then Wife to the Dauphin This Hostility and the private designs of Spain hindred all intrigues of the Queen of Scots friends to secure the Succession Things being in this condition our Queen dies nor did the Dauphin make any present claim which together with the natural coolness of Englishmen to all strangers especially the French moved Archbishop Heath to what he did About some six months after this the Dauphin takes upon him the Title and Armes of England and immediately also by the death of his Father the Crown of France fell to him which gave him the name of Francis the Second But by that time Q. Elizabeth was too well setled to be deposed without blows and before things could be ordered for such an enterprize the Hugonots lay so heavy on his shoulders that he was necessitated to the Treaty at Edenburgh by which he was to relinquish his former pretences in relation to England yet before these Articles were sealed the King himself died and so all things stood as they were before The Q. of Scots being now a widow returns with much ado to Scotland which was all in a flame by the seditious preaching of the new Reformists Assoon as she arrived there Q. Elizabeth having often sent to her to ratifie the Treaty with her Husband she after consideration returned answer That she was content to do so upon condition she were by Parliament declared her Heir This Proposition seemed not strange to her English well-willers because our Histories could tell them That Maud the Empress was necessitated to the like by King Stephen But Queen Elizabeth would not harken to those terms whereupon presently Margaret Niece to Henry the Eighth the Earl of Lenox her husband Arthur Pool and his Brother Grandchildren to George Duke of Clarence Fortescue and others were apprehended for intending to set up the Queen of Scots interest The fact they confest but as all malefactors find something to extenuate their crimet hey pitcht upon the weakest excuse that ever was heard of viz That they intended not to depose Queen Elizabeth but to be beforehand in Arms because Conjurers had told them she would dy that year After this the vigilancy of Q. Elizab. was such and the disasters of Scotland so great that the Catholiques were forc'd to sit quiet for a while Instead of Peace with the Rebels the Queen of Scots was necessitated to seek for shelter in England where had she been used as the Honour of the Nation required she would have concluded an inviolable agreement between the Queen and those Catholiques that stood for her Title But when this Royal Guest had once trusted her self among her Enemies she was both denied access to the Court and also refused the liberty of retiring into another Kingdom This inhumanity was quickly noised about the World whereupon Pius V. sent Ridulph a Florentine to consult with the Catholiques about the Interest of their Queen All Arguments were used which could possibly be thought of to persuade her Enemies to let her go and when no fair means would do the Rising in the North happened 'T is true the Declaration of those great Lords that were up mentioned no other motive but Religion because this could not shock either the Queen or People so much as the name of the Queen of Scots would have done for that implied ipso facto the altering both of Religion and Government also Who is ignorant that that Great man our General whose memory all ages shall for ever honor concealed at first what he had long determined well knowing that the once naming of the King would ruine that design which his wit so well laid and his conduct so happily executed Besides this Reader you must know before this Rebellion broke out Leonard Dacres second Son to the Lord Dacres of Gylsland undertook the delivery of the Queen being then in Darbyshire in my Lord Shrewsburie's custody Of this design my Lord Northumberland was complotter therefore 't was plain he being Chief in the Northern Insurrection intended her Title though there was nothing of it in his Delaration Consider therefore how notoriously false this Minister is there having been Claims Plots and endeavours by the greatest of the Land before the rising in the North and when it happened that also was on the Queen of Scots account 'T were tedious Reader to tell you how many attempts followed this Insurrection for there scarce passed a day till the death of the Queen of Scots but something was contrived to prevent the machinations of her unkind Kinswoman By all this you may see that while Queen Elizabeth used her distressed Guest with any kindness the piety of that Princess which moved her rather to be contented with the Succession then put England in a perpetual broyl caused her to command the English Catholiques to lie still whom according to the Ministers own confession the prohibition of their Religion forten years had not exasperated to Commotions But assoon as their Queen was imprisoned without hopes of liberty and they left to the dictates of their own Loyal inclinations they never ceased either at home or abroad to sollicite the destruction of their Enemies Consider also I beseech you the carriage of the Popes who used all fatherly and gentle means imaginable because they saw the Queen of Scots whose right they deemed it was of her self inclining like another Maud to expect till the death of her Cozen should put an end to all pretences These Popes were sufficiently urged by the Duke of Guise and others yet upon the former considerations being desirous of peace they never had practices against Queen Elizabeth till Mary Stuart was in prison nor ever publisht the Excomcommunication till the Queen absolutely refused her liberty even after the intercession of the French and Spanish Embassadours But the Minister says the Popes owned Queen Elizabeths Title and therefore Papists ought not to have disputed it 'T is true he says so and yet confesses that Paul the IV. who governed the Church when she came first to the Crown would not acknowledge her Legitimate But how comes the Gentleman to say that the other cause of his Holiness's not acknowledging her was because she audaciously assumed the Crown without his leave Does he find any such record in our Histories Did Queen Mary ask his consent Did any Pope send in this manner to Edward the Sixth Or lastly which of all our Kings used to entreat his favour to be Crowned Reader this is a pretty capricchio of the Parson as it had been unusuall if the Pope had made such a claim Pius the Fourth succeeding the said Paul for the reasons aforesaid shewed as much prudence and good nature as ever man did in hope to compose things without effusion of blood and certainly after his death as much had been spilt as ever was in any Reign had not Queen Elizabeth been the wisest woman that ever swayed Scepter Pius V.
their Treason in his Majesties absence have been convicted since his return when as no Papist could ever yet be suspected for the least defection from our Soveraing Can this man think himself Canon of Canterbury and dare say that the Priest is known who flourisht his Sword at the fatal stroke when as no body knows him no not he himsef Doubtless he means some Hugonot Minister for what Cavalier was ever in France and knows not how those Saints adored Cromwel hating from the beginning to the end both our King and his Party Let the World judge of this Story concerning this nameless Priest by him whom he names viz. Mr. White whose Book of Obedience and Government he lays as a blot on all of our Religion when as this Mr. White has not only been sharply used by the Catholicks of England but he and this very Book were openly condemned by the Pope himself nor durst he since shew his head in any Catholique Countrey Thus may be seen the Conscience of this Monsieur who would charge us with a crime which at the writing he knew was false from this son of Darkness has my Minister and others owned to have received their light and what kind of light it is pray be pleased farther to observe He tells us That a year before the Kings death a select Company of English Jesuits were sent from their whole Party to consult with the Faculty of Sorbon who you must know Reader are the greatest Catholick Enemies the Society has in France whether they might lawfully make away the King The Doctors answered affirmavely to the Question being then stated in writing but afterwards when the Pope saw that the Kings Murther was decried by every body he commanded tha Jesuits to burn all the Papers about the Question but one of them was shewed by a Papist to a Protestant Yet for all this secrecy commanded by the Pope Du Moulin tells us p. 58. that at Roan many Jesuited persons told a Protestant openly on the news of the Kings death That they having often admonished the King from time to time to remember his promise at Marriage of becoming a Papist were forc'd to take these courses for his destruction After this History he says p. 61. That the Friers at Dunkirk and by the way there was never in that Town a House of English Scotch or Irish Friers told a Protestant Gentleman that had a mind to pump them That the Jesuits would fain engross the Honour of the Kings death to themselves but the truth was they had laboured as effectually as the Jesuits to compass it Then he tells pag. 60. That thirty Jesuits neer Diep met a stranger a Protestant Gentleman on the Road and told him that they were going into England to be Agitators in the Independent Army Good Protestant Reader I am quite tired with this senceless stuff and if you think it false consider what a jewel you have got from France but if you can deem it true let me entreat you hereafter never to fear Jesuite or Priest for I am sure such prating fools can never do you harm Besides I wonder how it came to pass that all the Great Cavaliers caress't the Jesuits and always employ'd them in much business during the Kings exile neither were they then or the rest of the Popish Priests less welcome to the Royallists of England But pardon me I beseech you Reader if I use so many words about a matter that deserves so little yet I cannot but confess I am engaged to the Frenche Divine for being so notoriously malitious and foolish nor did I ever think that Sir Walters discovery of the Plot in 1641. of blowing up the Thames to drown the City could ever be parallell'd but here I now find it outdone Have we not seen Good Reader that such ridiculous Stories as these have lately ruined the Kingdom and can any man believe if they once come in fashion again they will end with Papists No doubtless for both Church and Court will soon find the smart as by experience we begin to feel For my own part I should never have taken notice of Sieur du Moulin or his Book had not my Minister owned him as I said for his informer and now I see he has imitated him also in his method for my worthy Answerer calls me a Jesuite and so the Dr. does Philanax though I am confident he knows him to be a Lay-man and a married man also But now Reader it will not be amiss to tell you why this Mr. du Moulin is so angry with the Jesuites You must know that Petra Sancta a famous Writer in the Society taxes the Drs Father for jugling viz. for being in France a Presbyterian and in England Episcopal and so complying for gain with those Ceremonies which his Calvinistical Brethren abominated as superstitious This old du Moulin his reverend father as the Dr. calls him writ a Letter forsooth as his son says to the Rebels at Rochel to exhort them to obey the King in breaking up their Assembly which was then hatching the Rebellion that presently after broke out and yet though it has been lickt and amended I doubt not by the Doctor you may find That a ground of his perswasion was because they were not strong enough to resist the King and besides the Reverend Divine in that perswasion to Loyalty concludes Notwithstanding all he had said they ought to look after their safety fort'was unreasonable for them to separate their Assembly with the peril of their persons Of the same Loyal judgment also I find the Dr. himself for after all his rayling against Jesuites for Sedition he confesses the Term was expired of the grant of the strong Places to the Hugonots Nevertheless he says they seem to be justified for keeping those Towns by the reason of the first Grant which was to preserve them from their bitter Enemies This was the Doctrine you see of this worthy Divine who also vindicated the actions of the Reformed in Geneva Holland Germany c. and therefore I wonder not at his aspersing us for our service to our King and Country 'T is not my business to run over all his Book in order having one of his Disciples already to deal with but this I must tell him and the rest of his Tribe That since they steal one from the other none of their Fopperies shall go unanswered and this they may find in some part or other of the present treatise SECT V. APOLOGY Nor could any thing have ever grieved us more then to have our Loyalty called into Question by you even at the instigation of our greatest Adversaries If we must suffer let it be by you alone for that 's a double death to men of Honour to have their Enemies not only accusers but for their insulting Iudges also ANSWER IV. His Objection here is Men of Honour have no cause to fear either single or double Deaths
bold as Hectors in their denials that has affirmed the Church of Rome never governed the civilized World But since this Minister mentions here Popish ignorance I must desire the Reader if he knows any of our Profession in the Country to tell me whether generally speaking they are not esteemed more learned then their Neighbours of the same rank and degree I am sure they that live at London are thought by their Protestant Acquaintance as well bred and as greate scholars as any of their condition with whom they usually converse Concerning our Priests consult their Books and tell me then whether they have been out done or no and if any English man would know how they are abroad let them go but to his next Neighbours the French and there in every Diocess he shall find a Clergy not only learned to admiration but so far outgoing the Hugonot-Ministers that one would think they lived not in the same Clime or Region Nay what is yet more there is neither private nor publick Library in this very Island but seven of ten of the choice Books in all Sciences were writ by Catholicks Is not this Good Reader strange ignorance for Protestants to be thus deceived and implicitly led on by their Pastors contrary to what they hear and see This I must say is incredible blindness and exceeds that of the silliest Papists who if they are cozened it must be in things beyond their capacity or by distance far remote from them But now in England nothing is more common then to have wise Protestants run into this and the like fond fancies and at last when they can say no more they are fain to shift it off with this Phanatical evasion That it is true Papists are carnally but not spiritually learned SECT V. APOLOGY Did Richard the first or Edward Longshanks suspect his Catholicks that served in Palestine and made our Countries Fame big in the Chronicles of all ages or did they mistrust in their dangerous absence their Subjects at home because they were of this Profession Could Edward the third imagine those to be Trayterous in their Doctrine that had that care and duty for their Prince as to make them by Statute guilty of death in the highest degree that had the least thought of ill against the King Be pleased that Henry the fifth be remembred also who did those Wonders of which the whole World does still resound and certainly all History will agree in this that 't was Old-Castle he feared and not those that believed the Bishop of Rome to be Head of the Church ANSWER VIII To this he says the Reigns of these Kings were in the dark times of corruption yet that Richard I. bequeathed his Pride and Lechery to the Clergy and Monks That Edward I. outlawed the Clergy for obeying the Pope in not paying Taxes That Edward III and Hen. V. made good Laws against the Popes usurpation and Becket vext Hen. II more then Hen. V feared Oldcastle Moreover that all these Kings did not differ so much from Protestants as the Papists now do and to conclude he asks did not the Pope force K. Iohn to do homage for England wrestle with Edward the first for Scotland and often lay claim to Ireland REPLY 8. Certainly Reader the Minister is besides himself since he can say the English differed not so much from the Protestants then as we do now Has the man railed all this while against the Tyranny of Popes and urged those times as the height of their Authority and then comes to this evasion I would fain know if the Clergy and Religious were since ever more in power then in those days was there ever more of Pilgrimages and all sorts of Devotion which Protestants call Superstitious were not Schoolmen then most in their splendor And lastly could any Publican Lollard Wickliffian or new Sect stir but the whole Kingdom presently detested them Who then will ever believe a word more he says when he is so strangely impudent to no purpose But these are the worthy tricks used to keep the poor people in ignorance and just with as much truth are the Fathers called defenders of the Protestant Religion for the Fathers stiled them always Hereticks that ran out of the visible Church For the Laws that have been made by any of our Kings if they made any against Ecclesiastical usurpations God reward them and to this all Catholicks will say Amen Concerning K. John we have already spoke enough And for the Popes claim to Scotland judge Reader whether any man can be fuller of falsity and malice then this Minister my Adversary For here he would have the World think by his placing this Accusation after King Johns business and by calling it the Popes wrestling with Edward I. for the Soveraignty of Scotland there was some notorious injustice done by the Sea of Rome In short the business was only this as you may find in Hollingshead the most violent English Historian against Papists that ever yet writ The Scots having always an animosity against the English and not knowing how to resist the Victorious Arms of Edward who was again coming with a great Army against them surrendred the Kingdom or so pretended to Boniface 8. He thereupon sent to the King to desist because the Crown belonged to the Church Edward immediately returned an Answer and so did all the Barons of England to manifest the Kings right and the invalidity of the new pretence The Pope says Hollingshead when he deliberately pondered the Kings Answer with the Letter from the English Barons waxt cold in the matter and followed it no farther Thus Reader you see how the case stood and how Catholiques are wronged by ill men nor is there any difference between a false aggravation and a downright lye In the same manner are we used in this Accusation of Ireland for the Pope never medled with Ireland but since the Reformation and so invaded it in the time of Queen Elizabeth of which you shall see farther in the Section of Popish misdemeanors in her Reign The parity between S. Th. Becket and Oldcastle is doubtless very odd the last being a Rebel with Complices in arms against Henry the fifth the other disputing only about Priviledges which he said were grāted to Priests Just as if our Peers should stād upon the freedome of their Persons were there a design to have them imprisoned as other Subjects or tried by a common Jury Besides all Princes of Christendome then owned Becket for a Saint when as no body unless such a man as Fox thought Oldcastle deserved any thing but the Gallows SECT IX APOLOGY We will no longer trouble you with putting you in mind of any more of our mighty Kings who have been feared abroad and as safe at home as any since the Reformation of Religion We shall only add this that if Popery be the enslaving of Princes France still believes it self as absolute as Denmarck or Sweden ANSWER IX He
next for the Church of England is no Manna to relish in every palate and some wise men also think that a man may do very well though he has little Disputes with this his holy Mother Why does this Gentleman say we never knew the Laws executed I am sure there have died by these Laws at least 300 Priests besides Laymen and how often we have been rackt in prison and how infinitely our Estates have suffered for our Consciences no body I think is ignorant But I hope the brave people of England will intercede for us to his Majesty that since he the Messiah only expectation of the Nation is come we may not feel in his days what we suffered under Cromwel even by virtue of those Acts which have been formerly made Nor could Osborn a Protestant in his Memoires chuse but confess That against the poor Catholiques nothing in relation to the generality remains upon due proof sufficient to justifie the severity of the Laws daily enacted put in execution against them SECT XXI APOLOGY It has been often urged that our misdemeanours in Queen Elizabeths and King James's time were the cause of our punishment ANSWER XXI Your misdemeanors we cry you mercy if they were no more but that comes next to be argued whether they were misdemeanors or Treasons REPLY XXI Reader This is the subtlest Sophister that I ever met with for before this distinction I never knew but that Treasons were misdemeanors and therefore I think the word misdemeanour is not improper SECT XXII APOLOGY We earnestly wish that the Party had had more patience under that Princess But pray consider though we excuse not their faults whether it was not a harder Question then that of Yorck and Lancaster the cause of a War of such length and death of so many Princes who had most right Queen Elizabeth or Mary Stuart For since the whole Kingdom had crowned and sworn Allegeance to Queen Mary they owned her as the legitimate daughter to Henry the Eighth and therefore it was thought necessarily to follow by many that if Mary was the true Child Elizabeth was the Natural which must needs give way to the thrice-noble Queen of Scots ANSWER XXII He says that I wish the Catholicks had had more patience under Q. Elizabeth but he thinks they needed none for in the first ten years of her Reign though what the Papists had done in Queen Maries time was fresh in memory none of them fuffered death till the Northern Rebellion raised against her meerly upon the account of her Religion 't was she then that was persecuted and had occasion for patience and therefore I should have wisht them more Loyalty But it appears I account Rebellion no fault in saying 't was a hard Question whether the right lay in Queen Elizabeth or the Queen of Scots because many thought Queen Elizabeth illegitimate Here he asks Who thought so Or when the Question arose For says he First Archbishop Heath a Papist said in his Speech no body could doubt the justness of her Title Secondly the Kings of France Spain and the Emperour offered Marriage to her and thereby hoped to get the Crown Thirdly the Queen of Scots and King James acknowledged her and claimed nothing but to be her Heirs and Successours Then he tells that Paul the Fourth was the First that questioned her Title because the Kingdom being a Fee of the Papacy she had audaciously assumed it without his leave and secondly because she was illegitimate But his Successour Pius the Fourth would have owned her if she would have owned him which because she would not the next Pope Pius V. issued out his Bulls and deposed her not for Bastardy but for being a Protestant upon which the Northern-men and others of her Subjects rebelled and were every foot plotting against her 'T is true he says the Queen of Scots Title was pretended but he demands what would we have done if that Queen had not been Catholick or Queen Elizabeth not thought illegitimate He proceeds That Gregory the Thirteenth had occasion to consider this having a Bastard of his own and another of the Emperours to provide for to the first of which he gave Ireland and sent Stukely to win it for him and to the other England with leave to win it for himself But what was this to the Q. of Scots who he says might perhaps have been preferred to marry one of them upon condition her son Iames might have nothing to do with the Succession For when she was dead and her right in King Iames Sixtus V. not only took no notice of him but curst Queen Elizabeth again and gave her Kingdom to Philip the Second of Spain Pope Clement the Eighth seeing he could do no good upon Queen Elizabeth to take care another Heretick should not succeed her sent his Breves both to Clergy and Layity forbidding them to admit any but a Catholique to the Succession though never so neer in blood which was in plain words to exclude King James so that the Popes never stuck at the hard question And now he asks What our Country men did or suffered for it And answers himself that they acted for the Papal interest making use of the House of Scotland only for a cloak while the Title was in Queen Mary but when it was in King James none of them stirred or suffered for it yet they were not idle but as busie as Bees in contriving to hasten Queen Elizabeths death and to put him by the Succession To prove this he urges the Spanish Invasion presently after his Mothers death negotiated and defended by Papists That the Jesuites procured Huntly to rebel in Scotland That they persuaded the Earl of Darby to set up a Title to the Crown of England which he revealing was poysoned soon after as Hesket had threatned him That when their single shot failed F. Parsons gave a broad-side to the Royal House of Scotland in a Book published under the name of Doleman setting up divers Competitors and to provide a sure Enemy he found a Title for the Earl of Essex to whom he dedicated the Book being the most ambitious and popular man in the Nation But the the Book he says prefers the Title of the Infanta before all others Then he concludes from this his Discourse in which he says nothing material can be denied that it appears That this hard Question was not between the Parties themselves in one of whom we confess the right was For the Pope easily resolved it who denied both sides of the Question assuming the right to himself and as concerning the English Catholiques he says they sided with the Pope against Queen Elizabeth and Queen of Scots also and lastly that their misdemeanours were inexcusable Treasons if any Treasons befriended by such an Apologist can be inexcusable REPLY 22. 'T is strange to me that I must be denied the liberty which all people else have No man is forbid to declare their pretensions
because the English have a reluctancy at first to the thoughts of a stranger Nay some Members of Parliament after his admission said openly in the House Thâ—t no people endued with Natural desire of Preservation would admit a Prince of a beggerly Nation to Reign over them how just soever his claim were for fear of loosing their propriety as dear as life it self and as vigorously to be defended By this therefore Reader may be seen the rancour of the Reformed against the Kings coming in since they durst say such things even after his reception and had not the last Earl of Pembrook wisely pocketted up Ramsey's switching at Newmarket when the people cried Let us break-fast with the Scots here and dine with the rest at London 't was feared that day would have been as fatal to the King as the fifth of November might have proved Papists therefore it seems were not his only Enemies Concerning Huntly's Rebellion I am sure the man is doubly mad in mentioning it for first according to Cambden whom he cites The rising was to help the Spaniards against Queen Elizabeth who had put to death their Queen nor was there ever a formed insurrectioÌ„ so gently punisht by a King which argues they had no malice against him Nay his Majesty is pleased to say in his Basilicon Doron That the Puritans had put out many Libellous Invectives against all Christian Princes and that no body answered them but the Papists by which he said the scandal was doubled for they were the Reformed who calumniated and the Catholiques were the only Vindicators Secondly If the Rebellion suppose it as bad as may be of these Lords of another Country of another age must touch us the present Catholicks of England what a blow would this be to the Reformed Religion should I repeat the Scots unparallel'd actions against their Queen The protecting of Bothwel who would have destroy'd King James by the English And lastly omitting the continual slavery he was in the downright Conspiracie of the Gowries against his life Having thus gone through the Paragraph I must come to the nicest Question of all and nice I may call it because it is conjectural only The proposal by the Minister is this Whether if the Queen of Scots had been a Protestant we should have stickled for her and if Queen Elizabeth had not been thought illegitimate whether nevertheless we had not rebelled against her To the first I say viz. We had sided with the Q. of Scots had she been Protestant To the second No That the Papists would not have opposed Queen Elizabeth had they thought her legitimate and of the Ministers own assertions I will make this plainly appear For if according to him the Papists would have set up two Protestants the Lords Darby and Essex who in reality had no right then I say 't is certain they would willingly have embraced the Title of the Stuarts that carried so fair a shew To the second I answer That they would never have opposed Queen Elizabeth had she been thought Legitimate For if as the Minister urged in the beginning they obeyed her whom they thought an Usurper for ten years though she had utterly destroyed their Religion 't is then more then probable had her Title been good in their opinion they had submitted let her Faith have been what it would These doubts being thus resolved by the very Gentleman that proposed them who cares not if he can wound us for the present into what contradictions at last he runs himself I may I hope since he hath shewed me the example propose a Query also and I shall thank him if out of my Reply he gives the Solution I will not urge my Question so far as to suppose the Queen of Scots had been a Protestant but my demand shall be singly this Whether the Reformed in those days would have quietly obeyed Queen Elizabeth had she stood up for the Catholick Religion Reader because the Parson is not ready to give his determination I will tell you my opinion which is that I think they would not and doubtless this coÌ„jecture is not rash when we consider what has been done here and recorded by our Protestant Historians themselves Have we not seen that for the safety of Religion Edward the Sixth gave away by the advice of his Councel the Kingdom to Jane Gray and what Bees could be so busie as Cranmer and Ridley with many thousands more to set up against their lawful Queen Mary that poor Lady who had not right enough by blood and much less if she depended wholly upon the Will for that was void from the beginning according to the known Laws of the Land How many treasonable Books were written against this Queen after she came to the Crown by Mr. Goodman and others asserting That she ought to be put to death as a Tyrant Monster and cruel Beast Will Thomas also conspired to murther her and when he was to be hanged for his Treason he said he died for his Countrey By all which may be gathered the Duke of Suffolke also with many more protestants being ready and Wiat actually in an open and dangerous rebellion how dangerous it was then in England for a Prince to be a Papist though to that day there had never sat but one through Protestant upon the Throne and he a Child about sixteen when he died But now I must descend to a far more tragical example even to the death of the so often mentioned Qu. of Scots who lost her life barely upon the account of her Religion 'T is true Queen Elizabeth considered her own safety but the fury of the Nobility and people without whose incitement she durst not have been beheaded was purely for fear she might have survived Queen Elizabeth and being then the undoubted Successour might have changed Religion as the former Queen Mary had done before If I should urge this barely upon my own word I might be mistrusted therefore what I say shall be out of Cambden who was not only a Protestant but the acknowledged true Annalist of those times He will tell you that after Babingtons Conspiracy in the consultation what should be done with the Royal Prisoner some were for holding her in safe custody but others out of care of Religion would have her tried and exexecuted In pursuance then of this advice she was condemned and the next Parliament the House petitioned for the execution of her Sentence The first reason in their supplicate was for the preservation of the true Religion of Christ and after they had told Queen Elizabeth also of her own danger they harpt again upoÌ„ the former string desiring her to remeÌ„ber Gods fearful judgments upon Saul and Ahab for their sparing Benhadad and Agag two wicked and profane Idolaters In fine when the fatal day came though they were so very severe as to deny her being a Guest and a free Princess what all Embassadours
draw them as we see by a hundred years experience into perpetual confusion and discord SECT XXXXI APOLOGY Yet this is a mis fortune we now plainly feel that the longer the late transgressors live the more forgotten are their crimes whilst distance in time calls the faults of our Fathers to remembrance and buries our own allegeance in eternal Oblivion and forgetfulness ANSWER XXXXI We can now allow you to complain and commend your selves without measure having proved already that you do it without cause SECT XXXXII. APOLOGY My Lords and Gentlemen Consider we beseech you the sad condition of the Irish Souldiers now in England the worst of which Nation could be but intentionallie so wicked as the acted villanie of many English whom your admired Clemencie pardoned Remember how they left the Spanish service when they heard their King was in France and kow they forsook the emploiment of that unnatural Prince after he had committed that never to be forgotten act of banishing his distressed Kinsman out of his Dominions These poor men left all again to bring their Monarch to his home and shall they then be forgotten by You Or shall my Lord Douglas and his brave Scots be left to their shifts who scorn'd to receive Wages of those that have declared War against England ANSWER XXXXII. He says That to swell our Bill of Merits I take in the Irish and Scotish Souldiers as if they were a part of English Catholicks and as if I were the first that thought of them God forbid he says they should not be considered and he is neither good Christian no nor good Subject that would not contribute his proportion to it But he says I have a drift in mentioning the Irish for I mingle them with the worst of that Nation namely with those infamous Butchers that cut the throats of at least an hundred thousand Protestants It was so black an action that I knew not how to mention it in its proper place viz. after the French massacre because I had not wherewith to colour it but being still conscious it was a blot on our cause I thought fit to place it here that these brave men might mend the hue of the action He says further I deal as ill with the English Royallists by affirming they pardoned many English whose acted villanies were so wicked that the worst of the Irish could be but intentionally so wicked REPLY to ANSW XXXXII. Pray Reader consider the wicked folly of this man for here he denies us a part in the good actions of the Irish and yet all along he has laid their ill actions at our door nay in this very Paragraph he twits us with it when he says I was conscious it was a blot on our cause but I will pass by this as usual and go on Truly Reader the case of the Irish in Arms toucht me as neer as my own concerns and pray see the strange Hypocrisie also of this Minister that says God forbid these poor Souldiers should not be considered and that he is neither good Christian nor Subject that would not contribute to it and yet in the same exhortation endeavours all he can to have the Laws executed which must needs force these forlorn men either to beg or steal By this we may find what his contribution is and therefore God deliver all honest men from such a merciless creature and was ever man so abominable knowing many of the Kings Judges were pardoned to reproach my assertion that the worst of this Nation be but intentionally so wicked as the acted villany of many English whom the clemencie of the Parliament pardoned Is not this in plain terms to say that the business of Ireland was greater then the Rebellion of England and horrid Murther of our Gratious King which has drawn an eternal disgrace upon the whole Nation in general If this man who uses the word US at every turn ranking himself thereby among the Royallists be a Royallist then I 'll hereafter say that Bradshaw was one also SECT XXXXIII APOLOGY How commonly is it said That the Oath of renouncing their Religion is intended for these which will needs bring this loss to the King and you that either you will force all of our Faith to lay down their Arms though by experience of great integrity and worth or else if some few you retain they are such whom Necessity has made to swear against Conscience and therefore will certainly betray you when a greater advantage shall be offered By this test then you can have none but whom with caution you ought to shun and thus must you drive away those that truly would serve you for had they the least thought of being false they would gladly take the advantage of gain and pay to deceive you ANSWER XLIII He asks me who are said to intend this Oath if it be those that have no Authority 't is frivolous if such as have Authority 't is false and he farther says that he verily believes 't was never said thought nor wisht by any one that loved either the King or Peace of the Nation REP. to ANS XLIII The Minister is here just as he uses to be for many were upon this account disbanded before he put out his Answer and since all the rest of the Catholiques have been cashiered as 't was expected by every body when he writ SECT XLIV APOLOGY We know your wisdom and generosity and therefore cannot imagine such a thing Nor do we doubt when you shew favour to these but you will use mercy to us who are both fellow-Subjects and your own flesh and blood also If you forsake us we must say the world decays and its final transmutation must needs quickly follow ANSWER XLIV Here you imagine for the Souldiers and imagine for your self and as if you really thought your self in danger you begg for mercy of the Royallists in such words as your Predecessor the first Moderator used to the Rebels Only for the last strain we do not know that any one hit upon it before nor do believe that any one will ever use it again SECT XLV APOLOGY Little do you think the insolencies we shall suffer by Committee-men c. whom chance and lot has put into petty power Nor will it chuse but grieve you to see them abused whom formerly you loved even by the Common Enemy of us both ANSWER XLV It seems Committee-men are intrusted with his Majesties Authority or none must use it against Papists for fear of being accounted Committee-men It is time to have done when we are come to the dregs of your Rhetorick SECT XLVI APOLOGY When they punish how will they triumph and say Take this poor Romanists for your love to Kingship and again this For your long doating on the Royal Party all which you shall receive from us Commissioned by your dearest friends and under this Cloak we will glady vent our private spleen and malice ANSWER XXXXVI Sir though you set your self to
day in which Carlos Gifford Whitgrave and the Pendrels should be punished by your desires for that Religion which obliged them to save their forlorn Prince and a stigmatized man for his offences against King and Church a chief promoter of it Nay less did we imagine that by your Votes Hudlestone might be hanged who again secured our Soveraign and others free in their fat possessions that sat as Judges and sealed the Execution of that great Prince of happy Memory We confess we are unfortunate you just Judges whom with our lives we will ever maintain to be so nor are we ignorant the necessity of affairs made the King and you do things which formerly you could not so much as fancy yet give us leave to say we are still Loyal nay to desire you to believe so and to remember how synonymous under the late Rebellion was the word Papist and Cavalier for there was no Papist that was not deemed a Caualier nor no Caualier that was not call'd a Papist or at least thought to be Popishly affected We know though we differ something in Religion the truth of which let the last day judge yet none can agree with your inclinations or are fitter for your converse then we for as we have as much birth among us as England can boast of so our breeding leans your way both in Court and Camp And therefore had not our late Sufferings united us in that firm tie yet our like humors must needs have joyned our hearts If we erre pity our condition and remember what your great Ancestors were and make some difference between us that have twice converted England from Paganism and those other Sects that can challenge nothing but intrusion for their imposed Authority But 't is generally said That Papists cannot live without persecuting all other Religions within their reach We confess where the name of Protestant is unknown the Catholick Magistrates believing it erronious do use all endeavours to keep it out Yet in those Countreys where Liberty is given they have far more Priviledges then we under any Reformed Government whatsoever To be short we will only instance France for all where they have publick Churches where they can make what Proselytes they please and where 't is not against Law to be in any Charge or Imployment Now Holland which permits every thing gives us 't is true our Lives and Estates but takes away alle Trust and Rule and leaves us also in danger of the Scout whensoever he pleases to molest our Meetings Because we have named France the Massacre will perchance be urged against us But the World must know that was a Cabinet-Plot condemned as wicked by Catholick Writers there and of other Countries also Besides it cannot be thought they were murthered for being Protestants since 't was their powerful Rebellion let their Faith have been what it would that drew them into that ill-machinated destruction May it not as well be said in the next Catholick Kings Reign that the Duke of Guise ande Cardinal Heads of the League were killed for their Religion also Now no body is ignorant that 't was their factious Authority which made that jealous Prince design their deaths though by unwarrantable means If it were for Doctrine that the Hugonots suffered in France this haughty Monaroh would soon destroy them now having neither Force nor Towns to resist his Might and Puissance They yet live free enough being even Members of Parliament and may convert the Kings Brother too if he thinks fit to be so Thus you may see how well Protestants live in a Popish Country under a Popish King Nor was Charlemaign more Catholick then this for though he contends sometimes with the Pope 't is not of Faith but about Gallicane Priviledges which perchance he may very lawfully do Judge then Worthy Patriots who are the best used and consider our hardship here in England where 't is not only a Fine for hearing Mass but death to the Master for having a Priest in his house and so far we are from preferment that by Law we cannot come within ten miles of London all which we know your great Mercy will never permit you to exact It has been often urged that our misdemeanours in Queen Elizabeths and King James's time were the cause of our punishment We earnestly wish that the Party had had more patience under that Princess But pray consider though we excuse not their faults whether it was not a Question harder then that of York and Lancaster the cause of a War of such length and death of so many Princes who had most right Queen Elizabeth or Mary Stuart For since the whole Kingdom had crowned and sworn Allegeance to Queen Mary they owned her as the legitimate daughter to Henry the Eighth and therefore 't was thought necessarily to follow by many that if Mary was the true Child Elizabeth was the Natural which must needs give way to the thrice noble Queen of Scots 'T was for the Royal House of Scotland that they suffered in those days and 't is for the same illustrious Family we are ready to hazard all on any occasion Nor can the consequence of the former procedure be but ill if a Henry the Eighth whom Sir W. Rawleigh and my Lord Cherbury two famous Protestants have so homely characterized should after twenty years co-habitation turn away his wife and this out of scruple of Conscience as he said when as History declares that he never spared woman in his lust nor man his fury Now for the fifth of Novēber with hāds lifted up to Heaven we abominate and detest and from the bottō of our hearts say may they fall into irrecoverable perdition who propagate that faith by the blood of Kings which is to be planted in truth and meekness only But let it not displease Men Brethren and Fathers if we ask whether Ulysses be no better known or who has forgot the Plots of Cromwel framed in his Closet not only to destroy many faithful Cavaliers but also to put a lustre upon his Intelligence as if nothing could be done without his knowledge Even so did the then great Minister who drew some few ambitious men into this conjuration and then discovered it by a Miracle This will easily appear viz. how little the Catholique Party understood the design seeing there were not a score of guilty found though all imaginable industry was used by the Commons Lords and Privy Councel too But suppose my Lords and Gentlemen which never can be granted that all the Papists of that age were consenting Will you be so severe then to still punish the Children for their Fathers faults Nay such Children that so unanimously joyned with you in that glorious Quarrel wherein you and we underwent such sufferings that needs we must have all sunk had not our mutual love assisted What have we done that we should now deserve your Anger Has the Indiscretion of some few incenst you 'T is true that is
the thing Objected Do not you know an Enemy may easily mistake a Mass-Bell for that which calls to Dinner or a Sequestrator glad to be affronted being Constable when 't was the hatred to his person and not present Office which perchance egg'd a rash man to folly We dare with submission say let a publick Invitation be put up against any Party whatsoever nay against the Reverend Bishops themselves and some malicious Informer or other will alledge that which may be far better to conceal Yet all mankind by a Manifesto on the House-door are encouraged to accuse us Nor are they upon Oath though your Enemies and ours take all for granted and true It cannot be imagined where there are so many men of heat and youth overjoy'd with the happy Restauration of their Prince and remembring the Insolencies of the former Grandees that they should all at all times prudently carry themselves for this would be more then men And truly we esteem it as a particular blessing that God has not suffer'd many through vanitie or frailty to fall into greater faults ther are yet as we understand laid to our charge Can we chuse but be dismay'd when all things fail that extravagant Crimes are fathered on us It is we that must be the Authors some say of firing the Citie even we that have lost so vastly by it Yet truly in this our ingenuity is great since we think it no Plot though our Enemie an Hugonot Protestant acknowledged the fact and was iustly executed for his vain Confession Again if a Merchant of the Church of England buy Knives for the business of his Trade this also presently is a Popish contriuance to destroy the well-affected We must a little complain finding it by experience that by reason you discontenance us the people rage and again because they rage we are the more forsaken by you Assured we are that our Conversation is affable and our Houses so many hospitable receipts to our Neighbours Our acquaintance therefore we fear at no time but it is the stranger we dread that taking all on hear say zealously wounds and then examines the business when 't is too late or is perchance confirmed by another that knows no more of us then he himself 'T is to you we must make our applications beseeching you as Subjects tender of our King to intercede for us in the execution and weigh the Dilemma which doubtless he is in either to deny so good a Parliament their request or else run counter to his Royal inclinations when he punishes the weak and harmless Why may not we Noble Country-men hope for favour from you as well as the French Protestants find from theirs A greater duty then ours none could express we are sure Or why should the United Provinces and other Magistrates that are harsh both in mind and manners refrain from violence against our Religion and your tender breasts seem not to harbour the least compassion or pity These neighboring people sequestrer none for their Faith but for transgression against the State Nor is the whole party involved in the crime of a few but every man suffers for his own and proper fault Do you then the like and he that offends let him die without mercy And think always we beseech you of Cromwels injustice who for the actions of some against his pretended Laws drew thousands into Decimation even ignorant of the thing after they had vastlie paid for their securitie and quiet We have no studie but the Glory of our Soveraign and just libertie of the Subjects nor was it a mean argument of our dutie when every Catholique Lord gave his voice for the Restoration of Bishops by which we could pretend no other advantage but that 26. Votes subsisting wholly by the Crown were added to the defence of Kingship and consequently a check to all Anarchy and confusion 'T is morally impossible but that we who approve of Monarhy in the Church must ever be fond of it in the State also Yet this is a misfortune we now plainly feel that the longer the late transgressors live the more forgotten are their crimes whilst distance in time calls the faults of our Fathers to remembrance and buries our own Allegeance in eternal Oblivion and forgetfulness My Lords and Gentlemen Consider we beseech you the sad condition of the Irish Souldiers now in England the worst of which Nation could be but intentionallie so wicked as the acted villanie of many English whom your admired Clemencie pardoned Remember how they left the Spanish service when they heard their King was in France and how they forsook the emploiment of that unnatural Prince after he had committed that never to be forgotten act of banishing his distressed Kinsman out of his Dominions These poor men left all again to bring their Monarch to his home and shall they then he forgotten by You Or shall my Lord Douglas and his brave Scots be left to their shifts who scorn'd to receive Wages of those that have declared War against England How commonly is it said That the Oath of renouncing their Religion is intended for these which will needs bring this loss to the King and you that either you will force all of our Faith to lay down their Arms though by experience of great integrity and worth or else if some few you retain they are such whom Necessity has made to swear against Conscience and who therefore will certainly betray you when a greater advantage shall be offered By this test then you can have none but whom with caution you ought to shun and thus must you drive away those that truly would serve you for had they the least thought of being false they would gladly take the advantage of gain and pay to deceive you We know your wisdom and generosity and therefore cannot imagine such a thing Nor do we doubt when you shew favour to these but you will use mercy to us who are both fellow-Subjects and your owen flesh and blood also If you forsake us we must say the world decays and its final transmutation must needs quickly follow Little do you think the insolencies we shall suffer by Committee-men c. whom chance and lot has put in to petty power Nor will it chuse but grieve you to see them abused whom formerly you loved even by the Common Enemy of us both When they punish how will they triumph and say Take this poor Romanists for your love to King ship and again this for your long doating on the Royal Party all which you shall receive from us Commissioned by your dearest friends and under this cloak we will gladly vent our private spleen and malice We know My Lords and Gentlemen that from your hearts you do deplore our condition yet permit us to tell you your bravery must extend thus far as not to sit still with pity only but each is to labour for the distressed as far as in reality his ablity will reach some
quite geven over my Minister for though he had no regard of himself me thinks he might have had more respect for our King then to parallel his Grand-mother with Wallis You must know Reader that Edward the First by his valour conquered Scotland and made all the Nobles swear Fealty to him About Ann. 1300. when all things were thus at quiet up starts Wallis a poore private Gentlemen who though he had distressed the English a while yet never so much as once pretended to the Crown either by Sword or Birth Afterwards he was taken by our King and executed for his Insurrections Is this man then a fit parallel with Mary Stuart owned not only as Queen of Scots abroad but by Queen Elizabeth her self also who often sent and received Embassadors from her with the same state as was used to the King of France or any other Potentate What King Iames and King Charles thought of the action I know not but I wish it had never been done Concerning the other part of his Answer First I did never charge the Kings Murther on any body but those that were the Authors of it he knows best whether he was one of them or no this I am sure of he can falsifie and to use Harrisons words blacken as well as the best of them as you may see all a long and especially in the next Section Secondly I do verily believe that King Charles died a sincere Protestant And lastly I am so far from laying any crime upon the Cavalier Protestants that I think them as brave and as worthy Gentlemen as any Nation bears But this I must say that the English Church though of an honest intention is built upon such Principles that as long as it lasts it will hatch a dissenting brood and these graceless Children upon every advantage will be ready to Rebel This is then the benefit entailed by Hen. 8. Reformation which has as Baker confesses so shaken the Church that it has stood indistraction ever since SECT XIII APOLOGY My Lords and Gentlemen We know who were the Authors of this last abomination and how generously you strove against the raging torrent nor have we any other ends to remember you of it but to show that all Religions may have a corrupted spawn and that God hath been pleased to permit such a Rebellion which our Progenitors never saw to convince you perchance whom for ever may he prosper that Popery is not the only source of Treason ANSWER XIII Here he says since we do know who were the Authors of the Abomination he desires us to be plain for he thinks I have spoke more truth then every man is aware Cardinal Richelieu he says began the Rebellion in Scotland then it broke out in Ireland blest with his Holiness Letters and Nuntio Lastly England we unsettled by giving occasion of jealousies which the Phanaticks made use of for their purposes Besides all this he says the Murther of the King also was agreed on in the Councels of our Clergy and therefore in vain could the Royallists resist the raging Torrent REPLY XIII Lord what blasphemies are here and what a heap of unsorted falsities are put together without any probability or proof Because Richelieu a great Minister of State who intrigued in every Nation is supposed to have dealt with the Presbyterians of Scotland the Papists of England were the cause of the Rebellion This is rare Logick especially every body knowing that fire and water agreed better then those Saints and we I wonder the Papists were not guilty of the dangerous commotion anno 1666 in that Kingdom But this is so ridiculous that I should be more abominable then he if I made more words of it Nor does that great Anti-Papist H. L. in his Reigne of Ch. 1. scruple to write that the Liturgy or Common Prayer was the Originall of the Scotch troubles In the next place if the flame break out in Ireland which Heath a Protestant historian sayes can be noe where more imputable then to the Parliament's unwarantable proceedure against my Lord Strafford we in England are again the cause of it so that if forraign Catholicks or forraign Protestants Rebel still we must be the Authors that never had any correspondence with either of these Nations nor have to this day as all the World sees Well then may this man falsely charge the Pope who is remote when he dares say thus of us who can so easily contradict his calumnies Lastly for England he urges we were the occasion of jealousies and they made the War O ridiculous impudence If the majority of both Houses conspire against the King suggest in open Debates fears of their own hatching and at the same time with all violence persecute Papists yet we are to be blamed and causers of the Commotions Certainly this is like him that cursed the Lord Chancellour because his horse stumbled I am sure many grave men of your Coat Mr. Parson ingenuously confest that it was the Translation of the Bible or the too frequent reading of it by the ignorant which is a consequent of the Translation that caused our disorders Consider now Reader this strange man for if his malice had not exceeded all bounds he would have told you That the Non-conformists took root assoon as the Reformation That Queen Elizabeths prudence kept them a little down That in King James his Reign they grew much stronger and that great Statesmen have often blamed that wise Prince because to keep things quiet in his Reign he occasioned the Tide to rush in with such irresistable force in our late unhappy times Thus was this storm by knowing Pilots foreseen long ago But would not a man now think this Minister had abused us sufficiently No he must yet go farther even The Kings death was agreed to in the Councels of our Clergy Doubtelss he cannot mean our Priests by the word for what did their agreeing signifie more then if the Mayor of Quinborough and his Brethren agreed that the Janizaries should strangle the Grand Seignior Had our Priests any power in England Were they not forced to skulk always in holes and hanged as often as taken I am sure Iesuites Seculars and Friers were executed no Order escaping al being fish that came to net But now I remember my self Mr. Parson pretends to be skilled in Rhetorick and perchance he uses a Trope of his own making that is That because two Negatives make an affirmative or a thing contrary to themselves therefore his four falsities in this one Section shall dubb an irrefragable truth opposite to each single assertion The Ministers meaning then it seems is this That in stead of our being false to the State We have been most intirely faithful to our King and Country Good Reader I must ask you pardon for saying any thing against these vain and groundless cavils seeing the whole World knows that never were men more earnestly Loyal then we Beware therefore of
like humors must needs have joyned our hearts If we erre pity our condition and remember what your great Ancestors were and make some difference between us that have twice converted England from Paganism and those other Sects that can challenge nothing but intrusion for their imposed Authority ANSWER XVI He says he aggrees with me in all that is truly Catholick and differs only in what we have innovated he respects our breeding but suspects whatever leans to forreign jurisdiction 'T is a flam that we have twice converted England and that sure we mean it has been twice converted by persons sent from Rome which we will never perswade any one to believe that has tasted Church-History without our Fathers chewing it for him But supposing this true he asks whether we wouldt infer that because they received good from the Primitive Christians of that place they must lay themselves open to receive any ill that my happen to them from their dangerous Successours REPLY XVI Concerning his saying that he agrees with me in all that is truly Catholick I kiss his hands for so said Jacob Behmen and so I dare say will Mr. Woodcock this being the old Song of all Hereticks I have proved before that forreign Jurisdiction in Spirituals may well agree in all Governments and no Kingdoms have been more happy at home or glorious abroad then when the Pope was their Spiritual Pastor But methinks my Gentleman might have acknowledged tha the last Conversion at least was Popish it being performed Ann. 596. in the time of Pope Gregory whom Fox calls the basest of all his Predecessours and it was done also by Austin a Monck which very name is enough to tell a Protestant the Missioner was Popishly perswaded Moreover this Austin survived his Master Gregory and consequently was according to Fox who dreames that he lived in England 16. yeares not only obedient to Boniface the 3. the Great Antichrist but made his Companion Lawrence his Successour who had the like veneration for Popes though they then stiled themselves Universal Bishops as all Protestants affirme nor did ever Canterbury deny the Roman Sea till Cranmer in the time of Hen. 8. If any man yet shall not think Austin Papist enough let him read St. Bedes History or rather some Protestants about it among which let J. Bale an Apostate Frier be one who will tell you That Austin was sent to convert the Saxons to a Popish Faith and that he taught false Doctrine and minded more the getting oblations for Masses then the Preaching of the Gospel Yet Fox though he call St. Austin Pharisaical says nevertheless that those Missioners did Miracles before King Ethelbert For the Conversion under King Lucius all Reformed Historians confess that Pope Eleutherius sent Damianus and Fugatius two Ministers forsooth as Heylin calls them who preacht Christ to the Britains No man can doubt then if these were sent from Rome but that they taught the Faith of Rome Now when Austin whom you see the Protestants already confess Popish came to convert the Saxons he had conference with Dinoth the Abbot and several of the Monks at Bangor who still preserved Christian Religion among the British In all their Dispute we finde no debate but about the Customes of the Church nor did Austin demand of them any more then the alteration in keeping of Easter and some Ceremonies in Baptism but had there been any difference in Faith and doctrine as Speed sayes positwely there was none Historians would not have failed to remember that seeing they take notice of things of lâ—ss moment and besides every body knows how scrupulous the Church was in Doctrine having condemned the Arrians Eutychians Nestorians and the like for some things which to ordinary and humane capacities seemed but meer niceties This then proves plainly that Austin the Popish Monck who also according to Hollingshead infected us with the poyson of Romish Errours preacht no other Doctrine then what the British had received afore but the the British according to Fox and others of our Protestant Authors were the uncorrupt preservers of Gods word having received from their King Lucius who lived about 180. years after Christ Let any man therefore judge who are most Primative whether he that has the face to deny that Papists twice converted England would not also deny our Saviour were it as much for his advantage as we see this to be SECT XVII APOLOGY But it is generally said That Papists cannot live without persecuting all other Religions within their reach We confess where the name of Protestant is unknown the Catholick Magistrates believing it erronious do use all endeavours to keep it out Yet in those Countreys where Liberty is given they have far more Priviledges then we under any Reformed Government whatsoever To be short we will only instance France for all where they have publick Churches where they can make what Proselytes they please and where it is not against Law to be in any charge or Imployment Now Holland which permits every thing gives us 't is true our Lives and Estates but takes away all Trust and Rule and leaves us also in danger of the Scout whensoever he pleases to molest our Meetings ANSWER XVII He says That what is generally said of Popish persecutions is also generally believed and that I answer deceitfully in mentioning those Countreys only where the name of Protestant is unknown and no liberty given them but omit those where it is known and no liberty given as in Flanders now and in England when it was Catholick I instance he says in France because I could find no other place but I should have considered how the Edicts of the Protestants liberty were obtained and how they are observed But if the Edicts were observed he says it is no argument that because a Liberty not against the Law is allowed them it should be granted us against the Law The Papists in Holland he says lent the chief help to fling of the Spanish yoak and therefore deserve more then we who would have brought it on our Country again REPLY XVII I could not imagine the Minister would have discover'd so great a Truth for now Reader you see that he confesses that whatsoever is said of Papists is generally believed How are Papists traduced What Stories are told of Popes How many things of the whole body of Papists and all taken for Gospel as the adversary himself acknowledges Thus people are possest with a horrour of Qu. Mary's days as if all were really true and yet as I have treated before there has been more bloud Judicially spilt about Religion by those that have excluded the Pope then has been by Papists from the Conversion of the Nation to its fall What does the Minister mean by Protestants known and no liberty given Italy and Spain know Protestants nay the Turk himself knows them and is obliged to the disturbances made by Luther and his
when he speaks of the commotions of a Party yet here I am accused to think Rebellion no crime and to excuse their faults because I tell you what Papists in those days said for themselves The Minister can call himself a Loyal Subject and yet defend the Hugonots who were the most notorious and insolent Rebels that any History can shew nor had they any other pretence for the Massacres and continual ravages committed by them but Mr. Calvin and Mr. Beza's telling them God said thus and thus and therefore unless their respective Kings would suffer them to destroy a Religion in quiet possession since the Reign of Clouis they would bring Armies into the field and fortifie Towns against their Liege-Lords as every body knows they did till subdued in the time of Lewis the XIII I think good Mr. Parson I am as well known in England as your self and am sure can find more Protestants of Quality that shall engage for my Loyalty thē you can people of any sort 'T is not this Minister Reader only but others have called my narration of the matter of fact a questioning of Queen Elizabeths Title judge you by my words in the Apology whether it be so or no nor could I omit in honour the Plea of the foregoing age their misdemeanours being every day thrown in my dish But suppose I had questioned her Title there is no Treasonable intention in it I am sure because the Title of our King has no dependance upon that Princesse nor was she the first of our Monarchs against whose right Posterity has argued No body is blamed for saying King Stephen was an usurper or that Edward the Fourths Title was better then that of the three preceding Henry's What is 't then I beseech you were the fact proved against me I have committed that Protestant Authors have not done and worse Sr. Walter Rawley in his Preface of the History of the world has not only something to say against almost all the Kings of Englād but Buck in his Ric. 3 has bastardized Hen. 7 and all his offspring and thereby invalidates theire title to the Crowne either as Yorkists or Lancastrians Nor does Speed refraine from questioning the right of most of our Princes from the Conquest till Henry the fowrth's Reigne Yet none of these have been branded with the Character of ill Subjects 'T is he that is to be accounted wicked who sedititiously descants on Titles to breed Commotions and Disorders The Minister says I defend the calumny of those Catholicks in saying 'T was a very hard question whether the right to the Crown lay in Queen Elizabeth or in the Queen of Scots Reader that which I said was That this was a harder Question then the Dispute of York and Lancaster which cost so much Blood and Treasure and because I would know your opinion I will state these two Questions to you York had the interest of a third brother by Marriage Lancaster that of a fourth Brother and these two dispute about the Crown of England which women are capable of The second Question is this Henry the eighth married his brothers wife who was said to be a Virgin for Prince Arthur was but fifteene and a little more wen he died By this Princess K. Hen. had our Q. Mary and after he had lived with her 20 years he fell in love with a handsome young Lady whereupon he had in short time a scruple of Conscience that it was unlawful to live longer with his old wife because she had been-married to his brother His Conscience being still tender he caused the Scriptures to be searched and found not only there the Marriage to be void but that the Pope himself had no power in England and besides that rich Abbies were also contrary to the word of God Being thus truly informed he threw away Wife Pope and Monks and married the other by whom he had Queen Elizabeth while his first Wife lived 'T was thought by many curious wits that there could be but one of the daughters legitimate because both Mothers were contemporaries and that to Christians the Scripture permits but one wife at a time After the death of this King and his Son 't was put to the Kingdom to decide which of these children were lawfully begotten both Lords and Commons acknowledged Mary for their Queen which was as much to say she was born in true Wedlock Nor did Luther himself fail to disapprove of Queen Elizabeths birth I doubt not but the people were informed of the cause of the Kings scrupule as also that this brother Arthur had never known his wife Nay before K. Henry married Queen Katherine she protested she was a Virgin and offered to be tryed by Matrons The Bishop of Ely also deposed That the Queen whom all even the King himself esteemed for a Saint had often in confession told him she never carnally knew the Prince Nor in the whole examination was there any colourable pretence produc'd but the common vanity of all boys to be thought men before their time For 't was affirmed Arthur should say the next morning after Marriage that he had been in Spain that night Besides this there were those I believe that told the People that though St. John forbad Herod to take his brother Philips wife because his said Brother was then alive for Josephus sayes Herodias parted from her husband Philip in his life time and in contempt of the lawes married Herod yet he never prohibited by those words a Christian to marry his sister in-law if her Husband were dead The Case being thus fancied by the Papists in the time of Queen Elizabeth they argued that if Mary was the true Child then the other was the Natural but Mary was owned Legitimate And my Lord Bacon say's the ligitimation of Queen Mary and Elizabeth were incompatible Ergo the Kingdom not being Elective Mary Stuart the next Legal Heir must necessarily succeed her Yet suppose these Papists were wrong in their conclusion I am sure nevertheless I am still in the right viz. That it is a harder Question to resolve whether the Marriage be Null if a woman marries two Brothers then whether a third or fourth brother has the better Title to the Crown for that was the contest betwixt York and Lancaster But the Minister urges if the Papists thought Queen Elizabeth an Usurper why did not they stir sooner for there was no Rebellion he says in ten years and when after ten it broke out in the North there was not the least mention made of the Q. of Scots or her Title I wish the Catholicks had not only sat still ten years but forty five years also yet to shew you that this Minister will be wrōg in every thing I shall give you a most succinct account of this business Queen Mary of England in the latter part of her Reign was in open war with France and the Qu. of Scots was
have viz. a Preist to assist her at her death she was again recomforted when she knew by the Earl of Kent that she died for her Faith for he told her that her life would be the destruction of their Religion Reader I must now here end and cannot but ask this Question If the Reformed have for defence of their Religion effected the death of their Queen or at least undoubted Heir and if they have set up Jane Gray that had no title because their lawful Prince was Catholick who have been I would fain know in England more faulty in this case they or we Pray what advantage has this Minister got by loading us with crimes of which we are innocent And if as he urges in the beginning we obey'd Q. Elizabeth ten years without stir it then shows that Papists can be obedient to a Prince of another Religion though they doubt their right whenas the former Protestants would do any thing rather then permit a Catholick to govern let the Title be never so just Judge now Reader whether it be not superlative injustice to incense the World against us as if our Religion taught nothing but blood and theirs all gentleness imaginable I must invoke both Angels and Men to consider our wrong who are termed trayterous in our Principles even to this day We in our own persons have shewed all the duty that men can fancy and for our Ancestors you have seen what their Plea is if it be bad they have justly suffred if other wise let them then feel your anger who would deceive you thus with lies and remember that 't is not possible a Religion which governed England with glory so many years can teach a Doctrine destructive to Princes or infuse Maxims that will breed commotions among the people SECT XXIII APOLOGY 'T was for the Royal House of Scotland that they suffered in those days and 't is for the same illustrious Family we are ready to hazard all on any occasion ANSWER XXII Sir We have found you notoriously false in that which you affirm Pray God you prove true in that which you promise SECT XXIV APOLOGY Nor can the consequence of the former procedure be but ill if a Henry the Eighth whom Sir Walter Rawleigh and my Lord Cherbury two famous Protestants have so homely characterized should after twenty years co-habitation turn away his wife and this out of scruple of Conscience as he said when as History declares that he never spared woman in his lust nor man in his fury ANSWER XXIV This Character he says agrees better with some Heads of the Church then with King Henry the Eighth of whom better Historians naming Thuanus say better things but if he were such a Monster 't was for want of a better Religion for he was of ours except in the point of Supremacy and therefore I have no reason to flurt at him except having undertaken to colour Treasons I think 't is something towards it to bespatter Kings I use he says the same Art in the next Paragraph to excuse the Powder-Treason calling it a misdemeanour the fifth of November a Conjuration all soft words but deal hardly with the great Minister of State whom I make the Author of it as if the State had conspired against the Traytors not the Traytors against the State Then he tells the old Story of the Gunpowder-Plot and how discovered by my Lord Mounteâ—gles Letter and also how the Jesuites Baldwin Hammond Tesmond and Gerrard were named by the Conspirators as privy with them The Narration is in any Book that treats of King James and well known by every body therefore for brevities sake I have omitted it here REP. to ANSW XXIV Reader If the Character do agree better with many heads of our Church then I say in Gods name let it be given them But I much admire how Thuanus comes to be esteemed a better historian in English affairs then Sir Walter Raleigh or my Lord Cherbury whom we poor English-men think very excellent But why do I trouble you wiâ—â— the extravagancies of this strange man wâ—â— when he finds as he fancies a present expedient cares not though he be forc'd to deny it again in the next page What I have said of Henry the Eighth these two famous men have said it and a thousand times worse though they were Protestants and the first of them the great admirer of his Mrs. the daughter of this very Prince Nay omitting the unexpressable foul Language of the Reformed at home and abroad especially of Luther himself the Bishop of Hereford a Member of the Church of England calls him unsatiable glutted with one and out of variety seeking to enjoy another I shall speak no more to this nor any thing separately to the next four Paragraphs for they all concern the Powder-Treason You shall see what he says to each of them and then my Answer shall follow in one intire discourse SECT XXV APOLOGY Now for the fifth of November with hands lifted up to Heaven we abominate and detest ANSWER XXV Here he asks Whether it be the Festival 〈◊〉 the Treason we abominate and detest If the 〈◊〉 he says he will believe us without lifting 〈◊〉 our hands If the Treason he asks why we do not call it so which while we cannot afford to do lifting up our hands will never perswad 〈◊〉 we abominate and detest it SECT XXVI APOLOGY And from the bottom of our hearts say that may they fall into irrecoverable perdition who propagate that faith by the blood of Kings which is to be planted in truth and meekness only ANSWER XXVI He says I should be cautious of throwing such Curses for fear of hitting our Father the Pope as the Philosopher told the son of a common-woman that threw stones among a multitude SECT XXVII APOLOGY But let it not displease you Men Brethren and Fathers if we ask whether Ulisses be no better known or who has forgot the Plots of Cromwel framed in his Closet not only to destroy many faithful Cavaliers but also to â—ut a lustre upon his Intelligence as if nothing could be done without his knowledge Even so did the then great Minister who drew some few ambitious men into this conjuration and then discovered it by a Miracle ANSWER XXVII Here he calls me Apostle and Poet full of Gravity and Fiction Then he says I would make the World believe they were drawn into this Plot by Cecil yet am so wise as not to offer to prove it but would steal it in by the example of Cromwel Again he says admitting this for true they were Traytors nevertheless in doing what they did had there been no Cecil in the World and therefore the excuse only implies they had not wit to invent it though they wanted not malice to execute it for according to my illustration as the Cavaliers whom Cromwel drew in had their Loyalty abused and were nevertheless faithful still so the Powder-Traytors whom Cecil
have to believe the Plot it self a Trick and besides 't is plain the Body of the Catholicks had no hand or inclination to the thing which the wiâ—e K. James at last as I said well knew therefore was gratiously pleased to let the beams of his mercy shine again upon them SECT XXIX APOLOGY But suppose my Lords and Gentlemen which never can be granted that all the Papists of that age were consenting Will you be so severe then to still punish the Children for their Fathers faults Nay such Children that so unanimously joyned with you in that glorious Quarrel wherein you and we underweÌ„t such sufferings that needs we must have all sunk had not our mutual love assisted ANSWER XXIX He says suppose falsly to avoid truth for who says all Papists then were consenting or who can deny there be some in this age of the same Principles with those Traytors and though we be not punisht for our Predecessors actions yet we ought to be restrained that we may not do like them Though I would he says shuffle men of these Principles by the word unanimously among those that served the King yet those good Servants are not so many but the others may be easily distinguisht Concerning those that only suffered with the Royallists the Minister thanks them for their love but not for their assistance for the Protestant Cavaliers could not sink lower but some of us floated like cork and others swam upon the bladders of dispensation and therefore as they received no help from our swimming so they apprehend no assurance of us by our sufferings REP. to ANSW XXIX Pray Reader what is in this Answer that confutes the Apology for what man of our Party did not faithfully serve the King to his power and who of us in his Majesties absence had not estimation among the rest of the Cavaliers according to his ranck and quality was there any Party in England more deprest then we Were not Priests of all Orders hanged were not others imprisoned during life Had not we three times more Estates sold then any people else and were not the Laws put in force so that to those that had something two parts of it were also swept away Cromwel by is Maxims kept us poor because we should not be service able to the King and now our Gratious Monarch being returned this Godly Minister thinks fit to advise our restraint as he calls it which in plain English is to desire we should beused as that Tyrant used us for fear we should do like our predecessors i. e. assist his Majesty for I am sure all of them did so and many confirmed that duty with their Blood Can therefore be on Earth greater wickedness then this not only to be forgetful in prosperity but thus with calumny to asperse those who were faithful fellow-sufferers with the Royall Party in the height of all theire misfortunes Reader the hopes of this pitiless man is that rigour and despair may stagger us in our Loyalty but herin I defie him for nothing can move them to contend whom coÌ„science and Love have obliged to be obedient SECT XXX APOLOGY What have we done that we should now deserve your Anger Has the Indiscretion of some few incenst you 'T is true that is the thing Objected ANSWER XXX Sir our anger is only a necessary care that what you call your indiscretions may not grow up to be such as you lately called your misdemeanours SECT XXXI APOLOGY Do not you know an Enemy may easily mistake a Mass-Bell for that which calls to Dinner ANSWER XXXI We know he may upon a Fast-day for then you use to ring your Vesper-Bell before Dinner And how can a simple Heretick tell whether it call you to pray or to eat Fish But we do not know that ever any of you was brought into trouble about that Question SECT XXXII APOLOGY Or a Sequestrator be glad to be affronted being Constable when 't was the hatred to his person and not present Office which perchance egg'd a rash man to folly ANSWER XXXII Possibly he may be glad of it For 't was the Jesuitical distinction between Person and Office that first helpt him to be a Sequestrator and now he sees the distinction come in play he may hope to have his place again REPLY to ANS XXXII Reader you see he will divide a Paragraph and answer to each division as he hath done in these three last though it be gibbrish and nothing to purpose The ringing of a Mass-Bell in Lancashire the affronting a Constable and some other such things were Accusations brought to London against us But how impudent is the Minister to say we were never in trouble as he knows for this when as every body knows what a do there has been ever since these complaints were alleadged by the known Enemies of the Kingdom SECT XXXIII APOLOGY We dare with submission say let a publick Invitation be put up against any Party what soever nay against the Reverend Bishops them selves and some malicious informer or other will alledge that which may be far better to conceal Yet all mankind by a Manifesto on the House-door are encouraged to accuse us Nor are they upon Oath though your Enemies and ours take all for granted and true ANSWER XXXIII He says here 's an ambush for Bishops to have them esteemed Popish because I reverence them and obnoxious in such matters as I say it may be better far to conceal But he knows my kindness and defies my malice They are Olympia's Bishops need concealment but the Bishops of England are of another make and hold not their credit at any ones courtesie He farther says what could the Parliament do less then invite the People to bring in their grievances to the place of Redress and 't was great hardship he says that the House of Commons did not give Oaths to the Accusers which no House of Commons ever did upon any occasion REPLY XXIII If my respects to the Prelats of England have offended this Minister I am sorry for it We and the whole World know how zealous they are for Monarchy and therefore I wish they had no greater Enemies then Papists But if there be an ambush laid for them Judge Reader whether we or the Cobler of Glocester have done it 'T is an usual phrase among Catholicks when they shew the wickedness of Lyars to say they are so abominable that they will not stick to calumniate the Church it self therefore I think kind expressions ought to have had a better requital For Donna Olympia's Bishops I suppose those of our Kingdom take them selves to be of the same make for hers received their Orders from Rome and from the same Fountain as I have read the Church of England pretends to derive all Ordination whatsoever The Minister needed not to have told me that the Commons cannot administer Oaths for I know the Orders of that House better then his Worship I was not troubled that no
Oath was given but seeing that no Oath could be given 't was hard me thought that the whole Town should take all things as unquestionable truths though the Accusers were as I said profest enemies to us and lately to the very Kingdom also But now I thank God men understand themselves much better for Lies can never long endure SECT XXXIV APOLOGY It cannot be imagined where there 's so many men of heat and youth overjoy'd with the happy Restauration of their Prince and remembring the Insolencies of the former Grandees that they should all at all times prudently carry themselves for this would be to be more then men And truly wee esteem it as a particular blessing that God has not suffer'd many through vanitie or frailty to fall into greater faults then are yet as we understand laid to our charge ANSWER XXIV He says If a Jesuite keep the reckoning the King will ever be in our debt for our old Treasons were upon the account of his Family and our late insolencies upon the score of his Restauration Then he asks whether I would seriously perswade men that at six years distance we were still transported with that blessing There were he says fresher causes of jollity suspected by many who saw our joy while the fire raged in London and two potent Enemies hovered on our Coasts REPLY to ANSW XXXIV Many Accusations Reader were of two or three yaers standing and more and no one thing amounted to a real Publick nuissance let a man then cōsider this soberly and he will find it no little wonder that so many Catholiques of all Ranks Sexes Ages and humours should for above six years together never so far indulge to their Passions as to commit a fault fit to trouble Parliament with though from all Countries the violentest of their Enemies came to offer up their complaints against them For my part I do greatly admire at it and must acknowledge a particular Providēce assisting nor can I but thank the Publisher of the Accusations who malitiously intending us harm has done us all the right imaginable SECT XXV APOLOGY Can we chuse but be dismay'd when all things fail that extravagant Crimes are fathered on us It is we that must be the Authors some say of firing the Citie even we that have lost so vastly by it Yet truly in this our ingenuity is great since we think it no Plot though our Enemie an Hugonot Protestant acknowledged the fact and was justly executed for his vain Confession Again if a Merchant of the Church of England buy Knives for the business of his Trade this also presently is a Popish contrivance to destroy the well-affected ANSWER XXXV He says Though we lost vastly by he fire of London yet we may still be suspected by any body that considers Garnets determinations viz. that the innocent guilty may be destroyed so it be to a farther good The loss it seems he says goes not to my heart when I can be so pleasant to call Hubert my enemy and a Hugonot Protestant 't is true after that Hubert had been at confession with Father Harvey he said he was a Protestant but it being beyond his instructions he denied he was a Hugonot which he might well do because he said he thought confession to a Priest necessary to salvation and also repeated an Ave Mary which he said was his usual Prayer 'T is evident therefore that he was no Hugonot nor Protestant nor enemy to Papists upon the account of Religion REPLY to ANSW XXXV Concerning this Hubert a Frenchman that pretended to burn the City you must know He was son to a Protestant a Protestant himself in France had been of the French Church in England to the Committee and to the Judge at the Bar he profest then he was a Protestant and died so at the Gallows Certainly it was no Argument he was no Protestant because he as the Minister says esteemed of Confession for I know many Protestants that have used it some Divines have writ in behalf of it and I remember Dr. Will was mightily for it whem he governed his flock in Fleerstreet An Ave Mary is Scripture and whosoever reads the Salatation of the Angel and St. Elizab. does at that time actually say one Besides if no body is a Protestant that holds peculiar opinions then I must conclude there are very few Protestants in the World for Protestants in Religion agree only in Negatives that is they generally deny thé Pope Purgatory c. but when they come to Positives they jar and then divide and subdivide as we by experience see into a million of Sects and Factions Reader before I go farther I must tell you who this Harvey is by Nation he is a Low-Countryman but admitted among the English Jesuites as many Aliens are He is an antient quiet and pious man 't is lately I knew him but found him to be of a very Angelical conversation Many Priests being frō time to time imprisoned brought him acquainted with Newgate where sometimes he assisted those that went to die This I call high charity in any man of any Sect to take pains to make another of that Religion which his Conscience tells him is most agreeable to God Nor is there any humane interest or Policy in thus assisting Malefactours for they are poor of themselves and sure to die the next execution-day By this occasion Mr. Harvey met with the French Hugonot the pretended firer of London with whom he had discourse about Religion and after he had instructed him in the Catholique Doctrine he went to administer the Communion to the Company and then demanding of them whether they received according to the Roman Catholick faith Hubert said He had nothing to do with Roman and therefore the Sacrament was refused him nor did Mr. Harvey ever se him after This is the truth of the Story But pray what is the Frenchman to us had he been Papist though as it happened he lived and died otherwise For my part I believe there are few Frenchmen now in London but would be glad to see it afire again either for an opportunity to steal or for the advantage of their Prince were he at War with us the like would the English wish at Paris I dare say Consider therefore Reader I beseech you my Answerer and though 't is at no time my humour to give foul language yet I must say I challenge all Englād to find out one that shall excel him in ill He has accused us for the Murther of King Charles the cause of the English Irish and Scotish War the triumphing at ourmis fortunes at Sea the rejoycing for the Enemies being upon our Coast and then lastly the burning of Londō it self yet all this urged without any manner of proof no not so much as the least probability Is one detraction against one onely man a sin and punishable at the Judgment-seat of God hereafter and shall so various aspersions against so many
of the best account in England pass for a toy I am sure it is my belief to think they shall die eternally if they repent not who defamed and did wrong even to those that crucified Christ If then a woe be pronounc'd against such what will become of them that asperse his Members and therefore if this Minister be a Christian be must know that without satis-factiō there is no forgiveness Nay the effects of his crimes have risen to this to encourage other men to do the like for not long after there was publisht as I just now mentioned a libell call'd the Committee of Parliaments enquiry about the firing the City and at last the wickedness of the Author laid it at the doors of the King Duke General L. Craven Chief Justice and others of the chiefest account in the Nation All that he said against Papists was in truth to justifie them for no better Accusation could be found then that several Frēchmen were busie about the fire that a supposed Jesuite with a Bishop-sattin Suit over which was a frock came and firied a House the fire it self being as the Libeller confesses within six doors of it and when he was apprehended he spake Latine without any necessity Then he tells that one Carpenter who is an Apostate Priest spoke for the Pope that one or tws poor women were sollicited to be Papists and told Now was the time for if they neglected this opportunity they should not be regarded hereafter Nay when nothing could be found against Papists the Author cites Verses only found as he confesses in Westminster-Hal to threaten Protestants into Popery And another Paper writ by a Papist as he says newly turned Protestant and found in a Pew by a Templer in which he desired all Protestants to pursue Papists for they had a design to cut their throats This is the effect of the Pamphlet which I would have every body read for nothing can be a greater Vindication to us then such inconsiderable and senceless Lies And truly when I consider these with the Stories against Papists in the Answer to Philanax and how both are exactly made in the same mode and figure I should not doubt but that Sieur du Moulin was the Author were not the Libel so severe against his Countrymen the French And pray Reader consider here the Justice of God who is a God of retaliation always for as the Dr. strove to incite the people by his malitious falsities which have not the least probability of truth and which would involve all the Loyal Catholiques of England with one or two guilty men if there had been any such so now there are spread such a number of Lies about our danger from the French that people are ready to stone all they meet and should the rabble run into a sudden fury as God knows but they may Mr. du Moulin and his Family may perchance also go sharers with his Countrymen for his being a free Denizon would be thought a weak Argument by the outragious and overheated multitude Concerning the Fire it self Reader I could never as I said think it a design notwithstanding a Protestant Hugonot confest the fact and my reason was because no body in his Senses would be so foolish with deliberation to venture his life when 't was not only odds he should be found out but the fire would be stopt before it came to the third house How often have we seen it in the narrow places of London how often in the ill-building of Kings-street how often in the Paper-houses of Charing Cross the Strand c. and yet for all this whether it happened by night or by day it was quencht without any remarkable spoil Besides 't is impossible if either Protestants Papists Presbyterians or Phanatiques had effected so great a work but we should have seen some prosecution of their design as either to be in Arms or inviting in our forreing Enemies or at leastwise raising tumults in the hurry But on the contrary there has not been since any preparation for a rising in England nay which is more for all that thirteen thousand Families were to seek new habitations and all the rest of the Town disordered yet there was not the least riot though the accident it self might have occasioned a sedition without being animated by Conspirators In short after a strict enquiry by the Parliament of England that Supream Court of the occasion of this dismal fire 't was concluded to be the hand of God alone and therefore I shall never think otherwise of it though Hubert the Hugonot acknowledged himself the Author and Trig a Protestant brag 's that he foretold it in his Almanack printed almost a whole year before Now because the Minister hath mentioned Garnet I shall desire you Reader to peruse his last words and confession as you shall find them in How who continued Stows History He acknowledged his foul offence in concealing the Treason was sorry for it asking God forgiveness for the same beseeching a blessing for the King and his Issue and then exhorted all Catholiques never to attempt Rebellion Treason or violent practises against his Majesty for all such courses were utterly against the Catholick Faith If then Reader a Jesuite known to be learned and therefore not ignorant of the Doctrine of our Religion if also a Jesuite on the point of death and so necessitated to speak truth hath publiquely owned as a Protestant records that Rebellion is incompatible with Catholique Doctrine to affirm this still to be our Principle is certainly a very high injustice and if the practice of some few shall yet be urged against me as a Proof then I must affirm that the Church of England teaches Theft because so many of their Members are monthly hanged for it at Tyborn Reader from hence to the end I shall still continue my first method of setting down the Ministers Answer to every Section of the Apology but I shall seldome Reply because the poorness of the matter carries a cōfutation in it self and therefore it would be a needless trouble both to you and me if I should say something to each Paragraph SECT XXXVI APOLOGY We must a little complain finding it by experience that by reason you discountenance us the people rage and again because they rage we are the more forsaken by you Assured we are that our Conversation is affable and our Houses so many hospitable receipts to our Neighbours Our acquaintance therefore we fear at no time but it is the stranger we dread that taking all on hear-say zealously wounds and then examines the business when 't is too late or is perchance confirmed by another that knows no more of us then he himself 'T is to you we must make our applications beseeching you as subjects tender of our King to intercede for us in the execution and weight the Dilemma which doubtless he is in either to deny so good a Parliament their request or else
to the right or via juris determine the nice pretensions of each party yet this does not argue but that he would side as to action or via facti with his Prince against any person whatsoever And thus we daily see the French do who swear they cannot tell whether the Law called Salique be forged or whether in Justice the now Male-Line or the English because descended from the Heirs general ought to have the Kingdom but still they declare they will fight for their present Monarch against all Mankind This I say is the sense of the Author of the Exhortation and this I dare ingage he shall subscribe to Now concerning Philanax how poorly it is answered I believe the Minister would be ashamed to confess and yet how poorly soever he has made use of it Nay of the most contemptible and groundless follies in the whole Book I am sure the man needed not to have challenged us into the fair field of Controversie having there-in been more then Combatants ever since the breaking out of Luther Nor can there be any Argument of more generous bravery then this That though our Priests in England have been hunted from hole to hole their Papers often seized some in the midst of their works hanged no Library no Press and if to day well settled perchance forc'd on the morrow to flie yet for all these disavantages which no Protestant feels they never omitted to write things of use or to answer all sorts of Books that durst appear against our Religion or manners Fear not therefore good Minister that either Clergy or Laity will be behindhand with you in this affair and I think Dr. Pierce will tell you he found it to some purpose from both Nor shall you Sir whilst I live be ready again as soon as you please want an humble Servant to shew you your many willful errors and mistakes THE POSTSCRIPT My Lords and Gentlemen YOu have now had a short view of the malice of the Answerer and of our condition nor have I troubled you with points of Divinity it being out of my Road and more particulary belonging to them who are called to be Guides and make it their Profession to studie Controversie The search into History and Annals of Nations is the fit employement of men of Quality for by it having a view of all that is past we presently find what profits your Country and how good men by false representations may pass for abominable even in the thoughts of sober people In this sort who have ever suffered more then we for often the best of our fellow-Subjects having drawn in with their first milk an ill opinion of our manners have continued in the same sentiment till by long experience they plainly found the contrary How opposite is Popery noised to the Grandeur of Kings and yet we see That Kings were never greater than then What exclamations are there to this day against us for our stirs in the beginning of Reformation though it is evident it proceeded not from precepts of Faith but from a natural impulse to oppose Novelties Nay the efforts of our Ancestors for the Royal House of Scotland are laid to our charge as High-Treason but the putting up of Iane Gray for the ProtestaÌ„t Interest was justice even by the preaching of Dr. Ridley And moreover though but thirteen Papists were drawn into the powder Treason by the dexterity of our Enemies yet we all even the Children of many of the great Catholiques that were to have been destroyed by the Traytors are still held guilty of this Original sin After our proneness to Rebellion in which how little we are faulty and how much others have been let the World judge there 's no Principle possesses the imagination of Englishmen so fully as that we delight in Blood and that persecuting of men is a part of our Doctrine What cries therefore have been against they days of Queen Mary as if her cruelty were unparallell'd when as I have made it appear that more Catholiques have died by Protestants then of them by us and that since the exclusion of the Pope there has been a greater quantity of Blood iudicially spilt amongst us then from the Conversion of England to the Reign of Henry the Eighth The Massacre of France is prov'd you see to have beeÌ„ no effect of ReligioÌ„ but an indirect endeavour to suppress RebellioÌ„ Nor are we in England abominating the fact more guilty of the Irish Cruelties then is the Protestant Faith for what was done at Amboyna For my own part I not only detest Blood but find all Catholicks do for if in many Countries where the Prince and people as I shewed you before are Catholicks the Protestants have not only open Churches but also publick employments and in no place this is granted by the Reformed to Papists then must it needs follow that we are much kinder to you then you to us even in the matters of Religion Besides this Catholicks are so tender that the Inquisition it self is permitted in no Kingdom where Heresie is numerous nor ought we to be blamed if in a Country wholly obedient to the Church we strive to keep out all other Sects and opinions This cannot be jniustice because to all Mankind we grant the same liberty Who is it that morally blames the Moors of Affrick being of one Profession for keeping out even the Gospel it self Or who is it that says the Swedes ar inhumane because none except Lâ—therans shall live among them God alone is to judge hereafter of mens neglecting means In England therefore where all fell not from Popery there is not the same just motive for punishment and certainly it is severity in the highest degree to prosecute us with fire and sword as if we were an upstart people that brought in a strange Religion not finding it here before Ethelbert the first English King that profest Christianity and converted also by a Monk never persecuted his Pagan Subjects because their Religion was in possession and yet no consideration is thought fit for Papists though our most fundamental Laws have establisht this Faith and the maintenance of it sworn unto since the Conquest by at least twenty of our Monarchs Catholicks consider Sectaries as Magistrates do Rebels for where they are but very few they may perchaÌ„ce all suffer according to the establishtt Laws of a NatioÌ„ but if they grow numerous pity causes us now to punish nobody with death but theÌ„ prayers theÌ„ preaching then Books c. are the fittest Arms to destroy theÌ„ This makes us severe in Spain and Italy and this merciful in FraÌ„ce Germany c. yet here in our Country there are Sanguinarie Laws against Lay-men and our Priests have been handled with more seuerity then Iames Naylor or any of his Disciples What advaÌ„tage will PersecutioÌ„ bring but to make us glory that we suffer for Christ nor has it ever yet lessned our nomber No