THE KING's Evidence JUSTIFIED: OR Doctor Oates' VINDICATION of Himself, And the Reality of the PLOT, AGAINST A Traitorous Libel, CALLED The Compendium; Contrived by the JESUITS, To the Dishonour of the King and Kingdom.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Theog. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. v. 613. Quanto perditior quisque est, tanto acrius urget. Horace. Sat 1, 2, 15 
London, Printed for Jonathan Edwin, at the Three Roses in Ludgate-street. 1679.   

TO ALL Our Worthy Patriots, And all other Impartial Readers, OF WHAT Rank or Condition soever.  
My Lords and Gentlemen,  
WEre it not, but that the Inveterate Rage, and partial Obstinacy of those that labour to defend the silly Poppetry of the Roman Catholic Religion, if I may so term it, has been so apparent for many Ages, It might be matter of Amazement, how it could possibly happen, that after so many Legal Trials, and those also published by the Chief Judges of the Nation, to show the World how guilty the Papists have been, any Subject of the King of England should dare to be so hardy, as to Print his mutinous Reflections upon the Concernments of his Sovereign and arrogantly jostle the Votes of the Parliament of the Nation in both their Houses. But there are great men in the same Danger; and Policy with Reward, goes beyond Strength. The most Unfortunate Mr. Reading took the wrong course, to tamper clandestinly with a single Witness. Here's one aims at the full breast of Truth: He shall have all the Hundred Pounds a Year to himself, and the Land in  to boot. For assuredly, this Compendium is but an Engine contrived by Men of leisure, to batter down those Testimonies which they themselves are conscious to be most fairly levelled at their Crimes. This is called Preparation in the Interim, and agrees with Policy and Self-preservation. For truly, if the Gentleman has given himself all this trouble out of pure Zeal, it argues him to have little Religion; since no bad Subject can be a good Christian. He might have allowed his Prince so much Discretion, as to be able to judge of Crimes committed against himself; or otherwise have been more respectful to his Royal Dignity, then in the Metropolis of his Dominions, publicly to tax him with shedding Innocent Blood? and from thence to insinuate an arrogant kind of Admonition to his Sovereign, to be more Cautious and Wary for the future. Which being the absolute and only Construction to be made of all his Toil, I would fain ask the Rational world this Question, what would have been the unhappy Fate of a Compendium of this nature, written by the Protestants in their own justification, under the jurisdiction of the Inquisition?  
But setting aside all his Marginal Industry, which has cost him the Expense of a Rhodomando; and his gaudy mixtures of Roman and Italic: he must not think to vapour here in England with his false Assertions, that the Dispute is still on foot, unless it be among Fools and those of his own Party; or that the Champions for his Friends still keep their Ground, unless it be within the Lists of Rome or St. Omers. And let him wonder till Doomsday, the Epitomiser will find the want of Consideration very erroneously thrown upon the Good People. For, when his beloved Friends put themselves upon their Country; their Country then, who were the people, as able, as the Epitomizers' Worship, to judge of an Evidence, were persons of that Integrity, that they would not have found them Guilty, unless they had well Examined matters at their Trials: And there was then as much spoken at the Bar, as was afterwards made public to the World. But he thinks 'tis time to stop the Currant of the People's Examination of things, which has occasioned the trussing up of so many of his dear Brethren in several parts of the Nation, besides what are still in deserved Captivity; some of which are discovered to be as Infamous for their Debauchery, as their open Hostility against the Laws of the Land. I would fain know of the Mr. Epitomiser, whether he thought the King and Council, were not in the same fault with the ignorant people, when His Majesty was pleased to Issue forth his Warrants to the Judges of Assize for the Execution of those that lay Condemned in the Country Jails?  
The last Paragraph of his Dedication looks like one of Poor Robin's Advertisements, made only for the advantage of the Printer, who, as his prudence foresaw, would be no great gainer by this exact Compendium of his; and therefore he strains hard, to give it the best Encomium he can at the beginning, for pithiness and briefness, to launch it into the world; alleging it to be five times better than the late History of the Plot, because 'tis five times shorter. Nay, he is so conceited of his Exactness, that he expecteth that all the Executed Criminals, should Rise again and admire it. Else what he means by the Persons concerned, will be a great doubt among the Critics. For the King's Evidence who are Alive, are no way Concerned, but only to let him know, that such puny Extravagancies, must not pass uncorrected. And so to the matter itself.  

Concerning Mr. Coleman.  
THe Epitomiser gins his Laborious Abbreviation with that of Colemans' Trial; where he comes with the Sheirs of his Consideration, and falls a pruning, as if he were at work by the Great. Were it possible for his Libel to succeed, you should see he would fall a snipping again, till he had brought it within the compass of a Nutshell, to be worn about the Ivory Necks of Ladies, in honour of the within-mentioned Martyrs. Now, for the better and more plausible carrying on his Design, he Challenges and Defies any man to show him where he has lessened the force either of the Charge or Answer. But such is the Nature of these be-jesuited Bygots, that they can as well leave their Leasing, as the Cat, turned to a Woman in the Fable, could leave her Mousing. What is it to the World, whether he cite true, if he do not quote all? Or, if he leave out the most Material Points that make against him? It may be he states the Charge right, but he leaves out the Principal Answer made to the Defence. Now whither this be not True, let the first Proof of the Epitomizer's Honesty determine.  
He Sums up Mr. Oates' Evidence in these Words: That in November 1678. Coleman did write Letters by him to St. Omers, in which he called the King Tyrant; and said, 
Pag. 17, & 18.  That the Match with the Prince of Orange would prove the Tyrants and Traitor's Ruin. That a Letter under Colemans' hand, was also then enclosed to La Chaise, thanking him for the Ten Thousand Pound which he promised should be employed to no other Use but to cut off the King. That this Letter was written by the Provincial Strange's direction, because he 
* Pag. 19  had hurt his hand, and Mico his Secretary was ill. That the Answer was carried to Paris, where La Chaise asked him how the Duchess' Secretary did? That the Answer written by La Chaise was sent to Coleman, after it had been first perused by the Society, in Mr. Oates' presence; who, by a Patent from them, was of the Consult, and had Power to open Letters. That in April, 78. there was a Consult of the Jesuits, at the white-Horse-Tavern in the Strand, to send Cary to Rome. That afterwards they Adjourned into several Clubs, 
Pag. 28.  and pitched upon Grove and Pickering, to Kill the KING; the one being to have 1500 l. and the other 30000 Masses. That this Resolve was Communicated to Coleman in Mr. Oates' presence, at Wild-House. That the Persons that came over with Oats, were F. Warren, Sir Thomas Preston, 
Pag. 21.  Francis Williams, Sir J. Warner, etc. That in August, there was a Consult of the Jesuits, and Benedictines, at the Savoy. 
Pag. 29.   
Here the Epitomiser makes a slight Cavil, pretending that Mr. Oats in all the rest of the Trials, fixed this Consult upon the 21st. of August; as if the Twenty-first Day, were not part of the same Month.  
Then he goes on with his Summary: That at the same time, Letters came from Talbot, Bishop of Dublin, that Four Jesuits were to Kill the Duke of Ormond; and if they missed, Dr. Fogarthy was to Poison him: To which purpose, Coleman was very forward to have him Dispatched away. That 40000. Black Bills were provided to be sent into Ireland. That Coleman told Fenwick, He had found a way to send 200000 l. thither, 
Pag 23.  to carry on the Rebellion. That the Four other Ruffians, procured by Dr. Fogarthy, were sent in August, to Kill the KING at Windsor. That the next Day after, Harcourt made a Provision of 80 l. to be sent them; and that Coleman gave the Messenger a Guinney, to expedite his Journey. That Coleman saw the Instructions, which Ashby brought from White, then at St. Omers, about 10000 l. for Sir George Wakeman, to Poison the KING, in case the Assassinates failed. That Coleman thought it too little; 
Pag. 22.  and took a Copy of the Instructions, to send them to the several Conspirators in the Country, to encourage their Contributions. That he acknowledged the Receipt of his Patent for Secretary of State; which was sealed with the Jesuits Seal, and signed by their General.  
This was the Substance of the Charge, as the Epitomiser has summed it up: And one would think, it was as home and close an Accusation, as could be laid upon any Man's Shoulders. Neither were the Proofs of it less Positive: The Time, so far as the Law required; the Places, and several other Circumstances absolutely sworn to: The Sense of the Words, if not the Words themselves, severely affirmed: And the whole Relation was rational, plain, and probable. For, what Impossibility was there, but that Mr. Oates might act, do, hear, and see those Things, according to his Depositions? But they that were the Masters of Evasion, were not so easily put out of Countenance. Now therefore, see how the Salmon Flounces in the Net: For the Prisoner's Defence is thus Ironically and partially abbreviated; plainly showing, which way the Bias of the Epitomizer's Affection runs. That now forsooth, Oates pretends to be extremely well-acquainted with him, and a World of Intimacy, even at Consults and Meetings about the KING'S Death; whereas before the Council, he told His Majesty, He did not know him. That Oates was then so far from laying any Positive Treason to his Charge, (for as for the Payment of the 5000 l. to Sir George Wakeman, 'twas a Hear-say, as not seen by Oats) that the Board, after they had heard his Defence, did instead of sending him to Newgate, Commit him only to a Messenger, till his Papers were Examined. And whereas Oates Accused him at that time, of ordering (about the 21st. of August) 80 l. for the Windsor-Ruffians, and giving the Messenger a Guinney; He was then in Warkwick-shire, having left London on the 15th. of August, never returning till the 31st. late at Night.  
This is the sum of Coleman's Pigmy Defence, against an Impeachment so vast and Giantlike. So that the Epitomiser finding the Defence to be so weak and invalid, Epitomizes Mr. Oates' Reply with a Vengeance. Only upon the first Part, where the Prisoner wonders, how Mr. Oats should pretend so much Intimacy with him, and yet tell the King he never knew him, there the Epitomiser is like the Doctor, that went to curtal Zabarel, but made the Book bigger than it was before.  
Oats, saith He, replied, That he said at the Council, he could not Swear he had seen him before, For his Eyes were bad by Candle-light, and Candle-light altars the sight much: But when he heard him speak, he could have sworn it was he; Yet he did not say so, because he was not asked. Here the Epitomiser plainly falsifies. For Mr. Oates made no such Reply. Indeed the Prisoner taxed him, that he should say before the King, he had never seen him before. 
Pag. 30.  But the Clerk of the Council, though Mr. Coleman was very glad to see him there, spoke not a word of this matter; neither did the Prisoner put him in mind so to do, though he were examined in his behalf, and that the point was so conducing to his safety. Mr. Oats therefore speaks the Truth, and tells ye, he said, he would not swear that he had seen him before in his life, 
Ibid.  because his sight was bad by Candlelight; but when he heard him speak, he could have sworn, 
Ibid.  'twas he; but 'twas not his business then. And this Sr. Thomas Doleman himself explains to have been Mr. Oates' meaning, who being asked, 
Pag. 34.  whether Mr. Oats should say he had never seen him, returned no more than this, for the Witnesses Answer, That he did not know him as he stood there: which plainly related to the weakness of an imperfect sight, and not to the act of seeing a man at such or such a time. But all this the Epitomiser wisely left out; for his Compendium is an Epitome; and no Epitome can be an Epitome, unless it be an Epitome.  
With as little reason was the Point of Familiarity urged: For there is a great difference between the Knowledge of a man, and Familiarity with the same Person. A man may know a man by sight, and yet not be familiar with him. Neither did Mr. Oats pretend to any familiarity with Coleman: He only tells ye, That he went to visit a Friend at Mr. Colemans' House, 
Pag. 17.  That Mr. Coleman sent a Letter by him upon his Friend's Recommendation, That Coleman came where he was, 
Pag. 24.— 27.  to Wild-House and at Fenwicks' Chamber; and all this might be, where there was no such Intimacy or Familiarity as Coleman pretended the Secrecy required: For it was ground sufficient for Coleman to trust Mr. Oates, when he saw him in such places, and in such Company, and under the Character of a friend. And therefore, what Sir Thomas Doleman attested in Court, That Mr. Oats should there say, That he knew not Coleman well, and, That he had no acquaintance with him, might very well be true, without the least prejudice to his Evidence, and is no Argument, that he knew Coleman no better, after his speaking then before, as the Epitomiser in the vanity of his Imagination fond infers.  
The next Objection is, That Mr. Oates did not lay any positive Treason to his Charge at the Council-Board, etc.  
To this the Man of Brevity, sums up Mr. Oates' Reply. That he designed then to lay no more to his Charge; That he was so Weak and Tired, through his late Fatigue and Watch, that upon his Salvation, he could scarce stand upon his Legs, (to which his want of his Memory, as not having Consulted his Papers, should have been added) was the best answer he gave the Court, why he omitted the most weighty Matters, as also the acount of the whole in relation to the King's Murder at Windsor. Nor could Sir Robert Southwel witness any thing new to Oates' advantage more, then that he said in Council, That if Mr. Colemans' Papers were searched, there would be matter found in them, that he believed, would cost him his Neck.  
Now let the People examine the Truth and Honesty of the Compendium. For the Narrative tells ye in a fair Character, how Sir Robert Southwell attested, That Colemans' Papers being found in a Deal Box, several of them sounded so strangely to the Lords, that they were amazed, and presently sent Coleman to Newgate: And being asked, 
Pag. 36.  Whether Mr. Oates did give a round Charge to Coleman or no? His answer was, that Mr. Oates did say of Mr. Coleman, that he had Corresponded very wickedly, and basely with the French Kings Confessor: and did declare further, that the fifteen Thousand Pound was accepted for the murder of the King, and that five Thousand Pound was actually paid by Mr. Coleman to Sir George Wakeman, upon which the Chief Justice made this Reflection, that it plainly appeared by the Testimony of Sir Robert Southwell, that Mr. Oates had charged Coleman Home, and that it was a full answer to Coleman's Objection. What a strange honour had the Compendium for Brevity, to leave out all this! But by this you may see, that the longest Cloak a Jesuit can wear, cannot hid the Devils Cloven Foot. While the Father of Lie strives to trample Truth under his feet, his Diabolical Hoofs, will appear in spite of his teeth. Nay, the very kicking and wincing of his Offspring Falsehood against her Capital Enemies, will uncover the Nakedness of her Sire, and expose her Deformity.  
Thus has the Grand master of Conciseness overturned two rotten Inferrences raised upon his own false Abbreviation, That Mr. Oates 's Evidence against Coleman was a late Fiction; and that it was impossible through Lassitude, not to tell the King of Colemans' Design, had he known of it. It being the very judgement of the Chief Justice upon the Evidence, That Coleman was not charged at his Trial with matters newly started, but with the Conspiracy itself, as had been done before at the Council.  
Well then, this Gentleman may be a master at Compendium's because he comes so short of himself; but he can never be a Matchiavillian to impose, in his first experiment, upon the people whom he undertakes to undeceive. What says the Poet?  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.— Theog. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
A Lie looks Ill at the beginning, but the End will have a Shameful Revenge.  
As to the last Charge of Mr. Oats of Colemans' being at the Consult with the Benedictines upon the 21st of August, the Prisoner replied; That he was in Warwickshire from the 20th. to the last day of the said month. and so the Evidence could not be true in that particular. But because he had no one Witness to prove what he alleged, the Court did not think it convenient to take his own word; and so that Excuse proved a mere Chrism or Abortive Birth. Neither does the Master of the Abridgements himself endeavour to defend this misfortune of his Martyr, not thinking it safe, for brevity's sake, to be dabbling in the Support of too many untruths at one time, lest all men without my help should see his falsehood and horrid Abuse of the King's Cause and Evidence.  
As for Mr. Bedlow's Charge, the Abbreviator does his Office like a Workman; for, because 'twas but short, He taketh all in.  
He also says, that Coleman made little answer to him, besides protesting, that he never saw him before: (which Mr. Oates says is false, for he was often in his Company, but indeed, by the name of Ambrose) which was as good as nothing: but indeed, it was a piece of Policy becoming a Secretary of State. For he asked him but one civil question, whither He had ever seen him in his life? 
Pag. 40.  and the Witness gave him such a Satirical rebuke, that the Man of Intrigue (as the Narrative-Trimmer calls him) immediately pulled in his Horns, and never durst give him one push more.  
But the Abbreviator observing this easy Conquest of his Friend, for brevity's sake, resolves to give his Catholic Zeal a Little Rope, and to etch out his Abbreviation, lest it should be too short, with a Politic Remark or two of his own. For, quoth he, with a Papistical stretch, there was never any of Mr. Colemans' Family had ever seen him, which had been morally impossible, had he received and brought Letters as he pretended.  
How he came by this Intelligence, Heaven knows, for 'tis more than his Original gives him Authority to say. But grant it true, he knows Mr. Coleman was a man of Intrigues, Plotters always walk in Masquarade; he was too politic to suffer the Instruments of so grand a design to appear at his House twice with the same Face, nor indeed with their own faces twice together at any time; And I am apt to believe, that Mr. Coleman's Asseveration might in some measure be true, That he never saw Mr. Oats or Mr. Bedlow in that Habit or by those Names, for the Jesuits we know go by many Names (as false men use to do); or to use his own words, that he never saw That Face, of either, that is to say, the Faces of either, as than they appeared fashionably adorned, and with the natural and Genuine Air of their Countenances. By which, with a Jesuitical Equivocation, he might serve his Papistical Conscience.  
But this is not all, he is resolved to put his Confidence upon the tenterhooks, and to undertake, not only for Mr. Colemans Family, but for the whole Auditory at the Trial; too few of whom, he says, could comprehend, how Mr. Bedlow should know that the Letter which he brought from Paris, and yet understood not, was about carrying on the Plot. Truly this might have been a Miracle indeed, could Monsieur Compendium have proved, that Mr Bedlow had at the same time lost his hearing. But what a shameful Impudence is this, for a man to belly a whole Auditory; I mean all that were not a sleep? For they could not choose but hear Mr. Bedlow declare, that he received the said Letter, at a Consultation of two French Abbots, and several English Monks; among whom, there was no other Discourse, but of the English Plot, and Destroying the King. But why should Harcourt call Mr. Bedlow over the way, for no other Reason, but to hear Mr. Colemans' Treasonable Expressions in the Height of his Zeal? Why perhaps, because he was unwilling his Friend should stand in the Wet or the Sun,— or for some other Considerations him thereunto moving. Would any but a Narrative-Snipper have us put such an Impertinent question as this to men of Reason? As if they, who believe they can trust one another, care what they hear one another say. Besides, 'tis well known that Coleman, as much a man of Intrigue as he was (which is one of Compendium's excuses of the probability, that the finding of his Letters might hang him) was two much wrapped up in the Admiration of himself, to be either profound or wary. But there is yet another Riddle behind, (For there was never such a Sphynx in Nature, as our Compendium Writer) How Mr. Bedlow could carry La Chaise a Letter from Mr. Coleman, Dated April 75; and yet Mr. Colemen First Letter to him, was his Long Letter, Dated September 29. 1675? This is a Question, 'tis true: But why Mr. Compendium should ask it, is another Question. For it plainly shows, that the Narrative-Clipper was careless of that Examination, which he so earnestly reoommends to the People. 
Pag. 37.  For Mr. Bedlow does not say, he carried any Letter from Mr. Coleman to La Chaise, Dated April 75. But he says, That in April 75. he carried over a large Packet of Letters to Monsieur La Chaise from Mr. Coleman, wherein Mr. Secretary is not Charged to have had any particular Letter of his own, but only to have been the Hander and Conveyer of the Accounts of the Plot given to La Chaise by other men; upon which the Confessor, well knowing how deeply Mr. Coleman was Engaged, thought fit to give Mr. Coleman his Sentiments in a particular Letter directed to himself. And so the Correspondence began in September following. And thus the Riddle is resolved without the Help of an Oedipus.  
Now let men of Reason but consider, the lamentable, miserable, pitiful, sorry, inconsiderable, and weak shifts of Confidence and Fallacy, that these people are put to, to uphold the shallow Defences of their Villainous Disloyalty; as if they thought to deal with the Protestants like Babies, because their own Religion, is a Religion only of Trinkets and Baubles.  
But now the Epitomiser is at a wicked Loss: the ghastly Apparition of Colemans' Letters has scared him almost out of his Senses. Those Letters are upon him as the Philistines were upon Samson, so that he knows not which way to turn himself. True it is, he makes use of the Jawbone of an Ass, but not to the same purpose as Samson did. For, instead of smiting, he falls to expounding, and extenuating. Instead of an Abbreviator, he turns Commentator; but with so little Success, that there is not one word of Sense in what he urges.  
First, he acknowledges, that Coleman acknowledged them very full of Extravagant Expressions, because there was no way to avoid it. But that he hoped they were not Treasonable. Suppose a Fellow breaks open and rifles a house, Let the People Examine, whether it be a sufficient plea, for the malefactor to say, he hoped it was no Felony. He Prosecutes the Mighty-work of Converting Three Kingdoms, and Subduing the Pestilent Heresy of Protestantisme; Implores, and Solicits Foreign Power and Assistance to effect all this, and hopes it is no Treason: Violates the Tundamental Laws of the Land, and hopes it was no Treason. But these, saith the Animadverter, were only Rhetorical Flowers to wheedle in La Chaise. A very probable Story. Men pretending to Sense, should be ashamed to own in Print such childish simplicities so scandalous to reason. The Commentator confesses, that the Court of France had smelled him out, for all his pretences, and knew him to be a Person of no Interest, a mere Epistle-monger; so that, saith he, Mr. Coleman could not Dream to wheedle such a cunning Fox as La Chaise by any other means, then by presenting him with a Rhetorical Nosegay. But what was to have been the effect of this Wheedle? To advance the King of England's Interest— By whose Commission was this Wheedle to have been managed? By no bodies— only it was Mr. Colemans Generosity to his Prince, to give himself the trouble. Briefly then, Mr. Coleman was to advance the King of England's Interest, and the business was to have been brought about thus— Mr. Coleman was to tickle La Chaise's Nostrils with his Rhetorical Flowers, and then Lafoy Chaise was to have persuaded the King of France to have sent Mr. Coleman 200000 l. to go on with the Design.  
In good Sooth, the King of France had been sweetly guled, to have given Mr. Coleman 200000 l. for a Rhetorical Posy for his Confessor. No, no,— Mr. Colemans' meaning no doubt, was just as the Court, persons that understood the meaning of English words, expounded it; down right selfseeking Treason; and if he and his Confederates had not hung together, better than the sense of them that defend their Crimes, we had been but in a bad Condition ere now.  
But the main business is behind. Saith Mr. Coleman, saith the Commentator, There are some Expressions that explain, that he had No Plot or design to Kill the King. As how? For the Reader, says the Interpreter, may find Mr. Coleman telling La Chaise, That the Labourers were few, and the Harvest Great. Whence the Expositor draws this immediate Conclusion, that it was an Argument, that there were but a few concerned with Mr. Coleman. Dear Interpreter, thou art fallen into the pit which thou prepared'st for another. The Argument for thy Client is against him. For here is a plain confession, that Mr. Coleman was concerned, though but a few were concerned with him. That is, not enough to kill and take possession. Indeed, the Crop of England is a great Crop, and Mr. Coleman I believe did want Labourers to reap the Harvest of his incessant industry. Which made him so earnestly petition the French King to send him men and money to advance the interest of the King of England. And thus we have done with this mighty Champion so far as concerns Mr. Coleman; And give me leave to tell the world, that if all the rest of the right writing Papists have no more Salt in their brains then this Zealous Epitomiser, I would abhor the Catholic Religion only for his sake.   

Concerning Ireland, Grove, and Pickering.  
IT is impossible that there should be any Truth in a Religion, when there is no Truth in the professors of it. The Abbreviator defies all men that can Tax him of being unjust to either party, and yet in his fore-shortning of Ireland's Case, he has so Knavishly concealed, for brevity's sake, the Material points of his Charge from the Examination of the people, that we must be forced to pick it out of the Narrative.  
The Charge then maintained by Mr. Oates against Ireland, was, 
Nar. P. 16.  That he was at the Consult at the White-Horse Tavern: That one of the Colloquies was at his Chamber. That he was present at the drawing up of the resolve of the Assassination of the King, and signed it: and that he had laid a Plot with others to move the disaffected Scots to Rebellion. 
Pag. 22.  All this the Abbreviator for his friend's sake, leaves out. For it was not fit to Communicate the Height of Ireland's Crimes to the Examination of the people. And therefore, only beginning at the Fag end of the book, 
Pag. 60.  he falsely repeats his being said to be a Caballing (no such thing said) at Fenwick's Chamber about a fortnight in August; and that on the First of September, Mr. Oates had of him Twenty Shillings, which was only spoken to prove his being in Town at that time, and not by way of Accusation.  
The Charge against Grove maintained by Mr. Oates, was, that Grove and Pickering were ordered to make an Attempt upon the King's Person. That the first was to have had One Thousand 500 Pound, and the latter Thirty Thousand Masses. That they accepted of the Terms, took the Sacrament, and an Oath of Secrecy upon it. That the fact was to be done with screwed Pistols, shorter than some Carbines. That they had Silver Bullets, 
Pag. 19 Page 23 Ibid  which Grove would have to be Champt, that the wound might prove incurable. That he saw the Bullets in May and June; and this was an unanswerable and remarkable passage, and therefore to be left out by the Compendium. That Pickering having lost a fair Opportunity, by reason his flint was lose, was forced to undergo a Penance, and had Twenty or Thirty Strokes of Discipline. That Grove and one Smith had gone about to gather Peter-pende to carry on the design, and that he saw the Book where these things were entered. And that Grove told him, that he had a hand in the Firing of Southwark, and that he had received, 400 l. for his Pains. Thus far Mr. Oates.  
Mr. Bedlow being called, confirmed the Truth of the Entry book, and that Lang horn was Register. That Ireland was at Harcourts' Chamber toward the latter end of August, where it was concluded, that the Ruffians missing to Kill the King at Windsor, Pickering and Grove should go on, 
Page 41  and that Conyers should be joined with them to Assassinate the King in his morning Walks at Newmarket: And that Ireland, Grove and Pickering were present, and heard the whole discourse. That at the same Time there was a discourse about Killing the Earl of Shaftsbury, the Duke of Buckingham, the Earl of Ossory, the Lord of Ormond.  
But the Charge saith the Abbreviator, was solemnly denied by them all. What is that to the purpose? As if a Roman Catholic valued the denial of a perpetrated Crime, for the Propagation of the Pope's interest, any more than a Common strumpet does to pick a pocket, or a Jesuit to forswear himself at the Gallows.  
Mezeray, in the Life of Henry the Fourth, tells us, that all the Torments of that Rack could not force Barrier to any Confession, till his confessor took him to Task, and opened his heart with the same Key, with which the Jesuits had locked it up before. Should such Traitors make Confession of such Crimes as these, when there is a Crown of Martyrdom to be obtained, Papists would turn Atheists, and the Scarlet Pomp of Rome return to its Pristine Poverty and Nakedness. No wonder then the dying Slaves are so industriously cajoled to persist in their obstinacy, and that the Living adhearents strive with all the art Immaginable to cast a veil over the shame of their Mother the Church of Rome, never more likely to run the risk of Ruin, then by such permitted and cantingly justified Acts of Impiety as these.  
But the Epitomiser goes on. Pickering, saith he, as to his particular, protested, that He never shot off a Pistol in his Life. 
Though Mr. Dudgale, has often gone a Fowling with him, when they were young Lads together, and hath affirmed, and is ready to be deposed, that he was as good a Marksman, as ever he was acquainted with; which proveth Pickering, and this Compendium-writer, a pair of horrid deceivers.  But who knows what now resolution and Courage the Sanctification of his Arm and the Exorcisms of the Jesuits, in such cases as these, by way of preparation, might inspire him with of a sudden. Oh! But it seemed improbable to the Spectators by his very mine and looks. This is now the second time that this little pretender to Omnisciency, has undertaken to know the hearts of whole Auditories and Assemblies: but if he use it too often, it will prove the Mortality of his Confidence. Fronti nulla fides is too true a Proverb, that every Milliner has it in his Mouth. And it is as probable as many stories that the Epitomiser tells, that he might be pitched upon for that very reason, because he was so little to be suspected, having such a poor presence; but I will boldly say, this was a poor excuse in our Epitomiser, and that here he was at a hard pinch to excuse a Traitor by his puny looks; then says the Narrative-Culler, Ireland affirmed, that he was constantly out of London from the third of August, till above a week in September: This he laboured to make good against three Witnesses for the King, who positively swore they saw him here in Town at that time, by several Testimonies of his own; pretending, to move the Spectators Compassion, that he had not been permitted to send for any more; though the Chief Justice declared, that his Sister had leave to go to whom he thought fit in his behalf. But notwithstanding this public lie, and that his Witnesses swore with prepared Consciences, and his own impious Imprecations, his own Kinsman Mr. Jenison hath since so fully cleared the point, and let in the bright Sun upon their dark Concealments, that the Epitomiser had better have shortened his Abbreviation, and left out his lift of so many persons of quality, then have exposed them thus by their Names to the public shame of owning and asserting Falsehoods. 'Tis a wonder that none of those persons of quality, who could not want Money, especially the Ladies who were out of danger, were not so kind, knowing where the pinch lay, as to take a short journey to see London, and save a friend; nay more than a friend, a Ghostly Father, one of the Patriarches and Conscience— Cabinets of the Romish Church. But 'twas all one; they sent a pitiful Coachman to damn himself; which was the same thing as if they had come themselves. But how did this Prostitutor of his Soul, dare to call Mr. Oates Knight of the Post, who himself was then resolved to forswear himself, before the Tribunal of Heaven? Now what have the Papists got by such a Holy piece of perjury? They have only showed us, how far the Impulse of Bigotisme, and the Confidence of Papal Remission will carry a deluded Conscience; they have only displayed the iniquity of their Tenants by the Iniquity of Ireland's Exit, and how miserably poor Staffordshire is pestered with the poisonous and Pestilential Heresies and Lewd Opinions of the Romish Church.   

Concerning Hill, Green, and Berry.  
IT mainly concerns the Abbreviator to manage this business of the Murder of Sir Edmundberry Godfrey wisely; for if he cannot rub it off from the Papists, it will stick as a Cursed stain and pollution upon the pretended innocence of their Religion, as long as Popery endures. Now therefore let us see how he behaves himself.  
Mr. Oats, saith he, swore, that after the Plot was known, 
Pag. 12.  several Popish Lords, some of whom are now in the Tower, had threatened Sir Edmundberry Godfrey, and asked him what he had to do with it? and he said often, that he went in fear of his life by the Popish Party, he having been often dogged by them: but here the Epitomiser leaves out the most material point; He forgets to tell the people the Occasion of the Gentleman's fears, which was, because he had taken Mr. Oates' Depositions, and had dived too deep into the discovery of the Plot. For Alas, before, Sir Edmund-Berry might have walked the Town at all hours of the Night; there was no body watched him, nor dogged him before. But no sooner had the Papists received the Alaram of the Discovery, and that Sir Edmundberry had been so Audacious as to perform the Duty of his Office, and take the Depositions, but he could not stir a foot without a a diligent Observer and Spy at his Heels; which double diligence and care of his person, never ceased till they had Acted their intended Tragedy.  
These were Circumstances too weighty to be repeated in an Epitome, especially, it being the policy of the Narrative-trimmer; to lead the Examination of the People astray as much as lies in his Power. Having made these wilful mistakes, he comes to Mr. Prance his part, who, as he saith, Swore; That at the Plough Alehouse, Girald and Kelley, 
Pag 42.  two Priests, about a fortnight before the Murder, did entice him to it, saying, That Sir Edmund Godfrey was a busy man, and would do much mischief. The Epitomiser should have added, and farther told Mr. Prance, that it was no sin to Kill, but a Deed of Charity to the Church to do it. But such mincings as these must be expected, in Popish Compendiums, which are the most exact Compendiums in the World, always leaving out what gravels them. He goes on, and says, That Green, Girald, and Hill, Dogged Sir Edmundbury Godfrey to a House at Saint Clements. That Green came at Seven a Clock at Night to tell Prance of it, Kelley and Green remaining upon the Watch. But neither Green, nor any of the rest told him whereabouts in Saint Clement's Sir Edmund was. That about Eight or Nine a Clock, Sir Edmund came Home-wards. That Hill ran before to give the Conspirators notice of it, at Sommerset-House; and then going to the Gate, He told Sir Edmund, that two Men were Quarrelling within, and desired him, being a Justice of the Peace, to pacify them; that he consented to it, but when he came to the bottom of the Rails, Green threw a twisted Handkerchief about his Neck, and cast him behind the Rails, and then Throned him, and punched him with his Knee on the Breast. But the Abbreviator omits, that Girald would have thrust his Sword through him, but that the rest would not permit him, for fear it should discover them by the Blood. 
Pag. 17. Ibid.  That about a Quarter of an Hour after, Prance came from his Station at the Water-Gate, and laying his Hand upon the Body, found he was not quite Dead, but that his Legs Shook, and that then Green wrung his Neck quite round: The Snipper leaves out, that Green boasted of this particular Act, which his Compendium should have Recorded; had it been for nothing else, but for the Barbarism and Cruelty of a Popish Chapel Officer. But This he would not have the World know, for Holy Church-sake.  
Here the Compendium-botcher advises the Reader to take notice, that Prance having related the matter of Fact in this manner, Mr. Attorney asked him on a sudden, whether he saw Green wring his Neck? No answered he, forgetting what he said before, but Green afterwards told him so: which words surprised not a few of the Popish Party. Why this it is to leave out the most material Point of an Evidence. For though to the first question Mr. Prance answered, No; yet to that which was implied, how he came to know it, he makes answer, That not only all the rest, but Green himself told him so, and boasted of his Butchery. And then indeed not a few might well be surprised to hear a Popish Zealot so imprudently boasting of such an irreligious and inhuman Act. 
Ibid.  Reader, take notice of this; and what a Cheat this faithless Abbreviator would have put upon your understanding: and what prime Camester this concise Devil must be, that puts his Brains and Conscience so far upon the stretch, to defend so horrid and never to be paralleled murder, unless among the popish Massacres in Ireland, when they ripped up Women with Child, and the like. Reader, take notice also of a farther Omission of this Defier of all men for Truth. For he speaks not a word of the Punches that Green, like a merciful Executioner, gave with his knees upon the half breathless body, for quickness of dispatch, which was in like manner confessed and boasted of by Green, and all the Rest. These were Circumstances, Reader, with which he was loath to astonish your Examination, and might be therefore well enough left out in a delusive Epitome, to serve their Church, and cheat the world.  
After his foolish, or rather knavish Remark, he goes on, That Sir Edmund being thus killed, they carried the Corpse to a Chamber of Hills at Doct. Godwins. Observe by the way another escape of this wicked Epitomiser, which is that Mr. Prance sworn, that when he came down, as is aforesaid, he found Hill, Green, Girald, and Kelley, all four about the Murdered Magistrate, newly turned out of his Commission after the Popish way; and that Berry came to them presently after. Well! after he had Lain in Hills' Chamber till Monday Night, they brought him to a Room in the lower part of , and then Hill shown him the Body by a Darklanthorn, Girald, Kelley, and the rest being by. That on Tuesday Night the Body was brought back to Sir John Arundels Lodgings, and upon Wednesday Night, they removed it back to the place where it first lay. (By the same token, that Prance coming as they were removing it, they were frighted and ran away, but hearing Mr. Prances Voice, they returned again.) A remarkable Circumstance left out, for Brevity's sake, by the Epitomiser. That about Twelve a Clock the same Night they carried it away in a Sedan to Soho, and then upon a Horse before Hill, to the place where it was found. That Girald, and one Vernat spoke to him of a great reward, and that there was a good one to be sent by the Lord Bellasis. That in the beginning of November, Vernat, Lawson, Girald, Himself and one Dethick, met together at Bow, 
Pag. 21.  where reading all the Writing of the Murder, they were very merry, by the same token that Mr. Prance being jealous of being overheard, caught the Drawer Listening, and threarned to kick him down Stairs.  
Bedlow, saith the Abbreviator, swore, that La Fair, Prichard, Welsh, Keins, and other Priests, did treat with him about the Murder of a Gentleman in October Last. That they sent him to Insinuate himself into the acquaintance of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey, not telling him their Design. That on Saturday, the day before Sir Edmundbury Godfrey was Murdered, Lafoy Fair met Bedlow by accident in Lincolns-Inn-feilds, and also at the Pals-Graves-Head-Tavern, where he told Bedlow, that a Material Man was to be put out of the Way, who had all Oates and Tongue's Informations, which, if not taken from him, would discover their Design to that Degree that they must stay till another Age to Effect it. That La Fair told him, he should have 4000 l. for a reward; That no worse, a man then my Lord Bellasis was engaged for it, and that Mr. Coleman had order to pay it. That he then parted with La Fair, but came not according to his Engagement to : That on Monday night La Fair met him again in Fleetstreet, and charged him with breach of promise. To which it was answered, That he knew not but that the person to be murdered might be his Friend. Whereupon La Fair appointed him to meet him at Eight of the Clock at , and he should know more. That coming there, La Fair told him, that the man was Killed; and that if he would help to carry off the body, he should have half the reward; and then, at Mr. bedlow's request, he showed him the body by a Lantern; but that he did not see either Hill, Green or Berry then in the Room. But that he had such a Remembrance of Faces, that he could tell all he saw there, though the light were small.  
Here the Abbreviator recommends to the Reader a learned Observation, That Mr. Bedlow had deposed before the Lords, as their Journals Testify, that he saw Prance, and that Welsh, Le Fair, Atkins, and my Lord Bellasis' man were with him, being quite different Actors from those mentioned by Prance. From whence 'tis supposed, that Mr. Bedlow naming these, and Mr. Prance naming others to have done the Fact, Neither of them spoke truth.  
What strange conclusions does this Nicodemus labour to impose upon the Observation of the People. Observe then, Reader, Mr. Bedlow no way contradicts the Lord's Journals. For he swears in the Narrative, 
Pag 33.  that he did see Mr. Prance there, which was the occasion of his knowing him again in the Lobby; and that La Fair led him by the hand, into the Room where were many more. But neither before the Lords, nor at the Trial did he undertake to distinguish the persons that did the Fact. This is then a conclusion more justly to be drawn from the Epitomizer's unfortunate Observation, that there were too distinct parties, that had it in their Pates, to put Sir Edmundbury Godfrey out of the Way. Le Fair's Party, and Kelly and Giralds' Party. But it happened that the last were two you're for the first; and had dispatched their business while Le Fair went Hawking about with his great Rewards for a Chapman. Now when the business was done, both Parties joined, and fed their Curiosities with the beautiful Object of a Murdered Heretic, which is the true Sense of Mr. Bedlow's Deposition, though the Epitomiser would so fain have screwed it the wrong way.  
But this is not all, Then quoth he, He tells us, meaning Mr. Bedlow, That the Corpse had a Cravat about the Neck like that about his own, but so straight, that he could not get his finger between. Which Reader, saith the false Epitomiser, was not very proper Instrument to strangle a strong man, so cleverly, and without Noise. I know not what Experience in straggling or hanging this Defender of the Massacre may have; But that Reader who will not believe, that four strong men to one, may be able to strangle (by surprise) one strong man, cleverly, and without Noise; and that a long Cravat is not a proper Instrument for the business, I wish him no other harm, but that he may never be so unfortunate, as to have the Conclusion tried upon himself.  
He proceeds, that Mr. Bedlow knew him presently, though to beguile him, they told him, he belonged to a Person of Quality. That the Jesuits then with him, were not those, that had formerly employed him, to insinuate himself into Sir Edmundbury's Acquaintance; and yet Reader, his Worship informed us, as you see but just before, that his Introducer, Lafoy Fair, was one of them that so employed him. This the Observator takes to be a Smiter, and worships Mr. Bedlow, for putting such a Slur as this upon himself. Poor Creatures! They are very thankful for the least seeming Kindness, that might help 'em out at such a dead Lift as this. As if it had never happened in this World, that a Man might introduce his Friend into a Room, and go out again. La Fair had glutted his Eyes with the Show already, and might be drawn aside in Consultation with some other Person. And it is most probable, that they who stood about the Body, next to Mr. Bedlow, were such to whom the Fact was most a Novelty; and consequently, less acquainted with Mr. Bedlow's Concerns. Now, Reader, where there is no Opposition to Reason, 'tis a mere Cavil to fix a Contradiction; Especially, where the Crime merits rather Aggravation upon the Malefactors, then to be palliated with idle Excuses. I would advise the Observator, to take the Murder upon himself, to surrender himself, and be Hanged; and so convince the World of Mr. Bedlow's Error, and prove all the Witnesses Liars. The Pope, perhaps, might Canonize him for such a Heroic Act.  
He goes on: Mr. Bedlow, quoth he, farther said, That he advised them to throw the Body into the River; which they not thinking safe, answered, That they would put it upon himself, and make it his own Act. That upon his saying, It was too early, Eleven or Twelve a Clock being better for their purpose, Le Fair Conjured him by the Sacrament he had taken on Thursday, not to fall that night; for, that after the Discovery of the Plot, the Sacrament was Administered to him thrice a week. That he hasted away, and having so great a Charge upon him as the Sacrament, he grew Disturbed, and went to Bristol, where God put it into his mind to discover all; and so he wrote to the Secretary.  
The premises, saith he, were endeavourd to be proved by four Collatteral Testimonies. First, by Mr. Robinson of the Common-Pleas, who attested, that Sir Edmundbury Godfrey said to him, That he believed he should be the first Martyr. Secondly, by one Curtis, a poor Charwoman belonging to Sir Edmundbury Godfrey, 
Pag 28.— 39  (though the Narrative says she was his maid, and entrusted with the Keys of his Household Concerns) who Swore, that she saw Hill with her Master about nine or ten a Clock in the morning, on the Saturday he was murdered, which the Epitomiser left out for brevity's sake, That she saw him in the same  that he had on at the Bar; and that she saw Green with her master a fortnight before. Now, why may not a poor Chare-womans' Eyes be as good as a Lady's? Or, why may not she swear as true as a Jesuite's Miss. Thirdly, by Hills denying before the Council, that ever he saw Gyrald, when as the Boy proved in Court, that they frequently met there. He might have added, the master too, who swore the same. Lastly, by Berry's sending away the Prince, while the Intregue was on foot, upon pretence, that he had Orders to tell all persons of Quality, that the Queen was private, and that they were not to come in. 
Pag. 50.  And then being asked at his Examination by the Lords, Whether he had ever had such Orders before? he then said, No; which Contradicted his Answer at the Bar; where he affirmed, he had had several of the same Nature: One of which must be a Lye.  
The Epitomiser having thus displayed his Treacherous Endeavours, to deceive the Consideration of the People, by slubbering over the Charge, and farcing it with the petty Dictates of his Papistical Malice, being come to the Prisoner's Defence, takes upon him to be their Champion, and makes open War, not only against the Witnesses, but against the Judge himself.  
To this Charge, saith he, the Prisoners answered with all imaginable Protestations, That they were Innocent. And well they might: For they did not believe, they had Committed an ill thing. Men that were taught by their Ghostly Fathers, and convinced, that Murder was no Sin, but an Act of Charity to the Church of Rome, might well protest their Innocence of the Crime. For those False Doctrines were so strongly riveted in their Breasts, that if Denials and Protestations could have saved them, they should have been as Cheap, as the Prostitutions of Harlots amongst the Papists in their Stews; and nothing but the gaping Earth, or some immediate Judgement from Heaven, should be an Evidence of their Gild, sufficient to demonstrate it to the World. Had the Romish Religion been chary of her Appeals to God, and maintained the Chastity of Protestations, as she ought to have done, such Protestations might have been prevailing Arguments of the Protester's Innocency: But the Experience of many Ages tells us, that they have been her Common Pawns for Belief; And that she has now been trusted so long, and failed so often, that she is become an absolute Bankrupt; not to be trusted any farther, for a Pennyworth of Imprecations. And therefore, to tell us of the Protestations made by these Malefactors of their Innocency, is a Gullery, which the Epitomiser must not think to impose upon the Consideration of any rational People.  
But he proceeds, and says, That Sir Robert Southwel's Testimony did not advantage them a little, meaning the Prisoners, in the Opinion of many. That's a false Insinuation: For he, being summoned as a Witness for the King, to acquaint the Court with several Particulars about Praunce's Examination before the Court, was asked, Whether his present Description and Account of Places, were suitable to what he then said in Court? Sir Robert replied, Yes; but that he said then more, than he said before at the Council. In the next place, the Attorney General demanding, whether Prance did hesitate, when he showed the Lords the several Places, in relation to the Murder? He answered, That he went positively and directly to all the Places: Till the Lords asked him, into what Room the Body was removed; but that then, after going into several Rooms, he was in a great Distraction: Yet because in that Confusion, he said, Thus far I am Certain, I am Right; the Chief Justice would have it, that his Doubtfulness gave Credit to his Testimony; since a Knight of the Post never sticks at any thing.  
What Advantage this was to the Prisoners, the Epitomiser should have more amply informed us; for this Formal Story signifieth nothing. For Sir Robert Southwel attests, that Mr. Prance was punctual, direct, and positive, as to all the Places where the Murder was Committed, and where the Corpse was first conveyed. If they removed him afterwards in his Absence, to a blind Hole, and showed him this blind Hole by a blind Light, and he cautious of mistaking, became more Considerative and wary then before; Shall this be any Argument of the Malefactor's Innocence? And therefore, 
Pag. 47.  the Conclusion of the Lord Chief Justice was Logically true; That his Doubtfulness did assert and give credit to the Testimony of the Witness, and confirm it to any Honest Man in England; in regard, it argued, that the Witness did not go prepared to swear right or wrong. Which, because 'twas Reason, the Epitomiser looks upon it with a kind of Frantic Admiration. But, saith he, the Prisoners struck at the Root: For Hill desired, that Praunce's Testimony might not stand good against him, (This was the wisest thing that ever he did in his Life, could he have obtained his Suit:) For he urged, that Prance had denied all, not only before the King, as Mr. Chevins attested; but before the Council, as Captain Richardson acknowledged.  
But this needs no farther answer, than what the Lord Chief Justice himself gave; that His denial, which was not upon Oath, could not be believed, because his discovery upon Oath was so particular; and that the bare denial of what he had Sworn, could not amount to perjury. Mr. Attorney General also declared, that while he was a Papist, and not sure of his Pardon, 
Pag. 25.  he lay under Suspicions, Disturbances, and Fears, which prevailed with him to deny what he had Sworn. But he was no sooner returned to the Prison, but being convinced and troubled, that he had done amiss, he begged of Captain Richardson, to go back to the King, and acquaint him, that all that he had Sworn to, was True; and that what he had then said, was False. But this, saith he, gave several of the Auditory but small Satisfaction, meaning the Papists that were there, considering, that a Jailor, whose interest it was to farther the Plot, might easily, if the thing were true, obtain such a promise. Besides, not a few knew how he had been used, and what Groans were heard where he lay for many days together, as Mrs. Hill urged.  
Here you may behold Mounsieur Compendium labouring for Life. This Denial of Mr. Prance, must either be made to serve their turn, or else be Annihilated. But it can no way serve their turn, because it was not upon Oath, and therefore it must be Sir Edmund-bury-godfreyed. And it must Die with Three Stabs, The small Satisfaction of the Auditory, that were of the Popish Party; The Jailor's Interest; And the Torturing of Mr. Prance. It seems, he was Eavesdropper in Ordinary to the Auditory; or else the Captain of his own Gang, that crowded in to breath disatisfaction upon every slight Occasion. For as to his knowledge of the rest, which were Protestants, he must bring very good Witness of their Disatisfaction, before any Credit will be given to his Presumption. And to give the Epitomiser a proof of his Mistake, and that this is a Tale of his own making, let him but observe that there never was any Trial of the Plotters, since the first Discovery, but that the People were always dissatisfied, even to tumult, when any of them were either Reprieved or Acquitted. As for the Captain's Interest, I confess, I do not understand it. But I will appeal to the Examination of the People, whether the Lords of the Council would give Ear to a Flim-flam story of Capt. Richardson's, or join with him in an invention of Prance's denial, to promote his Interest. For whatever Tale the Captain could promote for his own Interest, was most certainly to come to the Test of Persons not to be Imposed upon by the Keeper of Newgate.  
But then they say, He was Tortured to make him deny. And who I pray brings this Intelligence? Why, even Mr. Hill's own Dear Wife. Who by her behaviour in Court, showed herself to be a Clamorous Woman, that either knew not, or cared not what she said. But he himself, who had most reason to know, swears nothing but Civility from the beginning to the End. Neither does it sound like a thing probable, that people should be racked in their own Chambers in Newgate.  
But Prance's own Reason, saith the Observer, seemed yet odder. For, he said, It was because of his Trade, as fearing to lose his Employment with the Queen, and the Catholics, which was the most of his Livelihood; and because he had not his Pardon. But why this Reason was odder then the rest, the Learned Commentator does not determine; and so we leave it to the Consideration of the People, who with half an Eye, may see the Shallowness of these petty Quirks and Shifts.  
The Prisoner's Plea being thus overruled, and Mr. Praunce's Testimony adjudged Good; Hill calls for his Master's Niece, and Mrs. Broad-street, who looked to the House, as also, his Master's Maid, in his behalf. The Sum of whose Testimony was this; That he was a Trusty Servant: That he never kept ill Hours, but always came in by Eight of the Clock: That he could not go out afterwards, because the Doors were locked up; and that they were constantly up till Eleven at Night: That he was at Home on Saturday-Night, when Sir Edmund Godfrey was Killed; and on Wednesday-Night, when carried away. That their House and Stairs were so little 〈◊〉 it was impossible, that any thing could be brought in or out, but they must know it. That the Room where the Body was said to be laid, was not only over against the Dining-Room, but in a Room that had the Key in it always; and that every Day they went often into it for something or other: and that the Footboys stayed there, when any Body visited the Young Lady: And that there was but one Key to the Door of the Lodgings. Nay, the Servant-Maid, whom Judge willed commended to more care than the other two swore, that she dalled in every Day at the Door of the Chamber, and was the last up.  
In this Testimony, the Observator seems to Triumph, as if he had got a Mighty Victory. But he omits to observe, how fatally the Young Lady tripped in her Story, when she affirmed, 
Page 55  that the Family had never been out of their Lodging, since they came to Town; and being asked, when they were out of Town? she answered, in October; in which Month the Tragedy was acted. Upon which, two of the Judges told her, 
Ibid.  That now she had spoilt all; and that she had undone the Man, instead of saving him. Whereupon she would have Recanted, like Mr. Prance in his Terrors, and cried, Why, my Lord, I only mistock the Month. By which it was apparent, that either her Devotion had stupefied her Consideration, or that she appeared in Court, only to say what would serve the Turn.  
As for Mrs. Broad street's Evidence, It was delivered with more Confidence, than became her Sex. For, after she had denied, that there was more than one Key to the Lodgings, she confessed before the Duke of Monmouth, 
Pag. 57  that there were Six or Seven. And in the Question about Hill's leaving the Doctor's Lodgings, she had so hampered herself, by saying and unsaying, by saying one thing, and setting her Hand to another, that never was poor Fly so wrapped up in Cobweb-Lawn, as she in the Confusions of her own Story. Nay, she had like to have brought herself into the Noose itself: 
Pag. 56.  For, upon her stout and stiff Averment, that the Key was always and constantly in Hill's Door, one of the Judges told her, That he would not judge her; but that 'twas very suspicious, that if she were in the House at the same time as she said she was, and used to go into the Room every day, but that she must either hear the Body brought in, or see it. And another of the Judges told her, 'Twas well, she was not Indicted. So that, Mrs. Inadvertency, and Mrs. Confidence, were both dismissed with the public Rebuke of the Court. So that, the Observator's Query, Why the Judges insisted no farther upon the Point of the several Keys, was not because they thought it impossible, there should be so many Keys to one Door; but because they took it for granted from the sable Consequence of Hill's being abroad; and not believing one word that either the Young Lady, or Madam Governante said.  
Other Witnesses were called by Hill, as one Grey; who, as he said, kept him Company from the 8th. of October, till the 22th. till Eight or Nine a Clock at Night, but knew not what he did afterwards; and so did him no service. Others he brought to prove he was Innocent, because he did not run for it. Which looked like a Comical Scene, in the midst of a Tragedy; 
Pag. 66.  according to Shakespeaks way. As for Green, his Witnesses failing so palpably as they did, the Observator leaves him in the Suds; which was the fittest place for him to be in.  
After this, saith the Observator, Berry calls his Maid; who witnessed, That upon the 16th. of October, at Night, her Master came Home from Bowls, in the Dusk of the Evening; and that he was not out an Hour, all the Night after: That he lay within her Chamber; and went to Bed about Twelve a Clock. All which might very well be; and yet her Master might slip out, and she never the wiser. But that, saith the Commentator, which surprised the People most, was the Testimony of the Three Sentinels, who Watched that Night from Seven, till Four in the Morning, at the Great-Gate of ; through which, the Body was affirmed to be carried in the Sedan: For they attested not only, That there came in no Sedan, besides that which stood there every Night; but that none ever went out, during their respective Watches: It being impossible, for the Gate to be opened, or for any to pass by, without their Knowledge: Nor did they Drink one Drop while they Watched, or stir a Pikes Length from the Gate.  
Let him not make such a hideous Noise with his Three Sentinels; for there is but One, that we are to take Notice of, or that could be thought to speak to the purpose. Now, this Sentinel did see the Sedan brought in, because he was Awake; but he did not see it go out, nor hear the Door opened, because he was Asleep; It being the Property of SLEEP, to Close the Eyes, and Stop the Ears both at once Which the Court, had they examined the Sentinel to that point, would have most certainly found to have been the reason of his deafness, and blindness at that time of the Night. For most assuredly, Let all the Epitomizers, Papists and Sentinels in England, say what they will, the Sedan was carried out that way that it came in that Night. So that, notwithstanding the Drowsy Testimony of Mounsieur Trollop, the people were so far from being Suprized with it, as the Epitomiser Fabulously Poetrizes, that the Malefactors were no sooner brought in Guilty, but the whole Assembly gave a great shout of applause, to see such Criminals as they, so fairly convicted, so near the punishment of so detestable a Crime.  
With these Omissions, and these Reflections, has our Parti Perpale, Narrative-pairer, Half Observator, half Abbreviator, laboured to the utmost of his Power, to Palliate one of the most Barbarous Murders that have been Committed for many Ages. I expected from the Epitomiser, when he came to Annihilate this Murder, that he should have huffed and dinged, and fumed and foamed, and cursed and swore, and banned, and sunk, and damned Himself; that there was never any such Person in the World, as Sir Edmundbury Godfrey; That there was never any such Man Born, or ever should be Born, as long as the World endures. Or else that he would have contrived some fine Story, Garnished out with some of Mr. Coleman's Rhetorical Flowers, and have told us of a certain great Person, at Court, that either out of Malice or Revenge, or else for Favour or Affection, or for some other probable Reason, had politicly caused Sir Edmund to be put out of the Way; and then thrown it upon the poor Innocent Papists, on purpose, that he might persuade the King, to a General Persecution of them, their Wives and Children, and beg their Estates.  
But to come sneaking and peaking, and Crouching and Cringing to the Consideration of the people, with his, How can it be so's, and how is is it probable's, that's so much below the High-soaring pride of St. Omers and Salamanca, that I rather conjecture him to be of some Sorry Mendicant order, whom his Party will be so far from relieving, that they will rather give him a Saint Andrews Cross Discipline, for attempting so far beyond his Ability. Where are all old Ireland's Protestations, Imprecations, and bold Summoning of God to witness the Impostures of the Heretics? Here's a murder Cravatted with a wannion!— They that could strangle a Justice of the Peace so Cleverly, could they not suffocate a Murder more Artificially, and hid it with the Common dexterity of deluded Virgins? For now, by this silly Justification, it appears far fouler than ever. It will be impossible for a Jesuit to put on a white Surplice; for it will turn Crimson, as soon as it comes upon their shoulders. Since then all the Wash ball-Protestations of suffering Malefactors cannot cleanse away this unfortunate stain, let it lie on— And so it will, as long as History can utter to the World the story of this Age. Certainly, Villainy and Impudence were never so unluckily coupled together since the Creation. As if they had thought, that the whole ruin of their designs, had depended upon Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey's Life; or that they had absolutely believed, they had had the wish of Caligula, All the Necks of English Protestants in the Twisted Handkerchief, that strangled him. But so Heaven ordered it, that this poor Gentleman should fall by their bloody Hands, to awak'n the drowsy Nation, that scarcely would believe before, those Impious designs of Popery, that threatened its Eternal ruin. Yet as God permitted the Murder out of his secret providence, so was he graciously pleased, Miraculously to discover it by their own Instruments, as Guilty as themselves, till penitence and discovery had wiped away their Offences, and Sealed their pardon. Nay, as if they themselves had been sick to confirm the justice of their Friend's Condemnation, by a speech formally penned, and stolen into Hills Pocket, they have plainly acknowledged themselves, to be accomplices in the Murder. For to what end should they be so much concerned to make speeches for the Malefactors, but that they thought to purge themselves by their dying words. On the other side, how silly and palpable a Cheat it was, to put such studied and floryed expressions into the hands of an illiterate person, that knew not how to manage'em. His own homespun Language would have done better, and have been sooner believed, than such flowers of Rhetoric out of his Mouth. It was plain then, that it was not his own, as not being his hand writing, by the Confession of his Wife; and therefore being written by some body else, whether any overawed, and truly obedient Roman Catholic, well instructed in the Arts of denials, and mental resenvation, and sound threatened by his Priest, do think himself obliged to speak the Truth, when he only superficially repeats the Conned Expressions of another man, I leave to the Consideration of the people. He that speaks not his words, at the Gallows, promptly, fluently, and without an unaffected and uncounterfeited Earnestness, can never speak from the bottom of his heart: and he that does not speak from the bottom of his heart, can never be believed; especially when he comes to discharge his Soul from the burden of a Crime.  
What is then all this Florid Language for? For nothing but to show the Contradictions of the Fool that made it. For here are Charity and Revenge, in a diametrical Opposition; while he makes the miserable Artor upon the Hangman's Stage, to forgive his Enemies, yet Cite'em before the Tri●●nal of Heaven, for doing Injustice, almost in the same Breath; He withdraws his Recognizance, & yet designs a prosecution at the same Instant. So that by this double dealing with God & Man: by that palpable Equivocation, of saying he forgives, yet hopes, that God will not, he so shamefully imposed upon a dying Malefactor, it appears most apparently, that the Person Executed, was Guilty of the thing laid to his Charge, and consequently, the rest. Otherwise there was no need of putting their Friend upon such a counterfeit, and obvious denial of a Crime, whereof he had been really Innocent: And it was only a mere shallow Contrivance of Persons equally Guilty, as being privy to the Fact, to repair the Contaminated Credit of the Romish-Church. For they cannot choose but know, what all the World knows, that Innocence never seeks, nor has any need of these ridiculous shifts, to clear her Reputation.   

Concerning White, Harcourt, Fenwick, Gawen, and Turner.  
NOW then, since the Epitomiser has been so unsuccessful in his endeavours, to wrest out of our hands the Truth of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey's Murder, even by those very Persons that were accused and justly executed for it, he can have little hopes to be believed in any thing more that he says. However that vanity overrules him still, and he runs on with his fallacies, misconstructions, and  conclusions as briskly as ever. Nay, he is so full of his little fetches, and dazzling reflections upon the Trials of these men, as if he were striving to make amends for his former negligence and disability in the weighty concerns of Hill, Green, and Berry.  
In the first place, the Reader must observe, that the Epitomiser, has most corruptly and fallaciously, contrary to his defiance, lessened and kirtled Mr. Oats' Charge against all these men; though 'tis true he repeats enough to convince any rational Person of their Treasons; or else he must have left out the whole. But that is not all; when a man makes a promise, he ought to be as good as his word. For he leaves out that Foul mouthed expression of Whitebreads, which Discovered the bottom of his Rebellious Heart, That he hoped to see the Black F s— Head at White-Hall laid fast enough, and that if his Brother should appear to follow his Footsteps, his Passport should be made too. That he wrote Letters out of England to St. Omers, wherein, he hoped that it would not be long  the blow would be given, and that by the word Blow, they had Instructions to understand the Murder of the King: which being all omitted, the sum of Mr. Oates' Charge Epitomised by the Compendium, is only this. That he Summoned a Consult which began upon the Fourth of April 78. where they pitched upon Cary to go to Rome, and resolved, the Paper being afterwards Signed by some at Ireland's, by others at Whites, by others at Fenwicks' Chamber, that the King should be killed. That White did about the beginning or middle of July, send from St. Omers Instructions by Mr. Ashby, concerning Ten thousand pounds to be given to Sir George Wakeman to Poison the King, and a Commission for Sir John Gage (but he leaves out, that the Commission was Signed and Sealed by Whitebread.) That in July or August, he saw Gawen at Ireland's Chamber, and that though he had seen Letters from the said Gawen, giving an account, 
p. 14.  the Epitomiser should have said, of the Affairs of Shrop-shire and Stafford-shire, yet he never saw him Writ, till he drew a Bill upon Sir William Andrews in Ireland's Chamber, where he Discoursed of the same things as he had given an account of in his Letters, which last circumstance should have been repeated by the Epitomiser, as well as the former, because insisted upon by the Court. As for Fenwick and Harcourt, he affirmed, they were with Blundel and others, on the 21st of August at Wild-House, where lay before them Eighty pounds for the Windsor-Ruffians, and that Coleman coming in, gave the Messenger a Guinney, 
p. 15.  (left out by the Abreviator, that from Wild-House they drew off to Harcourts' Chamber, where Harcourt paid the Money to the Messenger in Fenwicks' presence) That about a day after as near as he could remember, there was a Consult held by the Benedictines, where Harcourt and Fenwick were present, and there they understood of the Conspiracy against the Life of the Duke of Ormond by Letters from Archbishop Talbet, who desired also Commissions and Money for raising Forces. 
p. 16.  Omitted by the Epitomiser that Fenwick did bring Commissions with him to the said Consult, and sent them to Chester by a special Messenger, and several Letters by the Post, and that the next day Fenwick gave him Money, and admonished him to procure Masses to be said for the prosperous success of the design: that Ireland being returned, Mr. Oates went to him, but was beaten and reviled, for that the Jesuits suspected he had betrayed them, they having understood, that one in such  as Oates', had been with the King; yet that White said he would be Friends with him, if he would give an account of the Party and Minister that went to His Majesty. Then declaring he had no more to say against the Prisoners at the Bar; excepting only that Whitebread offered 5000 l. more to the sum of 10000 l. which Sir George Wakeman refused, and greatly rejoiced that the Money was accepted, he ended with this, that he did not remember that Gawen was at the Consult, though he remembers he then saw his Subscription; but he said positively that Turner was there, 
Pag. 17.  (and Signed the Resolve, should have been added.)  
This was the Sum of Mr. Oates' account, the omissions being added, which had a very great Encomium from the Court, to be as exact an account as could be given by any man in England.  
But for all that, now methinks I see the Abreviator pulling off his Mittens, resolving to handle Mr. Oats after a strange Manner. This Malleus Haereticorum makes him beat and torment his own Brains most unmercifully. But he has hitherto so immovably stood the violence of their most furious blasts, that there is no fear of such an Epitomizing Whiffler as this.  
The Charge being finished, saith the Observator, it soon became very dubious, as to Gawen and Turner, because Oats knew them not at their Apprehension, 
Pag. 14.  and his own words in Court make it good. For first he confessed, that when he met Gawen, after his Apprehension in the Lobby, he did not well know him, being under an illfavored Periwig, and knowing him to have a good head of Hair, he did not understand the Mystery of it, and so spared his Evidence and informing the Council against him. Well! Mr. Epitomizer, and what of all this? It may be he might not know him in that filthy Periwig, 
Pag. 14.  for it seems it was a filthy disguise. But 'tis plain, he was acquainted with his Person, for he knew him to have a good Head of Hair. Nay, he knew more; he knew that Father Gawen, who had not altered his Name, though he had Proteused his Person, was the certain Man that gave an account by Letters, how Affairs went in Shrop-shire, 
Pag. 15.  wherein he wrote that there was at least Two or Three thousand pound there, ready for carrying on the Design, and that upon a particular Search, he saw his Hand to the Resolve.  
Now for Turner, who had Masqueraded himself after the same manner, in another kind of a nasty Periwig, and looked like one of the Furies with Snaky Locks, he smartly told him, he valued not Names, but that He was the Man. And when he cried, Did you see me at the Consult? Mr. Oates replied, I saw the Man that speaks to me. Now what was the answer to all this? Why, Turner would fain have Catechised Mr. Oates out of his sense of Seeing. And Gawen cried, upon my Salvation I am Innocent as the Child unborn, 
Pag. 15.  upon my Salvation I was not in London. So that the Court, seeing Mr. Oats firm to his Oath, 
'Tis very true he was not in London, but he was in the Liberty of Westminster.  which he valued, and the other prostituting his Salvation, for which he cared not a straw, while Turner only prosecuted his Quirks and his Questions, was so far from being dubious of the business, that they declared that their Defence was nothing but captiousness. 
Pag. 22.  And therefore Mr. Epitomizer might have spared this unseasonable piece of falsehood. But he knew the English of Veritas Odium parit, and was afraid of being under the lash of the Proverb.  
But the Observator, for he is like Gawen himself, sometimes one thing, sometimes another, proceeds and says, that Gawen produced Sir J. Winfords' Niece, and her Maid, where he sojourned, who attested they were very confident of his being with them (besides other Months) all June and July, because they did not remember his absence, yet they would not positively say that 'twas impossible for him to be away some days, since they had no particular circumstances in readiness. But they and the rest of his Witnesses made it appear that he was in Wolver-Hampton, from the Third to the End of July. For then to their knowledge he was in the Spiritual Exercise. Which, says the Observator included the time of Oates' Accusation. For by his saying Gawen was in London either in July or August, and then absolutely agreeing it was in July, it in a manner follows, that the time in Dispute, was in the latter end of the said Month. Besides that he himself said, that he believed it was in the latter part of it. But when Oats came to be pressed with it, he flew back, taking the utmost extent of his Plea that he could.  
What a deal of Man-Midwifery is here, to bring forth a Shapeless Conception, that has neither head nor tail? He himself confesses that the Witnesses could not say, it was impossible for Gawen to be absent some days, but only they believed so, because they did not carry him Clean Linen. So that their Testimony was not so much to prove he was not absent, as to prove they did not carry him Clean Linen. And indeed the Virgin's Evidence depended wholly upon Clean Linen. A most Obsequious piece of Roman Catholic Diligence, to be so careful to provide Clean Linen for a Stallion Priest. For such a one he was known to be, a Priest after the Order of Martial, who Converted by the Music of the Epigrammatist's Poppysmata. So that 'twas no Wonder the Women were so handy at his Linen. Now, what was the Effect of this Clean Linen Discourse? Truly a very remarkable one: for it moved the People to a loud Laughter, 
Pag. 64.  and when the Lord Chief Justice had made his smart Reflections upon it, they gave two shouts that made the Court Ring. But Mr. Oats more soberly made it out, that Gawen taking a Chamber to go into the Exercise, might pretend that, and come to London the mean while, and the Witnesses not know it. Which the Lady had no way to avoid, but by affirming, that a Susanna might carry Clean Linen to a Jesuitical Chamber of Exercise, and be admitted. Now why Mr. Oats should be concerned at such a ridiculous piece of Female Putanism, wrapped up in Clean Linen, as this, I leave to the Consideration of the People. For as for his taking the utmost extent and compass of time, it was no more than was Lawful, and what the Court allowed him, without the least tittle of prejudice to his Oath.  
Now for Turner, saith the Observator, he informed the Court, that Oats not only did not know him at White-Hall, but called him there by another Name. There's no such thing, he only said he went by another Name. Upon which the Court observed, that when they had but one Name a piece, Mr. Oates hit it right, but when they had so may Names, they were too hard for him. But let his Name be what it would, he told Turner, that he was that man, and that he had positively seen the Person that then spoke to him at the Consult, and that was sufficient. And therefore the Epitomiser should have considered, before he made these slight Observations, that Cavils are no Defences. And I dare be bold to say, that there was not one of these daring Justifiers of their Villainy, that ever brought the least demonstrative Proof against Mr. Oates, but only such as was uncertain, and continually trapped, or else confronted and overthrown by Testimonies of far greater value. Which the People, the more they consider, the more they will find to be true.  
But, saith the Observator, Mr. Turner farther urged, that though Oats deposed then, that he saw him at a Colloquy in Fenwick's Chamber, yet by his former Evidence it was at Wild-House. To which, adds he, Oates had nothing to reply, but that because the Chiefest part of the Consult sat at Wild-House, it was called the Consult of Wild-House. That is to say, he had nothing to reply, but what he justified at White-Hall, that he saw him at the Consult of Wild-House at Fenwick's Chamber. Did Mr. Oats say he saw him positively at Wild-House, and no where else? That was the point which Mr. Turner should have proved. The rest was nothing but captious rifraff, not worth a straw, when the substantial matter was proved, 
Pag. 22.  as was observed by the Lord Chief Justice himself.  
Now the Reader is to understand, that all this stir and Turmoil is to prove Mr. Oates Perjured; which makes me admire, that the Jesuits, who account themselves the topping Order of the Catholic Religion, and conceit themselves to have engrossed all the Learning in the World into their Societies, should so grossly mistake themselves, as to err in the very Foundation of their Design. I cannot therefore apprehend 'em to be such Bugbears as they pretend to be, but that it is only the fond opinion of our deluded Gentry, that causes them to throw their Children into the Bosom of their Education. Rather I take them to be like our Splitters of Causes, who only study the Snaps and Quirks of False Practice, but know nothing of the Fundamentals and Body of the Law: And that as these study only the Knavish part of the Law, so they study only the Knavish part of Divinity, that is to say, how to cheat and amuse by virtue of their Profession. Now then to go about to prove a man Perjured, before they had asserted what Perjury was, was an attempt so unbecoming men that presumed to Learning, that to use their own expression, they deserved to be Hanged for Fools as well as Knaves, for going so preposterously to work. Perjurus, then, is one, qui malè jurat contra animi sui sententiam. And there is a great difference between pejerare, & falsum jurare. For, Qui pejerat, is sciens & ex animi sententia falsum jurat. Qui autem falsum jurat, non decipiendi animo hoc facit, sed quia rem ita se habere putat. To the same purpose, saith Cicero, Non falsum jurare perjurare est, sed quod ex animi tui sententia, s●cut verbis concipitur more nostro, id non facere, perjurium est. Now Mr. Oates Swore that there was a Plot, and that such and such were Actors in it, as knowing it to be really true; ex animi sui sententia, but as to circumstances, he only Swore, as believing them to be so, ita rem se habere. Their business was to have Disproven the Plot itself, or that they were no way engaged to it; but there was not one of them that did Defend himself against the Treason laid to their Charge, only by Denials and Protestations which signified nothing; nay they could not so much as Disprove Mr. Oates in Circumstances, the Witnesses which they brought, of their own tutor, either baffling themselves, or else being, as I said before, overthrown by positive Oaths against them; so that it was impossible to impute animum decipiendi to Mr. Oates, in Circumstances, when the Fact itself was so plain, and they themselves could by no legal justifications clear themselves from the guilt that hung so ponderously upon their Shoulders; and was indeed in good measure proved by Letters of their own. Against which the Judgement and Learning of the Court overruled all their Pedantic constructions, and shifting Expositions, as being such as could ne'er be got off for their folly.  
Nevertheless, they gave Mr. Oates Two violent Assaults, and thought they had been both sparring Blows, for could they but have throttled His Evidence, than they verily believed their work had been done. To the first Onset they Mustered up a Brigade of Stafford shire Papists, to prove that Ireland was not in London, from the Third of August, to the Fourteenth of September. But after the Ladies had Testified for him with a great deal of Zeal, and the Gentlemen with a great deal of Rashness, not only a Maid that had been a Servant to one of the Conspirators, as has been already observed, came in, and confirmed Mr. Oates' Evidence; but when both were again shaken by the solemn Imprecations of Ireland at his Execution, Mr. Jenison his near Relation, and when he Conversed with him of his own Religion, comes and appeárs in the World, and to the shame of Lords, Knights, Ladies, Gentlewomen, and Innkeepers, levels the whole Battery mounted against Mr. Oates' Reputation, and quite raises the Siege laid to his Testimony. 'Tis like he may hear of it, but he is of Age, and no doubt will answer for himself.  
To the next Onset, they brought a Rabble of St. Omers Striplings, who proffered to Swear in Verba Magistrorum, if it would have been permitted, that Mr. Oates continued all February, April, May, and June, at St. Omers, and never stirred all that time out of the College, so that he could not be here at the White Horse Tavern Consult. However they brought their Scaling Ladders, fell on very briskly, and thought to have carried the day: But alas, those Youngsters were so far from giving Mr. Oats that Deadly Blow, which the Epitomiser so foolishly cracked of, that they were so vigorously repulsed by a band of stout Evidence for the King, who positively contradicted them upon their Oaths, and punctually confirmed Mr. Oats in all he had said, that they were forced to a shameful retreat, leaving all their Evidence behind them dead upon the place. Fenwick asked the Reason why so many Innocent Children brought up in a good Virtuous Education, that is to say, in that Seminary of Mischief and Iniquity at St. Omers, should not be believed against a Protestant Knight, a Protestant Minister, and a Protestant Schoolmaster, and Four more of the same Religion?  
To which Mr. Jenison gives him a ready Answer. For if so many Stafford-shire Persons of Quality were so easily deluded, to slain their Honour and their Reputation, to save the Lives of Five Canting Jesuits, Traitors to their King and Country, it is no wonder that Sixteen Boys under the Lash of St. Omers Discipline, should be drawn in by fear or fair promises, to swear for them that could have given them plenary Absolution for a trick of Youth, had their sucking Evidence succeeded.  
To this, saith the Abbreviator, the Jesuits gave a smart rejoinder, proving by the Contradictions that must follow, that all Mr. Oates' Evidence was a Perjury or a Grand mistake. But the Epitomiser did not consider, that all they said was built upon a wrong Foundation; that they could not be contradictions, because they were not cleverly proved, as he perfidiously would make the People believe; but only falsely asserted: Nor did he observe, that while they were so studiously Perjuring others, they were endeavouring at the same time to Perjure their own Witnesses, and Damn the Souls of Young Men and Maids, Old Men and Babes, and all others obtainable, that came out of their blind and misguided Devotion, to lend them their Assistance.  
Now Readers, you that are the People of England, for it is to you that the Epitomiser makes his so frequent Appeals, weigh and Examine what has been already said, and tell yourselves where those Innocent Men as the Child unborn did invalidate Mr. Oates' Testimony in the least. Examine with yourselves whether they had any other way to justify themselves, than by the Subordination of their own Votaries. And that this may appear to be true, challenge this great Champion of their foul Treasons, to Indite Mr. Oates, Let him advise with his Council, and Assign his Perjures. More than this, I will undertake that Mr. Oates shall appear and go to Trial with him by consent in any Court of England. Lastly, Examine with yourselves, whether, if either the Stafford-shire Persons of Quality, or the Striplings of St. Omers had been permitted to Swear, they might not have run a fair Risgo of our National Justice. To whom I will only apply the Story of Joab and Abner, that those old Cinq and Quatres having a mind to have a little sport before they died, sent for the Young Men from St. Omers to Play before 'em, for their last Recreation.   

Concerning Mr. Langhorn.  
THe Epitomiser comes now to the Trial of Langhorn, who was a person, from whom, as from a man grounded in the Laws of the Land, strange things were expected; it was thought by his Party, that all the Paper in London, would not have sufficed for Panegyrics upon his Parts, and the Chronicles of his behaviour. The opinion of his Intellectuals can so high, that he would wipe his backside with a protestant Commission of Oyer and Terminer, though all the four Inn's a Courts were upon the Bench. But for my part when I heard how simply he had driven his own Bargain for registering consults, and conveyance of Jesuits Lands, I did very shrewdly suspect him. Nay I found he was conscious of his own weakness, to suffer himself to be decoyd into such a Villainous Plot upon the hopes of an Advocate General's place out of his road, who might have moved in his own Sphere and have Stalked in his Collar of Ss', for ask. But alas, when he came to the proof, never did man pretending to Law and Reason make a sillier defence, for he made not the least use of either; as if they had both forsaken him in his necessity, and had begged his excuse for appearing in his bad cause. As for his Plea, that he had been a close Prisoner so long, and could not foresee what the Evidence would testify, it was extremely frivolous. For there is no man taxed of a crime, but knows the Substanee of what will be evidenced against him, as well as the witnesses can tell him, upon the examination of his own conscience. A perfect and clear innocence will show itself in spite of fate: and he must be a weak Judge who cannot discern the malice or interest of an Accuser, which are the chiefest vermin with which the wicked hunt that ermine virtue. Neither did Mr. Oats bear upon the Innocence of any one of the parties Condemned. For than he would have accused them hand over head without distinction. But he charges one with one thing, another with another, as he knew they acted in their several Spheres of Treason and mischief. Some were for consulting and signing Orders, some for execution, some for regestring, and some for managing Foreign Intelligence. Which acts, as they were all necessary, for the carrying on such a thorough paced Plot as this was (and that there was a Plot is plain by the Murder of Sir Edmunbury Godfrey, to which these very men that suffered were privy, as contrived by their own Gang) who can be so silly as to think Mr. Oates hath done himself wrong, or believe them to be Innocent, unless they could themselves have brought out the Parties that were really guilty; and that had been the only way to have invalidated Mr. Oates' Testimony. It had been impossible for Mr. Oats to have borne up his head in the public face of the World; to have stood the strict Examinations of a great Monarch, his Council and his Parliament; which implies all the Wisdom, Judgement, and Policy of a Nation, had not his discovery been substantially true: which could not so have been, had he been deceived in the persons of the Actors. Unless there be any of the people so brutish as to believe, that the King and the whole Flower of the Nobility and Gentry of the Nation, were in a Conspiracy with Mr. Oates, against a Company of Tatter de mallion Jesuits and their deluded Associates, who might have been buried among the forgotten Crowd, had they not like the firer of the Ephesian Temple made themselves Famous by their Infamy. But for the satisfaction of the people, the Abbreviator must have his Face washed a little, and so be sent away to School with his Bottle and his Basket to learn more manners against his next Compendium.  
Oats, saith he, charges Langhorn that in a Letter to the Fathers, wherein he ordered Five pounds to his Son, who had been in Rebellion, and was reconciled to him again, by the Intercession of the said Fathers, he expressed his great care of the Catholic design, and told them among other things that the Parliamentt Flagging, they had a fair opportunity to give the blow, which saith, the Observator, seemed very odd to many, that in an ordinary Letter of Domestic Concerns, he should treat of such high and secret matters.  
This looks like the Canvasing of some Catholic Coffee-house. Neither is it material what descants People might make upon Mr. Langhorn's discretion; rather let it seem odd to all Men of Reason, That the Observator should think to invalidate Mr. Oats' Evidence, by quoting those Proofs, against which the Prisoner himself made no Defence. As odd as it was, the thing was true, because it was never disproven; nor so much as any Reply made to it by the Party accused. Mr. Langhorne, perhaps, had a mind to conceal such an odd piece of Indiscretion, and the Epitomiser has here brought it upon the Stage to be publicly wondered at.  
He goes on, and tells us, how Oats deposed, That he saw Commissions in Langhorne's Study upon his Desk; when Langhorne appeals to all the Company that frequented his Chamber, whether any of them ever saw a Desk in his Study? What a Potgun of an Objection is this? The stress of the Oath does not bear upon the word Desk, but upon the sight of the Commissions. No question the Advocate General had a place in his Study to write upon; now because a Man gives to this or that place, or thing, the general Appellation of a Desk, there must be a solemn Appeal to All and some, Whether Mr. Langhorne ever had a Desk in his Chamber? Well, if it were such a dishonour for Mr. Langhorne to have a Desk in his Chamber, we will allow, That there was no such thing there as a Desk, according to the Logical definition of a Desk. For as long as the Commissions were seen in his Study, to which Mr. Langhorne said little or nothing; 'tis no matter whether they were seen upon a Desk, or any thing else, which in a Lawyers Study might appear like a Desk. Here's a Catch indeed for a Lawyer to make such a noise withal! He should have appealed to the Crowd of his Clients, whether they had ever seen any such thing as a Study or a Chamber of his in the Temple? But to put the stretch of such a proof as this aught to have been, upon the dubious Explication of a Nomenclator, was to say any thing rather than nothing, and to play at Push-pin for his life. As if Mr. Langhorne could have found out no better way to clear himself from having discourse with a Man in his Study, and of having Traitorous Commissions in it, had he been Innocent, but by a solemn renouncing all acquaintance and familiarity with Desks, against which, it seems, he had such an antipathy, that he never had one in his Chamber in his life.  
But now, saith the Observator, Mr. Langhorne (who was subtler than any of the Beasts of the Field) began to be nice about Mr. Oats' coming to St. Omers, etc. Whereupon the Court answered, That all the Defences of the Papists lay upon Catches about time, a thing no Body could be positive in; which, saith he, heartened Oats not a little. For he being presently asked by Langhorne, When he returned in April into England? answered about the middle of the month, and stayed under twenty days; a Latitude which he would fain have granted him, by reason of his ill success in the former Trial, though the Court never then pretended (as you saw) to extend it to above eight or ten: And because he feared Mr. Langhorne, he desired the Court to ask the Questions, adding, That he knew the Court would be so kind, as to ask him Questions that were reasonable.  
Here the Epitomiser is at his old Trick of Delusion, and imposing upon the People: For there was no such occasion that Mr. Oates should be heartened by the Court; it was Mr. Langhorne, 
Pag. 15.  who wanted the Epitomizer's Julep; who was so far from making any rational Defence, that at that very instant that the Epitomiser crows upon the Dunghill of Langhorne's impertinent Catechism; the other had nothing to waste his breath and time about, but only in fishing, and angling, and pumping for an answer that had been given to his Question twenty times before in other Trials. But the Epitomiser is offended with Mr. Oates, for taking more Latitude as to his stay in England then before, which was by him done, by reason of his ill suceess in the last Trial. Who but a mere Epitomiser would have been so short in his Animadversions upon Mr. Oates' ill success, he should have stood with a new-fashioned Tube upon the Monument for a week together, and have bellowed it over all the Roads of England; He should have published it in Gath, and in the Streets of Ascalon, that the Papists might have triumphed upon the ill success of Mr. Oates. This Epitomiser therefore should have looked before he leaped. He could not choose but know that if Mr. Oates had had that ill success, he talks of, there had been no need of a Compendium, and he must have studied some other way to erect a lasting Monument to his Folly, than by snarling, and besmearing the Wisdom and Justice of a Nation, with the insinuating Reflections of a Traitorous Libel.  
The Author does not consider that the aim of his Compendium, is only to deseat that Evidence, and undermine that Person, whose ill success has been so fatal to their damnable Projects. But if the Epitomiser calls it ill success, to have his Credit justified, his Innocence cleared, and to baffle all the dexterity of so many embittered Collegiates of St. Omers, the great Swashbucklers and Termagaunts of Popery, I value it not, so neither he, nor any other, upon the same account, may have any better. However this ill success made him so afraid of that rawhead and bloody bones Mr. Langhorne, that he was forced to desire the Court to ask him questions.  
Had he said, that Mr. Langhorne was afraid from his very heart of Mr. Oates, I dare truly say he might very probably have been believed; but why Mr. Oats should be afraid of Mr. Langhorne, 
Pag 14, 15.  he had as little reason to affirm, and it may be less, than he had to hang himself. 'Tis true, Mr. Langhorne did ask Mr. Oates a long Caralogue of ridiculous Questions, that one would have believed he had thought himself rather at the Sport of Questions and Commands, than defending his Life. 'Twas expected when he would have asked him, What's a Clock? Or what the Sheriffs had to Dinner? There was never a Question, as the People may see, that would have scared a Mouse; so that when he had done, the Court rebuked him for his Impertinency: 
Pag. 15.  his Defence being rather an abuse of the Judge's Patience, than a rational Discourse.  
But after this, saith our acquaint Observer, Langhorne demanded whether he came with Hildesly from Dover in a Coach, or on Horseback? To which Oats, after much Hesitation, answered, That the Question was so sudden, that he could not be positive. Upon which follows this Remark, That that same strange uncertainty amazed many, but more smibed at it; considering that in ●●th he had reason for what he said, as not knowing the Question was casual, but that Langhorne might have Witnesses to prove now Hildesly made that Journey.  
Now whence proceeded all this Mirth and Amazement? It was because Mr. Oates had sworn upon a Trial at the Kings-Bench, that he came with Mr. Hildesly by Coach. To which Mr. Oats replies, That he did not say so, 
Pag. 16. ●  but that be came ower in the Pacquet-Boat with Mr. Hildesly, and that then Hildesly left the Company, and went another way. By which you may see what Company our Observer keeps, Men very prone to Amazement, and very subject to smile. Earthen Ware, all of the same tincture with himself; Questions suddenly started upon the memory of Man, may be cautiously answered, without being smiled or wondered at. He that knew what Mr. Oates had sworn before, should have faced him with his Contradicting Evidence; He should have proved upon Mr. Oates' former Affirmation at the Trial, that, contrary to what he affirmed, he did come with Hildesly on Horseback, and left it to his Jury. Else the Question was propounded to no purpose; to start the Hare, and tie up his Dog. Truly such wondering, smiling perdues as these, might have spent their time better, than to lie in wait for such miserable Catches, and drowning-mens' Bulrushes. It is impossible to think that all these men should lay all the load and weight of their Defences, upon the weaker circumstances of Time and Place; could they have any other way avoided the substance of the Charge. Mr. Oates comes and proves the Crime by circumstances of another and higher nature, consequentially depending upon the Fact, and against slight and single circumstance, brings Fact and circumstance both together. To this, men bred up in all the delusive Arts of pious Fraud, men professing the Doctrines of Perjury and Equivocation, men acknowledging their Gang and Correspondence, their private Meetings and Consultations, their lurking up and down in their Boroughs of Iniquity, contrary to the known Laws of a Nation, and so bringing themselves within the most probable verge of suspicion, think to avoid a Home-charge of Treason brought by one of their own Members (for they sent for sixteen Witnesses to prove he was of their Tribe) only by cavilling upon the difference of a week, or a fortnight, or ten days. Such things as these do but discover the Vermin in the Snare, and carry such a Face of guilty Fallacy, that while men observe their doublings and shifts, rather to disentangle, than justify themselves, they lose the Reputation of their Defence. And it is not to be questioned, but that this Observer or Epitomizer, which you please, has, by this vain Attempt, rather injured, than advantaged his Cause; while Inundations of new and fresh disclosure, does but serve to testify his snarling Envy against the daily Discoveries of Providence.  
But then, saith the Observer, he would not tell Mr. Langhorne positively, whether he lay at Groves' the first Night of his coming to London, or no; though he had directly sworn in Ireland's Trial, that he was commanded to lie close at that House; so that if he had such Instructions, 
Ireland's Trial, Pag. 36.  it was impossible not to remember, whether he had broke them or no, and more especially at his first Arrival about so dangerous and great an Affair. Here is now a false Reflection from a false Repetition, according to the custom of Popery. For Mr. Oates does not swear he was commanded to keep close at Groves 's House; but that he had directions to keep close, and therefore lay some Nights at Groves' House. Thus the Question was idle, and the Inference as silly. For why it should be such an impossibility for a man to forget whether he broke a Command which was never enjoined him, is such an illiterate sort of a Riddle, that none but the Epitomiser would have ventured to own such false Conclusions, from false Ifs and Ands, that may betray Weakness, but never assert Innocency: But now I would fain ask the Abbreviator one Question, with what Face he, who takes upon him to pry so severely into the pretended Failings of the King's Evidence, and if he can but find the least appearance of a Fault, pursues it with a full cry, should dare to justify that grand Error, if not foul piece of Knavery in Langhorne, to bring in the Woman of the White-Horse Tavern, to make herself the Laughter and Contempt of a Public Court of Judicature, 
Pag. 46.  only to do him an unprofitable piece of service. The Woman's Carriage and Preamble to her Story, showed she came, if a Papist, with a prepared Zeal; if a Protestant, with a kind Devotion: And the Reflection of the Court was too severe for Mr. Langhorne's Reputation; that a Woman's being so peremptory in what standers by knew to be false, made the Contradiction in one thing, 
Pag. 47.  to give a suspicion that all Mr. Langhorne's Witnesses might be as false in all the rest. Nor had Langhorne any thing to say for himself, but that he hoped the Court, nor the Jury, would reflect upon him for it. Thus they will give an Ell to their own Testimonies, but will not allow an Inch to the King's. His Witnesses must be all Saints with the memories of Angels, to swear to a Barley-corn of place, and a minute of time, or else be forsworn: Theirs may swear Up-hill and Downhill, be caught in speaking Falsehood, be shamed and disgraced for so doing, and they that produce 'em, shall have the confidence to hope, that neither Court nor Jury will think the worse of 'em for it. So then, this is rather to be wondered at by many, and smiled at too, than any of the Epitomizers little Parables; that Mr. Langhorne should venture his own Life, and the Credit of all his Witnesses, in such a Female Bottom as this, as if no Body had ever known the White-Horse Tavern in the Strand. Had he drank less Water, and more Wine, 'tis probable he might either have had no occasion for the Woman of the White-Horse, or have known the Tavern better. The Court told him positively, the Woman had been very unfortunate in her Testimony; and the People of England, are to believe the Judges of England, before ever a Compendium Scribbler in the world. Let us wonder then at nothing, but that Oaths and Testimonies, which are the chiefest Bonds and Ties of Humane Society, and the Soul of Justice, so inviolable among the ancient Heathen and modern Turks, should be of so little value in a Religion which accounts itself the most ancient and most perfect at this time professed under the Canopy of Heaven.  
He is so fond, as to bring his Squabs of St. Omers again upon the Stage; but in regard they were no more believed than they were the day before, let what has been already said of them in the former Trial suffice, against a company of Boys bred up at St. Omers, sent hither of an Errand to to serve the Catholic Cause, and positive in nothing but what concerned the advantage of the Prisoner, which is the short History of the Springalls of St. Omers. Certainly St. Omers was a very foul Nest, a most filthy Den of contagious Jesuitism, that there were not so many as two that could with safety be sent for, men of Age and Reputation, but they must send for their Gigg and Town top Testimonies, to disprove an Evidence for the King, in a Treason of the highest Nature that has been acted for many Ages. But there are those misfortunes that befall Treason and Murder, which all the Policy of Jesuitism, nor all the Finess of Rome can prevent. And that is not the least of the misfortunes that befell these Traitors and Murderers; that after their not being able to make any rational Defence for themselves, after they had suffered for their Crimes, they should be tried over again by the faint and carping Observations of a Compendium, that instead of vailing, has only farther discovered their shame.   

Concerning Sir George Wakeman's Trial, Corker, etc.  
BUT now enter the Famous Trial of Sir George Wakeman, and enter Monsieur Compendium with a Battoon in his hand, like one of the Marshals of a City Company, strutting and laying about him in every Page, as if he had got a Commission from Paolo d'Oliva, to show no mercy: so than the Reader is to observe the effects of more Joy, and more Brandy. Here it was, saith he, that the King's Council admonished the Prisoners, That it would behoove them to take Notes, (as if, Reader, Hector himself, with all his gods, were at hand.) I promised the Reader a flash of Exultation from him, and here he has it. But who these Hector's gods were, I do not well understand; surely he must be beholding to some old Ballad for this piece of Learning. For Hector's dear Sister, Cassandra, speaks not a word of any such company that ever he kept in his life. Homer says too, that the gods divided themselves, and that some took part with the Trojans, and some with the Greeks. But these could be none of the Compendium Hector and his gods, for Homer's Hector and gods were most shamefully beaten. But what terrible Toryrories this Hector and his gods should be, unless they should be the four Windsor Ruffians, I leave to the consideration of the People. And so much for Hector and his gods.  
Now this frightful Advice being given to the Prisoners, Oats, saith he, was called, who began the first Onset with the most stupendous circumstance that ever was heard of, viz. That Ashby arriving here ill from St. Omers, 
Pag. 25.  Sir George wrote him a Letter of Instructions how to order himself before he went, and when he was at the Bath; which were, to take a Pint of Milk every morning and night, and an hundred strokes of the Pump. In which Letter, Sir George wrote, that the Queen would assist him to poison the King. Then Oates proceeded, saying, That he knew this to be Sir George's hand, by another Letter a day or two after, which could not but be his, for Sir George had it before him in a writing posture; that he saw him lay by the Pen, and found the Ink not yet dry, nor was there any body else to write, Mr. Ashby being lame of both hands. I know not how the Abbreviator would have Epitomised his Charge, had he been to have brought it. But if this be not a Charge substantial enough, and propped by sufficient circumstances, I appeal to the consideration of the People, unless the Epitomiser have any new definition for Treason. Now what was Sir George's Defence? First he brings an Apothecary to testify, that there was a Letter sent to the Bath to Thimbleby, alias Ashby, with Physical Instructions, without any name, neither was it Sir George's hand, and was, it seems, dictated to his Man. But alas this was not the Letter which Mr. Oats meant. And it was the Chief Justice's Opinion then, though with some more than ordinary Observations of Ifs, and Ands, and Cautions to the Jury, that Chapman did not answer Mr. Oates' Testimony; and that if Mr. Oates did swear true, Sir George did write another Letter. Sir George's Reply, was to make that improbable, in regard it was ridiculous to prescribe milk. To which Mr. Oates made Answer, That the directions for milk were to be observed before the use of the waters. And Sir Robert Atkins came closer, affirming, That it was but a piece of Paper, and that it was not to be offered in Evidence. Mr. Oats positively stood to his Charge, and swore that was not the Letter that he saw. Which Sir George to avoid, desired the Court to take notice, that it was not probable he should write two Letters for the same directions: A kindness that the Chief Justice was very willing to gratify him in, and presently recommended his directions to the Jury accordingly. Though at the same time Judge Pemberton observed, that one of the Letters might be written to serve a turn. After this, Sir George called two Witnesses more, to prove the writing of the dictated Letter, which the Court were apt to believe was true as they said; but that was not the Letter in controversy, neither had Sir George any defence against it, but only the bare denial of writing it. So that the Compendium Scribler's Story about the Apothecary, and the Marred, and the Man, is all but twittle twattle, like an Apothecary, to no purpose in the earth. And therefore let this vain Vindicator of Blood and Treason moil his heart out, the People are to know, that there never was a charge so fairly made and proved by one Oath, nor ever a worse Defence made by the Prisoner.  
The next Charge is, That Mr. Oates heard Ashby talk to him of the Commission he had received to be Physician to the Army; Nay, swore he saw the Commission in Sir George's hand. To which I do not ●●nd, that Sir George made any defence at all. Which was the reason perhaps, that the Chief Justice left it out, till he was put in mind of it by Sir Robert 〈◊〉▪  
As for Mr. Oates' Charge upon the Queen, the Observator 〈…〉 Reader, that he may easily imagine how ridiculous this stuff seemed to 〈◊〉 That a Lady eminent in Virtue, should not only make such a Declaration in a Public Consult, but also in the hearing of such a pitiful Wretch as Oats, who could help neither Her, nor any Body else in any Part of the Plot, more than the first Kennel Raker he meeteth with.  
I know not how ridiculous this stuff might seem to this Emmet of a Scribbler, neither is it material; but certainly never did the People so openly exclaim against the Carriage of any Trial, as they did at this. Which Exclamation or rather Indignation of the People would never have been so general, had they thought what the Witness said to have been such ridiculous stuff, as this Varnisher of Conspiracy strives to inclucate. And therefore for his Billingsgate Argument of pitiful Wretch, and Kennel-Raker, for upon those two Pillars lies the stress of his Induction, let him take notice that none but such a Compendium Scribbler would use the language, or none but Fools and Knaves believe his Syllogism in Barbara.  
The next thing charged, is the proffer of 10000 l. for poisoning of the King, which was not accepted, as being too little; but that upon the addition of 5000 l. more, the Bargain was made, and five thousand of the ten, paid in part, and received. For proof of this Mr. Oates deposes, That he saw the Entry Book, wherein was first, Memorandum, such a day 15000 l. was proposed to Sir George Wakeman, and accepted. And then underneath was written a Receipt in these words, Received then in part of this 15000 l. by order of Edward Coleman, 5000 l. of Father Harcourt. George Wakeman.  
Now, Reader, saith the Epitomiser, He that can swallow such a Register, or such unnecessary and unheard of Entries and Memorandums, let him never for the future think any thing either Romantic or Sottish.  
Now, Reader, what can be more unquestionable, but that such Memorandums and Registers were kept? For they that had the disposal of such Sums of money, must certainly, had their design succeeded, have given an Account of their Stewardship. It was a Sottish thing to undertake such a Plot, but when they had once undertaken it, there was nothing that looked either like Romantic or Sottish, to preserve the memory of their Transactions. Nay, had they reaped the Fruits of their Labours, they would have gloried in what the Compendium calls Romantic and Sottish, to have seen their Monumental hands affixed to Resolves and Memorandums, as Testimonies to Posterity, of their daily Merit and Diligence. Neither could so great a Design be carried on for so many Years, without such Entries and Registers; it being impossible, in case of Mortality, for succeeding Counsels to act methodically, as the Nature of so high a Concern required without 'em; only because the Jesuits were more prudent to conceal their Important Register, the thing itself must be a Romance. He may as well tell us there was no Plot, which he that believes from the silly Insinuations of his Compendium, must make an absolute Renunciation of the Protestant Religion.  
But what says Sir George to all this? He makes no Exception to the Register. The stress of Sir George's Objection lay in this, That the Charge of the King's Evidence was not so ample before the Lords of the Council, as at the Bar of Oyer and Terminer.  
To which the Answer of Mr. Oates was very fair and probable, and the Reasons of that Omission were altogether as credibly balanced in his behall, as the Averment against him; the truth of which, I think, has been made appear, something to the uneasy inconvenience of the Gentleman. He was sworn to be in as weak and feeble a condition as ever any man was seen in, being tired by public and eminent Service; and therefore there was no such reason to aggravate, contrary to former custom, such a worshipful Objection to such an egregious height, as if it had been done on purpose, to throw shame and disgrace upon desert, and make way for unseasonable Compassion.  
Now then to confirm Mr. Oates' Testimony, and that if he had been remiss before, it was only the Failure of his faint and feeble condition of Body, Mr. Bedloe swore, that upon the delivery of a Bill of 2000 l. by Harcourt, and promise of the rest in due time; and upon farther discourse, Harcourt told Sir George, That the Business must be well followed and observed, because so much depended upon it. For if we should miss to Kill Him at Windsor, and you miss your way, which we hope you will not, we will do it at Newmarket.  
Here the Chief Justice made a Hesitation, saying, He said quite another thing than he said before; till the Lord North, Mr. Recorder, and Sir Robert Sawyer unanimously answered, No, he said the same before. Whereupon demanding, What was Sir George's Answer? He replied, that Sir George's Answer was, If I find you ready, I will be ready in all things; And that this was all a continued Discourse: Which put Sir George into such a consternation, that he said privately to his Fellow-Prisoners, There is my Business done. If there could be any thing plainer than this, let the Consideration of the People judge. For why Coleman should be hanged for the payment of 5000 l. upon the Account of Treason, and Sir George be Acquitted for receiving the same 5000 l. for the same Treason, is a Riddle worth expounding.  
But to return to the Epitome, As for Corker, says the Abbreviator, Oates charged him to have seen a Patent in his hand to be Bishop of London. (He should have added, that Mr. Oates also heard him say, That he hoped it would not be long, 
Pag. 34.  ere he should be in the Exercise of his Function, which made all the People laugh.) That Corker, being Precedent of the Benedictine Monks, did consent to the Raising of Six thousand Pound, to be contributed by them toward the Design. That he heard Corker dislike the choice of Pickering, to Kill the King, because he attended upon the Altar; and might miss an opportunity while he was at Mass. That Martial knew of Pickering's design, and made the same Objection against him; and that he saw him at the Consult in August.  
Here the Observator is offended, that Mr. Oates would not be positive, when Martial asked him, What day it was he was at the Consult? Yet Corker could say for himself, That no mortal Man could tell where he was, or what he did and said every day and hour of his whole life. So that Mr. Oates must be Immortal, or else must be no Witness for the King. But what they urged against him, made the more for him; For the less positive he was, the more he was to be believed, in regard that such a Testimony could not be taxed of Malice or Rashness.  
As for Corker, and Marshal themselves, the first made a Pedantic, or rather School Boy-like Declamation, to prove in the first place the Impossibility of the Plot, because so many Persons of Quality were engaged in it: But he might have remembered, that it was not the Rabble, but the Chiefest and most Noble among the Senators of Rome, that were engaged in the Conspiracy of Catiline; and the chiefest Nobility of France in the Guisian League, against their Sovereign Henry III. Bie-and-bie, because he would have two strings to his Bow, he argues the same Improbability of the Plot, because it was known to so few. So that first he wondered why such a design should be communicated to so many, and then he admired so few should know it. A Harangue so little to the purpose, and so full of impertinent Extravagancy, as if his Brains has been as invisible as his pretended Witnesses. Seeing then the Court would swallow none of these gilded Pills, he flew at the Evidence, and accused them to be, or else have been men of scandalous Lives.  Clodius accusat Moechos. 
For grant them to be, or have been men of scandalous Lives, they could never be more scandalous than He, who at that time stood Impeached of Forethought Murder and Treason, and whose Acquittal has rather confirmed the guilt of his Crimes, then justified his Innocence. But as these were things barely said, without any proof in the world, the King's Evidence must and will live, to the Reproach of a rash misprision Jury.  
Martial told a Story of a mark in his head behind, talking as if he had a knock in his Cradle; which vanishing, upon the Testimony of Sir William Waller, he made a great stir of what Witnesses he could have had, had he had time; but that Point was cleared, that he had both leave and time sufficient, by Captain Richardson. These Cards failing, they both fell upon Mr. Oates, for not Apprehending them sooner, Arguing from thence, That if Mr. Oates had known they had been in the Plot, he would have apprehended them sooner. But this was all but Supposition; so that as long as they were apprehended, it was well enough. He was then in a hurry, about apprehending the more considerable Instruments. He was not to burden his memory too much, having so many to charge; and therefore took his time, and was not bound to tell them when they should be apprehended. And though Martial popping accidentally into a House where a Search was making, affirmed, He might have gone away, if he would; it was sworn, That he would have gone away, if he could: But that Sir William Wasler had given Order, that any Body might be let in, but that no Body should be let out.  
Then they called one Nell Rigby, a confident Slut, to testify that Mr. Oates came a begging to Pickering for Charity, and that Pickering bid her shut the door against him. A very likely Tale of a Draggle-tail, that Mr. Oates should come a begging to Pickering for Charity, when Whitebread at the same time owed him Fourscore pound, by Bill under his hand, not yet paid. However Marshal made his conclusion, That it was an improbable thing, that they should trust him with such a Plot, and suffer him to want; and more than that, send him with such a flea in his car, when he might easily supply himself by a discovery.  
But this is a wrong Conclusion, as these People make use of many, upon a wrong ground. For it is absolutely denied, that Mr. Oates was in that necessity: So that it is plain Mr. Oates came to crave Pickering's Charity for some other Person. But the surly and penurious Pickering, not liking those charitable demands, (And that he was a surly, cruel, ill-natured Fellow, is manifest, from his being pitched upon to murder the King) bid the Maid shut the door, and not let him come again. Of which Ruffianly piece of Incivility, Mr. Oates was wiser than to take notice, or give them occasion to think he was so weak, as by an unseasonable discovery, to revenge himself upon an insignificant Butcherly Monk.  
And besides, they had such a slight opinion of his weak parts, or rather such a confidence in the greatness of their own, that they scorned all discoveries; and perhaps they might have had reason enough to have thought so, had they not by that silly and impolitic Murder of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey, rather poured oil then water upon the Fire, and said that into a blazing Flame, which else they might have easily quenched, and puft away the Smoke.  
At last Corker called for two Gillian a Croyden's, that lay in Perdue in or about the Court, ready prepared to prove, that Stapleton, and not Corker, had been for many Years Precedent of the Benedictine Monks. To which purpose being demanded by the Chief Justice, a general Question, Who was Precedent of the Benedictine Monks? They answered as generally, Mr. Stapleton; which was taken for granted, without further Inquiry: though Corker gave him a fair hint, by saying, He was at Paris with Stapleton, and therefore could not officiate in his stead. Upon this Doctor Oates was called again, but never examined: why it was not done, he must be a Solomon that gives the Reason, unless it were for fear he should clear the Point.  
After all, when nothing but Despair hovered before their Eyes, Martial began, as the Epitomiser saith, a Harangue so pathetical, weighty, and moving; but as the Court said, so fawning, so invective, so fallacious, so affrontive to the Court, so far from Self-defence, which was the Text he was to follow, that he was commanded to leave Sermonizing to no purpose, as abounding in his Rhetorical Flowers, that had nothing but the ill scent of the French Marigold.  
At length the Lord Chief Justice told them plainly, That their Defence had been very mean, and that their Cause looked much better, before they had spoken a word for themselves. Which the Jury ought to have taken more notice of, than of marshal's gingling expressions. But certainly some gentle Constellation reigned that day, more tenderhearted than the weeping Pleyades; Or else Mercy and Compassion themselves had some particular pique against Truth, and were resolved to put an Affront upon her. Or else Lassa Crudelitas began to grow penitent, and cry Peccavi for her former Severity, which (and for which, we may thank a wise Jury) will certainly be the construction of them that shall hereafter go to play the Causinus' with our Story: Which, however, the Consideration of the People may prevent, by giving a more just and solid Verdict.    

THE ADDRESS TO ALL Persons of Reason, and Lovers OF THE Protestant Religion, Of what Rank soever they be.  
HAving thus (my Lords and Gentlemen) given you this exact and short Account of the several Absurdities, Falsities, False Abbreviations, False Conclusions, Impertinent and Senseless Inferences, and Fawning Insinuations, with which the Writer of a certain Insamous and Rebellious Libel, has made all the Reflections his Rancour and Malice could invent upon the late Judicial Proceed, as being the Vehicles which he thought most proper to convey his intended Poison into the veins of the Nation: I know not whether you are more surprised, for surprised I am sure you must be, at the Irreligion of an Infidel, defending Acts of Impiety; or the Confidence of a Subject, contending against the Justice of his Sovereign. For let his Pretences be what they will, his design is this, and only this, to annihilate the Plot, and by that means to full the Vigilancy of the Kingdom asleep, that they may the more securely make up the late Breach, and begin again with their work.  
To effect this, Mr. Oates, poor Mr. Oates, must be the Issachar of all their Scandals and Reproaches; He must be pressed to Death, (not for standing Mute in Court, I'm sure) the pitiful Wretch, as the Abbreviator calls him, so contemned and despised by the Benedictine Rabbis, and Flaunty Taunty Jesuits, must be trod upon, and die the death of a Worm; and all, because he outwitted their Cunning. The most convincing Argument of his Integrity, that such Goliahs, as they, fell by his Imbecility.  
Nay further, my Lords and Gentlemen, you have some reason to give this Compendium Scribbler your humble thanks, for having such mean and Hender thoughts of you too, to be so sure of your being surprised at the Incoherenees and Impossibilities of a Charge, which the Lords and Commons of England, and consequently many of yourselves, voted to be substantial and true; and at the weight of Defences, adjudged to be so weak and unscholar-like by all the select Judges of the Nation.  
But when you consider how it has been the practice of the Papists, either absolutely to deny, or extenuate their perpetrated Crimes. So Cicarela in the Life of Sixtus V labours to extenuate the Murder of Henry III. saying. That Jacob Clement committed the Fact, merely by the impulse of his own Zeal, and that there was no Subornation of others that enraged him to the Act. When the Jesuits themselves were they that fetched him, a poor Criminal Dominican, out of the Cloister where he lay Condemned for several Rogueries; and never left, till they had Charmed him to complete the number of his Villainies, by the Murder of his Prince: As may be seen more at large, in Hospinian's History of the Jesuits.  
And Mezecay, the great Historian himself confesses, that the Ruffian acknowledged to the Count of Brienne, then in the Bastile, that he had instructions and directions from others, and a counterfeit Letter of Credence in the name of the Precedent Harlay, to facilitate his Access.  
When you consider that it has been all along the longing desire of the Triple-crowned Squire to regain England; And how zealous Pope Sixtus was, to promote the Spamsh Invasion; And how he ammated Ferdinand, to the Fatal Destruction of his Expensive Armada; And how probable it is, that those vehement Thirstings and Yawning after the Fertile Glebes of these Fortunate Islands, still remain with the working Wits at Rome, one effect whereof, besides several others, was their cursed Gunpowder-Treason.  
I say, when you consider these things, and how improbable it is that Men of their Principles, should leave off their old Customs; I am apt to suppose, that you will not so easily jump with the Compendium-monger in his Opinion. That Mr. Oates' Discovery is so monstrous, or of such disagreeing parts, as to show itself so vain and chimerical, as this Plotthing were at last reduced to proportion, as he most Jesuitically insinuates, it was done by the efforts and skill of better Artists. Rather he ought to be called to an Account, whom he means by better Artists. For the Lords of the Council, the Lords assembled in Parliament, and the whole House of Commons, had the Examination of all things. The Attorney and Solicitor General, and all the King's Council, had also their Inspections into the Proofs; so than these must be the better Artists which he means, that assisted Mr. Oats in the management of his Defects. It lies heavy upon the Two Committees of Secrecy, and nothing but a Jesuits weighty Defence can help 'em out. They were very ill Artists (though our Observator be so courteous as to grant 'em better than Mr. Oates) that all their private Debates and Consultations, should be only to produce a Plot for Mr. Oates' sake, that should so easily be rendered Defective and Fabulous, by a Compendium-mongers untainted Witnesses. Not so untainted neither, as he dreams, nor so much Masters of Reputation, either by Law or Gospel, in regard they have been all so notoriously and palpably disproven; And that it has been so fairly made out, that they only came to lend their Friends a stretch of Equivocation, if it would have served their turn. Neither do I believe this Plot-Plaisterer to be a Man of that Grandeur, to authorise him to revile any Man with the term of Profligated Wretch, unless it be, because he may be Excommunicated by Don Paolo d'Oliva; nor to be so good a Physiognomist, as to judge by any Man's Temper or Poverty, of his Inclinations; And therefore he might have spared his Bear-Garden Arguments, when he wrote to Lords and Gentlemen.  
Now if the Observator believe, that the weight of his Defences lies in Ifs and Ands, and How can it be possible? Then we leave it to the consideration of the People, upon what has been already said; but if he think that the Ponderosity lies in their Vows, Denials, and Protestations, he only builds in the Air, and must have Dr. Wilkinson's Engine, to keep it from falling. For it is certain that the Pope does assume to himself an absolute power to excommunicate Kings. Sixtus V Excommunicated two himself, Henry de Navarre, Henry Valois of France. Now let us see what the Substance and Penalties of this Excommunication are.  
The Pope ordered the King to be Excommunicated, which was, saith Cicarela, in the Life of the same Pope; That he should be struck with the Thunder of Anathema; That he should incur all Ecclesiastical Censures, which are contained in the Sacred Canons, in the general and particular Constitutions, and the Bull of the Lords Supper. And the same Censure shall be good against all that assist the same King, either with Counsel, or any way else.  
And by his Excommunication thundered out against Henry de Navarre, and Henry de Bourbon, Prince of Conde, he declared them Heretics, and uncapable of succeeding to the Crown of France. He also absolved their Subjects from all Oaths of Allegiance and Fidelity sworn to those Princes.  
Now if CHARLES II. King of England, be Excommunicated at Rome, as there is no question to be made, but He is; for any Papist to profess himself a Subject to CHARLES II. King of England, being Excommunicated, is not only to disobey the Pope, but to contemn and render invalid the Thunder of Anathema, the Ecclesiastical Censure, the general and particular Constitutions, and the Bull of the Lords Supper, and consequently to renounce his Religion. And therefore all their Denials, Protestations and Imprecations signified nothing, because they had relation to no Body; For according to the tenor of their Excommunication, an Excommunicated King is no Body, a mere Statue of a King: And therefore for them to profess themselves Jesuits and Priests, and pray for the King, was Nonsense; and they died both like Fools and Knaves together, in regard it was impossible for the King to be any thing to them that were true Subjects to the Pope.  
Now that the King stands Eternally Excommunicated at Rome, as an Heretic, is not only plain from the Expressions of Coleman, but is manifest, from this, That no Man of true Religion or Piety, I may add Morality, would dare to invade the Dominions of a Sovereign Prince, call himself His Subject, and violate His Laws, if he thought either His Laws to be Laws, or Him to be a King.  
And the same Argument holds against the Observator's untainted Witnesses, who might easily say any thing, when they were taught, and believed that what they said, was neither in a Court of Judicature, nor before them that were Magistrates. For the Magistrates of a deposed King can be no Magistrates, according to the true Papistical Doctrine. And indeed it was the Devil's Masterpiece, when he had invented a Pope, to entail those two Powers of Excommunication and Absolution to his Chair; which are the Foundation of all breach of Oaths, all Protestations, Vows and Imprecations; of all Infidelity, and Christian Irregularity.  
As for Langhorne's averring, That he did not believe the Pope had any Authority to Excommunicate, and consequently to Depose the King; in so doing, he denied the Doctrine of the chiefest Fathers of his Profession, Petrus Ribadeneira, Becanas of Mentz, Jacobus Simmancha Bishop of Bad●●●os, Bellarmine himself, Hosius the Cardinal, and Molanus, who all unanimously teach the same Doctrine, That the Pope has Authority to Depose and Excommunicate Heretic Kings and Princes, and to Absolve their Subjects from their Allegiance and Obedience to them. So that he must either have some strange Reserve to himself, for that he did not speak, but only deliver his equivocating Conceptions in writing, or else he could be no Papist, but must die the Lord knows what, a double Traitor to the Pope, and to his Prince; No Man can serve two Masters: And therefore he did but imitate St. Peter in a wrong sense, as if he thought to have got the name of an Apostle, by denying his Master Antichrist thrice, before the Cock crowed once. And thus we behold the Policy of Papists, who, when they deal with others, always propose to them the Pretence and Protestations of Religion, and the Arguments of their Christian Piety, while under the pretext of these, they hid their Self-policy, to use it in time and place convenient; which no Body can for the present discover, nor know the depth of the Intrigue, but themselves.  
But now, as if he were the Supreme Chiestain of the Spanish Inquisition, he undertakes, like another Guido Vaux, with his dark Lantern, to pry into Mr. Oates' Life and Conversation, and to blow up his Repute with a Gunpowder-Plot of Recrimination. But all this while, who is this Bull of Basin, that bellows out all these Reproaches against the Evidence for the King and Kingdom? Common Fame (my Lords and Gentlemen) speaks him a Prisoner, and one that has so long continued. So then for one Beggar, for if he be not so, he must be a Knave, to reproach another renders him, if Poverty be the Crime, the more Contemptible. But let him be a Croesus, he is a Papist by his own acknowledgement, and consequently a Party; a Party that by the malice and embitterment of his kicking and wincing Expressions, shows himself to be in the number of the Galled Horses, that have been so severely rubbed by a clear and undoubted Testimony. He is the Professor of a Religion which is a scandal to all Europe; a Religion Marforio'd and Pasquined by the frequent Satyrs of those that behold the daily Fooleries of its most exalted Aaron's and High Priests; a Religion that maintains that inveterate Hatred and inbred Antipathy to Protestantism, contrary to the character of all Christian Piety, that it has no thought of Reconciliation, or Humane Charity for it; which to make out gradually, we shall thus begin, and make use of none but those of their own Profession.  
Hear in the first place Cornelius Agrippa thundering out those dismal Sarcasms against the Ecclesiastical Magistracy of his own Religion, cap. 61. de van. scion. But the ancient Constitutions of the Father's falling from their Majesty, and later Pontifical Privileges prevailing through damnable Custom, such Popes and Apostles ascend the Chair of Christ, as formerly there sat Scribes and Pharisees in the Chair of Moses, who only say, and do nothing, imposing heavy burdens upon the shoulders of the People. They are Hypocrites, doing all their works, making shows of their Religion in Scenes. They shut the gate of Heaven, and will neither enter themselves, nor let others go in. The Pope of Rome himself is a most heavy and intolerable to all, whose Pomp and Pride never any Tyrant equalled, They boast that the state of Religion and the Church consists in them alone, throwing the Religious Functions upon others, and in the mean time busied in making Laws for their own support, receiving the Profits of the Church, themselves both lazy and flagitious.  
Then he gives you a Catalogue of those Reverend Fathers of the Devil, Boniface VIII. of whom Platina says, That he was so ambitious of the Pontificate, ut nil Ambitione & Fraud praetermiserit, quod ad eam rem consequendam pertinere arbitraretur, he omitted nothing that Ambition or Fraud could prompt him to, to attain his ends.  
After him Paulus, Sixtus, Alexander, Julius, the most famous disturbers of the Christian world.  
Eugenius IU. who caused Vadislaus, King of Poland, to break his Faith with the Turk, to the loss of his own life, and the irreparable damage of Christendom.  
Alexander VI that poisoned Zizim, the Turks Brother, to the public detriment of Europe. To whom we may add again, Alexander VI. sporting and dallying in public with his Courtesan Vannoccia, and filling all Rome with his Bastards, and giving himself up to the Devil, to enrich his impious Son Caesar Borgia.  
Innocent X. committing Incest with his Sister-in-law Donna Olympia, and resigning St. Peter's Chair to a Harlot.  
And lastly, the present Odeschalchi, not a little Famous for his impotent Amours with the Princess of Rossana.  
But to return to Agricola, when he comes to pour out the Vial of his just indignation upon the Rabble rout of Priests and Friars: In this See, saith he, with the vaster Leviathans and Behemoth, swims the lesser Fry of Money mumpers, Clapperdogeons, Beggars with great Beards, girt about with Ropes and Halters, Wallet-bearers with wooden Shoes, or sometimes barefoot, sometimes in black, sometimes in grey, then in white, Benedictines, Beruardines, Augustine's, Franciscans, etc. Men whose Lives are generally most infamous for their Covetousness, Lust, Pride, Gluttony, Ambition, and all manner of Iniquity: Which is a very fair Character from so great a Man of his own Religion, and the Ecclesiastical Government of Rome.  
Let us now come to the Nipotism and Putanism of the Romish Jerusalem, the Holy City. In the first of which, the Author of the same Profession, complains, That all Christendom is scandalised; that they who make so great a Profession of a Religion, should so little believe it. Nay, the People of Rome themselves have a Proverb among them, That the Emperors first taught Tyranny, and the Pope's practice it. And a Germane Prelate lately living, was wont to say, That the Pope's Kindred acquire this world by their Uncle's Indulgence, and that their Uncles lose the other world by their Nephew's Vices.  
And Caesar Borgia made such a good use of the Pope's Authority, that whenever he was upon any mischievous design, he would say, That he very well knew that what he went about was just, because his Father had the Holy Ghost.  
It is not unknown, saith another, to every Scullion in Rome. how odious the Nipotism is to Heaven, Earth, Nobles, Plebeians, all Ranks and Qualities of Men.  
The Author of the Whoredom of Rome, having assembled all the kind Ladies and Courtesans of the City to elect a new Pope: Some are for this Cardinal, and others for another; some they choose, and some they reject. Those that they vote for, are such, whose kindness to women they have experimented. Those that they reject, are the Devils of Gomorrah, that have little or no affection for the Female Sex. A most blessed Vicar of Christ, to expose St. Peter's Chair, himself, and all the great Nimrods' of his Church and Society, to the merited Reproaches of every Satirical Pen.  
But this is not all; the Author of La Doppia impiccata, printed at Orbitello, under the Nose of the Inquisition, brings Madam Pecunia, and arraigns her at the Bar of Wisdom, for several and weighty Crimes; where being asked, How she behaved herself among her Neighbours? She confesses, how she feduced the Holy Jesuit Columbera. For he, good Man, being desirous to get a little money by his labours, was wont to steal out of the window of his Cell by the help of a Rope, and in his venerable Habit, to go with his Breviary and his Lantern in his hand, having undertaken to debauch a young Virgin, between whose breasts, it was not long before he gained the honour for his Patron, Father (ypriano, to preach with all his amorous Eloquence. So that of an Apostolic Missionary, he suddealy became the bravest Doctor in the Pulpit of the Flesh, that ever discoursed of the Beatifical Vision of snowy Bosoms, and the contemplation of that heaven, where he had so often lain in the swooning Raptures of his Lust. After that, he makes a bloody Complaint against the poor Lady, for fastening so many infamous Sodomies among the Prelates and Cardinals of Rome, that they have made a very Pentapolis of the Holy See: wherein such is the value of that infernal Merchandise, that the excrement of a Page is at twelve Crowns an Ounce.  
Being asked, What Frauds she had committed? She answered, she had caused the Abbot Dini to counterfeit an Order of the Chamber of the Magazines in Venice, to let go two Galeots sent by the Duke of Modena to that Republic, and all for 2000 Duckers; and hath also caused the most Illustrious Mascambruno, to alter the sense of the Canon in the Apostolical Briefs, to satiate the Vatican Harpy with double Crowns.  
Being asked, What occasion of Offences she had given, in reference to scandalous Actions? Alas! they were without number, she said. Particularly she had been the Occasion, that Innocent X. would not give Audience to the Portugal Ambassador, about the Affairs and Interest of Religion in that Kingdom, till he had given Donna Olympia such a number of Duckers.  
And that Father Caravita the Jesuit, being in possession of the Oratory of the Bacchettoni, had so often adjusted his Pardons to the quantity of the Sum agreed; while he caused the poor Husbands to be contented with the Horns that were planted upon their heads, and made them believe, to that purpose, with his Cabalistic Eloquence, that it was a meritorious thing to wear Brow. Antlers for the love of God. The Purse of Pompeo Giustiniani, one of the wry-necks of the same Society, knew his tricks well enough; who, after he had with great expense enjoyed a Mercer's wife, was by him condemned to give six Silver Candlesticks to the Oratory.  
'Twas she that had been the Occasion of the scandalous. Amours between Cardinal Azzolino, and his Cardinaless the Queen of Sweden.  
'Twas she that persuaded the Bolognan Abbess to betray into the hands of Cardinal Antenio one of her choicest and most beautiful Virgins.  
'Twas she that caused Donna Olympia to send for the Thaes, that her Nephew Cardinal Maldachino, had been with the night before, and made her restore the 200 Duckers, which he had given her for his pleasure; and so disappointed the poor Slur of a hundred Gewgaws.  
'Twas she that caused Monsignior T●pp●, Arch Bishop of Beneventum, to assist with his Pontificial habits at the digging up a certain Treasure, to conjure away the Devil, as if he had designed in his Mitre and Rocket to sing Mass with the Inhabitants of Hell.  
Being asked whether she had ever been guilty of abusing the Male sex? she answered, she was a woman, but referred herself to the Schools of the Jesuits, the most learned Lyceum's, where that Art was taught; those tilting places, where they run at the Ring with so much bravery and fortitude; the Masters of those Chairs delighting in most difficult Attempts, as having now forsaken the poverty of Religion, and applying themselves to more expensive luxuries, becoming Grandeur, and the Management of Secular Affairs. There would be no end of the Discoveries of the Enormity of this Religion, were that, the sole business of these sheets. However, this may suffice to show out of the mouths of the Papists themselves, that Rome is only a Den of Thiefs and Robbers, that their Monasteries are but Flies of Ignorance and uncleanness, and their Nunneries mere Holland's Leagures: Thus much then for their Ecclesiastical Government; now for their Doctrine.  
First, They teach, that all Pacts, Constitutions, Agreements of Emperors, Kings and Princes, not confirmed by the Pope, are void, and of no Effect.  
Simancha, Bishop of Badoxos teaches, That there is no Faith to be observed with Heretics, though after Oath given. And in another place, That there can be no Peace or Commerce with them, and therefore no Faith can be observed toward them, though confirmed by Oath.  
Conradus Brunus confirmeth this, averring. That there can be no Peace between a Catholic and a Heretic; and that it is a wicked and blasphemous Condition of a Treaty, that allows to Heretics the Exercise of their Religion.  
Martin Becanus teaches. That Liberty of Religion granted to a Lutheran or Calvinist, s altogether unlawful, and repugnant to the Law of God, and only to be permitted no longer than needs must, to avoid a greater Mischief.  
3. They teach, That it is the duty of the Roman Catholics to destroy and root out the Protestants by fire, poison, sword, gunpowder, or any other way most opportune and convenient.  
To confirm this, saith Cardinal Baronius, The Office of St. Peter is twofold; to feed and kill; feed my sheep; kill and eat: by which Text Saint Peter is commanded to kill and slay as well as keep and feed. It remains them, Holy Father, that you draw the sword of St. Peter against the wicked Heretics, as being constituted by God over King, and Kingdoms.  
4. That Kings and Princes may be poisoned, or otherwise taken away by their Subjects, being Roman Catholics, if their Divines do once account them excommunicate.  
5. That Heretical Magistrates and Princes are to be accounted excommunicate, if not the facto, yet de Jure, and consequently may be lawfully assassinated by their Subjects.  
This is the Doctrine of Mariana, Petrus de Onna, Simmancha, Creswell, Tresham: And Vrban the second decreed, that they should not be accounted Murderers, that killed any of the Enemies of the Roman Catholic Church.  
As for the Doctrine of Equivocation, so publicly taught, and so frequently practised by them, there has been occasion to speak so much already through the Nation, that it will be needless to repeat any more. I will only add, that all those protestations and pawning of their salvation were only Bugbears, with which they thought to scare and amuse the ears of the Protestants, till they had stifled all farther Discovery. But now they find, they were so far from being innocent of the Murder of Sir Edmund— Godfrey, that they rather chose to murder themselves, than confess the foulness of their Crimes. Thus than it appears that in the Popish Religion there is neither Honesty nor Credit; a Religion broached and maintained only by the worldly Policy of a company of Lordanes, to rob and defraud all mankind; a Religion that borrows its Devotion from the Silver-Smith, and whose brightest Luminaries are the Wax-chandlers' Tapers. And shall the Professor of such a Religion as this, my Lords and Gentlemen, persuade the Professors of the noble, candid and magnanimous Religion of the Church of England, upon which never any of these Imputations could be thrown by the worst of her Enemies, that he is a person fit to charm ye out of your senses with his Ifs and his Ands; his How can this be possibles? and How can ye imagines? when there is not the least improbability in the deepest of his Objections? Will ye not rather number him with those that so vainly vindicated the Powder-Plot, the Massacre of Paris and Guisian League, and the murder of two Kings of France, by his wretched attempt to evade the murder of your follow subject, and the foul Treason acted against your Prince? Or can you have better thoughts of him, but that he is one that strives, as they did, to Ruffianize the Crimes of his Associates, that he may hinder the progress of your Prosecution? Does he tell ye who committed those Crimes? No— but he fells ye, he hopes ye will find them out at length— and would throw the charge upon sticklers against Government, and King-haters; as if any had proved themselves more busy in those things than his own gang. We know there are sticklers, and perhaps those that are no great friends to the King: But 'tis the humour of our English Malcontents, unless of those that are refined with St. Omers Education, rather openly to ruffle with their Prince, then to contrive secret Assassinations and Treasons. Shall he come with an old quashed Endictment from a Pie-powder Court (for such a one I may call it in respect of those High Courts where Mr. Oates appeared in reference to the late proceed) to vilify the King's Evidence, so fairly venturing Life and Reputation for the preservation of his King and Country? What a noise doth the Fool make with the Women of Hastings? Truly the women of Hastings were the most unkind women that ever I heard of. The Minister of the Parish would have prevented a Jesuitical Innovation upon their bearing-places, and they would needs whip him form. Certainly those women were very popishly affected, or else they would never have had the lash so ready at their finger's ends. And the Magistrates of Hastings were vehemently to be suspected, that they did not either find the man guilty, or else send the women to the scourgingpost, for mutinying so furiously against the Assertor of their lawful privileges. To see the difference of Opinions! Had he been a Cardinal that had been accused, I warrant ye, the men of Hastings would have found him guilty, and the Compendium monger would have made no more words on't. Now what an Act has this Compendium-scribler done, to justify an illegal uproar of mis intelligenced Baggages, to vilify an Evidence, that had he had a grain of Allegiance, should have been more sacred to him? Now, the truth is, the Endictment was true, but a pack of knaves and fools, leaning for favour and affection, and some products thereof, did very scandalously take the Criminals part against their Minister. And that this is true, you have the Attorney General's word for it, who having taken cognizance of the matter, declared in open Court, that there was nothing in it. All which the Observator most ingeniously leaves our, according to the double Usance of Popery. But to show how little Mr. Oates is afraid of this Bevis of Southampton for the Church of Rome, he fairly appeals to Hastings, Bobbing, or any other place, where he has officiated in the Countries of Kent, or Sussex, to tax him with the least misdemeanour misbecoming his function, during his abode among them, to which when the Observator makes his rejoinder, he shall have another sort of answer.  
In the next place, he tells ye a strange tale of Sir Denny Ashburnham, what he said in prejudice of Mr. Oates. Truly it was a strange story indeed. It was a speech might have become a plain Country Judice in the Wild of Sussex, but- at a London Commission of Oyer and Terminer— to talk as if he had been at a Christening— I wonder he did not bring his Widwife along with him to help him out with such a piece of Gossipry. Well! You long to know what it was: It was this; I knew Mr. Oats from his Cradle, and when he was a Child, 
Ireland's Trial, Pag. 65.  he was not a person of that Credit, that we could depend upon what he said. You see what a testimony Sugar-plums and Naples-biscuit will produce. Did this become a person that was such an early Judge of Credit, and consequently should have had more wit, to bring his Fimtlam stories of the squabbles of Childhood to invalidate the full grown Evidence of the King in a Concern or so high a nature? And to aggravare the folly he had committed, by declaring, that had the Discovery been only upon Mr. Oates' single testimony, he should have had some little doubt of it upon the knowledge of him in his youth. Well, Mr. Observator, Mitch ke ditch ye with Sir Denny ashburnham's 's Gingerbread-testimony. For there's many an unhappy child makes a good man; so that Sir Denny Ashburnham's kindness to the Prisoners, was a little too much antedated. He should have told the Court what he knew Mr. Oats to be when he was a man, and not have done like a Moorfield's Trithemius, to conjure up the peccadilloes of his childhood, to have appeared against him at such an unseasonable time. However, these are the two grand accusations against Mr. Oates, that must send him to Avernus for perjury. Poor man of Observation, they were the best he could get, or else, we find his virulency to be such, that he would not have spared him an Inch. An unfortunate Copy of an Endictment from Hastings! which had the Observator penurioufly preserved for the lighting his Pipe, would have done him much more good, as not having brought the least tittle of advantage to his Cause.  
For my Lords and Gentlemen, I suppose you cannot but believe the King's Attorney had much more judgement than this Student de Collegio Ambubajarum & Balatronum, and understood far better than he, the Nature of Indictment. But it is not his bawling and scolding, and railing, that must do the great work he has undertaken; nay, though he had all his Croneys, the Women of Hastings to help him, he would never succeed. For it is sufficiently known, that the Prisoners at the Bar had all the fair play in the world; they had both time and liberty to call their Witnesses; and when they made their Objections, their Witnesses were heard with all the patience imaginable.  
Their St. Omers Youngsters were heard, and re-heard, to their own, and the shame of them that sent 'em.  
Their Staffordshire Testimony not only confronted and baffled, but detected after wards to be a mere Jesuitical Subornation. Yet these contrivances of their Friends at liberty, they thought would have proved as Infallible as their Master the Pope.  
Now after all this apparent Evidence for the King, and no Disproofs against them, but only these two pieces of Forgery, and some few Surmises and Suppositions, that signined nothing either in Law or Reason, for one single person to upbraid the Justice of the whole Nation, as if the Judges had not already answered all the obsolete Observations and Descants which the Compendium makes, as if they were not able to judge whether Men be perjured or no; or as if you yourselves, who have many of you had the full Examination of these matters, were to be rebuked, and re advised to reform your judgements, by a scurrilous Rhapsody of Slander and Untruth.  
As for Sir Denny Ashburnham, though he made a Childish Observation upon Mr. Oates' Childhood, yet he declared, That he found so many circumstances confirming Mr. Oates 's Testimony, (as idle as he thought it) that he was convinced of the reality of the thing itself. Which the Epitomiser did well to leave out, because he was one of his own Witnesses. By which you may see what a Worshipful Knight he was, to come into Court to put a slur upon the King's Evidence, when in his Conscience he thought he spoke Truth. And by this you may find, what fair Play the Observator shows you, to make use of pieces of Testimony, merely so far as they make for his own turn.  
After this, he brings two diminutive Dwarves to second his two Goliahs, pretending, That Mr. Oates had accused old Parker, the Father, of speaking scandalous words against the Lords of the Council, notwithstanding which he was disinist.  
In answer whereto, let him know. That Mr. Cates still appeals to the same Order, and is ready to make good his Charge. Mr. Observator, advise your Client to sleep in a whole skin.  
from whence he infers, That it was no wonder that such a Witness should swear that Mr. Preston was a Priest, and his Confessor; when as the poor Gentleman has not only a Wife, but has lived with her for many years. A most profound Argument indeed. And why may not he be allowed to marry, as well as Cardinal Maldachini be allowed to be dressed in women's Apparel in a Common Bawdy-house? Or Tresham the Jesuit to have either a Doxy, or a Wife; such an one, as upon his Deathbed compelled him to damn himself, by taking it upon his salvation, much like Ireland, That he had never seen Garnett in sixteen years; when it was afterwards discovered, that he had been frequently in his company. But to show ye, my Lords and Gentlemen, what a silly Calumny he infers, from Mr. Preston's being married, you are to observe that Marriage has been practised by their very Popes. Some of our Popes have been married, saith Aeneas Silvius de Gestis Concil. Basil. And Aquinas allows the Marriage of Priests in these words: Vsus Conjugalis interdicitur Sacerdotibus tantum jure humano, & proinde dispensabile est. And Cajetanus avers the same: Non jure divino, sed humano duntaxat prohibitum esse Conjugium Sacerdotibus, & proinde in hoc dispensari posse. Marriage is not forbid to the Priests by divine, but only humane Law, and therefore is to be dispensed with.  
Now why might not Mr. Preston marry, the better to conceal himself, and yet be Mr. Oates' Confessor, but presently Mr. Oates must be perjured for swearing it? Are these the great Perjuries the Observator has hunted out? Courage Mr. Oates— I dare be bold to secure ye thus far— Well— What now?— He was the Son of a Weaver, and therefore not fit company for Jesuits— Very good— What if he had been the Son of a Carpenter? What then? Sixtus Quintus was a Boy that kept Hogs— And what then? But the world knows better.  
These are precious Arguments, my Beloved, to prove that Mr. Oates knew nothing of the Plot. If he were so mean a person, they fitted his Capacity to a hair, for they sent him up and down from Dan to Beersheba with Letters. But if he had the wit to open these Letters, certainly he could not be so dull as not to understand the Contents. It will be their best way next time to choose a person of more wit, and less discretion.  
Oh— but he does not understand Latin— that's no Epitome, but an Untruth at large.— But suppose he did not; a Man must not be perjured, because he does not understand Latin— He understood English enough to bring them to their cold Beds.—  
But he never was at Salamanca, and consequently never did his Exercises.— That's but the Observator's saying— in opposition to which, Mr. Oates avers that he was at Salamanca, and that he did do his Exercises— Ergo Bellarmine.—  
He offers, that Mr. Oates may send one, and the Papists another, to know the truth of it.— Let him ce'n go himself and save charges. Upon these Goodly-good morrows he frames a hundred Riddle-me-Riddles, Suppositions and Surmises, and demands present Answer to a long Beadroll of Questions, with so much confidence, as if he were Pedagogue-Poser-General of the Nation, and that all the Lords and Gentlemen of the Land were his School boys, and bound to answer him.  
He would fain know what probability there was, That men of such polite Parts as they, should trust such a poor, abject, contemptible person as Mr. Oates, a person whom they had expelled their College for his ill Qualities, with a design of such a high Concernment?  
As to the first, there was no Improbability at all. For alas, they were no such highflown, high-soaring wits, as he dreams 'em to be; but they were a company of pitiful, shabby, illiterate Dunces, that had not so much Scholarship as their Founder Loyala, and he as mere a Clodpate as ever poured in Grammar. All which was evident from their Behaviour at the Bar, and their  Comments upon their own Letters. Neither had their Declamations any thing of the truth of Eloquence in 'em, but savor'd only of Themes, and Boys Exercises, which has been in part already observed.  
Then to his being Expelled for his ill Qualities, there they betrayed their Folly most shamefully. For when it was expedient he should be Expelled, than he was Expelled; when it was convenient he should be at St. Omers, than he was at St. Omers, because he could not come away: Nay, they brought sixteen Witnesses to prove that he kept close at St. Omers, and never stirred out for so many months; and all this, after his Expulsion; which showed them to be mere Whifflers, and no true Masters of Defence. So that this is the scope of the Author's design, to prove Mr. Oates perjured, because they could not prove themselves innocent.  
Now for the probity of the Men (for he makes a sad complaint, That 13 Christian Men of great probity, should have such hard usage) let us take a Catalogue of 'em.  
Hill, Green, and Berry, an Alehousekeeper, a Cushion-man of a Chapel, and a Serving man, whose Conversation was not worth taking notice of.  
Pickering, a pitiful, ignorant, lying Priest.  
Ireland, a Smell-smock, that lay with his own Sister.  
Gawen, called in question at St. Omers itself, and that was a wonder, for Buggery.  
Fenwick, a Parson's Son, disowned by his Father, and by him Expelled, for his Debauchery, from his House, and in a fair way to be Hanged, till he took Sanctuary at St. Omers, as Bankrupts do at Jamaica.  
Whitebread, the Provinicial; a Fisher in all Professions for Preferment. First a Jew, than a Presbyterian, than a Quaker, to whose Meetings he used to go in a Carters habit; one that had more shapes to disguise himself, than a Player, as is attested by a Letter written to the Lord Mayor of London: And at last a Jew again, that is, a wandering Jesuit.  
Turner, a silly ignorant Fellow, that prayed Nonsense at the Gallows, desiring God to forgive him, and he would never offend him again, when he was next minute to be Hanged.  
Grove, a Rascal not worth naming.  
Coleman, a conceited ambitious Fop.  
Staley, a proud debauched Goldsmith.  
Langhorne, a Priestridden Bigott, but the best of 'em all.  
Ay marry Sir, these are persons qualified indeed for a Plot. I confess, I should have wondered that Men of probity should have intrigued themselves in such a bloody design. But why such Christians, and Men of probity as these, passing Mr. Oats neither in Birth, Learning, Parts or Honesty, (for they lay no other Crimes to his charge, but only Poverty and Perjury, very slovenly urged upon him) should be so abstentions, as not to trust Mr. Oates, a stirring, active man, and a new Convert, the Abbreviator must give a better Account than he does. But his and their Innocence may perhaps hang together in time, for Fame reports him at this time Indicted of High-Treason; so that it is not his Innocence that makes him resolute and constant, as he tells my Lords and Gentlemen, but a kind of Newgate-sturdiness, that makes him bold and confident.  
But now let me ask all Rational Men one Question, What should move Mr. Oats, to imbrue his hands, so heathenishly, so barbarously, without any compassion, without any remorse of conscience, in so many streams of Innocent blood, without any cause, without any offence given him, but the petty Expulsion from a College?  
The Compendium-Framer will say, The Hopes of Gain and Preferment. That's something indeed. But how could Mr. Oats hope either for Gain or Preferment, by plunging himself into the discovery of a Chimaera, from whence he could expect nothing but Ruin and Misery in this world? For I omit the punishments of the other world, which it may be well answered, The wicked do not value,  
How poorly does this Compendium Mechanic think of the King, the Council, and the Parliament, that they should be so deluded and cajoled by the mean and contemptible parts of such a pitiful Wretch as Mr. Oates? Is it to be imagined that so much Mercy, so much Piety, so much Wisdom, should prostitute the Lives of so many Innocent persons, to the ambitious Perjuries of Mr. Oates? Would the King have permitted such a daring Titan, to scale the Heaven of Majesty itself, and not have immediately thundered him down into the lowest Abyss of his Disfavor? 'Tis not for a Worm of a Subject to the counterfeit image of St. Peter, to tell the King of England, who is the real Vicegerent of God, what Perjury is; nor to flourish his pitiful Flag of Defiance against the Royal Standard of His determined Justice. When the King of England desires to know what Perjury is, perhaps he may be persuaded to address Himself to this Mushroom of a Compendium-Framer. In the mean time his Diminutiveship would do well to find out some other Employment, than to contend with his Sovereign, by rebelliously appealing from Him to His Subjects.  
As for his repeated Justification of the Murderers of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey, I let it pass, in regard it is but merely Repetition, and there has been sufficient Answer given already to all his Flashes and Evasions. Only take notice by the way, how infamously industrious this Compendium-Scribler has been to assail no less than twice, in one Libel, the Public Justice done upon those more than prodigious Assassinates.  
Concerning Dispensations, he talks as if he had a dispensation for what he wrote. For such an Affront was never offered to the Pope's Authority, at once to deprive him of the chiefest Hours of his Papal Prerogative, and so ample a part of his Revenue. But he says Lying is a sottish and senseless Crime— so is Incest— But the Pope frequently dispenses with the latter Sin, why may he not as well dispense with the former? Certainly if the Author of the Compendium had not had a plenary dispensation for Lying, he would never have told so many Untruths as he has done. Oh! but it is a great Evidence, that there are no dispensations for Lying, because so many lost Preferments and Employments for not taking the Test. A very silly Argument. For it would be a very sottish and senseless thing indeed to lie and equivocate, where there was no occasion; where there was no hazard of Life, no danger of endamaging the Cause of Popery; no Fear of bringing an irreparable Scandal upon the Profession of the Roman Catholic Religion, there Constancy to their Mother the Church, carried a kind of Face of virtuous Piety and Christian Patience; but when the Honour of the Pope, the Reputation of the Church, the Dignity of the Catholic Religion, lay all at stake, upon the single Confession of a barbarous Murder, and a detestable Plot, there the Case is altered, there must be grains of allowance; upon such an Occasion Lying is no Lying, but a Pious and Sem-like covering the shame of our Father the Pope, and our Mother the Church, and their Daughter the Romish Religion. 'Tis true, some that needed neither Employment nor Preferment, refused the Test; but with others, and those the far greater number, it went down as pleasantly as Cream of Almonds. For which if they had no Dispensation, they cheated the Pope, and were Persons of no Religion. But why do I insist upon a Point, that he who disputes against, disputes against matter of Fact, and the practice of Popery for many and many Ages.  
As for that Renowned Prelate my Lord Bishop of Lincoln, I shall not presume to intrude upon his concerns, unwilling to incur the Censure of the World, as if able to add the Least mite to the perfections of his most accomplished Learning.  
And thus (my Lords and Gentlemen,) you see how laborious, and sedulous this William with a wisp has been, to lead your judgements astray, and seduce the Belief of the people. Now then most certain it is, that there was, if not still on foot, a most hainons and detestable blot against the Life of our most Gracious Sovereign, the Government and Established Religion of the Nation. That this Plot was carried on by the Papists, is as certain; let them endeavour to shift it of how they can; which is evident by Coleman's own Letters, wherein we find no Correspondence with Independants, or Presbyterians, or Quakers, but with Monsieur Ferryer, and Monsieur La Chaise, with Salamanca, and St. Omers, and with the Jesuits, Benedictines, and several other Papists in England. He does not crave aid and assistance of money and men from the different Opinions of the Protestant Religion; but from the King of France, from the Benedictines, and the Contributions of the English Roman Catholics. Neither was his design against Episcopacy, or Monarchy, but to subvert that Pestilent Heresy that had so long reigned in the Northern parts of the World; that is to say, all dissenters in general from the Catholic Religion: by which, I say, 'tis evident, that the Papists were the Parties only concerned. As certain it is, that upon the discovery of Mr. Oates, this Plot was first examined and dived into; and that soon after Sir Edmund bury Godfrey was basely and treacherously murdered. As certain it is, that so soon as Mr. Oates had broke the Ice, several others came in, and confirmed his evidence, persons that he had never seen or Conversed with before. And to be short, as certain it is, that upon their Evidence, after the mature examinations of King, Council and Parliament, several of these Popish Traitors have been convicted and executed.  
Now after all this, comes this Glow-worm, with his nocturnal reflections in the tale of a Compendium, and to defend the Murderers, he cries, How can this be, and how can that be? And against Mr. Oates he tears his throat, and baules out Perjury, Perjury, as if he were practising to cry Turnips and Carrots in a Winter morning.  
Now, my Lords and Gentlemen, I will put the whole only upon this single Issue whether you do believe that our Sovereign, (who if ever he did himself Injury, it was always with a regard to the right hand of mercy, never to the left hand of Rigour,) can be ever thought to be much a deviatour from his own innate principles, as to harbour and protect in his own Royal Palace a perjured person; whose perjuries, if they may be so called, have not spared those Grandeurs, which perhaps both you and I thought unapproachable.  
Upon this single Issue, as I said before, and upon this single Contemplation, (ruminate while you please) I lay the stress of all that I have now to say, which is only this in few words.  
That since you have not the least colour of reason in the world to question or misdoubt the truth of this Plot, and murder so impudently endeavoured to be rendered fabulous end Chimerical by this Traitor of a Scribbler. That you will consider the inveterate and irreconcilable Antipathy of the Papists to the prevailing Grandeur of the Protestant Religion.  
That you will consider how much it concerns 'em at this time to lay about 'em with all the Thunder and Lightning imaginable, to dispel, if they can, that dismal cloud of Murder and Treason that threatens the very dissolution of Papacy, already the scandal of Christianity, and the contempt of Turcism.  
That you would consider how it has been the continual practice of their Church, by the indirect means of Lying and Scandal, to conceal their perpetrated Villainies, or fix 'em upon the Innocent; and that it has been their continual Custom and Maxim, to endeavour the propagation of their Faith, by Destruction and Massacre: which both France and Ireland with Tears can testify, and the Ruinous War of Germany by them fomented and carried on; as if there were no way to recover their decaying Heresy, but by laying Blood to the root of it.  
Then upon these Considerations make this farther Progress: Let 'em not think their Liberties so involved in yours. That they cannot fall, but you must precipitate: Let 'em not think to amuse ye, that Protestants cannot be safe, because the Papists are deservedly prosecuted for their Crimes. They had Privileges sufficient, Immunities enough, all Indulgence imaginable: but they have forfeited all by Conspiracy, and Murder of the Subjects of that Fountain from whence all their mercy flowed. They would have deprived you of your Lives and Liberties, your Wives, Children, and Estates; and now they cry, The Protestants cannot be safe, because some few of the Traitors have been meritoriously Hanged, and more like to be. They plot and contrive, and being detected, cry out, Perjury, the Land groans under the Sin of Perjury. But let 'em know they are not done with yet; and let this Traitor of an Epitomiser be assured, there is that Evidence in Bank, that will in time still the noise of his nefarious yawling.  
Since then, my Lords and Gentlemen, the Providence of Heaven has been so miraculoufly pleased to discover these dark Intrigues of Popery, that would have been the utter ruin of King and Country, of Religion, Life and Fortune, Uphold and Maintain that Testimony to which you own your Preservation: and let it not suffer under the Scandal and Reproach of those that suffer justly by it. For the sake of all that is good and holy, prosecute the present Discovery; which being born up by an untainted and daily increasing Evidence, has not only destroyed the hopes of our Enemies, but shaken the very Basis and Foundation of the Catholic Religion.  
And now the God of Peace preserve the King of Salem, from whom, as He hath been hitherto indefatigably watchful for our Tranquillity, we have no reason but still to hope the future enjoyment of Prosperity and Plenty, of our Laws, Religion and Liberties, so long as so Good and Gracious a Sovereign remains well guarded against the Treasons of Popery, by the Obedience and Unanimity of his Protestant Subjects.  
FINIS.