and give evidence of our Loyalty by our peaceable demeanour and conformity to the laws of the Land and to lay the foundation of our future happiness by being dutiful to our Masters and diligent in our business that so in time we might become good Citizens So they returned again in five Coaches to Russells and supped there altogether and so every one went home The twenty Presenters of this Address were Mr. B y Mr. A h Mr. S ns Mr. M d Mr. B th Mr. Evans Mr. Batty Mr. P le Mr. D n Mr. Noise one of the Persons who first set this design afoot Mr. C ll Mr. S s Mr. S y Mr. H ing Mr. B w Mr. P tell Mr. S th Mr. B n Mr. Mal s Mr. R t s A Letter sent August 19. 1681. thus subscribed To the truly Loyal and Protestant Apprentices of London that were the principal Managers of the late address to my Lord Mayor GO on Heroick Souls and faithful be Unto your God your King your Liberty Let your unbyast actions give the lie To such as scandalize your Loyalty To Caesar render what 's to Caesar due Earth merits Heaven expects no more from you Those rights defend which your brave sires sent down Inviolable as the Throne or Crown Tell supple Parasites and treacherous Knaves You 're humble subjects not degenerate slaves Bow low but scorn to creep for that 's as well Nor for a mess of Broth your Birth-rights sell. Pass by th'affronts that Hell and Rome can send Comfort yourselves when 't is at worst 't will mend But when the Church is shook by Potent foes For her defence your bodies interpose Of Popish mercy never run the risque A Crowned Serpent grows a Basilisk Vindicate then the Gospel and the Laws The cause is Heaven's Heaven will espouse the cause Undauntedly prop up your Churches Walls And joy to fall beneath it if it falls To perish thus who would not be content When mouldring Temples are his Monument THE INTRODUCTION TO THE Western Transactions AND GENERAL OBSERVATIONS UPON THEM I Am sensible 't is a very invidious thing to defend any Action which has had the Publick Stream and cry long against it with which even men of Sense and sometimes Religion too tho' Pride or Shame perhaps seldom lets 'em own the very truth on 't are commonly hurried away as well as others But this is 't is hoped for the general an Age of Confession and Ingenuity and since so many of the greatest men upon Earth have gone before in acknowledging some Notions too far strain'd and others mistaken 't will be no real disgrace but an Honour to follow them when so much in the right And if once Principles and Notions are chang'd or limited we shall necessarily have other thoughts of Things and Persons than we had before and that Action we call'd Rebellion and those Men we thought Rebels while we had a wrong slavish Notion of Obedience when once that 's regulated and we believe with all the World and all Ages and Nations That we are to obey only the lawful Commands of Superiours and submit only to such unjust ones as will not much damage the Commonwealth but resist and defend our selves when all we have dear our Religion Liberty and Lives are visibly and undeniably attack'd and invaded either without all form of Law or what 's worse the wrested pretence of it Then we think truly that such men are so far from being Rebels that they are the worthy true Defenders of their Faith and Country and such an Action so far from Rebellion that 't is highly meritorious and praise-worthy Most men being now satisfied in these Points unless those whom insuperable Interest or Prejudice have poison'd and rooted incorrigibly in the contrary Belief And the truth and reasonableness of them having been undeniably prov'd by many worthy Persons from the Law of Nations the Ends of all Government and the Constitution of our Kingdom and the Practice of former Ages both Popish and Protestant All the Question now must be about Matter of Fact Whether Things were then brought to that Extremity that 't would probably be too late to make any Defence for Religion and Property if 't were not then made and whether or no the Fundamental Contract were then actually violated This is plain that the Protestant Religion and all our Liberties were then most eminently in danger publick Leagues being long before made between his Brittannick Majesty and the King of France for their Extirpation That he who had been voted in Parliament the main Head of the Popish Cause was now grown the Head of the Kingdom or indeed the Popish Deputy here as he is since the King of France's in our Neighbouring Island That for being reconciled to Rome he was actually a Traytor and besides of a Religion whose Oaths could not be depended upon as we were then and long before to be and have since sufficiently felt and experienced That on this account he hardly could keep his Contract as 't was plain he actually did not publickly and notoriously violating those Laws he swore to maintain both before and after he had done it by going to Mass himself setting up Mass-houses and encouraging Popery As for many Grievances and Oppressions he was then as really Guilty of 'em as ever after tho' not in such large and frequent and various Instances some of 'em are those very same which the Parliament inserted among the Proofs and Reasons of the Abdication particularly the issuing out Quo Warranto's for Cities and Corporations the great Cause and Counsellor of which no doubt he was even before he actually I mean publickly reigned In a word the securing the Protestant Interest in all Europe that and their own Liberties in England was the main Cause why many and most engaged in this Design If these were in no danger and not violated they were Rebels If the safety of 'em could be expected any other way but by the Sword they were no better Whether things were in that Condition or no at that time God and the World must be Judges If it were so they were not Rebels If the Case was not so bad and the Mystery of Iniquity not so far reveal'd as it has been since yet preventive Physick is necessary especially when Death is unavoidable without it If a prudent Man is to meet Mischief rushing upon him and not stay for 't till it overwhelms him and take the same Course against a certain Consequence as an actual Evil why then I think 't will be very hard to hang People in one World and damn 'em in another for having as little a Foresight and great a Faith as their Neighbours Others there were who embark't in that Action because they really thought how much mistaken soever they might be that the Duke of Monmouth was the King's Legitimate Son which such as had a personal Love for him might more easily believe Now altho' many who engaged on the former
of many Thousand Loyal Apprentices of the same City whose Names are hereunto Subscribed In all Humility Sheweth THat as we are justly sensible of our happiness in being born under the enjoyment of the Protestant Religion so excellent a Government and so gracious a King to whose service we shall ever be ready to sacrifice our Lives so have we continually applyed our selves to discharge our Duties in our proper Callings without presuming to intermeddle in affairs beyond our sphere or concernment But being fully satisfied both by His Majesties frequent Proclamations the Vnanimous Votes of several Parliaments and the notoriousness-of Fact that for divers years past thâ—re hath been and still is a Devilish Plot carryed on by the Papists against the Sacred Life of our Soveraign whom God preserve and to Subvert the Protestant Religion and the Government established In which horrid practices the Conspirators have always appear'd most active and insolent during the Intervals of Parliaments and from thence and the continuing hopes of a Popish Successor take occasion with greater confidence to push on their Fatal Designs Observing likewise that among the many late Addresses there hath been one promoted in the names of some few of our condition in this Honourable City which now is represented as the Act and Sence of the Generality of Apprentices although the far greater part never joined therein as fearing lest the same might seem of a Tendency dishonourable to Parliaments whose Constitution we Reverence and humbly apprehend their Counsels highly necessary in such a Juncture Wherefore though out of an awful Respect we presume not to approach His Sacred Majesty yet we cannot but think it our duty to declare to your Lordship the Chief Magistrate under Him of this Honourable City and to all the World That we shall never be behind any of our Fellow-Apprentices in demonstrations of Loyalty tâ— His Sacred Majesty even to the last drop of our â—lood whenever His Majesties Service shall require it against any Traytors or Rebels whatsoever And also to assure your Lordship That as we do and through God's Grace ever shall Abhor Popery and all its Bloody Traiterous Practices So we do utterly disapprove and dislike any such proceedings from private persons as tend to reproach Parliaments but do unanimously with one heart and with one voice express our satisfaction in and thanks for the humble Petition and Address of your Lordship and the Common-Council presented to His Majesty in May last and since approved of in Common-Hall for the Assembling and Sitting of a Parliament That the God of Heaven may ever bless and preserve his Sacred Majesty and your Lordship and this Great and Honourable City and grant that your Successors in this weighty Trust may imitate your Lordships piety and zeal for the Protestant Religion and His Majesties Service shall ever be the daily prayers of us His Majesties Humble Faithful Loyal and Obedient Subjects Printed for Thomas Goodwill An. 1681. This Name is Composed of Fourteen Letters taken out of the Names of the Chief Managers This Address was Sign'd by about Thirty Thousand Hands and when those Twenty persons that presented it had Subscribed their Names to it they sent Mr. Noise and Mr. Dunton two of the said Presenters to Mr. S to know when they might have leave to Present it to my Lord Mayor which being granted in a few days the Twenty Presenters went in a Body together to Mr. S who introduc'd 'em to my Lord. To whom Mr. B y made a brief speech as follows May it please your Lordship THE occasion of giving your Lordship this trouble is humbly to lay at your Lordships feet an address to your Lordship subscribed by many thousand Loyal Apprentices of this City We do humbly acknowledge to your Lordship that the presumption we may seem guilty of in this matter considering our present stations requires a far greater apology than we are able to make But the principal reasons that incited us thus to address our selves to your Lordship are To demonstrate our Loyalty to his Sacred Majesty Our Zeal for the Protestant Religion And the veneration and esteem we have and ought to have for Parliaments Neither indeed my Lord could we think these sufficient motives to stir us up to this publick application which better becomes graver heads than ours had not some few of our fellow Apprentices lately presented his Majesty with an Address which seemed to be a gratulation for the Dissolution of the two last Parliaments which they now report to have been the act of the majority of Apprentices of this Honourable City Although the far greater part as may by the subscriptions to this Address appear to your Lordship were never concerned therein And although by reason of our present condition we think it an unpardonable crime to approach his Sacred Majesty about matters relating to the State yet we deem it our bounden duty to declare to your Lordship and the whole World That we utterly disclaim any Proceedings especially from Persons in our own Condition that may seem to reflect upon Parliaments the greatest Senate of the Nation And that the generality of Apprentices of this City have a venerable esteem for Parliaments which mâ—y the better appear to your Lordship upon reading the Address it self And I dare be bold to affirm to your Lordship by the Information I have had from those who were employed to take subscriptions to this address That there is not one Subscriber to it who is either Journey-man Tapster Hostler Water-man or the like but all Persons of our own rank â—nd condition Which Address in the name of all the Subscribers thereunto I humbly offer to your Lordship and beg your Lordships favourable reception of it Then his Lordship commanded the Address to be read which being read Mr. B y proceeded thus I have one thing more to say my Lord I understand that there is a common notion about Town that this Address hath been carried on by Faction and that none but Dissenters have been concerned in it I can assure your Lordship of the Contrary for that I know many of the subscribers who are of the Church of England of which Church I boast my self an unworthy Member Then his Lordship was pleased to express himself to this effect Gentlemen THis is a surprize to me and therefore I cannot tell what to say to it But for as â—uch as I have heard your Address read and at first reading can find noâ—hing in it but what becomes Loyal and Obedient subjects I do accept of iâ— I only desire the names of you that are the Presenters Then we told him that our names are those which were next to the Address it self â—t some distance from the rest of the subscribers Then he ordered theâ— all to be called over and so we answered to our names And then his Lordship desired he might have an account of our abodes which we also gave him Then his Lordship advised us to go home
from Popery and all those fatal consequences which have since happened and described them as plainly as if he had more than the ordinary inspection of a prudent man into Futurities Thus in his first Speech on the Discovery of the Popish Plot in 78. He has these words I am of Opinion that the Life of our King the Safety of our Country and the Protestant Religion are in great danger from Popery and that either this Parliament must suppress the power and growth of Popery or else that Popery will soon destroy not only Parliaments but all that is near and dear to us And lower I humbly move that we may resolve to take into our consideration in the first place how to suppress Popery and prevent a Popish Successor without which all our endeavours about this matter will not signifie any thing And how much he was in the right as to all these Guesses which then no doubt were nick-named Groundless and Factious Fears and Jealousies all the World is now satisfied Nothing can be more handsom than what he says on this Subject in his last Speech which gives the reasons of his acting at that time and being so earnest for the Bill in which indeed is as fair a State of that great Question as we shall any where find in so little a compass I cannot says he but give some touch about the Bill of Exclusion and shew the reasons of my appearing in that business which in short is this That I thought the Nation was in such danger of Popery and that the expectation of a Popish Successor as I have said in Parliament put the Kings Life also in such danger that I saw no way so effectual to secure both as such a Bill As to the Limitations which were proposed if they were sincerely offer'd and had pass'd into a Law the Duke then would have been excluded from the Power of a King and the Government quite alter'd and little more than the name of a King left So I could not see either sin or fault in the one when all People were willing to admit of the other But thought it better to have a King with his Prerogative and the Nation easie and safe under him than a King without it which must have bred perpetual Jealousies and continual struggle Thus far that Noble Lord with whom concurred at that time very many great and good Men as true Lovers of the Regulated Monarchy of England as of the Protestant Religion and indeed all were at that time unanimous in the House of Commons and other places except some honest Men who despaired of obtaining his Exclusion Others who strained their Charity almost as far as Origen who hoped well even of the Devil and they came not far short believing a Papist would be honest or grateful Some who were indifferent Their private Obligations to the Duke byassing their Judgments too much on his side Others fearful that the contrary Tide ran so strong they could have no safety but under his Protection and perhaps more than all these others who fairly bought and sold their Religion and Liberties the Blood and Souls of themselves and honester men whom 't is not doubted but our Chronicles will mark as long as our Nation has any in 't that can but write themselves or read what others have written The Reader will pardon this little Digression and go on with me to remark some strange Expressions in another Speech of his 'T was on a Debate in the House for Mony to be given for the Relief of Tangier Doth not says he the Dukes Interest indanger the Kings Life and are not our Lives and Fortunes in danger to be snatch'd up by his Power and shall we yet make him stronger by putting Mony into his hands And a little lower When his Majesty shall be pleased to free us from the danger of a Popish Successor and remove from his Council and Places of Trust all those who are for his Interest because there can be no distinction made between the Dukes Interest and the Popish Then I shall conclude that what Mony we shall give will be disposed of according to his Majesties own Royal Pleasure and for the true Protestant Interest and I shall be ready to give even all that I have in the World if his Majesty shall have occasion for it I have been the larger in this to undeceive the World as to that clamouring against those Parliaments for not giving the King Mony the true reason of which we may here plainly perceive But there is one passage so very remarkable and I know not how to call it less than Prophetical in the beginning of this same Speech that it must by no means be omitted 't is as follows If ever there should happen in this Nation any such Change that I should not have Liberty to live a Protestant I am resolv'd to die one And I think he was as good as his Word For being mark't out and among others appointed for the Slaughter he was taken up and imprisoned for that end and purpose in the Tower and brought to his Tryal above all days in the year on Essex's day the 13th of July 1683. He was brought to the Old Baily arraigned and the same morning tryed for High Treason He earnestly desired he might have respite and might not be tryed that day since he had some Witnesses that could not be in Town till the Night nay they were in such post-hast and so hot a scent for his Blood that on his earnest desire they would not stay so much as till the Afternoon pretending 't was against President and they could not do it without the Attorney General 's Consent tho 't is notorious that both Plunket the titular Irish Primate and Fitz-Harris before spoken of were both of them try'd a whole Term after they were arraign'd tho in both Cases the Attorney opposâ—d it and even here in the case of Treason at the Old-Baily too Whitebread's Tryal was put off to another Sessions If 't is pleaded The Case is different and that there was reason for the one but not for the other 'T will be readily granted Tho my Lords Evidence were not ready theirs was They had concerted business better and just at that time News was brought hot into the House That my Lord of Essex had this Morning prevented Justice as has been before remarked in the Story of Essex as also That several of the Jury had said They had never found Russel Guilty had it not been for that Accident And indeed were that all in the Case there would be still room for a great deal of Charity For though that was no proper Evidence against the Prisoner yet very few Persons in the World perhaps could have been found whose Minds would have been so firm and Reason so clear as not to be whether they wou'd or no hing'd and byass'd by such a sudden report as this brought in among 'em when they had no time
could be in some years tho' the writer of them had intended it which did not appear But they being only the present crude and private thoughts of a man for the exercise of his own understanding in his studies and never shewed to any or applied to any particular case could not fall under the Statute of 25 Ed. 3. which takes cognizance of no such matter and could not by construction be brought under it such matters being thereby reserved to the Parliament as is declared in the Proviso which he desired might be read but was refused Several important points of Law did hereupon emerge upon which your Petitioner knowing his own weakness did desire that Council might be heard or they might be referr'd to be found specially But all was over rul'd by the violence of the Lord Chief Justice and your Petitioner so frequently interrupted that the whole method of his Defence was broken and he not suffer'd to say the tenth part of what he could have alledged in his defence So the Jury was hurried into a Verdict they did not understand Now for as much as no man that is oppressed in England can have relief unless it be from your Majesty your Petitioner humbly prays that the Premises considered your Majesty would be pleased to admit him into your presence and if he doth not shew that 't is for your Majesties Interest and Honour to preserve him from the said oppression he will not complain tho' he be left to be destroy'd An Abstract of the Paper delivered to the Sheriffs on the Scaffold on Tower-Hill December 7. 1683. by Algernoon Sidney Esquire before his Execution FIRST having excused his not speaking as well because it was an Age that made Truth pass for Treason for the proof of which he instances his Trial and Condemnation and that the Ears of some present were too tender to hear it as because of the Rigour of the Season and his infirmities c. then after a short reflection upon the little said against him by other Witnesses and the little value that was to be put on the Lord Howard's testimony whom he charges with an infamous life and many palpable perjuries and to have been byassed only by the promise of pardon c. and makes even tho' he had been liable to no exceptions to have been but a single Witness He proceeds to answer the charge against him from the writings found in his Closet by the Kings Officers which were pretended but not Lawfully evidenced to be his and pretends to prove that had they been his they contained no condemnable matter but principles more safe both to Princes and People too than the pretended high-flown plea for Absolute Monarchy composed by Filmer against which they seemed to be levelled and which he says all intelligent men thought were founded on wicked Principles and such as were destructive both to Magistrates and People too Which he attempts to make out after this manner First says he if Filmer might publish to the World That Men were born under a necessary indispensable subjection to an Absolute King who could be restrained by no Oath c. whether he came to it by Creation Inheritance c. nay oâ— even by Usurpation why might he not publish his opinion to the contrary without the breach of any known Law which opinion he professes consisted in the following particulars 1. That God had left Nations at the liberty of Modelling their own Governments 2. That Magistrates were instituted for Nations and not Econtra 3. That the Right and Power of Magistrates was fixed by the standing Laws of each Country 4. That those Laws sworn to on both sides were the matter of a contract between the Magistrate and People and could not be broken without the danger of dissolving the whole Government 5. The Vsurpation could give no Right and that Kings had no greater Enemies than those who asserted that or were for stretching their Power beyond its Limits 6. That such Vsurpations commonly effecting the slaughter of the Reigning Person c. the worst of crimes was thereby most gloriously rewarded 7. That such Doctrines are more proper to stir up men to destroy Princes than all the passions that ever yet swayed the worst of them and that no Prince could be safe if his Murderers may hope such rewards and that few men would be so gentle as to spare the best Kings if by their destruction a wild Vsurper could become Gods Anointed whiâ—â— he says was the scope of that whole Treatise and asserts to be the Doctrine of the best Authors of all Nations Times and Religions and of the Scripture and so owned by the best and wisest Princes and particularly by Lewis 14 th of France in his Declaration against Spain Anno 1667. and by King James of England in his Speech to the Parliament 1603. and adds that if the writer had been mistaken he should have been fairly refuted but that no man was ever otherwise punished for such matters or any such things referred to a Jury c. That the Book was never finished c. nor ever seen by them whom he was charged to have endeavoured by it to draw into a Conspiracy That nothing in it was particularly or maliciously appplied to Time Place or Person but distorted to such a sense by Innuendo's as the Discourses of the expulsion of Tarquin c. and particularly of the Translation made of the Crown of France from one Race to another had been applied by the then Lawyer 's Innuendo's to the then King of England never considering adds he that if such Acts of State be not allowed good no Prince in the World has any title to his Crown and having by a short reflection shewn the ridiculousness of deriving absolute Monarchy from Patriarchal Power he appeals to all the World whether it would not be more advantagious to all Kings to own the derivation of their Power to the consent of willing Nations than to have no better title than force c. which may be over-powered But notwithstanding the Innocence and Loyalty of that Doctrine he says He was told he must die or the Plot must die and complains that in order to the destroying the best Protestants of England the Bench was fill'd with such as had been blemishes to the Bar and instances how against Laâ— they had advised with the King's Council about bringing him to Death suffer'd a Jury to be pack'd by the King's Sollicitors and the Vnder-Sheriff admitted Jury-men no Free-holders received Evidence not valid refus'd him a Copy of his Indictment or to suffer the Act of the 46 th of Ed. 3. to be read that allows it had over-ruled the most important Points of Law without hearing and assumed to themselves a Power to make Constructions of Treason tho' against Law Sense and Reason which the Stat. of the 25 th of Ed. 3. by which they pretended to Try Him was reserved only to the â—arliament and so praying God to forgive
was Originally instituted by God and this or that Form of it chosen and submitted to by Men for the Peace Happiness and Security of the Govern'd and not for the private Interest and personal Greatness of those that Rule So That Government hath always been esteemed the best where the Supream Magistrates have been invested with all the Power and Prerogatives that might capacitate them not only to preserve the People from Violence and Oppression but to promote their Prosperity And yet where nothing was to belong to them by the Rules of the Constitution that might enable them to injure and oppress them And it hath been the Glory of England above most other Nations that the Prince had all intrusted with him that was necessary either for the advancing the Wellfare of the People or for his own Protection in the discharge of his Office And withall stood so limited and restrained by the Fundamental Terms of the Constitution that without a Violation of his own Oath as well as the rules and measures of the Government he could do them no hurt or exercise any act of Authority but through the administration of such hands as stood obnoxious to be punished in case they transgressed So that according to the Primitive Frame of the Government the Prerogatives of the Crown and the Priviledges of the Subject are so far from justling one another that the Rights reserved unto the People tended to render the King Honourable and Great and the Prerogatives setled on the Prince were in order to the Subjects Protection and Safety But all humane things being Subject to perversion as well as decay it hath been the fate of the English Government to be often changed and wrested from what it was in the first settlement and institution And we are particularly compelled to say that all the boundaries of the Government have of late been broken and nothing left unattempted for turning our limited Monarchy into an absolute Tyranny For such hath been the transaction of Affairs within this Nation for several years last past that though the Protestant Religion and Liberties of the People were fenced and hedged about by as many Laws as the Wisdom of man could devise for their Preservation against Popery and Arbitrary Power our Religion hath been all along countermined by Popish Counsels and our Priviledges ravished from us by Fraud and Violence And more especially the whole Course and Series of the Life of the D. of Y. hath been but been one continued Conspiracy against the Reformed Religion and the Rights of the Nation For whosoever considers his contriving the Burning of London his instigating a Confederacy with France and a War with Holland his fomenting the Popish Plot and encouraging the Murther of Sir Ed. Godfrey to stifle it his charging Treason against Protestants and suborning Witnesses to swear the Patriots of our Religion and Liberties out of their Lives his hireing execrable Villains to Assassinate the late Earl of Essex and causing those others to be clandestinely cut off in hopes to conceal it his adviseing and procuring the Prorogation and Dissolution of Parliaments in order to prevent their looking into his Crimes and that he might escape the justice of the Nation Such can imagine nothing so black and horrid in it self or so ruinous and destructive to Religion and the Kingdom which we may not expect from him The very Tyrannies which he hath exercised since he snatched the Crown from his Brothers head do leave none under a possibility of flattering themselves with hopes of safety either in their Consciences Persons or Estates For in in defiance of all the Laws and Statutes of the Realm made for the security of the Reformed Protestant Religion he not only began his Reign with a bare-faced avowing himself of the Romish Religion but hath called in multitudes of Priests and Jesuits for whom the Law makes it Treason to come into this Kingdom and hath impowered them to exercise their Idolatries And besides his being daily present at the Worship of the Mass hath pubickly assisted at the greatest fopperies of their Superstition Neither hath he been more tender in trampling upon the Laws which concern our Properties seeing in two Proclamations whereof the one requires the Collecting of the Customs and the other the continuing that part of the Excise which was to â—xpire with the late Kings Death he hath violently and against all the Law of the Land broken in upon our Estates Neither is it any extenuation of his Tyranny that he is countenanced in it by an extrajudicial Opinion of seven or eight suborned and forsworn Judges but rather declaring the greatness and extent of the Conspiracy against our Rights and that there is no means feft for our relief but by Force of Arms For advancing those to the Bench that were the scandal of the Bar and Constituting those very Men to declare the Laws who were Accused and Branded in Parliament for Perverting them we are precluded all hopes of Justice in Westminster Hall And through packing together by False Returns new Illegal Charters and other corrupt means he doth at once deprive us of all expectations of Succour where our Ancestors were wont to find it and hopes to render that which ought to be the Peoples Fence against Tyranny and the Conservator of their Liberties the means of subverting all our Laws and of establishing of his Arbitrariness and confirming our thraldom So that unless we could be contented to see the Reformed Protestant Religion and such as profess it extirpated Popish Superstition and Idolatry established the Laws of the Land trampled under foot the Liberties and Rights of of the English People Subverted and all that is Sacred and Civil or of regard amongst men of Vertue or Piety Violated and unless we could be willing to be Slaves as well as Papists and forget the example of our noble and generous Ancestors who conveyed our Priviledges to us at the expence of their Blood and Treasure and withall be unmindful of our duty to God our Country and Posterity deaf to the Cries and Groans of our oppressed Friends and be satisfied not only to see them and our selves Imprisoned Robbed and Murthered but the Protestant Interest throughout the whole World betrayed to France and Rome We are bound as Men and Christians and that in discharge of our duty to God and our Country and for the satisfaction of the Protestant Nations round about us to betake our selves to Arms. Which we take Heaven and Earth to witness we should not havâ— done had not the malice of our Enemies depriveâ— us of all other means of redress and were not the Miseries that we already feel and those which do further threaten us worse than the Calamities of War And it is not for any personal Injuries or private Discontents nor in pursuance of any corrupt Interest that we take our Swords into our hands but for vindicating our Religion Laws and Rights and rescuing our Country from Ruin
shall sing Triumphing Songs With sweet Hallelujah Set up thy standerd and prepare War against Babylon For her destruction draweth near As here we read her doom Lord blow the Trumpet and awake The Nations round about â—tir up the spirit of the Medes Which did old Babel rout For Babel must drink of that Cup Which Sion deep did wound Jerusalem did first begin And so the Cup goes round But Babel must drink up the dregs Of Wrath which do remain With which no mixture she shall have To mitigate her pain For 't is the vengeance of our God And of his Temple too The vials that fill up his Wrath The three last Trumpets wo. When Jacob as a battle Ax In great Jehovah's hand Shall break down all those Mountains tall That in his way do stand O then let us Rejoyce because The time appointed is That Babel shall be seen to fall And Sion shine in Bliss Our Lord draws near as doth appear By Signs by him fore-told Then Virgins come meet your Bridegroom His Wondrous Works behold The Night grows dark ' be still and hark What is the Bridâ—grooms Voice That when the 〈◊〉 comes swiftly by It may your 〈◊〉 â—ejoyce Your light grows dim arise and trim Your Lamps from all their Soyl And see your Light shines clear and bright Supply'd with Gospel-Oyl Some Virgins now do Sleepy grow And don't their Vessels fill Nor fear a want when Oyl grows scant And none be found to sell. And at Mid-night all in a Fright Oyl-shops they cannot find And none will spare out of his share And so they are left behind Thus Foolish sleep in dangers deep And think their Lord delays But his own Bride â—ath surely spi'de Some of his Glorious Rays And will not sleep unless she keep Her Watch-lightâ— burning still With Oyl in store laid up therefore Let him come when he will And though her Garments had some rents And spots not perfect white Yet they 'll be cleans'd or quickly chang'd For Rayments of Delight With her Bridegroom she 〈◊〉 find room In Chambers of his Love When the Unwise he will deâ—pise And them from him remove The behaviour and dying words of Mr. Gatchill Executed at Taunton THE said Mr. Gatchill was a Constable of the Hundred he was surprized by a Party of the Dukes and shewed a Warrant to bring in Provisions and other Necessaries for the use of the Army which if he had not obeyed was threatned to have his House burnt so that he was obliged to do what he did for his own Preservation But this was not sufficient for being found Guilty he was Executed As he was drawn to Execution he looked on the People aâ—d said A Populous Town God bless it Just bâ—fore he was Executed he spake That the Crime he was Accused of and Condemned for was High Treason but he did not know himself to be Guilty of it and that what he did he was forced to do And further said I am so well known to you that I do verily believe you have Charity to think that what I speak is true As for the Niceties of the Law I do not well understand them And much more to the same effect he spake And so after Prayer with his suffering Brother Mr. Simon Hambling he was Executed There was also Executed at Taunton Mr. John Hucker a very worthy Gentlman of that Town He had some ill Friends in the Duke's Army that cast Aspersions on him as though he was the Person that was a Traytor to the Duke by firing a Pistol in Sedgmoor but I have strictly examined many on that Point and can find it to be nothing but the worst of an Enemies Malice to wound him after his Death in his Reputation which he always valued highly when living To be short he has left the Character amongst his Neighbours of an honest Man a good Christian and one that was true to the Interest of the Duke and Sealed it with his Blood The following Letter my Bookseller received from Mr. Robert Hucker now living in Taunton which I thought proper to print word for word than so my Reader may see what care I have taken to have all the Accounts I give concerning Mr. Hucker well attested Mr. Dunton Taunton Feb. 24 th 1691 2. LOoking over the Advertisements to the Athenian Mercury I found your intention of making some Additions to the Book called the Bloody Assizes and finding others that suffered with my Father their Relations have printed their Last Letters I have here sent you a Letter written by my Father but some hours before he was Executed the main reason why I consented to have it Printed was That persons mouths may be stopt from their false and lying Accusations he carried himself like a Christian under Confinement but when he came to look Death in the Face it was with so much Courage that it was to the Astonishment of the Beholders for there was many a weeping Eye amongst both Officers and Souldiers for him and those his Fellow-Sufferers I crave a Line from you of the Receipt of this with which you will oblige Sir Your unknown Friend and Servant ROBERT HUCKER Direct to me in Taunton Mr. John Huckers Letter to his Friend a little before his Execution I Was in hopes to have had liberty to speak a few words at the place of Execution till a few minutes since but now am persuaded the contrary Therefore excuse these abrupt-Lines I bless God I am now reconciled to this contemptible Death it was long ere I could but now God hath done it for me and I thankfully submit to it from the hands of the wise God whom I have offended And therefore desire to accept my punishment knowing he doth all things well without any wrong to his Creatures I had lately some Discourse with two Persons whereof one was of Quality concerning the things laid to my charge I was told that it was three things One was That I was an enemy to or against the Protestant Religion that I was troublesome and had acted vigorously in Elections of Members for Parliament and upheld the Meetings I own my self a Protestant and die an Asserter of that Religion and I pray God I do not prove a better Friend to it than those that have so industriously endeavoured the taking away my Life and that they see it not when it 's too late As to the Meetings I bless God I ever was at any of them and that I was any way instrumental to the upholding of them and am troubled that I have I fear sinfully deprived my self of them and do believe if ever the Ordinances of God were rightly administred and the Gospel effectually preached it was in those Meetings that were held in Taunton the Lord bless the Seed that was there sown As to Elections of Members for Parliament I judge it my Birthright and therefore was industrious in it but I hope never did I am surâ— never intended troublesomness to any in