The Lord chancellors Discovery and Confession: Made in the Time of His Sickness in the Tower.  
THE Dreadful Apprehensions of a future being to Souls so ill-prepared, and the Terrors of Conscience under the Visitatio● of Heaven, are of that sad weight, that no thought can imagine but his th●t groans under it. When I tu●n my Eyes inward, I can look upon myself as no other than the unhappiest of Men, loaded with Infamy, Misery, Imprisonment, and almost Despair; but above all, with the Universal Hatred of a Kingdom; so Universal, that I stand the very Center of shane, whilst every Tongue that reviles, each Eye that loathes, and every Finger that points, seem to terminate in miserable me. Such is my hard Fate, and such my serious Reflections, that I believe, had my Faults been ten-fold greater than they are, it was impossible for me to disoblige Mankind in all my Exalted Glory, but half so much as I have pleased them in my Fall; so naturally lovely in the English Eyes, does the Distress and ruins of Tottering Greatness look, where they seem but just.  
But all these Accumulated Calamities are but my lightest burden; for, alas, how justly, and more sadly may I cry out with falling Woolsey, Had I served my God with half that Zeal I served my King, He would not have left me thus Wretched! Wretched indeed, when my weakness of Body calls me to consider, how near I may stand to that Tribunal, before which, the proudest of Earthly Judges, Potentates, and Princes tremble. The Summons from that terrible Judge, is such an Alarm, that what would I do, if possible, to Soften that Almighty Justice that stands armed against me? Could the Confession of my Crimes make the least part of their Attonements; how happy should I think myself, in Unbosoming my whole Soul, even to my secretest and minutest Thought? The sense of which, makes me borrow from my Pains, these few favourable, though d ftracted Minutes, to use that Candour and Openness before I leave the World, that may reconc●le it, if possible, amongst all its Odium and Aversion, to at least one charitable Thought of me.  
But alas, before I come to the sad Narrative of those numerous Ills I have committed, before I launch down into that deeper Torrent; my aching Heart, and sad Remembrance, led me up to the fatal Fountain Head, from whence they took their Rise: And there, to my Confusion, I am forced to aclowledge my Crimes are scarce so black as the Polluted Source they sprung from: For whereas Ambition, Interest, Honours, those smiling Gourt-Beams, the common Ignes fatui, are those gawdier Snares that misled the wandring Steps of other Offending Statesmen; I cannot but shamefully confess, that a Viler and Sootier Coal, Rancour and Malice, warped me crooked.  
The two famous Occasions of my rising Spleen and bitterness of Spirit, proceeded from the Parliaments bringing me upon my Knees, for my abhorring of Petitions; and next, the City of London's Turning me out of my Recordership.  
The Anger, the Rage, the spite I conceived at this double Disgrace and Affront, was the first accursed gull that poisoned me; a Resentment that struck me so deep, and so cankered every faculty of my Soul, that what is it I did not study, Contrive, and Plot to be revenged? I profess in the Agony of my Thought, I was a hundred times not only. Thinking, but Resolving( if no other means) to turn wizard, to wreak my Malice upon my Enemies, had my small Belief( Heaven forgive me) of either a God or a Devil, persuaded me there was any such Creature as a Witch, or such an Art as Sorcery.  
As for that damned Town of London, not catiline against Old Rome, was half so sworn a Foe, as I, against that Insolent Proud City. Really and sincerely, I could willingly and hearty out of my own Pocket,( though I sold my last rag in the World) have been myself at the charge of a New Monument, so I had had but the Pleasure of a second same Occasion of Building it. Nay verily, I envied the Fate of the old Erostratus, and that more modern Worthy, Hubart; and could have wished my Own Name, though at the price of his Destiny, Engraven in the very Room of that wisely raz'd-out Inscription, on so glorious an Occasion.  
'twas then alas, edged and Enraged with a Mortal Hate, and an Avowed Vengeance against that accursed and detested City, and more detested Parliaments; with two such meritorious Qualifications. I applied myself to the once great Coleman's Greater Master, at that time an early, and indeed almost only governing Pilot at the Helm; both infallible Recommendations to Entitle me to the highest Hopes of the most Exalted Honours. In short, I Entred, Listed, and Swore myself Engineer General under that leading Heroe's Banners; and how hugged, and how embraced, my succeeding almost Deluge of good Fortune, Glories, and Preferments will sufficiently testify.  
And though the World has sometimes wondered at so sudden a Rise, as is little more than seven years, to mount from a Finsbury Petty-fogger, to a Lord High-Chancellour of England; from bawling at a Hedge-Court-Bar for five Shillings Fee, to sit Equity-Driver with Ten thousand Pound per Annum( besides P●esents and Bribes unaccountable) honestly gotten. But alas, to rectify the Mistakes of Mankind, and suppress their Astonishment at so unprecedented an Advance, I must assure them, that as no History affords a parallel of such a Crown-Favourite as myself; so no Age ever yielded such a true Crown-Drudge neither, to deserve those Favours. Alas, my Darling Fortune moved not half so Rapid, as my dearer Counsels driven; and all the Caresses of my Glory were thought but the poorest mead and Reward of those Services that gained them.  
But to recite my fatal Particulars: Upon my first Entrance( as I was saying) of Engineer General, our first great attack was against the Charter of London; and to the Honour of my pmmier Effort, what by our terrible Dead-doing Quo-Warranto, my own invented Battring-Ramm, planted against them at Westminster, and the Tower-Hill-Guns, removed and mounted against them on the Tower Battlements; we soon reduced that Imperious Town, to almost as entire a Subjection and Vassa●age, as our own Hearts, and our Roman Friends, could wish.  
Next, for those Prerogative-Crampers, those Cheekmates of Crowns, called Parliaments, there our Triumph was Absolute; we Prorogued or Dissolved, and Danced them from Pillar to Post, from Westminster to Oxford, &c. at pleasure; and Heaven knows, with timely, prudent and wise Care, to hush their too impudently inquisitive Curiosity into our Colemans packets, our Le Chaise and Lewis Intrigues, and the rest of our Popish Plots and Cabals; and all God wot●, little enough to keep our Cloven Foot undiscovered,  
flushed with such prosperous Success, even in my Infant Mischiefs, what was it that I either staggered or shrunk at? My Temptations so alured me, my Rewards so dazzled me, and my Felicity so hardened me, that Moderation, Reluctance, or Humanity, were only so many Manacles and Shackles, that my inpatient Soul threw off with Disdain.  
Who alas but I, with so much Unrelenting and Pitiless Ba●barity, triumphed in the Blood of those poor miserable Western Wretches; and Sanguin'd my very ermines in their Gore, till even the Air with the wearisomeness of their C●rcasses stunk almost as much( if possible) as the very Name of Jefferies their Butcher? Yes, and I acted by the Commissioning Vengeance that sent me thither, to inform the heretic Enemies of Rome how much their Blood Tickles when it Streams; and to let them know by the Sample of my Hand, how keen is a Popish Ed●-Tool.  
Was it not I too, that with so much Cunning and Artifice, and by so many Rhetorical High-Treason-Flourishes, wheedled poor Cornish to a Gibbet, and Russel to a Scaffold? Yes, and 'twas a Master-Piece! To give the Trembling World a Timely Warning what Protestant Zeal must trust to, when Popish Malice is pleased to be Angry; and to convince how easily can a Jesuitical Engine wire-draw Guilt, where Popish Rancour is resolved to Destroy.  
Who dissolved all the Charters, and new Garbell'd all the Corporations, but Jefferies? And why, but to prepare 'em to understand that what with our Quo Warranto's, and the rest of our modeling Tools, we were Resolved at last to have PARLIAMENTS Al-a-mode de Paree, and their Dragoon-Reformers too, soon after.  
Who invented that Ensnaring Command to the Bishops, of Reading the Declaration, and put their Refusal to the stretch of High misdemeanour, if not High Treason, but the Chancellor? And why, think you, but to satisfy them what Romish Eye-sores are the Protestant Lawn-Sleeves; and that they shall want neither J●stles nor Stumbling-Blocks to trip their Heels up, and their Heads off too, when they stand in our way?  
Who but the Great Jefferies, in Defiance of the very Fundamentals of human Society, the Original Laws of Nature, and to the Face of MAGNA CHARTA itself, got the Bishop of LONDON silenced and Suspended, without so much as that Universal and Common Right, Sacred even amongst Heathens and Infidels, viz. the privilege of making either Plea or Defence, condemned untried and Unheard? Yes, I did it; to instruct the World what feeble Cobweb-Lawn are the Bonds of Justice, Law, Liberty, Common Right, &c. in the hands of an Imperial Popish samson Agonistes?  
Was it not I too, by my ecclesiastic High-Commission-Supremacy, not only against the Statutes and Customs of the University, but the Positive Laws of the Land, turned Maudlir-Colledge into a Seminary of jesuits, and in spite of that Bulwark of the Church of England, the Act of Uniformity, converted a Collegiate chapel into a Mass house? And by the same Justice, might not every Collegiate, Cathedral, and Parochial Church, had the same Conversion? And both the Fountains of Religion and Learning, the Mother Universities, been deprived of all her Protestant Sons, and repeopled with the whole Race of St. Omers and Salamanca?  
Who did all this? The chancellor! Yes, and he saved the Church of England, and the whole English Liberty, by it. The Nation was lulled into so profound a Sleep, that they wanted such Thunder-Claps, and such a Boanerges, to awaken them from their Lethargy.  
With these serious Reflections, That these Rapid and Violent Motions of the Romish Cause, are and have been the Destruction of it; who has been the Protestants Champion, but I? Who has pulled off the Vizor from the Scarlet Whore, and exposed the Painted Babylon Prostitute, but I? And if I driven like Jehu, 'twas only to the Confusion of a Jezabel. Who called in the Deliverer of our Church and Laws, that second Hannibal, the mighty Nassau, but Jefferyes? Who has Re-mounted the sinking Glory of our Temples, till their pinnacles shall kiss Heaven, but Jefferyes? Who has United. Two such formidable Protestant Neighbours, with that Eternal Link of Interest, as shall render us once more the Arbiters of Europe, and terror of the World? Who but Jefferyes and Jefferyes. Conduct, has joined those Naval Forces, those Floating Walls that shall one day mew up that French Antichristian Monster, till in despite and Despair, he bursts his Soul out at his Fistula?  
In fine, Who has cut off the very entail of Popery and Slavery from three happy Kingdoms, but Jefferyes? Three Kingdoms did I say? Yes, possibly has laid that Foundation to the Protestant Cause, as perhaps shall one day m●ke her over-top, the Seven Proud Hills, and strike her Dagger into the very Gates of Rome.  
With this Confession of my Crimes, which under the Afflicting Hand of Heaven, I think myself Obl●ged to give the World, I beseech my E●emies themselves so to represent my C●se, as that at least. Out of the Devourer may come forth Meat; and out of the Strong, Sweetness: And by balancing the Services of my Actions against the Guilt of them, give me some small down of Hope, that the Approaching Parliament, my Judges, my Accusers themselves, may be softened into some Commiseration and Forgiveness. I assure them, if Heaven spare me Life to ask it, they shall want neither Confession, Discovery, nor Contrition, to obtain their Absolution. And Black as I am, I beg, even my most Hard-hearted Adversaries, to Consider, that still I am not Blacker then Judas. And alas, there was some Merit even in Judas; for there wanted his Betraying of his God, for the Saving of the World.  
With Allowance.   

LONDON, Printed for R. Lee without Bishopsgate. 1689.