LIberty and Property hath for some Years made an hideous Cry in these Kingdoms, and nothing more than the Rights and Priviledges of the Sub­ject is the Pretence of our present Deliverers; and doubtless it was for the sake of these that so many of my infatuated and blind Countrey-men rebelled against their Lawful and Injured Monarch, whilst Religion (Rebellions Umbrage) was made the Covert of the hid­den Designs of those who have now demonstratively shewn, that they sought nothing less than our Ruine: And that these were only Pretences to gain their Ends, the very Blind, although they cannot see, yet most certainly feel it. Under the like Pretences do our Deliverers still continue to deliver us even from what they please, that they think will but in the least help to effect what they came for: Under the Notion of the Necessity of a War they deliver us from our Money, and from our Traffick and Commerce, by which so great a part of the Kingdom is sustained: Under the Notion of carrying it on, they kidnap our young Men, the Flower of our Kingdom, and directly contrary to Law transport them; and to save their own Forreigners, put them in the first Onsets of their Battles, as the Heathens did the Christians of Old, that their Enemies Swords might be blunted with killing them, before they came to encounter them: They exhaust all our Stores both for Sea and Land, and carry away all our Artillery; and if any Man seem but to disapprove of these their Proceedings, un­der the Notion of Law they murther him: Nay, if they do but so much as suppose him not to be on their Side, he must be a Traitor, and no matter what the Law says, they say he shall die.

Can any thing be more plain to demonstrate this than my present Case? My supposed Crime was Printing, and all that the Witnesses could personally say against me, was, That I was a Man against the Government, and had called the Prince of Orange Hook-nose, though I protest I never did; not one of them could say, nor did they offer to say, that I ever printed the Books of which they accuse me, or procured them to be printed, or published any of them, or that the Materials were mine, or that I hired the Room where they were found; but I was an ill Man, and that was sufficient: By which 'tis plain, that they were resolved right or wrong to have my Life.

That they designed not to Try but to Convict me is as plain; for they refused positively to allow me Counsel to such Matters of Law, as was never refused to any before; and though I caused several Statutes to be read, some to prove that there must be two Witnesses at least to the Fact, others, that though there had been two, as there was not one, yet positively declared that it was not Treason: Nay, the very last Session of Parliament was it enacted, That the Printer of Seditious and Treasonable Books should for the first Offence be punished no otherwise than not to fol­low his Trade for three Years, and for the second Offence never to follow it more, and such farther Punishment as seemed fit to the Court, not extending to Life or Limb. Now though mine (had it been proved) had but been the first, yet you see contrary and in direct opposition to the Law, they make it High-Treason: And when the Jury could not agree to find me Guilty, and came down to ask the Court whether the finding these Things there, and supposing them to be mine, since it could not be prov'd that I printed these Books, or had made any use of them, could affect my Life? I say, when the Jury ask'd this Question, and the Lord Chief Justice Treby told them positively, No, it did not; yet withal he told them, That that was not their Business, their Business was to find me Guilty of Printing: And while they stayed, the Court frown'd upon them to that degree, that the Foreman told them, he was not to be frighted; upon which they publickly reviled them, calling them, ill Men, ill Subjects, and a Pack of Knaves; and so terrified them into a Compliance. That this is true, those who were near know too well, although the partial Writer of the Trials hath most perfidiously publish'd not only an unfair, imper­fect, and lame Account, but hath also stuff'd it with down­right Untruths and Falshoods, and left out whatsoever made for me; not so much as mentioning the Contradictions of the Witnesses in what they did swear, their swearing to some things that made for me, and when I took hold of them they denied them, nor hath he in the least told the World of the Judges Over-ruling whatsoever I offered, without giving any other Answer than that it should be so because they would have it so; with many other such Things, which the conscientious Auditors can testify.

And now I pray consider where is this Liberty and Pro­perty? Where the Rights and Priviledges of the Subject? Nay, where the very Laws themselves? And consequently where is the Security of any Man? Why, even in the Deli­verers Pockets, where your Money is, and where also with­out all doubt, if you look not well to your Selves, your Estates ere long will be there likewise. What are these Proceedings but Arbitrary in a Superlative manner, and such as no Reign ever produced before? These were they you were heretofore only afraid of, being jealous without just Cause; but now you see them actually come upon you. I hope you your selves will put a stop to them, by laying these Proceedings before the Parliament, for had it been sitting at this present these Proceedings durst not have been practised; and I pray God to put so speedy an end to them, that as I am the first, so I may be the last that may suffer by them.

I have hitherto lived a Member of the Orthodox Church of England as by Law Established, and I declare I now die in the Unity of the same: Therefore, according to its Discipline, I hold my self obliged to ask Pardon of the whole World, of every particular Person whom I have any ways offended; and I do freely and sincerely forgive every one that has offended me, particularly my most false and perjured Witnesses, and among them more particularly Robin Stephens, my most unjust and unrighteous Judges, and my repenting Jury; and I pray God may not lay this their Sin of wilful Murther to their Charge at the General Bar, where they shall appear as Criminals, and not Judges.

MAY the Almighty bless, prèserve, prosper, and restore our Sovereign Lord King JAMES, to the just Pos­sesision of his indubitable lawful Crowns, strengthen him that he may vanquish and overcome all his Enemies here on Earth, and crown him with eternal Glory hereafter: And that he may never want Heirs to inberit his Crown, bless I beseech thee, O God, His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, and give him such a Nu­merable Issue, that there may never want one of his Loins to sway the Scepters of these Kingdoms so long as Sun or Moon endure▪ Amen. Amen.