THe Popish Plot, as delivered by Titus Oates, and the rest of his Zanies, Bedlow, Dugdale, Prance, &c. is wholly founded on these two Bases:

First, That the Papists had a Designe to Murder the late King;

And next, to Massacre Us; Popery being only to be introduced by these two Desperate and bloody under­takings.

The several Attempts and Designes of Murdering the King are as follows.

The First Bloody Resolve of the Papists for that pur­pose, was on the 24th. of April in the Year 78, whilst Oates upon the Holy Evangelists, assures us, that the Principal of the Jesuites, and other great Popish Agents, to the number of above fifty, from several parts of the World met together on that day, and came to this Resolve; That Pickering and Groves should go on with their Attempt of Murdering the King, for which the one should have 1500 l. and the other 30000 Masses: to which Resolve and [Page 6]promise, they all at several places subscribed their seve­ral hands.

Now we are to know likewise who those two Persons were, that were thus set at work, viz. Two poor Servants & Retainers to the Romish Priests, & two Persons, who had been before engaged in the same Design, & had dogg'd the King (by Oates his own Oath) from the year Seventy to that very day, with screwed Guns and Silver Bullets to do the same Execution; and were two such Wretched Fools at so desperate a peice of service, that one time their Flint was loose; another time, their Gun was charg­ed with all Bullets and no Powder; another, with no Pow­der in the Pan; and another, with all Powder and no Bullets. Yet nevertheless, after they had alwayes miscar­ryed at this egregious senseless Rate, and had been disci­plined severely for it. Here meets a consult of Jesuits from all Quarters of Europe, and after a full Debate upon so Im­portant a point to their Grand Designe, as the Immediate Murder of the King: they come to no other Result than that these two poor Cuddens, after above seven Years fumbling before, should go on with the Attempt, without so much as engageing one hand beside in the Conspiracy (:for all the other Assassionates were not Embarked in the Design, till August following) so that, had Oates been able to have pro­ved himself here in Town at the April-Consult, neverthe­less, his Great April-Plot must still have fallen to the ground, and consequently, all the Blood of the Executed Papists have cryed for Vengeance from so Perjured a Murderer; unless we can imagine, that so many Popish Emissaries, the great­est of all the Romish Politicians, could be guilty of so ridi­culous a Management.

Besides, as the sequel of this King-killing-Blow, Oates particularly swears, That no sooner was the King to have [Page 7]fallen, but both the Spanish Pilgrims, thirty thousand strong, and a French Army besides were prepared to Land, and follow the Blow by Joyning with the English Papists al­ready listed for that purpose, and cutting the Protestants Throats; so that upon the upshot of the whole matter, unless we can suppose, that the French and Spanish Kings had their Pilgrims and Armies, and a Fleet ready to land 'em all prepared for seven whole Years together Winter or Summer, to step over the Water, to nick the Business, and prosecute the Massacre upon the crisis of the Kings Murder, the whole Conspiracy comes to nothing.

Besides, we must pardon Mr. Oates his forgetfulness in se­veral main passages of Pickerings Atchievement; First, That in his Narrative he expresly upon Oath, Assignes the time of Pickerings flint being loose, and his being lasht for it, to be in January, 77. but at his Tryal he possitively swears it was done in April 78. Secondly, We must not be stag­gered to imagine how a Fellow in so open a place as St. James's-Park could present a Gun against the King, and flash in the very Pan (as another time he swears for Pickering) and yet neither the King nor one of his Attendants disco­ver him. Neither are we to reflect, how 'tis utterly im­possible to shoot a Silver Bullet out of a screwed Gun, Sil­ver being too hard a mettal ever to be discharged without tearing the Gun all to Peices.

For the History of his other Popish Ruffins, his Conyers with his Dagger, his four Irish Ruffins, (by the by, all Gentlemen of Quality and Fortunes, and yet all hired for so bold an attempt, as shooting the King, for but poor fourscore pounds between them, when the little inconsiderable Wretch Groves, was to be rewarded with no less than 1500 l.) For the History I say of these Assassinates, and Sir George Wakemans Affair, they were altogether a Mass [Page 8]of nonsence so nauseously fulsom, that even the all-believ­ing Whiggs themselves, in the very hottest Dog-dayes of true Protestant Zeal and Euthusiasm turn'd stomack at; in­somuch, that the terrible Poysoner Sir George himself was acquitted even by a Whigg Jury: In Defiance of all the Popish Fears and Jealousies, which in that time of the World were no less than Mountain High.

But to muster the strength of all these last undertakers, and indeed, the whole force of his whole Plot it self. In his Preface to his Narrative, he tells the World, that he discovered his Plot first to His Majesty, by the introducti­on of Mr. Christopher Kirby on the 13th. of August 78. At which time you must note, he brought no other creden­tials to support his Plot, but Words and Forehead, Oath and Impudence, being utterly unable to produce the least scrap of one of all his numberless pretended Treasonable Papers, Letters, or Commissions, to Corroborate his Evi­dence; notwithstanding his Narrative assures us, that the Jesuits had long before wrought the King almost to an ut­ter Deafness and Infidelity, against all Informations what­ever against them, and consequently, his preserving of some of those undeniable Records against them, all intrusted in his Hands, was the only necessary Introduction to the Cre­dit and support of his whole Discovery.

But however, tho' not one syllable of any thing of that Kind, was ever seen or brought forth from that day to this, and the only lame Excuse that can help him, is, to say, Truly whilst he plotted with them he was one of them, & therefore did not seek to preserve any such Convincing Pa­pers or Commission: Tho' by the by, it looks a little odd in one of his Trialls, where he downright swears, he was a Protestant all along, and disguis'd himself a Papist only to herd with them to betray them. But let that pass.

[Page 9] The Prodigious oversight and negligence of our Dis­coverer in this Point, being forgiven him for once: How comes it to pass, nevertheless that after that very 13th. Day of August, when he return'd again to the Jesuits, and plotted with them once more, only as a Spy and a Trapan, to take an opportunity of betraying them; when after that very day, he delivered out several new Com­missions, met also at a consult of the Benedictines, and carryed their Subscribed Resolve of Murdering the King, to a second consult of the Carmelites for to sign it; met likewise another time Conyers with his Broad Dagger in Grays-Inn-Walks, and Pickering with his Basket of Fire-Balls at noon day in Lincolns-Inn-Fields, when he saw Coleman dispatch the Messenger to the four Irish Ruf­fins: Nay and all the whole business of Sir George Wake­man was all acted after that Day; when in fine no less then thirty Paragraphs in his Narrative containing the very hottest part of his whole Plot, were all Transacti­ons after this first Discovery to the King: How comes it to pass, I say, after his cold Reception at Court, and the Kings so obdurate Incredulity, that our Adventurer should set out a Treason hunting once more, for no o­ther design but for proof and Demonstrations, and Ocular Testimonials; and yet after all these offerd advantages of both Conspirators and Conspiracies, Traitors and Treaso­nable Records in his Power, he should still come to Sir Edmund-Bury-Godfrey, the September following, with his full and compleat Popish Manifesto, and yet without one scrap of Commissions, Papers, Resolves, &c. and with only his Old Jargon, Breath and words, noyse and Oaths for the support of his pretended Oraculous Disco­very. Good Heaven! How wide was the English swal­low? [Page 10]When such idle ridiculous stuff could go down.

But to leave the Kingkilling part of his Plot, and take a little view of his Protestant Throat Cutting, viz. The second Act of his Popish Tragedy.

Here we must returne to his Spanish Pilgrims, his Black Bills, and his French Armies before mentioned together with the Armies of English Papists designd to be raised, to joyn with them. And to begin at home, here was the Lord Bellasis, and the Lord Petre, and a great many other of the greatest Roman Catholik's had Commissions de­liverd them to be Generals, Livetenant Generals, and so downwards to Collonels and Captains, &c. Over seve­rals Popish Armies intended to be raised to subdue Eng­land to the Romish Yoke.

Now here are a great many very odd things in this projection. First, 'Tis wondrous, that the Jesuites and the Head Plotters of the Papists were so Cocksure of the Fidelity of their whole Party; that they durst hope to list so many Thousands of Roman Catholicks, (nay had listed them, if Bedloe may be believed, being all ready to rise at four and twenty hours warning) and not have one false Brother amongst them all, to betray so bar­barous, and so Rebellious an Undertaking. There was a time when Thousands of that Religion ventured both Lives and Fortunes to recover the Kings Right against usurping Traytors; with scarce one Dissenter amongst the whole Party, against so Loyal a Cause; and 'tis a very strange change, that in a matter of thirty odd Years, they should all be so Universally perverted to the Deposing and Murdering him, as not to meet so much as one Pendril or one Huddleston amongst so ma­ny thousand, (as this Army was to consist of) that might [Page 11]probably have told tales beforehand, and, betray'd so Wicked and so Hellish a purpose, and thereby not on­ly have ruin'd the whole Plot, but the whole Party be­sides.

Secondly, We are to take notice, 'twas in May, June, July, and August 78. That Oates attests his delivery of Commissions for the pretended Popish Armies. And on the success of these Armies assisted by the Forreighn Popish Auxiliaries before mentioned depended the whole fortune of the Romish Cause, Popery being wholy to be Establishst by Military Execution. And yet as the De­vil and the Doctor would have it, Pickering and Groves, as you have been told before had been seven years to­gether at the Kings very Throat, nay and the Great re­wards of 1500 ll and 30000 Masses, together with Pick­erings severe Backside Castigation, were Motives and Spurs to hasten and expedite the future performance of these two terrible screwed Gunners. And yet here was the King to have been shot the very next moment (if possible) and all the while the very Commissions were not given out, till for some months after, for the rays­ing the Army so immediately necessary to prosecute the Blow after the Kings dispatch. Now in the name of dul­ness where were Our Witts when all this Hideous pieco of Apocrypha was currant Gospel amongst us.

And Lastly, To bring the Forreign Heroes into Play too, Oates swears that upon subduing of England in manner aforesaid, the French were to be Lord of be As­cendant, the Government of England being designed to have devolved into their hands. And pray mark the Riddle of the Business. Here was the Spanish King in the Year 78. lending no less a Body of Men then thirty [Page 12]thousand Fighting Pilgrims to help establish the French King in the Monarchy of England at the very same time, that he was in actual Wars against him, and an utter Enemy to France, and so harrast by the French, that he was courting allmost all Christendom against him, and imploring all Foreighn Aides and Alliances to oppose him, yes, tho' he had already lost so large, and so important a part of his own Country to him, and was not over able with his best strength to defend the rest from him, yet is this Spanish King forsooth (if Oates his Evidence will hold Water) ayding and assisting the French King, with so vast a Succour, for the enlarging the very Victo­ries of his most hated Enemy by so prodigious an Ac­quisition as the Imperial Diadem of England. Oh! The Miracles of a Romish-Plot, and the more Miraculous Eng­lish stomach to digest it.

This, Reader, is the great and dreadful Popish Bug­bear, that once had Power to Fright three Kingdoms out of their Senses, and this the Saviour of the Nation, that so many almost prostrate Knees, and up lifted Hands, entertained and saluted with no less than Palm-Branches and Hosannahs. The particularizing of all the nonsensical Incongruitys, and Contradictions thro' the whole Legend of his Discovery, such as his Swearing at one Tryal he was perverted to the Romish Religion; and at another, that he was still a Protestant, and only play'd the Hypocrite amongst the Papists to learn their Secrets, and to detect their Plots: And then his Swearing before the Council, that he knew not Coleman, when brought Face to Face before him; and yet at his Tryal, to Swear he was his most intimate Acquaintance, and Co-Plotter in the whole Business of the Four Irish Ruffins; and con­sequently [Page 13]was the main Evidence that Hanged him. But most of all, this his most egregious Perjury, in Swearing before the House of Lords, that he had Discove­red his whole Plot, and had not one Person more to Ac­cuse, than what he had named and impeach'd before; and yet after all this, to bring the very Queen into the Conspiracy to Poyson the King; a Princess of that im­maculate Virtue, and unexampled Piety into so damna­ble and hellish a Design; that most Arrogant of Impo­stures and Villanies, as far from the very shadow of Truth, as the Monster, that uttered it, is from Heaven. The particularizing I say of all the egregious and impu­dent Falsities, thro' his whole Fardle of Narratives is a Work too long and tedious. Besides the Mystery of Iniquity (thanks be to Heaven) is already made so tranparent almost to all Eyes and Understandings: that 'tis almost impossible that any thing but wilfull and hardned Blindness it self, cannot plainly see through.

The only and last, tho feeble, Argument that his De­fenders (if 'tis possible he can have any left) can make for him, is to say. How is it possible that all his Discovery should be such errant Forgery and Impo­sture, and yet be so universally believed, even by the most unanimous, and so long Assent of the greatest and most sensible Men of the whole Kingdom? Why truly, were not an English-Mans Belief one of the greatest Pro­digies since the Flood, this might be much wondred at. And truly it would appear almost stupendious, how al­most a whole Nation should be so besotted, had not wo­ful experience convinced, that truly this is but the second Notorious Blot in our English Scutcheon. For let us but look back into the dismal Fears and Jealoasies in the first [Page 14]King CHARLES his Raign, and we shall find the self same Phantom govern'd then too. And just such another as senseless and as ridiculous imaginary Plot of setting up Po­pery, and Arbitrary Power, O Monstrum Horendum! Blew Three Kingdoms into a Flame: and from the dismal Effects of that Epidemical Lunacy, has left that stain upon the English Name and Reputation abroad in the World; that not whole Ages will wash off. And truly we have no Excuse left, why we should be so grosly imposed upon again, and run into a second as damnable an Errour as the first, but frankly confessing, that the Frenzy of our Fathers is Hereditary, and nothing but their Madness running in our Bloods has been the cause of so enormous a Folly, the extravagant Apprehensions of the Danger of Popery being that natural impefection that the generallity of English Men are as much born to, as men are to a Club-Foot, or a Hunch-Back, or any o­ther Deformity; and really, which they are almost as hardly to be cured of.

And therefore to draw to an End with our Swearing Master Titus, that Hellish Incendiary, and chief Visible Original of our so many Years Distractions: His Sen­tence, though it seem Severe, is much less than he de­serves; our English Law-makers, as never imagining the possibility of so unexampled an Offender, having pro­vided no Punishment equal to the Demerits of such un­precedented Villany.