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<DATE>2014-09-08</DATE>
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<NAME>TCP Staff (Michigan)</NAME>
<RESP>MURP</RESP>
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<ITEM>Proofed and reviewed as part of batch B140529.pdcc.</ITEM>
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<IDG S="marc" R="UM" ID="B43369">
<STC T="W">L3042</STC>
<STC T="G">c.122.i.5[35]</STC>
<BIBNO T="UNM">99889308</BIBNO>
<VID>208003</VID>
</IDG><!-- alt.stc Gc.122.i.5[35] -->
<TEXT LANG="eng">
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<DIV1 TYPE="speech">
<PB REF="1">
<HEAD>The Lord Chancellours <HI>Di&s;covery and Confe&s;&s;ion:</HI> Made in the Time of His Sickne&s;s in the Tower.</HEAD>
<P>THE Dreadful Apprehen&s;ions of a future being to Souls &s;o ill-prepared, and the Ter|rors of Con&s;cience under the Vi&s;itatio<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter"> of Heaven, are of that &s;ad weight, that no thought can imagine but his th<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">t groans under it. When I tu<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">n my Eyes inward, I can look upon my &s;elf as no other than the unhappie&s;t of Men, loaded with Infa|my, Mi&s;ery, Impri&s;onment, and almo&s;t De&s;pair; but a|bove all, with the Univer&s;al Hatred of a Kingdom; &s;o U|niver&s;al, that I &s;tand the very Center of Shame, whil&s;t every Tongue that reviles, each Eye that loaths, and every Finger that points, &s;eem to terminate in mi&s;erable me. Such is my hard Fate, and &s;uch my &s;erious Reflections, that I believe, had my Faults been ten-fold greater than they are, it was impo&s;&s;ible for me to di&s;oblige Mankind in all my Exalted Glory, but half &s;o much as I have plea&s;ed them in my Fall; &s;o naturally lovely in the <HI>En|gli&s;h</HI> Eyes, does the Di&s;tre&s;s and Ruines of Tottering Greatne&s;s look, where they &s;eem but ju&s;t.</P>
<P>But all the&s;e Accumulated Calamities are but my lighte&s;t Burthen; for, alas, how ju&s;tly, and more &s;adly may I cry out with falling <HI>Wool&s;ey, Had I &s;erved my God with half that Zeal I &s;erved my King, He would not have left me thus Wretched!</HI> Wretched indeed, when my weakne&s;s of Body calls me to con&s;ider, how near I may &s;tand to that Tribunal, before which, the proude&s;t of Earthly Judges, Potentates, and Princes tremble. The Summons from that terrible Judge, is &s;uch an Alarm, that what would I do, if po&s;&s;ible, to Soften that Almighty Ju&s;tice that &s;tands arm'd again&s;t me? Could the Confe&s;&s;ion of my Crimes make the lea&s;t part of their Attonements; how happy &s;hould I think my &s;elf, in Unbo&s;oming my whole Soul, even to my &s;ecrete&s;t and minute&s;t Thought? The &s;ence of which, makes me borrow from my Pains, the&s;e few favourable, though d ftracted Minutes, to u&s;e that Candour and Openne&s;s before I leave the World, that may reconc<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">le it, if po&s;&s;ible, among&s;t all its <HI>Odium</HI> and <HI>Aver&s;ion,</HI> to at lea&s;t one charitable Thought of me.</P>
<P>But alas, before I come to the &s;ad Narrative of tho&s;e numerous Ills I have committed, before I launch down into that deeper Torrent; my akeing Heart, and &s;ad Re|membrance, lead me up to the fatal Fountain Head, from whence they took their Ri&s;e: And there, to my Con|fu&s;ion, I am forced to acknowledge my Crimes are &s;carce &s;o black as the Polluted Source they &s;prung from: For whereas Ambition, Intere&s;t, Honours, tho&s;e &s;miling Gourt-Beams, the common <HI>Ignes fatui,</HI> are tho&s;e gaw|dier Snares that mi&s;lead the wandring Steps of other Of|fending State&s;men; I cannot but &s;hamefully confe&s;s, that a Viler and Sootier Coal, Rancour and Malice, warp'd me crooked.</P>
<P>The two famous Occa&s;ions of my ri&s;ing Spleen and bit|terne&s;s of Spirit, proceeded from the Parliaments bring|ing me upon my Knees, for my abhorring of Petitions; and next, the City of <HI>London</HI>'s Turning me out of my Re|corder&s;hip.</P>
<P>The Anger, the Rage, the Spight I conceiv'd at this double Di&s;grace and Affront, was the fir&s;t accur&s;ed Gall that Poy&s;on'd me; a Re&s;entment that &s;truck me &s;o deep, and &s;o Canker'd every faculty of my Soul, that what is it I did not &s;tudy, Contrive, and Plot to be reveng'd? I profe&s;s in the Agony of my Thought, I was a hundred times not only. Thinking, but Re&s;olving (if no other means) to turn <HI>Wizzard,</HI> to wreak my Malice upon my Enemies, had my &s;mall Belief (Heaven forgive me) of either a God or a Devil, per&s;waded me there was any &s;uch Creature as a <HI>Witch,</HI> or &s;uch an Art as <HI>Sorcery.</HI></P>
<P>As for that damn'd Town of <HI>London,</HI> not <HI>Cataline</HI> a|gain&s;t Old <HI>Rome,</HI> was half &s;o &s;worn a Foe, as I, again&s;t that In&s;olent Proud City. Really and &s;incerely, I could willingly and heartily out of my own Pocket, (though I &s;old my la&s;t Ragg in the World) have been my &s;elf at the charge of a New Monument, &s;o I had had but the Plea&s;ure of a &s;econd &s;ame Occa&s;ion of Building it. Nay verily, I envied the Fate of the old <HI>Ero&s;tratus,</HI> and that more modern Worthy, <HI>Hubart;</HI> and could have wi&s;h'd my Own Name, though at the price of his De&s;tiny, Engra|ven in the very Room of that wi&s;ely raz'd-out <HI>In&s;cription,</HI> on &s;o glorious an Occa&s;ion.</P>
<P>'Twas then alas, Edg'd and Enraged with a Mortal Hate, and an Avowed Vengeance again&s;t that accur&s;ed and dete&s;ted City, and more dete&s;ted Parliaments; with two &s;uch meritorious Qualifications. I applyed my &s;elf to the once great <HI>Coleman</HI>'s Greater Ma&s;ter, at that time an ear|ly, and indeed almo&s;t only governing Pilot at the Helm; both infallible Recommendations to Entitle me to the highe&s;t Hopes of the mo&s;t Exalted Honours. In &s;hort, I Entred, Li&s;ted, and Swore my &s;elf Engineer General under that leading <HI>Heroe</HI>'s Banners; and how hugged, and how embraced, my &s;ucceeding almo&s;t Deluge of good Fortune, Glories, and Preferments will &s;ufficiently Te&s;tifie.</P>
<P>And though the World has &s;ometimes wondred at &s;o &s;udden a Ri&s;e, as is little more than &s;even years, to mount from a <HI>Finsbury</HI> Petty-fogger, to a Lord High-Chan|cellour of <HI>England;</HI> from bawling at a Hedge-Court-Bar for five Shillings Fee, to &s;it Equity-Driver with Ten thou|&s;and Pound <HI>per Annum</HI> (be&s;ides P<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">e&s;ents and Bribes unac|countable) hone&s;tly gotten. But alas, to rectify the Mi|&s;takes of Mankind, and &s;uppre&s;s their A&s;toni&s;hment at &s;o Unpre&s;idented an Advance, I mu&s;t a&s;&s;ure them, that as no Hi&s;tory affords a parallel of &s;uch a Crown-Favourite as my &s;elf; &s;o no Age ever yielded &s;uch a true Crown-Drudge neither, to de&s;erve tho&s;e Favours. Alas, my Dar|ling Fortune mov'd not half &s;o Rapid, as my dearer Coun|&s;els drove; and all the Care&s;&s;es of my Glory were thought but the poore&s;t Meed and Reward of tho&s;e Services that gain'd them.</P>
<P>But to recite my fatal Particulars: Upon my fir&s;t En|trance (as I was &s;aying) of Engineer General, our fir&s;t great Attacque was again&s;t the <HI>Charter of London;</HI> and to the Honour of my <HI>Premier Effort,</HI> what by our terri|ble Dead-doing <HI>Quo-Warranto,</HI> my own invented Bat|tring-Ramm, planted agein&s;t them at <HI>We&s;tmin&s;ter,</HI> and the <HI>Tower-Hill-Guns,</HI> removed and mounted again&s;t them on the <HI>Tower</HI> Battlements; we &s;oon reduced that Impe|rious Town, to almo&s;t as intire a Subjection and Va&s;&s;a<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">|age,
<PB REF="2">as our own Hearts, and our <HI>Roman</HI> Friends, could wi&s;h.</P>
<P>Next, for tho&s;e <HI>Prerogative-Crampers,</HI> tho&s;e <HI>Cheek|mates</HI> of Crowns, call'd <HI>Parliaments,</HI> there our Triumph was Ab&s;olute; we Prorogued or Di&s;&s;olved, and Danced them from Pillar to Po&s;t, from <HI>We&s;tmin&s;ter</HI> to <HI>Oxford,</HI> &amp;c. at plea&s;ure; and Heaven knowes, with timely, pru|dent and wi&s;e Care, to hu&s;h their too impudently inqui|&s;itive Curio&s;ity into our <HI>Colemans</HI> Pacquets, our <HI>Le Chai&s;e</HI> and <HI>Lewis</HI> Intrigues, and the re&s;t of our <HI>Popi&s;h Plots</HI> and <HI>Cabals;</HI> and all God wot<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">, little enough to keep our Clo|ven Foot undi&s;cover'd,</P>
<P>Flu&s;ht with &s;uch pro&s;perous Succe&s;s, even in my Infant Mi&s;chiefs, what was it that I either &s;taggered or &s;hrunk at? My Temptations &s;o allured me, my Rewards &s;o daz|led me, and my Felicity &s;o hardned me, that Moderation, Reluctance, or Humanity, were only &s;o many Manacles and Shackles, that my inpatient Soul threw off with Di&s;|dain.</P>
<P>Who alas but I, with &s;o much Unrelenting and Pitile&s;s Ba<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">barity, Triumpht in the Blood of tho&s;e poor mi&s;erable We&s;tern Wretches; and Sanguin'd my very Ermins in their Gore, till even the Air with the Noi&s;omne&s;s of their C<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">rca&s;&s;es &s;tunk almo&s;t as much (if po&s;&s;ible) as the very Name of <HI>Jefferies</HI> their Butcher? Yes, and I acted by the Commi&s;&s;ioning Vengeance that &s;ent me thither, to inform the Heretick Enemies of <HI>Rome</HI> how much their Blood <HI>Tickles</HI> when it <HI>Streams;</HI> and to let them know by the Sample of my Hand, how keen is a Popi&s;h Ed<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">-Tool.</P>
<P>Was it not I too, that with &s;o much Cunning and Artifice, and by &s;o many Rhetorical High-Trea&s;on-Flouri&s;hes, wheedled poor <HI>Corni&s;h</HI> to a Gibbet, and <HI>Ru&s;&s;el</HI> to a Scaffold? Yes, and 'twas a Ma&s;ter-Piece! To give the Trembling World a Timely Warning what Pro|te&s;tant Zeal mu&s;t tru&s;t to, when Popi&s;h Malice is pleas'd to be Angry; and to convince how ea&s;ily can a Je&s;uitical Engine wire-draw Guilt, where Popi&s;h Ran|cour is Re&s;olv'd to De&s;troy.</P>
<P>Who Di&s;&s;olv'd all the Charters, and new Garbell'd all the Corporations, but <HI>Jefferies?</HI> And why, but to prepare 'em to unde<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">&s;tand that what with our <HI>Quo Warranto's,</HI> and the re&s;t of our Modelling Tools, we were Re&s;olved at la&s;t to have PARLIAMENTS <HI>Al-a-mode de Paree,</HI> and their Dragoon-Reformers too, &s;oon after.</P>
<P>Who invented that En&s;naring Command to the Bi|&s;hops, of Reading the <HI>Declaration,</HI> and put their Re|fu&s;al to the &s;tretch of High Mi&s;demeanor, if not High Trea&s;on, but the <HI>Chancellor?</HI> And why, think you, but to &s;atisfie them what Romi&s;h Eye-&s;ores are the Prote&s;tant Lawn-Sleeves; and that they &s;hall want neither J<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">&s;tles nor Stumbling-Blocks to trip their Heels up, and their Heads off too, when they &s;tand in our way?</P>
<P>Who but the Great <HI>Jefferies,</HI> in Defiance of the very Fundamentals of Humane Society, the Original Laws of Nature, and to the Face of <HI>MAGNA CHARTA</HI> it &s;elf, got the Bi&s;hop of <HI>LONDON</HI> Silenc'd and Su&s;pended, without &s;o much as that Univer&s;al and Common Right, Sacred even among&s;t Heathens and In|fidels, <HI>viz.</HI> the Priviledge of making either Plea or De|fence, Condemn'd Untry'd and Unheard? Yes, I did it; to in&s;truct the World what feeble Cobweb-Lawn are the Bonds of Ju&s;tice, Law, Liberty, Common Right, <HI>&amp;c.</HI> in the hands of an Imperial Popi&s;h <HI>Samp&s;on Ago|ni&s;tes?</HI></P>
<P>Was it not I too, by my Eccle&s;ia&s;tick High-Commi&s;|&s;ion-Supremacy, not only again&s;t the Statutes and Cu|&s;toms of the Univer&s;ity, but the Po&s;itive Laws of the Land, turned <HI>Maudlir</HI>-Colledge into a Seminary of Je|&s;uites, and in &s;pight of that Bulwark of the Church of <HI>England,</HI> the Act of Uniformity, converted a Collegi|ate Chappel into a Ma&s;s hou&s;e? And by the &s;ame Ju&s;tice, might not every Collegiate, Cathedral, and Parochial Church, had the &s;ame Conver&s;ion? And both the Foun|tains of Religion and Learning, the Mother Univer&s;i|ties, been deprived of all her Prote&s;tant Sons, and re|peopled with the whole Race of St. <HI>Omers</HI> and <HI>Sala|manca?</HI></P>
<P>Who did all this? The <HI>Chancellour!</HI> Yes, and he &s;av'd the <HI>Church of England,</HI> and the whole <HI>Engli&s;h</HI> Liberty, by it. The Nation was lull'd into &s;o profound a Sleep, that they wanted &s;uch Thunder-Claps, and &s;uch a <HI>Boa|nerges,</HI> to awaken them from their Lethargy.</P>
<P>With the&s;e &s;erious Reflections, That the&s;e Rapid and Violent Motions of the Romi&s;h Cau&s;e, are and have been the De&s;truction of it; who has been the Prote&s;tants Champion, but I? Who has pull'd off the Vizor from the Scarlet Whore, and expo&s;ed the Painted <HI>Babylon</HI> Pro|&s;titute, but I? And if I drove like <HI>Jehu,</HI> 'twas only to the Confu&s;ion of a <HI>Jezabel.</HI> Who call'd in the Deliverer of our Church and Laws, that &s;econd <HI>Hannibal,</HI> the migh|ty <HI>Na&s;&s;au,</HI> but <HI>Jefferyes?</HI> Who has Re-mounted the &s;ink|ing Glory of our Temples, till their Pinacles &s;hall ki&s;s Heaven, but <HI>Jefferyes?</HI> Who has United. Two &s;uch for|midable Prote&s;tant Neighbours, with that Eternal Link of Intere&s;t, as &s;hall render us once more the Arbiters of <HI>Europe,</HI> and Terrour of the World? Who but <HI>Jefferyes</HI> and <HI>Jefferyes.</HI> Conduct, has joyn'd tho&s;e Naval Forces, tho&s;e Floating Walls that &s;hall one day mew up that French An|tichri&s;tian Mon&s;ter, till in De&s;pight and De&s;pair, he bur&s;ts his Soul out at his Fi&s;tula?</P>
<P>In fine, Who has cut off the very Entayl of Popery and Slavery from three happy Kingdoms, but <HI>Jefferyes?</HI> Three Kingdoms did <HI>I</HI> &s;ay? Yes, po&s;&s;ibly has laid that Foundation to the Prote&s;tant Cau&s;e, as perhaps &s;hall one day m<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">ke her over-top, the Seven Proud Hills, and &s;trike her Dagger into the very Gates of <HI>Rome.</HI></P>
<P>With this Confe&s;&s;ion of my Crimes, which under the Afflicting Hand of Heaven, I think my &s;elf Obl<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">ged to give the World, I be&s;eech my E<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">emies them&s;elves &s;o to repre&s;ent my C<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">&s;e, as that at lea&s;t. <HI>Out of the Devourer may come forth Meat; and out of the Strong, Sweetne&s;s:</HI> And by Ballancing the Services of my Actions again&s;t the Guilt of them, give me &s;ome &s;mall dawn of Hope, that the Approaching Parliament, my Judges, my Accu&s;ers them&s;elves, may be &s;oftned into &s;ome Commi&s;eration and Forgivene&s;s. I a&s;&s;ure them, if Heaven &s;pare me Life to ask it, they &s;hall want neither Confe&s;&s;ion, Di&s;covery, nor Contrition, to obtain their Ab&s;olution. And Black as I am, I beg, even my mo&s;t Hard-hearted Adver&s;aries, to Con&s;ider, that &s;till I am not Blacker then <HI>Judas.</HI> And alas, there was &s;ome Merit even in <HI>Judas;</HI> for there want|ed his Betraying of his God, for the Saving of the World.</P>
<P><HI>With Allowance.</HI></P>
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<DIV1 TYPE="colophon">
<P><HI>LONDON,</HI> Printed for <HI>R. Lee</HI> without <HI>Bi&s;hop&s;gate.</HI> 1689.</P>
</DIV1>
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