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
against Duke Hamilton Marquis of Argile and General Lesly c. thinking it a convenient way to corrupt a Party for his intended quarrel with the Parliament that he Knighted several Aldermen of the City of London and after that both he and his Son Charles the Second made liberal use of their Sword in dubbing all that came near them from whom they could hope for the least assistance in their design for Popery and Slavery the deliverers of Addresses abhorring petitioning for Parliaments as likewise those giving thanks for dissolving the best of Parliaments c. being procured by the Emissaries of Charles the Second could not in the opinion of those that hated Parliaments deserve less than a Knighthood to the incouragement of others to follow their Example It may be the Enemies to this good Queen will object that she had some angry fits to which may be answered that they were born with as Children at such times do with their Parents being satisfied that she had a true and sincere love for the Nation upon which account some little Passions subject to her sex might very well be indured The Estates that have by corrupt waies to advance the Prerogative been raised and Honours conferred in the four last Reigns especially since the Restauration exceeds I believe above forty times those in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and yet the number of years of all their Reigns abating the eighteen years interval comes a quarter part short of doubling hers She made few Lords about four or five very sparing of Knighthood and never conferred any but as is before noted for Merit and accordingly she thriv'd in the Love of her Subjects at home and Honour abroad In her time the Nation was famous for glorious Action as before mentioned in relieving the oppressed Protestants in France Scotland and Holland which she could not have done had she been tyed up by the late devised Doctrin of Passive Obedience and Non-Resistance besides subduing her Rebels in England as well as in Ireland and pulling down when none else could do it the proud House of Austria designing then the universal Monarchy whereas I do not find one generous or honourable Act to be boasted of during the last four Reigns There are two ill Notions in behalf of Statists which to the prejudice of Mankind have prevailed in the World the one the calling Knavery Reason of State by which they excuse all their sinister and wicked designs as if God had left us without honest means for preserving our selves the other that Wit and Parts do alone qualifie a person for the service of his Prince in his weightiest Affairs It 's true such qualities are ornaments and with Honesty without Debauchery which provokes God's Judgments are fittest for publick Imployment and below Adoration cannot be too much magnified and applauded yet good ordinary parts with Diligence and Integrity is much beyond the highest flowen parts without the other and we find great things have been done by such as have not otherwise exceeded than in Uprightness Industry and Sincerity for without these Vertues Men are but like the Devils the worse for their Wit and therefore of all Men as to publick Imployments Men of depraved Principles are to be avoided and they may infallibly be discovered if formerly imployed by their Actions in those times for if they have been wicked in one Reign they will be the same in another except there appear in them a signal Testimony of Repentance and Reformation and besides they may be known by their Favourites for he that makes choice of such for his Confidents as are of Immoral Principles formerly guilty of Injustice Oppression and Cruelty may well be concluded to be of the same Principles himself for Birds of a Feather flock together and that Proverb seldom fails That a Man may be known by his Companion The Spirit of God saith Take away the wicked from before the King and his Throne shall be established in Righteousness But our last Kings did so little regard this Divine Exhortation that when the Commons in Parliament who ought to be accounted good Judges of Mens fitness for State Imployment have in discharge of their Duties endeavoured to follow this Advice by addressing against obnoxious persons tho they were never so vile it was the way to advance them in their Princes Favour as Sibthorp and Manwaring c. to the dignifying and farther rewarding them with Pensions or places of Profit and then to protect them by Adjournments Prorogations or Dissolutions of Parliaments to which we owe the diminution of our Glory abroad and the exaltation of our lately become great Neighbour Now if any of these persons be in being tho upon some accounts they may merit a pardon for former Crimes it cannot an opportunity of acting over again what they have been already guilty of to the prejudice and danger of the Nation but of being disabled of all farther Imployments either Ecclesiastical Civil or Military The Iniquity of the late times was so grear that nothing that could help the introducing of Slavery was left unattempted insomuch that we owe our Deliverance meerly to the Providence of God The giving Power to the King to levy Mony in the Interval of Parliaments upon emergent occasions which he was to be Judge of was projected by our Counsellors for the perfecting our Slavery and to get a Majority in the House to effect it all ways possible were used as the buying the Votes of Members of Parliament by Pensions the highest of Treasons in the Judgment of that great Oracle of the Law Sir John Mainard maintaining Tables at the publick Charge managed by some Members of the House that what could not be done by dry Mony might be by Debauchery highly odious as well in the Executors as Designers both proceeding from fordid slavish and unmanly Principles And so many Members had by these means listed themselves against Magna Charta that had they not feared the selling of the Nation would have proved the selling of their own Stipend or Wages all had gone which leaves us without being indebted in the least to our Trustees for refusing to give us up to Arbitrary Power and Popery But I do not in this deny but that there were a considerable number of worthy Patriots that would rather have suffered death than have sold the Rights and Privileges of their Country whose Names deserve to be writ in Letters of Gold to Posterity whilst th' other to be obliterated or marked with Infamy had they not alas been over voted by a corrupt and depraved Party which must raise the Indignation of all true freeborn Englishmen against those in the late times that have had any hand in plotting projecting or abetting the betraying of their Country if still they continue the same Principles without remorse Besides the ways used as is before mentioned for the introducing of Popery and Slavery it may be observed That whereas the Designs of good Queen Elizabeth were
was by Oath obliged which causing him to abdicate the Government in running away and applying himself to the great Tyrant of the Earth for Help gave the People the Opportunity of asserting their natural Right in providing for their own Security by chusing King William and Queen Mary for their rightful and legal Sovereigns whom the Lord in Mercy bless with a long and prosperous Reign over us and whilst we give due Honour to the Instruments let us not forget ascribing the Praise and Glory due to Almighty God as the Author and Principal of our Deliverance and have always in a thankful Remembrance this and all other his saving Providences towards this poor Nation through several Reigns and Ages Whilst the Church of England was under Persecution in the Persons of the Bishops the President of Magdalen-College in Cambridge and the President and Fellows of Magdalen-College in Oxford they were full of Compassion and Brotherly Kindness towards Dissenters and ready to joyn with them for Redress of Grievances by the help of the Prince of Orange now King of England c. but were no sooner freed from their Fears of being superceded by Priests and Jesuits than headed by some who stood in need of a Party to render them considerable that thereby they might blot out the Remembrance of former Crimes than they forgot former Professions of Moderation and the Afflictions of their Brethren and to that degree that they caballed for increasing their Burthens and monopolizing all Employments to themselves by continuing the Sacramental Test though to the fatal detriment of the Kingdom for had not that Bar for trusting Dissenters been in the way Ireland in the Opinion of those that best know that Country might e'er this have been reduced to the saving most of the Blood and Treasure that hath been spent upon it and I fear the Blood so needlesly spilt will lie at their Doors that were the Authors of it It was the Dissenters that saved London-Derry and in that preserved Ireland for tho by the Artifice of some eminent Conformists the Honour was ascribed to Mr. Walker and his Party for which he got a Reward he did not deserve it appears by the Narrative of that Siege writ by Mr. Mackenzy Chaplain to a Regiment during the Siege and writ with that Candour and Faithfulness as carries its Testimony with it the Applause and Reward belonged to the Dissenters for even the Answer to this Book in behalf of Mr. Walker doth no way detect but rather gives it Credit But Mr. Walker being dead I shall forbear all farther Reflections upon him he having been a good-natured Man and what he did amiss being from the influence of others He confessed there were four Nonconformists in the Town for one Conformist and some say eight for one but the Authority being in the Church-men who were timerous if not worse you will find by Mr. Mackenzey's Relation that it was the Mobile who were Dissenters that saved the Place against the Will of the rest Now I suppose I may be censured as being discontented for want of Employment as not being able to qualifie my self To which I answer That those that know me know I never sought any Employment and if I had I have a Latitude to qualifie my self So that I may truly affirm that what I here write proceeds purely from Affection to my Country and the Cause of God The Town of London-Derry was at last relieved and as is said might have been six Weeks sooner with less difficulty and the saving of four or five thousand Lives which in that time died of Famine After the Relief of it Collonel Murrey and thirteen Troops of Horse who had done the greatest Service in defending of the Town were reduced and greatly suspected for no other Reason than because Dissenters and free from Debauchery tho we may observe that after Relief of the Town little of moment was done till His Majesty's happy Arrival save what was done by those called Inniskilling-men who tho not all Dissenters are much of their Judgment Friends to them and joyned with them which one would think might have recommended the rest of that sort to Employment in these difficult Times I do not aim herein at reflecting upon the Conformists in general for it must be confessed that there are many sober vertuous and religious Persons of that Judgment as London hath experienced in being contrary to what was designed by others providentially preserved by them as appears by the Opposition the present worthy and most deserving Lord Mayor hath met with from those that were Hectors for delivering up of Charters and joyning with Jeffreys c. in all Arbitrary and Tyrannical Ways and for no other Reason that we know than for his being next under God and Her Majesty by his wise Conduct in the Absence of the King the Preserver of this City and Nation in Peace and Safety for his Opposers were no sooner delivered by the Act of Grace from fear of Punishment for former Crimes than they returned with the Dog to his Vomit and with the Swine to the wallowing in the Mire of their corrupt Principles insomuch that I think one may without breach of Charity say That there is none who are not guilty of great ignorance that is for turning out the present Lord Mayor but such as would if they could turn out the King But I would not be understood in this to complain of any save the Bigots of the Church such as will not allow of any to be of their number who have Charity for those that are not of their Communion and have not the same Latitude in all Immorality as they have even to the taking away the Lives and Estates of innocent Men that are not of their minds by false Verdicts when it shall be in their power and that they may reach their own Members that exceed them in Vertue and Sobriety they nickname them with the Name of Common-wealths Men for since they cannot call them Drunkards Swearers nor Whoremasters they will call them something to render them as they think odious to the People and tho they have reason to know that from the experience the People have had of their Integrity and Uprightness they are not be cozened by injurious Names yet from Machivel's Rule That by calumniating boldly something will stick they continue their Reproach tho contrary to sense or reason Every Englishman that is not Knave or Fool being as much a Common-wealths Man as those they mean who are no more for a Republick than Magna Charta makes them But it hath had this effect to hinder the most useful Men from serving their King and Country to the great damage of both if it prove not their destruction in keeping up the way for advancing Folly Ignorance and Knavery by a bare restraining the choice of Officers to one Party which if continued must undo this Kingdom And for preventing the same it were to be wished that as in
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
give me Five hundred Pounds per Ann. there besides all former Promises to be setled upon me and my Heirs if I would come in a Witness against my Lord Shaftsbury I told him they might meet with many Persons in this Age that would accept of such Offers I told him if I had any thing to say it was the most proper time in Court for me and Witnesses to speak their Knowledg I told him I did not know but the Presence of a King and his Promises might make a Man say more than what was true or than he could say fairly in a Court Mr. Booth ask'd me if I did not ride with my Sword and Pistols out of Town with my Lord Shaftsbury when he went to Oxford I told him I did I could not do less than wait upon him out of Town who had been so kind with the rest of the Lords Proprietors to do me the Honour to make me their Governour for the Country of Carolina He then told me I must needs be privy to this That if His Majesty would not pass Three Acts One for Excluding the Duke of York the next for making void the Act of Queen Elizabeth against Recusancy and the third for Uniting Protestant Subjects then by force of Arms he was to be compelled He told me all the Council was satisfied I knew this and as much as any Person in regard that both my Lord Shaftsbury and my self was disgusted at Court He said the Council knew I was a Soldier and was satisfied I was to act in that Concern I begun now to consider what a Fortune was now promis'd and what a good Addition this Five Hundred Pounds Additional from the Duke of York would make to the former Promises and after he was gone I acquainted my Wife and told her how great a Person she was like to be But this was no News to her for Mr. Booth had often been desiring her for her own good to engage me in this Honourable Service Thus these things in our Troubles served us to be merry with to consider how easily we were like to leap into an Estate But all this time we were out without fear and danger of enjoying it or any part of it much less of intailing it upon our Posterity October the Fifteenth 1681. This day about Eleven a Clock Mr. Booth came again to me to the Kings-Bench to know of me if I yet would go to Whitehall I demanded For what He told me To Evidence against the Earl of Shaftsbury I told him I had nothing to say against him He importuned me not to lose this great Opportunity I now had Before we parted Mr. Baines came to us I desired to know why they should be so urgent to have me a Witness He told me there were none but Irish Witnesses yet to come against my Lord Shaftsbury and they were not Persons of Credit but if I would come in although I had been unfortunate in my Private Concerns yet I was not blemish'd in my Credit Mr. Baines told me if I would not go to Whitehall the Marshal had an Habeas Corpus from my Lord Chief Justice Pemberton to carry me So we parted About Four a Clock in the Afternoon the Marshal came with Mr. Booth and Mr. Baines to require me to go along with him I demanded Whither He told me to Whitehall I demanded to see his Warrant He shewed it me Now I was forced to obey After my coming thither in a little time I was called into Mr. Secretary Jenkins's Office where he and my Lord Conway was who strictly but very fairly and honestly Examined me about my Lord Saftsbury and what I knew of any Design against His Majesty I told them as I did to the former Attackers I knew nothing Great Arguments were used but I could give no satisfactory Answer as was I conceived expected After this His Majesty came into the Office when He saw me He was pleased to do me the Honour to say He knew me well and that I had served His Father and His Majesty faitfully and He hoped I would not decline my Obedience To which I answered I never deserved to be suspected His Majesty was pleased to tell me He had not had the Opportunity to serve His Friends but hoped He might He was pleased to promise to consider me for my sufferings Then his Majesty began to Examine me If I had been exhorted by the best Divine in England he could not have said more than His Majesty in telling me what Kindness was intended me was not with a design to invite me to speak a Word but Truth it self and that if He knew I did or any other Person His Majesty would never endure them Then His Majesty demanded What I knew of a Design against His Person and Government I truly told His Majesty That I knew nothing of any Plot or Design against His Majesty or Government that I admired why I should be suspected that had served His Majesty and His Father in England and beyond-Sea and was as Instrumental as any Person in His Majesty's Restoration But some Persons had possessed His Majesty I was deep in some Design against the Government and knew much of my Lord Shaftsbury So His Majesty seemed not to be satisfied but still pressed hard upon me To all His Majesties Questions I could give no Answer that would satisfie Then His Majesty was pleased to tell me If I would say As I hope to be saved I knew nothing of any Design against His Person He would believe me which I did say in those very Words which His Majesty seemed to wonder at Then I was left to Mr. Secretary Jenkins who was pleased to use such Arguments as he thought fit I told him I knew my Duty to His Majesty I would not draw a Sword against Him but I could freely do it against some of the Court that were Enemies to His Majesty and His Friends and so I was dismissed out of the Office Then I was carried into another Room where His Majesty my Lord Chancellor Lord Hallifax Lord Hyde the two Secretaries of State were and the Lord Chief Justice Pemberton where I was Examined Mr. Graham Mr. Booth and Mr. Baines present My Lord Chancellor was sharp upon me with several Questions which I could give no Answer to Content thus I was to run the Gantlet from one place to another My Lord Chancellor would not believe but I must be guilty of knowing great things against my Lord Shaftsbury I told him If I could not be believed upon my Word there if they pleased to bring my Lord Shaftsbury upon his Trial I would declare it in open Court upon Oath what my Knowledge was without any hopes of Gain or Advancement My Lord Chancellor I thank him did me that Equity to tell me There were two sorts of Advancement I need not give my self that trouble for I was like to come to my Trial my self before my Lord Shaftsbury My Lord Chancellor