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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27544	The providences of God, observed through several ages, towards this nation, in introducing the true religion and then, in the defence of that, preserving the people in their rights and liberties, whilst other kingdoms are ravished of theirs, as our counsellors designed for us.	Bethel, Slingsby, 1617-1697.	1691 (1691)	Wing B2074; ESTC R18802	50,816	66

Queen Elizabeth to proceed upon which had he lived would in all probability have been more perfect he seeming to have been inspired with an Holy Spirit for Reformation in purging the Church from all the fulsom Dregs and Rubbish of Popish Superstition and Idolatry and the cutting so early the Thread of his Life before he had accomplished his Design gives us great cause to reckon it a Judgment of God upon this Nation for their Sins and we have the more reason to believe his pious Intentions because Dr. Heilin a late Champion for the Church of England established by Law and Bishop Laud's great Creature tells us in his Preface to his Church-History at least to this Effect That it was a great Mercy to the Church that he was taken away otherwise he had surely reduced Episcopacy to Primitive Institution c. and since the Doctor could not be ignorant that the Papists were violently suspected to be the Authors of his Death we may by this observe the Doctor and his Patrons Inclinations Queen Elizabeth's Preservation in the Tower in the time of her Imprisonment is a remarkable Providence not to be forgot that when her bloody Sister had designed her Death she should be preserved by King Philip Queen Maries Husband who had not at that time besides his Queen his Fellow in Christendom for Cruelty and Persecution of the Reformed and was moved to the same not by Bowels of Compassion but upon a Politick account That should Queen Mary dye Childless as it seems he feared Queen Elizabeth being out of the way the Queen of Scots a Papist would come to the Crown who being inseparably joyned in League with France they both might be too hard for Spain and that his Lenity towards Queen Elizabeth could be upon no other score appears by putting his Eldest Son to death for no other cause than being too mercifully inclined towards the Protestants in the Netherlands And thus the Lord wrought for us when we could not help our selves in bringing her to the Crown and preserving her thorough her whole Reign against the perpetual Plots and Endeavours of the Papists for destroying her Queen Elizabeth having in her Fathers and Sisters Times tho averse to the gross Idolatry of Rome imbibed too great a liking of the gaudy Splendor of the Church insomuch that the pious Reformers of that Age could not bring her to that height of Reformation they desired as appears by Dr. Burnet's now Bishop of Salisbury's Letter from Zurick in Switzerland had it not pleased God in his Providence to furnish her with wise and moderate Counsellors as Sir Thomas Smith Sir Nicholas Bacon Lord Burley Sir Francis Walsingham Earl of Essex and Sir Walter Rawleigh c. she might have proved more severe against the then Dissenters than she was but having had a true Love to the People of England and particularly to the City of London which scarce any of her four Successors have since had she reigned moderately some of those Acts of Parliament made in her time and since wrested against Dissenters being intended only against Papists Piety was by her and her Counsellors encouraged all Debauchery Blasphemy Atheism and Profaness discountenanced Honours places of Profit or Pensions never bestowed otherwise than for Merit by which all sorts being provoked to the study of Vertue and generous Actions Gentlemen were in that time in higher esteem and of greater Interest than many Noblemen at this day the benefit of which we found in a Blessing upon all our Undertakings the Nation not suffering the least dishonour in any of their Actions during her Reign tho ingaged in war upon the account of Religion with all her Neighbours with Spain in defence of the Protestants in the Netherlands with Scotland in the behalf of the Reformation there and with France in the assistance of the Reformed in that Kingdom in Ireland against the Rebels there and at home in suppressing the perpetual Plots of the Papists And having prevailed in all places with a small but well managed Revenue extravagant Sallaries Fraud and Cousenage unnecessary Pensions multiplying Offices and Officers to gratifie a Party for Popery and Arbitrary Government not being then known her and her Peoples interest being reckoned one and not separated as our Courtiers have since done she became glorious through the World so far as the Name of England was heard of insomuch that in honour of her the Emperor of Muscovia did voluntarily bestow extraordinary Immunities upon the English Nation When this Queen died the Renown of England seems to have died with her for since her time we have gon backward in Honour and Reputation having received many Eclipses None of our four suceeding Kings nor even Cromwel in his almost five years Usurpation having any one glorious Action to boast of save the concern the last had for the Protestants Liberty in Piemont which I confess ought not to be forgot tho his War with Spain and joyning with France is his Reproach James the 1st was a Scholar qualified for an University to make Harangues in the Schools but had nothing besides to brag of save Dissimulation which he called King-Craft but was really his blemish in that by it he so far lost all Reputation except that of a Pedant that no Princes or States could confide in him and for all his boasted Cunning was ever worsted in Foreign Treaties as in that with Spain about the Infanta with the Emperor about the Palatinate with Holland about the cautionary Towns not in delivering them up for that was but Justice but in the sum due to us for them and as a proof of his great Wisdom he spent that in fruitless Embassies which good Queen Elizabeth did in glorious Atchievements And therefore our flattering Clergy for their own ends stiling him a Solomon was groundless none ever having deserved it less his Diversions wherein he spent his time not being the Care of his People according to the duty of his Calling but in Hunting Masking and Drinking and to please the Ecclesiasticks by making their Sabbath-days-work easie in promoting the Profanation of that day in inviting the People by a Declaration to Sports and Games when they should have been either at Church or at home better employed as if the way to fit a People for Arbitrary Government was first to make them godless which Maxim hath been since improved This King was no sooner removed to England than forgetting the Methods of Church and State he had been bred to in Scotland aspired as much to Arbitrary Government as if he had never heard of any other Principles as appears by his hectoring Speeches in Parliament But it was the happiness of the People that his Bravery lay only in his Tongue and that the Nation was not then overrun with the Leprosie of Luxury and Lincentiousness nor the Ecclesiasticks and Judges corrupted as they have been since so that tho no means or tricks were neglected for compassing his Ends through Providence

was the beginning of his Troubles wherein he was as much out in his Politicks as in any of his other Actions for it could not be well expected that they who had swept their Church as clean from all the Rubbish of Rome as Geneva it self and more zealous and refined in their Doctrin than they would be easily imposed upon in Matters of Religion But it was the Pride of Bishop Laud who was ambitious of being the Founder of a new Popery and of seeing it accomplished in his days by driving too furiously that prevented the designed Mischief and so we find it confessed by our Queen Mother in Monsieur Siries Mercury the French Kings History Writer for the Affairs of Italy who tells us among many other things concerning England That when the Parliament in 1640. met the Pope had three Agents in England negotiating the reconciling our King to Rome viz. the Count of Roset Seignior C●● and Seignior Pausa●i● reciting Roset's Remonstrance delivered the King to prove it his Interest to turn Papist whereupon the King asking if the Pope would dispense with his Subjects taking the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy she was told that if ●e would be a Catholick i● must be without Conditions But the Parliament getting a Sent hereof● 〈…〉 clo●e that Roset was forced to be confessed whilst disguising himself and then fled for Ireland a little before the 〈◊〉 where it 's said he died And it may be observed that at this time this King 's Chief Counsellors 〈…〉 Strafford and Laud were such as whilst living were suspected and at Death declared themselves Papists viz. Thomas Earl of Arrundle Lord Cottington and Sir Francis Windibanck Secretary of State and Laud's Kinsman and not long before Treasurer Weston died of the same Communion And the same Author where he writes of the Affairs of England tells us further that Bishop L. and Bishop N. by which must be meant the two Archbishops Laud and Neal profered the Pope to leave England and go to Rome and for the Credit of that See declare themselves Papists provided the Pope would allow them at Rome the value of their English Bishopricks which they computed each at 16000 Crowns per annum but received for answer from the Pope's Nephew Chief Minister of State who at that time was as I remember Cardinal Francisco Barbarino reputed a great Statesman that if their Conversion were real they might at Rome live comfortably of so many hundred Crowns per annum For the Cardinal was jealous that the bottom of Laud's design was a Patriarchal Popedom for England which would have been a bad Example for France and other Popish Countries If any are curious to know further concerning the Affairs of England at that time I refer them to the aforesaid Mercury which is writ in Italian In the succeeding eighteen years interval this Nation received not the least dishonour save what happened at Hispaniola in War with Spain during Cromwel's Usurpation For the greatest part of the rest of that time our Neighbours trembled when we frowned tho since that the Catastrophy hath been such that we have trembled at their Frowns occasioned by the misgovernment of Charles the 2d who yet came to the Administration of the Crown most advantageously not an Enemy daring to shew his Teeth excepting that mad freak of the 29 Fifth Monarchy Men he seeming to be the universal Delight of the People At Breda he promised Liberty of Conscience to those dissenting Ministers that were with others sent by Parliament to invite him into England and at his arrival made shew of being true to his Word by appointing at the Savoy in order thereunto a Conference betwixt the two Parties the Conformists and Dissenters but the latter being under hand discountenanced by him who was a great Minister of King James the First 's Art in King-Craft it came to nothing more than making their Burthens the heavier so that in a short time the Presbyterians who had been the chief Authors of his Restauration his own Party being then so inconsiderable that they cannot be said to have contributed more to it than as Servants to the other were most ungratefully used their Ministers turned out of their Livings their Families exposed to live in a great measure upon Charity and that by him whom they had brought from that Condition himself to the injoyment of three Crowns His first Parliament acted regularly with an eye to publick good and quiet passing an Act of Indempnity for all save some few excepted which he seemed to approve so much of that in his cunning and cajoling way he gave them the name of the healing Parliament and then dissolved it calling another more to his purpose after which how he kept his Indempnity appears by his usage of the great and incomparable Sir Henry Vane Alderman Ireton Mr. Samuel Moyer Major Gladman c. taking away contrary to Faith the Life of the first imprisoning others without cause till they redeemed their Liberty by great Sums like Slaves in Algiers others standing it out till the Habeas Corpus Bill came in use after the withdrawing of Chancellor Hide which for seven or eight years had been denied or from the Iniquity of the Times durst not be moved for were freed by Law without Fines He pretended great zeal for the Reformed Religion with an Abhorrence of Poperty yet in favour of the latter endeavoured to set the Conformists at the greatest difference with the Dissenters by several Acts against the latter and severe Prosecution thereupon And this whilst at the same time all proceedings against the Papists in the Exchequer upon Conviction were stopped to the preserving of them when Protestant Dissenters were many of them ruined by close Imprisonments where they died he designing all a long no less than Popery and Slavery even when he pretended the contrary His two unjust costly and causeless Wars with Holland being in order thereunto as was the burning of London and the Popish Plot discovered by Dr. Oats yet rather than be thought to have any hand in the latter he suffered about twenty persons which he is strongly suspected to have imployed in it to dye for it When the burning of London the frequent subsequent Fires in Southwark St. Katharines and several parts of the City c. would not serve his ends he contrived a Protestant Plot for murthering of himself and as he untruly suggested introducing a Commonwealth and as the most probable Instrument as he thought tho therein mistaken Mr. Clapol a Son-in-law of Cromwel must be charged with it and without the least ground clapped up in Prison in the closest way and had not the real Popish Plot broke out he had surely been sacrificed to give Credit to the Forgery but Mr. Capol's unsuitable Principles to such a Design was enough to detect the Fraud and Villany he having been in the Civil Wars reckoned all a long a Royalist and Anti-Republican And thus ill Men are sometimes caught in

THE PROVIDENCES OF GOD OBSERVED THROUGH Several Ages TOWARDS THIS NATION In Introducing the True Religion AND THEN In the Defence of that preserving the PEOPLE in their RIGHTS and LIBERTIES whilst other KINGDOMS are ravished of theirs as our COUNSELLORS designed for US LONDON Printed for R. Baldwin near the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-Lane 1691. TO THE READER THERE being found amongst us a certain sottish Generation who out of Love to Slavery and Hatred to our Legal and Natural Rights do disown any Miscarriage or Error in the Ministers and Instruments of the Two last Reigns I thought it necessary to make some Observations upon the Transactions of those Times to the end to raise our Hearts to a thankful Admiration of God's Grace and Goodness in preserving us in our Priviledges by his over-ruling Hand of Providence through many Ages whilst other Kingdoms have been ravished of theirs and to discourage the like Attempts against us for the future by Men of ambitious selfish and depraved Principles And because I know this will meet with many Enemies who as concerned will be ready to cavil at it I have for the farther Proof of the Subject Matter relating to the Two last Reigns and the Inquity of them annexed hereunto two Affidavits which together with the uncontradicted Information of that eminently honest Captain Henry Wilkinson a true Son tho' no Bigot of the Church of England will I suppose be sufficient to make good the Truth of what is here suggested And if any desire farther satisfaction concerning the Four last Kings I referr them for James the First to that Book called The Court of King James writ by Sir Anthony Welden who being a Courtier writ his Knowledg and Experience For Charles the First to Rushworth's Authentick Collections For Charles the Second and James the Second to that Book called The Display of Tyranny where you will find named the Judges Juries Witnesses and Council made use of in several Trials upon Life and Death as well as for pretended Misdemeaners some of which Verdicts have been since reversed by Act of Parliament declaring several Men murthered and some of the Verdicts for Misdemanors reversed by Judgment in the House of Lords to the Credit of the Sufferers but little to the Credit of those Juries who found them guilty c. THE PROVIDENCES OF GOD OBSERVED THROUGH Several Ages TOWARDS THIS NATION AS it is the duty of Man to contemplate the various Dispensations and Workings of God in the World so no Country under Heaven affords more Matter than England for raising our Souls to the highest admiration of his Greatness and Goodness and that as well in reference to Civils as Spirituals To look no further back than William the First who some call Conquerer the Mercy of the Lord towards this Nation hath ever since been to a Miracle in preserving their Rights and Privileges through so many Ages and Reigns of covetous and ambitious Princes who never wanted evil Counsellors to joyn with them for Arbitrary Power and Government they knowing that he that makes no Conscience of cousening the Community for whose good he is ordeined must suffer them in their degree to cousen him as he doth the other and tho' we find they have for the most part first or last failed in their Attempts it hath not frightened others from the like Designs the Examples of Gavestone Lord Spencers c. in former times nor of Strafford and Laude since being any caution to those whose Pride and Covetousness overballanceth such Presidents and it 's no wonder that all times should furnish bad Kings with evil Counsellors there being more Men in the World of Parts without Honesty than there are of both Parts and Honesty and more of Honesty without Parts than of th' other two whose weakness the first makes use of to support themselves in their tyrannical practices and tho' through Mercy we do at present injoy our Liberties the preservation of them from the First William down to this time hath been almost by perpetual Contests with our Kings and their pernicious Instruments In times of Popery the Clergy who are always governed by their separate Interest owning the Pope for their Head were tenacious of their English Priviledges equal to any and from thence were the greatest supporters of them and the greatest Checks to our aspiring Princes for which reason they were then so much honoured and adored but since the Reformation in Religion hath changed their Interest in making them dependent upon the Crown from whence issues all their Preferments they have been the greatest Flatterers of our Princes and Enemies to our English Liberties it being hard for a Flatterer to be an honest Man And this may be made an additional Reason to Dr. Itchards several Causes of the present Contempt of the Clergy for as it 's natural to Mankind to reverence those from whom they receive good so on the contrary to have an aversion for those from whom they derive their miseries and tho Statists would monopolize beyond contradiction all knowledge in Government to themselves as a defence for their evil practices The wiser sort of Men of both Parts and Honesty see easily thorough their tricks and the rest feel where the Shooe pincheth and in truth Politicians without Honesty are but like Mountebanks on a Stage to cheat the Ignorant For as King James the First used to say Honesty is the best Policy and whether he had the Vertue to follow his own Maxim he was able to judge of what was good and vertuous and surely all Governments thrive best that make Honesty the rule not only as a blessing of God may be expected from such proceedings but also from Natural and Human Reason the worst of Men liking Honesty best in others tho' they do not practise it themselves And therefore all Vertuous Princes will be careful to make choice of Counsellors of upright and just Principles as such may be well known by their Creatures for if their Favorites are Men of Immorral depraved and debauched Lives as to Tyranny and Oppression they must be the same in their own Nature and who they are that are such the late Times have so sufficiently discovered as is beyond concealing And now as this may serve to raise our hearts in a thankful remembrance to Almighty God for Temporal Mercies so I shall observe that which is of greater concern our Eternal Being which requires our most serious Meditation as That the Lord by his over-ruling Hand of Providence should make a professed Enemy to the Truth Henry the 8th his first Instrument of bringing us out of Darkness into Light cannot be sufficiently admired who being followed by that Miracle of Piety especially for his Age Edward the 6th he made so grounded a Reformation in his short time that his merciless and persecuting Successor of the Popish Communion could not get totally over in her Reign but was forced to leave in a great measure his Pattern of Church Government for

Queen Elizabeths Time never wanted some of persecuting Spirits yet those being over-ballanced by the Piety and Zeal of some of the then Guides of the Church not incouraging the Profanation of the Lord's Day nor discouraging Preaching twice upon that Day nor yet putting down Weekly or Monthly Lectures Tho that Reign may be said not to have been totally free from profligate and ill People the generality was sober and vertuous compared to the succeeding Reigns especially the two last so overrun with Debauchery and all manner of Profaness And now being freed from the Grievances of the four last Reigns it might be expected that all should hate the remembrance of those Times and never more hanker after the like the doing of which cannot proceed from any thing less than in some a depraved slavish Nature delighting in the Barbarity of the Eastern Countries In some well meaning honest Men from Ignorance not understanding their true Interest in others from a hatred to common Freedom being content to be tyrannized over by their Superiors so they may but do the same over their Inferiors And in others who understand the true Interest of the Nation from preferring an Opportunity of cozening cheating and advancing themselves to Honours and Dignities to all other Considerations whatever And from hence together with Selfishness and want of Integrity in some professing Honesty thereby deceiving the weak and credulous whilst they pursue their own Interest without regard to the Publick proceeds the Misery of Mankind I take no pleasure in remembring the Vices and Enormities of our Country but am greatly troubled to hear of the horrid Debauchery that is amongst us and to observe how this Nation is degenerated from a Land formerly famous for Piety to that of all manner of Profaness against which I have thought it my Duty thus to bear my Testimony The Information of Thomas Samson Gent. taken upon Oath before Sir Thomas Alleyn Kt. and Bt. one of His Majesty's Justices of the Peace for the City of London this 24th Day of November Anno 1681. at Seven of the Clock in the Morning Who saith THAT John Mac-Namarra told this Deponent that Edward Ivy and Bryan Haynes agreed together in April last to swear Treason against the Earl of Shaftsbury and the Bill being found against the said Earl that they with John Smith and Turberfeild did intend to swear Treason against Sir Patient Ward Sir Robert Clayton Sir Thomas Player Sheriff Bethel Col. Mildmay and all others as should come in as Witnesses against their Designs or in the behalf of the abovesaid Gentlemen The Treason which they designed to swear against the said Earl was That the Earl should say that our King deserved to be dethroned more than Richard II. and that the said Earl would dethrone the King and make England a Commonwealth This Deponent farther saith That the said Mac-Namarra told this Deponent the 28th of July last that Edward Ivy had often Conference with Mrs. Cellier and the Popish Priests in Newgate and had received Mony to sham the Popish Plot and to swear to a Protestant one This Deponent farther saith That the said Mac-Namarra two Days before he went to Oxford to Colledge's Trial told this Deponent that he knew the Design against the Protestants and that he would say something against them to please Justice Walcop to get some Mony But he God damn him if he knew of any Treasons by any Protestants or knew of any Plot but the Popish Plot or if he ever would swear to any such thing And at the said Mac-Namarra's Return from Oxford he swore the same to this Deponent in the presence of others This Deponent farther saith That the said Mac-Namarra told this Deponent that he the said Mac-Namarra had been often with the Earl of Shaftsbury with Haynes and Ivy but this Deponent telling him that the said Earl never discoursed any alone the said Mac-Namarra told this Deponent that the Occasion of their speaking with him was for that they discovered to him the said Earl some Persons that intended to murther him Mac-Namarra saying that himself and Ivy took distaste for that the Earl would not discourse them alone in as much as Ivy therefore contrived to swear High Treason against the said Earl This Deponent farther saith That Mr. Turberfeild told this Deponent at the Sign of the Cock by the Pall-Mall two or three Days before Colledge's Trial of this Design against Protestants but with solemn Protestations swore that he knew nothing of any Treasons against the Earl of Shaftsbury the Lord Howard or any Protestants only of Colledge's idle Words and of Rowse's keeping the Charity of the City from the Evidences This Deponent farther saith That on the 23d of September last John Smith Stephen Dugdale and Turberfeild sent for this Deponent to the Three-Tun-Tavern in Hungerford-Market and there drinking the said Smith began the Duke of York's Health He swore God damn him he drank his Health because he was a Papist and therefore he loved him This Deponent farther saith That the Mony which was gathered in the City for the Maintenance of the Evidence was gathered on their Petition to the Common Hall and by the Evidences special Instance to the Lord Shaftsbury and others to interceed for them to the City it being directed to the City by the House of Commons to take care of them until the Parliament sate again and procured a Maintenance for them This Deponent farther saith That the Answer which John Mac-Namarra made on Oath to the Grand Jury at Rowse's Trial viz. being questioned how he was maintained Who answered that he then rented 100 l. per Annum in Ireland was false And Edward Ivy at the same time saying on his Oath that he came not over to England to discover the Popish Plot was also false for that he had 20 l. allowed him by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland for the same And whereas the said Ivy then swore that What Information he made touching the Popish Plot was dictated to him by the Earl of Shaftsbury and that a Reward for the Swearing of it was promised by Rowse was also false for that this Deponent saw the Information in the said Ivy's Hands before he knew as he said the said Earl or Rowse and the Day after he came to Town This Deponent farther saith That himself with others have heard Dennis Mac-Namarra say that he would swear any thing that his Brother John would have him to swear And this Deponent farther saith That the Earl of Shaftsbury advised this Deponent Mac-Namarra and Ivy not to go to Oxford until the Parliament sent for them to give their Evidence touching the Popish Plot and on our Request the said Earl promised that he would move for Mony to bear our Charges thither and to supply our great Necessities This Deponent farther saith That Justice Walcop often sollicited him with Promises of Reward to be an Evidence against the Earl of Shaftsbury and others of the City and