violence of his own Nature; ſo that he quickly run himſelf out of breath. As ſoon as he came to the Crown, he ſeized the Cuſtoms and Exciſe without Authority of Parliament: He picked out the Scum and Scandals of the Law to make Judges upon the Bench; and turned out all that would not ſacrifice their Oaths to his Ambition, by which he diſcharged the Lords out of the Tower, inflicted thoſe barbarous Puniſhments on Dr. Oates, Mr. Johnſon, &c. butchered many hundreds of Men in the Weſt, after they had been trappanned into a Confeſſion by promiſe of Pardon, murdered Corniſh, got the Diſpenſing Power to be declared in Weſtminſter-hall, turned the Fellows of Magdalen-college out of their Freeholds, to make way for a Seminary of Prieſts, and hanged Soldiers for running away from their Colours. He erected the eccleſiaſtical Commiſſion, ſuſpended the Biſhop of London, becauſe he would not inflict the ſame Puniſhment upon Dr. Sharp, for preaching againſt Popery. He cloſetted the Nobility and Gentry, turned all out of Employment that would not promiſe to repeal the Teſt, put in Popiſh Privy-Counſellors, Judges, Deputy Lieutenants, and Juſtices of Peace; and to get all this confirmed by the ſhew of Parliament, he proſecuted the Work his Brother had begun in taking away Charters, and new modelled the Corporations, by a sort of Vermin called Regulators. He received a Nuntio from Rome, and ſent an Ambaſſador thither. He erected a Popiſh Seminary at the Savoy to pervert Youth, ſuffered the Prieſts to go about in their Habits, made Tyrconnel Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, turned all the Proteſtants out of the Army and moſt of the Civil Employments there, and made Fitton (a Papiſt, and one detected for Perjury) Chancellor of that Kingdom. He iſſued out a Proclamation in Scotland, wherein he aſſerted his Abſolute Power, which all his Subjects were to obey without reſerve; a Prerogative, I think, never claimed by the Great Turk, or the Mogul. He iſſued out a Declaration for Liberty of Conſcience, ordered it to be read in all Churches, and impriſoned and tried the ſeven Biſhops, becauſe they humbly offered their Reaſons in a Petition againſt it: And to conſummate all, that we might have no Hopes of retrieving our Misfortunes,
