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A61437 Popish policies and practices represented in the histories of the Parisian massacre, gun-powder treason, conspiracies against Queen Elizabeth, and persecutions of the Protestants in France / translated and collected out of the famous Thuanus and other writers of the Roman communion ; with a discourse concerning the original of the powder-plot. Stephens, Edward, d. 1706. 1674 (1674) Wing S5435; ESTC R34603 233,712 312

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devised to apprehend them wherein also others who were not of their Religion were often unawares surprised For every where at Paris especially were erected Images of Saints in the Streets by-ways with lighted Candles set up to them in the day time and a deal of Superstitious Worship and boxes set by them into which they who passed by were pressed to cast in money for providing of the Lights and such as refused to do it or neglected to give reverence to the Images were suspected and instantly assaulted by the Rabble and happy was he that in such case could escape with his life though immediately thrust into prison All this was done the same year that Francis came to the Crown And although in the entrance of the next year about 12. Thu. l. 24. Mart. lest the Protestants exasperated by all these Cruelties should be provoked to joyn with them who at that time held a Consultation against the Guises to remove them and the Queen-mother from the Government this severity by the mediation of Colinius the Admiral and Olinier the Chancellour was by a publick Edict for the present in part remitted Yet no sooner was the danger of that Confederacy over by the defeat of the Enterprise at Amboise but the Edict was recalled and new resolutions concluded for the utter ruine and extirpation of the Protestants and that upon this further occasion and by the means following The Guises nothing doubting but that the late attempt at Amboise to surprise and remove them from the Government was secretly excited and managed by the Princes of the blood to whom the right during the Kings inability did belong and that the Protestants thus provoked by such unjust persecutions would favour the right of the Princes resolved to cut off both But considering that it would be difficult and hazardous by open Force to get the Princes into their power Davil l. 2. they resolved to essay to accomplish that by Art and therefore first by all means to conceal and dissemble their suspicion of them and to that purpose endeavoured to have the late business at Amboise imputed to the Protestants and to attribute all to Diversity of Religions which might also serve them to a further purpose viz. to render their own cause and proceedings more plausible to the people and the others more odious and to urge this yet further they endeavoured to possess the King with great apprehensions of the danger of his own person from that party and the people with an opinion that that attempt was designed against the King himself which was so gross a Calumnie that Davila himself though otherwise partial enough against the Protestants thought it not fit to be credited and at last having used all their Arts to beget a confidence in the Princes that they had no designs against them to accomplish their designs they cause an Assembly of the Estates whereat the Princes by their place were to attend to be appointed at Orleans Where against the Protestants in general Thu. l. 26. they presently proceed more openly and having obtained an Edict that all should exhibit a profession of their Faith according to a Form 18. years before prescribed by the Sorbon Doctors and that they who refused should be punished with loss of life and Goods such were sent out throughout the whole Kingdom who should apprehend all that were suspected to be of the Reformed Religion with command to pull down the Houses and Castles of those who made any resistance And the Princes being at length with much Art and difficulty wrought upon to come to the Assembly though contrary to the perswasion of their friends are instantly upon their arrival secured Navar under a kind of Guard but Conde close prisoner Having thus gotten them into their hands they without much difficulty resolve to circumvent Conde with Accusations of Rebellion and put him to death under colour of Law But for Navar they were not a little doubtful what to do with him and at last conclude to murder him secretly But when all these designs against both the Protestants in general and these Princes in particular were brought to the very point of execution and the Tragedy already begun It pleased God by the same means whereby he had decreed to prosecute his judgments and vengeance against this persecuting House of Valois to deliver those who were designed for slaughter and by the seasonable intervention of the otherwise untimely death of this young King before he had accomplished the age of eighteen to confound and disappoint all the subtile machinations of these ambitious unchristian persecutors As the force and violence of thunder says Davila useth in a moment to overthrow and ruine those buildings which are built with great care and long labour so his unexpected death destroying in an instant those Counsels which with so much art and dissimulation were brought to maturity and concluded left the state of things already in the way although by Violent and Rigorous Means yet to a certain and secure end in the height of all discord and more than ever they were formerly troubled wavering and abandoned Thus he but we may rather observe the unsuccessfulness of such violent and Rigorous Courses though for the attaining of never so good and lawful ends and that not so much of their own nature as by the special Providence of God who doth frequently suffer wicked and proud conceited men confident of their own wit or strength to proceed in their wicked policies and the exercise of their malitious practises till they be at the very point to receive their expected fruits of all and then by some little occurrence to frustrate and blast all their hopes and make them so much more miserable by their disappointment by how much they thought themselves nearer and surer of the enjoyment Such were the Popes and Spaniards disappoinment mentioned before Sect. 26. pag. 32. and that of 88. Sect. 33. and others Whereas Queen Elizabeths moderate proceedings but in a better cause were all along blessed with happy success 41. To this young King thus cut off in his youth and leaving no issue behind him though some years married to a beautiful young Lady succeeded his brother Charles the nineth a Childe of about Eleven years of Age who by reason of his Minority ority being incapable to exercise the Government by Agreement between the Queen mother now sufficiently weary of the Ambition and Insolencies of the Guises and suspitious of their designs and the King of Navarre first Prince of the blood though the Guises used all their Arts to renue the former differences between them She is made Regent and He President of the Provinces Thu. l. 26. Dav. l. 2. and a Decree is made by the King with the counsel and advice of the Queen Regent Navarre the rest of the Princes of the blood and others Privy Counsellors whereby the Supreme Regimen of all is committed to Her Hereupon the Guises being accustomed
it was nearly related to him Thus with his Instance agree the undertakings of the Conspirators with his Doctrine of not revealing things discovered in Confession though the most hainous Treasons and most pernitious to the State the Practice of their Confessors with his means for concealing the same by Equivocation and Confirmation thereof by Oath or most solemn protestations their punctual strict and resolute use and observance thereof All which is so plain and manifest from what is before recited out of that Section and observed in it and from the following History and the Proceedings against the Traytors that nothing more need be alledged to prove it as nothing can be said with any colour of probability to disprove it 17. And therefore 2. We may also as to their Actions take notice of the great Core and Caution and Secrecy together with their Jugling indirect Practises wherewith they managed their business and that in these two respects 2. in general for the better securing of their design and undertakings from discovery And this appears in divers Instances as 1. In Th. Winters Dealing first with Sir William Stanly to whom though a good friend to the Catholick Cause he positively affirmed that there was no resolution to set any project a foot in England as he tells us in his Confession then with Fawkes to whom though sent for by him to act in this tragedy he imparted only a resolution of a practise in general against his Majesty for relief of the Catholick Cause as appears by both their Confessions 2. In that the business was very sparingly communicated at first but to few and afterwards to more as the intended time of Execution drew on and under an Oath of Secrecy in the most solemn manner confirmed by receiving the Sacrament upon it And Garnet himself often religiously protested to them both by word and writing that he would never betray them in his Letter dated on Palm-Sunday Tortura Torti pag. 286. which implyes that he was often thereunto urged by them 3. In that reason which Catesby alledged when he desired leave to acquaint some others with the business for many said he may be content that I should know who would not therefore that all the company should be acquainted with their names as it is in Winters Confession and it is not unlikely that he learnt this reason by experience at the same time and from the same person as he did the contrivance it self which might possibly for the more secrecy be thus conveyed to him through divers intermediate hands from the first Author or Authors of it 18. And 2. more especially for securing the reputation of the Society in case the Plot should be detected and this appears in the Actions and indirect Practises both of the Jesuites and of the other Conspirators Hence it was that Garnet the Provincial being of greatest Authority and therefore likely to bring most Discredit and greatest Odium upon the Society if such a man as he should be discovered to have any hand in so foul and infamous a matter at first would not be known even to Catesby himself the principal visible actor in the Plot or to any other but of his own Order that he was made privy to it And after the Discovery of the Plot how sollicitous was he and concern'd for the whole Society At at actum est de Societate which he feared would suffer for it as being conscious they well deserved Then upon his Examination and Tryal how ready and dexterous was he with his Equivocations and desperately impious in stiff Denyals upon his Soul and with detestable Execrations of those very things which were after so manifestly proved against him that he could not longer deny them And for the other Conspirators 1. They taxed none in Holy Orders which many looked upon says Thuanus as purposely avoided because they were bound by Oath not to do it And certainly Garnet when he so often engaged not to betray them would not be less careful for the Society to oblige them not to discover any of it 2. Nor did they only carefully abstain from accusing but most desperately indeavoured by all means even the worst of means by lyes and false protestations to excuse them Such were Digbys Protestations whereupon the Earl of Salisbury observed what faith was to be given to these mens protestations who sought to excuse all Jesuits how foul soever out of an opinion that it is meritorious so to do at such time as they had no hope of themselves and to clear them of those practises which they themselves have now confessed ex proprio ore Such was also that lamentable attempt of Tresham upon his death-bed to excuse Garnet wherein he was disproved by the Confessions both of Mrs Vaux Garnets intimite and of Garnet himself To these may be added Their Design to have father'd the enterprise upon the Puritans and since Their impudent groundless Imputation of the Original of it to Cecil which makes the relation of that design more credible and that again makes this imputation more apparently void of Credit 19. Now of these Observations of their Secrecy and Practise we may reasonably make this Vse 1. To manifest the validity and Sufficiency of these and such like Arguments and Proofs from Circumstances and by way of Inducement in this case For where such Works of Darkness as to the main substance of them are plainly and sully proved and as plainly and evidently proved to have been managed with so much Secrecy and Practise we cannot reasonably expect greater Proof and Evidence of any Circumstance belonging to them than so plain a concurrence and agreement of all other Circumstances with it 2. To manifest the Insufficiency of what ever should be urged from their Confessions against us For since they did not only stifly deny plain truths but also must impudently affirm manifest falshoods especially where it was thought necessary for excusing any of the Society what ever shall be alledged from their speeches for that purpose may reasonably be suspected to have been fained and devised for that end and deserves no credit at all 3. To Answer the Objection that might be made and Correct the Mistake that hath been committed concerning the first Author and Original of the Plot as if it was at first of Catesby's Contrivance and not till their Despair of Assistance from Spain upon their last Negotiation there 20. To which it might be Answered from their Practise to excuse their Complices especially the Jesuits that they attributed the Contrivance to Catesby because he being dead could accuse no other and assigned That Time as being a good probable Occasion of it But 2. It may be Answered perhaps more satisfactorily and fully From their Secrecy and from Catesby's own words that some might be willing to be known to him who would not be known to the rest to be privy and the rather because this was an old policy formerly practised in order to the Spanish
is this Jesuites discourse with him represented by the Excellent Thuanus who there informs us that this business was transacted with the Spanish Ambassadour Mendoza and was to have been seconded by a forrein Army and Paget a gentleman of a Noble family sent into Spain about it And at last all things being agreed on both at home and abroad the day appointed for the perpetrating the business is S. Bartholomews day memorable for the Parisian Massacre fourteen years since and for that reason purposely made choice of But before the day came the business being detected Ballard and Babington and several other of the Conspirators were apprehended whereof some had sworn to be the Executioners of the Queens murther and among them Savage now again swore it and others were to be of the party which the while was to rescue the Queen of Scots and upon their own Confessions and Letters intercepted were Convicted Condemned and Executed And in this Conspiracy was a project of making an Association under pretense of fear of the Puritans These were executed but the twentieth of September and in January following was the French Ambassadour l' Aubaspinaeus a man wholly devoted to the Guisian Faction and Lieger here projecting the same business Camb. an 1.87 and to that purpose treated with William Stafford a Gentleman of a Noble Family to kill the Queen at first more covertly but afterward more openly by his Secretary who promised him great Honours a huge summ of Money great Favour with the Pope the Duke of Guise and all the Catholicks Stafford refused it himself but commended to him one Moody and in Consultation how to do it Moody proposes to lay a bag of Gunpowder under the Queens Bed-chamber and secretly give fire to it But this being discovered by Stafford the Secretary thinking to be gone into France was intercepted and upon his examination confessed the whole matter 32. Hitherto had the Actors and Abettors of most of these Conspiracies to put the better Colour upon their unjustifiable attempts besides the Cause of Religion pretended also the Title of the Queen of Scots to the Crown of England Camb. an 1586 who having been discovered to be privy to most of the former and found guilty of that of Babington was therefore condemned and now this being found to have been designed upon the same pretense Queen Elizabeth by great importunity of the Parliament who had confirmed the Sentence was prevailed with to sign a Warrant for the Execution whereupon she was beheaded the eighth of February following And here we must not omit a Notable Artifice of the Jesuites who being at last out of hope of Restoring their Religion by Her or Her Son Camb. an 86 began to set up a feigned Title for the King of Spain and imployed one of their Society into England as is discovered by Pasquier a French Writer to draw off the Gentry from Her to the Spaniard and to thrust her headlong into those dangerous Counsels which brought Her to Her end and at the same time least the Guises her kindred should give her any assistance stirring Them up to new enterprises against the King of Navarre and Conde And agreeable hereunto was the discovery of that for which she was condemned viz. by Gilbert Gifford a Priest then sent over into England to immind Savage of his Vow and to be the Letter-carrier between the Queen of Scots and the Confederates who presently goes and offers his Service to the Secretary Walsingham to discover them and that forsooth out of Love to his Prince and Countrey although he had not long before been one of those who provoked Savage to his vow to kill her and accordingly he first conveyes them to Walsingham by whom they are opened transcribed and carefully sealed up again and returned to Gifford who then conveys them to the Queen of Scots Babington or who ever else they are directed to which is so plain a prosecution of the same design that it is a wonder that Camden should be so much at a loss to find out the mystery of this undertaking of the Priest More might be observed to manifest this Juggle if it were necessary to the present business 33. The Design of the Pope and Spaniard to Invade England had been now long since perceived here not so much by printed books which were designed only to work upon the vulgar and their own party as by the secret Letters of Morton and others which were intercepted and Chringhtow the Scotch Jesuit's papers miraculously as himself acknowledged when by him torn and thrown into the Sea blown back into the Ship wherein he was taken But now their preparations being in good forwardness as well for the assault from abroad by their Navy and Army as for their reception and admission here by their party prepared by their Agents the Emissaries the better to disguise the business and to make the Queen and her Counsel the more secure Camb. an 1586 they not only publish a Book wherein the Papists in England are admonished not to attempt any thing against their Prince but to fight only with the weapons of Christians Tears Spiritual Arguments Sedulous Prayers Watchings Fasting Thu. lib. 89. Canrd an 1588 but also a Treaty of Peace is earnestly sollicited by the Duke of Parma with Authority from the King of Spain which though not soon yielded to by the Queen who suspected some fraud or deceitful design in it yet being at last obtained is kept on foot till the engagement of both fleets break it off in the famous year of 88. At which time all the preparations being fully compleated for execution the Pope who had before promised the assistance of his Treasure begins first to thunder out his Bull Which with a book written by Doctor Allen is printed at Antwerp in English in great numbers to be sent over into England in which book for the greater terrour of the people are particularly related their vast preparations which were so great that the Spaniards themselves being in admiration of them named it the Invincible Armado and the Nobility Gentry and people of England and Ireland are exhorted to joyn themselves with the Spanish Forces under the conduct of the Dake of Parma for the Execution of the Popes Sentence against Elizabeth With this Bull is Dr. Allen being extraordinarily † Thu. l. 100. out of the time allowed by the Canons even of this Pope made Cardinal of purpose for this exploit sent into Flanders to be ready * Thu. l. 89. upon the Spaniards Landing Some such Officer we may suppose was intrusted with the three Breves which were in like manner seur to be in readiness to be sent over and published in the Popes name in three principal places of this Kingdom as soon as the Powder-plot was discharged and had done its execution as Bishop Andrews reports from the Spontaneous confession of a Jesuit at the time of his writing who was then
Your Sister if it may be after the old mode With the new will I have nothing to do ELIZABETHA R. 56. Thus this good Queen but the King who had before loosened the ties of Conscience for the saving of his life and began now to break through the same for the satisfaction of his lust and the enjoyment of a † Gabrielle d'Estrees v. Perefix p. 194. woman it is no wonder if he did the same for the enjoyment of a Kingdom which perhaps he might have better secured otherwise and his life with it It is true he never went so far as to persecute the Protestants as his Predecessors in the Kingdom of France did and his Father began to do and perhaps had proceeded further had he escaped that fatal wound but while he took liberty to himself to change that profession gave them the liberty to retain and enjoy it and under better conditions than ever they enjoyed or were granted them before which was a principal cause which made his Reign so much more prosperous and happy than theirs Yet as in those two particulars for his lust and for his Kingdom he did forsake his Conscience and Religion so did God at last after several fair warnings forsake and leave him to the * V. Perefix p. 400 461 462. ruine of his health by the satisfaction of his lusts the disappointment of his counsels by the treachery of the Jesuits and the loss of his life by the hand of a zealot of that Religion which he had chosen whereas this blessed Queen who gave him this pious admonition and her self continued faithful to her God and constant in her pious resolutions to the last was to the last blessed and preserved notwithstanding all the Plots and Conspiracies Rebellions and Invasions and attempts of her enemies the Romanists against her By this act of his he broke indeed the faction of the Leaguers and so more easily quieted his possession of the Kingdom yet had he soon an occasion to immind him how uncertain and short his enjoyment of it was like to be unless still preserved in the midst of Peace by the same Providence by which he had been hitherto preserved in his Wars and advanced to it through so many dangers and difficulties Thu. l. 107. For within a month after his conversion to the Romish profession was apprehended an assasin Peter Barrier who from place to place had followed him to kill him This fellow had confered about it with a Carmelite and a Capuchin who both encouraged him to it and when he made some scruple by reason the King was turned Catholick as he said he was confirmed in it by Chr. Aubre Curate of St. Andrea who for his further confirmation led him to Varade Rector of the Jesuites Colledge who eased him of all scruples and further animated him to perform the undertaking and when he had been confessed and received the Sacrament in their Colledge dismissed him to that purpose Having provided him a knife for the purpose it was not long before he had an opportunity to have done it but was strangely restrained being pulled back as it were with cords tied about his heart as he afterward confessed The like opportunities he often had at other places whither he followed the King for that purpose but was by some little accident or other still prevented or had not the power to do it though otherwise a fearless man At last being discovered and apprehended and brought to his trial he confidently confessed the whole matter railing upon the Sectaries and his Judges Before his execution he was ordered to be racked to make him confess his complices but in the mean time it was thought fit to send some to him to admonish him of his error whereof he was so throughly convinced by Oliver Barengarius a Dominican who had all along been of the King's party that acknowledging his error he reckoned himself happy that he was prevented from committing so great a wickedness as he intended though by his own most miserable death detesting his purpose and those who had perswaded him to it and told him that if he died in the enterprize his soul should immediately be received by Angels into Heaven there to enjoy an eternal happiness with God and admonished him that if he should happen to be taken and tortured he should not name any of them who had perswaded him to it for then he must know he should incur the pains of eternal damnation and before his execution he gave notice of two Priests who at Lions had undertaken to kill the King and for the greater caution described their persons This renewed the odium of the Jesuits who were reputed not only to have been the * So Day in the S●ory of Chastel calls them the first authors and continual fomentors of the League p. 1232. first inventers of this mischievous War but also what by their profane Sermons what by the poison of their naughty Doctrine secretly in confession instilled into the minds of the inraged people to have exposed by a pernitious example the sacred persons of Princes to be murdered by every one The next danger of this kind which he was in came yet a little nearer to him Thu. l. 111. when in the Chamber of his † Perefix p. 229. beloved Mistress happily at the instant stooping to salute a Gentleman that came in he received that stroke only at his mouth and without greater hurt than the loss of a tooth which was designed at his heart by John Chastel a Scholar of the Jesuites who through a flagitious life grown desperate hoped by so heroick an act for the cause of the Roman Catholick Religion to merit though not Salvation whereof he despaired yet some mitigation of his punishment perhaps from the eighth degree to the fourth He was educated and studied in the Jesuites School and was assistant in Philosophy to John Guerret a Priest of that Society and though vitious above his age yet was in esteem with those Fathers who used to admit him among their choice disciples to their more secret conferences and religious exercises and had often heard in that Society that it was not only lawful to kill the King but a thing much conducing to the cause of Religion whereof it seems he was so throughly perswaded that notwithstanding the terribleness of his execution he expressed no signs of sorrow or repentance but on the contrary being first put to the rack gave out such assertions as the Court declared seditious contrary to the word of God and condemned by the sacred Decrees and made it treason to repeat them As he had before freely confessed Da. p. 1332. so when he was tortured he confirmed the same that he was bred up in the Schools of the Jesuites and had often heard it discoursed and disputed that it was not only lawful but also meritorious to kill Henry of Bourbon the King a relapsed Heretick and often said that
Nor is the thing it self more apparent than the reasons of it But I shall not here trace it to its first and original causes but only shew it in its next and immediate causes which are Surpize Impotence and Presumption From Surpize there is certainly no man whose care and caution can always secure him that he may not sometimes through the heat of passion or suddenness of a tentation be * Gal. 6.1 overtaken This we may all observe in our selves and in most we familiarly converse with Nay our very caution it self in many things makes us apt to be surprized by fear and thereupon to do those things we otherwise would not or neglect what we would otherwise do And though there be not a like Impotence in all yet is there more or less in every one whence men often do themselves contrary to what they would advise their children or dearest friends We daily see those who doubt not the directions of their Physitians to be good and necessary to be observed yet frequently overcome to transgress them to the hazard of their health and life it self nay Physitians themselves do the same whereof I could give a late notable instance in one of the most famous of his time Nor are we to think great Statesmen Polititians and learned men more exempt from all impotence than others are It is sufficient that they be well qualified for the places they hold to which their very impotence in some respects may sometime be a special qualification and they who are not easily overcome by one passion or affection may yet be perfectly enslaved to another What is wanting to these two causes is frequently made up by Presumption whether upon God's mercy in general and hope of pardon upon an intended repentance afterward or upon the priviledg of being within the pale of the Church by profession of Christianity or being members of the Catholick Church or zealous for the party they espouse that is as the Prophet saith Trusting in lying words saying The Temple of the Lord Jer. 7.3 The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord a Presumption so powerful heretofore that notwithstanding that reproof and after a notable experience of the vanity of it we find it in our Saviour's days still continued and again reproved by John Baptist Think not to say within your selves we have Abraham to our Father c. Mat. 3.9 And yet after all this as experience sheweth still prevalent in our days and very common among the Romanists and the Disciples of the Jesuites especially their new Proselytes who seem to hope for indulgence in their sinful courses or to expiate the same by their zeal for the Church whereunto great occasion is given by their abominable abuse of Absolution Commutation of Penance Indulgences and complying Conduct 2. These actions may proceed from error in the understanding and ignorance or mistake about some particular Christian Doctrine through an erronious Conscience thinking that to be lawful or a Christian duty which is absolutely unlawful So our Saviour telleth his Disciples that they who should kill them would think they do God service Jo. 16.2 and Saul thought that he ought to persecute the Christians Act. 26.9 and this may be consistent with a firm belief of the Christian Doctrine in general And this I take to be in truth the case of the Romanists and that they are given up to believe a lye through strong delusions wherein they do not more deceive their disciples than they are themselves deceived for do but admit me one or two of their Principles and there is nothing so monstrous in their actions but I think I can easily prove it lawful I had therefore intended to have shewed from what Principles those actions have proceeded that those Principles are mistaken and are no Christian but rather Antichristian Doctrines what hath been the cause occasion and progress of that mistake and lastly that this defection from the Christian Doctrine and Manners hath been foretold by the first Propagators of the Christian Faith in that manner as I think would not only do much to the removing of the scandal but moreover afford no inconsiderable evidence to the truth of Christianity it self but that I see would be too long for this place and time but I am well assured of the truth of what I say and doubt not but ere long it will be made manifest 3. There is one cause more from whence men may act contrary to Christianity and that in the highest degree and yet without the disbelief of the Truth of it in general or of any particular Doctrine of it and that is through desperation the case of some who believe and tremble Ja. 2.19 When men by frequency and long continuance in sin against the light and cheeks of conscience have sinned themselves into this desperation this is often an occasion to them to a further progress in wickedness even to the height of the most enormous sins though they neither d● nor can doubt of the truth of the Christian Religion no more than do the Devils who believe and tremble for there is no sin which is not consistent with a full perswasion of it in such as are once become desperate indeed Even scoffing at and abuse of Religion to evil ends are no certain arguments of unbelief in such as use them There may be and are false Professors of Atheism and Infidelity as well as of Religion it self There is more or less of humane frailty in all Too many sin against knowledg and some thereby sin themselves into despair and then run on into all wickedness against that Belief which they would fain cast off if they could And there are so many causes and occasions of sins besides unbelief that they cannot in reason be attributed to it alone 4. And lastly considering the strange wild fancies which we often see men learned men and otherwise sober men fall into considering the great force prevalence that the will affections have to byass blind and corrupt the judgment considering the power and malice and subtilty that according to the Scriptures the God of this World hath to blind mens minds that they should not believe the Gospel of Truth it is not to be doubted but such there are who do not believe it but then the very same reasons may satisfy us what little credit there is to be given to the opinions of such men without better reason and yet I know and have found by experience that some professors of Infidelity have no better reasons than this they are like men in a panick fear where every one is afraid but none knoweth the cause only he supposeth the rest do and is so much the more afraid by how much the more in number they are whom he supposeth to be in the same passion with himself so many who have no reason at all for their unbelief yet suppose others have and would fain be thought as wise as they This I thought necessary to add as an Antidote against that poison which some might suck from those scandalous Practices and Actions which have been here related FINIS