only to praise him with high praises with one heart and voice and with the best of our Members but also to pursue and strive to set up his Name far above all blessing and praise by praising him perpetually by perpetuating his praises unto Posterity and by laying up such a stock and such a method of Praise as may be of great use and importance to our posterity when they shall both see and hear what great things the Lord of hosts hath done for this our Church and Kingdom Gods wonderful Providence towards the safety of this Nation and in keeping out Popish Idolatry will undoubtedly by some good pious man be treasured up in one Volume and transmitted to Posterity as a lasting Monument of Gods praise and Providence as a method of Thankfulness from Generation to Generation and as a true Record of Popish Villany that our Posterity may say with the Faithful in former times We have heard with our Ears our Fathers have told us what work thou didst in their days in the times of old Psal 44.1 Now as to the Remarkable Passages NEver was Action more conducive to the safety of this great Metropolis the City of London and the whole Kingdom than to look back and remind the woful days of Queen Mary and the burning of London to ashes the bloody and fatal effects never to be forgotten of these two are to be attributed only to Popery and to that Man of sin that exalts himself above all that is called God the Pope of Rome wherefore 't is the hopes of A. P. a Member of the Church of England whose Liturgy and Rites are worthy of admiration that all Protestants of what perswasion or interest soever unanimously conclude and agree to abolish Popery as well Root as Branch Several have proposed their Expedients for the abolishing of this hellish and venemous Root Popery therefore I hope I may take the same liberty and throw in my Mite also being thereunto induced by the affection I bear my King and Country as in duty bound The present State and the great fear of the Nation of being overrun with Popery and so brought to Beggery and Slavery exacts an Angelical Spirit which appears the same as well in the dark as in the light qui vult capere capiat and a Herculean Courage which is never to be daunted and this attributed to English men formerly that you act upon all necessary occasions unanimously in the preservation of your King your Religion and Property like good Christians and English men I say English men because English men when they embrace Popery and reject Protestancy they lose their courage like our English Mastiffs when sent beyond the Seas and in lieu thereof receive all manner of Villany This needs no further proof than the Reading the Transactions of the last time when Popery Reign'd amongst us then our Divines were butchered by the Name of Heretick Dogs our Houses plundered our Wives and Daughters ravished our Churches erected for the true worship of God abused and converted into the Temples or Places of Idolatry and Superstition to the great dishonour of Christ and scandal of Religion Nay many of our Laity were torn to pieces and tied to a Stake in the midst of flames at Smithfield and other places Can we then be so infatuated as to expect any better entertainment than our Predecessors No certainly For besides that dreadful and barbarous entertainment which our Predecessors had from that Hellish and Popish power we see and will mind that our apparent ruin is not only aimed at and that without mercy but that we are only secured during the life of one man the Life of his Sacred Majesty whom God long continue with this happy Parliament whose Interests and ours are the same and so united that our Resolutions are the same If the Plot takes effect I mean the killing of the King or the Plotters make a head as in all probability they will being disappointed in taking away the Kings life and if in the interval of Parliaments they happen to take off the King we have nothing more to do than to destroy the whole Popish blood who with all ingratitude and baseness attempted the Life of our Prince and all his Protestant Subjects Here we are to observe and believe that there is no such thing as an English Papist who is not in the Plot at least in his good wishes and that it is a Maxim nay a Principle of Faith with all Papists and especially with such as are in power never to keep their words or promises with Hereticks Some may here object that some do keep their promises with Hereticks I answer that it is for Interest or Fear and not out of Conscience Therefore whosoever credits a Papist be he never so plausible in his Religion and Conversation is never to be pitied when thus precautioned Observe likewise how the French King a Popish King levyes Arbitrary Taxes at his pleasure and imposes several other Tyrannical Oppressions at his pleasure Now lest any should be ignorant that any such like Distemper may not be much easier prevented at first than when it has once got a head it 's sufficient to tell you that the Pope and Papists are your mortal Enemies and would fain Reign and Domineer over this Kingdom in the same nature as the French King doth in France These are the men who exclaim against our Parliaments proceedings and prevail with many others not much better than themselves in relation to the Plot these are the men that endeavour to amuse as well his Sacred Majesty as his good people alledging that there is no Plot but rather 40 and 41. I must acknowledge that there is some coherence between 40 and 41 and this present time for as well then as now the Popish and French Faction were the chief nay the only Incendiaries which promoted and caused all the mischief of 40 and 41 which is well known to many and especially in the Rebellion of Ireland where so many thousands of Protestants were killed by a counterfeit Commission Here they intended no less but God frustrated their design and insnared them in their own Net The Papists in 40 and 41 as well as now have allured many lukewarm Protestants to their assistance which in great part supported their hellish machinations on foot ever since Queen Mary's days Methinks this and this present hellish Plot should be a sufficient caution to all Protestants and chiefly to all such as are in Power not only to avoid and shun the Company of Papists but also to abhorr the very Name and Interest of a Papist and say with the Holy Patriarch O my Soul come not thou into their Secrets unto their Assembly my Honour be not thou united Gen. 49.6 I would have all true Protestants say thus and profess with the Prophet David to Almighty God that He was a Companion to all them that feared him and of them that kept his Precepts Psal 119.63 What
credit then can a Protestant propose to himself in keeping company with a Papist much less in promoting or maintaining his Interest For no Protestant can be so infatuated if not deeply concern'd in the Plot or very ignorant to believe that a Papist fears God or keeps his Precepts But since they are not all Israel which are of Israel as St. Paul said nor all Protestants that come to Church as I wish they were and there really appear what they are as well internal as external and not lye sheltering themselves within the pale of our Church and under the wings of Protestants promote the Popish Interest But they are easily known for what our Saviour said of the Wolves in Sheeps cloathing is eternally true By their Fruits ye may know them Matth. 7.16 Having this infallible mark and Divine Caution besides several late past Passages if well observed nothing more doth concern all Protestants than to United and Act as the Protestants did in Q. Eliz. time The Papists forelaw they could do nothing unless they could cut her off therefore all their Plots and hellish Designs were calculated against her life as they are now against his present Majesty whom God long preserve The Protestants foresaw that there was no end of their Plots and hellish Designs till they would have cut her off and consequently extirpate the Protestant Religion if by some extraordinary means they did not prevent it upon which they did by an universal and unanimous Assent enter into an Association by which they mutually promised to each other to repair to their Arms and stand by and assist each other with their Lives and Fortunes in these three cases 1. In case of the Queens death 2. In case of a Foreign Invasion 3. In case of any Popish Insurrection Besides they obliged themselves one to another whenever the Queen fell by any untimely end they would revenge her death upon the Papists This immediately put a stop to all their Plots and Designs against her for when they saw the Protestants were unanimously agreed on that point which is to be wished for now and that taking away the Queens Life was their total Ruine and Destruction the Papists had soon done with their Plottings This never to be forgotten Act of Queen Elizabeth's Protestants and in an interval of Parliament was so universally approved of that she her self in the next Parliament confirmed it and made it Law Now it 's to be admired how one Protestant calls another Rogue and Rebel for subscribing or promoting a harmless Petition for the Sitting of Parliament to redress the Grievances of the Nation The Parliament having already stigmatized these horrid Abhorrers and strange kind of Protestants never to be forgotten and not worth my while to decipher their Popishly affected Crime it being daily to be seen and read in their faces I only tell them that I am sorry that such are permitted amongst Protestants for they can make as good Papists supposing Interest as they are now Protestants These are the men that prosecute Protestant Dissenters and if Popery were turned Trump would willingly destroy all that would not conform to their Livery and Superstitious Levies as they did in the days of Queen Mary for it is very well known that the professed Papists were no more able then than they are now to destroy they Protestants No it was the Protestant Abhorrers that wicked Crew the worst wretches that turned Papists and spilt the blood of all true Protestants as they thirst to do with ours now Of such Abhorrers as these I would have all honest minded men and true Protestants to shun and avoid their Company and scorn their Society with a juster indignation than a known professed Papist from a known Papist you can guard your self but from these miscreant Wretches you cannot for they walk and converse with you as Friends like deceitful and bloody men and lye in the bosom of the Church till they sting her to Death as they did in the Marian Days Now is the time not to Dispute or debate much about a Plot which is so evidently demonstrated and confessed by all except those that are therein concerned but to Act and that with speed and universal Assent against Popery and all its Adherents otherwise England's Religion Liberty and Property is lost In this our Gracious King neither is or will be wanting as he assured this present Parliament in his Royal Speech to them Popery and all its professors 1. Are Enemies to God by their setting up and worshiping of Idols as God contrary to his express Command Truth hates Competitors 2. To Christ by their new found Mediators and especially the Virgin Mary whom they style Salvatrix Peccatorum 3. To Scripture by their many corrupt Traditions and humane Inventions in imposing a belief upon all their Proselytes not only to deny their Reason but all their other Senses to the great detriment of their Souls and the dishonour of their God and Saviour 4. To all Opposers by Fire and Faggot 5. To all Government that will not subject to their Antichristian and Imperious power by Plots Assassinations Poysoning and horrid Massacres these to be Popery's usual and common steps to worldly Advancement to its support and propagating is notoriously known especially to this Nation whom Popery the common Enemy of Mankind hath so often attempted our ruine and at several times hath been at the very point of effecting it has once more with that great violence attempted our utter ruine which I hope will be so ordered as to be their last Attempt and if not we are not to be pitied The great Undertakers and Encouragers of this Hellish Plot some have had their deserts some are fled from Justice and promise themselves good success in their Design not because of the many thousands of Masses that are daily said all over the Papal World for the prosperity of their Design but because they have Friends in Disguise amongst us as they most impudently assert in our Courts in our Armies in our Navyes which I would not have believed had not some late passages happened Their Design is not to convert but to kill burn and plunder it being just and meritorious to extirpate Hereticks Root and Branch But Blessed be God their chief Aim the Killing of the King whose only life is our safery has failed and so confounded them that they afterwards resolved to surprize us and make a Night-work of us as they did in France Piedmont and Ireland in those most bloody and barbarous Massacres of poor innocent Protestants but God notwithstanding the multitude of our sins hath hitherto preserved us though design'd many a time to a total destruction and discovered this impious and hellish Conspiracy to the great confusion and shame of the Conspirators he has also beaten up our Quarters and given us the Alarm if we will take it as we ought all things considered We have been told that not only our Forts our Militia but
Scotland and Ireland were at a Papists beck Besides the great danger of being stabbed as we walk in the Streets and of being burned as we sleep in our houses witness that horrid murder of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey the barbarous Assassination of Justice Arnold and the dreadful Fire of London and Southwark to which let us add their unanimous assent and design in extirpating all Hereticks as they term them root and branch by cutting their Throats having no other way to propagate their Profession that has nothing of Religion but the Name therefore Gratitude nor Countries sake restrains not men of this stamp their Principles know no Kindred no Love no Obedience no Obligation to a Heretick but through blood as the Murther of Sir E. G. can testifie O wonderful that ever supposed Christians should be so much the Children of the Devil as first to Murder then charge it upon the innocent soul Murdered as the Papists most Impudently did and do in him all Protestants were Massacred no man is sure of his life a day or night the choice is only what death we shall dye whether be Stabbed Strangled Burned or Poysoned this Consternation in security and danger of our Lives must needs obstruct not only all Commerce betwixt man and man but also deter Officers of Justice from their Duty and Obligation and in fine dissolve all humane society and reduce the world into misery How much then doth it concern all Protestants nor only with unfeigned Repentance to turn to the Lord and beg of him that these Conspirators should be either Confounded and insnared in their own Nets or diverted from their hellish designs Not that this is sufficient but we ought as in duty bound to preserve our King whom the Conspirators assert blessed be God is not for their turn and make our humble Supplication to this worthy and English Parliament to Vote an Adresse to the King to Banish all Papists and all Popishly affected as well out of his Army and Navy as the Cities of London and Westminster whos 's Villiany and Cruelty one would think sufficiently rendered them as uncapable of serving in our Armies as in keeping humane and Common society with Protestants whilest poor and Innocent and dissenting Protestants are daily molested and pilledged for the sake of their peaceable Consciences and Popish Rebels sheltering themselves under our Roof is this to Maintain the Protestant Religion No certainly it is insupportable Therefore call for the Conspirators look throughly and strictly into their hellish Actions fiat justitia fear nor favour no man but fear Cod do what you do as in his presence to whom you must render an account nay or every idle word 't is the chief and most applaudable Action of your Life to diâ—charge your Trust that is if you will quit your selves like Men and good Protestants preserve the Being Liberties and religion of those who have intrusted you by throwing out Popery after the Bill the only Tormentor and Plague of this Nation as you desire to see God in his Glory and secure your selves from Popery Tyranny and Slavery neglect not this Opportunity which God has so wonderfully cast into your hands unexpected be not Despiâ—ers of his Care and Providence over you neither be you careless or fearfull of Improving and Shewing your Power Now is the time for had they you or ever will at the same advantage you nor yours should not long continue therefore what before you would scarcely have done is now become your Duty Let not the Life of that Grand Traytor and Popish Courtly Secretary who Traiterously communicated the secrets of our King and Countrey to all Popish Courts in Christendom nor the Lives of five or six bigotted Jesuits pass as satisfaction for this horrid and never to be forgotten Hellish Conspiracy Not that I desire more Blood but Justice Security and future safety as well for our Posterity as for our selves otherwise it may be truly said of us They saw and would not see You know that Popery marks all Protestants of what perswasion soever out for the same end and esteems them as one body of Hereticks equally deserving the Slaughter as Bellermine affirms All Hereticks are to be destroyed Root and Branch if it can possibly be done De Laicis lib. 3. cap. 22. Besides all Hereticks are solemnly Cursed once a Year in Rome and thereupon the Papists in the several Kingdoms where the Protestant Religion rules are not only discharged from all Allegiance to their Prince but all are obliged by the strictest bond of Conscience and under the penalty of the utmost hazard of their Souls to depose such Heretical Princes and that they are so far from being Guilty of Murder if they kill any of them as Vrban the Third Pope saith that they are bound to exterminate all Hereticks as they would be esteemed Christians themselves Mariana saith When the Common-wealth cannot otherwise secure and preserve its own peace and safety it may by a right inherent in it self declare the King to be the common Enemy and then destroy him with the Sword Leshius saith that such a Prince ought to be deposed and therupon it may be lawfull to attempt any thing against his Person Pope Paul the fifth did not only Excommunicate and Damn Q. Eliz. and all her Protestant Subjects but also Cursed all the Papists that should give any Obedience to her or her Laws All this one would think should not only rouse us to Self-defence Brotherly love and Union betwixt all Protestants but also to determine that whosoever opposed such may be Judged to love Popery better than Protestancy consequently an Enemy to the King the Protestant Religion and the Government In reference to Self-defence after a true Union is once setled among all Protestants it 's most necessary that our Militia Officers all standing Officers Judges and all Justices of the Peace should be strictly examined whether they be men Popishly affected or not if popishly affected they are the most dangerous to be trusted and the ready way to introduce Popery the first have our Lives in their hands and may cut our Throats at will the second will never put the Penal Laws in Execution if not against Protestant Dissenters which is no less than to cheat the Government and Invalidate the King and his Laws Popery and men Popishly affected or in Masquerade fear nothing more than such strict Enquiry Be not slow in this we will never leave you for such ever since the Reformation were our greatest Enemies and chief Fomentors of Plots and Conspiracies If you read of the Massacre of Paris Piedmont and Ireland with the Transactions acted upon this our English Stage within these few years you will find this confirmed and much more too long here to insert to your great satisfaction and the Confusion of many great Courtiers who for Interest have betrayed God and their Countrey wherefore if now after all these great Discoveries Justice were not done on this wicked and
bloody Generation who since they could not cut off the King by their Buliies nor the Worthies of the Nation by a Meal-tub Plot intended no less than a publick Massacre had not the Wisdom of God the Courage of the Parliament who ever loved and honoured their King their Countrey and the Protestant Religion more than their Lives and Fortunes detected their Villany and put themselves with undaunted Courage between them his Majesties Life and the Protestant Religion to the great Terror and Confusion of all Papists in the World A Generation who put themselves into various Forms and Shapes though never so Monstrous to carry on the good Cause and all tending to one and the self same end the Destruction of the Protestant Religion though the Villany and Debauchery of some is such as to reckon every one either a Presbyterian or a Fanatick that appears more than ordinary active against these Papists There is a duty and a great obligation incumbent upon all true lovers of the Protestant Religion to Unite and Joyn with one Voice and observe the words of Abraham to Lot Let there be no strife I pray thee between me and thee for we are Brethren Gen. 13.8 Are we not Brethren Undoubtedly the Papists Rage is equal against us why should we Quarell then with our Brethren who the Papists would destroy because they are Protestants therefore we ought to own and preserve them as such and to give them all the Demonstration that can be both of love and of laying aside all Prejudices and Animosities that either Papist or Devil can suggest to persecute our Brethren who truly labour in the Vineyard and Exhort to give Caesar his due and to submit to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as Supream or unto Governors as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers 1 Pet. 2.13 This infallibly will put a stop to all Popish Operations though their Villanies are of such a reaching magnitude as if they were laid in the very depths of Hell as undoubtedly they were The Romish Emissaries here in England doe not only operate by distilling Notions in Religion but also in affairs of State which is well known in all Courts in Christendom and chiefly in the Court of England witness the last unhappy War that happened between the King and the Parliament they were the chief cause and Fomentors of it notwithstanding their great and pretended Loyalty to King Charles the first which they so confidently Boast of nothing will appear more ridiculous if you consider First their commencing that bloudy Rebellion in Ireland where so many Thousands of His Majesties Protestant Subjects were butchered for which they pretended to have a Commission under the Great Seal this caused and encreased the Fear and Jealousie of all the Protestants in England as well it might that the like might be designed against themselves they also renounced all Allegiance to His Majesty and owned the Pope as their Supream King This obliged the Parliament to request of the King such and such things as they thought most convenient and most conducing to his safety their own and the Nations The King finding it not fit or necessary to grant all that they demanded proved to be one matter and in part cause of the last War and the fatal ill consequences of it in which the Papists at first were very active for the King well knowing that the foundation and only cause of the War was only in opposition to their Party so that their Loyalty and Service to the King was meerly in their own defence not out of any true Loyalty or Principles of Religion for their Religion commands and teaches the contrary as their practices as well then as now confirms and leaves no colour of denial so that I much fear that they will as well now as then run the hazard of a War thinking thereby to establish their Foppery Secondly Their Fidelity and Loyalty to the King in the latter end of the War when many of them revolted and took part with Oliver others laid down their Arms made their peace with Oliver and told the King they would never fight a stroke for him or his is very well known When the War was ended and the King overcome in the Field it is evident that the Jesuits and Priests stirred up those Sons of Belial to Murder His Sacred Majesty the Jesuits and Priests did also endeavour to encline the People to a Common-Wealth and was at the same time very earnest with Cromwel to accept of the Crown and offered him all Obedience and Allegiance imaginable but Cromwel knowing full-well that their Religion taught them that no way was to be refused or slighted though never so unlawful whereby they might promote or advance the Church of Rome slighted them and kept them out of all places of Trust and so much under that they could never attempt any thing against him or at least they would not though a Traytor to His King Now their Loyalty to this present King evidently appears to the World in their many Attempts upon his Sacred Life in their Hellish Designs in subverting his Government burning his Cities and murdering his Subjects and all this according to the Principles of their Religion What Villanies will not these Monsters attempt what Interest or Right will not they invade what so Sacred that they will not violate what can limit them if they find opportunity to accomplish their desire Miserable must that Nation be that will be subject to such inconveniences and poysoned Positions not only destructive to Publick Safety but also to the Honour of God and the Glory of his Church In declaring this I do in effect also declare That what has been these many years and now is acting among the Papists is an old Play newly revived What the Papists did in the late times was laid upon the Phanatiques the like was to have been done at this time Just before the discovery of Dr. Oates they seized upon one Mr. Claypole and imprisoned him for having as they pretended a design to Murder His Sacred Majesty thinking thereby to convince the World that Mr. Claypole and some of the old Party had a Conspiracy to take away the Kings Life that in the mean while the Papists themselves might with safety do it and lay it upon the Nonconformists who in all truth and sincerity own their safety and peace to His Majesty only for when Dr. Oates first discovered the Plot Mr Claypole was not only released and his pretended Crime forgotten but the Parties called Nonconformists were the most active and are to this day both in the preservation of His Majesties Life and the further discovery of the Plot as is too apparent Such another Sham-Plot as this undoubtedly was the last Rebellion in Scotland fomented and moved by Papists disguised Priests and Emissaries who make it their only business first to insinuate to the Common