THE great Creator made Man in his own Image, and there­fore forbad in his Holy and Righteous Law any attempt to be made for the destruction of him; and was pleased early to provide for his safety, by making it expresly Penal on whomsoever should shed Blood wilfully: He that sheddeth mans blood, by man shall his blood be shed. Yet so miserably corrupted are our Natures, that forgetting these Holy Commands, almost every Week affords us sad and lamentable Examples of the Cry of Blood against our Land, and amongst too many others we cannot but with horror par­ticularly remember that infamous Murder committed by the, Papists, on [Page 2] that Vigilant, Worthy and Renowned Justice, Sir Edmondbury Godfrey, whose remembrance ought never to be blotted out of the Memory of every Loyal Protestant, and one of whose Successors (in Vigilance, and laborious Endeavours for Discovery of the Plot, and obliging the auda­cious Papists to conform to the Kings Majesties Laws) that Worthy Gen­tleman the subject of this present Discourse was.

Therefore to detain you no longer in an unnecessary preamble, be pleased to know, that John Arnold, Esq One of His Majesties Justices of Peace for the County of Monmouth, having been some years before the Discovery of the late horrid Plot, esteemed a loyal and dutiful Subject, and useful Person in his Countrey: It pleased His Majesty to put him into the Commission of the Peace for the County where his Estate and Family is; where his Demeanor was such in His Majesties service, as was well approved by all, except the Papists, who were, and yet are very numerous in that County, against some of whom at the Assizes he had given Information, and prosecuted, as he was bound by his Oath and Duty of his place to perform; yet so it was at that time, that a little before the Plot brake out, he was put out of Commission, and coming to London, was very desirous to understand his Offence; and being informed that Coleman (then a Servant to the Duke of York, since Executed at Tyburn for the design to Murder the King, and bring in Po­pery into this Nation, &c.) had offered somewhat in his prejudice: He went to the said Coleman, desiring to know what he had to charge him withall, for he was ready to answer any Misdemeanor before King and Council; but received nothing else of an answer from him, but insolent and sawcy language, refusing to give him opportunity to speak with his Master, and saying, He was not at leasure to answer such a Fellow as he was; which being spoke to a Gentleman of his worth, you may well imagine could not but move him to some passion; and amongst other expressions, he parted with this fatal Oracle to Coleman, Sirrah, I shall live to see you hanged. But suddenly after the Plots breaking out, His Majesty was pleased to put Mr. Arnold again into a larger Commission than before; since which it is abundantly known to all men, how care­ful and painful he hath been in the Kings Service, particularly in disco­vering the Jesuits Colledge, Books, and Popish Trinquets in Hereford­shire, which he by Order of Councel publickly caused to be Burnt; Al­so his seizing and prosecuting Father Lewis, that notorious Villain and Priest, and divers others; Also his earnest endeavour to inform the Judges against admitting Papist Grand Jurors in the Counties where they came.

These publick services for his King and Countrey, you may well believe by this time of day had made him more Enemies of the Papist Party, be­ing frequently threatned by them to be murdered, and particularly by one Evans; which Evans was a Jesuit, executed in the County of Cla­morgan; and who some time before his apprehension had threatned to pi­stol Mr. Arnold: Yet it pleased God to preserve him from their fury, till this instant time, when having been at a Tavern with some Lawyers of [Page 3] his acquaintance, near Temple-Bar, in order to prepare himself to a trial of some matters that were the next day to be heard before King and Coun­cil, and coming from thence about ten in the evening, the 16th of this instant, towards his Lodgings, which were not far off the said Tavern; when he came by Bell-yard, near Jackanapes-lane end, Four or Five Bloody Assassinates (who no doubt had dogged him most part of the day, as Justice Godfrey was) coming close up to him, on a sudden threw a large Campane Cloak over his head, and muffled him up, and at that instant thrust him into the dark part of the Lanes end, where they villanously threw him down, stamped on his breast, and made more than twenty thrusts of their swords at him; but not above seven took place on him, by rea­son of a Wastcoat he wore (to keep his body straight, not as armour, as is vainly reported) made with stiff Whale-bone; which in that hurry, and in the dark, they observing their swords would not enter to kill him dead, cryed out, The Rogue hath armour, therefore cut the Dogs throat; which immediately they attempted, by giving him many dreadful slashes on both sides, yet so as by Gods good providence cut not his Wind-pipe, they only using these hellish expressions, Damn ye Dog, now pray for the Soul of Cap­tain Evans: But at that instant a Link-boy coming by, they left the poor Gentleman miserably mangled, yet living, and carried to his Lodging, not without some hopes of his recovery, though extreme dangerous, by rea­son of much loss of blood, and those inhumane bruises ( Godfrey-like) on his breast.

We must not forget, that these bloody Villains were so intent on their cursed design, that in the hurry they wounded one of their own Com­panions in the Leg, which though escaped, will we hope prove a good occasion of discovery, and for that (since the writing hereof) his Maje­sty hath been pleased to issue out his Order of Council, declaring 100 l. to the Discoverer, and pardon for the fact to him that shall come in.

And thus we leave this worthy English-man to the care of his Chy­rurgeons, and desire (if it might so please God) he may yet recover to be a living Monument of their merciless Cruelty. And in the mean time, though we cannot point out his Murderers, yet we verily believe they may be known by those marks that Reverend person gave of the inhu­mane Murderers of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey, in his most excellent Fune­ral-Sermon for him, and even before his Murderers were known.

May all true Protestants be awakened at this sad Catastrophe, yet not discouraged; but remember Admiral Coligni was shot in his Coach at Pa­ris, which proved but a dismal Prologue to that Parisian Massacre that fol­lowed some days after, wherein he himself, with many thousands of Pro­testants were most inhumanely butchered by the Papists.

And because we are on so sad a Theme, we would not have it forgot­ten, how Mr. Mowbray, and Evidence for the King against the Plotters in York-shire, was lately assaulted and stabbed as he passed Lincolns-Inn-fields; and little less is daily done by those that stab the Kings Evidences in base [Page 4] Calumnies on their persons and reputations, who have so clearly proved a Plot against the Kings Life and Kingdom by the Papists, that both King, Lords and Commons have declared a full satisfaction in it.

To conclude: You have now seen the King stabb'd as it were in Effigie, in Two of His Justices of the Peace, in the space of little more than one year, by these Sons of Violence, to the great dishonour of God, and against the Crown and Dignity of the King. What remains, but to beseech God to preserve his Anointed from these sons of Zerviah, and to abhor their cursed and ungospel-like Religion, and to be prepared to vindicate the Kings Honour, and the Protestant Religion against all op­posers? To which we hope all good men will say,

AMEN.