one would suppose that God had made man not after his own Image but rather that of an Ass or something else that is beneath a Rational Creature For is it not ridiculous that any thing should be more excellent and knowing than that which is to govern it Is an insatiable desire of Power preferable to that Reason with which man was indued at his Creation Must a man give up that to which he has a clear right both by the Laws of God and his Countrey because another who is at that time guided by his passion desires to lay hold of it What Justice can any man promise to himself when Passion is above the Law What signifies Law if the King's Will must be the measure of our Obedience To what purpose are Parliaments and all those other Provisions which our Forefathers made to preserve our Liberties if Prerogative were in truth that Omnipotent thing which it boasted it self to be in the late Reigns That man is surely out of his way that is beside his Reason Had men been guided by it and nothing else there had been no misunderstandings about Government Reason will not mislead us but other things will be resolved to follow that and you will be sure to approve your selves in the sight of God and man Having said this I will now proceed to the Particulars of your Enquiry The first of which is High Treasons of which there are several sorts and Species both at Common-Law and by Statute-Law but those only that are made such by some Statutes are those that fall within your Enquiry To compass or imagine the Death of the King or Queen and that declared by some Overt and plain Act is High-Treason by the 25 Edw. III. but such Acts must be direct and clear void of all Implication or other Construction or else it will not make it Treason within this Statute for this Statute was made to take away constructive Treasons and thereby relieved the Subjects against an unspeakable evil under which they had laboured for many years for till then the Judges took an extravagant Liberty in stamping Treason upon almost any Offence that came before them which cost many an innocent man his Life contrary to all Reason and Justice so that this Statute was a very beneficial Law for the Subject To levy War against the King or Queen in their Realm or to adhere to their Enemies in the Realm or to give them comfort here or elsewhere is High-Treason by the same Statute But a Conspiracy to levy War is not Treason unless the War be actually levied though the contrary Opinion prevailed in the late Times whereby several worthy men were murthered It was a very far-fetched Opinion and could never have obtained but in that or some other corrupt Age when all Law and Justice was given up to the Will and Pleasure of the King For my Lord Coke is express in it That unless the War is actually levied it is not Treason and I remember in the Debate in the House of Lords upon the Bill for reversing my Lord Russel's Attainder the Lords were unanimously of opinion that it was not Treason and upon that ground chiefly they passed the Bill To counterfeit the Great Seal is High-Treason by 25 Edw. 3. and very good reason it should be so because of the great Authority it carries along with it it would be often attempted to be done and thereby innumerable mischiefs would follow and breed a great deal of confusion To counterfeit the King's Money or to bring in false and counterfeit Money knowing it to be such to make payment with it is High-Treason by 25 Edw. III. and so it is to clip file or wash Money by 3 Hen. V. and very good reason it should be so for these and every of them is a great Offence against the Publick for Mony being as it were the Sinews of the Nation to impair or counterfeit it is a great loss and damage to the Publick so that the Offence in so doing is not because it is marked with the King's Image for the French Money and the Spanish Coin and others are current in England which have not the King's Image upon them but the true reason is because of the great interest the Publick has in it and it would be the same thing if the Money had any other Stamp or Size put upon it by Publick Authority To kill the Chancellor Treasurer or the King's Justices being in their Places doing their Offices is High Treason by 25 Edw. III. It is very great reason that they who serve the Publick in such eminent Stations should have the publick protection for when they faithfully and honestly discharge their several Trusts the Publick receive great advantages by it and therefore this Offence was made High-Treason To counterfeit the Sign-Manual Privy-Signet or Seal is High-Treason by 1 M. 6. and I think it is so by 25 Edw. III. to counterfeit the Privy-Seal And the reason why the Offences in these Cases are made so capital is because of the great detriment they bring upon the Publick To extol a Foreign Power is High-Treason by 1 Eliz. and very fit it should be so for every man will allow it is a great Offence to set up any other Power in opposition to the Publick Authority For a Priest or a Jesuit to come and abide within this Realm is High-Treason by 27 Eliz. I believe a great many people have been under a very great mistake in this matter supposing it was upon the Score of Religion that the Priests and Jesuits were put to death whereas it was quite otherwise for it was upon a Politick account that they suffered it was for an Offence against the Government that they were executed For it having been found by experience that this sort of Vermin by their Doctrine and Practice sowed the Seeds of Division and thereby wrought great Disturbances in the Nation it was therefore thought fit by the Parliament to take this way as the most effectual to keep them out for as what they did amounted to nothing less than Treason so it was highly reasonable that the punishment should be commensurate to the Offence And since it is become a Law of the Realm if this sort of people will be so presumptuous as to break it they have no body to blame but themselves if they suffer by it for it is a very just and reasonable Law To absolve any from their Allegiance or to be absolved is High Treason by 3 Jac. 1. the Law does heighten or abate the Punishment according as the Offence does more or less affect the Publick Peace so that the more it tends to the Publick Prejudice the greater is the Offence and what can strike more directly at the ruin and overthrow of the Nation than to withdraw the People from their Allegiance and to become the Destroyers of their Native Country And since those that absolve and those that are absolved have thereby declared themselves
to preside publickly there which was more than any Popish Prince ever did When he sate up a High Commission Court When he kept up in time of peace a numerous Army to the terrour of his Subjects and allowed so little for their Quarters as that it amounted to little less than free Quarter When he assumed a Dispencing Power and declared that he would be obeyed without reserve These and a great many other Irregularities were the product of his Reign and it is not very probable that he is brought to a better temper by any thing that he hath seen or learnt from his Conversation with the French King and it is as little probable that that King would have treated him as he hath done had he discovered in King James any disposition to govern more mildly and reasonably for the future How much he is influenced to the contrary is very evident by designing to bring in the French upon us the people of all others this Nation ought most to dread being the old and irreconcilable Enemy of England For whoever looks into History will find that France hath occasioned more trouble to England than all the world besides Nay there has scarce been any ill Design against this Nation but France hath had a hand in it as if their very Climate did necessitate them to be at enmity with us When any of the Kings of England have had a design upon the Peoples Liberties they have entred into a Confederacy with France as the People of all others most likely to serve their Purpose and it has always gone ill with England when our Kings have made an intimate Friendship with the French King as we may remember by woeful experience Let us consider besides that no people under the Sun are at this day so noted for treachery and cruelty as the French of which they have given such pregnant Instances upon the Protestants of their own Nation and in their New Conquests as were never done by the most Barbarous and Uncivilized People For after Terms agreed on and submitted to yet without any new Provocation or other occasion given by those poor Creatures the French have fallen upon them taken from them that little that was left and in cold Blood Murthered them sparing neither Age nor Sex and shall not we then think our selves in a comfortable Condition when we have such Task-Masters as these set over us But it seems these are they by whom King James hopes to be restored to his Kingdoms it is by these that he means to do his Work and they are the Instruments he will imploy to make the Settlement he designs in England for in his Declaration he plainly tells us That if those he brings over with him are not sufficient he has more of the same sort ready at hand Now tho a Reconciliation with King James were practicable under a Supposition that there could be any moral assurance that he would sacredly keep his Word and that he had more just and righteous Intentions then heretofore yet to come in such Company and to bring such a Train along with him makes it impossible to all those who have not abandoned all Sence of Religion and Morality and are not resolved to run into all the Excesses of Cruelty and Oppression But that nothing might be wanting to give Success to this fatal Enterprize and make our Ruin more certain several Persons in England I believe some in every County were not only privy but consenting to it and had prepared Horses and Arms to assist the French at their Landing yet of what Profession or Communion they are I forbear to name and leave that to be explained when they are called to account and therefore only shall say in general That they who could so take the French by the Hand may well be supposed to have renounced the Protestant Religion and the Interest of their Country and all Bowels of Compassion to their Posterity and are resolved to keep pace with the French in the Murthers and Havock they shall commit for there is no looking back after being engaged in such undertakings the least remisness would render them suspected and bring them in danger to be involved in the Common Destruction After all this what these Men will call themselves I know not for they cannot pretend to the Name of Protestants and English Men what they deserve I shall leave to the Law which is to judge them What we are always to expect at their hands when they shall have Power and Opportunity I think without breach of Charity I may adventure to say is all the Mischief and Ruin that our greatest Enemies would bring upon us What we are to do is to bless God for bringing the design to light before it took effect and to do our best endeavours to detect those who are concerned in this unnatural Design that Justice may pass upon them For are not such as these more to blame then any others who were to have a hand in this matter Was it not more unnatural and unreasonable for them to joyn with the French than for the French to have such a design against us Would not their joyning in it have been the chief Inducement to bring in the French upon us For such an Attempt is altogether impracticable without holding an effectual Correspondence here or else to surprize us when we are together by the Ears in a Civil War so that in effect it is they that had brought all the Desolation that would have fallen upon their Native Country if that design had but once taken effect He that can be consenting and assisting to the rooting out of the Protestant Religion and ruin of his Country what other thing is there that can be so bad which such a one would refuse upon the score of Honour and Conscience May not a Man without being thought severe say What profligate Wretches are these What Accommodation can be made with such Persons And what security from them can be hoped for longer then they want opportunity to hurt us Is it not then the Duty of every Man that hath any concern for his Religion or Property to do what in him lies to discover and bring these Projectours of our Ruin to Justice Perhaps you may not receive any clear Information such as will legally convict any Person of being engaged in the design I have mentioned but you may recieve such Information as will convince any reasonable Man that they are concerned in this or some other foul Practice against the Publick Peace Those who have refused the Oaths to this King and Queen cannot be supposed to be altogether unconcerned for King James but if any such had provided themselves with Arms or unusual Numbers of Horses this is what ought not to be passed over unregarded It must be for some purpose that they had so furnished themselves for People do not usually put themselves to that Expence but when they have a prospect of making use
the City and Canton of Zurick in Switzerland c. A New Plain Short and Compleat French and English Grammer whereby the Learner may attain in few Months to speak and write French correctly as they do now in the Court of France And wherein all that is dark superfluous and deficient in other Grammars is plain short and methodically supplied Also very useful to Strangers that are desirous to learn the English Tongue For whose sake is added a Short but very Exact English Grammar The Third Edition with Additions By Peter Berault Memoirs concerning the Campagne of Three Kings William Lewis and James in the Year 1692. With Reflections upon the Great Endeavours of Lewis the 14th to effect his Designs of James the 2d to Remount the Throne And the proper Methods for the Allies to take to hinder both The Speech of the Right Honourable Thomas Earl of Stamford Lord Gray of Grooby c. at the General Quarter-Sessions held for the County of Leicester at Michaelmas 1691. His Lordship being made Custer Rotulorum for the said County by the late Lord Commissioners of the Great Seal The Speech of the Right Honourable Henry Earl of Warringron Lord Delamere to the Grand Jury at Chester April 13. 1692. An Answer to the Late King James's Declaration dated at St. Germains April the 17th S.N. 1693. An Account of the late Terrible Earthquake in Sicily with most of its Particulars Done from the Italian Copy printed at Rome Reflections upon the Late Horrid Conspiracy contrived by the French Court to Murther His Majesty in Flanders And for which Monsieur Granvall one of the Assassinates was Executed A True and Exact Account of the Retaking a Ship called The Friend's Adventure of Topsham from the French after she had been Taken six Days and they were upon the Coasts-of France with it four Days where one Englishman and a Boy set upon Seven Frenchmen killed Two of them took the other Five Prisoners and brought the Ship and them safe to England Their Majesties Customs of the said Ship amounted to 1000 l. and upwards Performed and written by Robert Lyde Mate of the same Ship Reflections upon Two Pamphlets lately published one called A Letter from Monsieur de Cros concerning the Memoirs of Christendom And the other An Answer to that Letter Pretended to have been written by the Author of the said Memoirs By a Lover of Truth Europe's Chains Broke or a sure and speedy Project to rescue Her from the Present Usurpations of the Tyrant of France The Gentleman's Journal Or The Monthly Miscellany In a Letter to a Gentleman in the Country Consisting of News History Philosophy Poetry Musick Translations c. Vol. II. June 1693. Where are to be had Compleat Sets for the Year 1692. or Single ones for last Year Bibliotheca Politica Or A Discourse by way of Dialogue upon these Questions Whether by the Ancient Laws and Constitutions of this Kingdom as well as by the Statutes of the 13th and 14th of King Charles the II. all Resistance of the King or of those commissioned by him are expresly forbid upon any Pretence whatsoever And also Whether all those who affisted his Present Majesty King William either before or after the coming over are guilty of the breach of this Law Collected out of the most Approved Authors both Ancient and Modern Dialogue the Ninth Where are also to be had the First Second Third Fourth Fifth Sixth Seventh and Eighth Dialogues Saul at Endor or the Ghost of the Marquiss de Louvois consulted by the French King concerning the present Affairs Done out of French On Thursday next will be publish'd Nevil Pain 's Letters