property and a Parliament 't was a Common Wealth at the bottom and nothing less would satisfie this all asking Party Why otherwise should they stand in open Defiance against such very Acts their own Representatives had upon Mature and serious Deliberations confirmed as particularly those which were made against the Nonconformists and Schismaticks to which either no respect is to be had to those Assemblies that Constituted the same or those Laws are fit and just and why they should be so severe against them in the Days of Queen Elizabeth before such time as they had broke out into an open Rebellion and should now remit of their severity when by frequent Rebellions and Extravagant Books and Sermons they had Incorporated those Dreadful Principles Inconsistent with all Governments into the body of their Divinity I see not the least umbrage of reason for but alas they care no more for Parliaments then Kings and think them only infallible when like themselves they connive at pulling down all Right Religion and Order as some did but too nearly Accomplish As a System of which Principles I think not Improper to insert an Expression in the Prayer of one of their Celebrated Divines since fled for a Scotch Traytor just about such time as the Westminster Parliament was dissolved after some Incouragement of the People to be unannimous against the so much feared Popish Doctrines and Counsels Oh Lord pursues he if thou hast design'd this spot this little spot England as the scene on which the Battles of Christ and Antichrist is to be fought let us have the honour of it and begin quickly let this be called the Valley of the Valley of Decision Judg then you who will not be blinded with what was most aimed at and wonder no more that at the next meeting of that grand Assembly at Oxford such Troops of Colledges and Swords-men attended the same they hovered there like Vultures over the Field of gathered Warriours expecting the News of Battle and Slaughter to satisfie their Voracious Maws But Thanks Ten Thousand Thanks to the great Governour of Heaven and his Immediate Substitute our Gracious Soveraign who baulk't their Expectations and sent them angrily home repining at the Disappointment But here let Billinsgate Avaunt and give place to the Mechanicks and Joyners of State whilst in more spurious Ribaldry they rail at their Prince and Government let Bedlam be clear'd for these wiser Madmen Reformation's on Foot the Church is to be cleansed by the Common-Sewer and the Laws to be rectified by Libels Double the Watches the Papists are in Arms Black-bills appear the Knife is at their Theoats and before the next Morning
the Dead shall arise and wonder to behold themselves Living this was the Common Cry Incomperable Advice But why this Dissimulation Why not in plain English might it not be said Rise and Defend your selves bring in your Plate your Spoons your Thimbles and your Whistles is the Publick Credit of less value than formerly Where are the Drums and Trumpets your Levies and Musters Why are the unnecessary Guards spared say the Word speak your Intentions in Intelligible Sillables Your Noble Peer is ready to Assist you Dastardly Leaders and deluded Cockscombs But Fate had not Ripened their Aimes their Party wanted the Courage they wished them and like cunning Men and more to be feared Traytors e're they leapt they view'd the Precipice and for want of Resolution mist their Opportunities which the Prudence and Care of His Majesty by the seasonable Publishing his Gracious Declaration for the future Abrigded them of 't was this that opened the Eyes of the Cheated Nation and drew the Loyal upon their Knees in grateful Acknowledgments of his Fatherly care of their Lives Liberties and Estates 't was this dispelled those Mists and Fogs of Delusion which arose from the Stenchy Vapours of their Nauseous Principles Designs and clearly discovered their Malevolent Intentions But yet so far had they spread their Poyson amidst their Dissenting Brethren that the botches and blains thereof but too plainly appeared and were not so soon cured the chief Magistrates were such as they themselves had set up and Cajoled into their Service so that here Treason was Indemnified provided the same was carefully Committed within the Circuite of those Walls and tho taken notice of and brought to light they had a free shelter from the Judgment the Law pronounced thereon being Skreened on the Dark side of an Ignoramus Conscience Happy days indeed when to discharge a Thief his Jury shall be Summoned from amidst his Brother Criminals though he sees the Halter he need not tremble at it let the Law threaten him he is assur'd that the same is but like the Cords of Sampson which he can break at his pleasure But Justice will not be so satisfied the voice of Treason like that of Blood is never quiet till the Traitor meets his due Reward nor did we long want an Instance thereof in the Fate of that unhappy Wretch who slipt the Noose here when he was removed to another County and came before Persons of Religion and Integrity they soon saw and as soon abhorred his Crimes regarding the quiet of their threatned Country beyond the Clamorous Instigation of a Rebellious Throng who neither weighed the Crime nor danger of admitting such extravagant Scandals which he had too freequently dispersed in order to the Corruption of that fair Intelligence that ought to be managed between the King and his People The unavoidable obloquy on the reputation of the Nations best and surest Friends and in short the intended Ruin of the Government he lived under to the preservation of which who is it can blame that Necessary Just and Single Execution when he lays it in the Ballance with those designs that threatned the whole Where 's the severity which the Physitian uses in cutting off an Infected Limb to preserve the Body where the Imprudence in drawing a little Blood to prevent the Frenzy of the Patient and then especially when he is inclined thereunto and the usual Symptoms that forerun the Fit are too visible and more then remarkably growing every hour upon him If this be an Error farewel Policy our Ancestors were then in the wrong when to restrain the undue Liberty that Men had taken to themselves in the late times of Licenciousness when the unclosed Wounds of the Nation were Fresh and Bleeding to Enact a prevention of those Causes which too far contributed to the same in making Traiterous Words Positions that aimed at the Life or Person of his Sacred Majesty or the Roots of his Establisht Government tho no overt Act besides demonstrated the same to be adjudged High-Treason yet had this been wanting sufficient was the proof against our present sufferer and so palpable were his Treasons that all good Men cry out with as much Justice against those who first acquitted him as the very Crimes themselves of which he stood Indicted High time therefore was it for our Gracious Monarch to look about himself and Assume the Rein of Empire into his own hands when such mad Jehu's strove to Ascend the Chariot and Cariere us to Ruin Nor indeed was less to be expected as quickly afterwards was discovered in that dangerous Association which was found in the Custody of one of the greatest Patriots of this Disaffected Party a Villany so close laid that no Record perhaps to future Ages shall be more Authoritative to convince Infidelity it self of their then Designs which that the Reader may be further satisfied in I think it not Impertinent to Abbreviate the same and present a short view thereof to his Prospect In the first part of which tho the same seems somewhat plausibly Penned in setting forth the dangers we are in from the Popish Priests and Jesuits with the Papists and their Adherents and Abettors who for several Years last past had pursued a most Pernicious and Hellish Plot to Root out the True Protestant Religion as a Pestilent Heresie and take away the Life of His Sacred Majesty to Subvert our Laws and Liberties and set up Arbitrary Power and Popery c. yet is the same continued with all Obloquy imaginable against his Royal Highness Aspersing his Person and loading him with False and Scandalous Designs and Counsels whereby he had created to himself Dependants in Church and State under expectation of his Succession to the Crown as also that by his Influence Mercenary Forces had been Levied and kept on Foot for his secret Designs and Parliaments unreasonably Prorogued and Dissolved when in the hot pursuits of Popish Conspiracies and ill Ministers of State with many other Considerations that hereby the Treasure Strength and Reputation of the Kingdom was intricately Wasted and Consumed for which ends they had in a Parliamentary way endeavoured to Exclude the said Duke from the Succession to the Crown and Banish him for ever out of these Kingdoms of England and Ireland but the said Means being Rejected they thereupon thought fit to Unite themselves by a Solemn and Sacred Promise of mutual Defence and Assistance in the Preservation of the Protestant Religion the Kings Person and their Rights in the Form Ensuing I A. B. do in the presence of God Solemnly Promise Vow and Protest to maintain and defend to the utmost of my Power with my Person and Estate the True Protestant Religion against Popery and all Popish Superstition Idolatry or innovation and all those who do or shall endeavour to spread or advance it within this Kingdom I will also as far as in me lies Maintain and Defend His Majesties Royal Person and Estate as also the Power
here is a plain and awowed Principle of Rebellion Established upon the strongest reason he hath to back it which with the other Evidence against him was sufficient to prove his Compassing the Death of the King The Affirmations he makes is when Kings break their Trusts they may be called to an Account by the People this is the Doctrine he Brooks and Argues for and in another part of the Book he says That the Calling and Dissolving of Parliaments is not in the Kings Power So that the King having Called and Dissolved Parliaments in so doing he hath broke his Trust and Consequently by his Arguments may be called to an Account by the People and Deposed which is certainly a Treason of the Deepest Tincture and which the Jury upon Consideration thereof and the other sufficient Prooffs against him so found and brought him in Guilty upon the whole we have here met with an Account of one of the most Atrocious and Villanous Designs as any Recor'd in the whole World can furnish us with and particularly in this last Gentlemans Case wherein it was the more Dangerous in that he proceeded upon the Foundation of his Reason it was his beloved Principle the avowed Guide of his Actions that by which he led the stedy course of his Life and he that is convinced of these Principles what will he not do what will he leave undone to accomplish and bring about his Designs how wary will he be in his Actions which way to bring them securely about and so much the more dangerous is the Conspiracy in him by how much more it is rooted and how deep it is you have heard he Writes it as his Principle that it is lawful to Depose Kings who breaks their Trust and that the Revolt of the whole Nation in that case deserves not the Name of Rebellion sad must our state then surely be when People are Impious for Conscience sake and Ruin and Destroy the Government for the good of it Having thus far Travelled through the preceeding particulars I doubt not but every impartial Eye will clearly behold the Malevolent Intentions of this Phanatical Frenzy and accordingly Eschew all such Doctrines and Principles as shall secretly connive at or openly abet the same which had they now taken Effect let us stay alittle to consider the condition this Miserable Nation and People would have thereby been Immersed in But here Imagination must supply the defect of my Discription for 't is not enough to say we should have lost the best of Kings the best of Governments the best of Religions and the best Friends and Maintainers of each but alas who of us had been safe unless we could have yeilded to have Joyn'd with this Impious and abominable Faction which had to any considering or good Man been less Eligible then Martyrdom it self It had been enough to have Condemn'd us that we had any thing to loose the Extravagant Heir would never have complained his Fathers hours too slowly wasted but have turn'd Parricide and correpted them the Servant would scarce have yeilded to have borne the Remainder of his Seven Years Yoke but have eased himself thereof in the Slaughter of his Master the Slave had dominioned o're his Lord the Base and Scoundrel World have seated themselves on the Benches of State and Justice whilst our Streets had been channelled with Bloud our Fields been fill'd with Slaughter our Houses with Rapine and our selves Mourning over their Fates who had got the start of us only some few tiresom and melancholly minutes which had been spent in the Expectation of our threatned and advancing danger This I say had been the Case of the most Innocent amongst us and may not we therefore as on the one hand Praise our God for our Deliverance so on the other with a Just and Pregnant Indignation set our mark of regret and abhorrerenc on those Principles and Parties that endeavoured nay give me leave to say as far as we can Pry into the Closets of their Breast or Judg of what is there stored by their words and Actions do but yet too much endeavour to accomplish the same upon us Why otherwise should there be any one amongst mankind so much an Infidel to Sense and Reason as to proclaim his Doubts or Hesitations which by the way are only to amuse the Vulgar of the Credit of this Phanatical Conspiracy which hath been so demonstratively made Evident that the Light in the Heavens is not more obvious to our natural then this to out Intellectual Capacities But least the Poyson of such Amusements should too far spread themselves Amusements which the Promoters understands to be so I shall take a short view of the Parties Condemn'd as they were too fatally by their Treasons drove to the outmost brink of Life and stood ready to Launch into the Ocean of Eternity at which time it might be well expected however their carriages had represented them to the World as Traytors and Injurious Persons to the Government they liv'd under the Dread of that Tribunal to which the Rope and Ax had summoned them would in some measure work them to a True and Penitent Confession of those Crimes for which they came thither As to the Three first Walcot Hone and Rouse who suffered together at Tyburn on Friday 20th of June 1683. these three severally confessed the Crimes that brought that unhappy Fate upon them whose Evidence in the sight of that grim Messenger that then stood before them was more to be considered against themselves then 10000. Witnesses and which were it only single is more then sufficient to take off all Cavilling Infidelities the worst of Men can raise against it yet least their Objections which are upon the same structure raised as to the Speech of my Lord Russell may prevail upon the Ignorant and misinformed let us look alittle into the same and hear the Objectors Arguments say they If then the Facts whereof my Lord Russell was found Guilty by the Jury upon such Pregnant proof be so Evident how is it possible for a Dying Man before God and Men to assert his Innocency with such assurance and so frequently repeated in his Speech to the Sheriff First God knows how far I was always from Designs against the Kings Person or of altering the Government Secondly I profess I know of no Plot either against the Kings Life or the Government In the Paper delivered it is thus Expressed What ever Apprehensions I had of Popery and my own severe and heavy share I was like to have under it when it should prevail I never had a thought of doing any thing against it basely or inhumanely but what would consist with the Christian Religion the Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom Again I have always Loved my Country much more then my Life and never had any Design of changing the Government and would have suffered any extremity rather then have consented to take away the Kings Life c. Specious
and Priviledge of Parliaments the lawful Rights and Liberties of the Subject against all Incroachments and Vsurpation of Arbitrary Power whatsoever and endeavour intirely to disband all such Mercenary Forces as we have reason to believe were Raised to advance it and are still kept up in and about the City of London to the great amazement and terrour of all good People of the Land Moreover J. D. of Y. having publickly professed and owned the Popish Religion and notoriously given life and breath to the Damnable and Hellish Plots of the Papists in their wicked Designs against His Majesties Person the Protestant Religion and the Government of this Kingdom I will never consent that the said J. D. of Y. or any other who is or hath been a Papist or any ways adhered to the Papists in their wicked Designs be admitted to the Succession of the Crown of England But by all lawful means and by force of Arms if need so require according to our Abilities will oppose him and endeavour to Subdue Expel and Destroy him if he come into England or the Dominions thereof and seek by Force to set up his pretended Title and all such as shall adhere to him or Raise any War Tumult or Sedition or by his Command as publick Enemies of our Laws Religion and Country To which End in the Close they Bind themselves whose Hands are thereunto Subscribed and every of them jointly and severally in the Bond of one firm and Loyal Society and Association and do Promise and Vow before God that with their joint and particular Forces they will oppose and pursue unto Destruction all such as upon any Title whatsoever shall oppose the Just and Righteous Orders of the said Association and maintain protect and defend all such who enter into it in the just performance of the true intent and meaning thereof and least the said Work should be hinder'd for want of Discipline and Conduct or any Evil-minded Persons under pretence of Raising Forces for this Association should attempt or commit Disorders they would follow such Orders as they should from time to time receive from the then present Parliament whilst sitting or the Major part of the Members of both Houses Subscribing the said Association when it should be Prorogued or Dissolved and Obey such Officers as should by them be set over them in the several Countries Cities or Burroughs until the then next Meeting of the same or another Parliament and would give the same Obedience to it and those who should be of it Nor would they for any respect of Persons or Causes or for Fear or Reward separate themselves from the said Association or fail in the Prosecution thereof during their Lives upon pain of being by the rest of them Prosecuted and Suppressed as Perjured Persons and Publick Enemies to God the King and their Native Country To which Pains and Punishments they voluntarily Submit themselves and every one of them without Benefit of any Colour or Pretence to Excuse them In Witness whereof they were to put their Hands and Seals and agreed to be ready to accept others thereafter into the same Upon the whole let any serious Man debate what this amounts to less than rankest Treason where they come in the last Clause of it to the perfect point of Levying of War positively agreeing that they will Obey such Officers as either the Parliament or the Major part of the Members either Sitting or Dissolved or the Major part of the Subscribers of the said Association should appoint utterly Excluding their useless Soveraign from any Right or Directions therein But I suppose they thought it probable He would scarce have joined with them to have Destroyed Himself and His Guards The latter of which they Bind themselves to and consequently include the former Manifest and open Treason yet this plainly proved to have been taken in the Lord Shaftsbury's own Closet with Eight other Witnesses at the same time who severally Testified against him as rank Treason and Designs as ever Debauch'd a Nation obtain'd no more Credit with another of our Ignoramus Juries then if Contradictions or Impossibilitiesh ad been endeavoured at by them insomuch that the Innocent Lord was Discharged and a new Holiday added to the Kalendar of the Presbyterian Saints for his Deliverance which that the same might be conveyed to the Memories of their Posterity a Medal was framed where on one side thereof the Face and Title of our Hero was delineated and the Reverse presented us with a Palace becoming his honour the Tower of London with the Sun displaying his Beams o're the same adorning the Spires and Buildings of that almost Betrayed City with this Motto LETAMVR And Judg then if we had not cause for it to behold Treason pass Muster with Impunity and the most Notorious of Criminals Disgoaled and Usher'd in as on the Shoulders of Triumph with Songs and Io Paeans before him whilst Fires of Joy lighted his way into the Bosom of that Town he at the same time intended to lay waste as the sequel of this History shall Evince Audacious Impudence not to be parallel'd by former Presidents or practis'd in any Civil Government and yet the pretence is Zeal for the Publick Good the Catiline was his Countries Patriot the Bulwark of their Liberties the Defender of their Rights and Opposer of those Invasions that were pretended against them Oh well vail'd Hypocrisie Methinks I see the Devil in Samuels Mantle with his demure Priests about him Plotting to have no King in Israel that they might do what was right in their own Eyes Methinks I hear them Rejoycing at the Success of their Enterprizes and Confidently as of old Canting That Heaven is Auspicious to their intended Designs in that it so far favours them But alass the Day will not long last the Eye of Providence beholds the Counterfeit and is too watchful over his Chosen his Anointed David to let the Councels of this Achitophel succeed to the Enthroning the Rebellious Absolon in His stead or Defeat the Succession that by the Gift of Heaven as well as his own Merits is in all probability reserved for a more Wise and Glorious Proprietor One whose Fame like that of Solomons has already reached to the outmost Limits of the World and is justly the Admiration of the present as he shall be of future Ages who much about this time returned from an Honorable Exile in the Neighbour Realm whereunto the Malevolence of the said Aspiring Party had too long Confined Him to the Grief of all Loyal English-Men tho' the Advantage of that Country where he then Resided the Influence of whose Gracious Presence like that of the generative Rays of Light having there produced so general a Reformation and Increase of all sorts of Benefits to the Inhabitants that mentioning the same I cannot but give you a short Account thereof as the Pens of their own Writers have Confest that Men may learn to know he is not so Invaluable