THE Quakers Remonstrance TO THE PARLIAMENT, &c. TOUCHING THE Popish Plot, and Sir Edmund-Bury Godfrey's Murder.  
Much of which being not unseasonable at this Juncture; it is now Reprinted; As also to show, that the Quakers were formerly as Zealou●… against Popery, as any others; notwithstanding they have so much appeared to the contrary of late.  

licenced, June 15. 1689.   
IT is not a time now to Dispute, but Act, and that vigorously too, or England's lost POPERY, that Enemy to GOD, by setting up Idols; to CHRIST, by its Newfound Mediators; to the HOLY GHOST, by putting a Pope in his place; to the Scriptures, by its Legends and Corrupt Traditions; to Reason, by itis imposed Absurdities; to Common Sense, by its most foolish but most idolized Transubstantiation, to all tender dissenting Consciences, by Fire and Faggot; and to all Civil Governments that refuse to be subject to it, by Plots, Assassinations and horrid Massacres, itis usual and notorious steps to Worldly Advancement. This monstrous Popery, this common Enemy to Mankind, that hath so often contrived our Ruin, and several times been at the very point of effecting it, has once more attempted us, and with that Violence and Design, that it look like the last time: Nay, the great Sticklers of it are got within our Works, and promise themselves the garrison, because, they say, they have Friends in Disguise among us. 'Tis true, they have lost some Men in the Attempt, but they are not much daunted at that; for the whole Papal World, they brag, have conspired their Success, and the Air rings with the thousands of Masses that are daily said for the Prosperity of the Design, as if their Intention were to Convert the World, and not to Kill the King, Garble the Parliament, Shamble all good and sober Protestants of every Party, Fire and Plunder Cities, and finally, Change the Government and Religion of the Kingdom, which is the Plot.  
Nor will the more impudent of them deny the thing in general, but much the contrary, insulting to us with Tertullian's Implevimus omnia against the old Pagans. We fill your Courts, your Armies, your Navies, it must take, you can't avoid it; 'tis a just Cause to extirpate heretics, Root and Branch.  
But one( and may be the worst) part of the Plot has failed them, they resolved to surprise you, to make a Night Work of it, to let you and yours never see Day more,( for such Deeds become Darkness) as they did in France and Ireland in those most Bloody Massacres of poor harmless Protestants. But God, the infinitely good and gracious God, that hath always watched over this poor iceland,( an hundred times designed to destruction) and whose Eye pierceth through the Secrets of Men, hath, notwithstanding the Greatness, as well as multitude, of our Sins( not to be equalled by any thing but his Patience and Compassin) discovered this impious Conspiracy, we hope too early for the Plotters Purpose; He has beaten up our Quarters, and given us the Alarm, if we will take it; methinks we should, when the Noise of Fire and Sword is in our Ears; when we cannot walk the Streets without Danger of being stabbed, nor sleep in our Houses for fear of being burned, witness the dreadful Fire at London, the Fire of Southwark, and That the other day of Limehouse, where three poor Souls were burned quick, to say nothing of forty Attempts they have made in other places. To which let me add the Design in general of Massacring all the best People in the Kingdom, begun and amply confirmed in the most barbarous Murder of that Worthy Knight and Judicious Magistrate Sir Edmund-bury Godfrey; and here I must stay a while. Murder is a great Sin against God and our Neighbour; but alas! what induced them to it here? Sir Edmund-Bury Godfrey was one of the Mildest Men to these Bloody Papists that was in Commission for the Peace; for though he hated Arbitrary Power and Popery, as the Cause or Effect of it, yet a Man for a due Liberty to all sober People pretending Tenderness of Conscience, and saved them from many a Pinch on that score, hoping, as many more did, that after an hundred years Experience, Intermarriages, Conversation and large Indulgence, they were grown wiser, if not more Christian, than to cut their Way to Government through Blood, and Kill for Religion,( pardon me the use of the word about Popery, that has nothing of Religion but the Name) but Gratitude restrains not Men of this stamp, their Principle knows no Kindred, no Obedience, no Obligation that stands in the way of their Conspired Dominion. Well! but was it that they would be revenged of him, for having Courage( Courage I say, as the World goes) to take Depositions upon Oath of their Devilish Plot? But where's the Crime here, which can properly give their Act the term of Revenge, since Examination is neither judgement nor Execution? even a Saint is not injured to be examined, much less a Papist: Innocency gets on trial, if falsely accused; but that's not the Case; for Truth seeks no Corners, nor yet Ditches to lay a murdered Man in, after having Strangled him in the House for the purpose: What then can be the plain English of the business but this, that they concluded, his former Kindness thus abused would for ever disengage him for the future; and that since he could not be prevailed upon to stifle the Evidence he had and might yet have produced,( for he acknowledged to some, he had been both tampered with and menaced) they would strangle him; which is such a Demonstration that their Folly as well as Malice hath given of the whole to be true, that none can now deny it to be a Plot, but those that are of it, or will lose by the Discovery.  
But some say, He Killed himself. That's a likely Business indeed; for what, I pray? a Sober, Charitable, Judicious Man. O, but he was Melancholy, that is, he was a serious Man; but why now more Melancholy than ever, because he had wronged the innocent Papists? Is that it? Where's the Wrong? Is it, That he heard what Persons upon Oath declared of the most horrid Conspiracy that ever was on foot in the World, but the Murdering of the Son of God? but be this Deposition true or false, it was his Duty and Place to take it, he was Sworn to do it, it was a great and the best part of his Office; he had deserved a Plotters Punishment to have refused the thing. Here is no Virulency, Suborning of Evidence, Condemning or Murdering them in all this: Where's the Sin then, that should trouble his Conscience? But they that will Murder, will lie to cover it.  
Besides, 'tis plain that he was strangled, and his Neck broken before stabbed, because he could neither strangle himself nor break his Neck after he was stabbed through his Heart, nor Stab himself after he was Strangled, and his Neck broken: Moreover, had he been stabbed before dead or soon after, Blood would have appeared on the Hilt of his Sword on which he lay, or on the Ground, it being a dry place, or on his clothes; but no Blood was to be seen; and when the Sword was drawn out of his Body, which his Murderers put in to palliate the Butchery, nothing issued from him but a dark Water, as is usual where Blood is congealed, as His doubtless was before he was stabbed: For we are of Opinion, there was a good time betwixt Strangling and Stabbing him, and that the later was upon great deliberation, and that on purpose to hid the Actors, and cast the Murder upon himself. O Lord God! that ever Men should be so much the Children of the Devil; as first to Murder, then charge it upon the Innocent Soul Murdered. But the Devil was ever a Fool, and so in this. For besides what we have observed, this further is to be said, they that killed him would have us think 'twas himself, because neither clothes, nor Money, nor Rings were taken away. True, but though they that are concerned in the Plot wanted neither his clothes, nor Money, nor Rings, to carry it on, yet they took what they wanted, and they wanted what they took with a witness, and that was his Pocket-Book of Depositions and Examinations, which puts it out of doubt, that they, that were so much concerned in them, both Murdered him and took it; for none can think that Father Coniers, the Duke of Norfolk's Confessor, taking the Air over Hedge and Ditch to Primrose Hill, dropped just upon him, and picked his Pockets of the Book: Well, but why may he not have hanged himself, and his Kindred to save his Estate stabbed him afterwards, and carried him thither? This is deadly cunning; but why was his Pocket-Book only wanting, wherein the Plotters were concerned? Tricks won't do here: Furthermore, why did they not keep his Gold, Silver, and Rings that were found in his Pocket, but expose them? Why not strip him in some degree, make wound in his Sword Arm, and hack, bend or break his Sword, that it might look like Robbery? But last of all, why should they carry him out exactly as he used to go quiter dressed, and want a Band, especially since they were so punctual as to take his Sword, Belt, Gloves and Stick with them? He went out in the Morning with a great laced Band, none was found, as well as the Book of Examinations; of that we have already spoken; for the Band, 'tis a plain case they Strangled him, and being a long-Neck't Man, and wearing an high strong Collar, he struggling to save himself, and they striving to dispatch him that way, the Band was torn in the Fray, and to have let it go so, had been to have  told the Story too plainly, that is, that the Man was Strangled to Death by Violence, and that the stab of his own Sword was an after-trick to cover the business.  
Thus this poor Gentleman, but worthy and brave Patriot, ended his days by the Assassinating Hands of Papists, whose Butchery made him the Common Martyr of his Religion and Country, and his Death is to us the Earnest of their Cruelty; in him they have Massacred us all, we must take it to ourselves, and can no more be unconcerned in his Death, than disinteressed in the Cause of it.  
The Plot is opened, the Tragedy is begun, our Wives are frighted, our Children cry; no Man is sure of his Life a day; the choice is only, what Death we shall die, whether be Stabbed, Strangled or Burned. This Consternation and Insecurity must needs obstruct all Commerce, scar People from following their lawful Occasions, deter all Officers of Justice from their Duty, and, in fine, dissolve Human Society, and reduce the World into its first Chaos.  
For the Lord's sake, let us consider our Condition, let us all turn to the Lord with unfeigned Repentance, let us look and cry to him for Help, that He, who has discovered, would confounded, this Bloody Conspiracy, and show Mercy, and bring us Deliverance, that we may yet see his Salvation, and serve him all the days of our Lives; and in order to our Security, these things are earnestly requested of you.  
1. Take effectual Care to preserve the King; they say, and we believe, he is not for their turn; we would not have him for his sake and ours: In order to this, pray, find out the Ahithophels, the Dangerous Men about him; you know who they are; Be free and bold, prise your time, the Conjuncture is great.  
2. Vote an Address to the King, to Banish all Irish Papists out of the Army, Navy, and Kingdom, by such a Day, and all Papists out of the City of London, whose gross Ignorance and base Desperateness renders them the fittest Men for Assassinations. Besides, it is a shane that the Children and Kindred of Irish Rebels, if not some of them the very Men themselves that were Actors in that horrid Massacre in the year 1641, about thirty seven years since, in which above Three hundred thousand Protestants were murdered in the Kingdom of Ireland, without regard to Age or Sex, should be employed either in the English Army or Navy; but more scandalous is it, that St. James's should be their Head Quarters, and the Park turned into an Irish Walk. What do so many Irish Papists, Teigs and Rebels, do, swarming there? No good, to be sure; their Parts, Courage and Skill can invite no Man of any to entertain them; it must only be their Ignorance and Cowardly Cruelty which make them Instruments of Mischief, and fit to be used by those that love foul play. But that poor dissenting Protestants should be daily molested and pillaged for the sake of their peaceable Consciences, whilst Teigs and Irish Rebels go by whole droves under the Nose of King and Duke in their Royal Park, and Walks of Pleasure, is almost insupportable. Is this to maintain Protestant Religion, and discountenance Popery? Ex pede Herculem.  
3. For God's sake, call for the Plot, look thoroughly and strictly into it; Fear, ●or Favour, no Man; Fiat Justitia: But fear God, do what you do as in his Presence, to whom you must render an account. 'Tis the great Action of your Life, discharge your Trust, and quit yourselves now like Men. This has been the perpetual Troubler of our Protestant-Israel; as you would see God with Comfort, and secure your Posterity from Civil and Spiritual Tyranny, slip not this opportunity God has so wonderfully cast into your hands; be not found Despisers of his Providence, neither be you careless or fearful of improving it; Now or Never: Had they you on this Lock, and at this Advantage, you nor yours should never see Day more. What once you could not have so well done, they have now made easy and necessary for you to do; and what before you scarcely might do, is now become your Duty. Be not cheated by a Sacrifice; let not the Lives of two or three Plotters be the Ransom of the rest, or your Satisfaction; 'tis not Blood but Security, prospect future Safety, an Eternal Prevention of the like Miseries for the future; otherwise we shall only sit down with the Peace and Joy of Fools, and fat ourselves Sacrifices with more security against their next Slaughter. Therefore,  
4. Raise the Trained-Bands, and let them be put not so much as into the hands of Men Popishly affencted; for those Men, that would pull off the Visard in case Popery prevailed, that otherwise keep their Credit by not discovering themselves, are the most dangerous to be Trusted; I fear Popery thus entering more than any other way: Examine the Counties well, for some of base Principles are entrusted.  
5. Let there be Power given to raise Auxiliaries, that such honest Protestant-Gentlemen as are willing at their own Charges voluntarily to serve their Country by raising Troops or Companies, or serving in them, may be permitted and encouraged so to do.  
6. Let every Protestant Family be well Armed, and every Popish Family be utterly disarmed; they have tried our usage of Arms with Ease, we theirs with Cruelty enough.  
7. Let there be an Act with a strict PENALTY, that, after such a Day, no Gunsmith shall sell Guns or Pistols; Cutlers, Swords or Daggers; and Dry-Salters, Gunpowder or Bullets, without Licence of the Aldermen of the Wards in London; or some Chief Officer, if in any other Corporations; and that the Person, so buying them, shall, before the said Officer, subscribe a sufficient Test against Popery; but more especially, that no Papist be suffered to make or fell any such Implements of War.  
8. That care be taken to prevent fraudulent conveyances of Estates by Papists to escape the Law, where they have done mischief: For this is to cheat the Government, and invalidate the Law.  
9. That it shall be Treason for any Papist to Entertain a Priest, Jesuit, or Seminary in their House, because mortal Enemies, by Principle and practise, to the Civil Government. Consider of the Swedish Law, or a better way to clear the Land of all of them; let's buy them out to be safe.  
10. That in all Schools, particularly in Universities, Care be taken to Educate Youth in a just abhorrence of Romish Principles, especially the Jesuits immoral Morals, showing the Inconsistency thereof with Human Nature, Reason and Society, as well as pure and meek Christianity; of which there has been great neglect.  
11. That our Youth be not suffered to travail abroad, but between Twelve and Sixteen, and that under the Conduct of approved Protestants; for the present way of Education is chiefly to Pleasure and Looseness, which makes way for Atheism or Popery, no Religion or false Religion.  
12. That speedy Care be taken to release all oppressed Protestants in this Kingdom; and since the Papists mark all Protestants out for one Fate, and esteem them one Body of heretics, that they may be as one Body of Protestancy against that Common Enemy. This is the Language of God's present Providence, those that withstand it are such as love Rome better than London: Every Protestant, Dissenter or not, has the same thing to say against Popery. Agree then so far, and let a general Negative Creed be concluded upon, and from thence let some general Positive Truths be considered of, in order to a better understanding among them: For this purpose, let there be a Select Assembly of some out of All Persuasions, in which, these two Proposals may be duly weighed, That whosoever Believe and Own what shall be therein contained, shall be Reputed and Protected as true Protestants.  
Lastly, and more especially, Let all the Laws in force against immorality be speedily and effectually executed: 'Tis Sin, which is the Disease and shane of the Nation; we have forgotten God, and cast his Law behind us, and we deserve not this beginning of Deliverance: Our Pleasures have been our Gods, and to them we bow, and have little or no Religion at Heart; therefore 'tis, that Iniquity abounds, and in that variety too, and to such a degree, as no Kingdom can parallel. blushy, O Heavens, and be Astonished, O Earth, a People loved of God, and so often saved by his wonderful Providences, are become the Tyre and Sidon, the Sodom and Gomorrah of the World. Let us Repent in Dust and Ashes; let us turn to God from the bottom of our Hearts, with the servant Love and good Works of our martyred Ancestors; or their Life, Doctrine and Death will rise up in judgement against us, and God will yet suffer their and our Enemies to swallow us up quick. And be assured, as Looseness and Debauchery were designed by the Papists as a State trick to dispose the Minds of the People to receive, at least suffer, Popery,( that to say true, cannot live with better company) so the discouragement of it, and cherishing of all virtuous Persons, with a serious and hearty prosecution of the fore-mentioned Proposals, will stop, and in time wear it out of the Kingdom; for Popery fears nothing more than Light, Inquiry, and Sober Living. Hear us, we beseech you, for Jesus Christ's sake; take heart, we will never leave you, don't you leave us: Provide for the King, provide for the People, for God alone knows when we lye down, if we shall ever rise, or when we go forth, if we shall ever return. Remember the Massacre of Paris, in which so many thousands fell, and with them that brave Admiral Coligny; Infamy enough, one would think, to shane the Party, did they know such a thing; but instead of that, 'twas Meritorious, yea, 'tis a subject of Triumph; look into the Vatican at Rome, and, among the other rare Feats performed by Christian Kings against Infidels, this Massacre of Paris now about 100 Years old, is to be found, and so careful was the Designer to do it to the life, that he has not omitted to show us, how the noble Admiral was flung dead out of the Window into the Street, to be used as People use Cats and Dogs in Protestant Countries, but good enough for an heretic, whom the worse they use, the better they are. But to show they own the Plot, and glory in the Action, for fear one not red in the Story should take Coligny for Jezabel, they have gallantly explained the Action upon the Piece, and writ his name at large.  
But there is a Cruelty nearer Home, no less barbarous, the Irish Massacre in 1641. nay, it exceeded: First, in number, there were above Three hundred thousand murdered: Next, in that no Age, or Sex, was spared: And lastly in the manner of it, 'twas general throughout the Kingdom; and as they were more Savage, so more Cruel, they spared not either Sick or Lying-in Women; they killed poor Infants, and innocent Children, tossing some upon their Swords, Skeens, and other Instruments of Cruelty; flinging others into Rivers, and taking several by the Legs, dashed their Brains out against Walls or Rocks. O Lord God, avenge this Innocent Blood, it still cries: But that these Actors of this Tragedy, or their Bloody-minded Off-spring, should swarm in England, be Pensioners here, as if they were the old Soldiers of the Queen, Men of Eighty eight, Cripples of Loyalty, laid up for their good Services, and St. James's their Hospital; this scandalises us: We think them the worst Cattle of their Country, and pray, that there may be an exchange, that you would prohibit their Importation, instead of more useful Beasts. For the Bloody Massacre of Piedmont, you have it at large described by Sir Samuel Morland.  
But we must never forget the horrid Murder of Henry III. and of Henry IV. of France, our Kings renowned Grandfather. And would to God our King would consider, that all his Humanity to them can never secure him from their stroke; they were both better catholics, and yet both Assassinated: The first a bread Papist, yet because he would not Murder all the Hugonots or Protestants of his Kingdom, and his known best Subjects, they did as much for him: The last was their Convert, all they seemed to desire of him, and all they can expect from our King, yet how did they use him? they did twice assassinate him, and the last time killed him. What security then can any Prince promise to himself from Men, that make not the Profession of the same Religion, a Protection to them that own it, but upon humors or suspicions of their own, or to introduce another PERSON or Family, more immediately under their influence, and disposed to their turn, will make no scruple of killing him? What Slaves are Kings with such Men, and under such a Religion? Let not the mildness of our Prince be thus abused; show yourselves his great and best Council in this Conjuncture, and deliver him from these Men of ingratitude. Men that will never be contented, but with that which they must not have; of such Qualifications, that what may be esteemed Ambition, Revenge or Interest in all other Parties, is a settled Principle with them: This their greatest Doctors tell us, and, to excite Men in the pursuit of it, they declare all such Acts more than ordinarily meritorious: But what hold can we have of such Men, that have no Conscience? This conclusion looks hard, and besides their practise,( for if that were always to cast the Scale, it would go hard with many Protestants too) 'tis their avowed Doctrine, they glory in it, and make it our reproach to have any such thing. I say, that Papists have no Conscience, or no use of Conscience in their Religion, which is the same thing; for what is Conscience, but the judgement a Man makes in himself of Religions matters, according to the knowledge given him of God; But this is out of Doors with them, 'tis heresy; Authority rules them, not Truth; as if a Man were to be credited for his Age, not his Reason. Conscience is a domestic and private Judge, dangerous to the Chair, the Pope, for it rather hinders than helps subjection, the less there be of it, the sooner Men turn Captives to their Mysteries: So that putting out the Eyes of our Mind, and a Blind before our Understandings, best fit us for Popish Religion: as if Religion had not so great an Enemy as Reason; nor Faith as Knowledge. 'Tis strange, that a Man cannot be a Papist, without renouncing the only distinction of a Man from a Beast: Therefore it is, we pray to be secured from Papists, because at best they unman us, and are not their own Men. 'Tis true, as Protestants don't always live up to their good Principles, neither do Papists to their bad Ones: Breeding, good humour, Generosity( and a better principle they know not of) may bias some of them to worthy things, but this is not according to their Principles; for if they will be true to them, they must abandon choice, and obey their Superior, right or wrong, and every immorality he commands, is Duty upon Damnation; the more contrary to their Reason, and averse to their Nature, the greater the Merit. Hesitation is weakness; Dissent, Schism; Opposition, heresy; the Consequence, Burning.  
From this Religion, O Lord God, deliver us; O King and Parliament, protect us: 'Tis your duty to God and your obligation to the People. We beseech you, excuse us and take all in good part; our fears are great, we fear justly, and our desires reasonable: Remember our dreadful Fires, consider this horrid Plot, and think upon poor, yet worthy, Sir Edmond-bury Godfrey; let not God's Providence and his Blood rise up in judgement against you, God of his great Mercy animate, you by his power, and direct you by his Wisdom, that the Succession of his Deliverances, from Queen Elizabeth's days, may not be forgotten, nor his present Mercy slighted; Let us do our duty, and God will give us that Blessing, which will yet make England a glorious Kingdom, the joy of her Friends, and terror of her Enemies, which is the fervent and constant Prayer of yours, &c.   

LONDON; Printed 1689. And sold at several Booksellers.