and Dignity which may be look'd upon as a Reward of his Fidelity as a glorious and honourable acknowledgment of Divine Providence of our Prince's faithfulness to the Profession of the true Protestant Religion and a Testimonial from God himself of his reality in his Faith sufficiently evidenced to all the World by the wonderful Circumstances of his happy Restauration I say since his Majesties return how many plain and undoubted Testimonies hath he given us of his sincerity in the Protestant Profession and Resolution to maintain it in his Kingdoms against all Dissenters and Opposers His Royal Father left him this Charge I do require and intreat you as your Father and you King that you never suffer your Heart to receive the least check against or disaffection from the true Religion establish'd in the Church of England I tell you I have tried it and after much search and many disputes have concluded it to be the best in the World not only in the Community as Christian but also in the special Notion as reformed c. Therefore as soon as he was settled by the advice of his Loyal Parliament he restored the Orders and Government of the Church of England which in the approved judgment of the King his Father is the best in the World because it is the most conformable in Doctrine and Practice to Christ his holy Apostles and and the Primitive Church as he expresly declares And to secure this most excellent Religion the better by removing all the causes of dissention and Obstacles that seem'd to hinder such as had received contrary principles from embracing it the Kings Majesty yielded to an amendment of certain things which gave offence What could have been desired more from generous and a gracious Prince than was then granted in complyance with the peoples weakness and mistakes The Nation was then through the disorders that had been in Church and State split into many pieces and sad divisions Mens judgments were possessed with unreconcileable Prejudices and strange Principles in opposition to the Church of England which they would not nor could not speedily overcome It was therefore judged convenient to grant them time and yet to establish those Law as might both declare to the World His Majesties constancy in the true Protestant Religion and direct them that were Dissenters to embrace it Examine but the Royal proclamations and the Acts of Parliament and see what they say and it will plainly appear that the Kings Majesty never had any design since his Coronation nor before but to settle protect favour and maintain according to his Royal Promise the true Protestant Religion of the Church of England as it was establish'd in Queen Elizabeth's King James's and his Martyred Father's days And if not withstanding out of his royal goodness and wisdom the Laws against Papists were not always strictly put in Execution it was because the necessities of the Kingdom and the good of the Publick did so require it for the preservation of Peace and the better settlement of the Truth Fire and Sword are not always seasonable against Dissenters in Religion It belongs to a King to mitigate his Laws and suit them to Times and Cases He is not always bound to observe them in all their rigour and exactness neither doth such proceedings consist with the general good and happiness of a Kingdom though the surious zeal of inconsiderate Subjects may sometimes wish for the contrary But as in distempered Bodies the Physician doth not always observe the same Rules of his Art nor apply the same Remedies but changeth and altereth them according to the Diet Humour Pulse Country Air and other Circumstances of the Patient So it becomes a wife Prince to handle the Distempers of Church and State in such a manner as may answer the universal good the chief end of Government and prevent the increase of the Disease It is therefore a grand presumption for every petty Fellow and ignorant Mechanick to exclaim against his Superiours Actions in such a case when he is not capable to understand the great Reasons of Sate that govern them Besides the Papists did scemingly express their Duty and Allegiance to the King out of a design as it is now supposed by some when he was in his Banishment when many Protestants were unable to do him service but with their Prayers and Wishes After his happy return could he do any thing less than grant them some freedom under his good Government for which many of them had taken up Arms against Rebellion It was but just whiles they confined their Religion within their own Breasts and professed to live as peaceable Subjects and quiet in their Offices and Estates that they should reap some of the Fruits and taste of the sweetness of that Reign for which many of them had ventur'd their Lives and Fortunes As they had a share in the sufferings it was but just that they should have also a share in the happiness that succeeded As they have been concerned in his Majesties Calamity Reason and Conscience obliged him at first to suffer them to have an Interest in his Restauration and happiness This is sufficient to justifie our Kings gracious Proceedings towards the Papists from all jealousie and suspicion and to make it appear that his Grants and Allowances proceeded not from any approbation of the Popish Idolatries and Superstitions but from a Principle of Justice not from an allowance of their Religion and Abominations but of their Persons and faithfulness to him in his distress which had obliged him in requital to shew them some favour And not only to them his Majesty hath given several Expressions of Royal goodness but also to all Dissenters from the Religion of the Church of England Though the Laws are severe against Conventicles and Conventiclers whiles they are peaceable and not mutinous though their Practices are of ill consequence and not agreeable with Law yet so great is his condescention as to suffer them in their way without disturbing their Meetings according to this Christian Speech which hath been often heard from his Majesty I will never trouble any for his Conscience but let no Man trouble nor disturb my Government If the Papists had not plotted the Nations ruine and agreed together to murder both Prince and People they might have yet continued freely in the enjoyment of their Religion and of as much priviledge as they could reasonably desire under the Government of so favourable a Monarch No person would have dream'd to disturb them in their Privacies and secret Devotions They might have lived and died without any fear of the Execution of the Laws in the fruition of their Estates and Places with as much liberty as the Protestants themselves We all began to look upon them with kindness to esteem them as our Brethren and good Countrymen and to favour them in many respects But how strangely have we been mistaken and deceived let the World judge However this is our comfort
to Religion and the Publick safety for they are like Sampson's Foxes they spread the Fire every where in this Field of England they borrow from beyond the Seas that subtilty which together with the courage and strength of Resolution natural to our Nation renders them the most fiery and desperate Enemies of our Religion and Government and carries them to the boldest Attempts against the Lives of our Kings and Princes Of this number were Pool Campian Garnet Piercy Catesby and others of the same Principles To prevent such Evils for the time to come and hinder our English Gentry from Popish and Jesuitical Infection the Kings Majesty sent out his Proclamation on the 8th of January to command home all such young persons as are in forreign Seminaries and their Parents or Guardians to send for them speedily promising his gracious Pardon for their former offence if they return according to his Majesties Order forbidding for the future any such persons to be sent into those Forreign Schools of Papists and their Parents and Guardians to send them any relief Besides his Majesty declares in this Proclamation That he expects due obedience to this Command and that such as shall disobey shall be punish'd according to Law as well as deserve his high displeasure Here are several Proclamations in which all the ways and methods that can be imagined to prevent the growth the machinations and wicked designs of Popery are carefully observed All that may or can conduce to the settlement and security of the Protestant Religion and the present Government is established and commanded The Papists are banished from Court disarmed in the Country confin'd to their Dwellings bound to their good behaviour their Children are commanded away from Popish Schools their Priests and Jesuits are sought for and imprisoned penalties and rewards are promised and threatned for to encourage the Execution of the Laws What greater Testimony of his Majesties Sincerity to our Religion and care of our Welfare can we wish for What means more effectual could be employed for that good purpose What other Orders and Commands can we imagin seasonable and sit to secure our selves from Papists or Popery But if these Commands and Proclamations have not met with an exact obedience in all respects and in all parts of the Land I suppose it is the fault of some private Officers who prefer their Obligations to and intimacy with Papists to the performance of their Princes Orders and a due obedience to his Commands I am perswaded no reasonable people can justly desire from a good King greater assurances of his reality in the Protestant Profession and of his resolution to maintain it than we have always had In his Majesties most gracious Speech on the 9th of Novemb. to the Lords and Commons when his Majesty went to thank them for their care of his safety and preservation in these times of danger he assures them That he studies as much their preservation and promiseth to joyn with them in all the ways and means that may establish a firm security of the Protestant Religion according to their hearts desire In his time his Majesty tells them that they need not sear but for the time to come he promiseth to concur with them readily in all Bills and Acts which they will present for the security of their Persons and Religion and desires them to think of some more effectual means for the Conviction of Popish Recusants In the conclusion his Majesty declares That he is ready to do any thing that may give comfort and satisfaction to all his dutiful and Loyal Subjects In these words his Majesty's Royal Sincerity and candour in Religion appears as clear as the Sun in its splendour and no reasonable Person can desire greater Evidences of his care of his peoples safety of his resolution to maintain the Protestant Profession and to keep Popery out of this Land than his Majesty hath lately given us Likewise at the Prorogation of the last Parliament his Majesty was pleased to tell them That he would immediately enter upon disbanding the Army and that he would let all the World see that there was nothing that he intended but for the good of the Kingdom and for the safety of Religion That he would prosecute this Plot and find out who were the Instruments in it And in the Conclusion his Majesty promis'd That he would take all the care that lay in his Power for the security of Religion and the maintenance of it as it is now established To the same purpose his Majesty declares in his gracious Speech to both houses of Parliament lately assembled That for the publick good and satisfaction of all his Subjects he had done many great things Again in order to our safety his Majesty in that Speech offers to confirm any new Law which they shall think seasonable or necessary for the securing of the Kingdom against Popery and assures them That with his life his Majesty will defend the protestant Religion and the Laws of this Kingdom By these Gracious Words and Promises this wife and Loyal Parliament is encouraged to act in order for their own security as vigoously as they can What now can any Prince say or do more in such a case as this He hath endeavoured to secure Religion from Domestick Plots and Forreign Attempts He hath set all Engines at work and made it his whole and chief business to provide for our good welfare security and the happiness of the Kingdom according to the pious and Religious Examples of the Royal Martyr his Majesties Father and of King James his Grand-father under whose Governments these Kingdoms and true Religion have long flourished in Peace and would never possibly have been so much disturbed with Wars Tumults and Civil Dissentions had it not been for the Jesuits that thrust themselves amongst us King James was sensible of their dangerous proceedings therefore he enacted against them most wholesome and just Laws which caused them to attempt often upon his Sacred Life For our late Royal Martyr we know by whom he was condemned to dye before that Arch-Traytor and Usurper Oliver and his Butchers brought him to his Tryal The most noble Family of the Stuarts it seems is not sit for their unjust and superstitious purposes they have been the nursing Fathers of Gods true Church amongst us they have defended Religion against their Idolatries with their Swords Pens and Blood their noble and generous minds cannot stoop to acknowledge any other Superiour but God they will not yield to their cruel purposes therefore these wicked Traytors have alwayes laboured to cut off that most Religious Family There can be no greater Testimony of our King being a true Protestant than this that the Pope and his Papists have declared him to be their Enemy and have sought to destroy him who is God's Anointed and the best of princes By these wicked Designs and restless endeavours the Papists have from time to time drawn upon themselves the
Prince have been pardoned suffered to enjoy their Estates in peace protected by his Laws and many of ability preferr'd and imployed Though these kindnesses have been done to private Persons and Families and they have chiefly reap'd the benefit of his Majesties gracious Disposition the whole Kingdom is thereby obliged to his Majesty because in the forgiveness of such Offenders he hath had an Eye to the Publick good peace and satisfaction of all his Subjects rather than to his just Resentment Moses was a Meek Man yet how many hundreds and thousands were made Examples of his Justice and Gods Wrath for their Rebellions few or none pardoned Constantine the Great the first Christian Emperour's Name is sacred in the memories of men he forgave his Enemies advanced Religion incouraged Piety yet he imbrued his Fatherly hands in the blood of his own Son and Heir Crispus upon the suspition of a Rebellion Theodosius the Emperour was a brave and an excellent Prince yet the Inhabitants of Antioch complain of the promiscuous killing of their Citizens in the Emperours rage Justinian the Law-giver of the World could not give Laws to his own passions nor save Bellisanius and Narses his two great Generals from the cruel hands of his Empress Theodora I might run over all the Histories of former times from the beginning of the World to this day and mention to you the noblest the rarest and most merciful Princes in forreign Nations and in this yet I dare affirm and do offer my self to prove from a certain knowledge of the Histories of the World that I may say I have perus'd that there was never any King or Soveraign Prince neither in England nor elsewhere who hath been so gracious so compassionate and merciful to his People as our King Charles neither hath any Reign been more free from shedding of blood never any Government more mild and happy never any Prince less ruled by violence and interest nor more govern'd than himself by that Sacred Maxim of his Royal Father The setled Laws of these Kingdoms are the most excellent Rules a King can govern by Where are the Widows and Orphans amongst us that can complain of the unjust murder of their Relations Where is the Family ruined by the Confiscation of its Estate and Patrimony Where can we meet with any particular instance of his Majesties over-ruling the ordinary course of Law and Justice Henry the VIII and our former Kings would sometimes give place to wrath anger and revenge and their Wills sometimes took the place of Laws But where can we meet with any such Example in our days Where is there a person either Condemned or Executed or deprived of an Estate by our Princes Command alone Many have received their Lives and Estates from him which had been forfeited by Law but to this very day none ever lost either Lives or Fortunes to gratifie his Majesties will and pleasure even in this late wicked Plot against his Royal Person he hath not punish'd any man but by course of Law Is not this a happiness for all the English Subjects for Poor and Rich to live under such a reasonable Government and gracious a Governour and where Law and Equity Justice and Conscience sway the Scepter where Power and the Regal Authority are never used but in vindication and for the execution of righteous Laws though the Papists never intended to observe any measures of Reason Conscience or Humanity with his Majesties Person and People but in a secret and private way intended to fill the Land with Assassinations and Murders nevertheless he observes a Legal Method and proceeds against them by such means as are justifiable before God and Man His Majesty delivers them over to a Court of Judicature to have a fair Tryal for their Lives he suffers them to answer for themselves and leaves them to an impartial Judge and Jury In forreign Nations such Enemies of the Publick Safety would have been pull'd in pieces as the De Witts cut down and mangled by the rude Rabble as Sejanus at Rome and the Assassins of the Prince of Orange and of Henry the III. of France and many others They would not have had the patience to see them alive who had resolved upon so cruel a design as to murder the King and his People without cause But the World sees the moderation of our English Natures the Excellency of the Principles of our Religion and the Justice of our King who is willing to make his most desperate Enemies sensible of it in their own persons without any passion which hath never carried him to act against them but in a regular way And though some of them had forfeited their Estates by Law and it had been but a piece of Justice to reduce their Posterity to poverty who intended to make so many poor Families in this Land yet to the Eternal praise of his Majesty be it spoken he hath not attempted to take ought of their Estates but hath restored since his Restauration to the Children of many Rebels Traytors and Regicides the Patrimonies belonging to their Fore-fathers it is therefore a most unreasonable Aspersion and a wicked Slander proceeding from the Shop of Ignatius and his bloody Jesuits to report any thing amiss of his Majesties most Excellent Government As Mr. Oats hath very well taken notice it hath been the design of those Troublers of Peace to make us stand in fear of an Arbitrary Government and to fasten upon his Majesty and his proceedings the most abusive Lyes but let any man run over the passages of his good Reign he shall have no cause to suspect what there is not the least colour to believe The suspitions and jealousies in relation to Religion are as plainly scandalous and unlikely it is sufficiently known how zealous his Majesty hath always been in the profession of the true Protestant Religion from his Infancy It was the Advice of his Royal Father Above all I would have you as I hope you are already well grounded and setled in your Religion the best Profession of which I have ever esteem'd that of the Church of England In this I charge you to persevere as coming nearest to Gods Word for Doctrine and to the Primitive Examples for Government According to this direction our King hath behaved himself so that neither fear favour nor interest could ever draw him from this Religion In his Banishment his Majesty alone knows the greatness of his Tryals and we and all the World the constancy of his mind Here the whole World might have seen the Religion of King Charles the II. Neither the love nor glory of a Crown nor the honours of the World nor the advantages of Life could prevail upon him to waver in the least from that excellent Religion and Faith for which the King his Father spilt his blood and which Christ and his Apostles have recommended to us or to accept of the Popish Superstitions And since his Majesties return to his Honour
Chyrurgions on purpose that he had been basely and inhumanely murder'd The boldness and desperateness of this Villany awaken'd the whole Nation and caused his Majesty immediately to send forth his Royal Proclamation for the seeking out and finding the Actors in this Inhumane murder commanding them to give intelligence of all such Discoveries to one of the principal Secretaries of State For their greater encouragement five hundred pounds were promised to them with a Pardon if the Discoverer were any ways guilty I cannot here express what displeasure his Majesty received how sensible he was at the loss of so useful a Subject who dyed for his care and diligence in the Service of his Prince and Country The Vertues and Excellency of his person the Integrity of his Behaviour his Goodness Piety Prudence and Discretion in his Place and Calling caus'd his Majesty and all that knew him to mourn for him But the baseness of his Murder the Treachery of his Assassins the Marks of their Cruelty lest upon his dead Body call'd for Vengeance from man as well as from God which every good Subject was so much the more concerned to see executed upon the bloody Butchers in regard of their impudency and the boldness of the Attempt wilfully to betray and murder an innocent person a famous Justice of Peace in a Royal Pallace a Justice known to his Majesty by his great Services and to all the City by his good behaviour and Religious life To murder him within the protection of the Guards and having carryed his Body into the Fields and cast it away as a Dog to endeavour next to murder his Name and Reputation with vile Slanders All these Circumstances could not but stir up the Justice of a good King by the punishment of the Inhumane Villains to secure other men from such like Inhumanities and declare to all the World his sorrow grief and displeasure for such a barbarous Act. For the better finding out of the Murderers his Majesty caused a diligent enquiry and search to be made summon'd and commanded all his Officers and good Subjects to do the like And when he was inform'd that some were willing to come in and reveal the Murder but the fear of the Consequences as of the revengeful hand of the Friends or of the other Murderers made them cautious how they indanger'd themselves His Majesty for their incouragement by a second Proclamation promis'd on the Word of a King That if any person should speedily make discovery he should not only receive the Reward of 500 l. and Pardon promised but his Majesty would take such effectual care for the security of such Discoverer as he should in reason propose What other ways and methods could be proposed more likely to bring this Murder to light and the wicked Varlets to their deserved punishment They have by Gods goodness proved so effectual that this Popish act of Inhumanity with all its Circumstances is generally known and fully understood The guilty persons were secur'd search and a diligent enquiry was made for them that were fled Green Hill and Berry were tryed found guilty condemned to be hang'd Which Sentence was accordingly executed upon them two suffer'd upon the 21. of Febr. Berry was Reprieved for a few days but is now executed also During his Majesties most peaceable Reign as he hath always expressed an abhorrency of the shedding of Innocent Blood so he hath always been diligent and careful to see to the due execution of the Laws upon bloody-minded men and to cause his Justice to take away the Lives of those who cannot suffer his good Subjects to live in peace As in this occasion his Justice hath been remarkable to the whole Nation his Piety towards God and care for the preservation of the Protestant Religion in other respects have been no less visible for considering the number the power and devillish subtilties of our Enemies and that therefore without Gods goodness protection and watchfulness over us we are in continual danger to be oppress'd by our vigilant and malicious Adversaries his Majesty by a Proclamation called upon all his good Protestant Subjects to humble themselves before God to ascribe to him the glory of all our Deliverances to amend sincerely our lives and put our selves into such a disposition as may reasonably expect Gods protection for the time to come A method always observ'd by good Kings and Princes when their Enemies were numerous and great Queen Hester sent to Mordecai and the Jews to humble themselves before God when Haman's Conspiracy was discover'd and known The King of Nineveh commanded a general and a strict Fast within his Dominions when Jonah foretold the Judgment of God by Fire that was to consume that sinful City And David Hezekiah and Josiah and all the good Kings of Judea took the same course to divert Gods approaching Judgments And as their Prayers and Humiliation proved effectual so as to prevail upon the goodness of God and oblige to withdraw the Sword of his Justice stretch'd out over their heads So likewise I hope God will forgive the great sins of this Nation preserve his Majesty in prosperity and health many any many years and keep his Royal Person and us all from the bloody hands of all Papists By the Death of Sir Edmundbury Codfrey this Plot appear'd so plain and with so many hainous and dreadful Circumstances that every one was fully convinc'd of the reality of this Hellish Design which if not prevented in time would have drown'd us all in Rivers of our own blood To hinder therefore all sequels of the Plot and take from the Papists the power and opportunity of putting any part of it in execution his Majesty on the 30th of Octob. issues out his Royal Proclamation to command all Popish Recusants to depart from Westmin-Hall Somerset-House S. James's the Cities of London and Westminster and not to come within ten miles of these places By this means his Majesty hath provided for the security of his Royal Person he hath hinder'd our Enemies from meeting together in numbers he hath broke the Neck of all Popish Resolutions Consultations Tumults and Rebellion in the City or near his Royal abode And lest they should gather together in any considerable numbers in the Country and raise there any stirs to the disquietness of his Majesties Subjects and Government by another Proclamation of the 10th of Novemb. his Majesty first declares his knowledge and perswasion of the dangerous and wicked Plots and Designs of Popish Recusants against his Person and Government tending to the subversion of the true Protestant Religion established by Law within this Realm And then he strictly commands all his Subjects being above the age of 16 years if they be or shall be lawfully Convicted to repair to their several abodes and not to pass above five miles from thence upon pain that the Offenders shall lose all their Estates moveable and immoveable And because some Popish Recusants have escap'd Conviction through
hatred of the English People anger'd the Governours of the Church and State and obliged them to enact Laws against them to restrain them from that Liberty which a great part of them never knew how to use with moderation and discretion in this Land Their Proceedings and Attempts are not only disconsonant with the peaceable temper and blessed Rules of Christs Religion but so barbarous and inhuman that we may justly wonder what spirit of madness possesseth their Souls what cruel Devil prompts them to such Actions and makes them forget all sense of Humanity The settlement of their Religion which is their ordinary pretence to excuse their Tragedies may blind the Consciences of Fools but Men of any reason may perceive a Human not a Divine End of their Villanies The Pope and Court of Rome whose Agents the Jesuits are care as little for the Salvation of English Souls as it seems they do for their Bodies Were this Island a barren and a fruitless place they would never take the pains to seek to subdue this Nation but they are longing to finger again the Peter-pence the Annates the First fruits the Revenues and dispose of the sat Benefices of this Land This is their aim and end To come to it they set all Engines a work and dread not to spil Rivers of innocent Blood But did but the English Subjects that are Papists and so forward and zealous to promote their Catholick Cause know the weight and unsufferable burden of the Pope's Keys did they but call to mind the Tyranny and baseness of the former Popes in England and the Groans of our English Nation when Popery had the Command they would never be such Fools to sacrifice their lives to bring their Native Country to so great a Bondage which our Forefathers could never bear Is it not a madness for them that have a good King of their own and a lawful Authority appointed by God over them to strive to murder him and all his Generation and set up a Pope an Italian a Stranger who never intends to Reign amongst us in Person but to govern us by his Cardinals and proud Legats and who will give to them the least share of their Country when in his hands Is it not a strange madness for Natives of England to seek to inthrall their Country to a Forreign Power and the pleasure of an Enemy Have they no other way to exercise their undaunted Courages but by massacring their Brethren and Kinsfolks for the Lust and benefit of Imperious Italians or Frenchmen Must Religion be the Cloak for this Villany and Madness God whose Power and Providence have preserv'd this Church and our Princes from barbarous designs of Roman Murderers will I hope defend the Person and Life of our Pious Gracious Merciful and Christian King from all Popish Conspiracies I pray God to awaken all Christian Princes into a sense of the Popish Usurpations that they may shake off all the Fetters of this Italian Thraldom the Bolts and Chains of the Popes Bondage There is an old Prophecy amongst the Papists which I have heard from some of their Doctors in the Schools That an English-man shall take the City of Rome dissolve the Roman Church and put a period to the Papacy It is certain from the 17th and 18th Chapters of the Revelations that there is a time when God will bring that proud City to ruine and treat her in the same manner as she hath treated other Nations who knows but God may raise up some brave Soul that may endeavour to free the World and all Nations from so great a Plague and set at liberty so many Christian Princes that scarce dare think of delivering themselves for fear of a Ravailack a Stab or a Cup of Poyson who knows but that Providence may pitch upon and Commission a Native of this Land to punish Rome for her Murders Burnings and Villanies committed by her Emissaries in our Cities more than in any under the Sun I am certain this agrees with the methods of Gods proceedings in the World as well as with his holy Word for in former Ages the overthrow of Empires have been commonly brought to pass by those Nations who have been most afflicted and distressed by them in the times of their prosperity In the mean while as our good King hath been and is yet vigilant and careful to protect us our Religion and Country from ruine and destruction and he neglects no labour spares no cost declines no trouble nor pains for the general good of his People for their safety honour and interest I think we are obliged by all the reason of the World to make him some Returns to assist him in so pious a work as the Establishment of Religion and the security of the English Nation and to demean our selves as thankful and dutiful Subjects I shall not here mind you of the Commands of God nor heap together passages of Scripture that tell us that we must be subject to the Powers because there is no Power but of God that they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation that we must obey for Conscience sake that we must love honour and respect him as Gods Vicegerent c. I shall only mind my Reader what the present posture of Affairs in relation to our own good and his Majesties vigilancy and care in providing for our safety require from us and what present Obligations we lye under to perform those things which both our Interest and Duty demand from us This Hellish Conspiracy of the Papists that hath now at last awaken'd us into a sense of our great danger hath been many years contriving and designing as the Design was privately and subtilly laid it was to be carried on with vigour and would handly have wanted the assistance of forreign Princes and Armies If the first Train had taken fire this Church and State had been infallibly blown up and cast into a Civil War God hath been merciful to us in the discovery and prevention of it But the Persons chiefly concerned and the vast Treasures heap'd together for the carrying on of the Popish Designs are not like to sit and remain idle after this disappointment our proceedings and the Execution of the Instruments will in all probability oblige them to take other measures to carry on their wicked purposes with more secresie than before our Divisions and unreconcileableness give them no small advantage and incouragement to make fresh Attempts which God of his Mercy frustrate However our Nation is not yet out of danger by the death of a few Malefactors we have Enemies both at home and abroad that watch for and endeavour our destruction His Majesty you see hath imployed his utmost endeavour for our safety security and happiness and is yet resolved to imploy all his power to defend and protect us and our Religion from all Popish Designs It concerns us not to be idle but in our several places to contribute to our own happiness and