the Confederates were expelled out of Ireland must be denied their Rights even when a peace is concluded Nay possibly those Peers might not be considered as estated Lords whose Estates the said Confederates had possest themselves of so that by the Acts of the Rebellion they were to lose their Lands and by the Desires of the Rebels to lose their Votes And perhaps if Protestant Peers which the Rebellion had forc'd into England would have returned into Ireland to vote in this intended Parliament they might had this Instruction took place been denied to vote in Person as well as by Proxy on account that they were not estated persons by reason their Lands were then in the possession of the Rebels who had taken good care that the Peace should not oblige nor be accepted by the confederate Catholicks till all the Articles of it were established secured by Parliament The Confederates rest not here but to make all things surer the 44th Instruction is set down in these words viz. That such as shall be recommended by the supreme Council of the Confederate Catholicks shall be by his Majesty called by Writ to sit in the Vpper House In the 23d Instruction before mentioned they attempt to hinder the constitution of the House of Peers to be as by Law and Custom it ought to be and in this 44th Instruction they attempt to constitute it as it ought not to be In the foregoing Instruction they endeavor to stop the true Fountain of Honour and in this Instruction they would make themselves to be the Fountain of Honour Nor does this Instruction run with the introductive words of the former viz. You are to be Suitors or humble Suitors to his Majesty but positively set down as if what they demanded were rather a Right then a Favour neither do they limit their recommendation of such as are to be called to sit in the Upper House to such onely as were his Majesties Subjects or his Rebels but indefinitely viz. all that shall be recommended by the Supreme Council of the confederate Catholicks so that the forming of the House of Peers the great and inseparable Right and Prerogative of the Crown they not onely desire to WREST from the King but also they desire to VEST IT IN THEMSELVES Nor do they stop there but by this Instruction had it been granted they would have had the power to have constituted the House of Lords OF FORRAIGNERS and doubtless amongst those his HOLINESS's NUNTIO then amongst them would scarcely have been forgotten Thus far the Catholick Confederacie had well provided for the composition of the House of Commons and the House of Peers as far as concern'd the Temporal Lords Now I shall let the Reader see that their care was no less in providing that the House of Peers should be as well constituted for the Spiritual Lords which they manifest in their 25th Instruction which follows in these very words viz. You are to be Suitors to his Majesty that the Writs of summons be issued to the ARCHBISHOPS AND BISHOPS WITHIN OVR QVARTERS and they to have PLACE AND VOTE in Parliament This is a Request INDEED here is not onely a taking away of the Right of the Protestant Archbishops and Bishops but a giving of it to the Papists Nay would not this have been if granted an owning that the POPE by his Consecration had the Right to send Peers into the House of Lords if not to create them But since they were sworn by their Confederacy to have the free and publick exercise of the Roman Catholick Religion and Function throughout this Kingdom in its full lustre and splendor as it was in the Reign of King Henry the seventh or any other Catholick King his Predecessor Kings of England and Lords of Ireland 't is no wonder they take the surest Ways to reach that End But yet the wisdom of the Kings of England and their experience of the Irish Papists has been such that had all these Instructions been granted to them yet they could not have reach'd their Design which the said Papists well knew and therefore to throw down ALL Impediments in their 21th Instruction which follows in these very words they further desire viz. You are to be Suitors to his Majesty That upon the first sitting of the next Parliament That an Act may be transmitted for the suspension of POYNINGS HIS ACT intituled An Act that no Parliament shall be holden in this Land until the Acts be certified into England and all other Acts inlarging or explaining the same And that it be afterwards left to the consideration of the Parliament whether the same shall be ALL TOGETHER REPEALED or continued In these Instructions the Confederates show a Catholick Care of the Roman Catholick Cause They were not contented to attempt by force and open Rebellion to wrest this Kingdom from the Crown of England but having failed thereof in that way they endeavour to effect it in this first they will have a PAPIST chief Governour and that to use their own words the Commissioners must not onely INSIST UPON but must IN NO SORT RECEDE FROM Then they must have a Parliament and that not onely to be constituted against the Kings undoubted prerogative the known and ancient Laws of the Land and Priviledges and Rights of both Houses but also must be compos'd according to the desires and inventions of the Irish Papists and because by Poynings's Act no Bill or Bills could be transmitted into England till first they had past the chief Governour or Governours and privy Council of this Kingdom and then were certified to his Majesty and privy Council in England by the said chief Governor or Governors and privy Council to be good and expedient for this Kingdom and then were not to pass in Parliament here but as approved of by his Majesty and Council in England and remitted hither under the Great Seal of England whereby the Crown of England was wisely secured that nothing should be enacted here to the prejudice of it The said Irish Papists desire that in their said next Parliament Poynings's Act might be suspended and all other Acts enlarging and explaining the same and then that it may be left to the consideration of the Parliament SO CONSTITUTED whether the same shall be ALTOGETHER REPEALED or continued that is to say That the LAMB be put into the Claws of the WOLF and then leave it to the consideration of the Wolf whether or no he would devour him If it should be said That the fore-mentioned Instructions were onely the Confederates desires to his Majesty I onely desire to know whether they made those desires with an intention to have them denyed or granted If the first it was ridiculous if the last it was rebellious But by all this it undeniably appears If the providence of God and His Sacred Majesties Wisdom and Care had not disappointed the boundless designes of the said Irish Papists not onely the Protestant Religion and the Professors of
a Pardon for nay not so much as a Protection from his Majesty for sins past without the consent of their Supreme Council This is a fine bearing Faith and Allegiance to the King this is a good upholding and maintaining the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom They swear too that these Acts of highest Rebellion they will to the hazard of their Lives and Estates assist prosecute and maintain But they proceed further for they swear not to accept of or submit to ANY PEACE made or to be made without the consent and approbation of the General Assembly of the said Catholicks ANY PEACE that is let the Conditions be never so good let the Person that grants them be the King Himself they will not accept of it they will not submit unto it without c. If the King would so far forget those signal Crimes which made them need his Pardon and Protection and would not so much as name them but make a Peace with them as if they had never done any offence yet they swear that not one of them shall accept of or submit to such a Peace but as is before expressed nay to show how perfect a ROMISH Confederacie it is if any Individual should be struck with the horrour of his Crimes he cannot fly to the Kings Mercy for Pardon or Protection without Perjury And to inveagle such as had not then been polluted with those sins they swear to protect all such as shall enter into their guilt and thereby in consequence threaten to ruine such as shall not This is admirable bearing true Faith and Allegiance to the King and maintaining the Laws of the Kingdom But this is not all for they further swear in these words viz. For the preservation and strengthening of the Vnion of the Kingdom upon any peace to be made or concluded with the said confederate Catholicks as aforesaid They will to the uttermost of their Power insist upon and maintain the ensuing Propositions until a peace as aforesaid be made and the matters to be agreed upon in the Articles of peace be established and secured by Parliament The first Proposition to which this Oath relates and to which it is annexed is expressed in these words viz. That the Roman Catholicks both Clergy and Laity in their several capacities have the free and publick exercise of the Roman Catholick Religion and Function throughout the Kingdom in as full lustre and splendor as it was in the Reign of King Henry the Seventh or other Catholick King his Predecessours Kings of England and Lords of Ireland or in England That is to say That none should be admitted to live in Ireland but Papists for none or very few but such were in the Reign of those Kings in Ireland The second Proposition mentioned follows in these words viz. That the secular Clergy of Ireland viz. Primates Archbishops Ordinaries Deans Deans and Chapters Archdeacons Prebendaries and all other Dignitaries Parsons Vicars and all persons of the secular Clergy and their respective successours shall have and enjoy all and all manner of Iurisdictions Priviledges and Immunities in as full and ample manner as the Roman Catholicks secular Clergy had or enjoyed the same within this Realm at any time during the Reign of the late King Henry the Seventh sometime King of England and Lord of Ireland any Law Declaration of Law Statute Power or Authority whatever to the contrary notwithstanding That is to say Their Wills must be the Law and since they think fit to set up POPERY in Ireland and to banish the true Religion out of it it is but requisite they should take the maintenance from the Legal and give it to the Titular Clergy And least we should doubt this to be the true meaning of the second Proposal they clearly explain it in the fourth which follows in these words viz. That the Primates Archbishops Bishops Ordinaries Deans Deans and Chapters Archdeacons Chancelours Treasurers Chaunters Provosts Wardens of Collegiate Churches Prebendaries and other Dignitaries Parsons Vicars and other Pastors of the Roman Catholick secular Clergy and their respective successors shall have hold enjoy all the Churches and Church-Livings in as large and ample manner as the LATE PROTESTANT CLERGY respectively enjoyed the same on the first day of October in the year of our Lord 1641. together with all the profits emoluments perquisites liberties and the rights of their respective Sees and Churches belonging as well in places now in possession of the Confederate Catholicks as also in all other places that shall be recovered by the said Confederate Catholicks from the adverse Party within the Kingdom SAVING to the said Roman Catholick Laity their Rights according to the Laws of the Land That is to say Our Clergy shall have All therefore yours can have nothing this is a perfect Fifth-Monarchy Principle for here Dominion is onely founded in pretended Grace none being to have the benefit of the Laws of the Land but the Papists Nay his Sacred Majesty because a PROTESTANT is as such denied any one of those Rights which the meanest of the Irish Rebels because a PAPIST is to enjoy as such and lest their words for it should not be taken they confirm it with an OATH The Legal and Orthodox Clergy of Ireland may see in this what goodly Provision had been made for them and their respective Successours if this pious Roman Catholick Confederacy had succeeded But least this their first Oath of Confederacie might be thought a thing they were surprized into in the first heat and fury of the Rebellion and least the takers of it should forget what the Imposers of it would have them believe they were bound unto by it some time after premeditately and in cool blood they caus'd it a second time to be taken in terminis and subscribed with a preamble to it the close whereof runs in these Words viz. And for that it is requisite that there should be an unanimous consent and real union between all the Catholicks of this Realm to maintain the premises and strengthen them against their adversaries it is thought fit by them that they and whosoever shall adhere unto their party as a Confederate should for their better assurance of their adhering fidelity and constancy to the publick Cause take the ensuing Oath viz. I A. B. c. In the begining of the said Preamble they give the priority and precedency of place to the Defence of their own Estates and Liberties to that of the defence of his Majesties Regal Power Prerogatives Honour State and Rights That is to say They will mind themselves before the King which they fully explain in the third Oath of their Union and Confederacie which after their rejection of the Peace concluded with them by his Majesties Authority they entered into took and subscribed and which follows in these words viz. I do swear and protest that I will adhere to the present Vnion of the Confederate Roman Catholicks that REJECTED THE PEACE lately agreed
more in their esteem Gossiping fostering to the Publick Peace by their as flourishing so free condition and to all by those Royal Graces which his sacred Majesty at that time indulg'd their Commissioners such as themselves could desire 't was then but ask and have yet all this honey turn'd into gall for at that very time in which the King was exercising such high acts of Grace to them the Irish Papists plotted and soon after perpetrated the worst of Rebellions the worst extensivè exulcerating generally and intensivè breaking forth with more perfidy barbarism and cruelty than can be parallel'd in any History 6. Principles of Religion ingage English Protestants to submit to the King as Supreme but Principles of Religion ingage Irish Papists to advance as Supreme a Forreign Prince and limits all their obedience with a Saving to the pretended Apostolick See Certainly his Majesty may expect more future obedience from Protestants whose consciences ingage them to Loyalty than from Irish Papists whose consciences are ingaged to the Pope Can his Majesty trust them if they be not faithful to their Conscience-ingagement and if they be can he trust them when their Consciences ingage them to his Enemy The next sort of Arguments respect some special Cases as 1 of the Transplantation 2 of the Corporation Concerning the Transplantation P. W. peremptorily concludes That it cannot be continued on account of their Crimes since 1648. nor stand with the Articles or with the equity of the Laws much less with the Iustice of the Prince 1. This Conclusion without any proof with the same facility as it is said may be gainsaid 2. The foundation of those Articles and consequently the Articles themselves are thrown down by the Irish Papists wherefore it matters not as to his Majesty what can or cannot stand with them 3. Many other Countreys and Ages have formerly on less grounds used Transplantation and been justified therein as just and equal by Lawyers and Casuists 4. Observe his Sacred Majesties Royal and Fatherly indulgence even to those Irish Papists who being Innocent sued out Decrees and obtained possession of Lands in the Province of Connaught and County of Clare First Positively for though they had bound themselves up therein by their own Act in which though his Majesty saith in the 14 page of his Gracious Declaration of the 30 of November 1660. We might without any injustice deny to relieve them yet his Clemencie is so great That in the same 14 page of his said Declaration he breaks those fetters which they had bound themselves in and orders them to be restored unto their former estates Secondly Comparatively his Majesty uses those innocent Irish Papists with more tenderness than even those which He honors with the high Title of his Friends in England and Ireland as appears in the 18 and 19 pages of the said Declaration For though such are not to expect that his Majesty should pay back to them the Moneys they were compelled in the evil times to disburse for their Compositions the payment whereof they would have avoiden had it been in their power as much as the Irish Papists would have avoided their Transplantation yet his Majesties Friends are not relieved from their own Act when the innocent Irish Papists are relieved from theirs 5. Observe the insolency of P. W. for though his Sacred Majesty in Council by his said Declaration published to the world in print declared that some other transplanted Irish are to stand bound by their own Act and not to be relieved against it yet P. W. is so far from acknowledging and magnifying his Majesties Mercy in using the innocent Irish Papists with more favor than even those happy persons whom his Majesty honors with the high title of being his Friends that P. W. peremptorily says viz. The Transplantation cannot be continued on account of their crimes since 1648. nor can it stand with the Articles or with the equity of the Laws much less with the Iustice of the Prince 6. That the Justice of his Sacred Majesty in Council may appear to be such in not breaking so much of the Transplantation as is confirmed by the said Declaration I desire these following particulars may be throughly considered 1 If such transplanted Irish Papists into Connaught and Clare should plead that the Force of the late horrid Usurpers constrained them to go thither in person I answer yet no Force lay upon them to sue out Decrees and obtain possessions of Lands there in liew of their former forfeited Estates in the other Provinces And it is onely in point of Land that the said Transplantation is continued so that their doing of what they could not avoid is not made conclusive to them but onely their doing of that which they could avoid and yet sollicited and brought to effect is made binding to some of them To which I shall add that those to whom it is made obliging are onely such as having no title to innocency for all Innocents are freed from Transplantation have no title to any of their former Estates And therefore this confirming of them in the compensation of that to which they had no right should invite them to acknowledg his Majesties Mercy which yet P. W. in their behalf exclaims against as injustice 2 Though all these guilty Transplanted Irish have forfeited their right to the Articles extorted from his Majesty in 1648. and though by those Articles had they been as punctually observed by them as they have been generally and often violated by themselves yet his Majesty was not obliged to hinder them from making an unequal bargain or exchange for those their forfeited Lands which by his mercy they were restored unto nor to confirm to them those Lands which they sued for in satisfaction of their former Estates yet his sacred Majesty confirms to them in confirming their Transplantation those Lands which they themselves had obtained from the Usurpers as a compensation for the Lands they left and to which they had not the least shadow of a Title because they had broken yea often if not always the said Articles of peace vouchsaved to and extorted by them in the year 1648. 3 The persons themselves who are transplanted have by their publick Agents made the continuance and settlement of the Transplantation the subject matter of several Petitions and Addresses to the RVMP therefore as for them to decry it now argues in them a fuller readiness to obey Force than Right so the continuance of it being in effect but a granting of their own desires and petitions they can justly blame none but Themselves To prove the truth of this I shall set down the Titles and chief Heads of two petitons presented to the RVMP The one is in print and thus addressed To the Supreme Authority the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England c. The humble Petition of Sir Robert Talbot Baronet and Garrot Moor Esq on the behalf of themselves and the distressed Irish Submittees
onely an early owning of his Majesties Authority but an owning it when he was devested from the actual exercize of it and that too as to Ireland by the Irish Papists And this is also the first fruits of the Protestants having recovered the power of Ireland and that with no less hazard than loyalty 3. To make the Discrimination yet clearer The Irish Papists at first murther'd and fought against his Majesties good Subjects to take from him his Crown The Protestants of Ireland fought aganst his Enemies to restore him to it The Papists of Ireland were seemingly good Subjects but to become more dangerous Rebels But the Protestants of Ireland if seemingly Rebels were such but to become more useful Subjects The last action of the Irish Papists when they had the power was to expell his Majesties Authority with circumstances as wicked as the very sin but the first action of the English Protestants when they were in power was to restore his Majesties Authority with circumstances almost as dutiful as the Action it self Lastly Not to hold a candle longer to the Sun I will but instance one other experiment and against an experiment there is no arguing and the instance of this experiment is even in the very Case now controverted and in which also my L. Duke of Ormond himself was the Iudg. In the year 1650. when it came in Question which were the worst the Irish Papists or the seduced Protestants He permitted all those worthy Protestants which till then he served under him to come off to the rest of the Protestants though then headed by Iretâ—n himself esteeming them safer with that real Regicide so accompanied than with those pretended Antiregicides so principled Certainly he esteems those less ill to whom he sends his Friends than from whom he sends them If so wise and so faithful a Servant to his Majesty as the L. Lieutenant is had had any hope that the Irish Papists would ever have return'd to their Loyalty doubtless he would never have sent away from them so many powerful helpers of it and friends unto it and if his Grace had not had more than hopes that the English Protestants would have return'd to their obedience as soon as they had got the power of doing it he would never have sent his friends unto them The Wisdom of his Grace's foresight has been happily justified in the Result For all the Protestants which then came off were eminently instrumental and concurring in the duty of accomplishing that blessed Event I dare as truly as confidently say the most of the Protestants of Ireland onely served under the Usurpers but to bring the Irish Papists to those terms which without the force of English swords they would never have been brought unto The Antient and Modern often breaches of Faith which the Irish Papists were guilty of made it too evident to many of the Protestants that nothing could bind them but steel and iron The truth of both these positions is clearly read in that issue which the Providence of God has effected However the once Seduced Protestants of Ireland are willing to take shame to themselves and give glory to God in confessing their Guilt such though not by causing yet by complying with the late Vsurpation though to a good end that they readily acknowledg they ow their lives and estates wholly to his Majesties Grace and indulgence and will be more joyful to employ both in the honor and duty of his service than now they are in having received both from his mercy and goodness For 't is fitter to discharge obligations than to contract them The lively sense the once seduced Protestants of Ireland have of their failings and of his Majesties Clemencie so justly humbles them that they can take no pleasure to recriminate others farther than by shewing the Injustice of P.W's. comparisons which they are more troubled he gave them a rise to do than after the rise was given they were troubled to find out what fully has done it But in regard the Irish Papists in all their discourses as well as their Papers pretend to the defense of his Majesties Right it seems even necessary by way of answer to the other branch of this proposition to rub up their memories 1. That in 1641 the Irish Papists unprovok'd 1 rebelled 2 robbed the Protestants of more personal Estate than the Fee-simple of all the forfeited Lands in Ireland is worth 3 in a few Months murthered about two hundred thousand innocents 4 with a sin next to Blasphemie as now they pretend his Majesties defense so then they pretended his Authority The PRETENDING whereof having been so horrid a sin for it was no less than to have intitled his then Sacred Majesty to all their unparallel'd crimes nay to have made him the Author of them I think it a duty to the memory of that Glorious MARTYR to present the Reader in this place with what will clearly evince their malice therein to be as great as his then Majesties Innocence and nothing can better illustrate the vastness of this but by proving 't is a parallel to that I could instance many signal and clear evidences of this Truth besides that memorable one which follows But since I have in most of my Answer made use of their own writings and prints to make out their guilt in this very particular I will pursue that method and onely cite the Preamble of their own Remonstrance deliver'd by the L. Viscount Gormanston Sir Lucas Dillon and Sir Robert Talbot Baronet to his Majesties Commissioners at rhe Town of Trim in the County of Meath on the 17 of March 1642. In which Remonstrance of Grievances for so they call it after they have taken notice that his Majesty had authorized Commissioners to hear what they should say or propound these very words follow viz. Which your Majesties gracious and Princely Favor we find to be accompanied with these words viz. Albeit we do extremely detest the odious Rebellion which the Recusants of Ireland have without ground or colour raised against Vs Our Crown and Dignity Words which deserve to be written with a Beam of the Sun as eternal monuments of his Majesties Iustice and their Guilt nor were they spoken in a corner but spoken under the Great Seal and even in that Commission which those False-accusers were to see and hear read and by those expressions they were sufficiently provoked to have pleaded that Authority they so falsely pretended had they had the least shadow for that black calumny In these Royal expressions also if at least the Irish Papists have the Modesty I bate them the Justice to acknowledg the King was a fitter Judge of their Crimes than they themselves were the actings of the chief Governors of Ireland when that horrid Rebellion brake out are fully vindicated for the said Irish were so far from being provoked unto it by those that no less a testimony than the word of that great just and wise Prince proves
Irish towards the propagating of the Catholick Faith AND THE PIETY OF THE CATHOLICK WARRIORS IN THE SEVERAL ARMIES OF THAT KINGDOM which was for that singular fervency in the true worship of God and notable care had formerly in the like case by the Inhabitants thereof for the maintenance and preservation of the same Orthodox Faith called of old THE LAND OF SAINTS and having got certain notice how IN IMITATION OF THEIR GODLY AND WORTHY ANCESTORS they endeavour BY FORCE OF ARMS to deliver their thralled Nation from the Oppressions and grievous Injuries of the Hereticks wherewith this long time it hath been afflicted and heavily burthened and GALLANTLY do what in them lyeth TO EXTIRPATE AND TOTALLY ROOT OUT those Workers of Iniquity who in the Kingdom of Ireland had infected and always striven to infect the Mass of Catholick purity with the pestiferous Leaven of their Heretical contagion WE THEREFORE BEING WILLING TO CHERISH THEM with the gift of those Spiritual Graces whereof by God we are ordained the onely Disposers on earth by the mercy of the same almighty GOD trusting in the authority of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul and by vertue of that power of binding and losing of souls which GOD was pleased without our deserving to confer ' upon us To ALL and EVERY ONE of the faithful Christians in the aforesaid Kingdom of Ireland NOW and FOR THE TIME MILITATING AGAINST THE HERETICKS and other Enemies of the Catholick Faith they being truly and sincerely penitent after confession and the Spiritual refreshing of themselves with the sacred Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ DO GRANT A FULL AND PLENARY INDULGENCE AND ABSOLUTE REMISSION FOR ALL THEIR SINS and such as in the holy time of Iubilee is usual to be granted to those that devoutly visit a certain number of priviledged Churches within and without the walls of our City of Rome by the tenour of which present Letters for once only and no more we freely bestow the favour of this absolution upon all and every one of them and withal desiring heartily all the faithful in Christ now in Arms as aforesaid would be partakers of this most previous Treasure To all and every one of the aforesaid FAITHFUL CHRISTIANS We grant licence and give power to chuse unto themselves for this effect any fit Confessor whether a secular Priest or a regular of some Order as likewise any other selected person approved of by the Ordinary of the place who after a diligent hearing of their Confessions shall HAVE POWER TO LIBERATE AND ABSOLVE THEM from Excommunication Suspension and all other Ecclesiastical Sentences and Censures by whomsoever or for what cause soever pronounced or inflicted upon them as also FROM ALL SINS TRESPASSES TRANSGRESSIONS CRIMES AND DELINQUENCIES HOW HAINOUS AND ATROCIOUS SOEVER THEY BE c. Dated at Rome in the Vatican or St. Peters Palace the 25th day of May 1643. and in the 20th year of our Pontificate M. A. MARALDUS This BULL of Indulgence and Pardon of the Pope either is an answer to my question or it is not if P. W. should say it is not an answer to my Question then it remains still in force if P. W. should say that it is an answer to my Question then I desire the unbyass'd Reader to consider whose Subjects the Irish papists are For His late Majesty of Glorious Memory under His Great Seal declares in these very words viz. We do extremely detest the ODIOVS REBELLION which the Recusants of Ireland have without Ground or Colour raised against Vs Our Crown and Dignity But the Pope by his Bull calls that Rebellion of the Irish Papists an imitation of their godly and worthy Ancestors with this farther addition That the said Irish Papist GALLANTLY do what in them lieth TO EXTIRPATE AND TOTALLY ROOT OUT THE PROTESTANTS who he is pleas'd to call Workers of Iniquity Nay his Holiness proceeds farther for being willing to cherish them in their Rebellion he dispenses to them the gift of spiritual Graces of which he says he is under GOD the onely Disposer on earth and therefore grants them a full plenary indulgence and absolute remission for all their sins trespasses transgressions crimes and delinquences how hainous and atrocious soever they be If the Pope's power over the Irish Papists be so great I shall not wonder their obedience to the King is so little neither shall I admire that Rebellions have been so frequent in Ireland for the time past nor doubt they will be as frequent for the time to come if the strength of the Irish Papists proportions their inclinations if the said Papists consider fighting against the Kings Authority is Merit and dying in that Quarrel is MARTYRDOM Their propensity to the sin of Rebellion needed not those two double incentives to it viz. If they succeed HEAVEN and IRELAND is theirs if they succeed not HEAVEN is theirs His Sacred Majesty will have but little hold of men who are acted by such Principles and by such beliefs I desire also it may observ'd this BVLL was sent them in May 1643. at which time the Irish Papists were in the height of their Rebellion for they then had neither Cessation or Peace to plead which might intitle them so much as to the Name of Subjects It may be also this Pope's made them the more cheerfully swear neither to seek or receive directly or indirectly a pardon from a King I hope the Reader will also observe that the designe of the Irish Papists by their Rebellion what ever they pretended for it was no less then TO EXTIRPATE AND TOTALLY ROOT OUT THE PROTESTANTS and this attested by the POPE himself which he calls a GALLANT ACT and an imitation of their GODLY ANCESTORS which proves that General if not Vniversal Massacrings has not been onely the attempted sin of the Irish papists of this Age but had descended to them by inherritance and some wish it may not be convey'd to their Posterities 'T is likewise worthy the Readers observation Though his Sacred Majesty might warrantably have done unto those Irish papists what they would have done to the protestants and though persons of such bloody principles and designes as the POPE owns the said Irish papists to be and incourages them to persevere in with assurance of pardon here and Heaven hereafter are not very likely to be obedient Subjects to the King or good Neighbours to their fellow Subjects yet not one of them suffers meerly for his Religion and many of them though guilty are pardon'd and restor'd This practically and clearly shows the difference between the true mother and the false mother as also how much more consonant to CHRIST's Doctrine and Practise the HEAD OF THE PROTESTANT CHURCH does act then the HEAD OF THE POPISH CHURCH does act and MAN can in nothing be so well like unto GOD as in being merciful as GOD is merciful But for all P. W's fencing I am confident were his Country-men as fully pardoned