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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A49353 The loyal martyr vindicated Fowler, Edward, Bishop of Gloucester, 1632-1714. 1691 (1691) Wing L3353A; ESTC R41032 60,614 53

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of Braganza though the King of Spain had enjoyed the Crown for Three Generations The Case was this There were Three Pretenders to that Crown and most of the Universities in Europe were emploied to determine which of them had Right when Philip the Second while the Thing was yet under debate seeing them encline most to the Duke of Braganza sends the Duke d' Alva with an Army and very unfairly Surprizes and Oppresses the Headless Nation and decided the Controversie by the Sword This was no Conquest but a manifest Vsurpation for no Battle was fought nor Resistance made Was this parallel to the Case of us in England Was our Nation Headless at the time of the Prince of Orange's Invasion Was it under dispute whether King Iames or he had Right to the Crown Or had King Iames usurp'd it as King Philip had done Was he not in quiet Possession of England which King Philip never was The Portugueze still grumbling and resenting that they were enslav'd to a Foreigner when a King of their own Nation had a Title to it Again their swearing Allegiance to King Philip was too in many regards more justifiable than ours they were kept under by a Foreign Force whereas we do it voluntarily Besides the Spanish King had been one of the Pretenders and the Question was not decided Had the Prince of Orange or his Princess any kind of pretence to England while their Father liv'd Lastly They rose against a Foreign King to introduce one of their own Nation whereas we rose against our own to introduce a Foreigner How shallow then is it to huddle together many Instances and not bring one of them home to his purpose How ridiculous to argue all along from Matters of Fact to Matter of Right Which is just as wise as to pretend that whatever has been done must be well done and is the same as if he would set himself to prove that we were not the first nor the only Rebels Traytors or Perjured Persons that have been in the World but that there have been others both of our own and other Nations before us which we never denied He has not done with his Plot to prove the Paper none of Mr. Ashton's but take which you will tells you p. 28. That either 't is not his or else that he contradicted himself In what I beseech him Why. Mr. Ashton at his Tryal said He could not but own he had a fair Tryall for his Life and yet in his Paper he complains of the severe Charge of the Iudges and hard Measure And where lies the Contradiction Every Man knows that the Tryall is over before the Charge is given or the Verdict brought in by the Jury So that nothing hinders but the Tryall may be fair and seemingly kind though the Charge which came after did aggravate and made the worse Misconstruction as indeed it did of every thing and so was very hard and severe But does Mr. Ashton mention no hard Measures besides Does he not object his close Imprisonment the hasty and violent Proceedings against him and the Industry used in the Return of fi●ting Persons to pass upon him the denying of him a Copy of the Panel with an c. at the end of them Were not these hard Measures and some of them villanously unjust and indeed plainly shewed that since they saw him so heartily honest that he would not be warpt the Resolution was taken beforehand by the Party to have his Life per Fas aut Nefas Does he deny these were hard Measures or that Mr. Ashton said true when he told us he had receiv'd such hard Measures He confesses both by his Silence in such main Businesses Is it not a rare piece of Justice to cull out a select Company of Court Pick-thanks who they were sure would hang him and yet deny a Copy of the Panel that he might except against some chief Boute-feus and particularly that malicious Jury Man he so complains of who would never leave pressing and solliciting the rest till they brought them let the Cause be never so ugly into the same Guilt of Murther with themselves Yet a Man who loses his Life by such Tricks is according to this Caviller confident uncharitable or whatever other Character his time-serving Spite thinks fit to put upon him if he do but barely speak of what they did to take away his Life Now after all this Outcry and heavy Charges to lay Load upon the Martyr's Credit what was it he said Though I have I think just reason to complain of the severe Charge given by the Iudges and the hard measure c. Yet as I hope for Pardon at the Hands of my God I do most heartily pray for and forgive them c. Could any thing be said more sweetly or more modestly He onely spoke it in Transcursu and as a Transition to the declaring his Charitable Forgiving of his Enemies He onely said he thought he had received ill Usage and why might not he think so when his Lawyers told him the Law did not reach him there being onely Presumption which was incompetent in that Case Yet this uncharitable Ca●iller charges him with Confidence and want of Common Charity and employs all his little Tricks of Rhetorick to have it thought he dyed an ill Man and which is the worse Sin of the two to murther as far as he could his Soul and his Credit as a good Christian after the Judges and Jury had murthered his Body But how does he clear the Jury He cites my Lord Coke p. 29. that the Intent is to be discovered by Circumstances c. But does he or any Man say that those Circumstances must not be evidently connected with the Intention that is such as could not have light or could not have been put had there not been such an Intention Otherwise the Evidence rises not above Presumption which that Lawyer declares to be insufficient and therefore he requires Good and Manifest Proof and the Proof of a Man's Intention cannot be said to be manifest unless the Over-act was manifestly connected with it Was it so here Ashton clear'd the occasion of his going over to France to have been upon a quite different Account But the Papers says he were found about him What then Might not another who was in the Company and who onely was conscious of their Contents give them to him to keep Nay would not that Person who was concerned judge it best in Reason rather to give them to a Person which was not at all concerned in them than to another of his own Gang Certainly he would Nothing more frequent in Oliver's Days than for loyal Gentlemen going in Coach to give such Papers which were Treasonable in those days to the Coachman or some Gentlewomen in Company and must such Persons who carried them be concluded guilty of Treason This Circumstance then of having the Papers found upon him which were evidently another Man's Concern as being writ in his