Practices It is false that the Prince had given a Suspition of any Intention to make himself the Supreme Governour of the Vnited Provinces On the contrary he generally rejected all the occasions that were offered him to accept of that Dignity The King of France made him an Offer of Holland with full Sovereign Power and he refused it Anno. 1672. During the Consternation that these Countries were in by reason of the French Army the City of Amsterdam more then ordinary jealous of her Liberty consented to bestow on the Prince both the Rights and Title of Earl of Holland The Prince would by no means accept of it The States of Geldre having signified their Intentions to make him Duke of that Province he refused the offer and referred himself to the Opinion of the other Provinces The Low Countries have great reason sure to complain of the Prince's Government since the Year 1671. He found a Common-wealth oppressed under the Yoak of a Foreign Power having it's Bowels torn to pieces destitute of Arms destitute of Forts without Friends and without Allies and he accomplished his design by the most wise Conduct imaginable taking Possession of their Hearts beating back the Common Enemy by his Courage engaging all Europe in a Joynt Alliance which crushed all the French Designs Engaging the English Interest and causing the Treaty of Peace to be concluded at Breda He defended his Nation against all the pernicious Intrigues of the French Counsels he by his wise Conduct restored Trade to it's former Splendor and made it again to flourish It is now in the highest Esteem that ever any Common-wealth was in He was Umpire of the most Important Peace that has been concluded these hundred Years past which was made betwixt the two Crowns These are the great disorders that the Prince of Orange committed in the Republic and the truth is they are very great disorders in respect of France whose purpose is to reduce all her Neighbours into Confusion and Servitude for her own ends Now it is worth the knowing who this Famous Author is He is one whom France hath kept in Holland as a Spy and as an Incendiary He has not been idle during his Abode there he has not so much as omitted the most impertinent Occurrences that never passed the Frontiers of the State before and which were only the talk of the Mobile Such is the application of the Words of the Prophet Esay to the Birth of the Prince of Wales Before she was in pain she brought forth before she Travelled she was delivered of a Man Child See what he imputes to the Prince as a Crime and calls it a profanation of Holy Scripture to uphold his Pretences against the Prince of Wales He also justifies King James from the Accusation that is brought against him in the Prince's Declaration for having had a Design to suppress the Religion and overthrow the Laws of the Land He thinks in a moment to possess the Minds of Men with a Prejudice against the Prince as if his Expediâ—â—â—n could not have been undertaken for the Preservation of Religion as not being of the English perswasion but a Presbyterian He is obliged saith he according to the Calvinstical Doctrine to believe that all Ministers have equal Authority that Episcopacy is an unlucky Pillar of Papal and Antichristian Tyranny The Presbyterians destroyed the English Church banished the Prelates and abolished the Liturgy during the Common-wealth and behold a Presbyterian and an Army of Calvinists who pass into England to deliver the English Church which they have always look'd upon as Professing a false Religion Upon this Subject the Author shews what an able Man and great Divine he is he multiplies Words and idle Reflections We answer him in a Word that the English Church never Condemned the Presbyterians on this side of the Sea and never beheld their Religion as false She has only remonstrated the Extravagancies of the English Presbyterians and possibly iâ— that she is not much in the wrong The Presbyterians on this side the Sea in like manner never Condemn Episcopacy as an Appurtenance of Antichristianism The difference in Point of Government never hindred the English Protestants and those in these Parts from being ready to afford one another mutual Assistance as being of the same Religion Queen Elizabeth helped the Dutch and French Protestants King James did the same and which is more he sent his Divines and Bishops to the Synod of Dort which was otherwise all composed of Presbyterians that action alone is an undoubted proof of the Communion that the Bishops and Presbyterians maintained amongst themselves If the English Bishops have Assisted the Presbyterians on this side the Sea as their Brethren when they were like to be oppressed why may not the Presbyterians here with very good reason go and assist the English Church which they have always look'd upon to be a true Protestant Church Again this Author endeavours to prove first that the Late King of England in his suspending the Penal Laws had no other end but the Establishment of a perfect Tranquillity in his Kingdom taking from his Subjects all occasion of Persecuting one another upon the account of Religion This is the Old Song but all those who speak so are not in hopes to perswade others nor are they themselves perswaded of the Truth of this allegation They know very well and all the World is sensible of it that King James did extreamly hate the Presbyterians Independants and Anabaptists looking upon them as the Authors of his Father's death and as his own Enemies It is very well known that during all the time that he was Duke of York he did cruelly Persecute them to do the English Church a Pleasure thinking to be so much a gainer thereby as to do afterwards whatever he pleased It was not then in Favour of the Non Conformists his Sworn Enemies that he intended to repeal the Penal Laws it is notoriously known that it was never in his thoughts to take them away but for the sake of the Roman Catholics and that he included other Dissenters for no other end but to palliate his designs It is beyond all dispute King James II. of England was a great Enemy of Persecution He made his inclinations manifest whilst he was as yet Duke of York possibly it cannot be denied but that that King had a very great Zeal for his own Religion for this Author does him that great Honour as to avouch it He had consequently a passionate desire to Establish it in England Can this be denied if he acknowledge it for he must be destitute both of common sence and honour to deny it he must also own that all his Actions tended to that end if all his Actions tended to that end with better reason so important a one did such as was the suspension of the Penal Laws Can he deny it or can any Person do it for him It is therefore plain that he had a
well informed of the Affair for requiring that the business should be examined in Parliament He does not at all affirm that the Prince of Wales was supposititious he only demands an assurance of his Birth There is nothing more just and natural At that time his Majesty had not as yet seen the depositions which James II. caused to be taken thereupon but if he had seen them they were not capable of affording him any assurance for first there were none almost found amongst the Witnesses but such as were suspected Persons Officers Pensioners and the Kings Domestic Servants Secondly all that the Queen Dowager the most part of the Lords and Ladies said may be true and yet the Child that was Born not be Born of the Queen for the Assistants who are at the Beds Feet and in a Corner of the Chamber know not what is laid in the Bed nor whence it came which is taken out of it In the last place the depositions that were taken in the Kings presence are for that very reason altogether invalid and insufficient This is a ground good enough for what the Prince says in his Declaration which is the most plain and the most modest imaginable That there are great Presumptions that oblige us to believe that these Evil Counsellors for promoting their own pernicious designs and for gaining of time to execute them spread a report that the Queen was delivered of a Son that during this pretended bigness of the Queen as well as in the circumstance of the Birth and the methods that were used for the management of it there appeared so many just and visible suspitions that the pretended Prince of Wales was not brought into the World by the Queen There could no less be said upon so important a subject King James ought to justify himself from this in the face of the World are not Princes to take care of their Reputation Is it not this that secures them How could King James think to be free from being insulted over by a Nation which looked upon him as a Master of Intrigue and Audacity and as an unnatural Father and Prince And there is no Prince in the World against whom we can more reasonably conceive this suspition he who runs a risque of losing three Crowns and at last did really lose them for his Religion does in effect shew that he had it and that he was not like his Predecessor who had none but likewise the same thing gives us to understand that he could venture all other things for the sake of his Religion for Men of the World who dare run a risque of losing their Crowns to compass their ends may very well venture their Reputation the Blood of their Subjects and all things else to satisfy their own humour Indeed the rest of his Conduct made it appear that he was capable of sacrificing all even to his conscience for the sake of his Religion His Majesties moderation having sufficiently appeared in his Conduct in the forementioned Passages there follows some instances of His Majesties Justice in his late expedition who as has been said Acted first as the Presumptive Heir of the Crown at least under the Title of his Royal Consort and that in this quality he justly proviâ—ed for the security of the Kingdom which was to descend to him one day He hindered the subversion of the Laws and Religion and justly though it had been in opposition to his own Father if James II. had been such I have proved that a Son and Heir of a Kingdom is obliged by his own interest by that of the People and by what he owes to God to oppose a Father who brings the Realm to imminent ruin and reduces the Religion to a State of Desolation Secondly his present Majesty did bear the Character of an Enemy not to King James not to the Nation but to the Tools his Father-in-Law made use of for the overthrow of Religion and the Laws He passed not into the Kingdom forcibly as the General of the Dutch Army He entered in his own Name to Declare War against the Enemies of the Kingdom and of the Protestant Religion who had raised an Army for the subversion of the Laws and of the Church Thus by the Laws of a just War if ever there was one such he could summon his Enemies to lay down their Arms to yield themselves for avoiding the Effusion of Blood he could demand assistance and Military Aid from all those who loved their Liberty and Religion When a King is become the Enemy of the State of the Laws and of God there is nothing then owing to him and James II. was such a one We come to another thing viz. That which King William III. did at his first Arrival in England His design being lawful and just viz. for setting up a Standard for Liberty and Declaring War against the Enemies of Religion and of the Laws he was obliged to do whatever tended to that end It was no Usurpation of the Royal Authority It is a circumstance the nature of which does depend on the ground on which the Expedition was founded and therefore upon the plainest reason we may see who is in the right and who is in the wrong in this matter As to the Refusal of the Mayor and the Clergy of Exeter to execute the Prince's Orders for acknowledging him and opening their Churches this is of no advantage to the contrary Party nor does contribute any wise either to the Honour or Disgrace of the Magistrates and Clergy of that City but this reflects on James II. for that Reservedness was an effect of the dreadful consternation that they were in and which was occasioned by the Calamities that King James had brought upon that and other Countries in the West after the Duke of Monmouth's defeat The Trees and the Ways were as yet generally covered with the dead Bodies of those poor Creatures who were made Sacrifices to the most cruel Rage that ever was exercised It was judged sufficient that the Magistrates and the Canons of Exeter were held under that Fear for so soon as they saw themselves secure by the Arrival of the Princes Forces they expressed their joy by such transcendent marks that evidenced the transport they were in yet they did not cease too pray to God for King James till the Convention gave order concerning it The Prince of Orange did not Act as a King at his first Arrival We have not heard that he seized any part of the Royal Revenue and it is not but that he had just cause enough so to do For those who managed the King and tyranized over the Kingdom did convert the same to pernicious Uses for the oppression of Liberty and Religion he might very well without Injustice take it out of their hands There follows now a Narrative of what the Lords Hallifax Nottingham and Godolphin said to the Prince in Pursuance of the Commission that they had from James II. and of the
in the hands of Papists It is true that when any one presumed to speak publickly of Religion he was put from his Pulpit if not from his Benefice It is true that when the Bishops refused to read the King's Declaration of Liberty of Conscience to Roman Catholicks under the Name of Dissenters they were sent to the Tower But to what purpose is all this they were alive still they Preached they had Pulpits and Churches whereas in France there was no such thing to be seen I but there was always reason to believe that King James who was so true a Friend to Lewis XIV and zealously bent on the same courses in agreement with him would in time push on things to such an issue to take effect in his own or his Successours days whom he was setting up as has already fallen out in France They were afraid of it I say and they had reason for the Popish Religion is a most insatiable Monster an implacable Enemy If it be allowed but room for one foot it will quickly usurp an entire Possession of all It makes profession of admitting no Partnership and of suffering no Rivals The English had forgot this Truth I know not how and suffered a Popish Prince to ascend the Throne The Cause of James II. his Misfortunes is to be looked for in the conduct of the French King It is he and he only that was the Cause thereof The English must of necessity have been very fast asleep not to awaken at the Cries of the infinite Numbers of miserable Creatures who went to carry their Afflictions and their Complaints to the Ears of the English Nation and who without speaking did pathetically express the meaning and weight of this important Advice Learn to have a care of Tyrants and Kings that are possessed by Jesuits The defence for King James is destined against King William Prince of Orange The Religion established by Law was entire and therefore his present Majesty as the Man reasons could have no just cause for passing into England Besides the Author endeavours to strengthen his Argument by the measures His Majesty took in Holland a Country where he had signalized himself more frequently than in England where he made it be blown about as this man says that his Father in Law was about to suspend the Penal Laws There are certainly Penal Laws in Holland against the Roman Catholicks but it is as certain saith he that the wisest Magistrates did judge that it was the Interest of the Republick to suspend their execution especially in the Province of Holland which is the most considerable amongst them God be praised for it You may now at last take notice of a publick confession that is express and in print That the Roman Catholicks are not persecuted in Holland Thus both Mr. Arnauld and all the Apologists for the French Persecution who were so bold as to complain of the Persecutions that their Church suffered in the Low Countries are declared to be Slanderers Note this well for these Gentlemen will say the contrary the very next day because they always speak according to their Interest but here it is their Interest to confess the truth that they may be in a capacity to conclude that the City of Amsterdam that of Rotterdam and that of Harlem had Power to suspend the Penal Laws that a King who is a Sovereign Prince can do as much as a particular City That if the Dutch without betraying their Religion might do this we have no reason to complain of a Catholick who was willing to shew the same gentleness to those of his own Religion as a Protestant Common-wealth does It is necessary that King William himself be concerned in the Proof He had a very great Number of Catholicks in his Guards and likewise amongst his Domestick Servants It is not then an Argument of Religion saith he that he does charge it as a Crime upon his Father-in-Law that being himself a Catholick he did suffer the Catholick Religion to be exercised within his Dominions Our Author is not ill to please his Premises are false throughout and his Conclusion is very bad He supposes that the Prince of Orange would answer thus that his Father-in-Law permitted the Exercise of the Roman Religion in England as it is in Holland this is false Mijn Heer Fagel's Letter was Penned to shew the contrary to King James The Prince does agree that such Penal Laws should be repealed which might endanger the Lives of the Priests and might ensnare the Conscience He does allow that the Papists be tolerated in England as they are in Holland He does again suppose falsly that King James had granted nothing to the English Papists but what the Dutch had granted to the Romish Religion in their Countries It is Impudence without Example to affirm this It is notoriously known that the toleration of Papists in Holland is not established by any Law nor by any Decree suspending the Laws It is well known that the Papists have not entred into any Office of Justice and of the Government of the State they are only admitted into Military Employs but King James was for receiving them into all the Offices of the Kingdom and not only for suspending the Execution of the Penal Laws by a tacite Toleration of Religion as it is in Holland but by an express Cessation of the Laws themselves In the third Place he does falsly suppose that the King of England has the same Power with respect to Religion that the States of Holland have in their Country This is not so the States of Holland are Sovereign and Absolute in their Provinces without limitation for it is they who make Laws but the King of England makes no Laws but with the joynt Assent and Authority of Parliament and can change nothing in such as concern Religion any more than he can do in other Laws without the Parliament Lastly He is infinitely mistaken when he compares the Quality of the Toleration of the Popish Religion that is admitted in Holland to that which he would have established in England because in Holland the Sovereign Authority is Protestant and in England the Sovereign Authority was Popish There is a very great difference betwixt having Popish Subjects and Servants and having Popish Masters The States of Holland are very well content to have Popish Subjects and the Prince will admit Popish Servants but they would not have Masters of that Religion This was designed to be done in England Their Great Master was a Papist and that Master endeavoured that all others should become so And so it does not follow from the Prince's Goodness in admitting of Papists amongst his Servants that he ought to suffer that his Father-in-Law should commit the Offices and Places of Trust within the Kingdom into the hands of Papists The words also of Popery and Papists used in his present Majesty's Declaration are not pleasing to our Opponent That Man ought to have known that those Words
are used in the English Laws and the Publick Records of the Kingdom when they speak of the Roman Religion and of those who profess it as in France we are called the pretended Reformed in the Edicts and Public Ordinances this Name is no more honourable for us than that of Papists for them who call themselves Catholicks But he likewise takes exception at this Expression To introduce Popery into three Kingdoms On which he spends a great Article to prove that nothing can be worse express'd that the business is not about introducing the Catholick Religion into three Kingdoms where it always was and where it is still And here he falls on Controversie to prove that the Roman Religion is the Ancient Religion that ours is an Innovation that is without Mission and without Miracles Must he not be very destitute of Judgment to shew himself so mightily pedantick on a Subject that is purely politick Is it not hereby very manifest that he loves to leave the Point and take occasion of one Word upon which he may exercise his talent by making thereupon a common-place To answer in good earnest Reflections that are so impertinent would argue one to be Master of as little sense as he is who makes them The Grievances of the Prince and of the English which they owed to James II. had not only a respect to the Violation of the Laws of the Land but to the Subversion of Religion Yet our Author has so much insisted on the point and spent so much breath on the head of Religion in such a declamatory method and with such vigorous efforts that he has left very little more to say in the justification of his Hero as to Affairs of State and therefore he has but one word concerning it and only touches upon one of the Articles that the Prince has expressed in his Declaration and that is that the Liberty that King James gave of placing Popish Judges on the Bench reduced the Estates and Fortunes of the Subjects to an uncertainty that was extremely irksom because the Sentences pronounced by the Judges who were not legal are reputed to be null and void tho' they were never so just Thus those who lose the Suit seeing themselves lye under the sentence of incompetent Judges will be sure not to let slip the first opportunity that shall present it self for their relief against that Judgment which would bring the Estates and Fortunes of private persons into an eternal uncertainty In opposition to this our Author pretends to plead endeavouring to make it appear that tho' the King should make a Judge illegally the Judge should nevertheless have a legal authority to give judgment and that the Sentence that is pronounced by him is without all question valid and binding for confirmation of which he cites the Law Barbarius Philippus by which it appeared that a Slave having obtained the Pretorship by surprize it was judged that his Determinations were not to be questioned It belongs to the English properly to make answer to this The Law Barbarius Philippus is a Rule of Prudence which neither amounts to a Natural Right nor a Necessary Law Naturally Acts done by a Subject who is incapable of bearing certain Characters are invalid All the Ordinances given by a Tyrant and Usurper are null and void as soon as ever the Tyrant is put from the Helm If a Turk should usurp the Papal Chair or turn Priest all the Oaths that should be administred by him would be manifestly void In like manner all the Sentences given by one who is incapable of being a Judge and whom the Law barrs from sitting on the Bench are naturally of no force If the Sovereign in consideration of the consequence and to avoid trouble is pleased to continue them it is in his power so to do and they shall bind but it is absolutely necessary that the pleasure of the Sovereign intervene in this case for giving force to such Judgments The Law Barbarius makes this easily appear If the English had any Law that could give a validity to Judgments and Decrees of a Judge tho' he were made so contrary to the Laws it is true that the Sentences given by Popish Judges might remain in force but it is so far from being so that on the contrary it is manifestly true the English have Laws according to which every Sentence past by Judges appointed against Law ought to be revised We are not to spend all our thoughts on these smaller matters and neglect so many Grievances and Complaints of the Nations against the Government of James II. Is it nothing for example that he usurped a power of dispensing with the Laws Is it nothing that he made himself an Absolute Sovereign and exercised Arbitrary Power Of what use are the Laws if it be in the Prince's power to suspend them by hindring their execution whenever he pleases and acting directly contrary to what the Laws ordain If it were thus I would rather now chuse to live at Paris or Constantinople than at London and be subject to Lewis XIV or Mahomet than to the Government of a King of England The Authority of the Judges of the Kings-Bench who were generally of opinion that the Dispensing Power was annexed to the Crown is not sufficient For it is well known who those Judges were that most of them were Papists and by some means or other those that were not were brought over to joyn with the rest Can it be thought that a few ill Men who betrayed their Country and sold their Liberties should be the Sovereign Disposers of the Interest of such a Vast Number of People Is it nothing that the King of England prevailing over the weakness of the Kingdom of Scotland had a considerable success in the design of making himself Absolute Sovereign having in his Declarations used a Style that is more Despotick than that of the Grand Seignior affecting to insert therein almost in every Period the Terms We Will We Command of Full Power of Absolute Power Have we not seen this with our Eyes Is it nothing that all the Charters and Priviledges were taken from the English Cities and Corporations and particularly from the City of London by horrible Violences and unjust Procedures to the end that the King might be in a capacity to fill up the vacancies of Offices and Places of Trust with Court-Slaves and Enemies of the Protestant Religion Is it nothing that the Bishops who are Peers of the Realm were imprisoned against all sort of Law only because they were so bold as to make a most humble Address to the King by way of Remonstrance against his Ordinance Where are there any Monarchical States in which it is not permitted to make such Remonstrances to their Sovereign Is it nothing to threaten all the Judges of the Kingdom with the loss of their Places and actually to deprive them thereof upon their not consenting to repeal a fundamental Law of the Land Is it
that Purpose The Supream Law does always interpret all other Laws and make exceptions therein And that Law is The Safety and Preservation of the People according to which Law we ought to explain or limit that Law which says The Parliament can do nothing without the King's consent When the King and the People are opposite the Parliament is Judge But a Judge does not stand in need of the Consent of either of the Parties to give force to the Sentence that is pronounced When the Parliament and the King are agreed for the Preservation of Religion and of the Society in that Case alone it is that one can do nothing without the other To make this Truth manifest we need only invert the Position and say the King can do nothing without the Parliament does it therefore follow that if a Parliament is so head-strong as to render all the Laws of no effect and to ruine the Nation a King of England may not lawfully oppose them and bring the Parliament within its due limits He may do it without all doubt in like manner a Parliament may lawfully provide for the Security of the Nation contrary to the King's Pleasure My Author goes back to the Prince's Declaration alledging it to be filled with sanguinary Orders And what are those sanguinary Orders They are such Clauses of the Prince's Declaration which appeared to him to carry the greatest force in them In one place he calls those who have betrayed their Religion and subverted the Laws of their Country Execrable Offenders who have justly deserved Death In another place He declares that all Papists who shall be found with Arms in their Hands or concealed in their Houses about their Persons or otherwise or who shall be in any Civil or Military Employment under any Pretence whatsoever shall receive no Quarter from his Army but be treated as High-way Men and Banditti by his Souldiers In a third place the Prince does say That they who shall take Arms under any Popish Officer and march under his Command shall be considered as Complices in their Crimes and Enemies to the Laws and to their Country And lastly William of Nassaw saith elsewhere That those Magistrates and other Persons who shall refuse to assist him and in Obedience to the Laws to perform strictly whatever he does require of them c. shall be looked upon as the Greatest Offenders and the most infamous of all Men as Traytors to their Religion to their Laws and to their Country and that he will not fail to treat them accordingly The Truth is we cannot tell if this Man is yet in his right Wits or rather if he is not one of those Bedlams who are tied to prevent the Effects of their Rage Miserable Soul Are these the Marks by which the Cruelty or Clemency of Princes is to be judged Are they not rather Innocent Stratagems by which they strike Terror that no ill may ensue Is not preventing of Resistance a proper means to hinder the Effusion of Blood Is there any Necessity that all such Threatnings should be accomplished How many Commanders and Generals have threatned the Cities which they besieged that they would abandon them to the Fury of the Souldiers if they would not surrender to which nevertheless they afterwards proposed favourable Conditions for a Treaty Let us trace the Footsteps of this Prince Are they marked with Blood What Persons has he put to death Is there any Man who has lost so much as a Nail of his Finger We know that the Papists that are in London and particularly the French talk with an unparallell'd Insolence The Parliament knows it the King is informed of it and hinders the Severities of Justice from taking hold of the Offenders The Ambassadors of the Emperor and of the King of Spain see it they acknowledge it they declare to His Majesty the grateful Sense they have of his Clemency and they inform their Masters of it But it may be said the Prince ought not to have denounced those terrible Menaces If it were so that he ought not to have uttered those Threats it would not have been the Effect of his Cruelty It is in Actions and not in Words that Men look for Blood and Cruelty Besides that the Prince had good reason to speak as he did if he had just cause to do what he did If he was in the wrong upon the matter he was to be blamed in every Circumstance but if he was justifiable in the main he was justifiable in the whole Affair For these are the ordinary Measures taken by Conquerors and Generals in just Wars They utter Threats they impress Fear and strike with Terror they likewise chastise those who yield not themselves upon such Manifesto's Those Traytors who in favor to the King had betrayed their Country Religion and Laws deserved to be called Execrable by the Prince and deserved all the Evils with which he threatned them yet without any design of their Accomplishment as it appeared by the Event He commanded the Papists upon Pain of Death to lay down their Arms. That had been good if after he had declared War against Popery upon his entring the Kingdom he had suffered the Papists to meet together and form a Body against him He declares that it was neither strictly the Persons of Papists nay nor their Religion that he had in his view but that he was resolved to oppose their Attempts by which they endeavoured to destroy the Religion established by Law Must he not then have been permitted to deprive them of their Arms at least seeing he left them their Life Property and Liberty of Conscience The Man complains loudly that the Prince in his Declaration sounds his Order for the Papists laying down their Arms upon their Meeting about London and Westminster with a barbarous Design of making some attempt upon the said Cities either by Fire or a Massacre or by both together He must certainly be very much in the wrong who suspects Papists and Popery of such Attempts they are very little acquainted with them St. Bartholomew's Massacre and many others committed in France The Murders a hundred times attempted upon the person of Queen Elizabeth and committed upon those of Henry the Third and Henry the Fourth The Assassination of William Prince of Orange The Gunpowder Plot for blowing up the Two Houses of Parliament in the beginning of the Reign of James the First The Burning of London The Assassination of Justice Godfrey The Death of the Earl of Essex by a Rasour And that of King Charles the Second by Poyson with a Hundred other Enterprizes of this nature make it appear that we commit an outragious violence against Popery if we believe that she is capable of inspiring the blackest Designs Now by this time the Man who has opposed the current of this present Narrative thus far begins to vomit torrents of Choler and accumulates Injuries upon Outrages The Wretch is a Monstrous Exception out of every Rule and particularly out of this One That Men without Judgment are ordinarily endowed with a good Memory He talks like a Mad-man without Judgment and also without Memory He has forgot where and the person for whom he speaks He speaks in France and he speaks for James the Second It is a mark of great judgment to look for Cruelty out of France and to accuse a Foreign Prince thereof whil'st he lives under the most cruel Government that has been in Europe for these many Ages A Government under which a Thousand Cruelties have been committed upon the Protestants to make them abjure their Religion They abandoned them their Honor and their Life to the Insolence of the Soldiers They tormented them by night and day they burnt they rack'd they tortured them The resolutions of many were shaken by the cruel torments that were used They massacred and burnt and tore many in pieces alive They left infinite numbers of People to perish in frightful Prisons and in unspeakable Miseries They snatch'd the Children from their Mothers the Husbands from their Wives the Wives from their Husbands Friends from Friends to send them away to perish in the American Islands in a direful Exile and horrible Miseries When King William shall have done so much against the English Catholicks we will agree that they abdicate the Notion of his Royal Clemency A Government moreover of whose Cruelty Foreign Nations have been sensible which has not spared either the Honor the Possessions or the Lives of their Allies and Neighbours which has reduced into Ashes the most Beautiful Cities of Flanders and Italy and which carries Horror and Desolation whithersoever she carries her Arms. These are the Men who accuse our Princes of Severity Get you gone then you Infamous Man Go and read Lectures of Clemency to your own Masters before you charge ours with Cruelty Take notice also for whom it is that you speak You speak for a Prince who alone has spilt more Blood by the hand of the Executioner than Twenty of his Ancestors have done together After the defeat of the Duke of Monmouth he sent a Monster of Injustice and Cruelty into the West of England He caused to Hang and Quarter more than two thousand persons in those Counties An Example of horrible Cruelty and which possibly cannot be parallel'd in History In the most Criminal Rebellions the Heads are punished and the Multitude is pardoned But he was for cutting off both Leaders and People and burying them under the same ruins You speak for a Prince who is suspected to have his hands stained with his Brother's Blood and to have dipt them in that of the Earl of Essex You ought to have let these Ideas of Horror sleep and engage those who wish him well not to awaken them and expose them to the view of England This Infamous Libeller acts the Prophet too and has found by an Astrological Scheme of his own that the Prosperity of His Majesty of King William will not last long but the Event without doubt will give this Prophet the Lie God by the continuance of his Favours and Blessings will justifie the Conduct of His Anointed and of His Servant and make Him Victorious in spite of all the Efforts of Calumny and the Machinations of his Enemies FINIS