they are detestable Conspirators who maintain a secret Correspondence with all Courts of the Roman Religion to our prejudice and principally with the Court of Rome so long as they publickly own themselves to be of some sect or other and pass under the Characters of Presbyterians Independants Anabaptists or any thing but of the Church of England for that is their mortal hatred that is what they do above all things covet to destroy as being the frontier and Bastion of the Protestant Religion and could they intirely ruine that which is the thing they labor for night and day with all the application imaginable velis remis tooth and nail and for the accomplishment of which great work they transform themselves into secure these various disguises they make themselves secure of the Rest whom they would play at one another till they worried and devour themselves and at last fall an easie Conquest to the Roman Mitre Whoever he was that writ that discovery made to the late King and Archbishop Land he assures us that of the four Orders of Ecclesiasticks Politicks Seculars and Intelligencers scarcely all Italy Spain and France afforded so great a number of Jesuits as the City of London then did and that there were more than fifty Scottish Jesuits then who had conspired against the King and Government by raising a Civil War among us and we have no reason to believe that their numbers are lessened when their conveniencies are increased Under these disguises they do more effectually carry on their wicked designs of keeping up and increasing our disorders and divisions for it is the close Cabal that does the mischief and poisons the Common people of any Sect with principles of disloyalty and faction when they are under the Rose then do they vomit out all they can to enrage people against the Government both in Church and Stale whereas the publick discourses of most dissenters either out of Ingenuity or fear of punishment are managed with more Caution and less violence I am not so vain as to believe that these Truths or at least dangerous probabilities should gain intire Credit even with those whom they do so nearly concern I am but too sensible that the impressions which some men have received into their minds are so firmly rivetted into their belief that they will not be perswaded to abandon them though that be they only probable way to establish their own and the Common safety and security of our Nation one may almost with the same ease remove Black-heath as perswade some people that they are secretly managed by Romish Priests and Jesuits that they are accessory to the dangers of introducing Popery or that they secure them from discovery and that punishment which in the opinion of all men they have justly merited But certainly they who wish well to their Native Country to the publick peace and security of the Nation to their own lives Liberty Property or Posterity if they will act according to the natural principle of self-preservation or the Dictates either of Law Reason or Religion must do it these two ways Either first they must contribute all they can actively towards the discovery of these dangerous Conspirators by all lawful ways and means Or secondly if that comes not within their power or knowledge to effect they must do all they can not to obstruct their discovery or be accessory to their Concealment and they ought with the same Caution to avoid the sheltring or even unwilling securing of them from the hands of Justice as they would avoid the Common mischiefs dangers and Calamities which they and the whole Nation may fear from them or suffer for want of such a discovery Now how willing soever any people may be to pursue at once their duty and great Interest by the first yet in regard it will be difficult hazzardous and uncertain how they shall succeed and the notorious cunning and dissimulation of these Malefactors protecting them not only from vulgar discovery but many times from the most Criâ—ical and piercing Eyes of the wisest Statesmen there can therefore be nothing left for all true and honest Englishmen and real Protestants but to clear themselves and by such a Touchstone as will certainly distinguish the Papist and Jesuit from the Protestant to vindicate themselves and discover the other It may be some persons will think me very Consident in offering such a Shibboleth as may certainly detect these Ephraimites if all Protestants would make use of it but I am not sollicitous what any persons may think if it be such an easie Expedient as will do the work so effectually that the Enemies of our Peace Religion and Country cannot avoid being discovered by it and if it be such a Method as all true Protestants may and ought to make use of it will be the opinion of the best and wisest men and that is only valuable that they who refuse such a Test and way of Trial must either be Accomplices and Confederates with Papists and Jesuits or however accessory to all the Mischiefs which may happen by their obstructing and frustrating such a Discovery It has before been intimated and is notoriously observable by all people how they do and may elude all Oaths which may be offer'd them as a way of discrimination for the greatest Criminals having the greatest concern to lie conceal'd will not scruple in their extreme danger and necessity any or all the Oaths that can be framed or offer'd them to take and being before hand arm'd by dispensations and pardons from their Omnipotent Pope they will consult their own safety and the good of the Catholick Cause without fear of swearing or forswearing themselves so that such Oaths will prove but Cobwebs to take the lesser Flies while the Wasps and Hornets who carry the sting and the poyson will break through them and escape Nay possibly they would not scruple to joyn with us in our Publick Service and Solemn Worship which as much as some people account Popish and Superstitious the Papists do detest and abhor Nor would they refuse to hear Sermons in our Churches though so long as there are so many Meetings of several sects they will be secured from those hardships too for it is but joyning themselves to some of those of the Separation and they both avoid that way of Tryal and are more able successfully to prosecute their great design of overthrowing the Established Government both Civil and Ecclesiastical But that which they abhor and esteem so damnable and deadly a sin as cannot be capable of any Dispensation Pardon or Indulgence is to Communicate with Protestants whom they believe and esteem the greatest Hereticks that ever were in the World both in respect of their disowning Transubstantiation and because we are all under the Popes Curse and Censure of Excommunication This is that which will in all probability distinguish the Papist and Jesuit from the true Protestant for whatever they may be allowed to do
THE Established Test In order to the Security of HIS MAJESTIES Sacred Person AND GOVERNMENT AND THE Protestant Religion AGAINST The Malitious Attempts and Treasonable Machinations of ROME Nemo sibi nascitur Partim Patriae c. IMPRIMATVR Jan. 3. 1679. Geo. Thorp Rmo in C. P. D. Guilielm Archiep. Cant. Ã Sacris Domesticis London Printed by T. N. for Jonathan Edwin at the three Roses in Ludgate-street 1679. THE Establisht Test WHAT a Tempest should we have had if this Black Italian Cloud had broken over our Heads Never was Hurricane so double charged with Death and Destruction It would certainly have Rain'd Fire and Faggots and all Instruments of Cruelty upon the Innocent Heads of Poor Protestants But GOD have the Praise That we are in hopes to see it not only Blow over but that the Storm is likely to fall upon the Heads that raised it Some of these treacherous Dealers who have dealt so very treacherously with us are already fallen into the Pit which they had digged for Others and are ensnared in the mischievous Works of their own Hands and it is to be hoped for the Rest That their violent dealing will fall upon their own Heads for He who is Truth it self in whom we trust whose we are and whom we serve has assured us That Wicked and Bloodthirsty Men shall not live out half their Dayes for he who is the God of all Mercy abhors the cruel and decoitful Man In a Concern of so common and universal Nearness I cannot conceive any Person so little or inconsiderable in a Nation but since he must participate and have a share in the common Happiness or Misfortunes that shall happen he must also have a Right if not a Duty to endeavor to do what service he can to the Publique Every Mans Oar may and ought to be in the Boat to preserve her from sinking and though possibly I may value my endeavors in this little Scrole as cheap as any can desire yet the good Intention of it being the only thing that can give it a Recommendation that may also procure it Pardon and if it be demanded why I write 't is answered Not to increase the Croud of Pamphlets which at such Times fly about the Streets like Chaff before the Wind so that one is obliged to take some Pains to find the Wheat which some able and industrious Hands have winnowed from the Dross but it is perfectly out of Charity and for the Information of such who will not be at a greater Charge than such a Trifle And therefore I do not pretend to Instruct the great Managers of the Affairs of State or to meddle with the Needle and Compass of the Publique Bottom 't is dangerous medling with the Helm of State even sometimes for the Publique Pilots I am no Dictator of Politicks or Pretender to give Unerring Rules for our future Settlement or present Security but a Plain Honest Well-meaning Englishman who heartily Honor my Prince Love my Church and Wish well to my fellow Subjects And to manifest that I am so I will endeavor in short to shew to those of my own Sphere the common Danger under which we lie whil'st we are infested with these concealled Semenaries and Jesuites the probable Way to Detect and Discover them notwithstanding their Protean Faculties of Dissimulation Perjury and Putting on so many Shapes and the great Interest that every Man has to do his utmost to clear the Nation of such Secret Scorpions as Poyson both Mens Souls and Bodies It is in vain for us to hope to be free from Earthquakes and Convulsions of State so long as these Men of Tempestuous Principles are continually making their Fireworks in our very Intrals the Papacy is fitly resembled by the dreadful Aetna or Vesuvius which take Trace sometimes with the neighbouring Plains for many Years but when the sulphurious Mass of their Intrals is recruited then do they break out in horrid Flames to the terror of the Country round for many Leagues which they ruine and cover with barren Pamites and Ashes thus will the Romanists when one of their Plots is dicovered and prevented give us a little breathing not out of any Charity to us or Remorse in their own Consciences but to make us more secure till another Design is ripe for Execution We have often through Gods goodness escaped their treacherous Mines even when they were ready to Play but who is able to say We shall always be saved by Miracles if the Red Sea be divided for our sakes we must walk through it if we will escape to a Shoar or Safety something we must do and endeavor to promote our own Peace Safety and Security It cannot be doubted but the Roman Dragon has been and ever will be industrious and vigilant to regain this Hesperian Garden of England which in times past was wont to yield him such Plenty of Golden Fruit that one of the Popes was used to say That England was Putens inexhaustus A Spring of Treasure which could never be drawn dry and if the Italian Gulph which they Term the Apostolick Chamber could not do it he had some reason to say as he did We need not give our selves much pain to trace this Leviathan the crooked Serpent in all his windings and turnings by which he has endeavour'd to wrap and embrace us again in his painted but mortal Folds There has past no Princes Reign since the Reformation but what has been plagued with the pernicious Counsels or mischeivous Stratagems of these Sons of Matchiavel and they have all ways been endeavouring either by open Cruelty or secret Conspiracies to re-establish the Roman Tyranny among us To these inveterate Enemies of our Peace were our Ancestors obliged for all the Treasons and the Wars of Queen Elizabeths Reign Catena who writ the Life of Pope Pius the Fifth gives a full Narrative of the secret Counsels of that Pope and the King of Spain and attributes all those consequent Troubles in England and Ireland to the warm Zeal of that Pope to restore us to the Catholique Faith To these we owe that most barbarous hellish and detestable Design of the Gunpowder Treason in the beginning of King James his Reign over England But that upon which they had grounded so much confidence and which they intended should be one deciding Blow for all proving an Abortive Monster and the long-fancied Monarchy of the West to which the ambitious Spaniard had made so many years court in vain coming to decline into a mighty Nothing and that Nation having little left of all their aspiring Graspings after Empire besides the Pride that too commonly attends it there was a necessity of changing the measures of their Policy For Spain being by the help of the Inquisition the Cruelties of the Duke d' Alva and the Assistance of the English dismembred of so great a Strength as the seven Maritine Provinces of the Neatherlands and the fatal Eighty Eight having clipt her
clear and evident than this That from the subtil Practices of the Jesuites those Diversities in Opinion and Differences in Practice among Protestants received their Encouragement if not their Rise and Original and while every new Sect pretended still to out-do others in the Purity of Reformation and a further escape from the Superstition of the Romish Babylon they were all made Instrumental to undo the Protestant Religion and a thorough Reformation became the Apple of Contention between the Prince and the People the King was accused of favouring Popery and designing to introduce it and with it Arbitrary Tyranny the Natural Child of that Religion because he would not comply with the Zealous Fury of some Popular Spirits to throw down the Hierarchy of the Church which is one of the Fundamental Pillars of our Government The other by their disobedience to the known and Establisht Laws of Church and State became guilty of Disloyalty and were not without just cause suspected of Dangerous and Treasonable Designs against the Royal Person and Government which they did endeavour to conceal under the specious pretences and taking shews of Zeal against Popery and eager forwardness to promote the pretended Reformation Thus did these subtile Foxes like Sampsons while their Heads lookt several ways carry those Firebrands between their Tails with which they set us all at last into a Flame continually fanning with their pestilent Breath those Jealousies and mutual Animosities between the Soveraign and his Subjects till they had reduced three of the most potent and flourishing Kingdoms in Europe into Ashes and had fill'd us with Blood and Confusion Thus far they had succeeded in their Enterprise that they had absolutely ruin'd the Monarchy and pull'd down the old Cathedral without Establishing or so much as ever intending so far as any body could conjecture any Church at all and while in Policy they tolerated all Religions they fairly opened a way for us to have none at all and which was the thing the Jesuites aimed at to work us from our own Divisions to destroy one another and at last either by Force or Policy to reduce us to the Vnity of the Roman Church And doubtless they were in hopes in a little time to have accomplished this great Design when unexpected Providence what by the Peoples general weariness of the Tyranny of those many Governments and by the Loyalty of the Remainders of the Church of England whom no Cruelty nor Oppression could remove from their firm Principles of Allegiance brought back with the general Joy of the People their long Desire our Banished Soveraign Restoring Him miraculously to a Peaceful Throne and with Him Restoring to these Languishing Nations their Antient Government and Laws their long-wanted Liberty and Religion Now were the Roman Conspirators at a loss again seeing their hopes defeated and their expectations gone and therefore encouraged by former Successes and Experience they begun to play their old Lessons over again and we had scarcely taken breath after our violent Revolutions when they began again to trouble our calm Waters that so they might fish with more advantage But by the Loyâ—lty of the Parliament and Vigilance of the Ministers of State that being like to prove a Work of too long time for Men of so much impatience and though they had made so great a progress as to raise some Disorders in Scotland for which two of them were under the disguise of Presbyterians executed there yet the generality of the English were too sensible of the goodness of their present Condition and sufficiently instructed in the Calamities of a late Civil War to enter into a second and above all this great City manifesting upon all occasions great Testimonies of their Loyalty and Fidelity to His Majesty and the Government they were forced upon new and more precipitate Counsels How they have managed their Affairs and with what cruelty they had laid their Designs is by the Goodness of God already in a great measure and it is to be hoped will be fully discovered it was in short a Design against His Majesties Sacred Person and the Government our Laws Lives Liberties and the Protestant Religion a Design as universally laid as it was to have been tragically executed The present Race of our Kings were either to have been wholly extirpated or become vile Tributaries to the Triple Mitre One would think it impossible that such barbarous and savage Actions should proceed from any of Human Race or that there would be found any who have so far lost the Native Generosity of Englishmen which in the Times of the Papal Monarchy durst bid defiance to his Encroachments as to prostitute the Imperial Crown of these Realms to Vassallage and Slavery A stolen smile will part from me to think how all this while these Purblind Conspirators could not see how short an Enjoyment they and their great Three Crown'd Master must have had of the bloody Spoils of England There is a certain great Neighbor of theirs who has told a Pope That he does not value his * Witness the Column erected at Rome in disgrace of the Pope for a Petty Affâ—ont offered his Ambassador tâ—ere Holiness at a Farthing and who would certainly have made the Moral of old Aesop's Fable good upon them the Lion Fox and Bear had made a Hunting Match the Fox and Bear Subtilty and Cruelty took the Prey but the Lyon as most powerful challenged it wholly for himself and had it without a Murmur from his fellow Hunters who were glad at that rate to compound with his armed Paws for the security of their own Skins I canot believe but that the whole World will entertain this discovery with Horror and though the Jesuits will with the greatest Effrontery deny or mitigate it yet certainly their Religion will receive the Blow which they intended for ours for who that is not resolved to quit Humâ—nity it self can believe that Religion to be true which is to be propagated with Treasons Murders of the most Purple-dye violation of all that is Sacred in Human Society Law Justice Equity the most Solemn Oaths Promises and Covenants Who can believe the Pope the Successor of St. Peter in Faith and Doctrine when he shall under his most Authentique Hand and Seal Absolve the Subjects of any Prince from their Natural Civil and Religious Allegeance to their Lawful Soveraign when he shall grant Pardons to whosoever shall Murder him and dispence with all the Oaths that have been or can be taken to secure the Royal Person or the Government by Law established Nero that Monster of Nature from whom he claims a Succession at least of Practice set Rome on fire slew his Friends made Cruelty his divertisement and became a Parricide out of Curiosity Ripping up his Mothers Belly that he might see the Nest that had brought that Viper into the World Flaming London is a witness that the second Rome can equal if not exceed the First and the Pope scorns to
her self and repair to the Church and continue there during the time of Divine Service according to the Laws and Statutes in that behalf made and provided shall within the first Year next after the end of this Session of Parliament or within the first year after that he or she shall after this Session of Parliament so conform him or her self and repair to the Church as aforesaid and after the first Year once in every Year at the least receive the blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper in the Church of that parish where he or she shall most usually abide or be within the said Year wherein by the true meaning of this Statue he or she ought to receive And if there be no such parish Church then in the Church next adjoyning to the place of his or her most usual abode The forfeiture for the first year twenty pounds for the second Year forty pounds and for every Year after threescore pounds And the Officers are therein by rewards incouraged to present the Monthly absence of all Recusants from the Church and for default of performing their duty are to be fined as in the Statute more largly appears Were this Statute with a little variation fitted for our Circumstances and duly put in Execution it would be impossible but that all Recusants must in a small time be detected and by consequence those dangerous Jesuits and Seminaries whose whole design is to contrive plot and execute their horrible Treasons against both Church and State and unless people can be brought to comply with their own Interest as well as duty the Excellent Method of that Law will be wholly impracticable and it will be impossible to effect or attain the end for which it was so wisely intended for so long as such numbers of people who call themselves Protestants shall wilfully absent themselves from their Parish Churches under the shew of Religion and by their Example so many who have no Religion at all but perfectly out of Idleness looseness and debauchery shall stay at home or do worse abroad these Traytors and Conspirators will expect and find Security by pretending to be dissenters and so long as there are so many who never regard any Laws of God or Men Civil or Ecclesiastical which enjoyn them to receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper these will also pass undiscovered among the throng for it is all one to a Jesuit whether he pass for a separatist Libertine or Atheist so long as he believes himself a good Catholique and so long as thereby he has the opportunity of concealment and thereby to prosecute the main Affair of propagating the Popish interest and Religion by the Ruine of Protestants and Protestant Religion And therefore in the second place I wish that all people would seriously reflect with themselves at whose door the guilt will lie if by their means mischief either publick or private overtake us If the glorious Light of the Gospel the Lamp of Eternal Truth should come to be extinguished by the Superstitious darkness of Rome if by the Subversion of England the whole Protestant Cause should suffer and be ruin'd as in all probability if that Bullwork were blown up it must or however suffer a persecution as Sharp and cruel as all those ten of the Primitive ages put together the Pagans being nothing so ingenious and wittily Cruel as the Jesuits if Millions of souls should by a false Religion come to perish Everlastingly if our streets and fields should blush with the blood of Massacred Protestants our houses be reduced to ashes and our miserable posterity with such as should survive the Common Rage and desolation should be made and sold for bondslaves certainly there must be a strict account given to Almighty God by whose default all this came to pass he gives us the means of securing our selves and if we neglect the fault and guilt will be wholly theirs who do obstruct it our blood will be upon their heads who hear the Trumpet and see the Sword coming and are so far from taking or giving the All-arm that they joyn with ours and their own Enemies if they be not secret Papists and put a Sword into their hands to slay us when God to whom vengeance belongs shall make Inquisition for blood he will not forget the cry of the poor he will not forget those who have been the occasions no more then those who were the Actors of cruelty and how it is possible for those who obstruct the discovery of Popish Priests and Jesuits not to be in the sight of God and men guilty of all the Miseries and mischiefs which may be occasioned by their concealment I must protest my self to be utterly ignorant If there can be found any persons so incredulous as not to be apprehensive of these dangers from them and who may that way think to evade the necessity that lies upon them to contribute their utmost towards this Discovery I will in short endeavour to convince them from Former Examples Let the horrible Massacre in France be remembred in which according to the Relation even of Popish Historians there perished near a hundred thousand Protestants of all Ages Sexes and Conditions among which twenty Lords of Eminency twelve hundred Gentlemen persons of great Condition in the City of Paris besides what fell in other places The subtile Contrivance and deep dissimulation with which it was managed and the Exquisite and ingenious Cruelty with which it was Executed may sufficiently Instruct us what we are to trust to from such Murderers as glory in what is the shame and reproach of humane Nature and render the most propitious and merciful Divinity a cruel and sanguinary Being while they pretend to please and do him acceptable service by such bloody sacrifices as even heathens generally by the light of mere nature thought he abhorred and who encourage one another in mischief as if the Heavenly Paradice were an Aceldama and to be purchac'd with the price of blood making such actions of â—orror and Cruelty as even exceed belief meritorious performances capable to enrol them in the Catalogue of their Calender Saints though we know none shall ascend the holy Hill but they who have clean hands as well as a pure heart If this were not sufficient to convince us at the expence of our neighbours that which comes nearer to us is the Rebellion and Massacre of the English Protestants in Ireland the fatal Flambeau which kindled our English Flames the Cruelties which were then exercised are beyond Expression and belief three hundred thousand souls perished by most cruel deaths according to computation and God onely knows how many more who could never be brought into account and both in this and the Parisian Massacre how many of those who escaped the barbarous Rage of these merciless Butchers perished afterwards with cold hunger nakedness and all the hardships that attend the miserable Condition to which they were exposed Whither to fly they knew not
but generally to the Woods and Forrests nor there how to supply the necessities of Nature having nothing left them but their lives and no way of securing those long from the importunities of Cold and Famine thus did they languish out a few miserable hours till faint and weary they became a prey to the Wolves or fell into the paws of the Tories the less merciful beasts of the two How many mournful and desolate Widows how many distressed and miserable Orphans were then exposed to all the miseries of lifâ— before they knew what it was to live and compelled to suffer all Extremities before they had done good or evil Oh Injustice and uncomiserating Cruelty Oh more then brutish Inhumanity And if the Romish Religion command encourage and reward such execrable barbarity to be exercised upon the Innocent what kind of Revenge can we imagine will they nor invent for those who dare oppose them what torments what lingring and retail deaths would they think enough for such grand Heretiques as have slain their Apostles whom they have employed to convert us to the Catholique Faith Suetonius reports of Tiberius Caesar one of the Popes predecessors in the Roman throne that he was a person so extraordinary cruel that when a condemned person made it his importunate request that he might be dispatched quickly he gave him this bitter Sarcasm in answer Nondum tecum redii in grâ—tiam No Sir by your favour you and I are not yet come to be such good friends Certainly not onely Romulus but Rome her self her Kings Emperors and Popes have been nursed by Wolves for sure the breasts of any thing that has humane shape must instill sentiments more tender and compassionate There is not the most guilty head that shall suffer deserved Death for this Execrable Conspiracy but will be esteemed a Saint and Martyr in the Romish Church Their great St. Thomas of Canterbury so famous for his Shrine and Miracles and the infamous Prayers made to him as a Rival of the Son of God who was by the account we have of Him in our History as ungrateful a Rebel to his Prince as can be imagined may abundantly satisfie us in that particular and if ever they come to reckon with us for such precious blood it may be easily conjectur'd at what rate we must pay for those Canonizations let us be assured that a thousand fold would not be look'd upon as a Compensation for the lives of such as though we justly think Monsters they believe to be Miracles of men while they lived and would perswade their blind Votaries that their very shrines can do Miracles after their Death The Pope and his Ministers of Cruelty will never be so far reconciled to any Protestants that shall come within their power as to let them die at once but would be as gratious to them as Caligula another Heathen Pope or Emperor was to such as by his Tyranny were condemned to die and that as the Historian relates was that he was used to command them to be so executed ut se sentirent mori He would not have them lose their lives by Leger de main and a slight of hand but they must die by inches and be sensible of every slow degree of approaching death What pen can describe the terrible dresses of uncommon deaths which would be invented for us What tongue is able to express its ghastly shapes and the new fashion'd garments of Cruelty or the rage of prevailing Popery What heart can think of them and of suffering them without the extremest horror If death in his mildest and most natural appearance be so dreadful as to deserve the title of the most terrible of all Terribles what must he be when he is accompanied with all the Inventions of Tyranny Who that saw them or that heard the sad Relation can remember London in her raging Flames without astonishment who can think upon her dismal Ruines and ashes without amazement how did all faces gather blackness how were they pained what tremblings of heart at the flying Rumors of a Massacre then intended What horror Confusion and astonishment would lay hold upon us if we should see our Enemies break in upon us like an overflowing fire a fire devouring before them and behind them a flame burning the land as the Garden of Eden before them and behind them a desolate wilderness and no possibility of Escaping but they who fled from the fire must fall upon the glittering Sword they who escaped the drawn sword must perish by Famine and is it possible there should be any persons who will not contribute all they can to prevent these which are not only imaginary but real dangers Can it be look'd upon as a thing so indifferent that people should run all these hazzards that a whole Nation should lie at Stake and perish rather then they will abate a foolish scruple or a rigid opinion to preserve them rather then go to the places dedicated to the service of God and receive the holy Sacrament thereby to dec are their own Innocence and detect the Authors of our danger the Enemies of our Peace and Safety Sure it is much easier to kneel at the holy Table out of Reverence not adoration of the Bread and Wine then to have the choice either to kneel and adore a Consecrated Wafer or to kneel at a Stake in Smithfield Is it not far better to wash our hands in innocence and offer unto God the sacrifice of thanksgiving then to be guilty of the blood of so many as should suffer by our being accessory to the accomplishment of the Traiterous designs of the Jesuits and Sacrifice a Nation and many succeeding generations many people of other Nations to the Romish cruelty meerly out of obstinacy to our own prejudices and it may be Fancies which these very Jesuits and Seminaries have put in our heads Certainly all those who would not be thought and in the Eye of the Law Esteemed Recusants and Papists ought not to make the least scruple to use this or any other lawful and necessary expedient that shall by the publick Wisdom be thought necessary for our common preservation Nor will it be satisfactory that they shall in words disown the Church of Rome and declaim against it or disavow all Confederacy or Complotting with the Papists the arrantest Jesuit in England will do this upon occasion to save his own life and endanger ours and if they hinder the building up of the Walls of our Jerusalem what does it signifie how much they either say they do or hate the Church of Rome since whether they conspire with the Papists or not if they assist them in accomplishing their intended Design of Ruining the Protestant Religion it is the same thing only with this difference that what the one party does with Design the other does with their folly And though men should not value their Estates Lives or Liberties which some people seem willing to part with rather then