A Dreadful Oration

A Dreadful Oration Delivered by that sorely afflicted Saint, STEPHEN LOBB, &c.

THe Words are very Copious; Nay they are ushered in, or introduced with a Behold! A Sentence in one Word. Yea, I may say a Volume comprehended in two Sillables: As if it had been pointed out for an unfolder of Words: A Miracle produced out of six Letters; A Charm to confine your Thoughts to Admiration of what will follow. — As thus.

Behold! That is, stand still; keep thy Eye steadfast, and thou shalt have a Riddle explained through those Opticks, thy Eyes to thy understanding.

Behold thou shalt see men Executed for Traitors; as we have many.

Behold with what carefulness they Suffer'd; as they did all.

Behold! That is, listen to their dying Words; And thou shalt find a Not Guilty in all their Mouths.

Behold a steadfast perseverance to the last, without the least complaining against, or murmuring at the Justice of the Law, because corrupted by the Perjury of Slaves in Pay. But here is a Behold! M. r. ching in the Front of a Complaint. A Behold that leads the Harlot Rebellion blinded in bloody Security, to the hand of Justice, and there unveils her. Here is a People that call themselves the Righteous, the Elect of the Land. And yet Behold They are taken in the Height of their Conspiracy.

In the Words, you have these Four Heads.

• First, you have a Citation to employ the Light of the Body, the Eye, in the Word Behold.
• Secondly, you have the Object; or the People under Confinement, in the Words following, The Net is fallen upon Us.
• Thirdly, who they are intangl'd in this Snare, and that is the Righteous.
• Fourthly, and lastly; it shows the time when; which is, In the Height of their Conspiracy.

I begin with the First Point.

Behold we are become a by-word. The Subject of every ealy-spleen'd Loyalist to employ his Talent. Our Profession is become like a Painted Sepulcher, whose fair outside this Discovery has Sullied: and exposed our Putrefaction to public view. Behold Me, your Soul-saving Instructer, receiving the Sacrament at the Church in the Morning, to enable me to be Guardian to the Babes of a Deceased Brother: And then Behold the Cloak of Fraud put on (to lie, and betray your Souls, and your Purses) at a Meeting-House in the Afternoon.

Behold! Our Brother Bull, wallowing in the Suds of the Creature at the door of Iniquity. Behold! Ness, a Teacher of Seperation, (next door to the Scotch-Hall ) selling Seditious Phamphlets to his Rebellious crammed Auditors.

Behold! Us all a Cheat, and you the Cheate • s.

Behold! Our City's Head-Officer, Cheating Madam Creswel of the Wages of Fornication.

Behold! Sir Patience Ward, in the Height of Rebellion, putting a sham Inscription round the Monument, to insense the Rabble: and now behold him hiding in a Garret, to shelter him from the Justice of the Law, for Perjury.

Behold! Sir William Waller, with the True Blew Party, Disarining the Kings Friends, to Arm themselves against his Life. Yea, behold him buring the Picture of his Savior, under the pretence of Rooting out Separation; and yet behold him, setting up a Rebellious Son against his Father, and Sovereigns life for the Image of a King.

Behold! Bethel (the True. Protestant Sheriff) in the time of the Popish-Plot, contriving. Treason in a Garrer; And then behold him Carving it out at a Nine-penny Ordinary.

Behold him cheating the Prisoners of their usual Allowance; And now behold he's fled to avoid the Goal.

Behold Evidence Oats thronged after and admired, for the non-sense of Fanatic pleasing Sermons in Railing against the Whore of Babylon: And now behold him joining with that Baud to Rebellion, Phanatism.

Behold him the Master Evidence in the Popish Plot: but behold too many truths to be sworn, to employ him in our Phanatical Conspiracy.

Behold his Brother Prance calling for Wine at Tory Bowmans, and behold his Dog would allow him none but the dropping of his Tap; by which you may behold now Honesty has the upper-hand, that Murderers, and the Savior's of the Nation are slighted.

Behold my Lord Russel turning away the Clerk his Kitchen for being Loyal, and drinking the King and Dukes Health: then behold him proclaiming his Innocence by an equivocating Confession.

Behold the Green-Ribbon-Club Caballing of Trea son, but then behold Tory R — with his Invention of the Scarlet Ribbon; (in opposition to theirs) expressing his Loyalty.

Behold him in the height of the Popish Plot, Singing Tory Songs: And behold their consequence come home to our Doors.

Behold us teaching Sedition in spite of the Government: And behold Gillo laying us open, in his Books called Ferguson's Lamentation, &c.

By this you may plainly behold what we are: And you have beheld what the Sufferers in the late Popish Plot were. There was Not Guilty, by the hopes of Salvation at the very brink of Eternity.

But behold We Confess as soon as Apprehended. Their Innocence would rather let them stay to be Executed, than Fly, or stain their Guiltless Consciences with a false Confession; but We were all upon the wing, so soon as our black Designs were Discover'd.

Behold the King as He's the Fountain of Honor: So He imitates His Maker in His unbounded Mercy. And yet behold Us, (who are Streams of that Fountain,) striving to dam up their Sluices, and stop their Current forever. Nay, behold Us poisoning the Dukes Fame, (if We mist our T •• yterous stroke) in laying the Murder of the King on his Un-imitable Love towards him.

But now Behold the Net is fallen upon Us, and Justice gives us our Reward: Which words bring me to the second thing observable in my Text; which is the Object, or the People under Confinement; in the words the Net is fallen upon Us: I shall strive here to explain what We are in a general Sense. We are generally taken notice to be, Stallions, Pimps, Whores, and Bawds; that is thus. The Heads of our Faction, are Stallions to the Genteeler sort of our Assosiates Wives. Those Gentlemen Rebels, are Stallions to the better sort of the City Wives. The Citizens are Pimps, and Wittals, in introducing them, and holding the Door. Their Wives are Insatiate Strumpets, with unsatisfy'd Appetites. Their Mothers are Bawds for keeping others in discourse, till him that is in Action has dispatched his Errant, and conveyed out at a back-door. This is in their Carnal Sense. Nay they are the same in that (we call) a Spiritual Sense; the Heads of our Faction take a great deal of pains from place, to place, from one County to another; nay from Exeter our Party met M—th Armstrong, and others of our Faction, with Shouts, and Huzza's of great Joy; And these Popular Traitors all the time • awn'd upon them, Debauching, and seducing those a degree beneath them, to be Rebels, with promises of great Preferment; And Offices, where great Revenues should come in, with a contentious Liberty at the end. And therefore are Stallions in that Rebellious Toyl.

Those Gentlemen Rebels are Stallions, by Infecting the Citizen, with stand up for your Liberties and Properties; and down with Popery, and Tyrany. With stand up for a Commonwealth, and down with Monarchy. With have a care of going to Bed, and rising the next Morning with your Throats Cut. With have a care of being Slaves to a Forreign Nation With stand up for that Witch-craft Rebellion; And cut the Kings Throat in private, for Conscience Sake.

The Citizens, are Pimps to the second part of the Good Old Cause; by taking, Rebellion, to distribute it at second hand. For drawing in the Mobile, and blinding their eyes with that Factious Harlot Irreligious Liberty; which would prove Slavery. In seducing the Plebeians, to Ingender with that Whore Sedition; when they should be Wedded to that chaste Spouse, called Loyalty. Their Wives are Whores, in that (we call) a Spiritual Sense, because their Religion is only outside. Their Zealous Sighs, not from the Heart; but from the Custom of known Hypocracy. They refuse to be Servants to that true Church Establish'd by Law, And join themselves to that bastard Church Seperation, established by that true Father of it, the Devil. And We are his Predecessors, of the same Infernal Order: And by reason of the admirable Qualifications; The Net is fallen upon Us. But I had almost forgot, the Bawd of our Religion, (as we call it.) This is one, whose Education from her youth was Non-conformity; one that has habited herself to Sin, from her very Cradle: That she's become, like him who invents a Story, and tells it so often till he thinks it Truth. So she by Custom is enslav'd to this Ignis Fatuus; and thinks it a true Light: And therefore is Bawd to her own Children in bringing them up to her broad and beaten Road that leads to perdition; and thinks them Damn'd if they take to the Path that directs to Happiness,

For we, that had such bloody Designs, to Assassinate our Sovereign and His dearest Brother: And after that imbrew our hands in the Bowels of all Their Honest, Loyal, Loving Subjects; Fleying them alive, and stuffing their Skins to be hung up in Public Halls, for a Monument of our Zealous Cruelty: I say we that had laid a Conspiracy of such inevitable Ruin, to the whole Land (but those of our Religion-destroying Party ) looked on these Carnal and Sham Religious Endowments, as Natural: For that opinion, that's founded on blood, will exempt no Sin from being an Article of their Faith. And therefore I am sure they must all be Guilty of what they are here accused. What pains did our Head, (and that Prince-hectoring Villain Shaftsbury, ) take, to prove the King Married, to that Murdering Rebels Mother; with the Hell-bred invention of a writing enclosed in a Black Box: when the King by His Royal Proclamation had declared him Illegitimate. But when this Leech, of Rebellion, left to be the blood-sucker of Loyalty: Then this Natural Lump, and Clod of second-hand Policy, lost the Brains that this Damn'd Matchiavillian Hell-Hound carried for him. And so our Designs droop'd, for want of his Councils to countenance our Conspiracy: but he's only gone, to prepare a place for our Party, which are Travelling after him: and will shortly bear him company, in the place where he sits head (as he did amongst Us here) of all our Phanatical Blunderbus Saints: For behold we are discovered, and the Net is fallen upon Us. And that leads me to the third particular or head of my Text, which shows who they are entangled in this Snare: and that is the Righteous. Who are discovered by the actions of a sincere Life, and pious Conversation. By an unblamable walking, with all Conformity to the Laws of their Sovereign; by their Detestation of everything that is Evil. In short, by abandoning all Rebellion, and putting on the white Spotless Robe of Innocence, and have not we done this? Have not we been sincerely true to the Injustice of our Diabolical Designs? Have not we ventured Damnation, to accomplish our Machinations? Which was more than the Popish Plotters could do; for they were brought to their end by our Contrivance. And yet we ventured on with the Guilt of their blood upon Us, and upon our Children; and the intention of Millions more. If we found whole Families to be Loyal, every individual Soul was to be cut off, with as little of Repentance, as the surprising the King and Duke would have granted them. Tho' we in Murdering their Royal Persons, had sent them Lambs prepared for the Sacrifice; through their Mercy, Goodness, and unlimited Forgiveness: Yet then we knew the Shepherds once gone, the Sheep had lain open and become a Prey to our Wolvish Natures. For we were so Confirm'd in our bloody Principles, that where e're we found but part of a Family dissaffected to our Holy Proceedings, They had past as Victims to our Blood-thirsty, Un-alterable Designs, by the Hands of the rest of the Household, who were intended, nay instructed for their Butcherly Executioners. Of whom we had a particular account of all the Streets of every Parish within the City of London, yea, of every place within the Lines of Communication. And our pretensions were to Unite the Protestants to one another, suppress Popery; which is coming more violently upon us than ever: Therefore you that are at Liberty, be ready with your Spits to Roast the Whore of Babylon, or broyl her upon the Grid-iron, as we designed to serve Sir George Jefferies, and several others of the Kings Counselors. For these are the actions of Sincere, Good, and Well-affected Christians; I say such as we were, and are in all our Principles: Nay to Confirm our Resolutions, upon choosing the late Sheriffs, North, and Rich, (for fear our Sanctify'd Party should carry the Day) did not a Loyal Man come to him that lives at the Kings-Head Tavern at Charing-Cross, and desire him to go (knowing him to be a Free-man and a true Cavalier) and give his Vote, and when he came to Guild-Hall, did not a Zealous Brother to our Bloody Cause (meeting him there) entreat him to Vote (but this year) for Papillion and Dubois, and the next year he may Vote for whom he pleased, but he did not hearken to him. Yet this shows how secure we thought ourselves of the Prosperity of our Blood-thirsty Design; Which had certainly been performed, had our two Sheriffs stood, Papillion and Dubois whom we Chose; that we might have had some more Ignoramus Juries. It is not necessary to lay our Brother open, though' he's a man that lives by the Light, being a Wax-Chandler near Charing-Cross, Did we not generally Murmur, nay sometimes talk allowed, that if the King offered to take away our Charter, He should find Bloody Noses. Our Conversation (in outward appearance) was Yea, Yea, and Nay, Nay, but having stripped Us of that Cant, of the thin covering of our Hell-black Souls; you in Legible Characters, have found, instead thereof, Blood, Blood, Murder, Murder.

This answer our Lay-Brethren, (though' our Priestly Function is of the Devils Institution) are instructed to give to the Examination of the Loyal Party, (why we will not Conform to the Laws of the Land) That they have seen so much Sanctity of Life, so great Purity in the Conversation of the Dissenting Assemblers, they were bred up among, that they must be of that opinion, which is to have the Lord in their Mouths, and the Devil in their Hearts and Actions. And can any Conversation be more Pious? Nay, our Wives are as Zealously good as we are, in their way; do they not every time the Spiritual Fit calls upon them to appear at our Nurseries of Bawdry, and Conventicling Schools, give up their Fleshly Intercession (by a Bill to their Pastor and Instructer ) that the Lord would enable their Husbands to perform Family Duty: which is a hint, either for Us their Teachers, or some lusty young Auditor (of our providing) to supply his place; for we by daily use are acquainted with all their Hands.

You call upon Us to Conform to the Government Established, we do, as much as in Us lies. We have all of Us for these many years last past, sworn to be Rebellious Villains. We have sworn to Murder the King and His Dearest Brother, and now you have discovered Us, you hang Us up like Dogs, hindering the performance of what we have Solemnly Vow'd. And are these Christian-like acts, to make men Forsworn? Therefore we would avoid the Evil of Perjury, and commit the Fact of Murder (our beloved Principles ) if you did not prevent Us; for we have the same Inclinations still, but only you clip our Wings, and will not let Us soar so high as the Throne.

For which, we ought to power forth our Tears, till by the Streams from our Eyes, we cause a second Flood to destroy the World; which may easily be done, considering the numerous company that are concerned, in our Unparrallel'd Conspiracy. Or (since we have mist our Eclipsing the Glory of this Earthly Sun, Moon, and other Planets that have Gradually their Degrees of Greatness from his Glorious Light) now, let us according to the Tenour of our Religion, Curse the Sun from the Firmament; the Moon from its Orb; the lesser Planets from their splended Sphears; that a Universal Darkness may cover us all, that had, or have the least hand in this never to be forgotten Conspiracy. For the Devil and Shaftsbury the (greatest Fiend of two) has drawn us in, and spotted the Witnesses of our Robe, with the Blood of the Innocent, which is the reason, that we the Righteous are taken.

And that brings me to the Fourth and last Head in my Text, showing the time when Justice lays hands upon them; and that is, In the Height of Their Conspiracy.

When the Blow was ready to be given, when we had numbered their Royal minutes, when the Match (as I may say) was fired, and having burnt to such a length, 'twas to discharge the Destroying Blunderbuss that would have dashed in pieces the best of Kings, and truest the Brothers; when we were just come to draw up the Sluices, and let out whole Streams of Royal Blood. for that Liberty Enfranchisement we designed to cry out for, (as we intended with our Swords drawn) was to make ourselves Libertines, in cutting Loyal Subjects Throats without Remorse, Destroying their Children without pity, Ravishing their Wives, and then Murdering them without Compassion. But at this very time Conscience steps in amongst Us;) which till Then was an utter stranger to our Party;) And cuts the Match asunder, to prevent its burning to the Fatal Powder; and by Miracle turns the destroying Piece upon our Party. Nay, several Cabals we held because we could not agree upon the exact place, (after we mist the stroke at New-market, ) and we find now, 'twas Divine Providence orders those debates, that always take a particular care of the Lives of Kings, and Princes; That His Majesty might be informed of our (I cannot find words horrid enough for it) Hell-hatched Conspiracy. What Guilt must needs be in the Earl of Essex, one of the Head of our Party, and Devil-deluded Greatness, to cut his own Throat, rather than trust to the Kings never-failing Mercy. Them that suffered, confessed themselves Guilty of all that's laid to their charge, except the Lord Russel; whose deportment at first appearance upon the Scaffold, was like our Religion, merely outside. His actions like one in a great Passion, that would strive to hide his resentment with a forced Smile. His Gesture, as if he had said, must a man of my vast Estate, come to expose my life, (nay, lay it down) before men so much beneath me. His Speech (which was but little) tended to Rebellion, advising the People to Arm themselves against that common Enemy the Roman Catholics. Which was our pretence, when we cut the Kings Head off. That is, (his advise has this meaning,) to bring ourselves under the same Predicament with him, (as many of us have already,) that we may receive the same (or the like) punishment; as we are assured we shall all. His Lordship just after the Execution of Viscount Stafford, enquiring how he suffered? was answered, the Executioner did not perform his Office well; he replied, That he was an Ignoramus at it yet, but by that time the next Lord came, he would be more Dexterous, little Dreaming his Honor was to make the next Experiment. Yet so it happens, That the Righteous are taken in the Height of Their Conspiracy.

But to slip our Necks out of the Snare, how do we strive to be in Loyal men's Company, (now the times are turned) because we would seem to appear so; Tho' in our Hearts we could cut their Throats. Nay, Whig S — follows up and down after Tory Tom, and by his good will would never be out of his Company: And everybody knows what he has been by his Writing. This has wrought upon me to forsake the Devil (our long adored Master) and follow Truth and Loyalty; which I heartily wish you may all. But then methinks (we having been such implacable Villains) I hear the Loyalists answer Us, with the Fable of the Cat that was Metamorphos'd into a Queen, and was sitting at the Table with all her Delicious Fare before her; her Retinue great to attend her; and all the Grandeur of Majestick Pomp. At length she spies a Mouse run cross the Room, she strait leaves her Costly Delicates to catch the Mouse: So say They to Us; whenever the least opportunity presents itself, we shall be like the Cat in following our own Game.