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
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
means for defence And he might have seen that considering the powerfull though most ungodly endeavours and wicked arguments used to perswade his most Sacred Majesty not to regard the performance of that Peace P. W. cannot be justly said to have in that occasion unjustly applyed or made use of the Judgements of God on Saul and his Children for being mis-lead by such perfidious Counsels against the Laws of God Nature and Nations Not that P. W. did wish as God knows he did not but was and is from the bottom of his Soul far enough from any such wish that in the conditional contingency of such non-performance or of such a breach by his Majesty with those can justly pretend to the benefit of that Peace the like or indeed any other Judgements should light on himself or on his Posterity but that his Majesty might be minded of this example as of an antidote against the poyson of such Viperous Counsellers as our Person of Qâ—ality seems to be and the rest of his Consorts that with so much importunitie so much falsity and such other evil arguments which I will not mention here did then sollicite as they do still for the perpetual destruction of all Irish Catholicks that is to say of more than a million of people yea of a great though as yet through such arts and the endeavours of this Gentleman and his Associates uncomfortable Nation and Kingdom to the generality of Catholick Natives and did and do sollicite for the ruining them so for ever without any regard of their Articles or of Publick Faith given them with so much solemnity by two great and good Kings and upon considerations so valuable as the World knows Nay did and do at this very present sollicit this destruction to involve even those of that Nation and Religion who are confessedly innocent of the Rebellion or prosecution of it or of any breach of Articles or Peace which yet is so well known to be against the most known fundamental Laws of the Land and against all Divine and Humane Laws and against the very first Dictates or even glimmers of Natural reason that I need not dilate upon it any further 133 But that I may not seem to decline observing the advantages this Person of Quality proposed to himself in that Parallel he would needs frame for me let us consider every Particular apart 1. Josua sayes he knew not the Persons of those with whom he made that League neither did the King know the hearts of those with whom he made that Peace I would fain know of this Gentleman whether Josua knew the hearts of the Gibeonites Or whether any of both sides that make Peace or League whatever they be on Earth the hearts of the other Pag. 90. The French of the Spaniards or Spaniards of the French the English of the Hollanders or Hollanders of the English And since he must answer not then I demand where is the advantage hence for him that his Majesty knew not the hearts of those with whom he made that Peace Or is the Peace therefore not obligatory Indeed were the Persons of the Irish unknown to his Majesty and his Lieutenant who treated with them and so unknown I say to both as to think they had not been of the Irish Nation at all but English or Scots inhabiting some other Tract of Land and some other Cities than those they did or had his Majesty and Lieutenant been so ignorant of those Irish Commissioners that they had taken them at that time to be another People or of another Country not of that which was before and through their Rebellion forfeitable to the Crown and by the Act of 17. Caroli of the Parliament of Westminster if that be of any force in Ireland to be assured to and shared amongst adventurers and Souldiers then might this Gentleman with some reason say the Articles obliged not whereas there was an errour about the very Persons than which nothing seems more against freedom of consent as to that wherein the errour is even that essential freedom I mean without which a man hath no free consent in any sense at all And yet in this case my Parallel would be more plain in the extension of it but his advantage no more but rather less as from thence to any purpose he ought to drive at 2. Those were Neighbours nay lived amongst the Israelites Pag 90. to whom Josuah promised Peace though they said they were of a far Country The Irish were Neighbours at least locally nay they lived long amongst us though at last they would not let us live amongst them But indeed they were from a very far Country even from Rome it self Behold Reader two manifest impostures in a few lines The Confederate Catholicks when such or come to be joyned in a body or social defence and have a general Assembly which they had very soon after the first insurrection were so far from denying English Scots or any other Protestant Subjects to his Majesty to live amongst them that even in their printed model of Government which I suppose this Gentleman hath they invited all such as Pleased to come and live amâ—â—g 〈◊〉 oâ— Gâ—â—â—rnment them And their being from a very far Country even as far as Rome in this Gentlemans sense or their being so from Rome that they acknowledge any dependence from the Pope in Temporal affairs or any that are not purely Spiritual or such a dependence as cannot stand with a most Christian most Loyal and indispensable Allegiance by any on Earth to his Sacred Majesty King Charles the â— of England Ireland and Scotland the former Declarations Protestations and their famous opposition of the Lord Nâ—ncio and of his Excommunications and Interdicts in tâ—e Case of the Cessation with the then Baron now Eaâ—l of Inchiquin and the Book printed at Kilkeny and subscribed by David Osoriensis and approved by Thomas Midensis and subscribed and approved by the rest of the Divines convoked to that purpose entituled Quaeries concerning the lawfulness of the present Cessation c. whereof P. W. is known and confesses himself to have been the Author manifestly convince they are not Yet I confess most freely and truly they are as to their Religion from a Country as farr as Rome because they received it thence and from Countries too in that as farr as Constantinople Antioch Alexandria or Hierusalem as all the People of England have had theirs even from Rome I say for a 1000. years and amongst them a hundred millions of people that have been all their lives as unalterably loyal to their Princes as any people could be and more loyal without comparison than I doubt this Person of Quality can pretend himself to be or at least to have been sometime in his life past But suppose that notwithstanding their being Neighbours at least locally and their living long with this Person of Quality and amongst those he makes his own they have after a War