Dr. Oates's narrative of the Popish plot, vindicated in an answer to a scurrilous and treasonable libel, call'd, A vindication of the English Catholicks, from the pretended conspiracy against the life and government of His Sacred Majesty, &c. / by J.P., gent.

CHAP. VII.

What he Relates since his return to London, con∣cerning Iesuits, from the 33 to the 53 Article.

THe Narrative declares, That in Iuly Ashby came to Town to dispose of the 10000 l. procured by La Chaise, and that he should Treat with Sir Geo. Wakeman to Poyson the King, as also to procure the Assassination of the Bishop of Hereford. To this the Vindicator replies, That Ashby before his Death declared all this to be false, as the Iesuits of St. Omers themselves attest. And all this he clinches too with a How is it probable, that had there been any such thing, Ashby should communicate it to one who had by him been so disgracefully dismist by the Provincials Order, &c. This is another Dismission which we never heard of before; so that he may sheath his How is it probable again, as being a very blunt piece of business.

The 34 Article, the Vindicator sayes, Is all false, and that there is not one word of Truth in it, upon the credit of Attestation G.

To the 35 he says, Ashby and Blundel both protested it was false.

To the 36 he sayes the same upon Ashbys▪ single Protestation.

Thus you see what an Esteem one Traytor has for another, and how wari∣ly they credit each other. Like the Story of the Caldron and the Cabbage. As if the Vindicator and the rest of his Bloody Gang, had made a Compact together, to this purpose, Do you make a Vindication, Deny, Lye, Defie, Decry, and what ever you assert, we'l all Swear to.

Now Gentlemen, that you are to Believe what they attest, I prove thus.

The Legend of St. Germain says, That that Saint rais'd up a dead Ass to life again. The Legend of that Saint is to be believ'd, Ergo, You must be∣lieve the Vindicator and his Attestators.

In the 38 Article the Doctor deposes, That White wrote to London to Fenwick, that he had ordered twelve Iesuits to go for Holland, to inform the Dutch, that the Prince of Orange intended to make himself King, but they got no farther then Watten, by reason of some mischance, which Letter the Deponent saw.

This the Vindicator sayes, with more then ordinary Choller, is a Lye malitious and ridiculous; malitious, in charging such an odious business upon the Jesuits. Not so malitious neither, History has charg'd the Jesuites with far greater Crimes committed in Holland then this. No less then the Mur∣ther of William of Orange, and the same as fairly intended Maurice Nassau, both perpetrated by persons instigated, encourag'd, embolden'd, hired, paid and Missionated by the Provincial and Rector of Doway, and other Jesuites, as Thuanus, whom the Vindicator, if he dares, may deny for a good Testimony, more at large relates.

A Ridiculous, in supposing that the English Jesuites have either credit or acquaintance with the States of Holland. The Fool will turn Changling be∣fore the end of his Vindication. As if we thought the Jesuites had no more wit than to appear in Holland in all their formalities. No, no, they have their shapes and their disguises, and if they want credit or acquaintance, they want neither Money nor Insinuation to procure both, unless they be all such Dunces as the Vindicator. He I confess is no great man of Language, he'l tell ye ye Lie, and 'tis False,—And fearing that neither his Malitious, nor his Ridiculous would serve his turn, in his own natural Delivery, he affirms, The Iesuites never had any such design, and that no Iesuit or Iesuits were sent about it. All which we find him endeavouring to prove thus, for it is sometimes requisite to let you see the quint Essence of his Arguments.

Six Jesuites could not be spared out of the Seminary of St. Omers upon such a Design.

Ergo. Not Twelve out of the whole Province.

Again. They that stopt at Watten, could not be sent to Holland; for had they been sent, they had gone.

Ergo. They were not sent, because they did not go.

To the 39 Article he answers, That Blundel protested he never heard of any such Letter, and so refers ye to Attestation E.

In the 41 Article the Doctor deposes, That Fenwick told him that the Jesuits had 60000 l. per Annum, and 100000 l. in Bank, and that he lent out money at 50 per Cent. This he denies, and wonders how it should be true. But it is a Proverh fix'd upon the Jesuits,

Quod Vultur est Milvo, id Iesuita est Monacho.

So that it is no wonder that the most Covetous, Proling, Scraping, Racking, Cozening, Cheating, purloyning Order in the World, should have 60000 l. per Annum, and a hundred Thousand pound in Banck. The Vindicator little understood what belongs to sums beyond his own Seminary Exhibition; and Fenwick was a ••illy Jesuit-Broaker. There be those who have better calcu∣lated the Jesuits Incomes, that could have informed the Vindicator that their Revenues above 20 years ago, amounted to two Millions of Crowns in Gold yearly, which is above 500000 l, per Annum, a sum far greater then what the Vindicator admires at. And there is no question to be made, but that they who were contriving the ruin of Princes and whole Nations, had some of their bulky Banck disposed of near the Scene of their Expences requisite for such a design. And for the Jesuits Consciences, we leave them to their Brethren the Jews to take measure of them by their own.

The 42 Article deposes, that Harcourt, Fennick, Keynes, and another of the Society, declar'd their intentions to raise a commotion in the Kingdom of Eng∣land,

and Dominion of Wales, which appear'd also by several Letters shewed the Deponent.

This the Vindicator calls a Lye without any signe of Truth, and would have any one of these Letters produced. What would it have signified? For the Vindicator would have brought somebody to protest there were no such Letters written, Produce their Letters, and either they make their Equivo∣cating Comments upon them, or else deny their own hands, which has not sav'd their Necks for all that. That's such a Flim Flam Story, for a Sancha Pancha of a Vindicator, to bid us produce Letters, when he himself has un∣dertaken to venture his Soul, and all the pains of Hell and Purgatory to con∣found what ever can be produc'd, which bare denials and attestations out of the Clouds, and that with such a daring and audacious Impudence, as if Truth were only confin'd to that foul skulking hole of Iniquity and Treason at St. Omers. And then with a plausible Insinuation, They that all our modern Hi∣stories have Character'd for the grand Incendaries of the World, They that are Chronicl'd for their Murders and Massacres, and their inflaming all the Kingdoms of Europe, and disturbing the repose of Church and State over all Christendom. They shall come to a pitiful, idle, nonsensical Vindicator, and bid him cry to the Deponent for deposing the Truth, and detecting their hateful Conspiracies, What a Commotion you have rais'd in England, all the World may see. Yes, and all the World (no question) by the vanity of this Vindicators attempt, by the sordidness of his Defence, do plainly see who were the Original cause of all this Commotion; not the Deponent; for the Enterprize, had it not been Truth, would have sunk such a mean and despi∣cable Slanderer as he. But those aspiring, topping Sons of Perdition, whose wicked Principles oblige them to lay, (if they can bring it to pass) all the Princes and States of Europe at the feet of a Leud and Prophane Antichrist.

To the 43 Article, That no Messengers were sent by the Names of Moor and Sanders, with instructions to carry themselves like Nonconformist Scots, &c.

He says little, but seems to be in an Extasie, and wonders whom the De∣ponent means, for he never could hear of any Jesuit of those Names. A very likely thing indeed, that never any English Jesuit (at any time) bore the com∣mon Names of Moor, Sanders, and Brown, so vulgar almost in every Society of Ten. But what needs all this Amazement? No body says they were Jesuits, nor sent as Jesuits, but as Messengers or Emissaries, any thing but Jesuits. And thus you see what is the main thing impos'd upon the Vindicator to do; he is to deny right or wrong; at which his fidelity is so nimble, that rather then not deny, he will deny what was never averr'd. You shall see, when he finds that his Vindication has done more harm than good, He will deny there was ever any such thing written, or ever seen in the World.

To the 44. That the Iesuites communicate the secret Counsels of the King, which they purchase with their money, to La Chaise the French Kings Confessor, &c.

He sayes positively, all this is false, and to make it out, tells ye, There was no need of purchasing Intelligences while the Coffee-houses stood. He would make us believe the Jesuits were the arrantest Ideots in Nature, as if we thought that Coffee-house Intelligence were the purchase which they Fish'd for with their Silver-hooks. No, no, 'twas they themselves, who then, and still do, make those Coffee-houses he prates of, the Nurseries of Rebellion, by their own Emisaries, daily employ'd, to divulge their Lies and Forgeries,

Et ambiguas in vulgum spargere voces,

on purpose to cast a mist before the Eyes of the people, and gather strength to renew their disappointed Villanies: So that his Coffee-house Inference is nothing but a meer Smoak.

The 46 Article deposes, That the Letters from St. Omers expressed great joy, that Sir G. W. had undertaken the business.

To which he Replies, it is false, that ever Sir G. W. undertook the busi∣ness; for why? it appears so by the publick Verdict of the Jury at his Tryal.

An Argument of the Vindicators own Framing against himself; for by the same inference it is apparent, that all that was Sworn against the rest that were Hang'd, was true, because the Publick Verdict of the Jury found 'em Guilty. See how these fellows glory in one Acquittal, and yet it is a thing frequently observ'd, That many times the greatest Fellons escape, when lesser Criminals are Condemn'd. By which the whole Nation may see of what a dangerous consequence it is to shew the least grain of Mercy to the Unmerciful. And yet the Argument is not so potent neither, when we consider how much men of Reason are dissatisfied with that Acquittal, and how the Papists laugh in their Sleeves, and sing Jubilate, not so much for the escape of the Person, as the success of their underhand dealing.

The rest of the Chapter is so Ridiculous, that I pass it over, as being unwil∣ling to tire the Reader with Impertinencies that may be avoided.