Ireland or any other person 〈◊〉 do the same which he expresly denyed saying He did it on his own score Whereupon the House Voted Resolved c. That the House doth utterly disapprove of the proceedings of Colonel M. in the Treaty and Cessation as they called it made between him and Owen Roe Oneale and that this House doth detest thoughts of any closing with any Party of Popish Rebels there who have had their hands in shedding English Bloud Nevertheless the House being satisfied that what the said Colonel did therein was in his apprehension necessary for the preservation of the Parliaments interest the House is content that the farther consideration thereof as to him be laid aside and shall not at any time hereafter be called in question Upon these proceedings the Author notes 1. The Armies Doctrine and Vse of apprehended necessity and good intentions to justifie evil actions approved of by this Parliament 2. This Agreement though it were twelve weeks before publickly known in England and divulged in licensed News-books was never scrupled until that first the said Agreement was expired And 3. That Oneale was so beaten by the Lord Inchiquine that as their News-books said he was inconsiderable and must suddenly joyn with Ormond or be destroyed 4. That these Votes call this Agreement but a Treaty and Cessation which was a League offensive and defensive against Ormond Inchiquine and all that upheld Monarchy For which the Author gives these Reasons Because the second Article says That on all occasions both Parties be ready to assist one another till a more absolute Agreement be made by the Parliament of England And the third Article saith That the Creats of Ulster residing in the Quarters of the Parliaments Army shall pay Contribution to General Owen Oneale which is a granting of Taxes against Law and it seems Oneale became a Mercenary being taken into pay Article the fourth saith That if Oneale shall happen to fight against the Forces under Ormond Inchiquine or other Enemies of the Parliament and thereby spend his Ammunition if he be near to their Quarters and want Ammunition they shall then furnish him This was actually performed when Inchiquine besieged Dundalk The fifth Article allowed Oneale the use of any Harbours within their liberty By which Premises we may rationally conclude that the Factions are not so averse from the most bloudy Papists but if occasion require they are ready to joyn interest with them to maintain their Good Old Cause against the Crown and Church of England which will farther appear by the Correspondency and Agents which the successive Parties that were uppermost maintained in foreign parts to betray the present Kings Counsels while he was in banishment for which Manning a Papist was executed for whom many Dirgies were sung in several Churches And when his Majesty was invited into Scotland the Marquess of Huntly and other Lords and Heads of the Popish Faction made a great Party to oppose his Reception unless he would grant a Toleration of their Religion But the Presbyterian Party having then the greatest power admitted him on such terms as they thought fit and served him no longer than they could serve their own designes For the clearer manifestation of the ASSOCIATION between Oneale and the Parliament there are lately come to the Council of State saith the Author of the Hist of Independ p. 245. two Letters out of Conaught from Sir Charles Coote dated the 14th and 15th of August 49 informing them with how much zeal to the Parliaments interest Owen Oneale had freely raised the Siege of London-derry On which Letters and the Votes and Proceedings of Pride 's Parliament I commend to the Readers observation these particulars First the 15th of August the Letters inform them that Oneale freely offered his assistance to Coote professing much affection to the Parliament of England and an earnest desire to maintain their interest He had formerly stiled the Parliament Monstrosum Parliamentum but now the case is altered 〈◊〉 calls them the Honourable Parliament as driving his interest against Monarchy and Protestancy In the Letter of the 14th he informs the Parliament that he hath found Oneale and his Army very punctual and faithful in all their promises and ingagements and make◠no doubt but they will continue so to the end The 16th of August he says that Oneale i◠his Express to Coote inclosed some Letters received from Col. M. and among the rest 〈◊〉 Copy of a Letter in answer to a Letter of the Lord Inchiquine charging the Colonel for joyning with Oneale and his party wherein the Colonel insinuated as if Oneale 's submission to use the Parliaments power were already accepted by them In that of the 15th Coote hath this expression in his Letter Calling to mind that it is no new thing for the most wise God to make use of wicked Instruments to bring about a good designe Aug. 15. the Letter says that Coote called a Council of War and resolved it was better to accept of the Assistance of those who proclaimed themselves Friends to us and our interest we fight for The same Letter says that we added to the Article this proviso Not use their Assistance longer than the approbation of the State of England should go along with us therein In that of the 14th Coote says Oneale was pleased to communicate to him certain proposals which were long since transmitted to the Parliament and though for his part and the prime Officers with him they do not doubt but the proposals are already yielded to by the State yet in regard their Army and party in all other parts of the Kingdom cannot be satisfied therewith till the Parliament declare more publickly therein he hath therefore desired me humbly to intreat your Lordships to declare your Resolutions therein with as much speed as may be And in a Vote of Parliament it 's said The House is well satisfied of the diligence faithfulness and integrity of Sir Charles Coote in preserving the Garison of London-derry Which says my Author was preserved by the conjunction of Oneale who raised the Siege But to return to England where though the Jesuits and Priests did not appear so visibly as in the Wars of Ireland yet that they had great influence on the Councils and Armies of the Fanaticks from the beginning to the end of the War is industriously proved by Mr. Prynne in several books especially in his Introduction to the Archbishop's Tryal and in Romes Master-piece Works of Darkness brought to light The Royal Favourite c. The first War begun with the clamour of Popery That it was admitted not onely at the Court but into the Church particularly that the King was a great favourer of Papists and the House of Commons instance in one Goodman a Romish Priest who was condemned at the Sessions in the Old-baily Whereupon the House remonstrates That it was more necessary to put the Laws in execution at that time than in any before That at
to change Government it was lawful for the Catholicks to work that change for the advancing and securing the Catholick Cause in England by making away the King whom there was no hope to turn from his Heresie This was answered affirmatively after which the same persons went to Rome where the same Question being propounded and debated it was concluded by the Pope That it was both lawful and expedient for the Catholicks to promote that alteration of State c. When that horrid Parricide had taken effect the Pope commanded all the Papers about that Question to be gathered and burnt In obedience to which Order a Roman Catholick in Paris was demanded a Copy which he had of these Papers but the Gentleman who had time to consider and detest the wickedness of that Project refused to give it and shewed it to a Protestant friend of his relating to him the whole carriage of this Negotiation with great abhorrency of the Practices of the Jesuits And when these Jesuits returned from Rome they brought many more after them to help on the same Work which at last they effected to their great joy The Roman Priest and Confessor is known who when he saw the fatal stroak given to our holy King and Martyr flourished with his Sword and said Now the greatest Enemy that we had in the world is gone A Protestant Lady living in Paris was perswaded by a Jesuit to turn Catholick when the dismal news of the King's Murther came to Paris this Lady as all other good Subjects was deeply afflicted with it and when this Jesuite came to see her and found her melted in Tears for that Disaster he told her with a smiling countenance That she had no reason to lament but rejoyce rather seeing the Catholicks were rid of their greatest Enemy and that Cause was much furthered by his death Upon which the Lady in great anger put him down the stairs saying If that be your Religion I have done with you for ever and God hath given her grace to make her words good hitherto Many intelligent Travellers can tell of the great joy among the English Convents and Seminaries about the Kings death as having overcome their Enemy and done their main work for their settlement in England of which they made themselves so sure that the Benedictines were in great care that the Jesuits should not get their Land and the English Nuns were contending who should be Abbasses in England An understanding Gentleman visiting the Fryars in Dunkirk put them on the discourse of the King's death and to pump out their sence about it said That the Jesuits had laboured very much to compass that work To which they answered That the Jesuits would ingross to themselves the glory of all great and good works and of this among others whereas they had laboured as diligently and effectually for it as they So that both the Jesuits and Seculars had laboured to bring the King to death and the Army of Fanaticks were their Instruments to put it in execution Monsieur de Bourdeaux the French Embassadour being resident in London when General Monk had gotten the power of the City and the affections of the People earnestly desired to interest the King of France and Cardinal Mazarine in the Revolution of Government and made way for an Address to the General by his Brother-in-law Clergis to whom he imparted that Cardinal Mazarine would be glad to have the honour of his friendship and assist him faithfully in all his Enterprizes and that the General might be more confident of the Cardinal he assured him that Oliver Cromwel kept so strict a League with him that he did not assume the Government without his privity and was directed step by step by him in the progress of that action and therefore if he resolved on that course he should not onely have the Cardinals friendship and counsel in the attempt but a safe Retreat and honourable Support in France if he sailed in it But Mr. Clergis assured him that the General did not intend to take the Government upon him but to submit all to the determination of the next Parliament The King being in the Territories of the King of Spain when the General was minded to declare for him Sir Jo. Greenvil was dispatched by the General to his Majesty to desire him to depart out of the King of Spain's Dominions to Breda or some other place under the Government of the States of the Vnited Provinces for that he had certain intelligence he would be detained by the King of Spain's Ministers if he stayed in his Dominions Upon which Advice within two or three days he went to Breda where he continued till he was invited to his Kingdoms There was found in the Study of Francis Young after his death a Paper containing Advices given to him by Seignior Bellarini concerning the best way of managing the Popish interest in England upon the Kings Restauration The first Advice is to make the obstruction of Settlement their great designe especially upon the fundamental Constitutions of the Kingdom whereunto if things should fall they would be more firm than ever Secondly To remove the Jealousies raised by Prynne Baxter c. of their designe upon the late Factions and to set up the prosperous way of fears and jealousies of the King and Bishops Thirdly To make it appear under-hand how neer the Doctrine Worship and Discipline of the Church of England comes to us at how little distance their Common-prayer is from our Mass and that the wisest and ablest men of that Way are so moderate that they would willingly come over to us or at least meet us half way hereby the most stayed men will become more odious and others will run out of all Religion for fear of Popery Fourthly That there be an Indulgence promoted by the Factious and seconded by You. Fifthly That the Trade and Treasure of the Nation may be engrossed between themselves and other discontented Parties Sixthly That the Bishops and Ministers of the Church of England be aspersed as either worldly and careless on one hand or so factious that it were well they were removed All these Directions will appear to have been followed precisely by both Parties The Grandees of the Committee at Derby-house and the Army sollicite the detaining of the Prince in France and delaying his Journy for England lest he should trouble the yet-unsetled Kingdom of the Saints To negotiate which they have an Agent lying Lieger with Cardinal Mazarine who is so well supplied with Money and so open-handed that it hath been heard from Mazarine's own mouth that all the Money the Queen and Prince had cost the Crown of France came out of the Parliaments Purse with a good advantage It is likewise said Mazarine had an Agent here to drive on the interest of France in England Hist of Independ 2 part p. 112. And it is known that Cromwel's interest with France when the present King fled thither after
duty of such an injured Prince for the common good to resigne his Government and if he will not the People ought to judge him as made uncapable by Providence and not to seek his restitution to the apparent ruine of the Commonwealth Thes 147. If therefore the rightful Governour be so long dispossessed that the Commonwealth can be no longer without but to the apparent hazard of its ruine we i. e. the people that dispossessed him are to judge that Providence hath dispossessed the former and presently consent to another Thes 149. If a People that by Oath and Duty are obliged to a Soveraign shall sinfully dispossess him and contrary to their Covenants chuse and covenant with another they may be obliged by their later Covenant notwithstanding their former Thes 181. If a Nation injuriously deprive themselves of a worthy Prince the hurt will be their own and they punish themselves but if it â— necessary to their welfare it is no injury to him but a King that by War will seek Reparation from the Body of the People doth put himself into a Hostile state and tells them actually that he looks to his own good more than theirs and bids them take him for their Enemy and defend themselves if they can p. 424. Though a Nation wrong their King and so quoad men tum Cauiae they are on the worse side yet maâ—â— he not lawfully war against the common good oâ—â— that account nor any help him in such a War because propter finem he hath the worse Cause Thes 352. And p. 476. we were to believe the Parliaments Declarations and Professions that the War which they raised was nâ—â— against the King either in respect of his Authority or his Person but onely against Delinquent Subjects And yet they actually fought against the King's Person and Authority And We are to believe saith Mr. Baxter p. 422. That men would kill them whom the fight against Quam bene conveniunt Mr. Baxter never followed any Text that he preached on so closely as he hath done the Text of this Jesuit in the Commentary of his Holy Commonwealth John Milton printed a Book very well like this of Mr. White called The Tenure of King and Magistrates driving on this Maxime That it is lawful for any that have power to call to account depose and put to death wicked Kings and Tyrants after due conviction if the ordinary Magistrate neglect it We have lately had a Fanatical Lawyer following the Divine Mr. Baxter transcribing out of the same Book of Mr. White to the same end I shall observe onely this Note among others in Mr. White p. 158. where he answers some Objections of Divines concerning the Authority of Princes and Non-resistance Vp steps the Divine saith he to preach us out of Scripture the Duty we owe to Kings no less than Death and Damnation being the Guerdons of Disobedience and Rebellion And p. 159. They will speak reason too telling us that God by nature is high Lord and Master of all That whoever is in power receiveth his right from him That Obedience consists in doing the Will of him that commandeth and concludes that his Will ought to be obeyed till God taketh away the obligation i. e. till he who is to be obeyed himself releaseth the right And p. 160. They alleadge that God by his special command transferred the Kingdom from Saul to David from Rehoboam to Jeroboam so that in fine all that is brought out of Scripture falleth short of proving that no time can make void the right of a King once given him by the hand of God Now mark what Mr. White says to overthrow the sence of Scripture The reason saith he 〈◊〉 this weak way of alleadging Scripture is that when they read that God commandeth or doth this they look not into Nature to know what this commanding or doing is but presently imagine God commands it by express and direct words and doth it by an immediate Position of the things said to be done whereas in Nature the commands are nothing but the natural light God hath bestowed on mankind and which is therefore frequently called the Law of Nature Likewise Gods doing a thing is many times onely the course of natural second causes to which because God gives the direction and motion he both doth and is said to do all that is done by them These things are transcribed by Mr. Hunt to the same ends that Mr. White urged them p. 144. of his Postscript The nature of Government and its Original saith he hath been prejudiced by men that understanding nothing but words and Grammar-Divines without contemplating Gods Attributes or the nature of man or the reasonableness of moral Precepts have undertaken to declare the sence of Scripture and infer that Soveraign power is not of humane institution but of divine appointment because they find it there written that by him Kings raign imagining that when the Scripture saith God commands or doth this that God commanded it by express words or doth it by an immediate position of the thing done whereas in Nature his commands are nothing but the natural light God hath bestowed on mankind likewise Gods doing a thing is onely the course of natural and second causes to which because God gives direction and motion he doth both and is said to do all that is done After this Mr. Hunt rails against our Divines in the Jesuits Mr. White 's Language also White calls them Grammar-Divines verbal and wind-blown Divines p. 162. and Mr. Hunt calls them men that understand nothing but words and Grammar-Divines who saith Mr. White without Logick Philosophy or Morality undertake to be Interpreters of the sacred Bible Who saith Mr. Hunt without contemplating Gods Attributes or the nature of man or the reasonableness of moral Precepts have undertaken to declare the sence of Scripture From the Premises we may draw this Conclusion That the Papists and Fanaticks do agree and mutually lend and borrow Arguments to resist Kings elude the Scriptures defame the English Clergie and overthrow the Government in Church and State As 1. That to conclude from the sence of Scripture is a weak way of arguing 2. That Non obstante what the Scripture says of Divine right of Soveraign power it is not of Divine but Humane institution 3. That Providence and the effects of second causes being influenced by God are of equal authority with the Precepts injoyned by the Word of God 4. That the Soveraign power being but of humane institution may be resisted and is alterable 5. That having cast off their Loyalty to the King and his Laws they are in a fair way to cast off God and his Laws 6. That the worst of Papists and their Atheistical Arguments are made use of by some that call themselves true Protestants against the express commands of God for Obedience to the Higher Powers There was printed 1650 an Answer to Dr. Ferne's Exercitation concerning usurped Powers in which the Answerer
that time divers Petitions from several parts of the Kingdom complained of the great increase of Popery and Superstition and the people call earnestly to have the Laws put in execution When these Petitions were promoted by their own Members and that Decency which was used in the Church the Superstition and Popery which they remonstrated against but not one word of putting the Laws in execution against the Separatists 2. That Priests and Jesuits swarmed in great numbers That of late years about the City of London Priests and Jesuits have been discharged out of prison That the Pope had then a Nuntio in the City The great resort to Mass at Demark-house That on the reprieve of Goodman the City of London refused the advance of Money for supply of his Majesties Army for that reason Therefore they desire that Goodman may be left to Justice To this the King answered Concerning Goodman that he being found guilty onely as being a Priest on which account neither King James nor Queen Elizabeth put any to death be did reprieve him desiring them to consider the inconvenience that may fall on his Subjects and other Protestants abroad by executing of such severity That he will put the Laws in execution against Popery and Superstition the increase whereof was much against his mind That he would speedily issue out a Proclamation for all Priests and Jesuits to depart the Kingdom within one month or to be proceeded against according to Law As for Rosetti the Popes Nuntio that he had no commission but was onely to correspond between the Queen and the Pope which was warranted by Articles of Marriage yet he had perswaded her to dismiss him within a time to take away the offence That he would restrain the resort of Papists to Denmark-house and the Chappels of Embassadours But instead of being satisfied with these Answers four Members of Parliament acquaint the Lords of a monstrous designe of the Papists an Army of fifteen thousand in Lancashire eight thousand Irish Papists under the Earl of Strafford and many thousands in divers other places well armed and payed by the Earl of Worcester Of which Sanderson in the Life of King Charles says p. 360. After-Ages will think these Hyperboles there being no such Armies possible by them nor no such fears in others Yet this Message was carried from the Lower to the Vpper House and gave occasion to a multitude of people to frame Petitions sutable to Plots Fears and Jealousies for the Parliaments purpose And Alderman Pennington with some hundredâ— of the Rabble presents a Petition in the name of fifteen thousand Citizens against Bishops and their Jurisdiction How little they cared for Religion though their actions sufficiently declared yet their expressions were not wanting A Great Creature of theirs said modestly That they haâ— power enough to take the Crown from the King if the Gospel did not hinder them but theâ— did it with a Non Obstante Mr. Hambdeâ— being asked by a Minister in the beginning of the War Why Religion was made a cause 〈◊〉 it answered Because the people would not stâ—â— else But H. Martyn told them in the House They need not lye for a good Cause it was nâ—â— Religion but Liberty they fought for And so little did some of them value their Religion that as Col. Morley and others with hiâ— said They would cast themselves upon any Nation even the Turk rather than let the King subdue them Mr. B.'s Key for Catholicks mentioneth several of the Popish designes which saith he are grounded on this Maxime That their foundation must be Mutation which will cause a Relaxation and serve as so many violent Diseases as Stone or Gout to a speedy Destruction p. 318. Upon which he adds this Consultation of the Jesuits We shall necessitate the Puritan Protestants to keep the King as Prisoner or else to put him to death If they keep him as a Prisoner his diligence and friends and their own divisions will either work his deliverance and give him the day again by our help or at least will keep the State in a perpetual unsetledness and will bring an odium on them or if they cut him off which we will rather promote lest they should make use of his extremities to any advantage then first we shall procure the odium of King killing to fall on them which they are wont to cast upon us and so shall be able to disburthen our selves Secondly And we shall have them all to pieces in Distractions for they will either set up a new King or the Parliament will keep the power changing the Government into a Democracy The first cannot be done without great Concussions and new Wars and we shall have an opportunity to have a hand in all and if it be done it may be much to our advantage The second will apparently by Factions and Distractions give us footing for continual attempts But to make all sure we will have our footing among the Puritans too that we may be sure to maintain our interest which way soever the world goes This was the Frame of the Papists Plot. In the next page he tells us of the Letters of the Agents of the Agitators in France published in the weekly News-books commending the Jesuits for good men and how agreeable they were to them in their Principles for a Democracy and what meet Materials for such a Commonwealth the Jesuits would be The Agencies of particular men with Jesuits he says I purposely omit p. 321. Mr. Baxter doubtless knew more than 〈◊〉 mentions he had an Idea of all their Plots and Principles in 's own brain And p. 329 saith It is opened by many in print how far thâ— Jesuits crept into all Societies under the name of Independents He tells us a story of onâ— that came from Scotland pretending himself a Jew who gave the Anabaptists the glory oâ— his Conversion and was rebaptized at Heâ—ham but was discovered at Newcastle to be â— Jesuit The whole story is in print And p. 321. he acquaints us that Sexby and otherâ— of the Army did confederate with Spain tâ— murther Cromwel when they found that hâ— attempted to make himself a King And hereupon it was that Cromwel took distaste aâ— the Papists and prevailed to make an Acâ— with this Preamble Anno 1656. Forasmuâ—â— as there is a great increase of Popish Recusants within this Commonwealth by reason whereof great danger may follow to the Commonwealth they being persons very active in mischievous Plots and Conspiracies c. This doubtless was well known by Cromwel who had made great use of them to effect his mischievous designes Peter du Moulin in his Answer to Philanax Anglicus p. 59. observes that a year before the Kings death a select number of English Jesuits were sent from their Party in England first to Paris to consult with the Faculty of Sorbone who were then wholly Jesuited about this Question Whether seeing the State of England was in a likely posture
Bill for the purpose to Bar and Exclude the said Duke from the Succession to the Crown and to banish him for ever out of these Kingdoms of England and Ireland But the first means of the King and Kingdoms Safety being utterly rejected and we left almost in despair of obtaining any real and effectual security and knowing our selves to be intrusted to advise and act for the preservation of his Majesty and the Kingdom and being perswaded in our Consciences that the dangers aforesaid are so imminent and pressing that there ought to be no delay of the best means that are in our power to fecure the Kingdom against them We have thought fit to propose to all true Protestants an Vnion amongst themselves by solemn and sacred promise of mutual Defence and Assistance in the preservation of the true Protestant Religion his Majesties Person and Royal State and our Laws Liberties and Properties and we hold it our bounden Duty to joyn our selves for the same intent in a Declaration of our united Affections and Resolutions in the form insuing I A. B. Do in the presence of God solemnly promise vow and protest to maintain and defend to the utmost of my power with my Person and Estate the true Protestant Religion against Popery and all Popish Superstition Idolatry or Innovation and all those who do or shall endeavour to spread or advance it within this Kingdom I will also as far as in me lies maintain and defend his Majesties Royal Person and Estate as also the Power and Priviledge of Parliaments the lawful Rights and Liberties of the Subject against all Incroachments and Usurpation of Arbitrary Power whatsoever and endeavour entirely to disband all such Mercenary Forces as we have reason to believe were raised to advance it and are still kept up in and about the City of London to the great amazement and terrour of all the good People of the Land Moreover J. D. of Y. having publickly professed and owned the Popish Religion and notoriously given life and birth to the damnable and hellish Plots of the Papists against his Majesties Person the Protestant Religion and the Government of this Kingdom I will never consent that the said J. D. of Y. or any other who is or hath been a Papist or any ways adhered to the Papists in their wicked Designs be admitted to the Succession of the Crown of England but by all lawful means and by force of Arms if need so require according to my abilities will oppose him and endeavour to subdue expel and destroy him if he come into England or the Dominions thereof and seek by force to set up his pretended Title and all such as shall adhere unto him or raise any War Tumult or Scdition for him or by his command as publick Enemies of our Laws Religion and Country To this end we and every one of us whose hands are here under-written do most willingly bind our selves and every one of us unto the other joyntly and severally in the Bond of one firm and loyal Society or Association and do promise and vow before God That with our joynt and particular Forces we will oppose and pursue unto destruction all such as upon any Title whatsoever shall oppose the Just and Righteous Ends of this Association and maintain protect and defend all such as shall enter into it in the just performance of the true intent and meaning of it And lest this just and pious Work should be any ways obstructed or hindered for want of Discipline and Conduct or any evil-minded persons under pretence of raising Forces for the service of this Association should attempt or commit Disorders we will follow such Orders as we shall from time to time receive from this present Parliament whilst it shall be sitting or the major part of the Members of both Houses subscribing this Association when it shall be prorogued or dissolved and obey such Officers as shall by them be set over us in the several Counties Cities and Burroughs until the next meeting of this or another Parliament and will then shew the same Obedience and Submission unto it and those who shall be of it Neither will we for any respect of Persons or Causes or for fear or reward separate our selves from this Association or fail in the prosecution thereof during our lives upon pain of being by the rest of us prosecuted and suppressed as perjur'd persons and publick enemies to God the King and our Native Country To which Pains and Punishments we do voluntarily submit our selves and every one of us without benefit of any colour or pretence to excuse us In witness of all which Premises to be inviolably kept we do to this present Writing put our Hands and Seals and shall be most ready to accept and admit any others hereafter into this Society and Association This is evidently a Plot to retrieve the Good Old Cause and to second this the Bill against the Succession of which I have also given you a Copy is violently prosecuted A Copy of the BILL against the Duke of York FOrasmuch as these Kingdoms of England and Ireland by the wonderful providence of Almighty God many years since have been delivered from the slavery and superstition of Popery which had despoiled the King of his soveraign power for that it did and doth advance the Pope of Rome to a power over Soveraign Princes and makes him Monarch of the Vniverse and doth withdraw the Subjects from their Allegiance by pretended Absolutions from all former Oaths and Obligations to their lawful Soveraign and by many Superstitions and Immoralities hath quite subverted the ends of the Christian Religion but notwithstanding that Popery hath been long since condemned by the Laws and Statutes of this Realm for the detestable Doctrine and treasonable attempts of its Adherents against the Lives of their lawful Soveraigns Kings and Queens of these Realms yet the Emissaries Priests and Agents for the Pope of Rome resorting into this Kingdom in great numbers contrary to the Laws thereof have for several years late past as well by their own devillish arts and policies as by counsel and assistance of foreign Princes and Prelates known enemies to these Nations contrived and carried on a most horrid and execrable Conspiracy to destroy and murder the Person of his most sacred Majesty and to subvert the ancient Government of these Realms and to extirpate the Protestant Religion and massacre the true Professors thereof And for the better effecting their wicked designes and encouraging their villanous Accomplices they have traiterously seduced the Duke of York presumptive Heir of these Crowns to the Communion of the Church of Rome and have inveigled him to enter into several Negotiations with the Pope his Cardinals and Nuntio's for promoting the Romish Church and Interest and by his means and procurement have advanced the power and greatness of the French King to the manifest hazard of these Kingdoms that by the descent of these Crowns upon a
was such another Fast as those that were kept in the days of their Q Mary of which she was wont to say That she was as much afraid of a Fast of the Ministers as of an Army of Souldiers And yet if you will believe themselves or some Advocates of theirs nearer home there are not a more innocent peaceable and harmless people in the world as the Author of Naphtali said of the Rebellion of Pentland hills There hath not been in Britain such a company of men in Arms for the Covenant and Cause of God for sound Judgment true Piety Integrity and fervent Zeal and undaunted Courage But all this Zeal and Courage was still directed against the King and the established Government and Worship of God For in the year 1679. the Convention of Estates gave the King a Tax of 30000 l. to maintain a Regiment of Foot three Companies of Dragoons and three Troops of Horse to suppress the Field-Conventicles which met in Arms against which their Leaders preached saying It was given by the enemies of Christ to drive him out of his Kingdom and it would be as great a fin to pay it as it was in Judas to betray Christ and that now was the time to try them whether they would have Christ for their King or no. And the same Ruffians that murdered the Archbishop did several times lay wait for the Collectors of this Tax and they so perplexed the peoples Consciences that a Servant of the Earl of Dondonald fell distracted through trouble of mind for having assisted his Master in laying the Tax on Renscot This is that little Sister for whom the Noble Peer pleaded that having no Breasts she might like the Amazons have liberty to take up Arms and once more enter our Nation and rent us in pieces as formerly And it were easie to shew from the Writings of some of our own Nation that the same Principles have been preached to the people of this Land who have greedily swallowed and digested the same and think themselves under the same obligation of Covenant as those barbarous people Dr. Lake in a Sermon before the Lord Mayor says That discoursing some Rebels that were then in Goal in Scotland who did openly avow the Rebellion and refused to pray for the King He told them they were variously reported to be Jesuits or Jesuitically affected or to be Fifth-Monarchy-men wild arrant Fanaticks They told him they were neither one nor other but true Presbyterians according to the Covenant He replying That we had Presbyterians in our own Kingdom who yet did not obstinately maintain such King-deposing and murthering Doctrines They told him he did not understand them for they believed the same Doctrines but onely wanted Power and Courage to act them And at their execution they desired the people to take notice That they died true Presbyterians according to the Covenant It is another Artifice of these People agreeable to the practice of the Papists that they keep their People in ignorance and under the power of an implicit Faith and blind Obedience as the Papists do and bring them up in strong prejudices against their Governors Some have been so mad as to baptize their Children into the National Covenant which they are not ashamed to compare with The Covenant of Grace Mr. Alexander Gibson Clerk of his Majesties Privy-Council certified May 13. 1678. that one David Ferguson taken at a Field-Conventicle being asked why he kept not to his Parish-Church answered That he had sworn the Covenant whereby he was obliged not to hear Bishops Deans or Curats and that others being asked why they kept Conventicles answered To hear Gods truth and being demanded what that was they answered They could not tell And upon examination they could not say the Creed the Lords Prayer or ten Commandments Mr. Jo. Dickson preached to them That all the Bishops and their Clergie never did nor ever will convert one Soul They believe without farther enquiry being forbid to read the Books written for Obedience and Conformity that Episcopacy is Antichristian and Presbytery is Christs own institution They hold with the Papists That the actions of their Kirk and Teachers in Field-Conventicles and armed and fighting men is not Rebellion because the Presbytery is not subject to the Secular Power That the Subjects may enter into Solemn Leagues and Covenants without and against the Prince That Kings may be excommunicate and deposed which some of them have practised against his present Majesty That not the King in some cases but the Kirk have power to convocate and dissolve Assemblies and that they may make Laws without the King That Salvation is not to be had but in their Communion They injoyn new Articles of belief as That Episcopacy is an Antichristian Order and so are the Church-Festivals and Ceremonies That the Oath of Supremacy is an unlawful Oath and the People are absolved from it That the Power of the King is originally in the People and that there is a mutual obligation between them and if the King perform not his part the People are free from performing theirs That for the good of the Kirk and Gods Cause they may rebel against their Prince That the Prince nor any Secular Power can silence or deprive a Minister who is subject to none but Christ That Passive Obedience to the unjust commands of a Prince is as great a sin as Active Obedience to the same That a private person may kill a Magistrate by impulse of the Spirit after the Example of Phinees to deliver the Kirk from Oppression That it is lawful to kill Protestant Bishops and their Curates as enemies to true Godliness and such as would bring the Kirk to a slavish dependance on the King James Mitchel who was executed for attempting the murther of the Archbishop said in his dying Speech They are all blessed that shall take the proud Prelates and dash their brains against the stones as afterward some Ruffians did by the Archbishop These are their Principles and all these they have practised when they had opportunities They come little behind the Papists for equivocation and persisting in falsehood where they think their lives or the good of the Kirk concerned Jo. King being charged for bearing Arms against the King in the late Rebellion denied it until one that apprehended him swore that he had both Sword and Pistols To which he answered he did it not in an hostile manner which was a Jesuitical Equivocation He bore testimony against that woful Supremacy so much applauded and universally owned of such of whom better things might be expected as usurping on Christs Royal Authority spoiling him of his Royal Crown Scepter Sword and Royal Robe by taking those Princely Ornaments to invest a man whose breath is in his nostrils And both Kid and King bore their Testimonies against the Oath of Allegiance and Bond of Peace of which to satisfie the Reader I give him a Copy I A. B. for testification of my faithful
obedience to my most gracious Soveraign Charles King of Great Britain c. affirm testifie and declare by this my solemn Oath That I acknowledge my said Soveraign onely Supreme Governour of this Kingdom over all Persons and in all Causes and that no foreign Prince Power State or Person Civil or Ecclesiastick hath any Jurisdiction Power or Superiority over the same and therefore I do utterly renounce and forsake all foreign Power Jurisdictions and Authorities and shall to my utmost power defend assist and maintain his Majesties Jurisdiction aforesaid against all mortals and shall never decline his Majesties Power and Jurisdiction as I shall answer to God The form of the Bond. I A. B. underscribing do faithfully bind and oblige me that I my Wife Barnes and Servants respectively shall no ways be present at any Conventicles and disorderly Meetings in time coming but shall live orderly in obedience to the Law under the penalties contained in the Acts of Parliament made there-anent As also I bind and oblige me that my whole Tenants and Cotters respectively their Wives Barnes and Servants shall likewise refrain and abstain from the said Conventicles and other illegal Meetings not authorized by Law and that they shall live orderly in obedience to the Law And further that I nor they shall receipt supply or commune with forfeited persons intercommuned Ministers or vagrant Preachers but shall do our utmost endeavour to apprehend their persons And in case my said Tenants Cotters and their foresaids shall contravene I shall take or apprehend any person or persons guilty thereof and present to the Judge Ordinars that they may be fined or imprisoned therefor as is provided in the Acts of Parliament made there-anent otherwise I shall remove them and their Families from my ground And if I shall fail herein I shall be liable to such penalties as the said Delinquents have incurred by the Laws consenting to the registration hereof in the Books of his Majesties Privy-Council or Books of any other Judges competent that Letters and Executorials may be direct hereupon in form as effairs and constitutes my Procurators The Field-preachers damned this Bond as an Arbitrary Tyrannical and Illegal proceeding and Mr. Welsh a Field-preacher having condemned the people for not coming armed to their Meetings with Swords and Pistols to defend the Gospel said That the subscribing this Bond was a renouncing their Baptism and making a Covenant with the Devil more express and worse than that of Witches And Mr. John Dickson at a Conventicle May 26. 1678. said That those who subscribed it had committed a greater sin than the sin of the Holy Ghost and were already in Hell This Mr. Welsh as Ravilliack Redivivus relates it preaching to about seven thousand people told them That the King the Nobles and Prelates were the Murtherers of Christ And sitting down in his Chair he said O People I will be silent speak O People and tell me what good thing the King hath done since his coming home yea hath he not done all the mischief a Tyrant could do And at another time he said That God would assert the Cause of Pentland-hills in spite of the Curates and their Masters the Prelates and in spite of the Prelates and their Master the King and his Master the Devil It was but a little before the Duke of York's going to Scotland that they were forming their Presbyteries after the Model of Ignatius dividing the Nation into several Provinces each of which was to have a Provincial and over all there was appointed a General who as Ignatius had been a Souldier and was thought fit to lead an Army The Provincials were to take an account of the growth or decay of their Party to mark out their Friends and their Enemies and to renew their Contributions and to give account of all to their General who was to reside at Edinburgh or London If this designe had succeeded no two Factions in the world had been more like whatever they are now than the Jesuit and Fanatick Which was the Incubus and which the Succubus that brought forth the two last hellish Plots or whether they were not Twins or as it is in the Riddle Mater me Genuit eadem mox gignitur ex me may puzzle the Reader to resolve It is certain the same plastick Principles formed them both and the Subjects were equally disposed to receive those Forms which have so affrighted the Nations and there is little difference the name excepted between a Clement and a Melvil a Ravilliack and a Mitchel a Bradshaw and a Cargil or the Jesuitical and a Fanatical Regicide both make the King accountable to the People both are for excommunicating deposing and assassinating of Kings both have been such Fire-brands as have kindled consuming fires where-ever they have fixed their cloven feet It is no great wonder that they are sometimes transformed into Angels of light seeing Satan himself may be so transformed neither of them can do their work if they should appear in their proper colours armed with Pistols and Blunderbusses in flames of fire and an horrible stench of Gunpowder and Brimstone they come clothed with Zeal as with a Cloak and in Sheeps clothing with demure looks and fair speeches to deceive the hearts of the Simple but inwardly they are ravening Wolves and by their fruits you may know them It is not a pretence of acting for a Good Old Cause or the Catholick Church that can justifie unnatural Rebellions and Bloudshed they who do such things are of their Father the Devil though they own Rome or Geneva for their Mother It is said of Augustus that meeting with a young man in the Country exactly like him in growth and features he asked him merrily whether his Mother was never at Rome No saith the young man but my Father hath been there meaning it was more likely that Augustus and he had one Father than that he should be the Son of Augustus Though our Fanatick Plots were conceived by those that were never at Rome yet the Principles that begot them most certainly came from thence The Fanatick Zeal embracing Popish Principles hath brought forth many of those Plots and Conspiracies which have so often disturbed our Peace and Government And by this time I hope the vizard and pretence of these men will vanish viz. that such of them as have suffered by the hand of Justice have died as Patriots of their Country for their zeal against Popery and in defence of the Liberties of the People against Tyranny and Arbitrary Government This hath been pleaded a thousand times in behalf of a Noble Peer and persons of the same Principles but of the lowest rank have pleaded it for themselves This designe says Colledge is not onely against me but against all the Protestants in England that have had the courage to oppose the Popish Plot and dies praying that his may be the last Protestants bloud that murdering Church of Rome may shed in Christendom And in
the Church But it so hapned that drawing out his Handkerchief in the Pulpit he let fall a Letter which the Sexton found and brought to the Dean which was as follows Brother THe Council of our Fraternity have thought fit to send you David George Theodorns Sartor and John Huts their Collections which you may distribute as you see fit for your purpose according to the peoples inclinations These mixtures with your own will not only a little puzzle the Vnderstandings of the Auditors but make your self famous We suppose your wants are not considerable at present by what we have heard how your flock do admire you every day more and more Be not over-zealous in your proceedings in the beginning but gradually win on them as you visit them and according as you find their inclinations to your design let us hear how you have proceeded for it will satisfie your Brethren much and inable them the better to instruct you for the future Hallinghan Benson and Coleman have set a Faction among the German Hereticks so that several who have turned from us have now denied their Baptism which we hope will soon turn the scale and bring them back to their old principles This we have certified to the Council and Cardinals That there is no other way to prevent people from turning Hereticks and for recalling of others back again to the Mother-Church than by the diversities of Doctrines We all wish you to prosper Sam. Malt. Madrid Oct. 26. 1568. This Letter was directed under the name of Thomas Finne and Malt was known to be an English Jesuite at Madrid in Spain and Hallingham Coleman and Benson with one Button and some others that went under the notion of zealous Preachers are noted by our Historians as active instruments of Separation among us whom the Letter calls German Hereticks i. e. Lutherans which Dr. Stillingfleet notes out of Mr. Cambden A. D. 1568. agreeing with the date of this Letter who says that while Harding Sanders and others attacked our Church on one side Coleman Button Hillingham Benson and others were busie on the other who under a pretence of purer Reformation opposed the Discipline Liturgie and Calling of our Bishops as approaching too near to the Church of Rome And these he notes to be the beginners of those Controversies which after broke out with so great violence Nec dum finitus Orestes So that while the Pope held the hot-Iron of Dissention on the Anvil the open Jesuite and the Masquerade Presbyter on each side beat with their Sledges to form the Project after his mind But upon the receipt of the Letter the Dean carried it to Edmond Gest then Bishop of Rochester who instantly caused the said Heath to be apprehended and examined and urging against him what he had said in his Sermon against the Liturgie and for Spiritual Prayers he confessed that he was not wholly of the Episcopal party of England but that he had laboured to refine the Protestants and to take off all Smacks of Ceremonies that in the least do tend to the Romish Faith He confessed also that he knew the said Sam. Malt but objected that the Letter was not directed to him but to one Thomas Finne which as the Bishop observed was usual among the Jesuites And to put the matter out of controversie the Bishop sent to Heaths Lodgings where in one of his Boots were found his Beads and a License from the Fraternity of the Jesuits and a Bull dated the first of Pius Quintus to preach what Doctrine that Society pleased for dividing of Protestants particularly naming the English as Hereticks In his Trunk were also several Books for denying Baptism to Infants and containing several blasphemies Heath being Convicted of these things in open Court the Bishop offered him that if he would discover for what causes he ran into those Schisms and reform his course of life he and the whole Court would intercede for his pardon and provide for his future maintenance To which he answered My Lord I know not what I might have done had I not been so publickly examined but seeing my vocation is so publickly known I shall not acknowledge my self to be guilty of any Misdemeanour for I have fought a good fight for Christ whose cause I have taken in hand This Experiment I tryed among my Country-men that the world may see that all those who term themselves Protestants are not of the Church of England though they speak against Rome The Bishop hearing him speak so obstinately said Behold my Brethren a Jesuits Confession how he hath declared he had set up a certain Form of Religion purposely to withdraw you from the Church of England but woe be to those deluders and to those that will be deluded by them we have a good Law and the light of the Holy Gospel now flourishing among us which hath for many years past been absconded therefore my Brethren consider the condition of your Souls if you start aside once from your Principles having the right way so plainly set before you you will not only run into Popish slavery again but be in peril of a total confusion of Soul and body And if Rome get once her foot on these dominions again not only your selves and your Children but your Princes and Nobles shall become slaves to her Idolatry Then was he remanded to prison and for three days brought to the Market-place at Rochester where he stood by the High-cross with a paper before his breast in which was written his Crimes then he was Pillored and on the last day his Ears cut off his Nose slit and his Forehead branded with the Letter R and was condemned to endure perpetual imprisonment But it lasted not long for a few Months after he dyed suddenly not without the suspition of having poysoned himself How many other Romish Emissaries did act after this manner is not known but certain it is that they had prevailed with too many to walk in their steps and to carry on the work in the same method that they had begun to make a Separation among us for the Authors of the Admonition in the 14 of Queen Elizabeth declared they would have neither Papists nor others constrained to Communicate which although as A.B. Whitgift saith they intended as a plea for their own Separation from the Church yet saith he the Papists could not have met with better Proctors and elsewhere he tells them that they did the Pope very good service and that he would not miss them for any thing for what is his desire but to have the Church of England which he hath accused utterly defaced and discredited by any means overthrown if not by Forreign Enemies yet by domestical Dissentions and what fitter and apter instruments could he have had for that purpose than you who under pretence of zeal overthrow that which other men have builded under colour of purity seeking to bring in deformity and under the cloak of equality and humility would
most as being Popishly inclined who have given the greatest demonstration of their opposition to it But to return If they wanted any numbers to petition for what they had in designe or any money to begin the Wars Mr. Pym and some other of the five Members were sent into the City who in conjunction with some eminent Preachers such as Mr. Marshal Calamy c. by their long Speeches and fair pretences deceived the hearts and opened the purses of the deluded people From hence came those Tumults that petitioned against the Bishops and Popish Lords and for the bringing the Earl of Strafford and the Archbishop to their Tryals The good Lord of Essex said He never knew but one Bishop viz. Bishop Williams who betrayed his Lord and Master that stood for the good of the Commonwealth As for the rest Mr. Nathaniel Fiennes made a large Speech to shew that Episcopacy was an Enemy to Monarchy whereas his Father spoke and printed to the contrary That the Bishops were too much devoted to the King And the young Gentleman was not long after condemed by Martial Law Now that the Papists had a great hand in our Troubles at home as well as in Scotland doth clearly appear from the Testimony of Sir Edward Cooke and other Transactions already mentioned But it will yet more evidently appear that the Popish Party were chief Agents in animating the English Rebels with whom they held correspondence to that end by the discovery made to Sir W. Boswel by one Andreas ab Habernfield and communicated to the Archbishop September 6. 1640. Which Relation Mr. Prynne found among the Archbishops Papers and caused it to be printed by Order of a Committee of the House of Commons Mr. Prynne urgeth many Arguments to evince the truth of that Plot and says That not onely he but the Parliament as well as the King and Archbishop did believe it and that he must be a Monster of incredulity that doth not believe it The particulars of the discovery that are most to our purpose are as follow 1. That the Discoverer was bred a Papist and an Ecclesiastick and judged a fit person to be Coadjutor to Con the Popes Nuntio by Cardinal Barbarino who under the Pope was made President of the Congregation of Jesuits in England for propagation of Religion But the horrour of this Plot which was to destroy the King and the Archbishop and involve three Nations in Bloud so troubled his Conscience that he not onely discovered the Plot but forsook the Religion that allowed of such bloudy practices 2. That from Con he received and dispatched all the intelligence concerning the Plot which was communicated to Con from a Consult of political Jesuits which met privately in the Province of Wales 3. That there were at least fifty Scotish Jesuits at that time in and about London That one Maxwell a Scotish Earl and Papist was sent into Scotland by the Popish Party with whom two other Scotish Earls were Correspondents whose business it was to excite the Scots to a Rebellion by aggravating the Actions of the English Court particularly the punishment of Prynne Burton and Bastwick and the imposing of the English Liturgie on them 4. That a Chaplain of Hamiltons the Kings Commissioner had often secret conference with Con concerning whom the Informer asking merrily whether the Jews also agreed with the Samaritans Con replied I would to God all Ministers were like him 5. That Cardinal Richlieu sent Mr. Tho. Chamberlain his Chaplain and Almoner to whom a Bishoprick was promised into Scotland who tarried there four months and was not to return till he brought good news 6. That Sir Toby Matthews a politick Jesuit did diligently enquire and transmit Intelligence to Rome 7. That in the house of one Capt. Read was a constant meeting of the Jesuits every Post-day where they received Letters from Rome and made returns in feigned names 8. That Mr. Porter and Windebank the Lord Arundel and his Countess the Countess of Buckingham and others were privy to the Plot and betrayed the Kings Counsels Upon the whole Mr. Prynne makes these remarks That the Conspirators have almost brought their designe to maturity to our shame and grief by new-raised Civil Wars both in England and Ireland but he adds not a word of Scotland That Secretary Windebank and Captain Read with some others went secretly into Ireland to raise a Rebellion there who assured them that there would be such Broils in England that no Force could be sent thence But not a word yet of what was done in Scotland where they were in actual Arms against the King and ceased not till they had effected the death of the Archbishop and the King as this discovery had foretold I shall adde an Observation of Hammond L'Estrange The Presbyterian Party saith he were not the onely men in the Conspiracy â— for in case of general disturbances nothing iâ— more familiar than for several Factions of contrary inclinations and interests to unite aiming at their own several ends And a foul blemish it would have been to the Society of Jesus should they have sate still in a work so proper to their Employment as these Scotish Broils Though they did not reach at the external glory of the Enterprize which they rendred to the Presbyterians yet were they as diligent in their Machinations as possibly they could be hoping to be greatest gainers at last But the Jesuits had done their business having set their Journey-men at work both in England and Scotland and they were ready as Auxiliaries to assist them to which end they mix themselves with the Councils and Armies both of England and Scotland obstructing all Overtures and Treaties of Peace It was not for any love to the King or his Cause that some few of them engaged with his Party but to help on the publick Calamity of the two Nations and to keep on the Wars that they might raise themselves on the ruines of both Parties For that there were more Papists engaged with the Parliament-Armies than the King 's appears by his Majesties Declaration after the Fight at Edghill Oct. 1643. All men know the great number of Papists Commanders and others that serve in their Armies the great industry they used to corrupt the Loyalty and affection of Our loving Subjests of that Religion the private promises and undertakings that they made if they would assist them against Vs all the Laws made in their prejudice should be repealed when nothing could prevail with Vs to invite them to Our Succour or recal Our Proclamation which forbad them so to do We know that a far greater number of Papists are in their Army than Our own And one Robert de Salmonet a Popish Priest and Scotish man who wrote a History of our Wars in French saith of this Fight That which most surprised every one was that they found among the dead at Edge-hill several Popish Priests For although in their Declarations they called the Kings Army
Worcester-fight was so great that he prevailed to have the King driven thence to seek his safety in other Countries And it is credibly reported that Cromwel maintained or encouraged a company of Benedictine Monks to betray the Kings Counsels That Manning who was executed beyong the Seas for disclosing the Kings Counsels was a Papist and had Masses sung for him after his death That Lambert who had been suspected as a Papist thirty years with the help of a Popish Priest contrived Cromwels new Government And the Jesuits perceiving that if the Scotish and English Presbyterians should cleerly and entirely grasp the power of the Nation it would be a difficult task to take it out of their hands they abetted the Independent party and other growing Sects they mixed themselves with their Counsels and Armies as Mr. Prynne affirmed And a good Author says that a Protestant Gentleman met with about thirty of them at one time between Roan and Diep who enquiring their design and they taking him for one of their party was informed by them that they were going into England and would take Arms in the Independant Army and endeavour to be Agitators and what work those creatures made is too well known Nor is it less notorious who they were that pleaded so strenuously for Liberty of Conscience Such Tracts as directly urged the Toleration of Popery as well as of other Sects were penned and dispersed by the Jesuits and the Indulgence granted to them by Cromwel who was never known to punish any of them for their Recusancy as long as they served his interest argues his connivance if not his approbation of them By these was that Treatise of Father Parsons concerning the Succession under the Title of Doleman Reprinted and dispersed to keep us in confusion Then it was that White wrote his Jesuitical books and Milton seconded him And the Pamphlets written to justifie the Proceedings of the Army were dictated or written by the Jesuits In the year 1652. William Birchly published a Treatise called The Moderator or Persecution for Religion condemned In a Postscript to which he says that he subscribed his name according to an Order of Parliament yet is not ashamed to say that he had his Arguments from some of the Romish Priests for a Toleration of whom he pleads as passionately as if a whole Consult of them had penned the Pamphlet And a good Author saith he hath been credibly informed that a Jesuit of St. Omers declared that they were Twenty years in hammering out the Sect of the Quakers And whoever considers the Tenets of that Sect will easily see whose off-spring they are They refuse all Oaths which serves the Jesuits to evade the Tests of the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy they despite the Scriptures as the Jesuits do they contemn our Sacraments especially the Eucharist as the Papists do vilifie the Ministers and in matters of Doctrine have a great analogie with the Papists Dr. Oates his Narrative and Depositions Paragraph 34. speaks of the Jesuits and one Green with eight other Fifth Monarchy-men who clubbed together for firing the City of London I have told you what White the Jesuit did and that wretched Milton Cromwel's Secretary who had been at Rome and in his writings speaks of great kindness received there and holding correspondence with some Italians could have no other design in printing those books of Divorce against Tythes and Clergy-men and to justifie the Regicides but to bring us to Atheism first and then to Confusion He was by very many suspected to be a Papist and if Dr. Oates may be believed was a known frequenter of the Popish Club though he were Cromwel's Latine Secretary The same Dr. tells us that a Party of the Jesuits at Putney were the Projectors of our troubles and the Kings ruine That they broke up the Treaty at Vxbridge That a Popish Lord brought a Petition to the Regicides signed by above 500 Papists promising That on condition of a Toleration they would exclude the Family of the Stuarts from the Crown Having said so much to prove the agreement of Papists and Fanaticks for the destruction of the Government of Church and State I shall add a few lines to vindicate the Chief Governours from those accusations of Popery which were charged on them In the year 1658. ten years after the death of the Royal Martyr Mr. Baxter prints his Grotian Religion and through Grotius's sides strikes at the heads and members of the Church of England with the same blow One reason of condemning Grotius as a Papist may be the Character which he gives of such men in his Book de Antichristo Circumferamus oculos per omnem Historiam quod unquam seculum vidit tot subditorum in Principes bella sub religionis titulo horum concitatores ubique reperiuntur Ministri Evangelici ut quidam se vocant Quod genus hominum in quae pericula etiam nunc optimos Civitatis Amstelodamensis Magisiratus conjicerit videat si cui libet de Presbyterorum in Reges audacia librum Jacobi Britanniarum Regis cui nomen Donum Regium videbit eum ut erat magni judicii ea praedixisse quae nunc cum dolore horrore conspicimus For the Grotian design i. e. Popery saith he was carrying on in the Church of England and this was the cause of all our Wars and changes p. 105. where he thus talks of the Royal Martyr beyond any thing that his barbarous Judges could accuse him of How far the King was inclined to a reconciliation with the Church of Rome saith Mr. Baxter I onely desire you to judge First by the Articles of the Spanish and French Match sworn to Secondly by his Letter to the Pope written in Spain Thirdly by his choice of Agents in Church and State Fourthly by the residence of the Popes Nuntio here and the Colledge of the Jesuits c. Fifthly by the illegal Innovations in Worship so resolvedly gradatim introduced All which I speak not with the least desire to perswade men that he was a Papist but onely to shew that while he as a moderate Protestant i. e. a Papist in Masquerade as they are now termed took hands with the Queen a moderate Papist the Grotian Design had great advantage in England which he himself boasted of p. 106. Of this indignity to that Religious Prince the learned Bishop Bramhal p. 617. of his Works took notice and vindicated him Of which Mr. B. being informed he says p. 100. of his Defence that he printed the contrary in times of Vsurpation and that the Informer could not prove it and that Bishop Bramhal was a Calumniator The Book he refers to was I suppose dedicated to Richard Cromwell whom he did not call an Vsurper but one who piously prudently and faithfully to his immortal honour exercised the Government 1659. Where p. 327. having accused the Now Episcopal party for following Grotius he says As for the King himself that was their Head
would be sooner drawn off from them than any of that Nation would fall off to Rome Some things are objected against him in relation to the Doctrine and Devotion of the Church as That the Church of Rome was held to be a true Church That the Pope hath a primacy over other Bishops That it appertains to him to call General Councils That Altars might be erected That he was not willing the Pope should be called Antichrist or that every raw Preacher should trouble his people with Popish Controversies Some of which were false Insinuations and others vain and frivolous In the Liturgies of Henry the 8th and Edward the 6th was this Expression From the Tyranny of the Bishop of Rome and all his detestable Enormities Good Lord c. Which words were expunged in the first of Queen Elizabeth lest they should affright the Catholicks from coming to our Churches on which ground the Archbishop finding in a Book of Prayer for the fifth of November not confirmed by Law these passages Root out the Babylonish and Antichristian Sect which say of Jerusalem Down with it c. And again Cut off those workers of iniquity whose Religion is Rebellion and whose Faith is Faction He made these small alterations In the first thus Root out the Babylonish and Antichristian Sect of them which say c. In the second thus Cut off those workers of iniquity who turn Religion into Rebellion c. Against which some being conscious it was intended against them made Objections Which the Archbishop did onely to avoid the giving of causeless offences to the Romish Party Which doubtless he endeavoured with all his skill to suppress And besides his learned Disputations against them he procured a Canon to be pass'd in the Convocation For suppressing the further growth of Popery and reducing Papists to Church and issued very strict and effectual Orders for the execution thereof But it was the method whether of the Jesuits or Puritans or both to defame them most for Papists who acted most successfully against them as did this Bishop and Bishop Bramhall A passage or two in the Archbishop's Speech at his death may satisfie all sober Readers I pray God says he the clamours of venient Romani of which I have given no cause help not to bring them in Concerning the King I shall be bold to say He hath been much traduced for bringing in of Popery but on my Conscience of which I shall give God a very present account I know him to be as free from this charge as any man living and I hold him to be as sound a Protestant according to the Religion by Law established as any man in this Kingdom and that he will venture his life as far and as freely for it And I think I do or should know both his affection to Religion and his grounds for it as fully as any man in England For my self I was born and baptized in the Church of England and the Religion by Law established in that I have ever since lived and in that I come now to die This is no time to dissemble with God least of all in matters of Religion and therefore I desire it may be remembred I have always lived in the Protestant Religion established in England and in that I come now to die What clamours and slanders I have endured for labouring a Vniformity in the external Service of God according to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church all men know and I have abundantly felt We have observed the Principles of Jesuits and Fanaticks wherein they agree and have joyntly acted against the Government in Church and State for the ruine of both and how like Janus his head they did not onely look backward to the Justification of the Murther of the old King but forward to prevent the Restauration of his present Majesty And hitherto their Practices have been according It remains now that we consider what these Factions have practised to hinder that happy Restauration by Gods miraculous providence and the wise conduct of the noble General Monk now established What the Popish Party did to hinder him from coming to his Fathers Throne hath been partly discovered already I shall now shew what the Fanaticks did And will begin with the Scots who called him home first to vex and torment him with their unrighteous dealings and temptations between hopes and fears and affronted him with unsufferable Reproaches for the sins of his Father and Grandfather as well as his own insomuch that he often attempted to leave them fearing as it came to pass that they would at last betray him What provocations he met with in private may be guessed at by their publick actions The Thursday before the Coronation was seâ— apart as a Solemn day of Humiliation for the sins of the Royal Family and Robert Douglas in the Coronation-Sermon told the King That his Grandfather King James remembred not the kindness of them who had held the Crown upon his head yea he persecuted faithful Ministers he never rested till he had undone Presbyterial Government and Kirk-Assemblies setting up Bishops and bringing in Ceremonies and laid the foundation whereon his Son our late King diâ— build much mischief in Religion all the days of his life p. 73. And p. 52. he tells our Soveraign to his face That a King abusing his power to the overthrow of Religion Laws and Liberties which are the Fundamentals of that Covenant may be controuled and opposed and if he set himself to overthrow all these by Arms they who have the power as the Estates of the Land may and ought to resist by Arms because he doth by that opposition break the very Bonds and overthrow the Essentials of this Contract and Covenant This may serve says he to justifie the proceedings of this Kingdom against the late King who in a hostile way set himself to overthrow Religion Parliaments Laws and Liberties Thus was the Scotish Crown lined with Thorns and the King had Gall and Vinegar given him to drink instead of the Royal Vnction of which he says p. 34. The Bishops behoved to perform this Right and the King behoved to be sworn to them but now by the blessing of God Popery and Prelacy are removed let the anointing of Kings with Oyl go to the door with them and let them never come in again So that although the Scots Army were overthrown at Worcester yet his Majesty escaping with safety and liberty by a wonderful Providence he was as the event now shews a very great Gainer by that Loss And as to his Majesties return into England it is very evident that they had not forgotten their old Doctrine of binding their Kings in Chains and therefore they endeavoured to lay such Conditions and Fetters on the King as neither his Father could nor He would be able to bear As soon as ever the General 's intent to bring home the King was known there were frequent and zealous Applications made That
the godly Ministers of the Land might be provided for and the King might be a Covenanting King And he was dehorted from calling him home by one Mr. Baxter Because as he said Profaneness was so inseparable from the Royal Party that if ever the King returned the power of Godliness would be lost The same person being admitted to preach before that remainder of the House of Commons when they were consulting to call home the King he delivered not one word that might promote that Noble Designe but many things that might hinder or clog it with very dishonourable terms He intimates the Supreme Power to be still in the two Houses according to his Holy Commonwealth's Maximes He says indeed That Rom. 13. is part of the Rule of his Religion but adds There hath unhappily been a difference amongst us which is the Higher Power but he was fully of the mind as he had formerly declared That it was in the two Houses and therefore he adds It was not the intent of St. Peter or St. Paul to determine whether the Emperour or the Senate were Supreme In the same Humiliation-Sermon he magnifies the Loyalty of the Presbyterians adjures the Commons to oppose Episcopacy though the King in his Message commended it to be as ancient as the Monarchy in this Island and under the titles of sound Doctrine and Church-Government pleads for Presbytery and that the Church-Revenues might be setled on them p. 46. saying Give first to God the things that are Gods For them he pleads as being the godly peaceable and prudent people of the Land in opposition to Profaness And to insinuate new fears and jealousies cries out O what happy times did we once see He did not mean the peaceable time of King Charles the First those were in his account days of Profaness and Persecution He must mean either under the Long Parliament or some other of the Revolutions of Government when he was a Souldier or enjoyed a Sequestration and Plunder c. And yet this man boasteth that the King was voted home the next day after that Sermon of his as if that had not been done if he had not preached whereas he seems to me to be of the same mind that he was of a year before when he declared p. 486. of Holy Com. That having often searched into his heart whether he did lawfully engage in the first War or not and encouraged so many thousands he could not see that he was mistaken in the main Cause nor dares he repent of it nor forbear doing the same if it were to do again in the same state of things There is one mysterious transaction of the Fanatick Party whereby they endeavoured to impose upon the King before his return they had it seems drawn up some Heads in favour of Presbytery and to the prejudice of the Episcopal Government which they desired the King to publish in a Declaration and the King in compliance with the exigency of the times and the necessity of his own affairs did publish in a Declaration from Breda but with a Reservation expressed therein That he would leave the particulars therein mentioned to be considered and established by a free Parliament To this Declaration saith Mr. Baxter p. 87. of part 2. of his third Plea they would have conformed on this Supposition that the Species of Prelacy was altered by it And Mr. B. foreseeing that the Episcopal Party would be grieved by it makes this Objection against those that extorted that Declaration in the name of the Bishops Object You did but obtrude on us your own Opinions for when you had drawn up most of those words his Majesty was forced to seem for the present to grant them to you To this Mr. B. answers If we did offer such things which is a confession let the world judge what we sought by them viz. by your own confession to change the Species of Episcopal Government 2. He says There is most of that about rural Deans put in I suppose by the Bishops consent after it went FROM US So that it is evident that they did what they could to bring the King under their Chains before he came to his Crown and had not a superiour power by the conduct of the ever-renowned General otherwise determined he should have been a King and no King to this day But in a free and full Parliament the Ancient Government was established in its full splendour to the great regret of these unpeaceable men And whereas his Majesty desired them to read so much of the Common-Prayer as they had no just exceptions against we heard not of any compliance to that just desire though they confessed they could use the greatest part of it But instead thereof they clamour for a Reformation of Doctrie Discipline and Worship and petition his Majesty that some Divines of both Parties might be employed to compile such a new Form as they there described or at least to revise and reform the old c. The King denies the first part viz. of making a new Liturgie having in his Declaration of Octob. 5. expressed his esteem of the Old but grants the second and issues out his Commission to that end impowering them to compare it with the most ancient Liturgies and to make such reasonable and necessary alterations and amendments as should be thought fit avoiding all unnecessary abbreviations of the Forms wherewith the people were acquainted But instead of this they draw up another Liturgie or rather Directory which was penned by Mr. Baxter as he says in eight days and against the consent of the greatest part offers that in opposition to the established Liturgie And in a threatning Petition for Peace p. 5. he thus speaks Take heed how you drive men by penalties on that which they judge doth tend to their damnation And p 14. The denial of their desires would renew all our troubles And they also desire the King to leave out of his Declaration these words We do not in our judgments believe the practice of those particular Ceremonies we except against to be in it self unlawful i. e. we do account them sinful And in the close of the second Paper they tell the King if he grant those favours It would revive their hearts to pray for his prosperity but p. 12. should we lose the opportunity of our desired Reconciliation it astonisheth us to foresee what doleful effects our Divisions would produce which we will not mention in particular lest our words should be misunderstood Mr. Baxter made a Prognostication dated 1661. When by the Kings Commission says he we in vain treated for Concord to tell the Bishops what they are and what they must expect That they are worldly proud covetous domineering malignant and lazy the plague of the world troublers of Princes and dividers of Churches p. 32. p. 9. 12 13. and animates the people to revile p. 14. 20. 22. and which is notorious p. 28. n. 105. That where PAPISTS OR
merciless Souldiers Mr. Baxter approving of the inhumanity by feeding his eyes with so bloudy and barbarous a Spectacle For the truth of which we have this Subscription I Thomas Jennings subscribe to the truth of this Narrative above-mentioned and have hereunto put my Hand and Seal the second day of March 1681 2. Signed and sealed in the presence of John Clerk Minister of Wiche Tho. Darke But to return That which I desire the Reader chiefly to observe is that all the designes of the Dissenting Parties ever since Q. Elizabeth's time have been ushered in with Remonstances and Intelligences of Popish Plots and Massacres and the change of our Religion and loss of Liberties This is the common Prologue to all their intended Tragedies as in the Plot of Tong and his Confederates Sir Jo. Maynard observed About five thousand Letters were to be dispersed through the Nation to possess the people that the Papists would about that time massacre the Protestants which was done says he to raise a fear and discontent in the Nation to induce them to joyn in the designe which was to kill the King and alter the Government The Letter then read in Court was to this effect SIR OVt of the respect which I bear to you in particular and to the Protestant party in general I give you notice of this passage About a fortnight since a woman which you must be ignorant where who had it from a correspondent of the Papists that they intend to make use of their Army which all the world sees they have provided against All-Hallow's Eve next It was thought good therefore in as prudent a way as may be to give notice to our friends in remote parts that they may do what Piety to God Loyalty to their Prince Love to their Country and self-preservation should direct them Sir I call the Eternal God to witness that 't is not to trepan to put a trick upon you but a sober truth and also communicated to a Justice of Peace and by him to the Privy-Council c. Another Intrigue of the two Factions was to effect the dissolution of the late long Parliament of whose Loyalty and love to the Church the King had such signal proofs that he kept them between fourteen and fifteen years together notwithstanding many attempts to have them dissolved They found all things in confusion and met with great difficulties and opposition the Revenues of the Crown were exhausted the Church was razed to the very foundations and the Three Kingdoms turn'd into that which the Factions called a Common-wealth but indeed was a Common woe but by their Conduct the Kings Revenues were increased to such a competency as might support the Royal Crown and dignity and freed Him from that precarious and necessitous condition which was the occasion of his Royal Fathers ruine the Church also was by good and wholsome Laws so well established for holiness and beauty too as that it was once more the envy of the Factions The Laws made for conformity to the Publick Worship were so full that there needed nothing but a due execution of them to destroy the Separation And as to Popery the old Laws were not only revived but a new Test contrived to discover and disable those of that Perswasion from doing mischief There was a Bill prepared by the House of Lords for securing the Protestant Religion as it was then established especially against Popery which was so contrived by a select Committee of the most Religious and Loyal Lords Spiritual and Temporal that the Popish Party said If that past into an Act they must expect fire and faggot These things exasperated both Parties The Earl of Shaftsbury who had been of all parties but never true to the interest of any had serew'd himself into the quality of a Chief Minister of State but not content therewith he aspired to ingross the whole conduct of Affairs both at home and abroad which the King and his Royal Brother not permitting he became an enemy to both and made it his business to perplex and embroil the affairs of the Three Nations And the better to effect it made himself the Head of the Fanatick Party who thinking themselves oppressed for want of liberty to ruine themselves and others and finding no hopes of such a liberty from that Parliament used all possible arts to bring it into contempt in order to its dissolution being confident that if that could be effected they should be able to make such a choice of Parliament-men against another Session as would espouse their interest And indeed they were not deceived for in the succeeding Parliaments they had retrieved the Good old Cause if the great prudence of His Majesty and the Religious Loyalty of the House of Peers had not prevented it And herein they might be assured of the mutual assistance of the Popish party who had conceived as great a prejudice against this Parliament as the other and whose hopes were grounded on our Divisions which they also in conjunction with the Fanaticks thought would most probably be effected by the new Election of Parliament-men Coleman is made chief Agent of the Popish party upon whom though Shaftsbury looked asquint yet they both acted the same thing viz. the dissolution of the Parliament Some said they were a company of young raw States-men that granted whatever the King desired without any deliberation To this the King answered that if they were young and beardless now he would keep them till their beards were grown and they had got more experience Then comes forth in print a Narrator which tells the people that the House of Commons are a company of indigent and out-lawed persons The Court-Favourites or the Dukes Creatures and Pensioners to the King of France and as such the Names of the most Loyal Members were posted up in the City and published in the Country to render them odious and uncapable of another Election The Bishops also are reviled as in 41 as being Popishly affected At length the King having for reasons best known to himself Prorogued this Parliament for fifteen Months being to meet again on the fifteenth of February 1675. they were no sooner met but the Earl of Shaftsbury had got a small Party in the House of Lords to question the legality of their sitting as a Parliament And first the Duke of Buckingham insists 4 Edw. 3. c. 14. 36 Edw. 3. o. 10. that there being divers Acts of Parliament is force for Annual Parliaments this Prorogation for fifteen Months made those Acts impracticable and so in effect the Parliament was dissolved This Motion and Argument was followed by the Earls of Shaftsbury Salisbury and the Lord Wharton but so ill resented by the House of Lords that they were all four sent to the Tower Yet the dispute ended not here for several Pamphlets are written and dispersed to perswade the people that the Parliament was actually dissolved and they were now only a Convertion and no Parliament
must die as well as others and they have not alway the choice of their Successors He had intimated what one such man as Felton could do and that some great men might be dealt with as Cardinal Beton was The King must be delivered from evil Counsellors and the House purged of Pensioners Petitions are procured from the City and thanks given the Petitioners for their care c. Appeals are made to them and the people who are encouraged to joyn Tumults with their Petitions Mr. Hunt p. 30. of his Preface says So strong is the tye of duty on him i. e. the King from his Office to prevent publick calamities as no respect whatsoever no not of the right Line can discharge nor will he himself ever think if duly addressed that it can And p. 34. At this time if ever the applications of an active prudence are required from all honest men If any loyal persons make their Addresses and publish their dislike of such Seditious Petitioners they are branded as Abhorrers as if the Votes for No more Addresses to the King in 1648. were still in force The lawfulness of Resistance is publickly printed and even to this day defended by several Writers Page 22. of Mr. Hunt The Nation says he begins to be impatient by the delays of publick Justice against the Popish Plot That the dissolution of Parliaments gives us cause to fear that the King hath no more business for Parliaments p. 27. That the number of the Addressers may be reduced to the Dukes Pensioners That the Addresses were obtained by application and the designe was to make Voites for discontinuance of Parliaments and for a Popish Successor And p. 12. That such as plead for the established Government are a hired sort of Scaramouchy Zanies Merry Andrews and Jack Puddings That the Succession to the Crown is the Peoples Right And to this end Doleman or Parsons the Jesuit's Tract of Succession is reprinted and recommended to the People And p. 172. the King is told if he will follow the counsel of that excellent Bill he may live long and see good days as if he were in danger if it pass'd not and so he expresseth p. 171. If this Bill do not pass they will take him for a wicked King too viz. as they took his Father and will say he hath no lawful Issue to succeed him for his own sins and many other remarks of wickedness will they make on him And as to the Duke he adds p. 193. Let him attempt the Crown notwithstanding an Act of Parliament for his Exclusion he is all that while but attempting to make us miserable If he be not excluded he doth it certainly and we will not entail a War upon the Nation though for the sake and interest of the glorious Family of the Stuarts And to effect this he tells the People That the Original and Rise of Government is in the People and that as they gave so they may take it away as they see occasion That Government is the perfect creature of men in society made by pact and consent and not otherwise most certainly not otherwise and therefore most certainly ordainable by the whole Community for the safety and preservation of the whole The active men of the Fanatick Party had with great industry and cost got in many Members to serve in Parliament of whom they had a very great confidence that they would promote their designes Those men that had been actually in Arms against the Royal Martyr are now esteemed the Patriots of their Country and such as acted loyally are branded fined and imprisoned The Earl of Sh. who had caused the Exchequer to be shut up broken the Triple League and advised a Delenda Carthago being now discontented by reason of a Pique between his Royal Highness and himself is made the Head of the Faction and either he or the Duke must fall and no consideration is had whether the King and Kingdom fall with the Duke or not Certain it is that by the intended Association whereof I shall here give you a Copy it was intended to reduce the Government to a Commonwealth WE the Knights c. finding to the great grief of our hearts the Popish Priests and Jesuits with the Papists and their Adherents and Abettors have for several years last past pursued a most pernicious and hellish Plot to root out the true Protestant Religion as a pestilent Heresie to take away the Life of our gracious King to subvert our Laws and Liberties and to set up Arbitrary Power and Popery And it being notorious that they have been highly encouraged by the countenance and protection given and procured for them by J. D. of Y. and by their expectations of his succeeding to the Crown and that through crafty Popish Counsels his Designes have so far prevailed that he hath created many and great Dependents upon him by his bestowing Offices and Preferments both in Church and State It appearing also to us That by his influence mercenary Forces have been levied and kept on foot for his secret Designes contrary to our Laws the Officers thereof having been named and appointed by him to the apparent hazard of his Majesties Person our Religion and Government if the danger had not been timely foreseen by several Parliaments and part of those Forces with great difficulty caused by them to be disbanded at the Kingdoms great Expence And it being evident that notwithstanding all the continual endeavours of the Parliament to deliver his Majesty from the counsels and out of the power of the said D. yet his Interest in the Ministers of State and others have been so prevalent that Parliaments have been unreasonably prorogued and dissolved when they have been in hot pursuit of the Popish Conspiracies and ill Ministers of State their Assistants And that the said D. in order to reduce all into his own power hath procured the Garisons the Arms and Ammunition and all the power of the Seas and Souldiery and Lands belonging to these three Kingdoms to be put into the hands of his Party and their Adherents even in opposition to the Advice and Order of the last Parliament And as we considering with heavy hearts how greatly the Strength Reputation and Treasure of the Kingdom both at Sea and Land is wasted and consumed and lost by the intricate expensive management of these wicked destructive Designes and finding the same Councils after exemplary Justice upon some of the Conspirators to be still pursued with the utmost devillish Malice and desire of Revenge whereby his Majesty is in continual hazard of being murdered to make way for the said D.'s advancement to the Crown and the whole Kingdom in such case is destitute of all security of their Religion Laws Estates and Liberty sad experience in the case Queen Mary having proved the wisest Laws to be of little force to keep out Popery and Tyranny under a Popish Prince We have therefore endeavoured in a Parliamentary way by a
was forming some Villains were carrying on that horrid and execrable Plot of Assassinating his Majesties person and his dearest Brother And a Massacre was to follow wherein they principally designed for slaughter the Officers of State the present Lord Mayor and Sheriffs of London and others that had been most eminent for Loyalty Upon which Discovery James Duke of Monmouth the Lord Melvin Sir Jo. Cockrane Sir Thomas Armstrong Robert Ferguson Richard Goodenough Francis Goodenough Richard Rumbold William Rumbold Richard Nelthorp Nathaniel Wade William Tompson James Burton Joseph Elby Samuel Gibbs Francis Charleton Joseph Tyley Casteers and Lobb two Nonconformist-preachers Edward Norton John Row John Ayloff and John Atherton fled from Justice Ford Lord Grey made his escape Arthur Earl of Essex killed himself in the Tower William Lord Russel Thomas Walcot William Hone and John Rous were on their Tryals convicted and executed And it is observable that each of them confessed enough to clear the Justice of the Nation The most that they could plead for themselves was that their Crime could amount onely to misprision of Treason Algernoon Sidney another of the Conspirators was tryed condemned and executed afterward who professed to die for the Old Cause wherein he had been engaged from his youth And indeed he was so far engaged that being named for one of the Royal Martyr's Judges he often appeared at his Tryal And Manus haec inimica Tyrannis was his Motto The Earl of Shaftsbury had been indicted of High-Treason 24 Novemb. 1681. for endeavouring to depose and put to death the King and levy war within the Kingdom he having declared That in a short time the Parliament was to sit at Oxford and that he had inspected the Elections and was satisfied that the Parliament would insist on three matters viz. The Bill of Exclusion against the Duke of York The abolishing the Act of Parliament of the 35 of Queen Elizabeth and a new Bill for uniting Protestant Dissenters which he was confident the King would not consent to and if so that he and other Lords had provided strength to compel him under the command of Captain Wilkinson and John Booth he declared the King to be a man of no faith and there was no trust in him That he deserved to be deposed as well as King Richard the second And the said Earl further declared That 〈◊〉 would not desist till he brought this Kingdom 〈◊〉 a Commonwealth as Holland was That the King was a man of an unfaithful heart not fâ—â— to rule and govern being false unjust and crueâ— to his people and if he would not be governed they would depose him Though the Witnesseâ— swore positively to the particulars yet there was such a Jury provided as brought in an Ignoramus Sir Sam. Bernardiston being their Foreman who hath since been found guilty of Misdemeanors of a high nature During the late seditious Stirs and Tumults none was more active than one Stephen Colledge a Joyner of London a pragmatical person that pleased himself with the title of The Protestant Joyner he had been busie for a long time sowing Sedition and talking Treason so openly that his Friends advised him to forbear lest he came to the Gallows He made it his business to serve some dissenting Lords boasting of his acquaintance with the Earl of Shaftsbury Lords Gray Howard Clare Huntington Pagit Lovelace c. He had fitted his Raree Show and scandalous Songs and Pictures reflecting on the Royal Family The sole pretence for his treasonable actions was his zeal against Papists who he said had feigned seventeen or eighteen Sham-plots against the Protestants he affirmed that London was to be seized by the Papists and that they had a designe against the Parliament at Oxford and therefore he with some others whom he had perswaded came well armed thither Divers Ribbons were provided as a mark of distinction bearing this Motto NO POPERY NO SLAVERY one of which he gave to Turbervil and it was proved as the Lord Chief Justice said at the close of the Tryal whom he called Papists The King was a Papist the Bishops and the Church of England were Papists He was indicted for High-Treason the 17 and 18 of August 1681 it being proved that he said That nothing of good was to be expected from the King That he minded nothing but beastliness and the destruction of the people That he endeavoured to establish Arbitrary Government and Popery Dugdale Smith and Turbervil who had been Witnesses against the Lord Stafford were of the Evidence against him though there were enough if these had been laid aside to have proved him guilty Mr. Masters testified against him p. 31. That he said The Parliament in 1640. was as good a Parliament as ever was chosen To which Mr. Masters answered I wonder how you have the impudence to justifie their proceedings that raised the Rebellion against the King and cut off his head To which Colledge replied They did nothing but what they had just cause for and the Parliament at Westminster was of their Opinion p. 31. And being demanded what he had to say against this testimony he answers That Mr. Masters had said nothing material and that it was but a jocose discourse p. 39. To which Mr. Justice Jones replied Do you make mirth of the blackest Tragedy that ever was that horrid Rebellion and the murther of the late King Colledge answered I never justified that Parliament in any thing that they did contrary to Law One Mr. Jennings who was another Witness testified that on the bleeding of Colledge's Nose he said It was the first bloud that he lost in the Cause but it will not be long ere more be lost He saw him sell the Ribbons with NO POPERY NO SLAVERY to a Parliament-man as he supposed who tyed it on his Sword c. p. 32. It is observed in the Tryal that there was not one Papist that gave evidence against him and that they were such of whom Colledge had formerly given a good Character though now the case was altered The Jury were so well satisfied with the Evidence that they quickly agreed and brought him in guilty and so he was condemned and executed at Oxford on Wednesday 31 of August 1681. Captain Tho. Walcot was indicted for High-Treason at the Old-Baily July 12 c. 1683. for endeavouring to move and stir up War and Rebellion against the King to deprive the King of his Crown and to put him to death for which he conspired with divers other Traytors and had several meetings and consults to those ends and provided Blunderbusses Carbines and Pistols c. Which being proved by Col. Rumsey Mr. Keeling Mr. Bourne Mr. West and Captain Richardson he was found guilty sentenced and executed Then was William Hone arraigned on the like Indictment the Evidence against him were Mr. Keeling Mr. West Sir Nicholas Butler and Capt. Richardson upon whose testimonies he was found guilty and executed also July 13. the Lord Russel was tryed for
Johnson for fear of being knockt on the head he desires the Knights directions in the management He says Mr. Braddon has been at great charge and trouble already and he knows few that would have undertaken it but himself And all this pains was taken to insinuate to the people that because the King and Duke were that morning walking in the Tower about the time this Murder was done therefore they designed it How base how devilish and hellish a designe is this as my Lord Chief Justice justly exclaims After a long and fair Tryal they were found guilty but continued under Bail till next Term when on April 21. Braddon was Fined 2000 l. and to find Sureties for good behaviour during life and be imprisoned till performed and Speke as being not so guilty being onely concern'd in the Letter 1000 l. with Sureties also for good behaviour during life and imprisonment till performed Among the rest of the late Conspirators was one James Holloway a forward busie young man Inhabitant of Bristol who having been acquainted with all the Methods and attended on all the motions of the Designe without effect blessed be God till its discovery then sensible of his guilt and danger thought it time to consult his own safety and leaving London in a disguise he ranged several parts of England as a dealer in Wool till he could find an opportunity to take shipping which having obtained he set sail and after some loss of time by stress of Weather he made Antegua in the West-Indies resolving to visit the rest of the Caribby Islands also and so to St. Christophers which he judging to be the safest place sent thence to his Factor at Nevis about some concerns he had there which Factor discovered him whereupon Sir William Stapleton sent to St. Christophers to apprehend him and thence brought him to Nevis where he was prisoner thirteen days and then sent for England where being come he was examined before the King in Council and committed to Newgate till Easter-Term 1684. he was brought to the Kings Bench-Bar to shew cause why he should not suffer death he having been Outlawed for High-Treason in his absence He told the Court he had nothing to say having told all he knew to his Majesty from whom he hoped mercy The Court told him they had nothing to do with the Kings mercy but they had leave to let him take a Tryal notwithstanding the Outlawry whereby he might have opportunity to make his defence if he had any thing to say for himself But he declaring that he had nothing more to say a day was set by the Court for his execution as is usual in Outlawries which was done at Tyburn on the 30th of April 1684. He had liberty to speak there what he pleased and held a long Dialogue with the Sheriffs delivering them a Paper which he acknowledged to be his own writing which is a kind of Epitome of what he had before deliver'd to Mr. Secretary Jenkins And so after a short Prayer he was hang'd drawn and quarter'd and his Quarters brought back to Newgate and sent thence to Bristol which should have been the Scene of his activity in this cursed Tragedy He says in his Paper delivered to the Secretary that asking one Tyly of Bristol What News July 1681 he told him All naught and if some speedy course be not taken we shall be all undone for they have got Sheriffs to their minds naming North and Rich who will find Jurors to believe any evidence against a Protestant and so hang up all the Kings friends by degrees He told him also that all the Protestant Gentry naming the Earl of Shaftsbury Lord Howard of Escrick and others were come to a resolution seeing fair means would not do but all things on the Protestant side are misrepresented to the King by such great Criminals and none more in favour than those to take the King from his evil Counsel and that by an Insurrection in London Bristol Taunton Exeter Chester Newcastle York and other places in the North and that there would be a considerable party in Scotland and another in Ireland Mr. West told him there was a designe to take off the King and the Duke coming from Newmarket to prevent bloudshed Holloway dislikes that saying the designe was onely to take the King from his evil Counsel He calls it a PROTESTANT PLOT He saith to the Sheriff I hope it will be a satisfaction that there was a Plot. Again I pray God that no other people may concern themselves with Publick affairs out of their own way and that the Scriblers might be put down for they do more to the Kingdom than any thing else Which was both the beginning and end of his discourse with the Sheriffs And he begins his Paper left with the Sheriffs with exclaiming against Pamphleteers and News-Scriblers And afterwards And did by some Scriblers and News-mongers constantly know most publick affairs which they undertook to represent according to their own humour He declares his hearty sorrow for yielding thereto or acting therein being satisfied it might have caused very much bloudshed in the Nation He concludes I repent not my Confession and could I discover more would do it throughly though I find not mercy with man On Thursday Feb. 14. 1684. Sir Samuel Bernardiston was Tryed and Convicted for High Misdemeanour at the Sessions of Nisi Prius holden at Guild-hall London It was upon an Information exhibited by the Attorney-General wherein is set forth That there having been lately a horrid Plot discovered Sir Samuel Bernardiston intending to scandalize the Evidence wrote a Letter containing these Sentences The return of the Duke of Monmouth to White-hall and his being received into extraordinary Favour of his Majesty hath made a strange alteration of affairs at Court for those that before spake of him very indecently now court cringe and creep to him His Grace complained to the King of the scandalous misrepresentation that was made of him in the Mondays Gazette upon which the Gazetter was called to account for it who alleadged for himself that a Person of great Quality sent him in writing the words therein recited commanding him to put them in the Gazette Testerday being the last day of the Term all the Prisoners that were in the Tower upon the late Sham Protestant Plot were discharged upon Bail Mr. Braddon who prosecuted the Murder of the Earl of Essex the Information put in against him in the Kings-Bench by Mr. Attorney for a pretended Subornation c. was not prosecuted and his Bail was discharged And the passing Sentence upon the Author of Julian the Apostate and the Printer of the late Lord Russel's Speech was passed over with silence Great applications are made to his Majesty for the pardoning Mr. Sidney in the Tower which is believed will be attained and that he will be banished The Lord Howard appears despicable in the eyes of all men he is under guard at White-hall and
accused our Church and Government of Popery for retaining those innocent and indifferent things agreeable to the primitive practice to make a publick declaration of their abhorrence of Romish principles and practices such as I have already charged them withal To which I may adde their claiming of a Supremacy above Princes and Parliaments in matters Ecclesiastical and divers other things which are the most pernicious and Antichristian Doctrines and Practices of that Church which have drawn the greatest reproach and odium on the Reformation And if they would heartily perform this duty I doubt not but they would see a necessity of returning to the Communion of the Church as it is now established and to assist her in her conflicts against the Church of Rome than which there is no means more probable to keep out that Popery against which they pretend so great an aversion And to induce them hereunto I shall recommend to their serious consideration how far the Principles and Practices of the Jesuits under the name of Doleman and of the old Regicides under that of Bradshaw and our new Conspirators under the Notions of Sidney do agree as it is fitted to my hand in this Parallel THE PARALLEL 1. DOLEMAN THere can be no doubt but that the Commonwealth hath power to chuse their own fashion of Government as also to change the same upon reasonable Causes In like manner is it evident that as the Commonwealth hath this Authority to chuse and change her Government so hath she also to limit the same with what Laws and Conditions she pleaseth Conference about Succession part 1. cap. 1. pag 12 13. All Law both Natural National and Positive doth teach us That Princes are subject to Law and Order and that the Common-wealth which gave them their Authority for the common good of all may also restrain or take the same away again if they abuse it to the common evil The whole Body though it be governed by the Prince as by the Head yet is it not Inferiour but Superiour to the Prince Neither so giveth the Commonwealth her Authority and Power up to any Prince that she depriveth her self utterly of the same when need shall require to use it for her defence for which she gave it Part 1. cap. 4. pag. 72. And finally the Power and Authority which the Prince hath from the Common-wealth is in very truth not Absolute but Potestas vicaria delegata i. e. a Power Delegate or Power by Commission from the Commonwealth which is given with such Restrictions Cautels and Conditions yea with such plain Exceptions Promises and Oaths of both Parties I mean between the King and Commonwealth at the day of his Admission oâ— Coronation as if the same be not kept but wilfully broken on either Part then is the other not bound to observe his Promise neither though never so solemnly made or sworâ—â— Part 1. cap. 4. p. 73. By this then you see the ground whereon dependeth the righteous and lawful Deposition and Chastisement of wicked Princes viz. Their failing in their Oath and Promises which they made at their first entrance Then is the Commonwealth not onely free from all Oaths made by her of Obedience or Allegiance to such unworthy Princes but is bound moreover for saving the whole Body to resist chasten or remove such evil Heads if she be able for that otherwise all would come to Destruction Ruine and publick Desolation Part 1. cap. 4. p. 77 78. 2. BRADSHAW THe People of England as they are those that at the first as other Countries have done did chuse to themselves this Form of Government even for Justice sake that Justice might be administred that Peace might be preserved so Sir they gave Laws to their Governours according to which they should govern and if those Laws should have prov'd inconvenient or prejudicial to the Publick they had a Power in them and reserved to themselves to alter as they shall see cause Kings Tryal p. 64. CHARLES STUART King of England The Commons of England assembled in Parliament according to the fundamental Power that rests in themselves have resolved to bring you to Tryal and Judgment p. 29. If so be the King will go contrary to the end of his Government Sir he must understand that he is but an Officer of Trust and he ought to discharge that Trust and they are to take order for the Animadversion and Punishment of such an Offending Governour p. 65. Sir Parliaments were ordained for that purpose to redress the Grievances of the People And then Sir the Scripture says They that know their Masters will and do it not what follows The Law is your Master the Acts of Parliament p. 66 67. This we know to be Law Rex habet superiorem Deum Legem etiam Curiam and so says the same Author and truly Sir he makes bold to go a little further Debent ei ponere fraenum They ought to bridle him p. 65. That the said Charles Stuart being admitted King of England and therein trusted with a limited Power Vid. Char. p. 30. The House of Commons the Supream Authority and Jurisdiction of the Kingdom p. 48. Which Authority requires you in the name of the People of England of which you are elected King to answer them p. 36. Sir you may not demur the Jurisdiction of the Court they sit here by the Authority of the Commons of England and all your Predecessors and you are responsible to them p. 44. For there is a Contract and Bargain between the King and his People and your Oath is taken and certainly Sir the Bond is reciprocal Sir if this Bond be once broken farewel Soveraignty p. 72. Sir though you have it by Inheritance in the way that is spoken of yet it must not be denied that your Office was an Office of Trust Now Sir if it be an Office of Inheritance as you speak of your Title by Descent let all men know that great Offices are seizable and forfeitable as if you had it but for a year and for your Life p. 73. And Sir the People of England cannot be so far wanting to themselves which God having dealt so miraculously and gloriously for they having Power in their hands and their Great Enemy they must proceed to do Justice to themselves and to You. p. 75. 3. SIDNEY And other of The True Protestant Party GOd hath left Nations unto the liberty of setting up such Governments as best pleased themselves The Right and Power of Magistrates in every Country was that which the Laws of that Country made it to be Sidn Pap. p. 2. St. Peter 1 Pet. 2.13 14. stiles Kings as well as the Governours under him the Ordinance of Man which cannot have any other sence but that Men make them and give them their Power Hunt's Postsc p. 37. By all which it is evident That the Succession to the Crown is the Peoples Right And though the Succession to the Crown is Hereditary because