hath given since to Europe had they been believed and hearkned unto But alas instead of taking that poor people into our protection and care or entring upon those Counsels with other Princes which the preserving the Peace of Europe and the securing unto the French Protestants the liberty of their Religion called for all the Intelligences we received were communicated to the French King upon which they became not only discouraged from placing any confidence in our Ministers for the future but one poor Gentleman who had ventur'd to treat with a certain person near his Majesty had the misfortune to be broken upon the Wheel and some others are forced upon the like account to live in perpetual Exile from their Country And yet even they by whom they were betray'd dare not say that ever they found them enclined to depart from their Allegiance unto their own King or to enter into any Confederacies unbecoming good Subjects and natural Frenchmen but that all which they aimed at and were willing to have transacted about was only that in preserving their Loyalty to their Prince they might not be suffered to be sacrificed and rooted out merely for their Religion Nor are the Stipulations of Kings or the established Laws of Kingdoms any security unto Protestants for their Lives or their Religion if once the Papists esteem themselves furnished with a sufficient Power and a seasonable Opportunity to subdue and extirpate it or them For as the Pope can Absolve all such Princes from the Promises and Oaths which they make to their Subjects so it is a known Principle of the Romish Church That no Faith is to be kept with Hereticks And where the Prince by not having the whole Legislation in himself is restrained from repealing Old and Enacting New Laws at his pleasure he will either mould and influence those who have a share with him in the Legislation to a compliance in what he designs or he will venture at the trampling upon all Laws and through the efficacy of the Principles of the Popish Religion will pursue the Extirpation of Heresie in defiance of all Boundaries prescribed unto him by the Law For what greater assurance could the Protestants in France have for the Liberty of their Religion and the preserving unto them all the Rights and Priviledges of Frenchmen than they enjoyed by that Edict of Henry the fourth commonly stiled the Edict of Nantes from the City where the King was when it was concluded and yet notwithstanding that Edict they are treated as if they were neither Christians nor Frenchmen being deprived of all that was therein granted unto them and brought to suffer every thing which that Edict was purposely made to defend them from For whereas by the said Edict they have a great number of Churches allowed unto them for the open exercise of their Religion and it is ordained that it shall be left free for any Papist to turn Protestant and that those of the Reformed Religion shall be as capable of enjoying publick Charges Honours Royalties and of exercising any Art or Trade as the Roman Catholicks themselves shall be and that there shall be no difference betwixt Protestants and Papists as to the security of their Lives the ways and means of their subsistence their authority over and freedom of educating and disposing their Childred yet through an implacable hatred which Popery inspireth men with against all that differ from them in Religion they are rob'd of all that was therein established in their favour and subjected to all the mischiefs which the fury of their malicious enemies and the power of a Prince guided by Father le Chaise the Jesuit can inflict upon them And as the Edict of Henry the fourth tho confirmed by Lewis the thirteenth proves no security to the French Protestants against the present Persecution which they are groaning and perishing under so it is to be feared that the Laws which the Protestants in other parts of the world do trust unto for the preservation of their Religion Lives and Legal Rights will be as insignificant to the securing these unto them in case they should fall under the power of a Popish Prince or that the Counsels of Ministers Popishly inclined should prevail as the Edict of Nantes hath been to the Hugonots For it is observable that as the Scots have at all times testified as much Zeal for the Reformed Religion as any people in Europe have done so they took care to establish the continuance of it to them and their Posterity by as good Laws as any Nation in the world could yet upon finding how useless such Laws as I shall name are unto the ends for which they were made and enacted there is a wonderful Jealousie possesseth the generality of that Kingdom That nothing can preserve them from being enslaved again to Popery but His Majesties outliving the Duke of York For it is Ordained by the Law of Scotland That no man is to James 6. p. 6. Act. 9. bear any publick Office within that Realm but such as profess the Protestant Religion And that none who shall not make profession James 6. p. 3. Act 47. of the said Religion shall be reputed a Loyal and Faithful Subject to the King but be punishable as a Rebel And that whoever shall at any time happen to Reign and bear Rule over that Realm shall at the time of his Coronation and the receipt of his Princely Authority make his faithful Promise James 6. p. 1. Act. 8. Charles I. p. 1. Act. 4. by Oath in the presence of the Eternal God That during the whole course of his life he shall serve the same Eternal God according to the uttermost of his power as he hath required in his most holy Word revealed and contain'd in the old and new Testaments and shall according to the same maintain the true Religion then professed and received within that Realm c. And therefore seeing these Laws have not been so observed but that one who doth not profess the Protestant Religion hath contrary unto them wrought himself into the chief administration of Affairs there under His Majesty hath presided daily in Council and sate as the Kings Commissioner in Parliament they begin to apprehend that other Laws may prove as ineffectual for the securing the Protestant Religion to the Nation as these have been to the excluding one from the highest Places of Authority and Trust under the King who hath not declared himself for the Protestant Religion as the foresaid Laws do require Besides it is not to be questioned but that the Protestants of this Kingdom in the time of Edward the sixth thought they had gotten their Religion so established by Laws that there was no fear of the reintroduction of Popery whoever should afterwards ascend the Throne and yet Queen Mary was no sooner come to the Crown than contrary to the Law of the Land as well as her promise to the Suffolk men who had espoused her
prejudice Nay they have been not only connived at in the reintroduction of the vvhole Popish Hierarchy into that Kingdom and allovved the holding a Publick Assembly of the Papal Clergy by a Commission from the Duke of Ormond in the year 1666. for their Sitting but they have equally vvith His Majesties Protestant Subjects been advanced to several places of Civil Power and Trust so that when the Plot was to have been executed in England Anno 1678. there were no fewer than fifteen Sheriffs in Ireland who were either professed and avowed Papists or such as bred and educated their Children in that Religion And yet while this Forbearance and Tenderness have been expressed to the Papists such of His Majesties Protestant Subjects as in that Kingdom dissent from the Established Rites and Ceremonies of the Church have fallen under the misfortune of having an express Law made against them and divers Loyal Subjects who profess the Protestant Religion in all its Doctrinal Articles have been prosecuted to Fine and Imprisonment upon it And as to the Papists in England they were so far for many years after His Majesties Restoration from having any new Laws made against them that they never felt the weight of the old ones For saving the open exercise of their Religion whereof they have been restrained they enjoyed the same safety as to their persons and estates which the Kings Protestant Liege people did Nay many of them besides their having the personal favour of the Prince equally with others they were admitted into Places and Employments of Profit and Trust And tho by their late Hellish Plot they are made liable to some Tests or to be disabled from sitting in Parliament and rendred uncapable of publick Trusts yet notwithstanding the provocation which the Nation might have justly conceived against them upon the account of that Damnable Conspiracy there hath not to this day been any new Laws made against them for their Religion nor can they with any truth and justice complain of the rigorous execution of those which had been enacted before Whereas notwithstanding the agreement that is between all His Majesties Protestant Subjects in the Fundamental points of Religion those that are called Protestant Dissenters have not only been prosecuted since His Majesties Restoration upon ancient Statutes which were purposely made intended against none but Popish Recusants as well as upon that of the 35 of Queen Elizabeth which being also made upon the dangers that the Kingdom was in from the Papists as appears by the Speeches and Debates of the greatest Statesmen who were in that Parliament seems to have been originally designed against none but them vide Townsend Historical Collect. but there have besides been no fewer in one kind and othet than five several new Laws and these none of the gentlest enacted against them And while the Papists have hardly felt the severity of the Laws which are in force against Popish Recusancy the Protestants have unconceivably suffered by virtue of the Laws made against Dissenters from the Government Discipline Rites and Liturgy of the Church and upon a Law for Regulating Corporations whereof the most material terms were judged inconvenient burdensome and grievous when intended to have been imposed upon others in the form and manner of a Test Now having suggested these things both in the fewest words I can and with all imaginable regard and attendance to Truth we shall in the next place with the like sincerity and briefness intimate and recount what Plots Conspiracies and Designs the Papists have of late years been engaged in and pursued to the subversion of our Religion and the destruction of our Lives and Liberties notwithstanding the tenderness of the Government towards them and the excellent Laws which we are provided with and enjoy both for the security of all these unto us and for our protection from the Machinations of all Popish Enemies And tho' the methods wherein they have acted and the steps they have taken have been so secret as well as various that it is impossible fully to trace and display them yet so much is obvious to all who do not wilfully shut their eyes that by relating only what we demonstratively know we may be able to form a judgment concerning their Councels and Actings which lye more concealed and hid It is to the influence which the Papists have had upon our Publick Ministers that we owe the Enacting of those Laws which as they were directly calculated to ruin many of His Majesties Protestant Subjects so they have weakned the whole Reformed Interest in these Kingdoms by encreasing our Differences and inflaming Jealousies Heats and Animosities amongst us And if it was not from some of our Councellors being under their Guidance and Conduct that we embarkt in a bloody and expensive War with our Protestant Neighbours Anno 1665 both to the weakning them and our selves and the giving opportunity to a Popish Prince to aspire to a formidable growth It was certainly from the Power and Interest which they had in some trusted with the manage of our Affairs that the Triple League came to be dissolved an Alliance contracted with the French and a Second War wherein we were abandoned and betrai'd by our new Confederate begun Anno 1672. against the Dutch I will not deny but the Grounds and Causes of our quarrelling then with them might be weighty and just yet seeing it appears since by the Declarations which the French King caused to be made by his Ambassadors to the Emperour and the Pope that his invading them at that time by agreement and concert with us Was to extirpate those Hereticks and destroy Heresie I suppose our Ministers may not only find reason to believe that Popish Councels did more influence our Resolves and Affairs of State than they were aware of but to wish they had not encouraged His Majesty to that War and rather to have sought to adjust differences betwixt them and us in an Amicable way And since our being through that ascendency which the Papists have over some great Persons near His Majesty engaged in a close and strong Conjunction with the French King It is not to be imagined what advancement the Papists have made to the ruining of the Protestant Interest through all Europe as well as in these three Nations For as the Popish Clergy do universally apply themselves to the promoting the Grandeur Empire and Soveraignty of France in hopes that he will enslave all those to their Religion whom he subdues to an Obedience to his Scepter so they have all along by the impressions which they make upon our Ministers been endeavouring to prevail over us not only to remain Neutral while he is pursuing his Conquests but to contribute to his Victories by aids of Men and Ammunition Nor is it an inconsiderable step and advance which by keeping us linkt to France the Papists have made to the ruin of these Nations in that they have hereby caused a wonderful misunderstanding
people to the rage and fury of the enemies of his Name and Glory For it is to him alone that we owe the discovery of this Papal Conspiracy which as it hath filled all Europe as well as these Three Nations with wonder and horror so the truth and reality of it is supported and put beyond all doubt and question by the most convincing and uncontroulable Evidence that a Matter of Fact is capable of The King hath testified his belief of it by several Proclamations Four several Parliaments upon the most impartial enquiry which they could make have declared that they are fully assured there was such a Design the Conspirators own Letters and Papers confirm and justifie the Depositions of the Witnesses who detected it the flight of some and Condemnation of divers of the principal Criminals have reconciled it to the belief of all who were not either interested in it or did not at least wish that it might have succeeded Yea the preparations of Horse and Arms which the Papists had been known to make before hand proclaim aloud the Design upon which they were at so vast an expence and the murdering one Minister of Justice and doing all they thought needful to Assassinate another for discharging their Duty in the detection of it are so many undeniable Evidences of their being guilty of what they are accused of But notvvithstanding the Wickedness of vvhat was intended and the clearness of the Proof to convict them yet such is their Influence upon Publick Ministers and so great is their Povver in all our Councels that vve can neither obtain the having the principal Conspirators brought to Legal Trial nor procure any effectual provision tovvards the saving our selves and securing our Religion from their Cruelty and Rage Instead of seeing them prosecuted according to the demerit of their Crimes or finding any proportionate means used to discourage and check their Designs we have not only beheld such Justices turned out of the Commission of the Peace who vvere most zealous against Popery and Arbitrariness but we have seen four several Parliaments Dissolved before they could bring Offenders to Justice make a due and thorough inspection into the Plot or put the Kingdom into a posture of Safety from the dangers vvhich threaten it from Popish Counsels and the claim vvhich a Papist may pretend hereafter to the Throne And vvhatsoever His Majesties care and zeal have been either for the Discovery of the Conspirators or the bringing them unto condign Punishment yet his Royal Intentions have been so ill seconded that several Priests as well as others vvho stood accused have been first harboured near his Royal Palaces and then conveyed beyond Sea in Yachts belonging to some that are nearly related unto his Royal Person The dread of displeasing one Gentleman doth so prevail over the Obedience vvhich every man owes the King that vvhen His Majesty had commanded by his Proclamations that all the Papists should be disarmed scarce one of a thousand had so much as a Pistol or Sword taken from him Our Lieutenants and Justices have been under those impressions of fear lest they should offend great men that neither the regard which they ought to bear to their Native Country and the Religion which they seemingly profess nor the tenderness which they are bound by their Fealty and Allegiance to have for His Majesties Safety and Life have been powerful enough to cause them to keep that hand over the Papists which the Laws of the Land do at all times require and which the present circumstances we are in from those of that Religion render most indispensably necessary Some are enclined to believe that it is not the least of the Earl of Argyle's Crimes that he was the only man of Quality in Scotland who after the Discovery of the Plot took out a Commission for disarming the Papists And it is not improbable but that the Authority which he hath in the Highlands and overawe the Papists there by vertue of his being Lord Jushiciary in those parts and his being able upon any occasion to check and bridle the Marquess of Huntley from attempting any thing to the disturbance of the Kings Peace and the prejudice of the Protestants was one main reason and ground of his late Prosecution However this is not unworthy of our observation that My Lord Mac-Donals invading the Shire of Argyle with an armed Force merely for being required by the foresaid Earl to deliver up his Arms was never called to an account yea scarce ever received a Reprimand from those in Authority under His Majesty in Scotland tho' when he had a Herauld sent to him by the Council requiring him to disband his Forces he tore his Coat from his back and sent him home to Edenborough with all the marks of contempt to them and disgrace to the Officer But may be that Lord being a Papist his Religion is judged enough by some to attone for his Treason But as a further evidence that the Papists notwithstanding their late horrid Conspiracy have been both protected from the Justice of the Law and left still in a capacity to execute their Designs against the Hereticks it is remarkable that tho' a Proclamation was published in Ireland for searching the houses of all Roman Catholicks for Arms yet when the Sheriff of the County of Galloway went in pursuance thereof to search the Earl of Clanrickards house where as he was informed all the Papists in that County had lodged their Arms the said Earl produced a Warrant from my Lord Lieutenant the Duke of Ormond that his House should not be searched And do we not therefore upon the whole see that whereas the Papists were in a wonderful consternation upon the first Discovery of the Plot as apprehending from the knowledg which they had of their own Guilt what they deserved to have inflicted upon them how they are of late not only grown sceure and jolly but more rampant and insolent than ever Nay so great is their Interest and Power by means of the Duke of York and such whom he either overaweth or otherwise influenceth that they do not only escape the punishments which they are liable unto for their Treasons but they have obtained to have the Laws made against Protestant Dissenters to be executed with the utmost Rigour and Severity while in the mean time themselves are as good as connived at in the violation of all the Statutes Enacted against Popish Recusancy For this cannot be thought to proceed originally from the King being so inconsistent with that Princely Wisdom which he hath always manifested when not over-ruled by the importunity of Ill Men. How unlikely is it that a Prince who receiveth and indulgeth Foreign Protestants should at the same time encourage the distressing his own Subjects that do no otherwise differ from the Church of England than as those Foreigners do Nor can it be the advice of any sincere and true Protestant to have the Laws executed at this season
disappointed them in all their Idolatrous and Arbitrary Designs and consequently deserved more to feel the first and early effects of their wrath than that wise and great Peer so they prudently foresaw that should they adjourn their Revenge against him till they had made an experience of the credit of their Witnesses upon some other considerable persons he would by his Abilities and Industry not only have easily detected and exposed the whole Intrigue but have broken the Machine by which they had projected both to overturn Religion and Property and extirpate Protestants in these Nations Accordingly they thought it their best course to assault him by way of surprize and to hurry him to Prison upon an Accusation of a Conspiracy which people would be astonished at the noise of but had not enjoy'd time to inspect and unravel And we may rationally conceive the Papists believed that the Convicting My Lord Shaftsbury upon a charge of Levying War and Conspiring to seize the Person of the King would be a kind of Moral Proof against every other person whom they should think fit to have afterwards accused of the same Crime For how easily would they have perswaded the world that a person of his great Sagacity and exact Conduct would never embark in so vast an attempt without a proportionate number of persons engaged with him who for their Power Quality and Interest might be supposed capable to effect and carry it And they would have pleaded that such whom his artificial Glosses and plausible Reasonings had not inveigled into Treason the esteem which he universally hath among all sorts of men that are not weary of their Religion and Liberties had sway'd and biassed them to an implicite concurrence in a Design which they took not time to consider and had not Abilities to comprehend neither the dangers nor consequences and issue of And how would every man have been exposed and ridicul'd that should offer to bring the reputation of the Witnesses into suspicion after they had been allowed for good and credible Evidence against a Peer of the Earl of Shaftsbury's bulk and figure Besides the Papists thought that the destroying this one Nobleman would have either frighted others to a compliance with them in their Designs or at least discouraged them from offering to withstand or control the Councels and Projections which they are upon of enslaving these Nations and extirpating our Religion These were the Motives and Inducements upon which they singled out this great person to have him the first man of Quality that should be Indicted of this pretended Protestant Conspiracy For having through the influence which they have over our Ministers and the power which some of that party have upon His Majesty proceeded so far as to prevail with the King to turn him out of his Councels and from the administration of his Affairs for no other reason that the world can take notice of but because he would not concur with them in their Designs against the Protestant Religion and the Establish'd Laws they hop'd that by attacquing him at last upon an Accusation of Treason he might fall a Sacrifice to their Malice and Revenge And as his loss of the Chancellorship with all the aspersions and obloquy that for divers years fell upon him are to be ascribed to his Zeal and Activity in promoting the Bill for disabling Papists from holding any Publick Employment which past in the Session of Parliament that begun Feb. 4. 1672. so all the Perseutions he hath lain under of late and all the dangers which his Life hath been exposed unto either by secret Assassinations or Legal Forms are to be entirely attributed to his inspection into the Popish Plot and the endeavours which he hath laid himself out in for preventing the Subversion of our Religion and Laws and the ruin of these Nations by the Romish Conspirators and his studying to defeat the hopes they have of compassing all at last by means of a Popish Successor Nor can there be a more indubitable and convincing Argument that this whole Protestant Plot under the pretended guilt whereof this incomparable person and great Peer was to have been destroyed came out of a Popish Forge and was formed and invented by the Romish Priests than that those of the Papal Religin abroad and especially the Ecclesiasticks had both the knowledg of it and discoursed it to others before the most inquisitive Protestants in England could arrive at any intelligence concerning it In confirmation of the truth whereof and for the ampler satisfaction of all mankind that the Papists were the Authors and Contrivers of this Conspiracy which they labour to sham upon Protestants I shall subjoin the two following Depositions which were made upon Oath before a Magistrate of London Edward Dover of Stepney in the County of Middlesex Mariner aged thirty years or thereabouts freely and upon his own motion maketh Oath That he the said Deponent being in the Port of Bruges in Flanders with his Ship and in the managing of his business there being in a publick house on or about the eighteenth of June last New Stile he met with one James Morgan which said Morgan is a reputed Popish Priest And being his Countryman and having had formerly knowledg one of another they entred into the more free discourse and among other this Deponent asked the said Morgan What News from England Is there an end of the Popish Plot yet To which the said Morgan answered What Plot There is no Plot but a Presbyterian Plot and that now the Lord Howard one of the greatest of them is clapt up for it and by that time you get home Shaftsbury will be also secured And further the said Morgan added that he hop'd ere long to Preach in a publick Pulpit in London or words to that effect Jurat Aug. 23. 1681. John Coleuart of the Parish of St. Katherines in the County of Middlesex Mariner aged fifty years or thereabout freely and of his own motion maketh Oath that being in Bruges in Flanders with his Ship in following his business there was in a publick house on or about the eighteenth of June last New Style where he met amongst others with a Popish Priest as he is reputed called James Morgan and discoursing with him of the several affairs of England and of the Popish Plot he the said Dâ—poâ—ent heard the said Morgan among other things say 〈…〉 but a Presbyterian Plot and that the Lord Howard was already secured for it and that it would not belong before the Earl of Shaftsbury would be also secured or words to that effect Jurat Aug. 3. 1681. And as the Papists were the Authors and Framers of this Sham Plot so they have chosen Tools every way adapted for the worst of Villanies to mâ—â—ge and conduct it For Justice Warcup the principal Broker for Witnesses and one of the chief Directors of this grand affâ—â—r is known both at the Council Board in the High-Court of Chancery to be a
does help to hide and conceal the Villany And I beg the rather pardon for my jealousie in this matter because tho' he told the Jury that he had been a Protestant since February last yet he never sought to be received into the bosom of the English Church till about the month of June which was near the time that the Mine which had been long before laid against Protestants was just ready to spring Nor were things so much better for the Protestant Interest and worse for the Popish Ibid p. 47. in February than they had been in November before that a fellow who makes Religion always subservient to his safety and gain and who had been a Papist in November should think of abandoning the Communion of the Church of Rome for to be taken into the bosom and embraces of the Church of England in February following But be he of what Religion soever he pleaseth I still say he is a wicked and flagitious fellow For whereas he acknowledgeth that in the course of his Travels he had been in Maryland as well as in divers other Countries he must give us leave to remember himself of and acquaint the world with a good token of it For besides several Debaucheries and lesser enormities he was guilty of there he was apprehended not only for felony in stealing a Watch but for Sacriledg in breaking into a Church and carrying away the Communion Plate But being I grow weary in raking so long in Sinks and Kennels I shall therefore wave the insisting upon these things or the deducing them to any further length Since he came hither he hath been always extreamly necessitous but never in greater penury than immediately before he started up a Witness in this new Plot. For as he wanted bread otherwise than as he was from day to day relieved by the Charity of such compassionate persons to whom he bewailed the miserableness of his condition so I have heard from a good hand that being arrested for Fifteen or Seventeen shillings he was so poor that he must have gone to the Counter if a Gentleman that passed by had not out of meer pity sent him a Guinee to discharge the Debt and the Serjeants Fees And how easie was it to corrupt and suborn such a fellow who as he had no Principles of Vertue or Honour to preserve him against the temptations wherewith he was assaulted so the pinching wants under which he laboured rendred him a prey to any that would hire him with ready money or give him any assurance of a plentiful subsistence Now it not only appears from the Testimony of Dr. Oats Mr. Boulter Mrs. Mary Cox Mrs. Norton and divers others that by his own acknowledgment and confession to them both Warcup and Fitz-Gerald had tempted him with great offers of Gold and Silver if he would depart from his Evidence against the Papists and swear Treason against the Earl of Shaftsbury my Lord Howard and several other Protestants but it is likewise deposed by Mr. Samuel Oats that Dennis should say If the Protestants did not help him to money it would cause him to do that which he never intended But what need I insist upon the Depositions of others in proof that he had frequently confessed his being tempted with tenders of great matters to retract what he had sworn against the Papists and swear that the Protestants were embarkt in a Conspiracy against the King seeing he himself hath deposed all this upon Oath before Sir Patience Ward when he was Lord Mayor And as this may fully convince all that are not in the Plot themselves for the destroying such as are the chief Bulwarks under His Majesty of our Religion and Liberties that whatsoever this fellow hath sworn against the Earl of Shaftsbury or any Protestant else is all meer Fiction Romance and abominable Forgery so we have besides all this the Testimony both of Dr. Oats and Captain Yarrington That this wretch did protest unto them at the very time when he told them of his being tempted that before God he knew nothing whereof to accuse any Protestant in the world and that if he should do any such thing he should be the greatest Rogue under Heaven And as their way of living since and their boasting of having their Pockets full of money does plainly proclaim to all Mankind upon what motives they have perjured themselves and how well they have been rewarded for their false swearing so there is one George Dennis a Gardiner who deposeth That to his knowledg the Witnesses who swore against the Earl of Shaftsbury had an Hundred or an Hundred and Fifty Pound a man for so doing and that he might have had as much if he would have Sworn against the said Earl Having thus truely and briefly drawn and represented the Witnesses according to their just and true Features and having fully discovered the Combination which they and others are engaged in against our Lives and Religion and having particularly detected how these mercinary Wretches have been hired and suborned to swear a Plot upon Protestants which themselves and their Abettors have out of hatred to the Protestant Religion and English Liberties invented and forged against innocent persons I shall now leave them thus shown and exposed to undergo the punishments which these unparallel'd Villainies subject them unto and in the mean time till the Administrators of publick Justice shall esteem it their Duty and for the honour of the Government to make their Punishment as exemplar as their Crimes have been I do here set them up as proper objects of the abhorrency and detestation of mankind and persons not worthy to be believed by any honest rational Jury or Inquest And I shall only add that the late Grand Jury instead of deserving to be censured for returning an Ignoramus upon the Bills which these Miscreants swore unto they are rather to be blam'd for not immediately Indicting them of a Conspiracy against the Lives and Honour of Noble and Guiltless Persons Nor is it enough for a Grand Jury merely to reject a Bill which they find promoted from Malice and upon a Combination but they are bound both by the Laws of God and the Laws of the Land to Indict the Conspirators and all such as shall appear to have abetted them And whereas we have not only heard of several other Witnesses who either had or were ready to Swear Treason against the Earl of Shaftsbury but have been told that several of their Names had been endorsed on the back of the Bill which was preferred against his Lordship who yet upon second thoughts were blotted out and expunged We shall only say that we think it needless to attempt the exposing of those whom the Managers themselves judged so infamous that they were ashamed to make use of them But as we may be sure that they produced all these whose Credit they could in any degree rely upon so had they brought an hundred more whom we might neither
pretensions to any such thing It is also remarkable and serves to discover their Falshood in what they swore against the Earl of Shaftsbury that they endeavoured to make themselves valuable and worthy to be trusted by great and wise men by pretending a knowledg of the Transactions of the world and affairs of Kingdoms which as they were never capable of attaining so they had but betrayed their Folly and Vanity in offering to discourse concerning such things to that knowing and sagacious Peer For to hear Hayn's depose That he gave my Lord Shaftsbury See Proceedings at the Old-Bayly p. 27. an account of all Transactions from King Charles the First 's Reign to this very day and that my Lord was mightily satisfied pleased and free with him finding that he was a Traveller Is as if he should have told all the world that what he Deposed against that great man was all Forgery and that he was only seeking to beget a credulity in the Court by a vain ostentation of his knowledg in Civil Affairs and his being qualified to be admitted into the secret and hazardous Counsels of the greatest Statesmen Alas an acquaintance with the Occurrences of Princes Reigns and a being able to declare the affairs of two Regencies in their dependence and order with the Causes and Reasons of a War which few can penetrate into the grounds of â—re not things agreeable to the way of Hayns's Education nor to be expected from one that is not wonderfully conversant in the Memoire and Registers of Civil matters and who hath enjoyed an intimate acquaintance with those that were interested in the management both of Civil and Military Concernments Their Malice and Perjury in this whole Affair are open and palpable by their indirect and evasive answers to plain and easie questions Such was Booth's reply to Mr. Papilion who having ask'd him whether he knew any of Proceed p. 36. the Fifty men which he had deposed were listed under Captain Wilkinson said He never directly knew or conversed with any of them And such also was Haynes's reply to the question which was put to him concerning his having given an Information to a Justice of Peace of a design against Ibid. p. 42 43. the Earl of Shaftsbury for as he wrigled to and fro a great while before he could be brought to acknowledg it the answer was neither full nor ingenuous Again Their not remembring times and seasons when such things which they swore should be spoken or when they gave in their Informations about them does proclaim the Witnesses to be Impostors and whatsoever they deposed to be nothing but Forgery For several of the things which they declared they could not remember were such as it is morally impossible they should forget them Thus Haynes could not tell the time when the Earl of Shaftsbury spake Ibid. 44. the Treasonable words about making the Duke of Buckingham King Nor could either Smith or Turberville tell when they gave in their Informations against my Lord nor whether it was before or p. 40. after his Commitment Nay Smith could not tell in what month he did it In a word the Demeanor of the Witnesses carrying things so as if they would hector people into a belief of what they swore and their answering the questions proposed unto them either with great difficulty or with great artifice and cunning proclaim to all impartial men that the Design upon which they appeared was very ill and that they were suborned perjured fellows There was not that modesty to be seen in their Behaviour nor that simplicity in their Evidence nor that plainness easiness and directness in their Answers which was agreeable to Truth but their whole carriage and the manner of their delivering themselves was starch't huffing artificial and full of trick But whereas there is a Paper stiled An Association pretended to be found among other Writings in the Earl of Shaftsbury's Closet that morning he was apprehended upon which great stress is laid towards the proving a Conspiracy of this Lord and other Protestants against His Majesty and the Government I shall therefore with all that modesty which becomes me in reference to persons in Authority and yet with all that freedom which the Innocency of Peers and Gentlemen unjustly accused doth require take this Paper a little into consideration and make some just and modest Reflections in reference unto it An Association for the preservation of the King and the Protestant Religion if it be duly drawn and contain nothing in it contrary to the Rights and Prerogatives of His Majesty the Priviledges of Parliament and the Liberties and Property of the People will neither be found so new nor so surprising a thing as that the Grand Juries of the several Counties should be influenced and perswaded to abhor it For our Ancestors in Queen Elizabeths time being apprehensive that the Queens Life the Peace of the Kingdom and the Protestant Religion were in danger from the Papists upon the hope they had of a Popish Successor in case of the Queens Death they thereupon entred into an Association for the preservation of her Majesties Life and the revenging her Death if she should have perished by violent hands which instead of being ridicul'd and declared against was not only unanimously subscribed by the most considerable persons in the Kingdom but both approved and ratified by an Act of the Parliament that next followed But whether it was that our Forefathers loved the Queen and were more zealous for their Religion than we love his present Majesty and are zealous for ours or whether they thought there was more danger to be feared from Mary Queen of Scots who was then the apparent Popish Successor than we think there is from a Gentleman of the same Principles with her that hath the same and more palpable pretences to the Crown I shall not take upon me to determine However it is not unknown that Two several late Parliaments being convinced of the dangers which His Majesties Life is in from the Papists that they may accelerate the ascent of one of their own Communion to the Throne did after mature Debate and as a Testimony of the greatest Loyalty they could pay His Majesty come to this Resolve Resolved That in defence of the Kings Person and Government and Protestant Religion the House doth declare That they will stand by His Majesty with their Lives and Fortunes and that if His Majesty should come to any violent Death which God forbid they will revenge it to the utmost on the Papists Yea the last Westminster Parliament being deeply sensible what Plots the Papists were embark'd in for the Destruction of the King the extirpation of the reformed Religion in these Kingdoms and the placing the Crown upon the head of a Popish Prince they ordered a Bill for an Association to be brought into the House And whereas Secretary Jenkins deposeth upon Oath That tho he heard of such a thing as
THE THIRD PART OF No Protestant Plot WITH Observations on the PROCEEDINGS UPON THE BILL of INDICTMENT AGAINST THE E. of Shaftsbury AND A Brief ACCOUNT of the CASE OF THE EARL of ARGYLE LONDON Printed for Richard Baldwin 1682. To the READER 'T IS not more out of Respect to our own Innocency and the Honour of our Religion that these Papers come abroad into the world than it is from that Love and Respect which we bear to the King whose Interest in the hearts of his People is greatly supplanted and undermined by the courses which have heen lately taken to destroy his Innocent and Loyal Subjects upon a forged and groundless pretence That they are engaged in a Conspiracy against his Person and the established Government For some men whose crimes have made them obnoxious to the justice of Parliaments and the severity of the Laws could bethink themselves of no other way to escape the punishments which they have deserved but by possessing the King That the Peers and Gentlemen of England who are most likely to call them to an account while they are complaining of their Misdemeanours and Offences are themselves combined to destroy both the Regnant Prince and the Monarchy The hazards which our Names Fortunes and Lives are brought into do not so much afflict us as to see the King lose the Love and Confidence of his People at home be forced to abandon his Allies abroad and leave his Crown and Dignity as well as these Nations exposed to the Power and Ambition of a neighbouring Monarch Nor can we express greater Fealty to the King than by plainly informing him that he hath no Enemies save the Papists unless it be in the imaginations of ill men who to render themselves innocent would make others guilty And were they capable of being instructed to forbear the prosecution of their forged Plots upon the Baffles which they have received upon prosecutions supported meerly by perjury and falsehood we would have had that compassion for the honour of the Government and the safety of the Nation as to have suppressed these sheets But seeing they obstinately persevere in their malicious designs and are as industrious as ever to bribe and hire mercinary Rascals to swear Treason against the best and most loyal Subjects which His Majesty hath as well as against the chiefest Patriots of our Religion and Liberties We hope the world will pardon us in defending our own integrity and exposing their rage and wrath And let me assure them that while they fondly imagine they work under ground we are able to trace them in the steps which they take 'T is not above a week or two ago that by offers of five hundred pound a man they attempted to suborn several persons to swear Treason against the Earl of Essex the Earl of Shaftsbury and others Nay we could tell them of a Consult which they had to examine and digest the forged Evidence which by greatexpence and mighty labour they had procured how they went away wonderfully disturbed that it would not answer their desires nor support the design which they were upon As the people of England are not of a temper to suffer their throats to be cut in a way of massacre without a manly and generous resistance so they are not of a complexion to lose their Lives unjustly by a legal process without speaking in their own defence What we have here written is with a freedom that becomes innocent persons tho' we must acknowledg that we have fallen short in the air and stile that are proportionate to so just a cause The righteeousness and innocency of our case needs no pickquancy and it were but to obscure and darken our Loyalty to make it resplendent by colours But if our Enemies persevere in their ways of impudence we hope all mankind will acquit us if from henceforth we lay aside bashfulness and modesty ERRATA PAge 8. l. 20. r. ministred p. 18. l. 23. r. another p. 25. l. 17. r. procss p 26. l. 28. r. over all p. 27. l. 27. r. secure p. 32. l. 7. r. fill p. 44 l. 28. r. both p. 45. l. 14. r. superstructing p. 51. l. 18. r. process p. 58 l. ult del as p. 59. after bitterness put for p. 64. l. 23 and l. 24. r. crâ—dible p. 69. l. 6. r. Truth p. 71. l. 3. after with r. it p. 73. l. 7. dele â— p. 85. l. 23. after Rascal put p. 86. l. 17. after of put p. 87. l. 24 r. Mrâ— p. 89 l. 1. for conceived r. could Ibid. l. 21. for an r. a. p. 93. l. 28. for 〈◊〉 man r. that a man p. 103. l. 24. for both r. not only p. 104. l. 27. for ◠〈…〉 y. p. 131. l. 2. r. Memoir's p. 133 l. 26. for the r. this p. 139. l. â— before in add is p. 142. l. 20. r. time HOW much the Papists are not only justified in destroying those who differ from them in Faith and Worship but obliged by the Principles of their Religion to extirpate all Christians who have withdrawn from the Communion of their Church we may be easily informed if we would but give our selves the trouble of consulting the Canons of their Councils the Decrees of their Popes and the publick Writings of their most approved Authors Nor is there any crime or villany so tyrannous and barbarous but it becomes sanctified and is declared meritorious provided it be found subservient to so useful and pious Design as the rooting out those whom the Papal Church hath judged and pronounced Hereticks For besides millions of Men and Women professing and obeying the Gospel that have been destroyed in other Nations for no other offence but because they dissented from the Church of Rome there have several hundred thousands been murther'd kill'd and massacre'd in these three Kingdoms meerly because they could not believe as the pretended Church Catholick doth And as neither Obedience or Loyalty towards Magistrates nor Righteousness towards fellow-Subjects have contributed any thing towards the security of the Lives of Protestants when the Papists have apprehended themselves able and found that they were countenanced by Authority to destroy them so no Obligations by Oaths or Promises have been sufficient to restrain those of the Papal Communion from washing their hands in the Blood of Innocents but in defiance of all that ought to be preserved sacred they have first murder'd them and then not only gloried in their bloody and 〈◊〉 Exploits but in the falshoods and perjuries by which â—hey wheedled honest and credulous people within the Circle of their power and rage And while those of that Religion retain the same Principles which influenced men of the Romish Belief to such inhuman and barbarous Actions heretofore the Protestants of this Age have no reason to expect more mercy or fairer dealing from them than our Forefathers and Predecessors received at their hands And sure the Papists must esteem the Protestants of these Nations an Unthinking
sort of people and very ignorant of the Transactions of their own as well as former days See the three great Questions concerning the Succession p. 19. otherwise they would not have the Impudence to affirm in Print That as there were but 277. that suffered in all Queen Maries Reign upon the pretence of Religion so above 200. of them were profligate Persons And that instead of the vast numbers alledged to have been massacred in the last Rebellion in Ireland There were slain on both sides during the whole Rebellion not above 36000. and this in a War set on foot for their Liberty and Estates not for Religion Whereas all men that are not wilfully ignorant know that the Irish never enjoyed more liberty as to their Religion or more security as to their Persons and Estates than immediately before they broke out into that horrid Rebellion wherein they perpetrated such salvage and bloody Cruelties as no part of the Pagan World could parallel Nor were the quiet and tranquility which they then possessed the fruits only of a Connivence from the Government but the effects of many Acts of Grace which had a little before past in favour of the Irish Papists And as that Rebellion sprung from no other cause but the obligations which those of the Roman Religion are under by virtue of the Doctrines and Principles of the Papal Faith to root out Hereticks so we are well assured from impartial Historians and authentick Records that they Murdered above Two hundred and fifty thousand in that Kingdom without any other provocation save that they were Protestants And instead of Two hundred seventy seven whereof above Two hundred are said to have been profligate persons that suffered during the reign of Queen Mary there were according to the truest account no fewer than 284. Honest and Conscientious Christians that in little above five years were burnt at the stake for the profession of the Gospel besides those that were driven into exile and such as dyed in prison meerly for being Protestants Nay the Author of the Preface to Bishop Ridley's Book de Caena Domini who is commonly supposed to have been Grindal that was afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury a person who by his circumstances and troubles in the time of that Bloody Reign and by his station and quality under Queen Elizabeth had as fair advantages as any of being informed concerning the number of those that suffered tells us that there were above Eight hundred put to most cruel kinds of death for Religion in the first two years of Queen Maries persecution Yea so pestilent and infectious a thing is Popery that when once it hath insinuated it self into and possest the minds of Princes it not only infatuates them to depopulate their Kingdoms by destroying and driving into banishment the best and most useful subjects of their dominions but it so far fascinates them as to make them forget their own protection and defence as well as to abandon the safety and preservation of those of their people that agree with them in the same belief and to chuse rather to expose their Crowns Territories and Subjects to be subdued and conquered by an Aspiring and Rival Monarch or to enforce their subjects pursuant to principles of self preservation to revolt and rebel than they will be persuaded and prevailed upon to exercise Indulgence Compassion and Forbearance to Protestants tho' at the same time they cannot but know that the people whom they persecute would sacrifice their Lives and Fortunes in the defence and service of their Persons and Dignities Thus the Second and Third Philips of Spain chose rather to embroil the Low-countreys in an expensive and bloody War and at last to lose the Obedience of Seven intire Provinces and see them shake off their dependency upon the Spanish Monarchy and establish themselves in an Independent and Soveraign Government than to allow and permit that People to differ and dissent in matter of Religion from the Church of Rome And as the Revolt of those Provinces which was occasioned meerly by the Persecution of Protestants proved at first the great obstacle to Spain's obtaining the Universal Monarchy which they were in a condition to have bidden fair for had not that War and the withdrawment of so many great and rich Countreys interposed so the expence of Wealth and Consumption of men which the Spaniards were at during those long and bloody troubles with the loss of the Provinces which renounced their Allegiance to Spain and erected themselves into a Free State hath laid the foundation of abridging the Interest of that Crown in Europe and is like to issue in the ruine and subversion of that Mighty and Large Monarchy Thus likewise the present Emperor notwithstanding the urgency of his Affairs through the impression which the French have made upon Germany rather than abate the persecution of his Protestant Hungarian subjects he hath hitherto chosen to venture the ruine both of the Empire and his own Hereditary Countreys And tho' that poor people have been always ready to render an intire obedience to his Imperial Majesty and strengthen and encrease his Armies with a brave and large Military Force to oppose and withstand his Enemies provided only that their Religion and Legal Rights might be secured unto them yet that Prince through the influence of the Popish Clergy and especially of the Jesuits hath preferred the exposing himself and all Germany to the Power and Ambition of France rather than gratifie the Requests of his Protestant subjects albeit the whole which they have demanded and insisted upon was stipulated unto them by the Oaths of his Ancestors And seeing his own Necessities and the sober Counsels of his best Friends have at last brought him to terms of Agreement with that people I shall only wish that they may not through the liberty which the Popish Religion giveth him of violating Promises made to Hereticks be departed from and forgotten as soon as the apprehension of the danger he is in from the French bloweth over and vanisheth I might also here add That there is a certain Gentleman in the world who tho' he have at present no other pretence to the Government of Affairs save what he enjoys by the Favour and Indulgence of his Prince yet through his being corrupted and infected with Popish Principles he seems to prefer the entangling Three Powerful and Opulent Kingdoms in Intestine Wars or the leaving them naked to the Invasion of a Mighty and Ambitious Neighbour than lose the opportunity of extirpating the Northern Heresie and reducing the Nations where his Counsels and Interest can prevail into a Vassalage to the Triple Crown And we may yet more fully satisfie our selves what we are to expect from Papists and what their Religion guides them unto and justifieth them in if we will but consider what the Sufferings of the Protestants in France at present are and what methods are pursued for the extirpating of them For as all the
persecution which they undergo is commenced against them for no other cause but barely that of their Religion so to give the French King his due he is so just as to acknowledg it and scorns to palliate the true cause of their Oppressions Banishment and Slaughter by pretending that they have conspired against his Person and Government and that their Assemblies for the Worship of God are intended for and employ'd in the stirring up Sedition He is so generous as not to mention the several Wars which those of the Reformed Religion undertook and managed for their own defence against Charles the Ninth Henry the Third and Lewis the Thirteenth but he tells them that they have been always very loyal to him and that he apprehends no trouble or danger from them on the account of their Principles only he is resolved not to suffer any in his Dominions who will not embrace the Popish Religion and that they must either renounce the Faith which they profess or submit to be destroyed It would require a Volume rather than a Paragraph to recount the many late Edicts which have been published against them and the several steps and methods which have been taken to ruine them without their being guilty of any other crime or provocation save their having withdrawn themselves from the Communion of the Church of Rome Thus the King hath not only demolished an infinite number of Churches and suppressed the exercise of Religion where it had for a long time been legally enjoyed but the Protestant Ministers are every where exposed to be proceeded against and punished whensoever any suborned wretch shall but depose that they delivered something in their Sermons that was scandalous upon the Church of Rome And they have not only ordered under great and severe Penalties That no Papist shall turn Protestant and that none who have forsaken the Protestant Religion tho' out of infirmity lightness or fear shall return to it again but they have also ordained That the Children of Protestants shall be admitted to abjure their Religion at seven years of Age and in case they have no mind afterwards to live with their Parents that their Fathers and Mothers shall be obliged to maintain them wherever they please to continue or be It were endless to recount the hardships which the Protestants in that Kingdom are under for besides their being turned out of all offices wherein they got a Subsistence for themselves and Families their Wives are not to be brought to bed but by Midwives or Chyrurgeons that are Papists nor their Children taught unless it be meerly to read and write save by Popish Schoolmasters Nay as if it were not enough to forbid them to be Stewards Bailiffs Solicitors Registers Clerks Notaries and to remove them from all Employments in the Affairs of the Finances or Customs and turn them out of all Military Commands by Sea and Land they have commanded all Chyrurgeons Apothecaries Watchmakers and divers other Artificers to shut up their shops which is in effect to require them either to turn Papists or to subject them to starve And to all the other miseries which that poor people are made liable unto for their Religion this is not the least that they will not suffer them to die in quiet but have enjoyned that when they are sick they shall suffer themselves to be visited by a Popish Magistrate in the presence of two Popish Witnesses without allowing any Protestants tho' their nearest Relations to be by And as we may easily apprehend that their errand is either to disturb them that they may not expire in quiet or by the utmost Cunning and Art to prevert them from departing in the same Faith which they had all their days professed so they think it not only a lawful but a meritorious Act to say that they died in the Faith of the Church of Rome tho' they know the contrary to be true And thereupon they take away all their Children to breed them in the Popish Religion and seize the Estate to preserve it as they pretend for the Children of such Catholick Parents In a word the sufferings and calamities of the Protestants in France are grown to such a height that many thousands have forsaken their native Country Relations Friends and Estates and the rest are ready to do the like were they not debarred all ways of departure and escape And as the severities exercised against those of the Reformed Religion in that Kingdom are but a Copy of what we in these Nations are to look for in case we should come under a Popish Prince so the time hath been that the Rulers of these Kingdoms and such as Minister at the helm of of publick Affairs would not have silently lookt on and suffered those of the same Faith with themselves to be thus oppressed and destroyed for no other Reason but meerly because they are Protestants Nor will it be hereafter to the Honour and Reputation of some people in the World That the first Edicts of any fatal Consequence to the Hugonets in France bore date in 1660. as if the French King had presumed upon the Connivence of his Neighbours and therefore adventured to begin the Persecution which hath been by several steps advanced all along since and is at last arrived at inexpressible as well unsupportable severities and rigours And I may say that it is not without grief and sorrow that they who love his Majesty are necessitated to observe how through the influence of ill men about him he hath suffered himself to be persuaded to neglect interposing so effectually in behalf of that people as was expected from a Prince professing the Protestant Religion and whose interest it is to show himself upon all occasions the Patron and Defender of all the Reformed Churches And whosoever they were that advised His Majesty to abandon the concerning himself in the favour of Protestants beyond the Seas they neither consulted the Glory and Honour of their Prince nor yet the Maxims which His Royal Father as well as others who have swayed the English Scepter were guided by And tho' no good subject can think of the Usurper Oliver Cromwell but with an abhorrency of the Crimes which he was guilty of towards the Royal Family and these Kingdoms yet all the World took notice and continues to acknowledg both with what Sympathy Courage and Zeal he appeared in behalf of the Protestants in Piedmont when their Prince the Duke of Savoy had employ'd Forces and given Orders to extirpate them and how by a Letter to the late French Cardinal he check'd and stem'd a Persecution which some Protestants in the South of France were likely to have fallen under The poor Hugonots did not only long ago foresee all that hath hitherto overtaken them but they likewise made some near His Majesty acquainted with it and were ready to have proposed such measures as would have been able to have prevented their own sufferings and the disturbance which the French Monarch
man from doing himself right when he hath been publickly as well as eminently injured And truly it looks like an imposing that upon the implicite Faith of the World which they know themselves unable to prove or it argues a distrust either of the goodness of their Cause or that it hath not been managed with integrity and candor when they are unwilling to admit both sides the priviledg of being openly heard For tho it may become the Wisdom of men in Power and Government to preserve the Justice of Courts and Reputation of Juries from being openly arraigned when an Indictment after a full Enquiry hath been approved and allow'd by such as are the proper and only judges of it yet such a procedure as the restraining men from defending their own Innocency and vindicating the impartiality of those who acquitted them after a full and Legal hearing can never adjust it self to the sense or reason of mankind Nor doth such a course and method import any thing less than that for having miss'd the satiating their Malice in the Blood of one or two whom they mortally hated they will pursue their Revenge in endeavours to blast the Credit and diminish the value and esteem of all that have been instrumental in preventing and defeating their Intendment NOW this Plot for Deposing the King and altering the Government whereof Protestants were to be Accused and Impeached was not only so contrived as that it might reach most English Peers and Gentlemen who stood in the way of Popery and Arbitrariness but the Protestants in Ireland were to be brought under the charge and accusation of it For the Popish Conspiracy having been carried on with the same vigour against the Lives of Protestants and the established Religion in that Kingdom as it was in this and the Parliament here being so far satisfied and convinced of the reality of it there as well as in England as to declare and testifie the belief of it by the unanimous Votes of both Houses accordingly the Papists in both Kingdoms were equally and by the same Artifices to be relieved from the imputation which lay upon them and to be rescued from the punishments which the Laws Adjudged and Condemned them unto Therefore the Protestants in both Nations were to be accused of having forged the Popish Plot and that having thereby amused His Majesty and the people they have in the mean time been fomenting and promoting a real one of their own This was that which St. Laurence the Priest would See No Protestant Plot First part p 33 34 35. have Hired and Suborned Mr. William Smith to Swear and Depose and whereof the Evidence was so strong against St. Laurence at his Trial that tho' he was acquitted yet he is still believed by all impartial men that heard it to have been really guilty For it is not only reported from thence by persons who deserve to be credited that such especially were returned upon the Jury who were known before-hand to have reflected upon Mr. Smith but it is most certain that whereas the Prisoner was allowed five Councel to plead for him there was none of the King's Councel nor any one man of the Gown besides that appeared in behalf of the Evidence Whether they forbore from an opinion that the Evidence was so plain that it required no Plea to enforce or apply it or whether they did it out of deference to some great men whom they would not offend by being concerned in any thing that may prejudice the honour and integrity of the Papists or whether it was in obedience to the commands of such who would not have an Intrigue detected upon the discovery whereof the Protestants may come to be thought peaceable and loyal again as I cannot certainly tell so I shall not take upon me to conjecture and divine But besides that which was sworn against St. Laurence by Mr. Smith which to any who read it will appear either the copy transcript or counterpart of what they have been doing here we have other evidence of the Papists labouring in Ireland to sham off their own Plot by representing it as a Forgery falsely laid upon them by the Pratestants and their endeavouring to possess the Government with a belief that during the noise and buz which the Protestants had raised concerning a Popish Plot they were themselves embarkt in a Conspiracy against the King and the Monarchy Thus whereas one Captain Morley had appeared before the Committees of Lords and Commons here and swore two Consults which the Papists had in Ireland in reference to the extirpating the Protestant Religion in that Kingdom they have procured no fewer than six or seven Irish Witnesses not only to Depose against the said Morley That he was Suborned by the Earl of Essex the Earl of Shaftsbury Sir Robert Cleyton and others to Swear Treason against the Duke of Ormond the Lord Chancellor Boyle and Sir John Davies but that he himself had said the King was on enemy to all Protestants and deserved to have his Head cut off as his Father had Here we have an Epitome and Abridgment of what the whole Popish Party is laying out their Money improving their Wit and employing the Power and Interest of their Friends for and about But why the Papists should in all their Depositions introduce the Protestants affirming the King to be a Papist and an enemy to those of the same Religion which he not only professeth but which he hath sacredly and solemnly Vow'd for ever to protect and defend I think no wise man is able to tell unless it be that they have a mind to recriminate upon us what they have been proved guilty of themselves It is not yet seasonable to declare by whose means and by what Arts the foresaid Deposition was obtained nor how Handland and Murphey two fellows that came over hither to Swear the Popish Plot were since their return transformed into Witnesses to prove a Protestant Conspiracy but all these things must be foreborn till his Majesty in his Princely Wisdom and from that Justice which he hath hitherto governed his people by and in the discharge of his promise which his Loyal addressing Subjects as well as others do rely upon be pleased to call a Parliament and then both all these and many other things will be more fully disclosed and set in a brighter light In the mean time this must be acknowledged to the Honour of His Majesty and the Justice of the Council-Board that tho the foresaid Deposition was received by some in Ireland with great fondness and transmitted hither not only with all expedition and speed but accompanied with an earnest desire that the Gentleman might be sent thither yet the King and Council would neither do so illegal and arbitrary a thing as to send a person from hence to Ireland without his own consent both born and bred here and who actually possesseth an estate in England Nor could it be done without great Injustice
Shaftsbury p. 19. Country were well provided with Horse Arms and Men and that if the King offered any violence to them they might oppose him for the like had been done in former times And Haynes deposeth That Colledg should tell him Vnless the King should suffer the Parliament to continue to sit at Oxford they would seize him and bring him Colledg's Tryal p. 30. to the Block as they did the Logger-head his Father yea that my Lord Shaftsbury should declare Vnless the King granted the Pardon which was demanded Proceedings upon the Bill against the Earl of Shaftsbury p. 37. for the said Haynes they would raise the whole Kingdom against him Booth likewise swears how my Lord Shaftsbury told him That he and others had considered with themselves that it was fit for them to have Guards at Oxford and that to this purpose he had establisht a matter of Fifty men persons Ibid. p. 21. of quality and that he had entrusted Capt. Wilkinson with the Command of them and in case any violence should be offered by the King they would repel Force with greater Force Now tho' all this be nothing but a bundle of forged lies yet it plainly declares that no fewer than all the men of quality in England who are zealous for the Reformed Religion and Civil Rights yea the whole Body of sincere Protestants were to be drawn and hook't within the verge of this Plot and all their Lives and Fortunes brought to lye at the favour of the Government upon the pretended guilt of it For no man can think that the blood of the Earl of Shaftsbury and my Lord Howard would have attoned for so general and universal a Conspiracy could they but once have enjoyed the good fortune to have had credit given to these fellows Testimonies The designs which the Papists proposed unto themselves in their forging of this Conspiracy were greater than to be compassed and accomplished by the murder of Three or Four men in the way of legal proofs For as nothing less was aim'd at by means of this Sham Plot than the destroying all who withstand the Introduction of Popery and the establishment of a Popish Successor so many hundreds were to be taken out of the way besides those apprehended and accused ere ever the people of this Kingdom could be expected quietly to submit to be Papists slaves But because the foregoing Depositions do only speak in general of a Conspiracy wherein the Parliament and Nobles were engaged in conjunction with my Lord Shaftsbury to apprehend and cut off the King we shall therefore give an account from the Attestations of others of some few more who besides those publickly named were to have been charged with and perished under the pretended guilt of this forged Plot. And as we are assured from the mouth of a Gentleman of great Reputation and good Quality that John Smith said to him he could swear Treason against a hundred Protestants so Thomas Samson hath deposed upon Oath That John Macknamarra told him that Edward Ivie Bryan Haynes John Smith and Edward Turbervile did intend to swear Treason against Sir Patience Ward Sir Robert Clayton Sir Thomas Player Mr. Bethel who was then Sheriff of London Coll. Mildmay others Yea to that confidence were the mercinary perjured Rogues arrived of their being able to destroy men upon the suborn'd Testimonies that had been dictated unto them that one Mr. Shewin informs upon Oath his having heard John Macknamarra and Edward Turbervil offer on the 11th of August last to lay a wager That Mr. Sheriff Bethel Mr. Best and divers of the London Jury which had brought in an Ignoramus upon the Bill against Stephen Colledg would be hang'd before Christmas last And that the world may be fully convinced how the Papists and the Tools of one quality and another which they work by designed to extend the guilt of this pretended Protestant Plot we shall subjoyn the Deposition of one Ashlock who said That Edward Ivie immediately after Colledg ' s Tryal told him That as they had gotten the said Colledg to be cast and condemned so they were resolved to have the Duke of Monmouth and other Lords to drink of the same cup and to taste Colledg ' s fate So that no man who is a Protestant ought after the knowledg of this to believe himself safe or that he is exempted out of the number of those upon whom the Papists under the pretence of a Protestant Plot hoped to have wreck'd their Malice and Rage For they that dare entertain thoughts of destroying a Prince whom his greatest Enemies can charge with no fault save that he is a Protestant and zealous for the King's preservation and glory are not to be supposed to harbour any thoughts of Compassion and Mercy towards Protestants of an inferior rank Shall neither the Honour which the D. of M. hath brought to His Majesty and the Nation by his foreign Atchievements nor the peace and establishment which he restored to the King and Throne by his prudent and valorous subduing Insurrections at home be sufficient to protect him from the danger and infamy of a Scaffold no more than they were able to secure him from being excluded his Father and Prince's presence and deprived of those Offices which his Merit rendered him worthy of had he not any nearness by Nature and blood to His Majesty to plead for him Will nothing satisfie the Romish Crew unless they can bring the King to forget the Affections of Father as well as the Justice of a Monarch and make him abandon a person to their treachery and implacable wrath whom he is obliged by the Laws of nature to protect as his son whom he is bound by the Laws of England to defend him as his Subject And as all men discern whose Interest hath been served and whose revenge gratified in all the mortifications of this Loyal and Innocent Duke so we can easily guess in whose behalf and for the promoting of whose concernments this whole Protestant Conspiracy was invented and forged And having succeeded so well already as by their meer importunities to alienate his Majesty from a person whom he once seemed to value and love they are encouraged to hope the King will be prevailed with by suggestions of Treasonable Crimes to sacrifice him to their indignation and ire Having now traced and pursued this forged Plot so far as to see that it was calculated for no less than the whole Meridian of Great Brittain and that all the Patriots of Religion and Laws in both Nations were to be destroyed under a pretence of being combin'd in it we are in the next place to view it in the complexion and figure wherein it opened and unfolded it self against the Right Honorable the Earl of Shaftsbury and those other persons who have been either Indicted or only Committed for an alledged accession to it And as the Papists very well know that none had more opposed and
in and joyn with him and he would have the Earl of Shaftsbury ' s head cut off and sham the whole Popish Plot. By this Deposition we are plainly led into this whole deviliâ—h Intrigue of charging Protestants with a Conspiracy against the Person of the King and the established Monarchy For Fitz Gerald being corrupted by the Papists and sâ—ch as manage their designs to sham off the Popish Plot and swear one upon Protestants he accordinly applies himself to every person whom he conceived with any probality entertain thoughts of prevailing upon And by dealing with men of no Principles and of most profligate Lives to whom were proposed great Offices and ample Rewards they have by degrees been able to muster up Nine or Ten Rascals most of which were before notoriously infamous and having clothed them with the stile of the King's Evidence they grow angry that their Testimony is not admitted to the reproach of our Religion and the destruction of many innocent persons Yea this wretch Hayn's consessed to one Mrs. Hall That he had been dealt with to form a Presbyterian See Colledge's Trial p. 42. Plot and that he was desired to corrupt and suborn one Everard and others to come over and promote the same Design And upon the Overtures which had been made him he not only told one Mr. Titon That he could frame a Presbyterian Plot and that there was Money to be gotten by doing it but he acknowledged to one Mr. Richards That he was employed and Ibid. p. 43. had an hand in putting the Plot upon Dissenting Protestants and that he was offered a Pardon and 500 l if he would swear such and such base things That is if he would accuse the Earl of Shaftsbary and other Loyal Patriots of Religion and English Liberties of being guilty of a Conspiracy against his Majesty and the established Government And the Fellow being in great want and having long before shipwrack't his Conscience he was easily brought to comply with this wicked and abominable Proposal For as he told Mowbray His necessitous Condition made him take desperate Resolutions and that to make his Fortune he would swear a Plot against the Presbyterians in reference to whom any plausable thing would be believed And that the World may know of how long standing this forged Conspiracy has been I shall here add something of Sampson's Deposition upon Oath before an Alderman of London which may serve further to enlighten this Affair He swears That John Macknamarra told him that Edward Ivey and Bryan Hayns agreed together in April last to swear Treason against the Earl of Shaftsbury and that the Treason which they resolved to swear was That the said Earl should say That this King deserved more to be dethroned than Richard the second and that he the said Earl vvould dethrone the King and make England a Common-Wealth and that if the Bill against the Earl of Shaftsbury were once found that then they with Smith Turbervil and others would swear Treason against many more And as we may be sure that the Villan's being a Papist disposed him the more readily to venture upon a Design which was judged so subservient to the Romish Interest so it were worth the while to inform the World with what Court-Ministers and little Officers he secretly corresponded all the time he pretended to abscond But as those persons must be left to suffer by Justice of a Parliament so all the Discoveries relating to a close Converse between those Gentlemen and Hayns must be deferred till this whole matter fall under the Inspection of the Two Houses But so zealous of a sudden did the Rascal become in ruining Protestants upon this forged Plot That he not only called the Parliament at Oxford a company of Rogues because they would give the King no Money but that by doing Shaftsbury and other Protestants business they Colledge's Trial p. 44. would help him to Money out of the Phanatiks estates for they would rather damn their Souls to the Devil than that the Catholick Cause should sink If men did not chuse the being imposed upon and were not obstinate against conviction they might have been satisfied long ago that there was no Truth nor Reality in all the talk and noise which we have had concerning a Protestant Plot but that it is only the invention of ill men instructed and acted by the Papists for the retrieving the sinking Cause and Interest of the Catholick Church in these Nations And they have pitched upon Tools who are either wholly fearless of Damnation or such who upon a promise of Happiness in this world are resolved to venture it So that upon what hath been here with all Truth as well as Brevity represented concerning this Fellow Haynes I hope that at least all the sober part of Mankind will see cause for justifying the late Jury in their not believing his Testimony Nor have I insisted upon half the Crimes and gross Immoralities of his Life such as his forging a Letter to one Mr. Harbottle of Lincoln in order to cozen a Gentleman of Goods to the value of 200 l. And his marrying one Mrs. Mansfield and then turning her away after he had lived divers years with her and spent 500 l. which she brought him pretending she was but his Whore because they were not married according to the Form of the Church of England but after the Romish Fashion tho' he that is guilty of such things ought not to be believed unless the matter he swears carry a probability in it or be rendred morally certain by Circumstances which are either notorious or otherwise confirmed No instead of recounting such Wickednesses and Immoralities I have rather chosen to make him appear an infamous Rascal and one to whose Affidavit concerning a Protestant Plot no credit is to be given by declaring his own acknowledgments of the whole Forgery and upon what Motives and through whose Instigation he listed himself for a Witness and what was the end which the Managers of this Design proposed ultimately unto themselves with respect to which they reckon'd the murdering of innocent men would be esteem'd a holy and meritorious service And I shall only add to what hath been said That the wretch plainly contradicted himself in the face of the Court. For being asked by the Jury Whether he had not given an Information to a Justice of Peace concerning some design against the Earl of Shaftsbury he twice denied his having given such an Information to any save Secretary Jenkins yet upon my Lord Chief Justice's telling him that he did not observe the question and proposing it again to him he See Proceedings at the Old Baily p. 44 45. at last accknowledged that he had given an Information to Sir George Treby how Mr. Fitz-Gerald had both told the King and given it under his hand That the Earl of Shaftsbury was resolved to set the Crown upon his own head or otherwise to turn the Kingdom
that for advancing the Duke to the Throne my Lord should not only venture his own life fortune but disoblige the best Friends he hath in the Nation and entangle his native Country in Civil War This misadventure in the Testimony of one of the most considerable Witnesses betrays not only their Folly but that the whole Plot whereof the Earl of Shaftsbury hath been accused is a malicious Forgery in order to take away the Life of that innocent Peer Nor can any who are not willing to sacrifice the Protestant Religion the Liberties of their Country and the Lives of Guiltless Persons to the Hatred and Rage of the Papists give any Credit to Fellows who Swear at so Wilde and Nonsensical a rate Had the Mercinary vvretches designed to publish themselves for Liars and Impostors to all the vvorld they could not have taken a more effectual vvay to do it than by affirming that the Earl of Shaftsbury should be desirous to enter into a Combination and Conspiracy vvith Irish Papists in order to prevent a Popish Successor and for preserving the Protestant Religion For at the same time that Dennis chargeth this Noble Person vvith saying That he would extirpate the King and all his Family he swears That he desired him to write to his Ubi supra p. 32. Irish Popish Friends to be ready to assist And tho' I do not much vvonder to find a Caitiff of the size of Dennis's Wit and Understanding swear a business vvhich disproveth it self before all Wise and Rational persons yet I cannot forbear marvelling that they vvho vievv'd the Depositions and vvere to gloss and enforce the Evidence vvould suffer such a Deposition to appear upon the publick Stage vvhich vvould not only make the Forgery notorious but infallibly expose themselves as well as the perjur'd Rogues to the laughter scorn and detestation of mankind Nor is it unworthy of remark that in the expressions which they swear my Lord Shaftsbury used they make him not only forget the Loyalty of a Subject but the Civility and Breeding of a Gentleman For the Terms wherein they represent him speaking of the King are besides their being Treasonable too rude to proceed from any that knows the measures of Civility or hath been occasioned to speak with any kind of Decorum For not only Macknamarra introduceth him calling the King a Faithless Person and one that was no way to be believed But Haynes will have him both to say That the King had no more Religion than a Horse and that he was degenerated into a perfect Ibid. p. 28. p. 43. p. 27. Beast and that he durst as soon be hang'd as to meddle with the said Haynes if he stuck to his Information about Sir Edmond-bury Godfrey ' s Murder This is a Dialect proper for such Rascals as the Witnesses to use but it is not a Stile that men of Quality are accustomed unto or can allow themselves to speak in For how much soever they may be offended with the ways and methods of Princes yet they constantly speak of their Persons with Respect and Deference Whether are we to esteem it a Subject fit for our mirth and laughter or for our disgust and indignation to see a Fellow appear at a Bar against a Great and Wise Peer and among other Treasonable Expressions whereof he accuseth him to swear That the said Lord put a greater Respect and Valuation upon him than he did upon the King himself Haynes having sent to the Earl of Shaftsbury and several other Noble Persons That he would make considerable Discoveries if they would procure him a Pardon the Rascal swears That being in Discourse with my Lord Shaftsbury about that matter my Lord should say If the King would not grant the Pardon for him that was desired they would raise the whole Kingdom against him and Ibid. p. 27. that he must not expect to live peaceably in his Throne if he did not grant it For not to insist on this That the Earl of Shaftsbury never spake with Haynes nor would not so much as see him both which will be proved as far as Negatives are capable can any man that hath not renounced Sense as well as Conscience believe that the Earl of Shaftsbury would put the Life of the King and the Peace of the Kingdom in competition with Haynes's being pardoned or not pardoned For suppose that the Fellow undertook to make very useful and important Discoveries provided he might have a Pardon yet we must be Bruits before we can be perswaded that a person of Prudence and Conduct should in case a pitiful wretch were not secured against the danger of the Gallows to which he stood obnoxious threaten not only to dethrone a Monarch to whom he lies under many Obligations besides those of Fealty but to hurl a quiet and peaceable Nation into War and Blood And as if it were not enough for these silly as well as malicious wretches to make my Lord Shaftsbury say a Thousand things which are equally Ridiculous and absurd as they are Treasonable they will have him to have talk'd of matters ready to be done which being duly weighed will be found to have been morally impossible For so is all that is sworn against him concerning a Design to seize the King at Oxford where he was not only surrounded with his Guards but as our Enemies must acknowledg environed with many Loyal Peers and Gentlemen Nor are we told of any preparations that were suitable to an undertaking which was so difficult in it self and which would be extreamly fatal to the Authors if it miscarried For whereas they depose That my Lord told them the Members came well Smith p. 26. Horsed and well Armed the whole Kingdom knows the contrary Some of the Members went so ill attended as that they were not in a condition to secure themselves from being Rob'd by the way And divers of the most Martial persons in the Oxford House of Commons went thither in Hackney Coaches with scarce a Servant a peice to wait upon them Yea this very Earl who is said not only to have projected the seizing the King at Oxford but to have corresponded with others in order to their coming provided thither with strength and force for the accomplishing of it had neither Coach nor Horse there himself So ignorant was this Noble Person of any such design and so unprepared for the execution of an attempt of that nature that he went down in an hired Coach and was forc'd to stay there after the Dissolution of the Parliament till he sent to London for Horses to convey and accommodate him home Was not the Concourse at Oxford much smaller than was reckoned upon considering the Greatness and Solemnity of the Occasion It cannot be thought that the Peers of England and the principal Gentry of the Kingdom should go to to so August and Solemn an Assembly without some Menial Servants to attend them And if the having supernumeraries in a
was pleased graciously to add that he should find him very just and kind in rewarding what he had done and suffered for him But what this Earl acted and underwent for the King when his Lordship's Father and almost all the Scotch Nation had either fallen in with or submitted to the Usurpers will better appear by a Paper under Middleton's hand which I shall here annex John Middleton Lieutenant-General next and immediate under His Majesty and Commandev in Chief of all the Forces raised and to be raised within the Kingdom of Scotland Seeing the Lord Lorn hath given so singular proofs of his clear and perfect Loyalty to the King's Majesty and of pure and constant Affection to the good of His Majesty's Affairs as never hitherto to have any ways complied with the Enemy and to have been principally Instrumental in the enlivening of this late War and one of the chief and first Movers in it and hath readily chearfully and gallantly engaged and resolutely and constantly continued active in it notwithstanding the many powerful Disswasions Discouragements and Oppositions he hath met with from divers hands and hath in the carrying on of the Service shewn such signal Fidelity Integrity Generosity Prudence Courage and Conduct and such high Vertue Industry and Ability as are suitable to the Dignity of his Noble Family and the Trust His Majesty reposed in him and hath not only stood out against all Inducements Temptations and Enticements but hath most nobly crossed and repressed Designs and Attempts of deserting the Service and persisted Loyally and firmly in it to the very last through excessive Trials and many great Difficulties and misregarding all personal Inconveniencies and chusing the loss of Friends fortune and private concernments and to endure the utmost Extremities rather than to swerve in the least from his Duty or taint his Reputation with the meanest shadow of Disloyalty or Dishonour I do therefore hereby testifie and declare that I am perfectly satisfied with his whole deportments in relation to the Enemy and their late War and do highly approve them as being not only above all I can express of their worth but almost beyond all parallel c. John Middleton What his after-Sufferings for His Majesty were and how he continued six years a Prisoner under the Usurpers for his Loyalty to the King I shall content my self to have only barely suggested them And as no man in all Scotland was more capable of serving his Prince both by reason of the greatness of his Parts the height of his Quality and the largeness of his Interest than this Noble Lord so no person of one degree or another hath at all times and in various Employments and Trusts more approved his Zeal and Loyalty to the King's Person and Government than he hath constantly done since His Majesties Restoration And if he have offended in any thing it is by an excess of compliance with his Majesties Will having as himself declared in his Speech at his Arraignment served him all along after his own way and manner Nor can any wise man believe that what he was accused of High-Treason for was either a Crime in it self or would have been charged upon this Earl as an Offence if His Majesties present Commissioner in Scotland had not upon some hidden and more important motive and inducement conceived an implacable hatred against him For the declining to swallow the Test abruptly and without such limitations as might give it both a determinate and a legal sense cannot be imagined to be more criminal than altogether to refuse it which not only many of the Conformable Clergy but divers Peers and Gentlemen without being accused of High Treason have done And surely it was more becoming a man of Honour and a Christian to declare plainly and openly in what sense he could and was ready to take it than to take it with a pious and devout ignorance as another Lord of His Majesties Privy-Council did And as the Council's publishing an Explanation of it is an unanswerable Argument that it required some Explication towards the reconciling it to its self and the Laws of the Land so wise men are apt to think that it is as lawful for a person to explain it for himself as for them to take upon them to explain it for others But it seems very strange that it should be Treason in the Earl of Argile to declare in what Sense he would take it when at the same time others have been allowed to put Senses and Constructions of their own upon it which were more remote from the meaning of the words than his were But that the World may be both able to judg of that Affair and of the hard and unpresidented usage which this Noble person hath met with I shall first subjoin the Explanation of the Test for which he was Accused and Condemned of High Treason Secondly I shall annex an Explication which he had prepared of that Explanation and which he threw into such a Texture with the words of the latter that being read interwoven together his purpose meaning and design will not only more clearly appear but justifie themselves to the minds of all rational men And I shall add in the last place the Opinion of several of the best Lawyers in Scotland concerning the Case of this Great and Loyal Peer The Earl of Argile's Explanation of the Test I Have consider'd the Test and I am very desirous to give obedience as far as I can I 'm confident the Parliament never intended to impose Contradictory Oaths Therefore I think no body can explain the Test but for himself I take it as far as it is consistent with it self and the Protestant Religion And I do declare That I mean not to bind up my self in my Station and in a lawful way to wish and endeavour any alteration I think to the advantage of Church or State not repugnant to the Protestant Religion and to my Loyalty And this I understand as a part of my Oath The Earl of Argile's Explication of his Explanation of the Test I Have consider'd the Test and have seen several objections moved by others against it and I am very desirous notwithstanding of all that I have seen or heard to give obedience in this and every thing as far as I can I am confident whatever scruples any man doth raise The Parliament never intended to impose Contradictory Oaths And because their sense and genuine meaning is the true sense and seeing the Test that is enjoined is of no private Interpretation nor are the Kings Statutes to be interpreted otherwise than as they bear to the intent they are made Therefore I think no body that is to say no private person can explain the Test for-another But every man for himself as he understands it to agree with and suit the Parliaments sense which is the true sense I take it notwithstanding all these scruples made by any As far as it is consistent with it self and which is indeed wholly in the Parliaments sense and true meaning which was the securing the Protestant Religion founded on the word of God and contained in the Confession of Faith recorded Parl. 1. Ja. 6. And I declare that by that part of the Test viz. that there lyes no obligation on me c. That I mean not to bind up my self in my station and in a lawful way still disclaiming all unlawful endeavours To wish and endeavour any Alteration I think according to my Conscience and Allegiance To the advantage of Church or State not repugnant to the Protestant Religion nor my Loyalty which I understand no otherwise but the duty and allegiance of loyal and faithful subjects And this Explanation I understand as a part not of the Test nor Act of Parliament but of my Oath that I am to swear and with it I am willing to take the Test if your R. H. and Lo. allow me it or otherways in submison to the Act of Parliament and your R. H. and the Councils pleasure am content to be held a Refuser at present The Opinion of the Lawyers about the Earl of Argyle's Case WE have considered the Criminal Letters raised at the instance of His Majesties Advocate against the Earl of Argyle with the Acts of Parliament contained and warranted in the same Criminal Letters and have compared the same with a Paper or Explication which is Libelled to have been given in by the Earl of Argyle to the Lords of His Majesties Privy Council and owned by him as the sense and explication in which he did take the Oath imposed by the late Act of Parliament and which Paper is of this Tenor I have considered the Test and am very desirous c. And likewise having consider'd that the Earl after he had taken the Oath with the explication and sense then put upon it it was acquiesced to by the Lords of the Privy Council and the Earl allowed to take his place and sit and vote And that before the Earl's taking of the Oath there were several Papers spread abroad containing Objections and alledged Inconsistencies and Contradictions in the Oath And that some thereof by Synods and Presbyteries of the Orthodox Clergy to some of the Bishops of the Church It is our humble Opinion that seeing the Earl's design and meanin in offering the said Explication was allenarly for clearing of his own Conscience and is of no contravention of the Laws and Acts of Parliament and doth not at all import the Crimes Libelled against him viz. Treason Leising-making Depraving of His Majesties Laws or the Crime of Perjury But that the Glosses and Inferences put by the Libel on the said Paper are altogether strained and unwarrantable and inconsistent with the Earl's true Design and the Sincerity of his meaning and intention in making of the said Explication FINIS