WELL, Sir, you are willing, I suppose, to vindicate the Execution of your Laws, in every particular, against those Roman Catholicks, that were sacrificed to your Countries Vengeance.

I shall give you my Apprehensions thereof; but if my Vindication be not Satisfactory, I will rather believe it to be my own Weakness, than the Justice of your Cause.

I appeal to any man of Sence, whether there was any Probability, there cou'd be a design of taking off the King? That very Act wou'd have alarm'd the People, and consequently have dasht the Design; for upon that Juncture, where had we any Forces in readiness to espouse our Cause, and to alter that Government, which cou'd not be subverted, but by Sword? We cou'd not expect any Forreign Assistance to evade, before your Malitia were Embatteled; and to be­lieve that a Caball of some designing Heads cou'd execute it, is Groundless.

As to the Fact it self, we know that 'tis nothing but what the Principles of your Religion doth enjoyn you to; 'tis reckoned by your Church as Meritorious, and is very consistent with your Conscience. Now, as to the Probability, why this shou'd be executed, 'twas very apparent; your Party had Conspired to sham it upon the Presbyte­rians, and in order to that, you had given Commissions, and disposed on Preferment to such and such men, as the Discovery of the Meal-Tub-Plot doth very clearly confirm; then where was the need of an Army in readiness, when you might expect that Justice wou'd be done upon the Presbyterians, whilst you free from Suspition, might uncon­cernedly look on the Vertigo of the State? Besides, if in the end you had fail'd in this, yet at present such a general Consternation had seized the Kingdom, that you might easily expect some Forreign Auxiliaries, before the Discovery of your Practices, and the Nation in a Military Posture; your Church doth authorize and justifie the Actions of that Nature; and you have daring Clements, and zealous Ravilliats, that think it their Duty to attempt them.

I confess that Mariana doth endeavour to maintain that King-killing Tenet, but it was damned as Pernicious and Ʋnchristian by the Church: 'Tis also objected against Bel­larmine; but it was only inserted into his Volumns by an unknown hand, as is apparent in the Original Copy. But to revert your Assertion against your self, if Regicide be Authorized by our Church, and Heaven promised as a Reward to the Actor, we have Clements in store, that wou'd Assasinate Majesty upon the first Summons or Command; we need not have contrived so many several sorts of Death, and have ventured the Abortion of our Plot upon the least Mis­carriage. Do you think that Pickering would have had the Patience to have waited for an opportunity so long in the Park, when he might easily have had access to the King's Prescence, and might with a surer Fate, than an erring Gun, have dispatcht, and consequently m [...]d Heaven? He was unworthy of it, if he durst not dye for't: The very Lashes he had upon the account of his Negligence was worse than the Pains of Death; besides the Forfeiture of those Masses that were promised him, upon the Performance.

Though your Religion doth warrant Heaven to such as dare propagate its Inte­rest by such sinister Means, yet I do not perceive, that any of you are so reserved from the Indulgence of the Flesh, as presently to quit your Interest upon Earth, and yield your selves a Victime to appearing Death, if your Contrivances cou'd but prevent its present Execution; you cou'd be content to live a little here, rather than to purchase your Ima­ginary Happiness, by embracing a Temporal and Bug-bear Death. Johannes Acutus, one of your Order, and one that entertained as great a Zeal for the Interest of his Church, as the boldest Promoter of your all, and though he had a Warrant signed, for the immediate Possession of Heaven, if he should accidentally be seized after the Execu­tion of his Design upon the Person of Count Ladowick of Nasshaw, yet his mean and dastard Soul durst not publickly play the Russian, but omitted his Opportunities, and was Lash't.

Our Talent of time is now so small, we must not employ it in Canvassing this Point; let us omit the Opinions of our Church in this King-Killing Tenet, and return to our particu­lars. Can you imagine, that a Design of this nature, wherein no less than the Death of the KING, and the Alteration of GOVERNMENT was endeavoured, shou'd be commu­nicated to every Papist of any Note through the Realm? (as the Depositions of the Evidence would perswade you) Or that Letters shou'd be sent, or Correspondence kept, in order to that, by the common Post? Or, that Sir George Wakeman and Groves, &c. were to have so many Hundreds of Pounds for their good Service, and adventure when four Gentlemen that were privy to all the Proceedings, wou'd Assassinate him for Fourscore? Or that any of the Conspirators, which you believe to be such Profligate Villians, wou'd dye and be damned, when they might be prefered upon Confession? or being conscious to themselves of the Truth of the Information, that they wou'd not endeavour to make an escape, but wou'd skulk about to be ferreted out by Justices of the Peace, prosecuted and hanged? Pray reconcile these.

Your first Supposition I answer thus, That although you had confided in the generality of those of your Religion, yet you might believe the Oath of Secrecy, you had imposed upon them, to be so Obligatory, as not to be violated by either Fear or Interest.

Secondly, You argue an Improbability that so great a Design shou'd be trusted to the duty of the common Post; but 'twas apparent, you had so far provided, that to prevent the ill consequence of a Miscarriage, you had contrived a Character, which none but your Correspondent cou'd apprehend.

Thirdly, It is no Argument against the Probability of the intended Regicide, that the four Assassines were so reasonable in their agreement, it only argues their great Zeal to your general Interest.

Fourthly, Although we shou'd be so candid, as not to insist upon the Merit your Church asignes to obstinacy of that Nature, yet some of you, for the very fear of an Injury from their incensed Party, durst not betray the Cause by Confession. Now, whereas they rather stood Tryal, than attempted an escape upon the first Discovery, it might be the Effects of their Impudence, rather than Innocence; they might expect their Design wou'd be sham'd upon the Dissenters, and so prevent that inconvenience to their future Conduct, that wou'd have attended their flight.

Finally, That you have endeavoured this before, if we look back to the fifth of November, we must believe; and why there is now more Simplicity and Innocence in your Religion, is unaccountable: We had not only sufficient Evidence, but other de­monstrating Circumstances to perswade us of the Legality of their Tryals and Execution.