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
the Law when upon just cause they do desire it And it is further my Lord that I plead yet more particularly for a People who are sufficiently known to have preserved and our of their natural affection to the true English Interest and self-preservation by that Interest and out of a Conscience too of their obligation by all the Laws of God and Man to be loyal Sbjects to his most sacred Majesty who only is the supreme and most proper Judge of that Interest to have so preserved the Kingdom of Ireland in the late Wars from being alienated from the Crown of England and from his Majesty to a powerful Foreiner and whose Ancestors in Tirones Rebellion against Queen Elizabeth and in so many preceding Revolutions during the fatal Divisions of Lancaster and York under Henry the 6. and in the Barons Wars in King John's Reign as likewise in all other occasions which have been but too frequent since the first Conquest by Henry the Second are famous in Chronicles for having mantain'd and commonly at their own private charges and their own private hazard alone the very same true English Interest in that Nation But if notwithstanding two such weighty considerations besides those many other given your Grace not in this Work only but also in my two former Addresses the Catholicks of Ireland must be eternally miserable and if it be so decreed that these poor People must be utterly destroyed and at this time too and by the very impression of King Charles's the no less Just than Merciful's Royal Hand and Seal and by the very concurrence of the Duke of Ormond and as well by occasion of their most loyal endeavours or of having fought constantly for so many years while any fighting was in any of the three Kingdoms for his Majesty as upon account of those other which they have long since reâ—entantly acknowledg'd to have been illegal in the beginning or prosecution of the Irish War by any of them untill his Majesty had by Articles of Peace graciously own'd them all for dutiful Subjects Or if it be so decreed that the poor Catholick Party of Ireland must be the Scape-Goat of Leviticus devoted to all the Vengeance Levit. 16. both of Heaven and Earth and that upon the unlucky head of this caytiff beast and even by the imposition of Aarons's hands at the door of the Tabernacle before and in the name of the whole Congregation of God's chosen People of the British Empire all their own sins and all their own transgressions must be laid and all the maledictions and imprecations of punishment which their own iniquities or those of any of them at any time deserved to bring upon themselves if I say this devoted sin-offering must be loaden so and with so much ceremony sent away and by a man of opportunity led along to the Wilderness to a Land not inhabited and if all this appear just and fit in your eyes to be accomplish'd in his Majesties Catholick Subjects of Ireland may the good pleasure of God and will of the King be done And may the rest of his People of so many different Nations Religions and Interests enjoy all the blessings of a prosperous Peace under the shadow of his Wings and protection of his Laws and Armes Which my Lord and that your Grace may however determine of this great Affair by those Rules of heavenly Knowledge which cannot err and which God alone can sufficiently instruct you with shall be the continual Prayer of My Lord Your Graces most humble most obsequious and most faithful Servant THE PUBLISHER's BRIEF Advertisement To the READER HAving read above two years and a half since a Book first Printed in Dublin without the Author's Name otherwise expressed than by that of a Person of Quality and the same Piece after of another Edition at London with the Frontispiece or Title-Page twice changed but into farr worse every time with that Person of Quality's Titles prefixed and the Gentleman's Name likewise 'gainst whose Letter he writ and by perusal of it having sadly considered the eternal Infamy this Person of Quality would have left to after Ages affixed to the memory of the Catholick Confederates and People of Ireland who profess the Roman Faith and no less the general destruction of all those poor unfortunate Confederates and People designed by him if his advice prevail I could not after some months more had pass'd but admire the supine carelessness of all my Countrymen at home that none of them would undertake the pains of replying to him and speak in Print those known clear Truths both against his manifest falsities and manifold fallacies which I have so often heard by word of mouth from very knowing and sincere Gentlemen of that Country who were privy to all the Transactions there since 41. Which was the reason together with that resentment every good Patriot should have I writ to my Friends in Ireland and such as were likelyest to know whether any one had thought of a Reply or whether they all did give the Person of Quality's Answer for un-answerable At last after much enquiry and pains taken in this Business and some Charges too it pleased God I should receive a Manuscript Copy of this you have here And though I know not the Author but by report nor understand the reason why he would not do his Country right in appeasing this strom which had been raised to so great a height by occasion partly of his own former Writings in behalf of his distressed Countrymen albeit that could be no just occasion either for this Person of Quality or the Man in the Dark in England who writ formerly against him The Irish Colours displayed and whom P. W. did soon after and ever since put to silence by his former Reply entitled The Irish Colours solded nor even for any other to write against P. W's Countrymen or himself yet I found my self obliged to do both the Author and his Country the kindness to publish to the World in Print and with all sincerity without any corruption or the least alteration that very Manuscript as it came to my hands boping the Author will take this my kindness in good part for I am sure my Country will since it doth all Irish Catholicks that right than which scarce ought any thing be more desirable to men that regard their honour and reputation Bâ—sides the Demonstrations are so clear in point of Conscience Equity Honour and even Interest of His Majesty and the English Nation which P. W. gives all along in this Piece where occasion requires it against our Person of Quality's inhumane Counsells given throughout his Answer to the Duke of Ormond and even to His Majesty that Providence I hope will make some use of this Reply by some means or other to let His Grace the Duke of Ormond and by His Grace our most gracious King see through this cruel Design of our Person of Quality's advice for destroying the Irish
Nation generally what he would be finally at I have no more to advertise thee Reader but that if there be any Mistakes or Errours in some few Words peradventure they are mine though not willful or they are the Printer's Errata And that you are to observe all along the Author cites the first Edition of the Person of Quality's Book at Dublin not any of the after Impressions at London which vary in the number of Pages from that P. W's REPLY TO THE PERSON of QVALITY's ANSWER 1. IT is not that I contend or that I can raonally hope to be allowed to speak last when the Pens of obscure men in Engand and of men Quality in Ireland are set on work to persecute my Letter to the Duke of Ormnod I now appear in Print But having already by a former Reply endeavour'd to vindicate opprest Innocency and a most just Cause from the malevolent Invectives of the Man in the dark I thought it concerned me to take the same care they should not suffer under that title alone That they were impugned by a Person of Quality For laying that name aside I find very little alleg'd which presses for an Answer or is not already refuted Yet I confess it is an elaborate Piece that with all Art imaginable strives to endear the Writer to a prevailing Party And in truth the late evil times have been guilty of so many changes and men have been so dexterous and so supple in their natures to make application to the thriving side that we may not wonder to see both the Art it self and the Oratory that best suits with it in so long a tract of time and so many Vicissitudes brought to perfection 2. And now like a purified Muselman he enters the Temple and would perswade us that he leaves all malice all self interest at the Gate because he declares that he means not all Irish Papists although he has occasion Pag. 2. to mention them frequently And excepts those worthy Persons of that Nation and Religion that faithfully adhered to the King or having rebelled have been truly sorrowful for it and in the constancy of their subsequent services have washed themselves clean Yet he forbears not to call the Nation a Beast their Country a very Pest-house their Religion P. 82. P. 2. P. 47. something that pins them upon the sleeve of the Pope But how this Writer by his Sophistry and Logical Quiddities wherein he would seem to be abundantly versed can find a way to exempt those his worthy Persons from having their share in those attributes unless they disclaim in their Nation their Country and Religion is more than I can understand This is a meer Hocus Pocus He has dexterously conveyed the Balls which we conceived to be in this Cup under the other But I am confident he can hardly meet with any Irish Papist that will think it a favonr to be fed with Applause sauced after his manner 3. And even those chosen men whom he has laid apart must not pass without some stain For they have Pag. 2. every one of them so much endanger'd their being polluted again as interceding for their guilty Country-men does amount unto This however in a strict and rigorous construction of the words barely taken or in a benign interpretation of them as such it might pass yet in that of our Person of Quality's meaning and to his purpose is the first of the many Calumnies wherewith the generality of those worthy Persons and those others truly sorrowful c. are aspersed we shall hereafter meet with in the progress of a Discourse fraught with Principles that derive their being from the Writers imagination But however the Batteries planted against them suppose somewhat solid to beat upon and discharge whole Volleys of Dilemmaes Enthimemaes Inductions and Inferences against them I shall only desire the favour to know from this Writer what Irish Papist that is who intercedes or pleads either innocence or justice or humanity or necessity or other excuse whatsoever for even any of all those of his Country-men appearing in his own particular or that may be found guilty of the foul Crimes which the rude multitude perpetrated in the beginning of the late Rebellion Or who is he that mediates either unchristianly or unreasonably for those that by spurning at his Majesties mercy denied themselves the benefit of his gracious Concessions in the Articles of Peace And if this mediation that intercession or plea be forborn not only as to the generality but even in the case of any particular Person otherwise at least than by laying them all prostrate at the feet of the most merciful of Princes and by acknowledging with all hearty repentance the horrour of their enormities and by minding King Charles the Pious of his Royal unparallel'd Clemency extended to so many other thousands in the three Nations reputed and really being no less criminal yea more many of them than those unfortunate Irish what generous breast can entertain so ignoble a thought as to condemn a Patriot to silence if by speaking he may assist his Country and Nation specially in such a way as is suitable to the Divine Genius of our good King and to the publick exigence where millions of all sides must be destroyed if mercy does not intercede 4. Although I have a perfect aversion from the manner of writing which this Author observes and that the School Dialect seldom meets with those that approve it when it passes the Verge of the University yet being forc'd for a while to follow him in his wayes I must raise a triple Bullwark against his tripartite Battery not giving the Reader at present any Reflections on his Charge against my self and his Dilemma in pursuance thereof in the first and beginning of the second Page of his Book but remitting the considerations hereof to the end of this Paper where you may form a more certain judgement of them 5. My Preface sayes he consists of fears and Pag. 3. jealousies and those in reason must be expected from the generality of the Irish Papists For the conscience of their own guilt although the King should make their condition safe will never suffer them be secure I appeal to the Writer himself whether there can be any assertion more temerarious Can he forget that others are as Criminal That some have been instrumental in that unparallel'd execrable Murther of Charles the First of ever glorious memory That other have by reiterated Oaths disavowed a Monarchical Government and excluded our sacred Soveraign and all the Race of the Stuarts from any right to the Crown That some have in favour of the principal Regicide sworn and sworn again yea freely voluntarily without force I mean without compulsion or violence used to necessitate them if not that of great rewards Nay that some have with all industry imaginable sought to enthrone and make him King in fact as besides other invincible Arguments the several Speeches
in England against his late Majesty of ever blessed memory was in the Year 1647. considerable in Ireland The Defence of his Majesties Roman Catholick Subjects of Ireland against the Oâ—jection made lately touching their proceedings in the Yâ—aâ— 164â— relating to the Protectâ—on of some foreiâ— Prince who being then free from any opposition in England and in absolute power to dispose of their Forces for carrying on their Design in Ireland the said Catholicks fore-seeâ—ng the danger they were in met in the winter season of that year in a general Assembly at Kilkeny where they took in Consideration That his said late Majesty was in restraint That all addresses to him were forbidden And that some of the Members of the Parliament who spake in favour of his said Majesty were excluded 86. In that sad extremity there being no access to his said late Majesty for imploring either his Justice or Mercy all Laws Humane and Divine did allow the said Catholicks to take some other Course in order to their Defence and Preservation not against his said Majesty but against those who laid violent hands on his sacred Person who designed the abolishing of the Regal Authority and resolved to destroy and extirpate the said Catholicks 87. The said Catholicks therefore in the Month of January in the said Year 1647. did in the same Assembly conclude that the Marqâ—ess â—â— Antrim Viscount Musker now Earl of Clankarâ—hy 〈◊〉 â—coffry Brown Esquire should be employed into France â—â—e Bishop of Ferns and Nicholas Plunkett Esquire into Rome and some others to Spaiâ— That the said Agents sent â—â— France were by their applications to his now sacred Majesty then Prince of Wales and to the Queen his Mother to declare the danger the said Catholicks apprehended and humbly to beseech them to find out some expedient by which those Calamities might be diverted That the said Agents were likewise intrusted in case of absolute necessity to implore the aid and protection of some forein Princes but they were limâ—ted not to act any thing in order to such forein protection other than by the direction of the said Persons who were employed to receive his Majesties commands That upon the said application made to his Majesty the Duke of Ormonds Commission was renewed for his being Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and his Excellency qualified with Power to conclude a Peace with the said Catholicks Whereupon without excepting the Concessions to be had on the Conclusion of that Peace all further proceedings concerning the Protection of any Foreiner were stopt and the said Agents recalled they nor any of them having ever moved or acted any thing relating to any Foreiners protection That tâ—e Agents so employed to Rome on their return in the Year 1648. did in the publick Assembly then sitting give 〈◊〉 a satisfactory account of their said Negotiation that it encouraged the whole Assembly to hasten the Conclusion of the Peace then in agitation Which can be testified by very many yet living whereof several are now in this City and that accordingly a Peace was soon after concluded in the said year 1648. Wherein the Concessions which are absolute are only removing of Incapacities and Indempnity for â—â—e lives of the said Catholicks the rest being temporary untill his Majesties further pleasure in Parliament were known 88. And the said Catholicks are so conscious to themselves of the resolution they took from the beginning to persevere irremovably faithful through all extremities to his Majesties Interest that they are well assured though those who now possess their Eâ—tates have the Books of the said Irish Assemblies and the Transactions of the Councills intrusted by those Assemblies in their hands yet can they not make it appear that there was any actual Treaty or Offer for transferring the Subjection naturally due from them to his Majesty or the Right of his Majesties Dominion over them to any Foreiner whatsoever or any thing tending thereunto but what is herein acknowledged 89. To aggravate the hainousness of this Mission which was no other than is related he adds that the Commissioners to Rome were authorized to declare they raised Armes Pag. 44 45. for the freedom of the Catholick Religion And then he flies out to those Excursions with which he garnishes each Dish of the great Feast he has with so much pain and industry prepared for his Party Certainly sayes he if ever they may be believed to speak truth it is when they speak to the Pope Pag. 45. And this truth which is sought to be extorted from them by so witty an argument is a truth I never heard denied by any of them viz. That they in part raised Armes for the freedom of the Catholick Religion though partly too nay primarily at first and in relation to the generality of Irish Catholicks who were forc'd out for the safety of their lives and natural being Nay it is probable that they instructed their Commissioners to press this Article wherein his Holiness was most interested to the Pope as an especial motive to procure them assistance But was this the whole truth Did they raise Armes for no other end than for the freedom of the Catholick Religion Nay did they raise Armes for no other end than this and the safety of their lives too Will not this Gentleman that believes them so obliged to tell the Pope the Truth have so much charity for them as to think they likewise spake truth in the sight of Heaven when they protest and swear before God his Saints and his Angels that they will bear during their lives true Faith and Allegiance to their Soveraign Lord Charles by the Grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland his Heirs and lawful Successors and that they will to their power during their lives defend uphold and maintain all his and their just Prerogatives Estates and Rights c Could this Gentleman that set down in his Book the very Oath be ignorant of what himself writes Or can his malice be so great as to think that those who meant to perform that part of the Oath which concerned Religion were resolved to be willful Perjurers in that which concerns the King 90. This Gentleman to shew how rigorously penal this freedom of the Catholick Religion was to be to the Protestants Pag. 45. instances Dean York who was forced to bury his own Children that dyed at Galway in a Garden Certainly if there had not been many indiscreet Zealots in Ireland the Kingdom had not felt the miseries to which it is reduced But they were farr from being all so And to oppose an instance to this Sir Cyprian Horsfall a Protestant by the allowance of David Rooth Bishop of Ossorie was buried within the Cathedral Church of Kilkeny 91. Taking only upon trust for this Gentleman acknowledges he has our Papers what he speaks of those instructions Pag. 46. to which he again resorts we may well say that his Logick has taught him to make strong
inferences upon weak grounds For taking both the Texts together which this Gentleman to make the Comment the fuller hath divided and reflecting upon the evill times and the necessity to which the Catholicks were reduced and how nothing was to be acted but by the advice of those that were employed into France to his Majesty and the Queen his Mother it was no wonder supposing the Pope would be munificent towards the maintenance of that War which besides the interests of Catholick Religion had for scope the re-inthroning of the King that his Holiness should be admitted to receive reasonable satisfaction by the Articles and to oblige the Pope to descend to such Conditions as might be granted in matters of Religion that they were to represent to his Holiness the lowness of their own condition the power and strength of their Enemies and to solicit for considerable aides whereby to maintain a War And not only that but to ascertain and secure the same Pag. 46. 92. This and no other being the sense of those Instructions cited by this Gentleman himself And that their imploring of aid and protection tending to no other end Is it not strange he could conclude with saying Still the Pag. 47. Pope is their King Does it appear by this That the Irish Papists hang as their Faith in God so their Loyalty to the Prince on the Popes sleeve Yet after his accustomed manner Pag. 47. he comments thus upon that Text and would liken the protection they sought to the power of the Protector Pag. 47. in England which beyond Royal was Tyrannical although some men by elaborated speeches strove to make it Legitimate by conferring Kingship on Cromwell 93. We are now come to the Year 1648. and here again we find this Gentleman forgets not to allege with the same truth he had before that the Irish Papists disowned the Peace Pag. 47. then made disobeyed opposed conspired to murther excommunicated and banished his Majesties Vice-Roy But should I repeat my Answers as often as he reiterates his Charge my Reply would grow to a Volume And therefore I referr the Reader to what is formerly said as I do to what belongs to his summary Conclusion 94. It is true that in some points of Faith the Catholicks oppose both the Protestants and Sectaries but the Catholick Pag. 48. and Protestant Royalist agree in point of Loyalty The fighting against the Regicides or Sectaries And to prove this by an Experiment more convincing than that which this Gentleman formerly gave us these two Parties joyned for two or three years under the same Command in the same Army to fight against those this Gentleman's Protestants which can be no other than Sectaries And if not the fighting but the ground and end of the fighting Pag. 48. proves which is the good Subject This reaches home to those that to palliate their evill intentions feigned themselves Protestant Royalists And when Cromwell went into Ireland deserting his Majesties service presented him with the fruits of their treachery the City of Cork and the rest of those strong holds in Munster whilst the true Protestant Royalist and the Irish Catholick stuck to their Principles And not content to abstain from the Rebells in Ireland many of them adhered to his Majesty in his banishment and followed his fortune abroad Now how could Sampson himself tye their tails together that scarce ever met but as Enemies is a riddle to me Pag. 49. 95. The reason why I said that the power of this Gentleman 's Protestants in Ireland was no greater than his Majesty was pleased to make it was grounded on the reports which were daily brought to London of the Phanaticks menaces Pag. 49. not to give way to the execution of any of the Kings Orders by which any of the Natives was to be restored And knowing that there wanted no hands among the Protestant Royalists and the Irish Catholicks sufficient to bring them to reason I slighted their threats and their power to second them by saying that it is no greater as in truth it is not than his Majesty is pleased to make it As for the Elogium that follows if the Gentleman holds himself to my intention he must allow that it wholly concerns the Phanaticks 96. This Gentleman sayes after his manner That the Contents of those Articles are in themselves unwarrantable except Pag. 50. in case of necessity which hath no Law His Majesty Concerning the Pleâ— of Justice grounded on the Articles sayes he having condescended by them that the Militia Treasury and Army of fifteen thousand Foot two thousand five hundred Horse of Irish Papists and even in effect the Legistative power should be in the hands of twelve men to be chosen by Irish Papists and that there should be no alteration in England of what they in Ireland should thiâ—k sit to transmit to his Majesty and that the Rebells should be pardoned without consent of Parliament when his Maâ—esty in Parliament adjudged such pardons before conviction to be ruâ—l and void and that they assumed the Legislative power by repealing Poynings Act all which sayes he is against Law and the Oath the King takes at his Coronation 97. What a task would the answering of all these Heads this Gentleman vents at a breath prove to me if these Articles of Peace were not so common as to be in the hands of very many This Gentleman will give me leave to ask him whether he himself believes the King broke his Coronation Oath or Pag. 51. gave away his Militia because he granted that this so considerable an Army should be kept on foot under the conduct of his Lieutenant of Ireland for maintenance of his interests in so great streights as his Majesty was reduced to at a time when his enemies had thrice that number in the Field against him Did the King break his Oath or give away his right in the Treasury because he gave power to his Lieutenant with the advice of certain select Persons of the Natives to levy money for the maintenance of this Army and for other charges incident to the Government Or do those select persons assume the legislative power of the Kingdom because it is inserted in those Articles that both Houses of Parliament may consider what they shall think convenient touching the repeal or suspension of the Statute commonly called Poynings Act And cannot his Majesty pardon his Subjects of Ireland although he give his Royal Assent to an Act past in the Parliament of England by which such pardon before conviction is declared null and void 98. He adds That although the Irish Catholicks chiefly Pag. 51. pleaded for restitution of their Estates by vertue of those Articles yet if they had prevailed therein upon the score of that plea it must in consequence have adjudged for them the benefit of all the other Articles as a Right But this Gentleman foresees not that he is to
this Gentleman would prove Pag. 57. that the Peace was designedly broken before it was made As nothing did ever yet conduce more to the vindication of Charles the First of ever blessed memory from the horrid Calumnies with which his Enemies did asperse him than the printing of his Letters taken at the Battel of Nasby So with due reverence to his Sacred name I may say that nothing could have befallen of more advantage to the Irish Catholicks than that all their Books and all the original Papers of their home and forein Transactions have come into the hands of their Adversaries and that the whole substance of them should be thus spread abroad and be thus illustrated with such a Comment as leaves nothing unsaid that Art or Malâ—ce could suggest For if they had not been masters of those Books and Papers they who now accuse the Roman Catholicks to have sought for assistance in their greatest necessities from a forein protection would then proclame to the World that they were become the Subjects of another Prince and had sworn Fealty to him They that now by all the Cavills and Fallacies imaginable endeavour to find out Contradictions in their Oaths and do comment only upon their Intentions would then publish that they had expresly sworn to exclude his Majesty and to choose a King of the Nation They who now by weak inferences would prove that the Irish Papists meaâ—t to suppress Protestant Religion would then averr that they had sworn to extirpate all Protestants the Protestant Prelates especially They who now only upbraid them for having proceeded against the Laws of the Kingdom would then loudly declare that they had clean laid them aside and that they had introduced and were sworn to maintain the Brehon Law Their Crimes would have been as many and as hainous as their Adversaries could fancy them and their actions would have been conveighed to Posterity in a torrent of horrour and perfidy But now they give us the Text out of their own Record and nothing is left them but to comment upon it which this Gentleman omits not to doe with such a sophistry and so great a willingness to make them seem black and hideous as the Catholicks may esteem it happy for them that he is not wholly left at large to follow his invention 108. But although this Person of Quality may have those Records in his custody yet I will give him my assistance to sort them by letting him know the Time and Occasion upon which these several Oaths were taken And with his good leave I must tell him that this which he sets forth to be in the first roul is a complicated Oath to which the later part which begins Moreover was not added untill the Year Pag. 58. Pag. 59. 1646. In which year likewise the Oath of adhering to the present Union of the Confederate Catholicks that rejected the Peace was administred And it might very well have happened that the Grand Committee upon failer of the performance of the Articles of Peace then to be concluded obliged themselves to reassume their Union But this must have been in the Year 1645. before the Peace of 46. was assented unto by a Party that in favour of the Nuncio who opposed it moved all scruples imaginable and might have objected that if such another as Sir William Parsons who would not perform those Articles came to govern the Kingdom what was to be done in that Case This remedy might perhaps have been thought proper for their satisfaction But that this should have happened in the Year 48. is an assertion as vain as it is malicious For the World knows that the Peace of 48. was treated and concluded unanimously by the Assembly the Lord Lieutenant being in the same City with them And as to the Committee the name and use of it was very superfluous in a place where a few Persons daily brought the sense of the House in difficult matters to his Excellency and what seemed to be knotty of the part of his Excellency was upon all occasions resolved by the Assembly that constantly sate at so near a distance 109. I shall likewise give the Reader this faithful relation as to the other Oaths When the Peace of 46. was rejected by the greater Vote of those who by the terrour of the Northern Army by the suggestion of the Nuncio's Pag. 64 65. active Emissaries and by the affright of an Excommunication were induced to violate the publick Faith Which undoubtedly is the ground of all the sufferings of the Nation Then it was that the same Assembly framed that Oath of adhering to the Union of the Confederate Roman Catholicks that rejected the Peace And having chosen a supreme Council composed for the most part of the rejecters of the Peace they for that time conceived themselves secure But the People having had some respite from the fears they had before entertained coming to a new Election for the succeeding Assembly such for the most part were chosen to be of the supreme Council that had served in that place before and were known to have good inclinations to settle the Kingdom under his Majesties Government Wherefore the Prelates distrusting those hands into which the power of the Confederates was committed got that part which begins with the word Moreover to be added to the Oath of Pag. 59. Association and the general Assembly that knew it was and alwayes kept it in their power to approve of or consent to any Peace they thought fit gave them satisfaction in that which could no longer interrupt a settlement than they list 110. Having thus placed the Gentlemans Records in due order and given the Reader some light to lead him through Pag. 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68. a discourse knotty and perplext and endeavoured to be made so if I be not much deceived I shall descend to the Commentary But I shall first desire the Reader to consider that I take not upon me with relation to these happy times when the Restoration of his Majesty hath given life to his Laws to justifie the Irish Catholicks against Mr. Attorney at the Bar. His Majesties Mercy is their sole plea and the Sanctuary to which they resort 111. Wherefore laying aside those legal Tryals by which infallibly those who set up a Government in opposition to his Majesties by what hand soever that Government was managed those that swear to obey and ratifie all the Orders and Decrees made and to be made by such a Government would be adjudged Traytors let us resort back to those confused times and examine whether as things then were carried it might stand with the rules of Reason and Self-preservation to admit that to swear to bear true Faith and Allegiance to the King and to swear to obey and ratifie all the Orders and Decrees made and to be made by the Supreme Council are flat and known contradictories To prevent confusion they swear to obey the Orders
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
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