Collier was not the man to remain silent. Soon after the appearance of Sir John Friend's paper, a Pamphlet was published containing animadversions on that document, taking it in separate paragraphs.[1] In the outset, the writer charges the authorship upon the three Clergymen. He grounds this charge on alleged internal evidence, arid on certain circumstances, which in his opinion, rendered it impossible for Sir John Friend to write it. Sir John said, that the cause for which he suffered, was the cause of God and true religion. On his trial he had denied the charges alleged against him: and moreover proved by witnesses, that he had attended the church in which King William was prayed for. The author of The Letter, therefore, charges him with hypocrisy if he considered the cause of King James as the cause of God. He prayed for King James's restoration in the very paper given to the Sheriffs.
Collier found means, in his retirement, to publish a defence of his conduct in the absolution of the two criminals at the place of execution.[2] In an advertisement he states that Cook and Snatt "have been altogether unacquainted with, unconcerned in, and unconsenting to, the penning or publication of these two Papers." Whatever appearances may be, at first sight, against Collier, no one ought to come to a con-
- ↑ A Letter to the Three Absolvers, Mr. Cook, Mr. Collier, and Mr. Snatt, being reflections on the Papers delivered by Sir John Friend, and Sir William Parkyns, to the Sheriffs of London. At Tyburn, April 3, 1696, which said paragraphs are printed at length and answered, paragraph by paragraph. Fol. London, 1696.
- ↑ A Defence of the Absolution given to Sir William Perkins at the Place of Execution. With a further Vindication thereof, occasioned by a Paper, entitled, a Declaration of the Sense of the Archbishops and Bishops, &c.
