force and the Commands and Constitutions of our lawful Convocation of the Bishops and Clergy still live and speak unto us in the Canons made in the year 1634. whereof the third thus expresly That Form of Liturgie or divine Service and no other shall be used in any Church of this Realm but that which is established by Law and comprized in the Book of Common-Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments VVhich Canon with all the rest is confirmed and published by His Majesties Authority under the great Seal of Ireland VI It may be added that the Reformed Church of Ireland under the Government of our dread Soveraign the King is and ever was reputed a free National Church and not subordinate unto or depending upon the convocation of any other Church And hence it was that till the Convocation held at Dublin Anno 1634. the Articles of the Church of England were not held or reputed the Articles of the Church of Ireland and when they were received they were not received in any acknowledged subordination to the Church of England but for manifestation of our agreement with that Church in the confession of the same Christian Faith and the Doctrine of the Sacraments as is expressed in the first Canon Hence it is besides that our Canons were not imposed by the Church of England nay when somewhat highly the Clergy was invited to submit to the Book of English Canons the Convocation utterly refused the same and framed a new Book of Canons for the Church of Ireland Should we therefore receive or admit of any other form without the Authority of this Church we should be held and esteemed before God and the World guilty of unconscionably betraying of the Liberty of the free National Church of Ireland VII The Book of Common-Prayer hath been in use in this Church from the beginning of the Reformation we have preached for it and recommended it to the people as a form of God's publick Worship and Service the people of God in this City for the most part generally do love it have been edified by it are loath to part from it and earnestly desire the continuance of it Now should we consent to the taking it away and receive or use any other form not established by Law we should not avoid the guilt of Sin it being all one to destroy that which is well built as to build that which a man once destroyed which in the Apostles judgement Gal. 2. 8. renders a man a transgressor And withall we should as matters stand give great offence and scandal to the Consciences of our Brethren and so sin against them who deserve better at our hand and for whom Christ dyed VIII Lastly that reason given by the University of Oxford in this point is not to be forgotten that by our leaving of the Book of Common-Prayer and receiving any other Form we should condemn the Church and State for the penalties and censures against Recusants and justifie them in their accusations and imputations of injustice and tyranny wherewith they boldly charge both our Churches of England and Ireland The premisses considered as we hope your Honours discern hereby that we have not lightly or obstinately or out of faction or any spirit of opposition forborn the exercise of our Ministry since your Honours injunction so we do now with all humility present these our fervent Petitions to your Honours 1. That you would be pleased in pity and compassion to the Protestants of this City and to us the Ministers who else by your Injunction aforesaid are indangered to be exposed to banishment loss of estate and of present subsistance with our wives and families to restore us to our Churches Ministry and exercise thereof by permitting of us to use the Book of Common-Prayer in our several Cathedral and Parish Churches as formerly we used the same before your Injunction aforesaid and to grant us your Protection therein till such time as further order be taken by a Convocation of the Clergy and an Act of Parliament in this Kingdom and in the mean time we shall endeavour to demean our selves in the whole course of our Ministry with such Christian faithfulness and moderation as that we shall by the help of God give no just occasion of offence 2. That in case your Honours shall be pleased to grant this Petition which we hope you will if after our stay and residence here we or any of us shall be by the imposal of any thing against our Consciences be forced hereafter to depart the Kingdom we may then respectively have free passes and convenient time to remove our persons families and goods 3. That during the time of our residence here we may enjoy the profits benefits and meanes of our several Church-livings for our subsistance which are due or allotted to us by the Law of the Land and Acts of State 4. That whereas the monthly fast observed hitherto by command of authority on a Friday was grounded upon the horrid Rebellion of the Irish Papists begun and the danger we were all in as on that day wherein the Rebells came to this City to surprise it and the evening of that day was the time wherein that bloody treachery and conspiracy was discovered that we may be permitted still to keep the monthly Fast on that day being a day of preparation for the monthly Communion according to our custom these five years past And we shall ever pray c. Delivered the 9th day of July 1647. Subscribed as followeth Ed. Laonensis Jac. Margetson Since Armachanus Ben. Culme Ambr. Anngier Ja. Sybold Godf. Rhodes Hen. Hall Since Ep. Academ Jos. War Jo. Brookbank Gilbert Deane Dud. Boswel Rob. Parry Joan. Creighton Can. Edw. Syng Since Arfeitensis Rob. Dickson Rand. Ince Henry Byrch Rich. Powel Fol. 190. l. 36. the Loyallists An. 160 3 After that the Nuncio was driven to Galoway He the 2d of August took an occasion to expostulate with the Marquess of Clanrickard about one of the Provincial Fathers of the Franciscans being by the Presidents Souldiers clap'd up in Clare-Castle wondring so pious and true a Catholick should permit a Subject of the Apostolick See to which the Clergy are only accountable to be so used by Laicks unto which the 8th of of August the Marquess excellently replied That unknown to him the Father was at the Command of the supream Council taken and by their order was to be brought to Kilkenny He reverenced the Clergy but could not recede from the Order of that Council for that the Holy Church gives not Protection to Criminals or the God of Peace Impunity to the Seditious enlarging well on that Subject concluding that if under pretext or title of the Immunities of the Church any should escape unpunished There would be soon an end of the State and Temporal jurisdiction And having been thus entertained by the Nuncio the Marquess freely proposes to Him these Questions That He might understand the difference
Evidence enough there being many then in Dublin who own'd their Lives and whatever of their Fortunes was left purely to him so that he doubted not but that he would be worthy of their Protection Within few days after when the Marquess did not suspect the poor man to be in danger he heard that Sir Charles Coot who was Provost Martial General had taken him out of Prison and caused him to be put to death in the morning before or assoon as it was light of which Barbarity the Marquess complained to the Lords Justices but was so far from bringing the other to be question'd that he found himself to be upon some disadvantage for thinking the proceeding to be otherwise then it ought to have been This was the Case of Mr. Higgins and this the Marquess's part in it and the poor man was so far from complaining of his breach of Promise at his death how confidently soever it be aver'd that he exceedingly acknowledged the Favour he had receiv'd from his Lordship prayed for his Prosperity and lamented his want of Power to do that which the World saw his inclination prompted him to The proceeding against Mr. White was very different and in this manner The Marquess being upon his march with his Army he quarter'd one night at Clonin an house of the Earl of West-Meaths who was residing there with his Wife and Family when he was at Supper many of the Officers being at the Table the Lady of the House upon some whisper she receiv'd from a Servant expressed some trouble in her Countenance which the Marquess who sate next her perceiving asked her what the matter was she told him in his ear that she was in great apprehension of an honest man who was in her house and much fear'd the Souldiers confessing he was a Priest The Marquess replied that if he was in the house and kept himself there he was in no danger for as the Souldiers would attempt nothing while the Marquess stai'd there so he would leave a Guard at his departure that should secure it against Straglers or any Party that should stay behind which he did accordingly In the morning when he was ready to march he receiv'd information that the Rebels were possessed of a Pass by which he was to go whereupon he sent some Troops to get a Foard three miles from the way the Army was to march and by that means to come upon the Rear of the Rebels by the time the Army should come to the Pass which being done after a short Encounter in which many were killed the Rebels were put to flight and the Pass gain'd In this action Mr. White was taken on Horse-back with a Case of Pistols who desired to be brought to the Marquess which being done he told him he was the Person for whom the Countess of West-Meath had besought his favour the night before and that his Lordship had promised that he should be safe The Marquess told him if he were the same Person it was his own fault that he was not safe if he had staid in the house he was in this had not befaln him that it was now out of his Power to preserve him himself being bound to pursue those Orders which the Lords Justices had given him Nevertheless he did endeavour to have saved him at least till he might be brought to Dublin But the whole Army possessed with a bitter spirit against the Romish Clergy mutinied upon it and in the end compelled the Marquess to leave him unto that Justice which they were authoris'd to execute and so put him to death Who can now upon these two Instances and no other can or have been given reasonably and honestly say that the Marquess hath had his hands defiled with the blood of Priests And from the time that he had the chief Power committed to him there was not one Priest how Maliciously Rebelliously or Treacherously soever they behaved themselves against the Kings Service and the Person of the Lord Lieutenant who suffered death but also all other acts of Blood and Rage which are not necessary though hardly avoidable in the most just War were declined and discountenanced by him nay for his Respect to affairs of this nature that they might be evenly and without passion carried on did he not often undergo even with his own Party a suspicion of not being sufficiently faithful The Consequences of which had many Censures The truth is the Rebellion was odious to him yet his desire often to reclaim the Irish by Mercy palliated what otherwise might have finished some thought the War sooner then it had its Determination I shall pass over the many Tautologies and impertinent Calumnies in the said Declaration all which are sufficiently answer'd and clear'd by what is already contain'd in this Narrative and shall onely insert their conclusion in their own words as followeth For the prevention of these Evils and that the Kingdom may not be utterly lost to his Majesty and his Catholick Subjects this Congregation of Archbishops Bishops and other Prelates and Dignitaries of both Clergies of this Kingdom found our selves bound in Conscience after great deliberation to declare against the continuance of his Majesties Authority in the Person of the Lord Marquess of Ormond having by his Misgovernment ill Conduct of his Majesties Army and breach of Publick Faith with the People in several Particulars of the Articles of Peace rendred himself incapable of continuing that great Trust any longer being questionable before his Majesty for the aforesaid Injuries and ill Government to which effect we will joyn with other Members of this Kingdom in drawing a Charge against him And we hereby manifest to the People that they are no longer obliged to obey the Orders and Commands of the said Marquess of Ormond but are until a General Assembly of the Nation can be conveniently called together unanimously to serve against the common Enemy for the defence of the Catholick Religion his Majesties Interest their Liberties Lives and Fortunes in pursuance of the Oath of Association and to observe in the mean time the form of Government the said Congregation shall prescribe until otherwise ordered by an Assembly or until upon Application to his Majesty he settle the same otherwise And we do Fulminate the annexed Excommunication of one date with this Declaration against all opposers of the said Declaration Here we are arrived at one of the most fatal Conclusions of a desperate People any History ever mention'd yet as the case stood it was not possible for his Excellency to chastise their folly and madness such a reverence and esteem this unhappy Nation hath ever had of their Clergy that a seditious Frier and he happily none of their highest Order neither could take the Colours in the head of a Regiment and pronouncing damnation to those who should presume to march contrary to the General 's command caused the Soldiers to throw down their Arms and disband as fell out in an
we are protected in all our dangers and distresses we thy people and sheep of thy Pasture do acknowedge our selves above all others infinitely bounded unto thy heavenly Majesty for thy many unspeakable benefits daily conferred and heaped upon us especially for the enlightning us with thy heavenly truth and planting thy Gospel amongst us for placing over us a most gracious King a faithful Professour and Defender of the same a wise and vigilant Lieutenant And as at this time especially we praise thee for the discovery and prevention of the bloody and treacherous designs of the Enemies of thy Truth and People We laud and magnifie thy Glorious name for these thy Mercies and will ever shew forth thy praise from generation to generation for it was thy goodness alone that we were not delivered over for a prey unto their Teeth Thy prudence not our foresight thy love not our merit that we appear this day before thee That the Enemy did not triumph in our utter destriction nor root up the Uine which thy right hand had planted O Lord God of hosts look down from Heaven and behold and visit this thy Uine water it with thy blessing and make it to fill the Land to the astonishment of our Enemies but unto the joy of all that wish well unto our Sion So will we not go back from thee but will serve thee in fear and holiness all the days of our lives through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen The Third Collect after the Litany O Most Gracious Lord God we of this Nation whom thou didst snatch as a brand out of the fire of the late horrid Massacre we this day assembled before thee do with shame and sorrow acknowledge and confess That our Sins had most justly provoked thee to Wrath when thou didst suffer those men of blood to make their Sword fat with the Slaughter of so many thousand Innocents-And we may as justly fear that our not being made better by thy former Judgements thou mayest be compelled to make thy Sword sharper and return upon us in greater fury because our sins are greater more bold more provoking in particular our neglect and contempt of thy sacred Ordinances our vain and false swearing for which the Land mourns our unchristian uncharitableness and shameful intemp rance our sacriledge and covetousness hypocrisie slandering and deep security in the midst of all our sins and dangers These together with a glorying in our impieties might in justice have brought upon us a sudden and horrible destruction But contrary to the method of thy proceedings against others thou hast spared us thereby woing us to return unto thee by unfeigned Repentance Thou hast magnified thy mercy towards us that we may magnifie thee as we do this day this memorable day O Lord for thy patience and long suffering notwithstanding all our provocations we repent O pardon we return O vouchsafe to receive us and enable us to walk worthy of thy great past deliverance by a more strict and holy future obedience for the merits of Jesus Christ our only Saviour and Redeemer Amen At the second Service this Fourth Collect to be said after the Collect for the King MOst merciful and bountiful Lord God seeing thou hast been graciously pleased to preserve thy most unworthy people from total desolation and dayly to follow us with the blessing of peace and good Government make us therefore O Lord in all thankfulness to be obedient to thy will in all things to be faithful and constant in our duty to the King and to all that are in Authority under him to be sincere in thy worship zealous of good works of one faith and one mind studying to be quiet forbearing one another and forgiving one another even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven us so that when every one in his several place shall labour to advance the good both of Church and State and by a through Reformation of our lives shall become a people whom thou mayest take delight to bless then thy Judgements which we have deserved and therefore fear may be averted and our sinful Souls saved in the day of the Lord Jesus Then with one heart and voice we may all praise thee in thy Church and always sing joyfully that thy loving kindness is ever more and more towards us and the truth of the Lord endures for ever These mercies we most unworthy to ask humbly beseech thee to grant for the benefit of this Church and Nation and glory of thy Name through Jesus Christ our only Saviour and Redeemer Amen For the Epistle Nehem. 4. from ver 7. to ver 16. or 2 Cor. 1. from ver 3. to ver 11. For the Gospel Mat. 14. from ver 23. to ver 34. or Mat. 15. from ver 1. to ver 13. or Mat. 5. from ver 1. to ver 14. And then proceed as in the Book of Common Prayer Other Particulars We might add but how can We conclude better then with the voice of the Church for so wonderful a deliverance from so unnatural and inhuman a Conspiracy which hath produced besides other horrid effects this Abbreviate of so sad a Tragidy and the expence of so vast a Treasure Omissions containing several Additions to the History FOl. 9. line 23. Crime which for the Honour of those Gentlemen rather then that it 's undeniably true I would willingly believe it being easy to be made out that many of these instigated if not headed the Commonalty afterwards Fol 10. l. 25. of Lands though the Law heretofore was held otherwise and much of his Majesties Revenue stands upon that Title Fol. 13. l. 39. Epistle which expression of his is the more to be took notice of in that being a prime Instrument of State He hath more Grounds then others to build these Conjectures upon Fol. 28. l. 12. Rebellion the Commission Granted to the Lord Gormanston was as follows By the Lords Justices and Council W. Parsons Jo. Borlase RIght Trusty and well beloved We greet you well Whereas divers and most disloyal and malignant Persons within this Kingdom have traiterously conspired against his Majesty his Peace Crown and Dignity and many of them in Execution of their Conspiracy are traiterously assembled together in a Warlike manner and have most inhumanly made destruction and devastation of the Persons and Estates of his Majesties good and loyal Subjects of this Kingdom and taken slain and imprisoned great Numbers of them We out of our care and zeal for the common good being desirous by all means to suppress the said Treasons and Traitors and to conserve the Persons and Fortunes of his Majesties loving Subjects here in safety and to prevent the further spoil and devastation of his Majesties good People here do therefore hereby require and authorize you to Levie Raise and Assemble all every or any the Forces as well Footmen as Horsemen within the County of Meath giving you hereby the Command in chief of all the said Forces and hereby further
and in the power of such a place is the consideration of those principles in their Religion owned and pursued by the people of this Nation more evidently than in many others and so by them in that City tending in endless violence injustice falshood and treachery towards us whereever they find opportunity as That Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks which in their sense are all persons not of their Religion but that at least where the keeping of it is to the prejudice and the breaking of it may be of advantage to the Catholique cause it may be broken and any thing in a manner is lawful to be done for the advantage of that Cause at least if it be with the allowance or dispensation of their Ghostly Fathers And how dangerous and unsafe it is to keep persons of such differing and destructive principles to the Cause and Interest we serve in such places of strength and so much in the power of the Inhabitants I wish them only to make it their own case and then judge And though such principles be denied or disowned in the expressions of some yet sure I am nothing hath been more clear in the practices of the generality of the people of that Religion in this Nation as appears in the several times of their Rebellion against the lawful authority which God had set over them to whom they have several times sworn to be true and faithful and as often broke their faith and obligations as engaged and especially in this Rebellion by the Murders and Massacres of so many innocent English Protestants in the beginning of it living in peace and Trust quietly by them And that this is still their practice suitable to such principles I desire those that question it but to look upon the late actions of many of those that upon their fair professions to us and our trust in them for faithfulness or at least for innocent and peaceable demeanors towards us have received protection from us who notwithstanding do most of them make it their daily business to do us all the mischief they can wherever they see an opportunity and for that purpose do harbor entertain and encourage those many Tories in every corner that otherwise durst not come into our Quarters nor could subsist in them undiscovered or do that mischief as they do and escape yet from all our Forces and Garrisons in every corner ready to pursue them but that as they are assured and find the protected people are friends to them and in their hearts Enemies and false to us notwithstandstanding all their professions to the contrary nay many of the protected people themselves upon every slight occasion or ground of hope of doing mischief to us do frequently run from their Habitations join with the Enemy in Arms and deliver up their Castles to them And though for the shame and ill consequences of such principles to themselves if owned and profest by them many do disclaim any such opinions yea perhaps from the sence of those evil consequences may in their present and private Judgments condemn them yet whilst they hold entire communion with that Catholick Church as they account it which maintains or holds forth the same and implicitly resolve their private judgments into the belief or determination of that Church or however do own and adhere to a power both forreign and adverse to us in their Pope and Clergy which they acknowledg can bind and lose their consciences without limitation It must needs follow that upon the determinations or allowance of that Church or the injunctions or absolutions of that power they must when it comes to trial unless they will renounce that Communion and Dependance account themselves not only absolvable thereby from all obligations of humane right or duty towards us to the contrary but also obliged by an higher bond and duty to answer and pursue any Injunctions of that CHURCH or power in any ways of violence and treachery towards us which for the upholding or advancement thereof shall be required or warranted thereby and they shall see any opportunity for Now though these and many more such considerations and experiences may suffice both to justifie us in and awaken us to the providing for security to our selves and our Cause against such a generation by all ways to which in common Justice we are free as by this warning out these Inhabitants in this case and not to trust them in so visible a power and opportunity to betray or hurt us as their continuance in that City beyond the period of this warning they would have yet in humanity and our common Christian charity we cannot but pity Men so miserably blind-folded and captivated in delusions as the generality of them appear and heartily wish and pray that neither they nor any other might any longer be so and we do not desire their hurt or prejudice further than justice and necessity for our own and the publick safety do require and therefore even in this warning given we have not only consulted the justice and necessity leading to it but also the conveniency of time as to them for doing of it that it might be at such a season as might be most convenient or least prejudicial to them also which I judge the time of the period of this warning to be in regard that being in the beginning of May it is the most fitting season for persons in such conditions to provide for themselves either by hiring or building themselves places of Habitation in some parts near adjoyning to be allotted them for that purpose or to march if they so desire it by Land or take a Voyage by Sea to those places unto which they shall desire to go And that all may see who do not wilfully shut their eyes that our end is not to ruin them and inrich our selves but only to act in order to publique safety and security I do resolve where I can find a sufficient Character or mark of distinction concerning any person or persons that have not had a hand in the first years Rebellion and Massacres or have discovered themselves to be Friends to the Interest and People of England or have not been known to have been eminently active in the prosecution of the War or holding out of that City against us to difference them by favour and respect shewn from others and in all other cases wherein mercy and favour may be shewed without prejudice to publick justice and safety I do intend it and particularly in that of Orphans and Aged and decrepid people and Widdows whose condition is the most to be pitied in regard many of them may not be able to help themselves but if they should be turned out with the others immediately might suffer much by it I shall therefore take the best care and course I can for them to prevent any of those inconveniences that may otherwise fall upon persons in their conditions and to do for them