every of them And hereunto I subscribe my Name And I shall give the Reader that pure that holy Oath indeed the Solemn League and Covenant which was the Head-spring of those others and the Fountain of all Evills that overflowed the three Nations WE Noblemen Barons Knights Gentlemen Citizens The Solemn League and Covenant Burgesses Ministers of the Gospel and Commons of all sorts in the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland by the Providence of God living under one King and being of one Reformed Religion having before our eyes the Glory of God and the Advancement of the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ the Honour and Happiness of the Kings Majesty and his Posterity and the true publick Liberty Safety and Peace of the Kingdoms wherein every ones private Condition is included And calling to mind the treacherous and bloody Plots Conspiracies Attempts and Practices of the Enemies of God against the true Religion and Professors thereof in all places especially in these three Kingdoms ever since the Reformation of Religion and how much their rage power and presumption are of late and at this time increased and exercised whereof the deplorable Estate of the Church and Kingdom of Ireland the dâ—stressed Estate of the Church and Kingdom of England and the dangerous Estate of the Church and Kingdom of Scotland are present and publick testimonies We have now at last after other means of Supplication Remonstrance Protestations and Sufferings for the preservation of our selves and our Religion from utter ruine and destruction according to the commendable practice of these Kingdoms in former times and the example of Gods people in other Nations after mature deliberation resolved and determined to enter into a mutual and solemn League and Covenant wherein we all subscribe and each one of us for himself with our hands lifted up to the most High do Swear 1. That we shall sincerely really and constantly through the Grace of God endeavour in our several Places and callings the Preservation of the Reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government against our common Enemies The Reformaâ—â—on of Religion in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Word of God and the Example of the best Reformed Churches And shall endeavour to bring the Churches of God in the three Kingdoms to the nearest Conjunction and Uniformity in Religion Coâ—fession of Faith Form of Church-Government Directory for Worship and Catechising that we and our Posterity after us may as Brethren live in Faith and Love the Lord may delight to dwell in the midst of us 2. That we shall in like manner without respect of persons endeavour the extirpation of Popery Prelacy that is Church-government by Archbishops Bishops their Chancellours and Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-Deacons and all other Ecclesiastical Officers depending on that Hierarchy Superstition Heresie Schism Prophaness and whatsoever shall be found to be contrary to sound Doctrine and the power of Godliness lest we partake in other mens sins and thereby be in danger to receive of their plagues And that the Lord may be one and his Name one in the three Kingdoms 3. We shall with the same sincerity reality and constancy in our several vocations endeavour with our Estates and Lives mutually to preserve the Rights and Privileges of the Parliaments and the Liberties of the Kingdoms and to preserve and defend the Kings Majesties Person and Authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms That the World may bear witness with our Consciences of our Loyalty and that we have no thoughts or intentions to diminish his Majesties just power and greatness 4. We shall also with all faithfulness endeavour the discovery of all such as have been or shall be Incendiaries Malignants or evil Instruments by hindering the Reformation of Religion dividing the King from his People or one of the Kingdoms from another or making any faction or parties amongst the people contrary to this League and Covenant that they may be brought to publique Tryal and receive condign â—unishment as the degree of their offences shall require or deserve or the Supreme Judicatories of both Kingdoms respectively or others having power from them for that effect shall judge convenient 5. And whereas the happiness of a blessed Peace between these Kingdoms denyed in former times to our Progenitors is by the good Providence of God granted unto us and hath been lately concluded and setled by both Parliaments We shall each one of us according to our place and interest endeavour that they may remain conjoyned in a firm Peace and Union to all Posterity and that Justice may be done upon the wilfull Opposers thereof in manner expressed in the precedent Article 6. Wee shall also according to our places and callings in this common Cause of Religion Liberty and Peace of the Kingdoms assist and defend all those that enter into this League and Covenant in the maintaining and pursuing thereof and shall not suffer our selves directly or indirectly by whatsoever combination perswasion or terrour to be divided and withdrawn from this blessed Union and conjunction whether to make defection to the contrary part or to give our selves to a detestable indifferencie or neutrality in this Cause which so much concerneth the glory of God the good of the Kingdoms and honour of the King but shall all the days of our lives zealously and constantly continue therein against all opposition and promote the same according to our power against all lets and impediments whatsoever And what we are not able our selves to suppress or overcome we shall reveal and make known that it may be timely prevented and removed All which we shall do as in the sight of God And because these Kingdoms are guilty of many Sins and provocations against God and his Son Jesus Christ as is too manifest by our present distresses and dangers the fruits thereof We profess and declare before God and the World our unfeigned desire to be humbled for our own sins and for the sins of these Kingdoms especially that we have not as we ought valued the inestimable benefit of the Gospel that we have not laboured for the purity and power thereof aâ—d that we have not endeavoured to receive Christ in our hearts nor to walk worthy of him in our Lives which are the causes of other sins and transgressions so much abounding amongst us And our true and unfeigned purpose desire and endeavour for our selves and all others under our power and charge both in publick and in private in all duties we owe to God and Man to amend our lives and each one to goe before another in the example of a real Reformation That the Lord may turn away his wrath and heavy indignation and establish these Churches and Kingdoms in Truth and Peace And this Covenant we make in the presence of Almighty God the
in all capacities and by actual instances and those too very manifold of titles of honour and places of greatest authority profit and trust with his Majesties most faithful and approved Subjects 155. And I cannot but further observe the indiscretion of this Gentleman that by upbraiding others with a repetition of lesser Crimes or suppose them equivalent which they cannot be justly supposed and a repetition of such even to loathing leaves himself or his Cause and Party let himself be guiltless open to the same reproach or a farr greater He should have remebred how the godly Malefactor on the Cross did rebuke his fellow that railed Neque tu Deum times qui in eadem damnatione es Dost Luc. 26. 40. not thou fear God since thou art in the same condemnation Or at least reflected on that of the King in the Parable to the cruel inexorable Servant Serve nequam omne debitum dimisi tibi quia rogasti me nunquid ergo oportuit te misereri conservi tui sicut ego tui misertus sum Matth. 18. O Mat. 18. 32. thou wicked servant I pardoned thee ten thousand talents and pardoned thee so great a debt only of pure compassion only because thou desiredst me shouldst not thou also have compassion for thy fellow servant and not presently take him by the throat and throw him in prison for a hundred pence and be nothing moved with his extreme poverty and his unfeigned humiliation or with all his pittiful intreaties or with all his best purposes promises and offers Our Person of Quality might have reflected hereon if he pleased and on the terrible sentence immediately given on that hard-hearted Servant and on the Ministers of Justice apprehending him and binding him hand and foot and throwing him into utter darkness even into a place of weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth And this Person of Quality might have on consideration of all determined with himself that he had done much better to have spared himself and me both some ink and some paper and some labour too 156. But I fear he is one of those we read in Solomon's Wisdom Blinded with their own malice or of those in Esay Wisdom c. 2. v. 21 Esay c. 6. v. 10. Jeremy c. 13. v. 23. Who hear and will not understand But whether also that question of the Prophet Jeremy in the 13 Chapter of his Book may not be and that very pertinently too asked here in relation to him Nunquid potest Aethiops mutare pellem suam aut Pardus varietates suas Can the Aethiopian change his Skin or the Leopard his spots the Reader may determine For my part I cannot otherwise think than that it may when I see this Gentleman tâ—ke a rise from P. W ' s. Parallel for the inserting of those two particulars which immediately Pag. 92. follow his former advice and when I yet see the further and plain explication of them both and the period of his otherwise incredible malignity in that which next comes after and which he calls and is indeed the conclusion of his whole infamous Book The first is If any of the Children of P. W ' s. Clyents lose their Lands though actually they were not guilty of their Pag. 92. Fathers Rebellion let him remember even in the Case which he instances that the seven Sons of Saul were hanged up to the Lord in Gibeah of Saul though they had not actually slain these Gibeonites for which they themselves were punished Let him also remember that till justice was done the famine lasted and after it was done the famine ceased Those lost their lives for their Fathers sin but these if any lose but their Fathers forfeited Lands for their Fathers crimes 157. Supposing Reader thou wilt not be abused by this Gentlemans if any twice repeated here either through some uncertainty belike of what he apprehended may be future or of purpose to conceal the Design which yet he cannot conceal in his next Particular joyned with his concluding Wish specially if you compare these to his very invidious and very false both suppositions and assertions before given of the whole Irish Nations having broken the Peace and consequently forfeited their Estates And moreover if you compare that his Particular and his conclusive Wish to the strict Qualifications of Innocents could he or his friends enact such as they strugled for I must beg your patience a little if I alter the Scene and place this Gentleman and his Party on the Stage to answer this first Particular instead of P. W. and his Countrymen and Clients 158. For put the case that some fourteeen years past in the very heat of War when the long Parliament was rampant and his late most sacred Majesty of glorious remembrance was forced to put himself into the power of his Enemies this Person of Quality and those he pleads for had out of remorse of Conscience and real sense of their duty though withall out of a desire to provide for their own safety under Kingly Government according to the Laws established in the Kingdom returned willingly and passionately to their Obedience and this too upon publick Articles of Peace but with intent partly and of design to rescue his Majesty whom they had never intended to dethrone or to exclude his Line or Family from the Crowns of England Ireland or Scotland notwithstanding any other evills which the nature of a War into which they had been hurried and partly constrained to undertake might be charged upon them yea notwithstanding the murther of some hundreds of innocent people which the rascal multitude amongst them had upon the first Insurrection committed and the plundring withall of many thousands and the killing also of yet a farr greater number in the prosecution of War and of Souldiers or men armed coming against them in hostile manner And suppose they had withall submitted or brought in with them to obey his Majesty so many strong Cities Forts Castles so many great Shires and fruitful Provinces and an Army so numerous of Horse and Foot as the Catholick Irish did even a whole Kingdom for the matter two Cities alone and some few Regiments and other scattered Companies adherents to them in Boggs and Woods and Mountains only excepted And that notwithstanding through some hidden causes or secret displeasure of God or accidents of War that are very ordinary or through some unlucky division arising or newly kindled or revived and heightned and strengthned too of purpose either by a distrustful or malevolent Party amongst them the common Enemy and suppose that Enemy had been the Irish did prevail And suppose moreover those repentant Converts of our Person of Quality as to their generality or greater part and even as to their Representatives had sadly beheld many of their own People and even some of their own Towns proving disobedient and refractory to commands and even most grievous affronts done and if you please too some thoughts of treachery
and increase of the Orthodox Religion and likewise will promove the Conservation of the Obedience and Subjection which is fit to be paid to the King We have chosen to execute this Employment our beloved Son Petrus Franciscus Scarampus who adorned with the fame of his Ancestors and his proper Virtues preferring the Discipline of Ecclesiastical Institution before his domestick advantages inlisted himself among the Congregation of Saint Philippus Nereus He carries you our Pontifical Benediction to whom we desire you give full credence especially when he declares with how propense an inclination we wish well to the affairs of Ireland and how earnestly we desire that all of you do walk with one consent in the House of the Lord and that all of you growing to one heart and one soul do serve the Almighty Truly we conceive that this is without doubt to be expected from the great zeal with which you are inflamed in defending the Worship of the Divine Glory and the publick good As for the rest we may well conjecture with what humanity you will receive this religious man who both for his merit but chiefly for the Charge in which he is employed by us carries more than ordinary Recommendations with him yet we assure you that all the testimonies of affection which you think sit to impart to our Minister will be grateful to us In the mean time we will pray to the Highest that he come to your assistance and that he hear you in the abundance of his mercy for whom from his Divine Clemency we implore lasting felicity Given at Saint Peters in Rome under the Fishers Ring this 18th of April 1642. of our Pontificate the 20th 126. The Reader may observe this Bull preceded that other which this Gentleman pretends to have and that in this the Pope makes it part of the Charge of his Minister to promove the Conservation of the Submission and Obedience which is fit to be paid to the King And therefore to make these two Bulls stand together if there be any such Bull as this Gentleman speaks of it must be said That the Pope excited the Irish against those only whom he well knew to be Enemies both to the Religion and to the King For it were a strange way of paying Obedience to the King to weaken his Party and to root out those that fought for him 127. But if our Person of Quality notwithstanding this other Bull and contradiction of it to his own and my rational Comment on both will needs have his Bull to be a real one and that indeed the Pope therein declared his mind throughly declining the former as to that part of Scarampus Charge To promove the Conservation of that Obedience and Subjection which is fit to be paid to the King And that indeed his Holiness that was then truly intended as much as lay in him to sanctifie the Rebellion or the Armes of the Irish against his Majesties Father of blessed memory I say that all this granted makes nothing for him noâ— against the Irish in general For as much as it is very well 〈…〉 â—hat it was never so much as heard of either by the supreme Council or general Assembly of the Confederates â—â—â—ndeed by any at all of the Irish Catholicks either Lay or Ecclesiastical for any thing I could ever yet learn and I call Goâ— tâ— witness that I speak truth And I am sure had the Keepers of that Bull if any such hath been ever made it known to others I should have heard of it some way Yeâ— I wâ—ll not deâ—â— but it may be probable there might have been some such Letters procured from his Holiness Urban the 8th and that those who were of the Cabal among the more disaffected Irish for I know some such persons have been might have had such Letters in their custody waiting a fit time when their Designs had been ripe to publish them or make use of them at least amongst a disloyal Party or such as would alienate the Crown and warr against the Right English Interest But I averr withall that the keeping of it so secret for so many years and in all the Revolutions of the Irish War must be rather an argument of the aversion of the Catholick Confederates or Irish Catholicks in general from the belief or Doctrine or practice of Indulgences in such a Case a theirs was and in the sense of that Bull understood by this Gentleman than of any approbation of it From which I profess my self to the World so averse that I would have to my power opposed all three or the practice Doctrine and belief of Pardons in that case and sense and no less that of the hopes of a holy Martyrdom as no part of the Catholick Faith professed by the greatest Nations in Christendom which yet are in a most holy strict Communion with the Roman See 128. But however this be or any thing else I have hitherto alleged of my own judgement or of my own knowledge of the judgement of others in answer to this Person of Quality's arguments grounded on his either true or forged Bull and supposing the Reader expects not from me that I should walk after this Gentleman in all the paths of those Comments he makes upon ill grounded Texts not that I should deny him the privilege to feast his Party with those hideous words of general if not universal massacring and bloody Principles and Designs but I write not to fill the eaâ—s Pag. 88. of men but I write truth and that will prevail yet that I may endeavour to reclaim this Gentleman if it be possible from that savage humour that makes him express his malice with so much acrimony against Irish Catholicks and shew him how absurdly he charges their Religion with disloyal Principles and shew this by manifest Arguments which he cannot deny and Arguments by this time known throughout England Ireland Scotland nay in most Kingdoms of Europe even at Rome it self I give the Reader those printed Remonstrances Declarations Protestations c. presented to his Majesty in the original Writings and Subscriptions To the Kings most Excellent Majesty The humble Remonstrance Acknowledgement Protestation and Petition of the Roman Catholick Clergy of Ireland YOur Majesties faithful Subjects the Roman Catholick Clergy of your Maâ—esties Kingdom of Ireland do most humby represent this their present State and deplorable Condition That being intrusted by the indispensable Commission of the King of Kings with the Cure of Souls and the Care of their Flocks in order to the Administration of Sacraments and teaching the People that perfect Obedience which for Conscience sake they are bound to pay to your Majesties Commands they are loaden with Calumnies and persecuted with severity That being obliged by the Allegiance they owe and ought to swear unto your Majesty to reveal all Conspiracies and Practices against your Person and Royal Authority that come to their knowledge they are themselves clamour'd against as Conspirators plotting the