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
of that Government they had set up themselves and if we shall allow to the nature of the times those things which men seduced think necessary for their preservation why should it be a flat contradictory to say that at the same time they bare true Faith and Allegiance to the King not by desisting Pag. 60. from doing those things without which they could not subsist but by performing those eminent duties to which their Faith and Allegiance at all Times upon all Occasions and in all Conditions subject them That is not to pay the Fealty we owe him to any other Prince not to assist or countenance the doing of the least injury to his Person to forbear taking any Oath that tends to exclude him and his Posterity from his Dominions to fight against those that do and since we are unhappily fallen from our Obedience to return to our former state as soon as possibly we can and things of this nature 112. Certainly if this Gentleman be not extremely innocent he is very forgetful that holds so close to the Law And I assure him That to maintain the fundamental Laws of Pag. 60. the Kingdom and the free exercise of the Catholick Religion were in those times thought to be things very compatible however he takes them to be Contradictories 113. He aggravates the matter and so he might if we did forget the nature of the Times with their swearing not to seek or receive any pardon or protection for any thing done or to be done touching the general Cause But allowing not Pag. 61. the Legality but the Existence of their Government what could have preserved it without such tyes 114. This Gentleman is alwayes at a fault when his discourse tends any way to Catholick Religion Our Tenet is quite contrary for we know that we cannot receive nor the Pope give a pardon for sins to come Pag. 61. 115. Now we are come to that part which was added to the Oath in the Year 46. and he tells us they swear not to submit to any Peace made or to be made without the approbation of the general Assembly of the Catholicks Of aâ—l Pag. 61. the parts of the Oath this methinks ought least to be oppugned For it is no wonder that they should expect to have their own consent and approbation to attend any Peace that would be concluded they themselves being the most numerous Representative of the Nation Had they confined it to the supreme Council that in truth might be thought a limitation 116. But this Gentleman to aggravate their guilt makes use in my opinion of a very speculative Argument saying That if the King did not so much as name them but Pag. 61. make a Peace with them as if they had never done any offence they were debarred of it by this Oath And I desire to be informed how it might otherwise be known than by the consent and approbation of an Assembly that they accepted of such a Peace 117. I have already mentioned how the Assembly gave way to the Propositions made by the Clergy and had them confirmed by Oath being loath to displease so powerful a Party in a matter which was no longer binding than an Assembly thought fit And therefore this Gentleman may without Reply from me comment upon those Propositions as he thinks fit But with his leave he will not gather by any thing therein That none should be admitted to live in Pag. 61. Ireland but Papists The French King maintains the Catholick Clergy and Laity in the publick and free exercise of the Roman Catholick Religion and Function throughout France in as full lustre and splendour as it was in the Reign of St. Lewis yet he excludes not the Hugonotts 118. Had this Gentleman dealt fairly with the Reader he had not entertained him with Propositions which interested Pag. 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79. men do commonly make for their own advantage and his Comments upon them nor with Instructions which upon every occasion are subject to alteration and were given those that agitated the affairs in 46. which I hope he will not deny But he should have laid before him the Result and Conclusion in the Articles of Peace in 48. and told him what a numerous People the King was to satisfie who without excluding his Protestant Subjects might partake of his favours But this was not his design He knew nothing could be grateful to the Party he intended to pleasure but the foulest aspersions whether right or wrong that could be laid on those whose Estates they possess And we cannot say but he hath been faithful to them how unjust soever to Catholicks 119. Now passing over those things which the Gentleman Pag. 80. himself calls Digressions and indeed are no other than a methodical way oâ— venting his bitterness I shall present the Reader instead of those horrid Oaths as this Gentleman calls them those than which indeed no written wickedness can ascend higher with other Oaths that have been esteemed more religious Oaths taken by the Saints themselves Oaths taken by the Fautors of Cromwells Tyranny and the Well-wishers of his Kingship I A. B. Being nominated a Member of the Council of State The Form of an Expurgatory Oath taken by the Councâ—l of State Feb. 22. 1648. by this present Parliament do testifie that I do adhere to this present Parliament in the Maintenance and Defence of the publick Liberty and Freedom of this Nation as it is now declared by this Parliament by whose Authority I am constituted a Member of the said Council and in the Maintenance and Defence of their Resolutions concerning the setling of the Government of this Nation for the future in way of a Republick without King or House of Peers And I do promise in the sight of God that through his Grace I will be faithful in performance of the Trust committed to me as aforesaid and thâ—rein faithfully pursue the Instructions given to the said Council by this present Parliament and not to reveal or disclose any thing in whole or in part directly or indirectly that shall be debated or resolved upon in the Council without the command and direction of the Parliament or without the order or allowance of the major part of them that shall be present at such Debates or Resolutions In confirmation of the Premisses I have hereto subscribed my Name I A. B. Do hereby declare that I renounce the pretended Oath of Abjuration of the Kâ—ng and Royal Issue Title of Charles Stuart and the whole Line of the late King James and of every other Person as a single Person pretending to the Government of these Nations of England Scotland and Ireland and the Duminions and Territories thereunto belonging And that I will by the grace and assistance of Almighty God be true and faithful to this Common-wealth against any King single Person and House of Peers and
destruction of the English among them without any ground that may give the least colour to so foul a Crime to pass for probable in the judgement of an indifferent person That their Crimes are as numerous and as divers as are the Inventions of their Adversaries And because they cannot with freedom appear to justifie their Innocence all the Fictions and Allegations against them are received as undoubted Verities and which is yet more mischievous the Laity upon whose Conscieâ—ceâ— the Character of Priesthood gives them an influence â—uffer under all the Crimes thus falsly imputed to them it being their Adversaries principal design that the Irish whose Estate they enjoy should be reputed persons unfit and no way worthy any title to your Majesties mercy That no Wood comes amiss to make Arrows for their destruction for as if the Roman Catholick Clergy whom they esteem most Criminal were or ought to be a Society so perfect as no evill no indiscreet person should be found amongst them they are all of them generally cryed down for any Crime whether true or feigned which is imputed to one of them and as if no words could be spoken no Letter written but with the common consent of all of them the whole Clergy must suffer for that which is laid to the charge of any particular person amongst them We know what Odium all the Catholick Clergy lyes under by reason of the Calumnies with which our Tenents in Religion and our dependance upon the Popes Authority are aspers'd And we humbly beg your Majesties pardon to vindicate both by the ensuing Protestation which we make in the sight of Heaven and in the presence of your Majesty sincerely and truly without Equivocation or mental Reservation We do acknowledge and confess your Majesty to be our true and lawful King supreme Lord and rightful Soveraign of this Realm of Ireland and of all other your Majesties Dominions And therefore we acknowledge and confess our selves to be obliged under pain of sin to obey your Majesty in all Civil and Temporal Affairs as much as any other of your Majesties Subjects and as the Laws and Rules of Government in this Kingdom do require at our hands And that notwithstanding any power or pretension of the Pope or See of Rome or any Sentence or Declaration of what kind or quality soever given or to be given by the Pope his Predecessors or Successors or by any Authority Spiritual or Temporal proceeding or derived from him or his See against your Majesty or Royal Authority We will still acknowledge and perform to the uttermost of our abilities our faithful Loyalty and true Allegiance to your Majesty And we openly disclaim and renounce all forein power be it either Papal or Princely Spiritual or Temporal in as much as it may seem able or shall pretend to free discharge or absolve us from this Obligation or shall any way give us leave or licence to raise Tumults bear Armes or offer any violence to your Majesties Person Royal Authority or to the State or Government Being all of â—s ready not only to discover and make known to your Majesty and to your Ministers all the Treasons made against your Majesty or them which shall come to our hearing but also to lose our lives in the defence of your Majesties Person and Royal Authority and to resist with our best endeavours all Conspiracies and Attempts against your Majesty be they framed or sent under what pretence or patronized by what forein Power or Authority soever And further we profess that all absolute Princes and supreme Governours of what Religion soever they be are Gods Lieutenants on Earth and that Obedience is due to them according to the Laws of each Common wealth respectively in all Civil and Temporal Affairs And therefore we do here protest against all Doctrine and Authority to the contrary And we do hold it impious and against the Word of God to maintain that any private Subject may kill or murther the Aunointed of God his Prince though of a different Belief and Religion from his And we abhorr and detest the practice thereof as damnable and wicked These being the Tenents of our Religion in point of Loyalty and Submission to your Majesties Commands and our dependence of the See of Rome no way intrenching upon that perfect Obedience which by our Birth by all Laws Divine and Humane we are bound to pay to your Majesty our natural and lawful Soveraign We humbly beg prostrate at your Majesties feet that you would be pleased to protect us from the severe persecution we suffer meerly for our profession in Religion leaving those that are or hereafâ—er shall be guilty of other Crimes and there have been such in all times as well by their Pens as by their Actions to the punishment prescribed by the Law Fr. Oliver Darcy Bishop of Dromore Fr. George Dillon of S. Francis Ord. Guardian of the Irish Franciscans at Paris Fr. Philip Roch of S. Fran. Ord. Reader General of Divinity Fr. Anthony Gearnon of S. Fran. Ord. one of Her Majesties the Queen Mothers Chaplains Fr. John Everard of S. Francis Order Conf. and Preach Fr. Anthony Nash of S. Fran. Ord. Conf. and Preacher Fr. William Linch of S. Fran. Ord. Conf. Fr. Nicholas Sall of S. Fran. Ord. Conf. and Preach James Cusack Doctor of Divinity Cornelius Fogorty Protonot Apost and Doctor of the Civil and Canon Law Fr. Henry Gibon of S. Aug. Ord. and Conf. Preac Daniel Dougan Divine Fr. Redmond Moore of S. Dom. Ord. Conf. and Preac Bartholomew Bellew Dennis Fitz Ranna Bartholomew Flemming Fr. Peter Walsh of S. Fran. Ord. Reader of Divinity and Procuratour of the Rom. Cath. Clerg both Sec. and Reg. of Ireland Fr. Redmond Caron of S. Fran. Ord. Reader Jubilate of Divinity Fr. Simon Wafre of the same Order Reader of Divinity Fr. James Caverly of S. Fran. Ord. Conf. and Preac Fr. John Fitz Gerald of S. Fran. Ord. Conf. and Preac Fr. Theobald Burk of S. Fran. Ord. Conf. and Preac Fr. Matthew Duff of S. Fran. Ord. Conf. and Preac Fr. Peter Goghegan of S. Fran. Ord. Conf. and Preacher To the Kings most Excellent Majesty The faithful Protestation and humble Remonstrance of the Roman Catholick Nobility and Gentry of Ireland YOur Majesties faithful Subjects the Roman Catholick Nobility and Gentry of your Majesties Kingdom of Ireland out of a deep sense of those prodigious Afflictions under which the Monarchy of Great Britain has before your Majesties happy Restauration groaned these twenty years And out of our sad thoughts which daily bring more and more sight from our breasts and tears from our eyes for not only the still and yet continued miseries and sufferings of the Catholick Natives of that our unfortunate Country even amidst and ever since the so much famed joyes and triumphs of your sacred Majesties most auspicious Inauguration but also of the Causes whereunto we have made the most narrow search we could of these our own unparallel'd
murthers and be they as numerous too as he will have them committed by a very few of the rude rabble amongst the Irish are not only not unparalleld in Histories of former ages and Pag. 93. other Countries and by very many instances but not even in the History of our own days or that of England since the prodigious murther committed on the Scaffold at Whitehall by those that shaked hands all along with this Gentleman's Clyents And that all those Irish murthers even quintessenced into one have been unquestionably not so little hainous comparatively as parallel'd but even as overparallel'd by that only one yea had the Actors in it committed no more as yet they are known to have ten thousand before and after And I must affirm that although it be confessedly true that no zeal in Religion can apologize for the sins either Personal or National of my Countrymen as neither if not rather much less for those yet more hideous and more abominable crimes of some of this Person of Quality's Brethren yet both he and I too if Christians if rational men cannot but affirm also That a Godly repentance with all due circumstances of it according to the Religion and Faith of God taught us in the Word of God may for the time to come hinder the effects of Gods Justice on my Countrymen even those very effects which this Person of Quality wisheth from his very Soul I am sure that no Pag. 93. godliness may hinder and which he no less positively denounces than if he had the mercy of God in his power and the knowledge of Gods decrees or of all future contingencies reveal'd to him But he is neither a Prophet nor the Son of a Prophet if I may guess And what ever he be 't is like he hath neither the Mercy nor the Justice and power of God at his devotion more nor the knowledge of Gods eternal or temporary pleasure concerning my Countrymen more certainly revealed to him than the Prophet Jonas had all of them together in relation to the Ninivites And therefore notwithstanding this Gentleman's prediction here of or against the Irish be so positive so absolute an assertion of the effects of Gods Justice to fall upon them hereafter viz. in his conception and according to his affection the loss of all their Lands for ever and the transplanting of them all from one end of the borders of Egypt to the other end thereof as presently you shall see in his Conclusion yet he must grant me that this prediction of his can be no more infallible than that of Jonas Adhuc quadraginta dies Ninive Jon. 3 Ch. V. 4. subvertetur yet forty dayes and Ninive shall be overthrown And we know this prediction of Jonas the very Prophet of God yea preached by the very command of God himself was notwithstanding falsified and Ninive saved then from V. 7 8 9 10. any such or other Judgement threatned by the Prophet because the Ninivites humbled themselves truly before God and with faith and hope cryed unto him for mercy And I believe my Countrymen may imitate them and hope they will As for his occasional assertion That to do evil that good Pag. 93. may come of it may be the Doctrine of Rome no Romanist I am certain will ever allow Nor can he charge any of all their Communion with that wicked Maxim in any kind of sense that may not be returned on himself again with very much disadvantage to his party For if he say for example that some Papist writers teach that Subjects may rebel against the Soveraign power to the end that Religion may be restored or preserved and therefore teach to doe evil that good may come of it Rebellion questionless being a very great evil in it self and true Religion as great a good I would fain know whether his own Religious Clients have not in a thousand Pamphlets and ten thousand Pulpits and for 20. years compleat maintained that un-catholick wicked sinful Position against the Laws of God Nâ—tâ—ral and Positive and against the Laws of Man Civil and Ecclesiastical And whether they have not all that while taught all of them and practiced too a most impious Rebellion partly to introduce the very worst Religion in the World and partly to have none at all Nay whether they have not taught and practiced also that infernal Doctrine of meer design first to ruine Monarchy and then Prelacy and after these Magistracy and Ministery both in general could they drive on their design and so devour the Tythes and then pull down the Steeple-houses for so the Saints did name all Churches and in a word set Hell wide open upon the face of the Earth and make themselves the sole Masters of it yea absolute Lords of all the good things in it of all other mens fortunes and lives too and at their own pleasure wash their hands in the blood of the wicked as they term all honest men because not of their cabal And if this Doctrine and this Practice be not incomparably worse than that which though wickedly teacheth by word or example to do evill that good may come of it nay if it lead not by the hand to do many great evills that many other yet farr greater yea all imaginable evills in the world may follow I understand nothing at all by this word evill But if such Diabolical Maxims and Practices flow naturally from the Doctrine of Geneva Rome needs not blush hereafter not even for the most unchristian Maxims charg'd hitherto though falsely upon her And since by the fruit the tree is best known what will our Person of Quality think of his own tree that bears abundance continually of so evill so deadly poysonous fruit Or will not he think of it as our Saviour did foretelling in general what would become of all such Omnis arbor quae non facit fructum bonum excidetur Mat. 7. in ignem mittetur Math. 7. Nay will not he think that if by our Saviours prediction or judgement Every tree that bears not good fruit shall be cut down and thrown into the fire those that bear so evill even the most evill fruit conceiveable are by the jâ—stice of God reserved for such a fire as ever shall burn and never consume throughly but alwayes reserve them for new punishment unless they timely change their Nature and receive Siens of Grace inoculated on the old wicked stock 171. Albeit I have no cause to quarrel at the first part of this Gentleman's Conclusion of his Book or of his concluding Wish That his Grace the Duke of Ormond may be as another Pag. 93. Joseph to his Brethren being it is and was my own Wish in the perclose of that Letter so diligently commented upon by this Person of Quality and so just and so good a Wish too as by his confession drew the hearts of the Protestants of Ireland to close with desiring that his Grace may
first Dilemma there and boldly say that I writ that Letter out of very much respect to his Grace and out Pag. 2. of no less respect did print it and that you determine likewise whether my light in the Triangle acknowledged in that very Letter to be such that it cannot be extinguished give any ground to this Gentleman 's fond conception of P. W's despairing to receive from his Grace the effects of his not unjust as this Person of Quality speaks but very just desires for his Countrymen Or of P. W's choosing this way to acquaint them 't was not for want of his sollicitation and to let them see since he could not make them beholding to my Lord Lieutenant Pag. 2. that they were so to him But I freely pardon the Gentleman's erronious conjecture all along of my despair or of my design being the Holy Week and the Ceremony of Tenebrae and the Triangle and the only Light remaining unextinguished which yet he might have seen in that Letter seem to be Mysteries wherewith he is not so well acquainted as to understand thereby a hope remaining still in P. W. and surmounting at last all the despair of others Et nunc tempus Equum spumantia solvere colla Virgil. And I will say no more but that we have heard from a Person of Quality Reproaches which by the number of them seek to make up their want of truth And have seen Wit made the Slave of Malice and the foulest obloquies put into a formal dress and have beheld the degrees of Crimes inverted and while the more hainous pass with impunity the lesser offences condemned to the chastisement due to those of the first rank And have likewise heard good intentions alleged to justifie murthers rapines desolation and standing in Arms against the King And have finally observed that self-interest and complying with a prevailing party hath managed a very elaborate discourse to the worst end a man by writing could propose to himself which is to deceive his Reader and that nothing would be wanting to compleat the Iniquity of the Design but to find out that this Unknown Author was a Person who had the experience of more guilt in himself than he imposed upon others AN APPENDIX LONG after this Reply had been finished I heard some other Persons of great Quality and Persons too whom I very much esteem defend by way of Argument that the King is not bound at all to perform the Articles of 48. not even to any part or as much as to one individual Person of the former Confederates of Ireland I mean the Roman Catholicks And because these Persons of Quality and whom I otherwise hold to be really Men of Honour and Conscience did not then nor for ought I know could then or at any other time before or after since the very first time the Case was clearly disputed before his Majesty and so many printed Papers and Books came out on both sides allege other Argument to justifie this Assertion against the unfortunate Irish but only a Paper found as written by Sir Nicholas Plunket which might have imported a precedent or designed Resolution of breaking that Peace of 48. And because this is a clear mistake and to shew evidently that it is I give here at large a true and perfect account of that Paper And beseech the impartial Reader as likewise those Persoâ—â— of Honour and Conscience to consider how diâ—â—onourable before Men how sinful and dangerous in the sight of God their advice is hath been and shall be yet further if which God forbid they chance to continue it to his Majesty for not performing those Articles to any part of the said Confederates though ever since unalterably of their part observing those very Articles For by the ensuing relation it will appear that Paper whether rough draught only or not whether signed or not was not in order to or at the time of the peace of 48. written or any way relating to this Peace but verily to the former Peace of 46. as written before this very Peace of 46. was concluded For in the Year 1646. when the then Confederate Catholicks of Ireland treated of a Peace with his late Majesties Authority placed in the Duke of Ormond then Lord Lieutenant of that Kingdom there appeared much difficulty in bringing that Treaty to a Conclusion in regard the said Confederate Catholicks proposed for more advantagious Conditions in Religion than those they could obtain upon that Treaty Whereupon the Earl of Glamorgan being then in Ireland for carrying on the Conclusion of a Peace with a general concurrence to the furtherance of his late Majesties service did declare unto the then Council of the said Confederate Catholicks that he had power from his said late Majesty to grant unto them such Conditions in Religion as they might reasonably expect Pursuant to which Articles were agreed on between the said Earl of Glamorgan and the Counci◠〈◊〉 the said Consederate Catholicks in order to their satisfaction in matters of Religion But those Articles were to be secret for a time to avoid the prejudice that the then publishing thereof might bring on his Majesties service The observance of which secresie in those Articles and the publishing of the other Articles between the Lord Lieutenant and the said Catholicks made some to doubt that the said secret Articles would be unsecure For by the publishing of the said other Articles all Persons must have returned to their former obedience and the Lord Lieutenant neither knowing or owning the said secret Articles there could be little hopes of the performance of them Which Reason induced those who were acquainted with the said secret Articles to bethink themselves of some expedient to render them more secure And thereupon it was concluded upon the request of some of the Clergy that a motion might also be in the general Assembly of the Confederate Catholicks for an Order to reassume their former Union if the Articles concluded on were not performed without mentioning the particulars or matters contained in such Articles Which was done accordingly and the Order was drawn up in general terms that might comprehend the said secret Articles without discovering any thing of the matters therein contained or the Party with whom these Articles were concluded After which it happened that the Arch-bishop of Tuam to whose custody the said secret Articles were intrusted was killed in the County of Sligo and those Articles found with him were by that means discovered and made publick and thereupon the Earl of Glamorgan was imprisoned at Dublin for his proceedings in that Matter and the first Peace concluded in the said Year 1646. became useless to his Majesty and to his Subjects And yet the rough draught of the said Order as all other the Papers of the Irish Confederate Catholicks coming to the hands of the late Usurped Powers it hath been on some Debates since his Majesties Restauration objected that the Contents of that rough