unanimously agreed upon this following Explanation to declare and witnesse to the world the perfect consistency of their Religion both with civil Government and civill society joyning also in the same Paper the like expressions of their Belief concerning some few other points which they were informed to be more obnoxious to exception than the rest As the undervaluing of holy Scripture and over-valuing the authority of the Church Invocation of Saints and Angels and worship of Images and above all the proud opinion of Merits This Paper they drew up as a preparatory to a more full and perfect clearing of their Faith from those prejudices and misunderstandings which ordinarily men of different perswasion entertain especially in Controversies about matters of Religion The Paper containing certain Doctrines of the Papists and by them delivered to divers persons of quality for their particular satisfaction WE believe the holy Scriptures to be of divine inspiration and infallible Authority and whatsoever is therein contained we firmly assent unto as to the word of God the Author of all Truth But since in the holy Scriptures there are some things hard to be understood which the ignorant and unstable wrest to their own destruction we therefore professe for the ending of controversies in our Religion and setling of peace in our Consciences to submit our private judgments to the Iudgment of the Church represented in a free Generall Council 2. We humbly believe the sacred Mystery of the the Blessed Trinity one Eternal Almighty and Incomprehensible God whom only we adore and worship as alone having Sovereign Dominion over all things to whom only we acknowledge as due from men and Angles all glory service and obedience abhorring from our hearts as a most detestable Sacrilege to give our Creators honour to any creature whatsoever And therefore we solemnly protest that by the prayers we addresse to Angels and Saints we intend no other than humbly to solliciâ—e their assistance before the Throne of God as we desire the prayers of one another here upon earth not that we hope any thing from them as original Authors thereof but from God the Fountain of all Goodnesse through Jesus Christ our only Mediator and Redeemer Neither doe we believe any divinity or vertue to be in Images for which they ought to be worship'd as the Gentiles did their Idols but we retain them with due and decent respect in our Churches as instruments which we find by experience do often assist our memories and excite our affections 3. We firmly believe that no force of nature nor dignity of our best works can merit our Justification but we are justified freely by grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ And although we should by the grace of God persevere unto the end in a godly life and holy obedience to the Commandements yet are our hopes of eternall glory still built upon the mercy of God and the merits of Christ Jesus All other merits according to our sense of that word signifie no more than Actions done by the assistance of Gods grace to which it has pleased his goodnesse to promise a reward a Doctrine so far from being unsuitable to the sense of the holy Scriptures that it is their principal design to invite and provoke us to a diligent observance of the Commandements by promising heaven as the reward of our obedience 1 Tim. 4. 8. Godlinesse is profitable to all things having the promise of this life and of that which is to come And Rom. 2. 6. God will render to every man according to his deeds to them who by patient confidence in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortalitie eternall life And again Rom. 8. 13. If you live after the flesh you shall die but if through the spirit you mortifie the deeds of the body you shall live And Heb. 6. 10. God is not unjust to forget your work and labour of love which you have shewed for his name c. Nothing being so frequently repeated in the Word of God as his gracious promises to recompense with everlasting glory the saith and obedience of his servants Nor is the bounty of God barely according to our works but high and plentifull even beyond our capacities giving full measure heaped up pressed down and running over into the bosomes of all that love him Thus we believe the merit or rewardablenesse of holy living both which signifie the same thing with us arises not from the self-valuâ— even of our best actions as they are ours but from the Grace and Bounty of God and for our selves we sincerely professe when we have done all those things which are commanded us we are unprofiâ—able servants having done nothing but that which was our duty So that our â—oasting is not in our selves but all our glorying is in Christ 4. We firmly believe and highly reverence the Moral Law being so solemnly delivered to Moses upon the Mount so expresly confirmed by our Saviour in the Gospel and containing in it self so perfect an Abridgement of our whole duty both to God and man Which Moral Law we believe obliges all men to proceed with faithfulness and sincerity in their mutual contracts one towards another and therefore our constant profession is that we are most strictly and absolutely bound to the exact entire performance of our promises made to any person of what Religion soever much more to the Magistrates and Civil Powers under whose protection we live whom we are taught by the Word of God to obey not only for fear but conscience sake and to whom we will most faithfully observe our promises of duty and obedience notwithstanding any dispensation absolution or other proceedings of any forein Power or Authority whatsoever Wherefore we utterly deny and renounce that false and scandalous Position that Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks as most uncharitaly imputed to our practices and most unjustly pinned upon our Religion These we sincerely and solemnly professe as in the sight of God the searcher of all hearts taking the words plainly and simply in their usuall and familiar sense without any Equivocation or Mentall Reservation whatsoever THese expressions concerning four of the most offensive points wherein the Papists differ from us have I confesse given me a great and unexpected satisfaction And though I remain in the same mind as to the erroneousnesse of many of their Tenets yet I see we may easily be too passionate in the degree of detesting any different opinion since every errour is not presently to be censured as an unsufferable abhomination and too severe in the degree of persecuting the dissenters from our own judgements as if they were unworthy to breath the same ayr with our selves Certainly many Protestants who quietly enjoy a just and unmolested freedom approach very neer to the first assertion of the Papists whilst some both Writers and Discoursers professe to submit their private judgements unappealably to a truly-free Generall
THE CATHOLIQUES PLEA OR AN EXPLANATION OF THE Roman Catholick Belief Concerning their Church Manner of Worship Justification Civill Governement Together with a Catalogue of all the Poenall Statutes against Popish Recusants All which is humbly submitted to serious Consideration By a Catholick GENTLEMAN London Printed for H. J. Persecution for Religion condemned c. WHen I consider how tenderly our Saviour Christ recommends the precept of mutuall love to all that professe his Name making it the Character of his followers By this all men shall know that you are my Disciples if you love one another Iohn 13. 35. And when I reflect how highly the great Apostle Paul exalts the same commandment abridging into this one precious syllable the whole duty of a Christian All the Law is fulfilled in one word Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self Gal. 5. I cannot sufficiently wonder to see most Christians in this present age with fire and sword persecute each other only upon the account of Religion how are we degenerated from the primitive Believers who would rather have given their own lives to perswade their Enemies to piety than sought to take away the lives of their Brethren to force them to Hypocrisie Yet hath it pleased the Lord Christ in our dayes upon whom the ends of the World are come to infuse the like tendernesse into the breasts of many conscientious and godly-minded people of this Nation who seeing the deformity and unreasonablenesse of those cruel Maxims that preach ruine and destruction for the least difference in belief cease not to pray unto the God of heaven and solicite the Governors of the earth that an impartiall freedom and absolute incoercency in matters of Religion may be firmly and irrevocably established for all that professe the Gospell of Christ For encouragement of which holy designe woven out of the bowels of mercy and for determent of those tempestuous spirits that with thunder and lightning strive to storm mens consciences I have endeavoured in this short Discourse to demonstrate That Conscience-persecution amongst Christians is clearly repugnant to the Light of Nature the Law of God and the Evidence of our own Principles Demonstrative Reasons against forcing of Conscience 1 SInce we have so happily shaken off that intollerable Yoak of Popish infallibility which neither we nor our Fathers were able to bear it is become to us not only tyrannicall but absurd to compell others to a way that our selves confesse may possibly be erronious we see one Parliament repeals those Articles of faith which a former enacted that form of worship which the Laws of the last age introduced is now generally exploded nay the very last reformation setled with so solemn a Covenant and carryed on with so furious a zeal is already by better lights discovered to be meerly humane and therefore deservedly laid aside The late Synods Confession of faith hatched by so many years sitting is now learnedly examined and indeed for a great part solidly confuted by Mr. W. Parker and other learned persons in print how preposterous is it then to constrain a soul not only to forsake his conscience which may be truth but drive him contrary to his own heart to a way that may be errour 2 Since the Word of God is the sole rule of Faith and no humane authority so highly impowred as to bind up our assents to whatsoever interpretation it shall please propose it clearly follows that as all the children of God have equall interest in the Testament of their Father so no one amongst them has any right to impose a force upon the judgment of his brother One holds Baptism of children to be necessary another esteems it unlawfull a third denies both these Opinions admitting well that it may but not that it must be done they confer Texts look into Original Tongues pray incessantly to God and professe solemnly the sincerity of their intentions yet after all their diligences and devotions stedfastly remain in their former perswasions Truly for my part he that should advise persecution in such a case unlesse his fire brought light too with it to demonstrate the truth would scarce satisfie my suspition that his coales were fetcht from the infernall pit 3 If we reflect upon the difficulties that incounter us in the way to truth for strait is the gate and narrow is the path and withall consider the shortnesse of our sight for here we see but in part and understand but in part there will appear more reason to endeavour the mutuall assistance and support than malicious ruine and destruction one of another However since all have neither equall depth of naturall judgment nor the same measure of supernaturall illumination but the Spirit bloweth how and where it pleaseth we ought not to attempt so high a presumption as to despise or persecute our brother for his innocent and blamelesse mistakes lest we be found to fight against God who is the free disposer of his gifts we know the way of man is not in himself Ier. 10. 23. but his steps are ruled by the Lord Pro. 20. 24. and therefore certainly did we bear a due respect to God we would be content to wait his leasure who has engaged himself by his Apostle Phil. 3. 15. If any man be otherwise minded God shall in time reveal even this unto him let us therefore entertain such an one who proceeds in the simplicity of his heart with Milk till he grow stronger to digest strong meat 4 All compulsion upon the Conscience returns us flatly to our old slavery under the Prelats nay more to the implicite faith of the Papists with this only difference that we are worse than either because our consciences accuse us of doing that which we condemn in others for whatsoever I am constrained to swear or professe more than I am convinced of proceeds from as great a tyranny as the High-Commission and is as blind an assent as can be matched in the grosest Popery and dare we think that doing the same thing we judge in others we shall escape the judgment of God Rom. 2. 3. 5 Force is punishment and consequently not just unlesse the offence be voluntary but he that believes according to the evidence of his own reason is necessitated to that belief and to compell him against it were to drive him to renounce the essentiall part of man his reason Why should we be commanded to try the spirits 1. Iohn 4. 1. to prove all things 1 Thes. 5. 21. If there be not a faculty in the Soul to judge for her self why we are enjoyned to hold fast that which we find to be best if after our most serious and deliberate election we shall be whipt out of our Conscience by penalties To what purpose do we preach poor souls into just so much liberty of Scripture as may beget their torture and not permit them to rest where they find satisfaction either prohibit to search at all or leave us sensible of some
such Papists as should disturb the publike peace Many and wonderfull are the deliverances which our good God has dispensed to his servants in reward of this their inclination to mercifulnesse yet amongst all the glorious appearances of the Lord for his people none can be found more eminent than the renowned victory over that rigid and severe Kirk-army of the Scots Septemb. 1650. who declining the mild counsell of our Saviour to possesse their Souls with patience deservedly lost their lives by violence a fatal argument deciding manifestly this very controversie in favour of meeknesse where the maintainers of compulsion were no lesse ingeniously than cruelly confuted whilest assuming to themselves a Power to force our souls they could not so much as defend their own bodies In memory of which great Salvation from the pride and fury of the Presbyterian Priesthood the Parliament as a new Covenant of Thanksgiving for so seasonable a mercy in the same moneth enacted an abolishment of divers rigorous and penal Statutes contrived on purpose by the haughty Prelats to break the hearts of those whose consciences they â—ould not bend which one Act has won more â—earts to acknowledge and love the authority of the Parliament than all their stupendious victories have â—rced bodies to confesse and fear their Power and 〈◊〉 it be not checked by limitations and partiality in â—e execution will render them absolute Masters of â—ll that understand their own felicity for what can 〈◊〉 imagined more welcâ—me to a Christian people â—ewly delivered from an Antichristian bondage than 〈◊〉 see themselves infranchised into a holy Liberty of â—oceeding sincerely according to their conscienâ—s in the Worship of their God Wherefore as we are full of joy for so excellent an Act by which as the Apostle saith we are called unto Liberty so we are full of hopes to be perfectly happy by the free and universall observation therof without the least self-interest or respect of persons being so conformable to the constant received Maximes and solemn deliberate profession of the Parliament as appears by the Declaration of the Lords and Commons in answer to the Scotch Papers 4. Mar. 1647. where folio 43 the Discipline of Ecclesiasticall Censures and all other punishments for matters of Religion are disclaimed as grounded upon Popish and Prelaticall Principles not to be revived under any image or 〈◊〉 whatsoever and a little after folio 63. they proceed in the same sense we shall not be afraid at the day of Iudgment that we have been more forward to set Christ aâ— liberty than to cast him in prison it being better in our opinion where the case is not very clear to leave God to deal against many errours than to use his authority for the suppressiâ—g of one truth the weapons of fasting and prayer being both more Christian and more available in such cases than those of force and violence and yeâ— more fully if possible in another Declaration in answer to the letters of the Scots Commissioners 17 Februâ— 1648. As for the truth and power of Religion it being 〈◊〉 thing intrinsecall between God and the Soul and the matters of Faith in the Gospel being 〈◊〉 â—s no natural light doth reach unto we conceive there is no human power of coercion thereunto nor to restrain men from beâ—lieving what God suffers their judgements to be perswaâ—ded of Words of that solid weight and pretious value as deserve to be ingraven with letters of gold and religiâ—ously observed for ever by all tender consciences as aâ— Oracle Conformable to the aforesaid Principles is that exâ—cellent Doctrine and advise set down by Mr. Parker anâ— his Brethren in their Examen of the late Synods Confession of Faith in these words pag. 128. Liberty of Conscience may be infringed first by seeking violent means to alter conscientious mens judgements and their present perswasion for it is the office of him who is the Lord of conscience to lighten and change mens minds when and how he pleaseth Phil. 3. 15. Let us therefore as many as be perfect be thuâ— minded and if in any thing you be otherwise minded God shall reveal this unto you 2. By inciting another by like forcible means to will and to Act against his Conscience and much more by imprisonment mulcts terrours or threats Rom. 14. 15 20 21. For this is to make him destroy his Soul vers. 20. 23. 3. We may not disturb the peace of mens Consciences or make their hearts sad with our invectives or menacing them causlesly with terrours from the Lord Ezechiel 13. 32. Because with lies ye have made the hearts of the righteous sad whom I have not made sad c. And in page 230. thus But we would not have you assume to your selves 〈◊〉 attribute unto others a Power to Lord it over mens Faith and Consciences especially when men walk obediently towards those that are in places of Rule and Authority and live a godly sober honest peaceable and unblameable life If men will do wickedly and defend a liberty in Christ so to do let them be lyable to the Sword of Justice for so doing But far be it from us so much as by example to draw a weak Brother a Saint and fellow servant of the Lord whom no man can accuse but for his differing judgment to do any thing against Conscience whereby he should â—ondemn himself as the Apostle speaks Rom. 14. How much more ought Governours to be tender and abstemious in the use of violent and coercive means to precipitate men into such perillous and destructive courses All authority is given of God for mens welfare and much more for the preservation and not the destruction of the soul By these considerations I conceive is clearly domonstrated the freedome of a Christian Soul in heâ— commerce for heaven which since the mercifull bounty of God holds forth indifferently to all the cruell covetousnes of man ought not to obstruct to any surely it is the worst of Monopolies to lay impositions upon the way to Paradiâ—e Christ by his death removed the Angel that chased from thence our first parents and shall any of us take the Flaming Sword into our hands to sheath it in the bowels of a poor Pilgrim who with a sincere heart travailes to the same Country only because he goes noâ— in our company In my Fathers house are many Mansions saies Christ why may there not be as many paths that lead to them If they that have no Law shall be judged without the Law â—ertainly they that unblameably mistake the Law shall be tryed according to those Expositions which appeared unto them to be the meaning of the Law-giver for the sense is the Law and not the letter specially having so gratious a Iudge who hath already declared by his Apostle 2 Cor. 8. If there be first a willing mind it is accepted according to what a man hath and not according to what he hath not Wherefore let us not by a suddain violence break into
peaceable Christian be deprived of the cheif content and comfort of this life which certainly consists in a reall and impartiall yet unoffensive liberty to serve his God according to his conscience Many Petitions I could here cite in affirmance of this Truth from severall Provinces of this Land but I shall trouble the Reader onely with these two the first was presented to the Parliament upon the six and twentieth of March 1649. from the County of Leicester wherein though I were none of the subscribers yet I did both by my self and friends promote is what I could as conceiving the requests of it both just and reasonable it bore this Title The humble Petition of divers wel-affected of the County of Leicester in behalf of themselves and the Nation ANd the seventh Article or Branch of the Petition was this 7. That every one may enjoy the just freedomes to worship God according to his word without any Coercive or Restrictive courses to the contrary The Petition being read the Gentlemen that presented it were called in and Master Speaker by Order of the House gave them hearty thanks c. And on the 2 of April following a like Petition was presented entituled The humble Petition and Representation of severall Churches of God in London commonly though fâ—lsly called Anabaptists which was also graciously accepted by the House according to the Merit of so consciencious a sute and the justice of so glorious a Parliament At which time we happily began to shake off that intollerable burthen of Isachar the Presbyterian government which has bin since in a good measure effected through the blessing of the Lord Christ and pious care of his instruments the Governours of this Common-wealth Insomuch as no persons of what society or perswasion soever in this Nation are at present persecuted for their Conscience onely or difference in outward worship but the Papists whom I am therefore according to that Principle 〈◊〉 charity which absolutely commands my spirit obliged to make the chief subject of this discourse In order to which performance I have since the writing of my former sheets often waited upon God in humility of spirit and endeavored to inform my self as much as I could of the truth and particular manner of their sufferings and to that end have sometimes purposely attended at Haberdashers hall to hear their Cases pleaded where though I suffered some persecution from the croud noyse of that place yet far more was the greif of my mind to behold so many distressed suters whose Countenances were made sad by the fear of a fatall Order for their impoverishment But before I proceed to any of those particulars I must at least in my own judgement cleer the Papists of obstinacy and non-submission to the present government wherewith they were by some accused as a sufficient ground of all their punishment from which imputation I shall easily deliver them by transcribing a Copy of their Petition which they have with much diligence and humble importunity addressed to very many members of Parliament professing to wait onely the happines of an opportunity to present it to the House and being a Paper at least 5 or 6 moneths old and delivered to so many persons with whom I have the honour to be acquainted it fell by chance into my hands having I confesse of late entertaiâ—ed a particular delight and recreation to passe some part of my time in such curiosities To the Supreme Authority of this Nation the Parliament of the Common-wealth of ENGLAND The humble Petition of the Roman Catholikes Sheweth THat your Petitioners have long waited some happy leisure when there might be a hearing alowed them of their many sad pressures the weight whereof hath sunk them so ruinousâ—â— low that they are utterly disabled to discharge their many debts make the least provision for their Children or relieve themselves reduced to extreme necessities That even such of your petitioners as are sequestred for delinquency have still comforted their sorrowes with this hope that at last they should certainly be received to mercy since the generall VOTES for composition of the 17. of MARCH 1648. seem clearly to imply them capable thereof when the Rules concerning them should be agreed upon That now the wisedome of the Parliament applying it selâ—eto establish the people of this Common-wealth in a quiet and setled condition your Petitioners take up an humble confidence that they alone shall not be excluded from so universall a benefit And therefore humbly pray that the Laws proceedings concerning them may be taken into consideration and such clemency and compassion used towards them by composition or otherwise as in the judgment of 〈◊〉 honourable House may consist with the publike peace and your Petitioners comfortable living in their native Country And they further humbly pray that it would please the Parliament to voâ—chsafe them the permission of cleering their Religion from whatsoever may be inconsistent with Government which will assuredly be done to full satisfaction if there may be a Committee appointed by this honorable House on whom they may have the Privilege 〈◊〉 attend And your Petitioners shall ever pray â—â— THis to my sense beares it self with so much respect and submissivenesse in the style that it can no ways be interpreted mis-becomming the duty of good and peaceable subjects and for the matter of the Petition it seems to my eye so reasonable that I cannot believe but after a little patience till other more generall 〈◊〉 aâ—â—ord the Parliament leisure it wil certainly receive a satisfactory and releeving Answer Especially since not only such Papists whose moderate delinquency leaves them some hope of mercy nor such who for preservation of their lives were forced to fly into the 〈◊〉 Kings Garrisons without ever acting any thing against the State but even the most innocent who all this while have sate still under so many preâ—lures and never were charged with other accusation than their Religion yet all freely and humbly submit in this Petition to the absolute pleasure of the Parliament for rules of Composition and this as to the single Papist for an offence which in no other Society of Christians in this Nation is accounted any crime at all being meerly their different judgment in Religion a proceeding wherein cerâ—â—inly wee shall use too much severity and partiallity if we make it not only unpardonable but unredeemable In the close of their Petition they humbly beg the favour of an opportunity to satisfy the Parliament in the point of consistency with Civil Government which being the chief Objection that without passion can be made against them surely we should not take offence at their most diligent applications and utmost endeavours to deliver themselves from so destructive a charge laid upon their Religion And as a further evidence of their readinesse and earnest desires to perform that which their Petition offers I am informed divers of considerable quality amongst them were then in town
been bred a Roman Catholique from his infancy and continued in that Religion till some two or three yeares before his death when being overcome by an unhappy necessity of preserving his family from beggery he forsook the Belief of his owne Soule and went to Church to save his Estate after which the Devil taking advanage upon him in this disturbance and anxiety of Spirit he confessed that he had falne into many great Sinnes but denied the guilt of that horrid cryme of poisoning his wife for which he was condemned to dye delivering further with a kind of confidence that if he had had the grace to have continued constant in his Religion he believed â—e had never so highly transgressed the Commandements of his God nor come to so unhappy amend And openly declared with much seeming repentance that he dyed in his old Religion And it is a generall observation among the Papists themselves that many of them who strain their Consciences to such complyance doe come to untimely ends as I confesse we have lately had an unhappy instance in the unfortunate death of Mr. Henry Compton Certainly this is a sad consequence of wresting the inward perswasion of poore Soules from that Belief which their own Conscience tells them is true thereby making them lesse carefull of their owne salvation and their honesty and credit of lesse reputation even with those who force them to this change For the heart of man is so fraile and deceitfull that it seldom is drawne by violence from those principles which it has long been used to esteem and practise but becomes slack and negligent in what concernes the other World and by degrees growes very often wholly insensible of any thing but sensuality Upon the newes not long since of some Papists taking the Oath of Abjuration and frequenting the publique places of meeting I conceived my selfe sufficiently furnisht to answer a certaine old saying which a Recusant of my acquaintance used often to repeat in my hearing that SANGUIS MARTYRUM EST SEMEN ECCLESIAE This upon all occasions hee applyed to the sufferings of Papists both here in England and ten thousand miles off in Japan in which two Islands have of late been sharper persecutions said he for matter of Religion then in any other place of the World This he continually insisted upon as a Soveraigne remedy for all his sorrowes nor could we ever beat him from this last hold wherein hee fortified himself SANGUIS MARTYRUM c. nay more hee sometimes ventured to affirm with strange assurance this assertion that his Church encreased and prospered still even whilst it was actually under the greatest pressures that his Church was as the Palme tree the heavier weights are laid on the more it flourisheth I having gotten this advantage by the late coming in of some Papists to our Religion went presently on purpose to my Recusant to put him to the question and as it were a little triumphing demanded what hee thought now of his old Latin Proverb in which hee had formerly seemed to place so much confidence and whether the Palme tree did not sometimes break a twigg by laying on so many weights To which he replyed with a little suddennesse and Choller That some dead or Canker-eaten Branches as they can beare no weight so they can bear no fruit even whilst united to the Stock and much lesse after their division But soone recovering himselfe to his usuall temper he calmly yet earnestly undertooke that as there have been at least twenty Preists put to death in Englandâ—ince the beginning of this Parliament meerly upon the account of their Religion or function so hee could name a far greater number of persons of quality who have in the same space of time reconciled themselves to the Catholique Union When I urged him to the proofe of this assertion he imediately delivered me a list of twenty Preists who during these late revolutions have been hang'd drawne and quartered either for taking orders beyond Seas or exercising them on this side the Seas and withall promised upon the allowance of a little time for recollection to furnish me with a Roll of some names who have lately declared themselves Catholiques undertaking if he was deceived in any name to recompence such Errour with the interest of two for one unlesse he might be dispensed with upon the inconveniency of discovering those who can no longer live unruined for their Religion then they are unknown to professe it The Preists executed inseverall places Since the Year 1641. were these Executed at Tyburne Mr William Ward Mr Raynolds Mr Roe Mr Edward Morgan Mr Bullaker Mr Holland Mr Heath Mr Francis Bell. Mr Dueket Mr Corbet Mr Mouse Mr Phillip Powell Mr Peter Wright Executed at York Mr Lockwood Mr Caterick Executed at Lancaster Mr Green Executed at Dorchester Mr. Barlow Mr. Reading Mr. Whitaker M. Thompson Besides Master Thomas Vaughan after very hard usage aboard Captaine Moâ—â—oâ—s Ship soone after dyed at Cardiffe in South Wales Dyed Prisoners in the Common-Gaole at Newgate since the yeare 1641. Mr Iohn Goodman Mr Henry Myners Mr Peter Wilsford Mr Iohn Hamond Mr Colman Mr Rivers c. Besides diverse who are now continued in prison Now I humbly thank the Lord Christ there was only one of these Priests whom I mentioned in the first part of this Discourse put to death since this Nation was established in the present Government and I wish from my Soul that his life had also been spared since my obligations to this Common-wealth and the present Governours thereof are such that I am bound every day to offer up my sighs and prayers to the Lord that no bloud of any peaceable Christian be split for the onely difference of judgement in Religion For certainly whosoever shall practice such cruelty will be called to a strict and rigorous account at the judgement of the great Day But proceeding to require of my Recusant the performance of his word concerning the late Converts hee so much gloryed in I merrily tâ—â—â—atned him that if he observed not his promise I would presently not onâ—ly suspect some secret evasion in him but cry out against all Papists as juglers and equivocaters or else I being an Heretique no Faith was to be kept with me and though the present matter be of a triviall Consequence yet we knew the Welchman stole Rushes to keepe his hand in ure He first seriously redeemed his word by delivering mee this following Catalogue and then merrily answered my jeasting with wonder at my hardinesse how I durst stay in London since the last letters from Amsterdam discover so dangerous a plot intended by the Papists and Cavaliers against this Towne they have these many Months held a secret intelligence with all the Engineers and Mill-makers of Holland and hired them forthwith to prepare a thousand such Engins as we use to quench scare-fires and these Van-Trump who has been a long time Popishly affected and a rank Cavalier ever since