Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
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A56095
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A Protestant plot no paradox, or, Phanaticks under that name plotting against the king and government proved first, from their principles, secondly, from their practices.
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Tonge, Thomas, d. 1662.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing P3840; ESTC R10620
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63,075
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38
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Standen John Worth John Rigby Leonard Staples And several Witnesses being called there appeared William Hill Edward Riggâ— Tyler Godolphin Bonfoy and several others who being all sworn were directed up to the Grand-Jury After some hours examination of the Witnesses and consultation the Grand-Jury returned the Indictment Billa vera Clerk of the Peace You good men of the City of London summoned to appear here this day to enquire between our Soveraign Lord the King and the Prisoners that are and shall be at the Bar answer to your Names as you shall be called every one at their first Call upon pain and peril that shall fall thereon Good men of the Ward of c. Serjeant Glyn Sergeant Maynard His Majesties Serjeants at Law Sir Jeoffry Palmer Attorney-General Sir Heneage Finch His Majesties Sollicitor Serjeant Keeling His Majesties Serjeant Sir Edward Turnor taking their places in Court the Prisoners were commanded to be set to the Bar. Clerk of the Peace Thomas Tonge hold up thy hand George Phillips hold up thy hand Francis Stubbs hold up thy hand James Hinde hold up thy hand John Sallers hold up thy hand and Nathaniel Gibbs hold up thy hand Which they severally doing their Indictment was read the substance whereof is as followeth viz. YOU the Prisoners that were last called to the Bar stand Indicted in London by the Names of Thomas Tonge late of London Distiller George Phillips late of London Yeoman Francis Stubbs late of London Cheese-monger James Hind late of London Gunner John Sallers late of London Compass-maker and Nathaniel Gibbs late of London Felt-maker for that you six together with divers others particularly in the Indictment mentioned and others not yet taken as false Traytors to the Illustrious Serene and most Excellent Prince Charles the Second by the Grace of God of England Scotland France and Ireland King Defender of the Faith c. minding and with all their force intending the Peace and Tranquillity of this Kingdom of England to disturb and our said Soveraign Lord the King to death and final destruction to bring and put the 31. day of October in the Fourteenth year of the Reign of our said Soveraign Lord King Charles the Second Traiterously did compass imagine and Intend the killing of our said Soveraign Lord the King and the antient Government of this Kingdom of England to change as in the Indictment more particularly was mentioned What sayest thou Thomas Tonge art thou guilty of this High-Treason in manner and form as thou standest Indicted or not guilty Tonge Not guilty Clerk How wilt thou be Tryed Tonge By God and my Countrey Clerk What sayest thou George Phillips art thou guilty c. Phill. I am guilty in hearing and not discovering of it Clerk Art thou guilty of this High-Treason whereof thou standect Indicted Phill. I am guilty but not in manner and form as I stand Indicted I have heard the words as I formely confessed to Sir Richard Brown not guilty as to the manner and form Clerk How wilt thou be Tryed Phill. By God and my Countrey Clerk How sayest thou Francis Stubbs art thou guilty c. Stub Not guilty Clerk How wilt thou be Tryed Stub By God and my Countrey Clerk What sayest thou James Hind art thou guilty c. Hind kneeling down and discovering much penitency answered I am guilty and humbly beg mercy of His Majesty Court Record his Confession Clerk How sayest thou John Sallers art thou guilty c. Sall. Not guilty Clerk How wilt thou be Tryed Sall. By God and the Countrey Clerk How sayest thou Nathaniel Gibbs art thou guilty c. Gibbs Not guilty Cler. How wilt thou be Tryed Gibbs By God and the Countrey Court Carry up Hind to the Gaole And the rest standing at the Bar silence was commanded Cler. Thomas Tonge George Phillips Francis Stubbs John Sallers and Nathaniel Gibbs You the Prisoners that were last called to the Bar those men that you shall hear called are to pass upon Tryal for your several Lives and Deaths if you or any of you will challenge them or any of them you must challenge them when they come to the Book to be Sworn before they be Sworn Edmond Butler Tonge I challenge him but afterwards admitted him Clerk Edmund Butler Clement Punge George Dixon Samuel Pain John Bagnal John Gourney William Gayler Ralph Silverton William Dudley Joseph Drake John Peake and Robert Morrice were severally Sworn in this manner Lay your hand on the Book look upon the Prisoners You shall well and truly try and true deliverance make between our Soveraign Lord the King and the Prisoners at the Bar whom you shall have in charge according to your Evidence So help you God Clerk Count these Cryer Edmond Butler Cryer one Clement Punge two c. Twelve good men and true stand together and hear your Evidence Clerk Cryer make Proclamation Cryer O Yes If any one can inform my Lords the Kings Justices the Kings Serjeants or the Kings Attorney before this Inquest be taken let them come forth and they shall be heard for now the Prisoners stand at the Bar upon their Deliverance and all others that are bound by Recognizance to give Evidence against any of the Prisoners at the Bar come forth and give Evidence or else you forfeit your Recognizance and all manner of persons that were summoned upon the Jury and have not yet been Sworn they are discharged and may depart the Court. Clerk Tho. Tonge Hold up thy Hand and so to the rest of them at the Bar. You of the Jury Look upon the Prisoners and hearken to their Cause you shall understand that they stand Indicted in London by the Names of Tho. Tonge late of c. and so as in the Indictment aforementioned who together with James Hind who stands Convicted by his own Confession and the rest also aforementioned and so reads the Indictment again Upon which Indictment they have been Arraigned thereunto have severally pleaded Not guilty for their Trial have put themselves upon God the Countrey which Countrey you are Your Charge is to enquire whether they be guilty of the High-Treason in manner and form as they stand Indicted or not guilty If you find that they or any of them are guilty you shall enquire what Goods Chattels Lands and Tenements they or any of them had at the time of committing the said Treason or at any time sithence If you find that they are not guilty you shall enquire whether they or any of them did flee for it if you find that they fled for it you shall enquire of their Goods and Chattels c. as if you had found them guilty If you find that they are not guilty nor that they did flee say so and no more and hear your Evidence Sir Edw. Turner MAy it please your Lordships and you Gentlemen that are Sworn of this Jury the Five Prisoners at the Bar by the names of T. Tonge G. Phillips F. Stubbs
greatness of the villany and mischief that was intended But the Fanatick perhaps may object the uncharitableness of charging the sins of a few persons upon a whole party To this I answer When thou sawedst a Thief thou consentedst unto him Nor was this the product of a few mens brains as anon it will appear But how does it appear will they say that these men here convicted were Fanaticks ' â—is true indeed the Religion of the individual persons cannot be so far made out as to point to the particular Sect and Opinion of each since most of them were silent at their deaths as to that and he of them that did speak tells us rather what he is not than what he is for the same reason possibly with a late Brother in the like circumstances at Oxford that the blame and odium of their Crimes might not fall upon their Party Yet thus far without doubt we may venture from their employments in the late Civil War their affections to the King Lawn sleeves and Circingle to conclude that men so uneasie-under and so soon weary of Monarchy so little satisfied with and so ill affected to Hierarchy had not their education in nor ever were Members of that which alone deserves the glorious Sirname of true Protestant the Church of England by Law establisht It is likewise pretty plain they were not Papists further than all Sectaries are indirectly so being all several issue of that common Mother It remains then that they must be Dissenters Dissenters indeed and as much divided in their Tenets from each other as they are all from the Church of England Dissenters ih every thing but their old malice and continued Plots against her in conspiring whose overthrow though no two of them agree among themselves they are all of a piece to this they can give unfeignedly assent and consent so very forward in this ther zeal that they always resolve of pulling down the one before ever they once consider of setting up any other This was a Plot indeed that shewed the Authors Masters in their Mystery a general Plot not a few hot-brain'd fools met together without Order or Discipline Friends or Money but a close and deep contrivance formed after long deliberation things well weighed and digested every man his particular Province assigned and every Sect not one excepted engaged â— all interests were agreed Fifth Monarchy men Anabaptists Independents Fighting Quakers and the Congregational Churches were consenting and the Presbyterian that first-born of Rebellion though not so visibly at the head as in other cases yet full as deep as any and if he craftily pulled in his horns in appearance 't was but to play the villain with more success Yet some good honest harmless well-meaning men may perhaps mistake this policy for honesty and imagine remorse of Conscience for former offences or a grateful remembrance of an Act of Oblivion occasioned it but for my part I have not Charity enough to believe that they can either repent indeed of old sins or forbear attempting new ones when occasion offers itself Naturam expellas fureâ licet usque recurret Can a Black be washt white or do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles They were not grown honester but wiser if cunning in mischief improved by long practice may deserve that name they yet remembred how in the late Rebellion they had born the heat and burthen of the day and how yet those that came in at the eleventh hour were made not equal but superiour to them they had been the first aggressors at a vast expence of Blood and Treasure when the Independent stept in tript up their heels reaped the fruit of their labours and even surfeited with the riches of their spoils their Blood had paid for their birthright not bought but forced from them and not a single mess left them to feed on Virgil's fate was theirs Hanc ego rempublicam feci tulit alter honores they were therefore now for playing an after-game and desired in their turn to be even with their younger brother by which means nothing venturing they had hopes of all to step into the Government if the Plot succeeded to slip out of the halter if it miscarried For your true Protestant Dissenter whose Province is Rebellion hates no Plot but that which miscarries prosperum scelus vocatur virtus and is as proud to own a successful villany as cunning to shift it when 't is not so So when lately God for unscrutable causes was pleased to prosper the Arms of Traytors against their lawful Sovereign how forward even to ambition were they of being esteemed the Patrons of that then glorious villany Keepers of the Liberties of England Godly reforming Saints and what else were they not but when in process of time by as many sudden and extraordinary revolutions as any Age or History can boast of his Majesty was restored and the godly and thorough Reformation was solemnly damn'd and declared a downright detestable Rebellion not a Saint had a hand in it then 't was a damn'd Popish Plot devised to discredit the Kings Protestant Subjects and every babe was taught to answer to so much of his Catechism That the Papists cut off the Kings Head an evasion poor even to ridiculousness That the Papists should raise and carry on a War against Popery for that was then as still it is the burthen of the Song But a sorry shift is better than none That relation of Dr. du Moulin of disguised Jesuits sent over by the French Cardinal which they urge so often in their own excuse does not at all shift the Scene an account that makes in my opinion much against them it proves them Fools as well as Knaves derogating much from their policy without the least addition to their honesty For if a Jesuit suitably habited may pass for a zealous holder-forth and that they look no farther then the outside of a man a starcht Band a brace of Caps a whining Tone some six Grymaces with as many Crocodile Tears are all the ingredients that go to the making up a painful Soul-saving Preacher For they try not the spirits that are amongst them digesting every thing with an implicite Faith know no more of a man than his habit and seem not to have read or altogether to have forgotten that a tree is known by its fruit and men by their works not habits that ravenous Wolves are then most dangerous when they appear in sheeps cloathing If then Dissenters may be thus imposed upon if where there is a Conventicle there will be a Jesuit that is a villain which may by no means be questioned it having the authority of a man whose Evidence has stood the Test of Three Parliaments and of which a fresh instance we have in the person of the Doctor if so it be and that the most pernicious matter in point of Doctrine may be disguized by the ridiculous but most affected manner of delivering it so