Pray for England. Deliver England, O Lord. O Lord, we beseech thee to hear us. All holy bishops, and confessors of England, Scotland, and St. Helen, queen, St. Ursula, and St. Agnes, St. Bridget, St. Buryen, and St. Tecla, St. Agatha, St. Mechtil, and St. Maxentia, St. Christine, and St. Winifred, St. Ethelred, queen, and St. Margaret, queen, All holy virgins, and martyrs of England, Scotland, and All blessed and holy saints of all places, Be merciful, spare England good Lord, From all imminent perils of sins, and backslidings, From the spirit of pride and apostasy, From the spirit of ambition, From the spirit of rebellion, From all hardness, and blindness of heart, From all surfeiting, and drunkenness, From the desires, and liberty of the flesh, From hatred, contempt, and neglect of sacred things, From prophaning of churches, and from all sacrilege, From the tyranny, and cruelty of hereticks, which it now groans under, From wicked and pernicious councils, We sinners, O God of pity, do beseech Thee to hear us. That thou wouldest direct the pope's holiness, and all prelates, to pacify and govern the church, That thou wouldest be pleased to bring again into this kingdom That thou wouldest comfort, and fortify, all such as suffer im- That neither by frailty or inticements, or any torments, thou permit any of us to fall from thee, That thou wouldest give us perfect patience in our afflictions, and to make ghostly profit of all our miseries, That thou wouldest mercifully hasten the conversion of England, Scotland, and Ireland, from the infection of heresy and infidelity, That thou wouldest deliver and keep, in these times of persecution, the pastors of our souls, from the hands of their enemies, That thou wouldest daily augment in them the fire of thy love, and the zeal of gaining souls, That thou wouldest preserve all the catholicks of this land in holiness of life, and from all manner of sin and scandal, That thou wouldest so adorn us with holiness of life and conversation, that our enemies seeing our good works, may glorify thee, our heavenly Father,' That thou wouldest reduce from error, and heresy, our parents, friends, and benefactors whom thou hast so dearly bought with thy precious blood, That thou wouldest illuminate the hearts of all schismaticks, which live out of the church, to see the grievous danger of their estate, That thou wouldest mercifully look down from heaven, upon the blood of so many martyrs, as have given their lives to convert us unto thee, O Lord, we beseech thee to hear us. Jesus Christ, Son of God, and of the Virgin Mary, We beseech thee to hear us. Jesus Christ, Saviour and Redeemer of the world, We beseech thee to hear us. Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, Spare us, O Lord. Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, Hear us, O Lord. Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, Have mercy on us. Lord have mercy, Pater Noster, &c. Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy, Amen. About the latter end of October, or the beginning of November, 1678, my occasions called me to Leeds market, within four miles of my habitation, and a market that I frequently used: after my particular business was done, my curiosity led me, as usually it did, to a coffee. house; where, amongst other news and reports, I heard that one Sir Edmundbury Godfrey, a justice of peace, at London, was missing, and that it was suspected and feared, that he was murdered, or made away by the papists. At my return home, I repaired to Sir Thomas Gascoigne's house at Barmbow, one quarter of a mile from my house, and there meeting his son, Thomas Gascoigne, esq; I acquainted him with the news I heard at Leeds. Who, thereupon, took a letter out of his pocket, directed to himself, which he shewed me; which letter was subscribed I. Corker, wherein he acquainted the esquire in words to this effect: that Sir Edmundbury Godfrey had been a very busy man, and a great enemy to the catholicks, therefore they had procured him to be destroyed.' And, some few days after, we had the same thing confirmed in print, viz. "That he was murthered.' Upon which, my ghostly father, William Rushton, sent for me, to come to mass, at Sir Thomas Gascoigne's ho se; and, a confession, did charge me to give out, that I heard that Sir Edmundbury Godfrey was a melancholy gentleman, and, in a discontent, went into the fields, and there murdered himself with his own sword.' Which accordingly I did, as occasion offered, in all companies I happened into; but was contradicted by many; and by some, that it could not be, for that his neck was broke, which he could not do after he had urdered himself, nor be capable to do it, if his neck was broke before and, being thus run down in my assertions, I acquainted my said ghostly father (William Rushton) therewith, who told me, he had received new instructions, which he shewed me in writing, and were to this effect: That Sir Edmundbury Godfrey was a gentleman who had often attempted to destroy himself; that he did really hang himself in his own silk-girdle, in his chamber, at the bed's feet; which being discovered, two of his servants acquainted his brothers therewith, who, coming thither, contrived his taking down, and the carrying him to the place where he was found, where they run his corps through, on purpose to throw it on the papists, thereby to save the estate to themselves, and from being forfeited to the king; and that the two servants had fifty pounds apiece given them to keep it private. He also said, that one of them, which was a maid-servant, offered to discover this contrivance to his majesty and council, but that she was by them rejected: nevertheless, for all this, at the same time, Rushton owned to me, that he was murdered by the papists, but by what hands he knew not; and further, he seemed much concerned that it was done; wishing it had never been done, because it would make the murder of the king the more difficult to be performed. ROBERT BOLRON. A further Information by ROBERT BOLRON, Gentleman. I being sent down by an order of council, bearing date the seventeenth day of October, 1679, to search several papists houses in Yorkshire, Lancashire, bishoprick of Durham, and Northumberland; among other houses, searching the mansion-house of Richard Sherborn of Stony-hurst, in the county of Lancashire, esq; in the chamber of Edward Cottam, a jesuit, or popish priest, I found the paper hereunto annexed. This same Cottam, upon the death of Henry Long, mentioned in the said paper, was, by the said Mr. Sherborn, entertained as his domestick priest, in the stead and place of the other, who, as the papists gave out, drowned himself; but was rather made away by the Romish party, as being one that was discontented in his mind, and of whom they had a suspicion, that he would discover this damnable popish plot, carried on by the papists, who therefore, as I have heard from several understanding papists, engaged in the plot, procured his death. The original copy being in Latin, it was thought convenient to print it in that language: Celebrare quis astringetur. Postremo, ut evidenter testetur, quod omnes ad hoc opus pium assentiantur, has constitutiones propria manu subsignabant. Every one shall be bound to celebrate. Lastly, That it may be evidently testified, that all do unanimously assent to this pious work, they did underwrite these constitutions with their own hands. Quando omnes unanimiter consentierant his constitutionibus, die 28 Februarii, 1675, hi designabantur superiores. When all had consented to these constitutions, the twenty-eighth of February, 1675, these were designed superiors. D. Petrus Giffardus, Secretarius. D. Rogerus Anderton, collector pro sex hundredis pro Derbiensi, collector for six hundreds in Derbyshire. D. Ricardus Bartonius, for Layland. D. Henricus Long. } For Blackburn hundreds in Lancashire, Having thus given the reader an account of this paper, how I came by it, and in whose custody I found it, I shall leave it to the consideration of any person of impartial judgment, what should be the design of so many priests and jesuits to make such orders and constitutions among themselves? And for what reason those orders must be confirmed by so many manual subscriptions? Certainly the orders of their society needed no such confirmations. This must be then some eccentrick business, for so many priests and jesuits to meet and cabal in the remote parts of the nation; and there also to appoint treasurers and collectors, not ordinary persons neither, but such as could not be named without the title of most reverend lord; which imports them not the treasurers of alms, but of contributions. Now, contributions signify sums; and sums, it cannot be imagined, should be collected in those parts for the Jesuits to build colleges in England. It remains then, that these collectors were appointed for the collection of considerable sums (the largesses of blind zeal and deluded piety, or the price of indulgences for fifty-thousand years, and exemptions from purgatory) to carry on the great work of their damnable plot, which, it is apparent, was hatching in the year 1675, and long before. And this, I hope, may, in a large measure, serve to prove and make good that part of my information already given; wherein I have declared, that, in the counties of York, Lancaster, Northumberland, and bishoprick of Durham, there have been no less than thirty-thousand pounds collected by the Jesuits and priests, which were, no question, the effects of such orders and constitution as these above-named, for the more speedy bringing to pass the destruction of his most sacred majesty, and the protestant religion. As for Long, Dalton, Thurston, Anderton, Tho. Eccleston, and Urmeston, I know them to be all Jesuits; therefore it is probable to believe the rest are of the same stamp. London, December the 6th, 1680. ROBERT BOLRON. MAGNALIA NATURE: OR, THE PHILOSOPHER'S-STONE, LATELY EXPOSED TO PUBLICK SIGHT AND SALE. Being a true and exact account of the manner how Wenceslaus Seilerus, the late famous projection-maker, at the emperor's-court at Vienna, came by, and made away with a very great quantity of powder of projection, by projecting with it before the emperor, and a great many witnesses, selling it, &c. for some years past. Published at the request, and for the satisfaction of several curious, especially of Mr. Boyle, &c. by John Joachim Becher, one of the council of the emperor, and s commissioner for the examen of this affair. Quid igitur ingrati sumus? Cur invidemus etsi veritas divinitatis (quæ per ea quæ sat intelligi potest, Rom. i. 20.) nostri temporis ætate maturuit. Minut. Felix. London, printed by Tho. Dawks, his majesty's British printer, living in BlackFriars. Sold also by La Curtiss, in Goat Court on Ludgate Hill, 1680. Quarto, containing thirty-eight pages. THE TRANSLATOR TO THE READER. There is no ingenious man, that is not unacquainted with the curiosities to be met with in the world, who hath not either seen some transmutation of metals, or, at least, heard so many witness that they have seen it, as to be persuaded that there is such a thing as the philosophers-stone, or powder of projection. Only there be some |