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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48238	A letter to the three absolvers, Mr. Cook, Mr. Collier and Mr. Snett being reflections on the papers delivered by Sir John Friend, and Sir William Parkyns, to the sheriffs of London and Middlesex, at Tyburn, the place of execution, April 3, 1696, which said papers are printed at length, and answered paragraph by paragraph.	Friend, John, Sir, d. 1696.; Parkyns, William, Sir, 1649?-1696.	1696 (1696)	Wing L1751; ESTC R4716	20,332	16

of the thing and to be plain with you Gentlemen there's-no body so much concerned to say Amen to Sir Johns Prayer that God would forgive those who had been Instrumental or Accessary to the taking away of his Life as your selves and those of your kidney who inspir'd him with such Principles as brought him to this hard fate PAPER I profess my self and I thank God I am so a Member of the Church of England tho God knows a most unworthy and profitable part of it of that Church which suffers so much at present for a strict adherence to Loyalty the Laws and Christian Principles For this I suffer and for this I die ANSWER Gentlemen I do verily believe that there 's no Christian Church of what Denomination soever that would be fond of such a Member as you have made Sir John appear to be and in the mean time you have done that which you call your Church the greatest Injury in the World for some people were apt to be Charitable to the Nonjurant party as thinking that they might have really scrupled the taking the Oaths from a principle of Conscience but if it be true as you make Sir John say that it is your Church he suffered and died for then its plain that your Church is engaged in a Rebellious design to Dethrone his Majesty and to invade his Dominions with a French Popish Army so that by Consequence all true Protestants must look upon you as a Synagogue of Satan and no Christian Church because you are actually in a Confederacy with the Turk and French King the Sworn Enemies of the Christian and Protestant Religion and endeavour to assist the latter at least as much as in you lies to overthrow the Protestant Interest in Europe for so much and no less is the Language of your practice whatever you may pretend otherwise in your ordinary Cant. As to that Arrogant part of your Martyrs Paper that your Church suffers so much at present for a strict adherence to Loyalty the Laws and Christian Principles It is truely Extraordinary that such an handful of Men as your party is should take upon them to determine Loyalty Laws and Christian Principles contrary to the sense of the Legislative power of the Nation the National Church and indeed the greatest part of Christians in the World methinks that the very consideration of this should have obliged you to suspend your Judgment at least till you had fairly examin'd what the far greater part of your Protestant Brethren have to say in defence of their Loyalty and Christianity certainly if their practise be compair'd with the practise of your selves and your adherents you will find that they have as fair a Title to Piety Loyalty and every thing else that is good as you can possibly have and would be as loath to offend God and their own Consciences as you would be and therefore you cannot be the only party with whom Loyalty and Christianity is to be found Do but cast an Eye on the practise of your followers and you will find that they are generally the worst and most Immoral people of both Sexes and then if you consider your fellows and associates you will find them to be Turks and either English or French Catholicks who are the very worst of Papists and that their design is the subversion of our Laws and Religion And seeing you pretend to be Men of Conscience examine the matter seriously betwixt God and your own Souls whether or not the Voice of his word and providence does not call on you to come out of Babylon and not to joyn Issue and Interest with her If you have any sense of the Religion which you profess or any Remembrance of things past do but reflect upon the Danger which all the Protestants in Europe and particularly those of Britain and Ireland did apprehend their Religion to be in when Lewis XIV was swallowing up his Neighbouring Princes and States without Controll and when James the Second sat upon the English Throne supported by a Numerous Army under the Conduct of Popish Officers Look back upon the Language of the Church of England then when her Bishops were Imprisoned her Universities in danger of being filled with Papists and the Laws which Defended her overturned by an Illegal Dispensing Power and Answer from your Consciences whether you think a Design to Reinthrone K. James who will certainly pursue the same Measures can be the Cause of God and Religion Or in short take it into your serious Consideration whether a Question of State and meer Politicks such as this is Whether the Parliament or People of England can set another Prince upon the Throne instead of one who did actually leave it because he could not be suffered peaceably to overturn our Laws and Religion can properly be called the Cause of God and Religion and whether you or the Convention and Parliament are the best Judges of our Civil Constitution or because you are high Pretenders to Religion Answer Bona Fide How you can Reconcile your Principles and Practice with the Injunction of the Apostle who Commands Subjection to the Powers that be Rom. 13. 1. and Submission to every Ordinance of Man for the Lords Sake whether it be unto the King as Supream or unto Governors as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers and for the praise of them that do well 1 Pet. 2. 13 Call your Consciences to an account before God and Examine Whether the Sufferings of that which you call your Church be not as busie Bodies in other Mens matters and whether it be yours or the Parliaments Business to determine whether the late K. James did Abdicate or not and whether His present Majesty has a good Title to the Crown by our Laws or not and don 't entitle your particular Notions about Civil Government which is none of your Province the Cause of God and Religion to ensnare silly weak People and bring them to the Gallows and to Embroil Nations in Foreign and Intestine Wars as you would not be answerable for all the Blood that has been or may be shed on that account Magistracy is God's Appointment but the Species as well as Persons intrusted are Ordinances of Men else it were unlawful for any Christian to be subject to a Republick or a King chosen by the People as in Poland c. and the Apostles Rule to submit our selves unto the King as Supream or unto Governors should be false which no Man in his right Wits will assert And considering the Instability of the Roman Government at the time when this Injunction was given viz. when Emperors were set up and cast down as the Army and the Senate or sometimes as the one and sometimes as the other thought fit we shall find that it s none of our part as private Christians to meddle with the Decision of those Affairs but to submit unto that which the Nation thinks fit to

Acquiesce in especially in a Case so clear as ours when the Prince exceeded the Boundaries of his Commission both from God and Man endeavoured the Subversion of our Laws and Religion the Destruction of the Good and the Incouragement of the Bad things Diametrically opposite to the End of Magistracy And this I think enough to make it evident that the Church for which you make Sir John Friend to have been a Martyr and a Sufferer is none of that Church which was built upon the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles and that by consequence it 's no Sin to be a Separatist from it PAPER Though I have a perfect Charity for People of all Pr●fessions and do heartily wish Well and would endeavour so to do to all my Fellow Subjects of what Perswasions so ever and indeed I have met with a great deal of Vprightness and Sincerity among some People of very different Opinions in Religious Matters And I hope and desire it may not be taken as an Vncharitable Censure or undue Reflection That I objected to the Legality of Popish Evidence being advis'd so to do for my better Security upon the Foundation of a Statute Law ANSWER Charity is better manifested by Actions than Words and truly Gentlemen you will have much ado to perswade the World that there can be any thing of Charity in your Design and Sir John's to involve your Protestant Brethren in Three Nations in Blood and Ruine and to endanger the Protestant Interest all over Europe by countenancing a French Invasion And if it were not Ignoble to rake into the Actions of the Dead there are many of your Martyr's Actions which might be instanced that favoured nothing of perfect Charity But the design of this part of the Paper is obvious viz. That you and your Martyr may do all that you can to conciliate the good opinion of the Papists whom you and he are so very careful not to offend that he must die with an Apology to them in his Mouth but it seems it was not worth either of your whiles to make the least Apology for the offence which he had given to God and the Professors of the same Religion with himself by concealing the design of the horrid Assassination which his own Conscience told him was so great a Crime that he was very careful of having himself not so much as thought to be concerned in it but this I suppose he thought could be washt off by your Cheating Absolution and truely it had been more for the credit of your Cause to let this Apology alone too and put it upon the same score for it only aggravates his own Guilt and that of your party for if he had been a Man of any manner of Conscience he could not have reflected so in open Court upon the Religion of a Prince whose Restitution he esteem'd the Cause of God and Religion and if he did really believe what he said in his Defence That Papists think they Merit Heaven by destroying Protestants his Conscience must needs have told him if he was really a Protestant that it could not then be his duty to endeavour the Restitution of such a Prince who thought such a Work Meritorious and had indeed acted as if he did firmly believe so both before and after his Coming to the Throne which is certainly inconsistent with the very end of Government as well as with the Coronation-Oath by which he was Sworn to Govern us But notwithstanding all the precaution you have taken to have it thought that those Principles are only an Uncharitable Imputation upon the Papists that Character will cleave to them as being founded upon better ground than your Martyrs Assertion which considered in its self is indeed none at all so that his Vindication of 'em is of as little weight as 't was possible for the Vindication of any Man to be PAPER Having own'd my self a Member of the Church of England I must take this Opportunity and I do it for God's Glory to apply my self to you that are Royalists of that Church and of the same Faith and Principles with my self And I beg of you for God's sake and the love of your Souls to be very constant and serious in all Religious Offices and holy Duties of Divine Worship and Service which I have too much neglected as I own to my great Sorrow Let no Excuse no Dangers prevent or hinder you in these most necessary and serious Matters and be I beseech you very careful and circumspect in all your Actions Behaviour and Conversation as I earnestly exhorted all that came to me ANSWER This is a piece of extraordinary application and concerns the Honour of the Church of England so much that surely the Governing part of it are obliged to think of a Grateful Reward to the Absolvers for telling the World that those of the Church of England are Divided in their Faith and Principles for it seems some of them are of Sir John Friends Faith and Principles and others are not Sir John's Faith we have heard is that to Restore K. James by a Popish French Army is the Cause of God and Religion and in truth if there be any part of the Church of England of his Mind they must be the Children of the Bond-woman and are fitter to be sent to the Wilderness then entertain'd in the Bosom of the Church Your Martyr in stead of Royalists should have plainly said Jacobites seeing others are for Kingly Government as well as your Party But this is not the only thing wherein his partiality appears for as he will allow none but Jacobites the Name of Royallists so he Addresses his Exhortation to none but them which is no great Argument of his Perfect Charity but the Matter I suppose would not bear it for we must understand this Exhortation to be a Perswasive to Jacobite Conventicles there being now no danger to hinder any Man's performance of Divine Duty and Worship except Sir John understood those Unlawful Meetings and no others to be such For the other part of his Exhortation I shall only say That your Martyr ought to have given better Satisfaction of his own Repentance before he could reasonably suppose that his Exhortation could have any weight upon others PAPER I have I thank God a great deal of Satisfaction in my present Sufferings and have found it so ever since I have been under them And blessed be God it doth continually increase upon me And I do now lay down my Life with all Chearfulness and Resignation in sure and certain Hope of a Resurrection to Eternal Life through our Lord Jesus Christ through whose Merits alone I hope for the Pardon of my Sins and the Salvation of my Soul ANSWER Gentlemen I cannot but express my apprehensions of your Gross Hypocrisie in this last Article And I am confident that it will appear very evident by the following Reflections Don't you know that your Martyr did not only disown but in a manner

have forgot that threatning of our Saviour that he will deny them before his Father and his Angels who deny him before Men otherwise you durst never have offered to Absolve Sir John Friend all his Sins without a Publick Repentance for his Publick Denial of that which to you and him is the Cause of God and Religion You make Sir John to say in the next place PAPER The cause I am brought hither to suffer for I do firmly believe to be the Cause of God and true Religion and to the best and utmost of my Knowledg and Information agreeable to the Laws of the Land which I have evermore heard do require a firm Duty and Allegiance to our Soveraign and that as no Forreign so neither any Domestick Power can alienate our Allegiance ANSWER Now Gentlemen It is manifest that the Cause for which Sir John suffered was his accepting of a Collonels Commission from the late King his agreeing to invite him over with a French Popish Army his Promising to Joyn him with two Hundred Horse for his own Part chusing inferiour Officers for his own Regiment and paying out Mony for their subsistance and therefore if Sir John did firmly believe that this Cause and the Cause of God and Religion were one and the same it was plainly that which Divines call Casus Confessionis wherein all good Christians cannot without Horrour do any otherwise than Answer in the Affirmative so that instead of his shameful denial of the thing and solemn Protestations of his Innocence as to the matters charg'd upon him he ought to have own'd it in the Face of the Court and to have told them boldly with the Heroick Courage of the Primitive Christians that he did firmly believe it to be the Cause of God and Religion whereof he stood Indicted and that he rejoyced to be counted worthy to suffer for the same But Gentlemen we shall come yet closer to the Point and make it Evident that both you and your pretended Martyr have basely betray'd that which you call the Cause of God and Religion Sir John at his Tryal did prove it by many Witnesses that he frequented the Publick Worship and attended the Prayers in his own Family where King William was pray'd for which was certainly a piece of the greatest Hypocrisy that any Man could be guilty of for if Sir John did firmly believe that King James's Cause was the cause of God as his paper pretends he did it was certainly a mocking of the Almighty to his very face to Countenance Prayers himself for that which was against his own Cause And your pretending to absolve that wretched Criminal without a publick Repentance for having so publickly disown'd and seemingly pray'd against that which you and he did firmly believe to be the cause of God proclaims you Traytors to Heav'n as well as to our Country but Gentlemen to make it as easy for you as the case will beat King William has no reason to be angry with you for not obliging Sir William Perkins to express his sorrow for being concerned in the horrid design of Assassinating his Royal person before you pronounc'd your absolution over him seeing you did also absolve Sir John Friend without any profession of Publick Repentance for having Renounced the cause of God Gentlemen I shall only add on this head that you and the rest of the absolving fraternity seem really to have acquir'd as much Dominion over the Consciences of your Disciples as is falsely ascribed to the Pope by those who worship the Beast viz. That he can make Vice Vertue and Vertue Vice otherwise those poor deluded Creatures could never be so stupid as to think they suffered for the cause of God when they are actually punish'd for endeavouring to bring in a French Power to establish a Prince on the Thone who during the whole Tenor of his Life hath shown himself an Irreconcileable Enemy to the Protestant Religion appear'd at the head of an horrid Plot against it when a subject and endeavouring its subversion when a Soveraign contrary to his Coronation Oath As to Sir John's Knowledge and Information of the Laws of the Land It was very well known and appear'd at his Trial to be so very little that if his Father Confessors had consulted either his Credit or their own they would certainly have struck out this part of his Paper but that our Laws require a firm Allegiance to our Soveraign and assert that no Forreign or Domestick power can alienate our Allegiance I believe Sir John might have ventured to swear it tho he had never seen a Statute-Book For the Question is not whether we own unalienable Allegiance to our Soveraign but whether or not one who has been our Soveraign can forfeit his Title to our Allegiance which I am sure considering Sir John's Education and Qualification was a question too knotty for him to resolve And therefore Gentlemen Absolvers the following propositions are recommended to your Consideration viz. That all Lawful Soveraigns have either their Commission from God or the People or to speak better sense God and the Peoples Commission to their Soveraign is or ought to be one and the same Gods Commission to the Soveraign both in the Old and New Testament is to encourage the Good and to punish and be a Terror to the Evil doers as appears from Deut. 17. 15. c. and Rom. 13. 1. c. And certainly the Commission of all people who are not fitter for Bedlam and Bridewell than humane Society is that the King should make use of his Authority for the benefit and preservation of the Community over whom he is constituted Soveraign so that if he either invert his Commission or Act contrary thereunto by encouraging the Bad and afflicting the Good and declares that he will continue to do so it 's plain that in so doing he neither Acts by the Authority of God nor the Authority of the People and that when they resist him as Acting thus they do not resist Authority but only the Extravagancies of an Usurper and that if God shall think fit to Claim the forfeiture of his Commission either by his own immediate hand as by Frenzy or any other Moral incapacity or m●diately by the Representatives of the joyned people he becomes thereby ipso facto divested of all Right to our Allegiance Which I think is plain from this familiar instance If an Husband violate the Marriage-Contract and upon his Resolution of continuing to do so his Wife sue out a Divorce let him pretend what he will he has no further Right to the Duty of a Wife from the injured Matron nor can she be said to be guilty of Disobedience to her Husband in refusing it but doth justly forsake him as a Divorc'd Adulterer Or to be yet more plain you may take it thus That whatever Prince refuses to Govern according to God's Commission has no positive Divine Right to Govern at all and by Consequence the people are

Forswear the Cause of his Sufferings before the Court at his Trial How is it possible then that he should have so shamefully denied it for fear of Suffering if he had really found so much Satisfaction in his Sufferings as here you make him express Or is it supposable if it had been so that the very remembrance of his having so unworthily Disown'd the Cause of his Sufferings wherein he had found so much Satisfaction should not have melted him into Tears and Contrition and made him Glorifie God and Redeem the Honour of the Cause by testifying a Publick Sorrow for his Weakness in Denying it Sure I am Gentlemen this was St. Peter's Practice who made his Repentance as Publick as his Denial of his Master and seeing St. John says That his Cause was that of God and Religion his denial of it was as gross as that of St. Peter's but you don't make it appear that Sir John's Repentance was any thing like that Blessed Apostles God knows whether these be the Words of your Martyr or not but supposing they are we can look upon them as no other than the effect of those Delusions with which you had possest his Soul and that they were put into his Mouth on purpose to strengthen your declining Cause In the belief of which I am the more confirm'd by the assurance I have that one of your number told him with an unwarrantable Confidence when he mounted from the Sledge to the Cart That the next step was to Heaven which Gentlemen if you do really believe to be so it s a loss to the Nations as well as to your selves that there are so many of your Party who have not yet taken the first Step. PAPER And so O Lord into thy Hands I commend my Spirit for thou hast redeemed me O Lord thou God of Truth And I do heartily and humbly beseech Thee Almighty God and my most Gracious Father to forgive and bless this Sinful Nation Deliver it from the Guilt of Rebellion Blood and Perjury that is now on all sides more than ever and from all those other hainous Sins which cry aloud Preserve and Bless this Church Comfort our Distressed King Restore him to his Right and his Misled Subjects to their Allegiance Bless also his Royal Consort our Gracious Queen Mary his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales That he may grow in Stature and in Favour with God and Man Support and Strengthen all those that suffer in any kind for a good Cause give them Patience under all their Afflictions and a happy Deliverance out of them Forgive all mine Enemies Pardon my former neglect and remissness in Religious Worship and holy Duties and all the Sins I have been guilty of to this very moment Consider my Contrition Accept my Tears And now Thou art pleased to take me hence take me into thy Favour and grant that my Soul may be without spot presented unto Thee through the Merits of thy most dearly Beloved Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen ANSWER Gentlemen We have heard of those who Fast for Strife and Debate and I think it may be said without breath of Charity that this Paper was Penn'd and put into the Hands of the poor Criminal for no other end You had taught him Lies in the Name of God and now you put Lies in his Mouth for a Prayer to the Almighty Is it possible that you can hold up your Faces to God and call that a Rebellion which all the Protestants of Europe besides your own inconsiderable Crew do look upon as a Lawful War pour out their Prayers daily to the God of Heaven for its Success and Blessed be his Name not without gracious Returns Have you so little observed the Course of Providence as to accuse that Prince as an Usurper on whose Family Heaven seems to have Entail'd it to be the Champions of the Protestant Religion and the Liberties of Europe Do you think your selves better Casuists then all other Reform'd Divines who do universally approve his procedure as agreeable to the Laws of God And is your Judgment in State Matters so great that you will venture to tell Heaven that this is a Rebellion which most of the Soveraigns in Europe and their Counsels do approve as agreeable to the Laws of Nations In short Gentlemen your peevish Ecclesiasticks have assumed a Power to themselves as great as ever was claim'd by the Pope and his Conclave For you can Absolve Men from their Sins without Repentance and Bind that upon the Consciences of your Disciples as Law and Gospel which is directly contrary to the Tenor of both But to return to your Prayer Is it not enough that you Arraign your Country as Rebels at the Bar of Heav'n but you must also pray for the Establishment of a Succession of Popish Princes which must needs be attended with the Ruine of our Religion And will no other terms serve you to pray for our Counterfeit Prince of Wales without Profaning what was said of the Blessed Child Jesus Is that the Reverence which you pay to his Name But it s true Gentlemen you make your Criminal act like himself He own'd at his Trial that he us'd to mock Heaven in his life time by praying for K. William when he thought K. James's Cause to be the Cause of God and now you make him also to mock Heaven at his Death by praying that God would Establish a Race of Prince's amongst us whom the Poor Man confess'd must by their Principles think they merit Heaven by destroying Protestants God preserve these Nations from such a Generation of Scribes Pharisees and Hypocrites as are the Tribe of Absolvers One thing I had almost forgotten to observe viz. That Sir John by his own Confession to the Committee of both Houses of Parliament made void his Exception as to the Truth of the Evidence given in against him by the Roman Catholick Witnesses and hath made it appear that whatever Latitude they may allow themselves in their Evidence against Protestants as such that yet they may be very good Witnesses against those who take Indirect Methods to support a Popish Cause whether they be Papists or Protestants and as it was well replied by the Kings Council to Sir John their being Evidence in such a Case will be one of the last things that the Priests will Absolve them for Sir WILLIAM PARKYNS's Paper IT hath not been my custom to use many words and I shall not be long upon this Occasion having Business of much greater Consequence to employ my thoughts upon I thank God I am now in a full disposition to Charity and therefore shall make no Complaints either of the Hardships of my Trial or any other Rigours put upon me However one circumstance I think my self obliged to mention it was Sworn against me by Mr. Porter That I had own'd to him that I had Seen and Read a Commission from the King to Levy War upon the Person of the Prince of Orange Now

I must declare That the Tenour of the King's Commission which I saw was general and directed to all his Loving Subjects to Raise and Levy War against the Prince of Orange and his Adherents and to Seize all Forts Castles c. which I suppose may be a customary Form of giving Authority to make War but I must confess I am not much acquainted with Matters of that nature But as for any Commission particularly levelled against the Person of the Prince of Orange I neither saw nor heard of any such ANSWER There 's no Reason to doubt that this Paper was Sir Williams own Composure his Education and the defence he made at his Trial do neither of them give it the lie nor is there any thing in it which Savours of the Canting Bigotry of the other So that I shall only consider what 's material for our purpose in it He pretends to a full disposition to Charity and yet complains of Hardships and Rigours put upon him at his Trial which is not very consistent with Charity I was present at his Trial and cannot imagine what ground he had for this Complaint if it was not that the Court declin'd to put off the Trial any Longer and that he was not allowed the benefit of the New Act for Regulating Trials in cases of high Treason As to the former if the Government did not think fit to allow it Sir William had no just Reason of Complaint he had sufficient time allowed him to prepare himself and was treated with that Moderation and Calmness which former Reigns were strangers to The Crime he was indicted for was one of the blackest that is to be met with in any Record and God knows that he and the rest of the Assassins did not intend to allow our Gracious Soveraign any time to prepare for Death I Remember indeed that Sir William alledged he wanted some Material Witnesses but his Confession of the Crimes with which he was charged make it evident that his design in that was to elude Justice And as to his being denied the benefit of the New Act the Bench gave him a very good Reason for it viz. That it had not then taken place and that they were to govern themselves by Law and not to make Law and if the equity of the thing be considered there seems no great Reason that they who are guilty of this horrid design before the making of the said Act should have the benefit of it tho the mildness of the present Government hath ordered it otherwise and therefore Sir Williams Complaint of Rigour and Hardship was but ill founded and may justly be imputed to some bitterness of Spirit As to his declaring that the Tenour of the Kings Commission which he saw was General and directed to all his loving Subjects to levy War c. against the Prince of Orange and his Adherents and that he neither Saw nor heard of any Commission particularly Levell'd against the person of the Prince of Orange It does not at all affect Capt. Porters Evidence nor deny that he inform'd the Captain so which proves that Sir William was a very ill Man to have put such a Gloss on the late Kings Commission both to the Capt. and Charnock in order to perswade them to the Assassination if he did not believe that to be the Real meaning of it however it may have been worded And it argues the Absolvers to be Traitors both to God and their King pronouncing the absolution over Sir William before he had publickly begg'd pardon of that Prince whom he had injur'd and testify'd his Repentance for drawing Charnock and others to the Gibbet by that false Interpretation It hath been observed by another hand that this Commission which Sir William gives an account of Looks liker a Proclamation than a Commission but if it was only such a General Commission as he talks of what need was there of so much Secrecy why was it not seen by Capt. Porter and others who desired to see it and why was it all writ with King James's own hand It is plain from the depositions of the Witnesses at the Trial of Charnock c. that a Commission to attack the Prince of Orange in person and to carry him over to France at least was sent for which to all Men of Common sense must appear to be impracticable to have been done with such a small Number of Men. Besides when the Commission whatever it was arrived we find that all of them prepar'd to Assassinate the King and the design was chiefly managed by Sir Geo. Barclay who brought over the Commission and must necessarily be supposed to have understood the meaning of it best We find likewise that he brought over a Sub-brigadeer and 16 of King James's Guards with him and that they were subsisted privately in Town and ordered to be in a readiness for the horrid design so that let the Commission be couch'd in what Terms they please the meaning of it is plain enough and all their Art cannot vindicate the late King from being the unhappy Tool to promote that execrable Murder We all know what bloody designs against Protestants in General and some of his own nearest Relations in particular he has been formerly accus'd of Nor are we to suppose that one who makes his way to the Throne by the Death of a Brother would have any more tenderness for a Nephew or that he who gives way to the imposing of a Supposititious Son to exclude his own Daughters from their Right to the Crown will entertain any Scruple at the Murder of a Son-in-Law whom God and the Nation have set up in his stead and if I should venture to say that Sir William hath not been Ingenuous in his Confession there 's no reason to call it a breach of Charity considering that he hath not left the least Evidence of his Repentance for the Assassination behind him tho he own'd to the Committee of Parliament that it was a Crime PAPER It 's true I was privy to the Design upon the Prince but was not to act in it and am fully satisfied that very few or none knew of it but those who undertook to do it I freely acknowledge and think it for my Honour to say that I was entirely in the Interest of the King being always firmly perswaded of the Justice of his Cause and looked upon it as my Duty both as a Subject and an Englishmen to Assist him in the Recovery of his Throne which I believed him to be Depri●ed of contrary to all Right and Justice taking the Laws and Constitution of my Country for my Guide As for my Religion I dye in the Communion of the Church of England in which I was Educated And as I freely Forgive all the World so whoever I may any ways have Injured I heartily ask them Pardon ANSWER Here 's another Remarkable piece of disingenuity as if it were not all one for him to Act in it himself as to prompt others to do it and to furnish Men Horses and Arms for the Execution which was fully prov'd against him at his Trial tho he takes no notice of it here and does not at all deny it And we have very great reason to think that the Late King was one of the few that knew it besides these that undertook it and do verily believe that they design'd to let as few more know of it before-hand as possible and that in all probability was the reason why the Commission was kept up even from most of these who were to have been Actors in it In the next Paragraph he seems to justify himself by the supposed Justice of the late Kings Cause and values himself upon the Honour of having been always in his Interest and yet to preserve his place he took the Oaths to his present Majesty so that it seems the late King allows that practice in his Adherents and reckons them nothing the less intire to his Interest because they may thereby be the more Capable of doing him service and by this unhappy Gentlemans confession it would seem to be the Principles of the party to assist the late King in the Recovery of his Throne by all sorts of means how unlawful soever Nay even by abjuring him one day and Murdering his present Majesty the tother As for his pretence to justify himself by the Laws and Constitution of his Country enough has been said on that head already in Answer to Sir John Friend's Paper And whereas Sir John and he both pretends to die in the Communion of the Church of England it would seem necessary if the Governing part of the Church find it meet that an Authentick Explanation of the Churches Doctrine as to passive Obedience and Nonresistance should be publisht to the World that poor people may not be misled to their own ruine and the Nations involv'd in blood by those who pretend to justify their adherence to the late King by the Doctrine of the Church of England FINIS