will wonder at This Letter perhaps from a Person that has neither Directly nor Indirectly had any thing to do with you either by Word Writing or Message since October Last was Twelvemonth when upon your Enformation I was Question'd and Wrongfully Accus'd in many Particulars before the King and Councell I look upon it as my Duty to Forgive you and at This Good Time to tell you so and I have the Charity to believe if it had come into your Thoughts you would have found it your Part to have Desired it c. December 27. 1681. In Return to This of mine I receiv'd an Answer with the Copy of a Petition to his Majesty Enclosed in manner as follows Ever Honoured Sir I humbly thank you for your Charity in forgiving the Wrong I did you in October was Twelvemonth And I Assure you it hath been a Great Trouble to me and if I could have hoped for Pardon I should have begg'd it of you long since but I am Confident if you had known how I was Vs'd by my Unkle First and afterward by College and Otes to Force me to Accuse you Falsly you would sooner have Pity'd my Weakness and Forgiven me what I have done against you But This Generous Charity which you have now shewed in giving me the Pardon which I durst not Ask for hath Encouraged me to Intreat you to Intercede with his Majesty to Grant me his Gracious Pardon for the Great Offences which I have Committed against him and that he would be pleased to let me be brought to my Tryal and have the Perusal of my Fathers Papers to help to make my Defence And I hope to make out the Truth to ihe Satisfaction of All Honest Men and Discharge the Conscience of Honoured Sir Your veryest Commandable Servant Simpson Tonge To his Most Excellent Majesty The Humble Petition of Simpson Tonge Prisoner in the Kings-Bench Sheweth THat after your Petitioner had Declared the Truth to your Majesty concerning the Contrivance of his Father and Mr Titus Otes your Petitioner being in great want of Necessaries his Vncle Captain Tonge having sent for him was compelled to go to him for Relief and Captain Tong made your Petitioner Drunk and then Threaten'd and Forced him to deny the Truth and to Sign a Paper which the said Captain Tonge had Written your Petitioner not knowing what he did and afterwards when your Petitioner was Committed to Newgate Colledge came to him and by Threats and Promises forced your Petitioner to deny the Truth for the which your Petitioner hath been ever since under great Trouble of Mind for his great Wickedness and Cowardize to deny the Truth but your Petitioner doth protest in the presence of Almighty God that it is very true that the Plot was Contrived by my Father and Titus Otes when he reâ—urned the Second time beyond the Seas my Father and he writ much of it out of Houselife Queen Elizabeth and out of the Book writ by Hooper or Hocker that came from Rome and swore against Campian and the othâ—r Jesuits as will appear both by the said Books and by my Fathers Papers if your Majesty please to cause them to be Searched into They first Writ at Sir Richard Barkers where the Plot was Written by Otes in Greek Letters and afterwards went to Fox-Hall and one of the Iesuits Letters is in my Fathers Hand Wherefore your Petitioner doth most Humbly Pray 〈◊〉 Beseech your Sacred Majesty to pity the sad 〈◊〉 of your Petitioner and to pardon his great Crime 〈◊〉 going from the Truth and to let him be brought 〈…〉 Tryal and to have his Fathers Papers deliver'd 〈…〉 make his Defence and your Petitioner hopes 〈…〉 what â—e hath Written so clear that your 〈…〉 think him more fit for your Pitty then your 〈…〉 and forgive the great Wickedness of your 〈◊〉 for the which he is truly Penitent and will 〈◊〉 perâ—sh here in Prison then ever be Guilty of the 〈◊〉 as he hath shewed to those that have been with â—im since â—is great Poverty to pervert him further â—rom the Truth but your Petitioner would not Therefore your Petitioner doth most Humbly beseech your Majesty to pitty the Sad and Miserable Condition of your Petitioner and not to let him lie here and star ve for want of Cloth and Bread. And your Petitioner as in Duty bound shall ever pray c. Simpson Tonge Tong refers himself in the Foregoing Letter and Petition to Certain Papers that he would make use of for his Defence Upon which Point he Expounds himself in a Letter of Ian. 2. in these Words Some of the Papers says he which my Father left were taken at Colleges House and my Vncle sent one Mr Hill to me in the Kings-Bench and brought one who was a Stranger to me with a Paper to Administer on my Behalf and I Sign'd it and under Pretence of Administring for me hath seized on the rest of my Fathers Papers This same Hill was a French Man and his Name De Mont and a Pestilent Enemy to the Late King and his Government Tongs Fumbling in his Petition at the Names of Books he has forgot is a little better Expounded in a Letter to me of Ian. 5. 1681 2. My Father says he us'd to take Notes out of a Great Book a Supplement after Hollingshead left off and writ as I have heard him say by one How or Howes and Other little Books written by Hocker or Hopper that was the Witness and Prosecuted the Jesuits c. Now to the Credit of these Papers My Correspondence with Young Tong began December 27. 1681. and Brake off upon the 11th of Ianuary following I Publish'd his Letters in Print soon after the Receiving of them and with a Provocation to any man that would take up Otes'es Quarrel and call Simpson Tong to an Account for making the Plot to be only a Cheat and Dr. Tong and Titus Otes a Brace of Cony-Catching Impostors This Villany was Expos'd Barefac'd over and over People Invited nay Press'd and Challeng'd to undertake the Vindication of them even at a time when the Authority of the Plot was yet Rampant and when it was made Less Criminal and Dangerous to Conspire against the King then to Disbelieve Otes This was Certainly the most Desperate Evidence that ever was set afoot against the Sham of That Pretended Conspiracy 'till the Final Decision of the Main Cause that follow'd some years after at the Kings-Bench-Bar Westminster on the 8th and 9th Days of May 1685. The Faction was at That Time Flesh'd in Bloud Bold Violent and Successfull and yet not so much as One Mouth to Open in favour of the Forgery or to call Tonge to an Account for Ridiculing the Veracity of the Kings Witnesses or Affronting the Reputative Honour and Wisdom of the Nation I should have Scrupled the Use of Young Tongs Testimony after the Scandal of his Saying and Vnsaying and his going Off and On at the Rate that he
This Appeal from the Iniquity and Injustice of a Faction of the Last Edition Not as if the World were likely to Mend or the People that come After us to be One jot Wiser Iuster Honester or Better-Natur'd than Those that went Before them But All Passions Sleep in the Grave and as there 's no Place for Envy Calumny Partiality or Imposture on the One hand so there 's as little room for Corrupt Interest Mercenary Design or Servile Adulation on the Other The Dead do not Bite they say and the Living unless they be Hagg-Wolves will not Bite the Dead People are well enough pleas'd to see Abuses Stript and Whipt as George Withers has it provided that they be Lash'd upon Other-Folks Shoulders Now this can never fall out where the Parable or the Embleme is of One Season and the Moral of Another For in the One Case the Painter come to Me and in the Other I go to the Painter 'T is much as in a Nusance No body is to lay a Dunghill just under My Nose but if I 'le Carry My Nose to Another mans Dunghill I may thank my self Now 't is quite another business where the Man and the Satyr are both of a Time For the Guilty are Naturally Suspicious and He that 's Conscious will be apt to say to himself This Will or That Tom Points at Me. A Character in This Case Shoots Hail-Shot and Strikes a great many more than ever the Marks-man either Aim'd at or Dreamt of There is a great deal of Difference I know betwixt the Whipping of the Vice and of the Man and betwixt the Whipping of the Vice for the Mans sake and the Whipping of the Man for the sake of the Vice. But be it as it will 't is Nonsense to Imagine that a Man draws a Figure in the Air and Means No body or that he had not some One Man more in his Thought then Another toward the Instructing or the Finishing of the Piece Wickedness and Knavery can never be Drawn To the Life but From the Life And the most Genuine Images that we have of Virtue and Vice Wisdom and Folly are Gather'd and Wrought from the Practices and Habits of Humane Life This sort of Essay is no more then Nature taken in Short-hand and He that Treats of Good and Evil does but Common-Place Mankind onely the Difference is that the Same Writings that are Censur'd for the most Virulent Libels how True soever in One Age Pass many times for the most Excellent and Profitable of Morals in Another Plain-dealing Writers Meet with the Fate commonly of Publique-Spirited Projectors and Ruine Themselves for the Good of their Successors And therefore a Frank Clear-minded Man that stands Condemn'd to the Mortification of Rubbing-out his days in a False Daubing Narrow-hearted World cannot do better then to withdraw his Effects from among Parasites and Sharpers and to Deposite the Care of his Memory and Good Name in the hands of those that are yet Vnborn These are My very Circumstances My Iudges are Parties and as the Case stands both Witnesses and Iury in a kind of Combination against me Whither should I Fly now from the Tyranny of This Passion and Prejudice for Relief and Protection but to Those Times when the Biass of This Controversy shall be taken off The Intrigue and Interest of it Extinguish'd and All the Present Litigants on Both sides laid to Sleep Especially since the Cause it self and the Merits of it wiâ—l most Infallibly come â—hole to the Next Age For my Charge and Every Article of it being Founded upon Those very Papers that I do here Transmit to After-Times for my Defence the Fact lies Open to All men and Done or Not Done is the Question Wherein Every Soul that can Reade may Satisfy himself I have not the Vanity all this while to Contend with so much Formality of Pomp and Zeal for the Single Credit of the Observator or of his Trifling Papers But so it is that without Ostentation the Honour of the Government and of All the Kings Loyal Subjects The Light the Authority the Tradition and the Faithfull Memorials of Truth it self as to This Point are not a little Concern'd in the Issue of This Cause For with All Deference to the Works of many Abler Pens that have Asserted the Same Interest I may yet with Modesty Affirm that This is the Only Weekly Paper that has Stood at Mark now for almost Six Years together without so much as One Discontinuance And to what End but to Encounter Seditious and Republican Positions Scandalous Shams and Defamatory Imposturer so soon as ever they took Air And to set the People Right in the Truth and Reason of Matters And this has been done with so much Care and Effect that the most Shameless of my Enemies could never lay a Finger yet upon any One Falsity of Fact or Errour of Doctrine in the Whole Train of These Observators and all the Bussle about them has been only General Hear-say and Clamour Now upon the Credit of These Writings depends in a Great Measure the Credit of the History of These Times to the Extreme Hazzard of Misleading After-Ages when they shall find on the One hand so many Deposing Disinherâ—â—ing Excluding and Impeaching Nemine Contradicente's So many Forsworn Narratives So many Thousand of Treasonous and Slanderous Libels All Printed Published and Recommended under a Masque of Authority and on the Other hand little more then This Miserable Paper to Oppose them What will Future Times say of This Government and of This Nation when they shall Reade of a Prince in a Plot against his Sovereign and his Brother A Queen and a Wife in the Same Plot against her Husband Nay of a King in a Plot Against Himself and Subjects in a Conspiracy to Murder their Prince upon an Instinct and Principle of Religion What will Posterity Think I say when they shall find All These Diabolical Calumnies Confirm'd by so many Pestilent Votes Narratives News'es and Pamphlets with the Solemnity too of Parliamentary Testimonialls and Imprimaturs What will they Think I say when they shall find Dr. OTES Capt. BEDLOE Capt. DANGERFIELD Stephen DVGDALE Esq with a Hundred Worthies more of the Same Batch Canoniz'd for Saints forsooth and the SAVIOVRS of the Nation So many Mediations for Pardon and Preferment for e'm So many Pulpits and Tribunals Trouping along for Company with Their Hosanna's too What shall Charity it self be able to say to This Cloud of Authorities and Certificates to This Harmony of Lies and Defamations when they shall see so Black a Story pass Current without either Contradiction or Controll As if the Brains of a whole Nation had been Turn'd in their Heads like a Pancake Conscience fall'n asleep Truth Struck Dumb Humane R ason Degenerated into Brutality and not One man of a Thousand that had the Heart to stand up for Religion or Iustice. The Next Generation would have taken This History for Gospel if some body or
A Brief History OF THE TIMES c. IN A PREFACE TO THE Third Volume OF Observators LONDON Printed for Charles Brome at the Gun at the West-end of St. Paul's 1687. To POSTERITY A Preface Methinks upon a Preface looks as Fantastical as if a Man should Clap one Shoeing-Horn Upon the back of Another and they are Both Drawers on too And then 't is such a kind of a Comment upon a Comment as will it self perhaps stand in need of a Further Explication Beside that I shall have Twenty Peevish Humours breaking in upon me by the By. 1 What has he to do to Revive a Plot that the King has Pardon'd 2 What 's the Freake of This Dedication to Posterity 3 And Then Here 's a Preface made of a Book and a Book of a Preface and Each at the same time to serve in a Double Capacity To shorten the Matter the Man has at least enough to do that has the Whole World to please and therefore I have Provided this many a day to keep That Care from coming near My Pillow by Consulting my Conscience for my Peace and by Placing my Comfort in the Contempt of a Fair Reputation Basely Gottâ—n by Lodging the Innocence and the Justice of my Cause in the hands of Ages to come out of the Reach of the most Pompous Ignorant Prevailing Envy and the most Reverend of Calumnies Touching the Plot 't is One Thing to Renew the Rancour of it To Murmur at his Majesties Mercy or to make Reprizals upon the Persons of Those Whom the King has Forgiven But it is Another Thing to Preserve the History and to Transmit it Faithfully to After-Times for the Enformation of Posterity which was the Right and which was the Wrong For the Honour of the King Himself the Queen Dowager the Publique Ministers and Briefly of the Loyal Nobility Gentry and Commonalty and of the Roman Catholiques to the Last Man of 'em lies all in some measure at Stake upon This Issue What will the Next Generation be able to Oppose to Those Numberless Shoals of Libellous Prints that with One Voice lay the Fault at the Door of the Government and Disguise the most Ungrateful and Venemous of Rebellions under the Countenance only of some Zealous Dutiful Heats and Stirs in the IUST Defence of Liberty and Religion If the Sovereignty was in the People the Conspirators did Well and the Treason lay on the side of the Government It is very True that the King has Pardon'd the Plotters but his Majesty has not Pardon'd the Plot and it was never the Intent of his Royal Mercy to make his Enemies Innocent for Opposing him and his Friends Guilty for Serving him Or that his Clemency to the One should have the Force of a Killing Rigour upon the Other And This is no more then a Generous Conciliation of his Goodness to his Justice But Why to Posterity is the Second Objection I answer because Passion Prejudice Affectation Profound Eye-brows Noise Name and the Loaves Govern This Present World Without so much as One Grain of Sobriety Respect or Good Nature Men have got the Trick of Trouping One after Another in Flocks like Sheep They follow the Bell and if the Formost Leaps the Bridge the Rest Drown for Company But I am now to give a Reason for my Preface and Which is more a Reason for Two Prefaces in One. Why Printed Double Why a Preface in One Capacity and a Book in Another c. I have spoken to This at Large in What follows But I have yet another word or two to say upon This Subject Upon the Closing of my Observators I was in Course to Furnish a Preface and a Table to the Two Latter Parts as I had done to the Former But upon the Digesting of my Thoughts and my Matters With my Papers about me I found my self at a Mighty Loss in a Main Part of my Design Unless I could Make Good the Defect by a Supplement to the Preamble of my Third Volume which I was then upon and so Pass them into the World Both under One. My Observations did not Strike so much upon the Plot it self in the Spring and the Rise of it as upon the Matter of Fact in the Methods and Workings of the Design for My Bus'ness was only to Dash False Rumours To Rescue Truth from Imposture To Prevent Misunderstandings And in the Main to Expound upon the Perverse Doctrines and Practices of That Season But all this while though the Conspiracy was as Visible as the Light of the Sun in the Effects of the City Ryots Ignoramuses and Tumults in their Ordinary Prints Clubbs Conversations c. Their Councils however were still in the Dark and the Cabinet Lock'd up to keep the Multitude from Prying into the Forbidden Secrets of the Cabal It was as yet too-Early-Days to Dispute the Infallibility of a Nemine Contradicente The Merits of a False Oath for the Safety of the King and the Protestant Religion The Idol-Worship of falling down before the Calves of Bethel It was too Early Days I say as yet to Confront Causes and give a Kings Evidence the Lye out of his Own Mouth A Prophane Abhorrer might with more safety have ventur'd his Carcase with Daniel in the Lyons Den then to set so much as his Foot over the Threshold into the Sanctum Sanctorum of a Secret Committee so that my Papers of Observation were upon the Whole only a History of the Transactions of That Juncture wherein they were Published Now the Character of the Witnesses the Contradictions of their Evidence the Seditious Principles that were Then in Course The Desperate Liberties of several Gown-Men of Both Professions The Mistakes of many True-Hearted but Short-Sighted Honest Men The Scomm and Banter of Libertines The Intemperate Transports of Burning-Hot Zelots These Topiques and Others of the like Quality I ventur'd upon as Matters that fell Properly within My Province and Envy it self cannot Deny them as they are there Represented and Deliver'd to be Truely Faithfully and Impartially Reported Only I must Confess there are Some Certain Strokes and Allusions that must wait Another Age for the Explaining of the Moral But thought I with my self Though Posterity will Undoubtedly be Curious Inquisitors into the True History of Past Times Especially into the Particulars of a Revolution that has made such a Noise in the World as This has done the Story will come Lame Down to them at Last if over and above the Brawls the Scruples the Wickedness of the Practice and the Characters of the Instruments the Curtain be not Drawn and the Actors Themselves laid Open in the very Tyring Room Upon This Contemplation I Incorporated a Supplemental piece of History into the Preface to carry the Reader to Rights from the Powder in the Mine to the Councel that Debated the Enterprize and Govern'd the Resolution Not doubting but with the Help of This Addition to make the Work as Plain and as Perfect as the
This Lamentably-Complaining Address the Old Vein I perceive of Popery and Calamity Conspiracy and Destruction runs quite thorough it And what Misery soever has either Threatn'd or Befall'n the King the Government the Church or the People is All-Charg'd upon the score of This Almighty Plot as the First Cause and Mover of it And which was the spite on 't no Averting of Those Impending Miseries but by the Kings Parting with his Honour his Crown Natural Affection Humanity Gratitude In short His Ministers His Friends His Prerogative Reasâ—n and Iustice 'T is Urg'd that the Councels were Evil and Destructive that Mov'd his Majesty to a Prorogation and Then to a Dissolution of the Foregoing Parliament How could it be Evil and Destructive in the Advising and not so in the Doing too Or what matters it whether it be done Without Advice or With it so long as the Venom of This Address Wounds the King Equally under the Cover of his Ministers The Want of That Advice and Resolution in the Parliament of One and Forty Cost the Royal Father his Life and the Son Probably upon such a Concession would not have come-off much Cheaper Unless it shall be Imagin'd that he might have found Better Quarter in the House then in the Field from the very same Persons that were Now in Councell and Afterwards in Arms against him It is pretended that the Commons were ready for the Tryal of the Five Lords at the Dissolution of the Last Parliament Now This was only Bubbling the Multitude for the Commons Themselves would not Yield to 't unless the Earl of Danby might be Try'd First But to say All in a word The King was Vndone if he did Not Prorogue and the Republicans if he Did. As to the Possibility of more Witnesses Coming in it cannot be Deny'd that according to the way of Summons that was then in Fashion the Common Iayles nay Newgate it Self in the Case of Prance were Consulted for Evidence and they could not well fail of as many Witnesses as either Malice Faction Countenance or Reward could Prevail upon to Forswear themselves But a Material Evidence it seems was lost by 't Bedloe they mean. A Fellow known for a Blasphemous Atheistical Wretch A Thief a Cheat and in fine a Scandal to the very Alms-Basket What a Dismal VNFORTVNATE Loss was This now of so Material an Evidence in Good Time upon the Plot in General which Material Evidence in the True Intent of it is no Other then a Rogue that would Swear any thing But against the Five Lords they say in Particular And if there had been Five times Fifteen Hundred more of them he should have Sworn against 'em All at the Same Price I can hardly look back upon the Parting Complement without Thinking of the Addresses and Declarations of One and Forty for the making of Charles the First a Glorious King they are so Very Very Alike But so much for the Bus'ness of Prerogative And now for the Other Great Point the Matter of Exclusion let the Bill Speak for it self 'T is Long But it Carries the Heart in the Face on 't and 't is Pity but Posterity should have it Entire The Bill amended as the House had order'd was read Intituled An Act for securing of the Protestant Religion by disabling James Duke of York to Inherit the Imperial Crown of England and Ireland and the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging WHEREAS James Duke of York is notoriously known to have been perverted from the Protestant to the Popish Religion whereby not only great Encouragement hath been given to the Popish Party to enter into and carry on most Devilish and Horrid Plots and Conspiracies for the Destruction of his Majesties Sacred Person and Government and for the Extirpation of the True Protestant Religion But also if the said Duke should succeed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm nothing is more manifest then that a Total Change of Religion within these Kingdoms would ensue For the prevention whereof Be it Enacted by the King 's most Excellent Majesty by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in present Parliament Assembled and by the Authority of the same that the said James Duke of York shall be and is by the Authority of this present Parliament Excluded and made for ever uncapable to Inherit Possess or Enjoy the Imperial Crown of this Realm and of the Kingdoms of Ireland and the Dominions and Territories to them or either of them belonging or to have exercise or enjoy any Dominion Power Iurisdiction or Authority in the same Kingdoms Dominions or any of them And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That if the said James Duke of York shall at any time hereafter Challenge Claim or attempt to possess or enjoy or shall take upon him to use or exercise any Dominion Power or Authority or Iurisdiction within the said Kingdoms or Dominions or any of them as King or chief Magistrate of the same That then he the said James Duke of York for every such offence shall be deemed and adjudged guilty of High Treason and shall suffer the Pains Penalties and Forfeitures as in case of High Treason And further that if any Person or Persons whatsoever shall assist or maintain abet or willingly adhere unto the said James Duke of York in such challenge claim or attempt or shall of themselves attempt or endeavour to put or bring the said James Duke of York into the Possession or Exercise of any Regal Power Iurisdiction or Authority within the Kingdoms and Dominions aforesaid or shall by Writing or Preaching advisedly publish maintain or declare That he hath any Right Title or Authority to the Office of King or Chief Magistrate of the Kingdoms and Dominions aforesaid That then every such Person shall be deemed and adjudged guilty of High Treason and that he suffer and undergo the pains penalties and forfeitures aforesaid And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid that he the said James Duke of York shall not at any time from and after the 5th of November 1680. return or come into or within any of the Kingdoms or Dominions aforesaid And then he the said James Duke of York shall be deemed and adjudged guilty of High Treason and shall suffer the pains penalties and forfeitures as in case of High Treason and further that if any Person or Persons whatsoever shall be aiding or assisting unto such return of the said James Duke of York that then every such person shall be deemed and adjudged guilty of High Treason and suffer as in cases of High Treason And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That he the said James Duke of York or any other Person being Guilty of any of the Treasons aforesaid shall not be capable of or receive benefit by any Pardon otherwise than by Act of Parliament wherein they shall be particularly named and that no Noli prosequi
and over as the Expedient sine qua non for the Saving of his Life his Crown the Protestant Religion and his People And it is Obvious to Presume that they had Resolv'd upon the Draught the Conditions and the Provision of it before ever they made any Application about it Beside the Manifest Agreement that was between them upon the special Matters in Issue But in One Instance for All. On the 24th of Nov. 1681. There Sate at the Sessions-House in the Old-Bayly a Commission of Oyer and Terminer upon a Bill of Indictment for High-Treason against Anthony Earl of Shaftsbury The Foreman of the Grand-Iury put certain Questions to a Principal Secretary of State and a Clark of the Councel that gave Evidence there about this Paper of Association which coming from a Member of the Last Westminster House of Commons could not but carry Great Weight i. e. Do not you know Sir or have not you heard of a Discourse or Debate in the Parliament concerning an Association Do not you remember in the House of Commons Sir it was Read upon Occasion of That Bill This Question made many People think that the Noble Peer and the Plot-Managers in That House of Commons were upon the Same Bottom and that the Former was only to Execute what the Other had Contriv'd which was no more in Truth then the Execution of his Own Purposes and Designs For his Lordships Head Heart and Purse were in at both Ends of the Bus'ness The Third Evasion was Immediately Blown off by Proofs under Mr. Wilson's Own Hand over and over a Servant of Great Trust in the Family to make Good that the very Paper of Associations which was Produc'd at the Old-Bayly was found in my Lords Closet according to the Depositions There can be no Doubt in the World from what is allready said but that the Knight-Voters and the Knight-Vndertakers as to the Bus'ness of the Association were Both of a Mind and that there was little Difference betwixt the One and the Other more then that the One Cut out the Work and the Other made-it-up So that if it was an Ill Thing in One it was so in Both and whether it was so or not is now to be Enquir'd into and first upon the General THere was a very Loyal Declaration from the Middle Temple Presented to his Late Majesty by Mr. Saunders afterwards Lord-Chief-Iustice of the King's-Bench upon This Subject I cannot bring an Instance of more Honour or Greater Authority toward the Confounding of This Association then That Paper nor an Address more Pertinent to My Purpose or Better Warranted both in Law and Reason OVR Sense of That Execrable Paper Purporting the Frame of a Trayterous Association produced at the Late Proceâ—dings against the Earl of Shaftsbury at the Old-Bayly We do therefore Declare it our Opinion that the same Contains most Gross and Apparent Treasons more Manifestly tending to the Ruine of your Majesties Dominions then the Old Hypocritical Solemn League and Covenant which they that were Seduced to take are no more bound to keep then he that should Swear to Murther his Father is Obliged to Commit the Parricide And it is most Evident to us that whoever promoted That Rebellious Association Designed by the said Paper or Countenanced the Same by Refusing upon the Full Evidence to find Bills of Indictment against the Authors and Promoters thereof and thereby as much as in them lay Preventing their being brought to a Fair Tryal have in a High Measure Perverted the Laws And could have no other Design thereby then to Vsurp to Themselves an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Dominion not only over your Subjects but over your Majesty also I Shall proceed now to the Dissecting of it and see if the Particulars be not as Foul upon the Retayle as the Whole has been here Represented in the Lump and in Gross The Ground of it is a Popish Plot The Preservation of the King Religion Laws and People are set forth to be the Intent of it So that by an Orderly Examining of One Thing after Another it will be Easily seen how far the Means here Propounded will Answer the End. Notes upon the Association WE the Knights c. in the Preface Signifies in the Uow and Promise the Major Part either of This Present Parliament while Sitting or of the Members of Both Houses Subscribing This Association when Prorogu'd or Dissolv'd And what is This Majority to Do now To Defend and Assist one Another In the Preservation of the True-Protestant Religion His Majesties Person and our State and our Laws Liberties and Properties And Against Whom are they to Defend and Assist Against Popish Priests and Iesuites with the Papists and their ADHERENTS and ABETTERS That same Adherents and Abetters goes a Great way and needs Another Explanation But what 's the Quarrel now A most Pernicious and Hellish Plot to Destroy All that the Associators have by Solemn and Sacred Promise Engaged Themselves to Preserve And now for the Adherents and Abetters There are Several Sorts of them There are the Plotters Themselves the Duke of York the Mercenary Forces alias the Guards The Officers that the Dukes Interest has brought in both by Sea and Land and All that HAVE ANY WAYS Adher'd to Him or Them And All such as SHALL Adhere unto Him. So that here is an Association against the King Himself for Adhering unto his Brother and Consequently against All the Kings Loyal Subjects for Adhering to Him that Adher'd to his Royal Highness which is only a Degree or Relation of Adherency once Remov'd But How now is This same Adherency to be Vnderstood What is it that is here Call'd an Adherency And how far does it Extend Any man that shall Séek by Force to Set up the Duke's Pretended Title or raise any War Tumult or Sedition for Him or by his Command Or that upon any Title whatsoever shall Oppose the Iust and Righteous Ends of This Association Or in fine that shall ANY WAYS Adhere which is an Vnlimited Latitude and reaches to Thought Word and Deed That Man is an Adherent Allways Provided God Save the King I hope No No. Without any Respect of Persons or Causes 'T is against the Duke of York or any other that hath any ways Adhered to the Papists in their wicked Designs So that This League is as Particularly Levell'd at the King for Refusing to pass a Bill of Exclusion as the Votes of Ian. 7. 1680. was at the Noble Lords there for Advising the King to Refuse it Well! Again And What Course is to be Taken at last with These Papists and Adherents Why the Associators will Endeavour Entirely to Disband All Mercenary Forces They will by all Lawfull Means and by Force of Arms if néed so require Oppose the said Duke of York and Endeavour to Subdue Expell and Destroy him if he comes into England and All such as shall Adhere unto him They will also with their Ioynt and Particular Forces
Labour'd so long under the Scandal of Oppression Cruelty and Injustice upon the Testimony of so Infamous so Sottish and so Despicable an Impostor Never so many Persons of Honour met in a Court to give Evidence toward the Confounding of so Contemptible a Miscreant Never was any Perjury made-out by so many Vnquestionable Witnesses and Demonstrative Proofs and yet for the Honor of the Criminal it must not be Forgotten how he stood his Ground to the Last I Appeal says he to the Great God of Heaven and Earth the Iudge of All and once more in his Presence and before All This Auditory I Avow my Evidence of the Popish Plot All and every Part of it to be nothing but True and will expect from the Almighty God the Uindication of my Integrity and Innocence THis Last Effort of his from any Other Lips would have Stagger'd a man if the Exact and Wonderfull Agreement of the Testimonies against him and the Palpable Contradictions of his Own Witnesses had left any Possibility for Doubting But from a fellow so Flagitious in the Habit and through the Whole Course of his Life This Last Defyance of God's Power and Iustice Compar'd with the Ordinary Course of his Conversation and Manners did but serve to make the Man All of a piece The Practice and Attempts of Bestiality upon his own Servants after he was preferr'd from a Street-Begger to be a King's Evidence the Falseness of his Malicious Oath against Parker at Hastings His taking the Holy Sacrament over and over so many times for a Cover for his Malitious Treasons These and the Like are Things so Certain and so Notorious that no Mortal that knows his Person can be a Stranger to his Villany My Lord Chief Iustice says indeed that There was a Consult and there was a Conspiracy against the Life of our King our Government and our Religion Not a Consult at the White-Horse in the Strand but a Caball and Association of Perfidious Rebels and Traytors who had a mind to Embroil us in Bloud and Confusion This is the very Truth and may serve for the Winding-up of That Point There was most Indubitably a Republican Plot as has been made appear from the Express Acts of the Plotters Themselves and Trac'd through Every Step of the Proceeding from the very Project and Foundation of it to the Last Resolve of putting it in Execution But This Plot was to be Call'd a Popish Plot according to the True Intent and Meaning of the Revenging Vote which by Interpretation was no more then This That The True-Protestants were to Kill the King and the Papists to be Hang'd for 't Our Accounts Cast-up whether we have Got or Lost by the PLOT WE are now at the Bottom of This Bottomless Bus'ness and we should do very well and like Sober Men and Good Managers of our Honour Time Peace and Mony to Compute a little upon matters So much for Double Guards So much for Treating the King's Witnesses So much among Catch-poles So much in Pensions So much for a Fond to Defray Plot-Charges So much in Narratives So much in Processions and Pope-Burnings So much to Re-imburse Otes and Bedloe the Seaven Hundred Pound a Man they were out of Pocket for the Protestant Cause So much upon Well-Affected Elections So much in Ignoramus Iuries but Discounting All this while for what we have Receiv'd from the Westminster-Insurance-Offices upon the Whole Charge and in One word to see at the Foot of the Account Paper and Pack-Thrid pay'd for whether we have Got or Lost by Part'ner-Ship with Otes and his Adherents and Abetters in This Loyal forsooth This Religious and This English Bloud-Adventure IT is not to be Deny'd and it is already Agreed that King Nation and People have Suffer'd All manner of ways and in a very Great Measure too quite thorough This Period of Otes'es Administration and All for Fear of the Damnable Hellish Popish-Plot Because and by Reason of it and that we were Necessitated to do what we did to secure his Late Majesty and his Government against Popish Conspirators and his Sacred Person against Poyson and Silver Bullets Had it not been for That Damnable Plot the King had been Safe The Queen and the Duke Vntainted and the People had still continu'd in their Wits and in their Duty The Popish Lords had been yet at Liberty the Priests Iesuits and the Godfrey-Men Vnhang'd The Papists might have had Tolerable Quarter among the rest of the King's Subjects and the Honour and Iustice of the English Nation might have yet stood as Fair in the Esteem of Other Christian Princes and States as ever it did So that upon the Vpshot what have we now to say for the Wickedness the Folly and the Madness of Those Times if there was NO Popish Plot at all nor any thing Like it but the Seditious Confederacy of an Ambitious Caball of Iuggling Canting Hypocrites to Murder the King Themselves from behind That Stale What Reparation now for Innocent Bloud and Oppression What Satisfaction or What Effectual Repentance for Those that Preach'd Pleaded Supported Assisted how Innocently soever the Credit of that Diabolical Imposture without making the Churches the Courts of Iustice Coffee-Houses and Other Publique Places Ring as Loud of their Mistakes as ever they did of their Invectives and Clamours The Misleading of People into a Belief of Falsities of This Desperate Kind and Consequence even though I my self take them to be Truths is but next door to the Swearing Men into a Belief of That which I Know to be False That is to say If when I come to find My Own Error I do not Endeavour to set All Those People Right that I Carry'd out of the Way The Shame of a Repentance is not far Remov'd from the Wilfull and Deliberate Committing of a Sin. I do not Expect that My Sermonizing here shall Work upon Those that Shut their Eyes against the Light of Experience and Example though One would think that men should be very Wary of Setting That Door Open over and over again that had been still the Inlet to all our Former Confusions If a Thief Breaks into my House at a Garret-Window I 'le provide Better Barrs and Bolts And Undoubtedly a Government may have a Weak side as well as a Private Habitation and there ought to be as much Care taken to Secure a State against Political House-Breakers upon That Quarter where they ever Enter'd Before A Caution against the same Cheat over again THE President of This Cheat and Pretext and the Sense of the Ruinous Calamities which the Belief of it has brought upon us should methinks Fortifie men against Those Panick Frights and That Childish Ielousie and Credulity that has Wrought us All This Misery And it is not to say that there may be more Reason for This Apprehension at One Time then at Another for let the Reason be Great Little or None at all it works the Same Effect
of Christian Charity suffers them not to Conceal These Things Yet both from his Majesty and the Lord Arch-Bishop some Small Exemplar of Gratitude will be Expected p. 8. These are the very Reasonings and Pretences of Ezrel Tong put into the Mouth of Titus Otes No Figments So help me God No Thought of Gain but Pure Zeal and Christian Charity to work upon the Discoverers But yet some Small Exemplar of Gratitude will be Expected as a matter of Ten or Twelve Pound a Week-Pension for Otes and the Value perhaps of Four or Five times as much more in Presents and Veils A Deanery or some such Trifle for Tong. What is All This but a Flat Contradiction thrown in the very Face of the Pretext It is as Clear as Day that Tong and Habernfeld in All Things Material Walk Hand in Hand thorough the Whole Story But to avoid Idle Repetitions as much as may be I shall in the Next Place make a Short Abstract of Habernfeld's Last and Long Paper of Intelligence and so Finish my Parallel It bears This Following Title And from thence I shall Proceed to the Heads of it The Large and Particular Discovery of the Plot against the King Kingdom and Protestant Religion and to raise the Scottish Wars p. 13. The A King is in Danger of his Life and Crown B England and Scotland to be Subverted The Discoverer of This was Born and Bred in the C Popish Religion being D Fit for the Design p. 13. He was E sent over by Cardinal Barbarini F Troubled in Conscience and G came over to the Orthodox Religion H Reveal'd the Treason to a Friend I Put the Particulars in Writing out of which were drawn K. Articles p. 14. He falls upon the L Iesuitical Off-spring of Cham. p. 15. The M Society are the Conspirators The N Popes Legat is their Chief Patron They hold their O Weekly Intelligences p. 16. Cuneus the Instrument of the P Conjur'd Society He Presents the King with Roman Curiosities Promises but Means it not to Espouse the Cause of the Palatinate p. 17. Offers the Bishop a Cardinals Cap makes use of Court-Instruments and Mediations p. 18. But finding All in Vain Q Ambushes were to be Prepar'd wherewith the Lord Arch-Bishop together with the King should be Taken p. 19. They pass R Sentence against the King and lay hold of the Indignities put upon Prynne Burton and Bastwick and the Scotch Service-Book to stir up the Puritans to a Revenge Some Scottish Popish Lords are sent to Enflame S Scotland by which the T Hurtfull Disturber of the Scottish Liberty might be Slain V An Indian Nut provided by the Society and shew'd to the Discoverer in a W Boasting Manner To Poyson the X King after the Example of his Father p. 21. Hamilton's Chaplain Private with Cuneus A Chaplain of Richelieu's sent over to Assist the Conspiracy A Character given of Sr Toby Mathews p. 22. And an Account of his Intelligences Haunts and Meetings p. 23. The Story of Reade over again p. 24. Iesuits Letters and Meetings And Y All the Papists of England Contributing to the Design p. 25. One Widow Gave Forty Thousand Pound English toward it And Others beyond their Ability in Proportion He follows This with a Ramble upon Several Persons by Name that were dipt in the Conspiracy And further with This Remarkable Discovery The President of the aforesaid Society was my Lord Gage a Jesuit Priest Dead above Three Years since He had a Palace Adorn'd with Lascivious Pictures which Counterfeited Prophaneness in the House but with them was Palliated a Monastery wherein Forty Nuns were Maintained hid in so Great a Palace It is Scituated in Queen Street which the Statue of a Golden Queen Adorns The Secular Jesuits have bought All This Street and have Reduced it into a Quadrangle where a Jesuitical College is Tacitly built with the Hope that it might be Openly finish'd as soon as the Universal Reformation was begun p. 29. To pass a Short Note now upon the Whole The Design upon the A King and B England and Scotland is the General Scope of Otes'es Plot. He pretends to come over from C the Popish Religion No man Fitter for the D Design E sent over F Troubled in Conscience and G Converted The General of the Iesuits at Rome and the Provincial Here did the Parts of Cardinal Barbarini and the Popes Legat. Otes H Revealed the Treason to Tong and I put the Particulars in Writing out of which Tong Extracted K Articles Otes makes M the Society the Conspirators The Provincial serves for N The Popes Legat. The O Weekly Intelligences Grove took an Account of and for Instruments of the P Conjur'd Society Otes'es Narrative has them in abundance The Q Ambushes were laid in St. Iames'es and at Windsor The R Sentence pass'd at several Consults The Rebellion in S Scotland by Irritating the Puritans was Manag'd by Otes'es Missionaries and the King to be Murder'd as the T Hurtfull Disturber of their Liberties Wakemans Poyson was V the Indian Nut and Cuneus's Boasting of it Answers Conyers'es shewing Otes the Dagger in Grays-Inn-Walks Habernfelds Talk of Poysoning the X King after the Example of his Father was Match'd both in the Narrative of Otes'es Plot and Expressly in his Epistle before that Narrative to the Eternal Infamy of the Reporters of it And as Habernfeld Y makes All the Papists of England to be Concern'd in This Conspiracy so Otes in his Epistle and Narrative has made an Vniversal Plot on 't Only we want a Forty-Thousand-Pound Widow to Perfect the Parallel But That Defect is Amply Supply'd in Irish Contributions and Other Secret Services As to the Foolery of the Last Paragraph the Man must be a Great Stranger to London as well as to Common Sense that can look upon it as any other then a most Extravagant Foppery and without any Colour or Coherence After This Large Discovery as the Enformer Pretends comes a Summary in Eleven Heads of the Whole Matter which is only the same over again and is Answer'd over again by the same Parallel Only the 10 th Clause has an Expression in it Worthy of Remarque Some says he of the Principal Vnfaithful ones of the Kings Party are Notify'd by Name Many of whose Names Occur Not yet their Habitations are Known p. 31. Now in Otes'es Muster of the Conspirators it runs Whose Names Occurr at Present Nar. fol. 61. One would have thought they might have Vary'd the Phrase a little But our Modern Discoverers have been much better at Copying then at Inventing Witness This Whole Parallel and the Five Iesuits Letters It must not be Omitted neither that the Order of Politicians which Habernfeld speaks of p. 15. is Learnedly Turn'd forsooth into the Order of POLITITIANI by Otes in his Narrative Art. 53. In Conclusion here 's a Plot Copy'd-out to the Life and the Transcript a most Scandalous and Impious Cheat beyond all Controversy whatever the Original was
Long as to the Kings Interest whether of the Two. And it is not All neither that the Manage of it was Cold and Dilatory The Progress Slow and the Enformation Extremely Short and Trivial but the Narrative it self is Inconsistent One Part of it with Another and as Coursly Contriv'd as it is Incongruously put together Cardinal Richelieu he says was the First Mover of the Scottish Troubles and yet Lowden was Committed to the Tower for Signing an Address for Relief and Protection to That very Cardinal So that the Scots rather dealt with the French then the French with Them And how Great-Good-Will soever the Cardinal might have for our Divisioâ—s we do not reade of any Visible Succours yet they received from That Quarter If the Five Members were Papists Well and Good for their Treating with Forreign Power to Assist them was One Article of their Charge Exact Coll. p. 544. And then the Great Act of Indemnity upon the Late Kings Restauration is a Thousand Proofs against them for they had the Wit to carry the Retrospect of That Pardon up to 1637. That is to say to the Opening of the Scotch Tumults which was a matter of Three Year beyond the Date of the English Rebellion and shews what sort of Papists they were that Mov'd the Scottish Broils There never was perhaps such a Jumble of Nonsence put upon a Nation for Politiques as in These Two Pretended Plots the King was at the same time to be Murder'd by the Protestants as a Papist and by the Papists as a Puritan and his Roman Catholique Subjects in Flesh and Bloud to have their Brains beat out in his Defence by Another Army of Papists in the Air that sought his Confusion The Papists it seems Dis-affected the People Instructed the Faction Manag'd the Rebellion Laid Ambushes says Habernfeld and Otes after him for the King Pass'd Sentence upon him and in the End were Sequester'd Plunder'd Iayl'd Hang'd-up or Cut to pieces by the Puritans for their Pains But to draw to an End Dr Heylin in his Cyprianus Anglicus and the Author of the Popes Nuncio are both Agreed upon 't that the Commission of Cuneus respected only to the Queen and her Devotion It appears likewise that there were some Overtures toward a Better Vnderstanding betwixt the Members of the Two Churches by Certain Abatements and Approches on the One side and on the Other but not One Syllable of a Plot upon his Majesties Person 'till This Bohemians Revelation The Publisher of Whitlocks Memorials makes no more of Habernfelds Long Letter then a Fancy which Prynne hath Published in Print upon Trust as he useth to do as well as Others fol. 31. It is further to be Consider'd that for This Plot such as it was the King knew of it and never Minded it further Though Prynne makes it the Root of all our Following Calamities and Tong brings it down to Otes'es Discovery and the Lord knows how long after So that Charles the First Fought and Acted against himself all the while and came to be Murder'd in the Conclusion by the One side because he Would Not be a Papist and by the Other because he Was One. Just as Tong brought the Late King into Otes'es Plot against his Own Life Crown and Dignity CHAP. VI. If Tong 's or Otes'es Plot was an Imposture whether or no was it so Design'd from the Beginning or were the Impostors Themselves Impos'd upon THat This Plot was a Cheat is no longer a Doubt nor at Present the Question but whether it was Originally Meant for One or Afterward Emprov'd into One will be the Point in This Place Now I am persuaded that it was Both for it is no less Clear that Tong Vnkennel'd the Fox then it is that Shaftsbury the Master of the Bloud-Hounds Govern'd the Chace I shall be very carefull of Delivering any thing upon This Subject but on as Good Authorities as the Testimony of Authentique Papers Reasonable Inferences and Notoriety of Fact can furnish me withall And I doubt not of making Good the Truth of my Evidences or the Force and Equity of my Conclusions upon as Pregnant Proofs and Presumptions as the Law it self requires for the Fair Gaining of a Cause in Westminster-Hall In One of Dr. Tong 's Papers I find These Words To Discover the Plot against the King and his Family I wrote the Royal Martyr in the Year 1672. Or as he has it in several Other Places About the Year Seventy One and Two. So that here is a Plot Presum'd and a Book Written purposely to Discover it but No Plot as yet in Sight more then the Design of Setting up One Plot under the Apprehension of Another 'T is but first putting it in the Peoples heads that there Is a Popish Conspiracy 2 ly Asking them what they would do if the Papists should Rise 3 ly Beginning a Fire a Massacre or an Insurrection Themselves and calling it a Popish one and here 's the Work Carry'd-on in a Direct Line from Tong 's Royal Martyr to the Battle at Sedgmore According to Tong 's Computation we are to believe Habernfeld's Plot and Otes'es to be One and the same though well nigh Forty Years betwixt 'em An Eight Years Rebellion A Twelve Years Interregnum as to the Kings Exercise of his Power Another Dozen of Years from the Restoring of the Late King Intervening The Managers of the Old Plot in their Graves Not so much as One of Habernfeld's Patrons or Instruments in Being to Promote it And yet after so many Turns Changes and Wonderfull Revolutions of State never Stranger perhaps in Two Kings Reigns we are set upon the Hunt in Seventy Eight for a Plot Antecedent to the Scottish Tumults in Thirty Seven and to take Tong 's and Otes'es Word for't that Their Narrative is in Effect but the True History of Habernfeld's and the Old Plot Continu'd If it sâ—ould be sâ—id that it is only the Same Influence Continu'd they will be put to Prove the Descending of it in a Regular and an Vninterrupted Process and Operation which is a thing as â—mpossible to be made-out as it is Ridiculous to Imagine Beside that All the Old Actors are either out of the World out of the Case or out of Play and an Inference would hold as well from the History of Noahs Floud to the Last Sea-breach as from One Conspiracy to the Other Over and above that This Fancy puts All Otes'es Intelligences Dispatches Commissions and Consults quite out of Doors To talk of a Plot of Reformation going on signifies Nothing where the King-Killing Plot is the Question The Plot of Persuading Other People to be of Our Religion ever Did and Does and Will go-on no doubt on 't 'till People are all of a Mind and it is but a Charitable Duty for a Man that thinks Himself in a Safe way to Heaven to wish that his Brother would go along with him for Company Beside that This is a Design to Date
were manag'd while Sir E. B. Godfrey was missing toward the finding out what was become of him p. 202. VIII When How Where and in what Manner the Body of Sir E. B. Godfrey was found and what pass'd till the Coroners Inquest sat upon the View of it p. 212. IX A Jury Summon'd to sit upon the Body of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey and some Difficulty startâ—d about it p. 220. X. The Subject of the Debate and first of the Position of the Body as it lay in the Ditch p. 226. XI The Jury found Sir E. B. Godfrey to be Strangled and Not Kill'd with the Sword. The Surgeons were of the same Opinion and gave their Reasons for it p. 231. XII The Jurors Reasons for the Verdict they gave upon the View of Sir E. B. Godfrey's Body p. 242. XIII The Jury Adjourn'd the Debate for want of Evidence Quaere What Better Evidence they had the Next Day when they came to a Verdict then was produced the Day before p. 251. XIV Bloud or No Bloud was the Main Point in Issue though the Least Part of the Question either at the Inquest or at the Tryals p. 262. XV. The Enformations before the Coroner Examin'd and not onâ— word in them to the Point in Issue p. 274. XVI The Coroners Enformations Further Examin'd and not one Word in them of Bloud the Posture or any thing else material to the Question p. 285. XVII Notes upon the Mysterious Examination of Henry Moor Clark to Sir Edmundbury Godfrey p. 290. XVIII A very pertinent Evidence of Joseph Radcliffe's made worse thâ—n nothing p. 298. XIX The Opening of the Body had certainly Discover'd the Cause of Sir E. B. G's Death and it was Advis'd and Propounded by Doctors Friends and Surgeons but Rejected p. 312. XX. Mrs. Gibbon's Enformation compared with the Coroners Report and the Matter submitted to All Indiferent Men whether the Design throughout was to Discover the Truth or to Stifle it with an Appendix for a Conclusion p. 320. THE MYSTERY OF THE DEATH OF Sir E. B. Godfrey UNFOLDED PART I. CHAP. I. Sir Edmundbury Godfrey did certainly Dye a violent Death and William Bedloe and Miles Prance took upon them to Discover the Murtherers and the Murther THERE never was perhaps such a Mystery made of a Plain Case as we have had in the Bus'ness of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey That is to say Concerning the Manner of his Death The Time The Place The Occasion of it and by what Hands He Fell And All This only for want of Taking right Measures in the Tracing and Timing of Things For Whoever draws Inferences Hand-over-Head from Bold Allegations to Certainty of Fact or from Positive Oaths to the Truth of every Thing that is Sworn without Further Enquiry or Examination will find himself Mightily Mistaken upon the Subject here in Issue To do This as it should be done there must a Regard be had to the Order both of Time and of Connexion the Date the Series and the Succession of Things Apart with the Reasons and Countenances of Affairs as they stand in the Context It will Need but a very short Deduction to bring down the Course of This Story into the Proper Channel by laying open the Naked Fact of Sir E. B. G's Dying a Violent Death By shewing Who they were that took upon them to Detect the Murtherers and to Prove the Murther and how Godfrey's Name came Originally into the Story which as they pretended was the Occasion of his Death This is it that I propose for the Argument of my First Chapter and Thence to Proceed Step by Step and in a Natural Method from one Point to another The First Question will be Whether or No the Murther was Committed in Manner and Form as the Witnesses Swear it was at Somerset-house The Second Point will be This. In Case it shall appear that he was Not Murther'd at Somerset-house or by such Persons or by such Means or upon such a Grudge as Prance and Bedloe swear he was In what Place by what Instruments in what Way and by what Instigation Was he Murthered These Two Considerations shall be laid indifferently before the Reader in a Distribution of this Discourse respectively into Two Parts without Bespeaking One Partial Word or Thought upon the whole Matter As to the Two Witnesses that gave Testimony in This Cause they had no more Skill in the Merits of it then the Next Cast of Parrots in the Price of Almonds But there was an Intrigue of State driven on under the Cover of a Iesuitical Confederacy which render'd it Necessary at That Time to make the Papists as Odious as they could and to lay all Iudgments and Calamities as well Publique as Private at their Door As among others This Unhappy Miscarriage of Sir E. B. Godfrey for One So that we are to Consult the Popish Plot for the Popish Murther The Latter being made so Essential a Part of the Former that there 's No Disbelieving the One without Ridiculing the Other But how These Two came to be Incorporated into One Interest and Design will Deserve a Place by is self Dr. Tong was hardly ever without a Plot in his Head and a Pen in his Hand The One Bred the Maggots and the Other Vented them As his Royal Martyr for Example His Iesuits Assassins and other Writings of his under the Title of Cases or Narratives which Narratives were Transform'd with One Breath of Otes's into Damnable Conspiracies Now Narrative in those Days was only a Modish Name for a Romantique Forgery This was the Rise of the Doctor 's Popish Plot He took the Idea of it from Habernfeld Sent Otes among the Iesuits for Hints and Materials and so away Trudges he to Valladolid and after that to St. Omers where he stays a while and then comes back again to his Principal Charg'd with Minutes of Names Times Places Customs c. Tong Pounds them into One Confection and according to the Text Exod. Ch. 32. ver 24. There came out this Calf The Project being now form'd and Distributed into Articles Tong presented a Copy of them in a Narrative to his Late Majesty upon the Thirteenth of August 1678. Plying the King with Fresh Informations and further Importunities till toward the End of September following but instead of gaining Credit by the Pretence of Additional Confirmations and Discoveries His Majesty came by Degrees to be Fully possest in the Conclusion That the whole Train of the History was no better then a Down-right Imposture The King's Hardness of Belief was quickly smoak'd by the Plot-master and his Advisers Insomuch that though they could not Totally take the Matter out of His Majesties Hand They did what they could yet by a Side-Wind to Transfer the Cause from the Privy-Council to the Parliament where they made themselves sure before-hand of a Majority to bid it Welcom In Order hereunto Sir E. B. Godfrey was Earnestly pressed and with much Difficulty prevail'd upon Sept. 6. 1678. to
So that there 's No Great Wonder in 't if People were Wary of Medling when they were only to be Vndone for their Pains But This was not a Thing to be expected so long as the Kingdom lay Trembling and Groaning under the Awe and Tyranny of the Plot-Faction and therefore it was but Reasonable to Wait till Honest Men might come once again to have a Clear Stage and Fair Iudges As to the Second Objection of the Season being Past and Consequently the Vse and Service of such an Enformation I have This to say for my self that if the Sacredness of Truth be at All Times and upon All Occasions within the Compass of Discretion and Good Manners to be Preserv'd Nay to carry it yet Higher and Higher If the Setting of all Christendom right upon a Subject wherein they have been abus'd by Thousands of False and Scandalous Papers and Reports to the Dishonour of the King the Royal Family This Imperial Government and the English Nation If the doing of All This I say be a Thing Necessary to be done to the Highest Degree of a Moral Necessity I can then Justifie my self to be at This Instant in the Exercise of a Needful as well as a Warrantable Duty But now the Objection of Why so Late seems to look Two Ways First for Instance as who should say 'T is Pity 't was done no sooner Implying a Thing fit to be done And this same Why so late Another way Taken may Import quite Another Meaning as who should say again He durst not meddle with it while People were Living and Matters fresh in their Memories Now this Suggestion is so far from Reflecting a Prejudice upon the Testimony of the Kings Witnesses or the Reputation of That Cause so far I say from a Disadvantage on That side and an Advantage on the Other that I shall Allow the Testimony of the Kings Witnesses to be of the same force Now that it was Before and pay the same Deference to the Proofs of the Dead Witnesses on That side that I do to the Living So that Their Cause is just in the same State Now that it was Before Whereas the Delay on the Other Hand has made it Infinitely Harder to Detect the Sham at This Distance then it was so long ago For there are I know not how many Stabbing Witnesses Dead since who Durst not open their Mouths when the Prosecution was afoot that would have Spoken to the Practices of Prance and Bedloe the Discoveries they made in their Froliques The Privacies of That Interval betwixt Sir Edmunds Departure from his House and the finding of his Body And All These are Lost Now to My Purpose Any further then as to the Hearsay of what they spake upon Knowledge And yet in Despite of Calumny Oblivion nay of Death it Self the Light of the Noon-Day-Sun shall not be more Vniversally Acknowledged by All Men that have Eyes in their Heads then the Clearness of the Matter here in Question to All Those that are not Sworn Enemies to Plain-Dealing and Common Sense I shall only give some few Instances when I come to That Topique out of a great Many and lay No more stress upon them then in Equity the Presumption will bear To come Now to the Methods that were Us'd for the Frighting the Baffling or the Suppressing of Fair Witnesses and for the Suborning the Engaging the Protecting and Countenancing of Profligate Mercenaries that will swear any Thing This Practice in the First place Answers the Question Why so Late And it comes Next to be Consider'd What it was How it was Manag'd and what Effects it Produc'd There is but Soul Body Reputation Life Limb Liberty and Estate the Comfort of Friends Relations and Humane Society that a Man has to Consider in This World and every Man as he Likes when he comes to the Touch upon This Point Here was the Body of a Magistrate found Dead in a Ditch in such Manner and with such Circumstances as has been said Over and Over already Now it was Highly Expedient at That Time to make a Popish Assassination of it and so to Close-Draw it into the same Piece with the Popish Plot. During the Innocency of the First Heat there was a Warm Application made to his Late Majesty for the Promise of a Reward upon the Discovery to the Discoverers of it There was as it happen'd the Snare of a Dilemma upon the King. Cover'd Under This Proposition A Refusal would have been Interpreted a Popish Inclination in favour of the Plot and had Infallibly been made use of as a Mighty Stumbling-block In Case of Yielding it was Constructively but so much Mony offer'd to any Man that Right or Wrong would swear Himself into a Discovery But there was However a Proclamation Emitted a Reward of Five Hundred Pound Promis'd and William Bedloe or Beddoe was the First that Leapt at the Bait. The Wheel was now in Motion Here 's a second Witness to the Plot and a single Evidence to the Murther But the Plot by Good Manage was so Artificially Link'd to the Murther that Both Works were put in a Way to go-on Together In one Word they were to make their Market among an Abandon'd sort of People that had Neither Honour nor Conscience and the Profligate and the Fearful were the Men for their Turns so many as would be wrought upon by Mony Liberty Protection Indemnity or Popular Applause to act against All Principles of Faith Truth and Conscience were Instruments for their Purpose And This was it which they call'd the Providence of Raising so many Witnesses out of Dungeons and Alms-Baskets for the Preservation of our Sovereign and our Religion And at the same Time there were Catch-Poles Pursevants Iayles Pillories and Gibbits at hand for the doing of any Man's Bus'ness that oppos'd These Violences either by Word or Deed and Preserv'd a good Conscience to the Contempt of All Bodily or Worldly Interests This was the General Course and Biass of their Proceedings and I think a Man may safely say This of them They were so Merciful in their Wrath so Placable or in other words they had so much Wit in their Anger as in a Political Construction to make Every Man whose Life they took away a kind of Felo de se by Chusing rather to Dye Innocent then to Live Guilty and to run All Honest Hazards Themselves rather then to accuse others Wrongfully But the Particular Master-stroke was This. The Guilty accus'd the Innocent and they were Immediately Taken-up upon 't and in This Condition there was but Two Oaths and Those Two Oaths Concerted in Two Minutes betwixt Any Man's Neck and the Gallows Now in This Pinch the Pris'ner had no other Choice before him then either by a False Oath to Hang Other People or by a True one to Hang Himself This has been the Case of Many and Many an Innocent Person since the Broaching of Otes's Pretended Discovery and it has been a Wonderful Mercy
the Nights he lay abroad in were within the First Week of October And he finally Avers That if it had not been for the Dread of Death and Misery that was with so much Restless Importunity Press'd upon him And the Flattering Promises of the Great Advantage it would be to him to Persist in his Evidence of the Murther he verily Believes he should rather have Dy'd then have Hazarded his Damnation by Another Perjury And it was not All yet Neither that the Scum of the Rabble pass'd Muster for Competent Witnesses against Men of Honour in Matters of State That the most Abandon'd Miscreants even of that Scum were Allow'd to give Evidence as Men of Probity that Every Thing was Screw'd in favour of the Guilty and to the Destruction of the Innocent That the Pris'ners and their Witnesses were rather brought to the Stake then to a Tryal and Put by the Violences of the Rout into an Incapacity of Defending either Themselves or their Friends c. This was not All I say without making a False Witness of the very Press too Is it so upon your Salvation Says the Late King to Prance speaking of the Evidence against Green Berry and Hill Upon my Salvation says Prance It is All False Now This Passage was given in Evidence by Mr. Chiffinch at Green's Tryal and Left-out in the Print Did not Mr. Langhorn upon his Tryal Move the Court that some of the Jury might be sent to the Temple upon a View of his Study and Chamber and offer to put his Life upon That Issue if they should find it but so much as Possible for Bedloes Oath to be True in Swearing that out of the Chamber he saw Langhorn taking Duplicates of Letters in his Study Now there 's Nothing of This Neither in the Printed Tryal The Tryal of Nat. Thompson c. is Printed Double One by Simmons and the Other by Mason In Masons Tryal Fisher that help'd to Strip the Body gives This Evidence We could not Bend his Arms when we came to his Shirt So we Tore it Open fol. 6. Now This Stiffness of his Arms would hardly Agree with the Condition of a Dead Body to be put into a Chair So that in Simmon's Tryal fol. 22. they have very Discreetly told the Rest of the Story without That Circumstance But to come now to a Conclusion as to the Matter of Writing This History No Sooner What should any Man put Pen to Paper for in an Age when there was No place No Security for Truth No Refuge for Innocence and No Protection for Common Iustice The Noise of the People was Call'd the Voice of the People and Popular Tumults pass'd for the Wisdom of the Nation when Impostors were Consulted as Oracles and when All sorts of Men were Practic'd and wrought upon by All Sorts of Means to Blind their Vnderstandings or to Corrupt their Morals There was Mony for the Covetous Preferment for the Ambitious The Impunity of an Vnaccountable License for Malice or Revenge In Short Cases in Those Days were Carry'd by Huzzahs instead of Votes and Bear-Garden-Law was All many an Honest Man had to Trust to for the Liberty of the Subject CHAP. XI Notes upon Bedloes and Prances Evidence Compar'd One with Another WE are now Entring upon a Subject to Confound a Man as well where to Begin as where to End and there 's No Accommodating the Matter but by Covering the Depositions on Both Sides with One Great Plot. Here 's a Horrible Out-Cry of a Barbarous Murther A Popish Murther A Plot-Murther The Murther of a Magistrate The Murther of a Protestant Magistrate and in fine The Murther of a Magistrate in Revenge for his Endeavouring to Prevent the Murthering of a King the Burning of his Towns and the Massacring of his People Here 's the Scale of the Case and who but Bedloe and Prance the Devotes upon This Occasion for the Saving of their Prince and Country The Noise of This Murther and the Fame of the Discoverers has fill'd All Mouths and Places Ecclesiastical as well as Civil Churches and Pulpits have been Dedicated to their Honour And if Altars had not been Popish and if the same Whimsey had gone on Still we might have come in Time to a St. Titus a St. William a St. Miles Nay and a St. Eustace Comins too Orate pro nobis But for Temporal Preferments however there was Care taken that they should not want either Mediations or Effects We have Spoken Already of the Two Supporters of This Quarter-Part of the Plot and respectively of their Depositions apart but we are now going to see how they look upon One Another Together And whether 't was the Spirit of Revelation that Guided the Kings Witnesses or the Spirit of Delusion that wrought upon the Believers of them That is to say upon Those Believers of them that had the Whole Cause under Their Eye and Command and Duly Consider'd the Proportion of the several Parts and Coherence of the Intrigue It seems a Wonderful Thing that Bedloe and Prance that were Two of the Main Wheels of This Motion should hold No Communication at all One with Another Prance does not so much as Mention Bedloe nor Bedloe Prance either before the Lords or upon the Tryals Previously that is to the Murther save only Once and That by Implication too When the very Name of Prance was Thrown into Bedloes Mouth by a Leading Question Tryal fol. 33. And it was not the Two Witnesses only that were Strangers to One Another but the Principal Agitators Themselves were Few of them Acquainted The Instruments Several and they took Several Walks too at the same Time for the doing of the same Bus'ness and without holding any visible Correspondence As if Divers Men had Stumbled or rather Pitch'd by Impulse upon the same Thoughts without Knowing One Anothers Minds Bedloe Swears before the Lords that he Knows that Sir Edmundbury Godfrey was Murther'd in Somerset-House on the Saturday by Walsh Le Phaire Two Lay-men a Gentleman that Waits on my Lord Bellassis and an Under-waiter in the Queens Chappel He Swears that he Knows what afterwards he Delivers but upon Hear-say Now Prance tells us upon the Tryal that He Himself Green Berry Hill and Gerald were the Five Murtherers fol. 18. without so much as One Word of Bedloes Confederates Prance was Entic'd in he says by Gerald and Kelley fol. 14. But it was Le Phaire Pritchard Keines and several Other Priests that Treated with Bedloe about the Murther Tryal fol. 28. And then Vpon the Lords Journal Nov. 12. 1678. He Speaks as if it were only Le Phaire and Walsh that offer'd him 4000 l. to Help forward with it But it was Gerald and Vernatti that spake of a Great Reward to Prance Tryal fol. 22. Prance says that it was He Himself Green Hill Gerald and Kelley that put the Body into the Sedan and Help'd it away out of the House All set our Hands to 't he says Tryal fo 19