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A29318	Brethren in iniquity, or, The confederacy of Papists with sectaries, for the destroying of the true religion, as by law establish'd, plainly detected wherein is shewed a farther account of the Romish snares and intrigues for the destroying the true reformed religion, as professed in the Church of England, and established by law, and for the introducing of popery or atheism among us : clearly shewing from very authentick writers and testimonies, that the principal ways and methods whereby the papists have sought the ruine of our religion and church, from the beginning of our Reformation, to the present times, and by which they are still in hopes of compassing it, are by promoting of toleration, or pretended liberty of conscience, and that for above these sixscore years the papists have so craftily influenced our dissenters, as to make them the unhappy instruments of effecting their most pernicious designs, which they contrived for, the subverting our church and state.		1690 (1690)	Wing B4382; ESTC R6507	50,245	71

Brethren in Iniquity OR THE CONFEDERACY OF PAPISTS with SECTARIES For the Destroying of the True Religion as by Law Establish'd plainly detected WHEREIN Is shewed a farther Account of the Romish Snares and Intrigues for the Destroying the True Reformed Religion as Professed in the Church of England and Established by Law and for the Introducing of Popery or Atheism among us clearly shewing from very Authentick Writers and Testimonies That the principal Ways and Methods whereby the Papists have sought the Ruine of our Religion and Church from the Beginning of our Reformation to the present Times and by which they are still in hopes of compassing it are by promoting of Toleration or pretended Liberty of Conscience and that for above these Sixscore Years the Papists have so craftily Influenced our Dissenters as to make them the unhappy Instruments of effecting their most pernitious Designs which they contrived for the Subverting our Church and State Every Kingdom divided against it self is brought to desolation and every City or House divided against it self cannot stand Matth. xij 25. Now I beseech you Brethren mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them For they that are such serve not the Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple Rom. xvi 17.18 These be they which separate themselves sensual having not the Spirit Jude i. 19. LONDON Printed and are to be sold by Randal Taylor near Stationers-Hall MDCXC THE CONTENTS TWO very remarkable Letters the one from Sir Will. Boswell the other from Archbishop Bramhall shewing how much the Sectaries were Influenc'd by Papists to take off the Life of King Charles I. and to Embroil the Church c. pag. 1 3. Dr. Peter du Moulin's Narrative which confirms the Papists contriving the Death of King Charles and their putting Phanaticks upon the Execution pag. 6 Part of Father Sibthorp's a Jesuit Letter shewing their Intrigues with the Sectaries for the raising of Broils in Church and State pag. 12 Mr. Richard Baxter's Discovery and Confession of the Papists insinuating themselves among the Sectaries for the restoring of Popery pag. 14 Several material Collections to the same purpose out of the Writings of the Learned Dr. Stillingfleet now the Right Reverend Bishop of W. pag. 17 Archbishop Whitgift's Opinion That the Papist's befriend the Puritans pag. 19 Archbishop Grindall's fear of Popery and Atheism being promoted by them pag. 20 Campanella's and Father Young's Advice of bringing in Popery by means of Toleration and help of Phanaticks pag. 22 Coleman's and the Lord Viscount Stafford's Confession of bringing in Popery by Toleration and the Phanaticks help pag. 23 Bishop Saunderson's Opinion how and in what Phanaticks befriend Papists pag. 26 Some Verses to the same purpose ibid. The Judgment of Nine Learned Presbyterian Divines of Toleration pag. 31 The Votes and Reasons of the House of Commons in 1662. against it pag. 43 The Letter of the Presbyterian Ministers to the Assembly of Divines at Westminster against Toleration pag. 46 Sir Francis Walsingham's Letter concerning Severities used against Papists pag. 53 Lord Keeper Puckering's Speech to the Parliament concerning the Puritans preparing the way to the Spanish Invasion 1588. pag. 59 What good Effects the Penal Laws wronght and the Acts of Vniformity in bringing People to Church when duly executed pag. 60 Bishop Burnet's Reason why the Penal Law 's wrought no more good in making People generally conformable to the Church pag. 62 Arshbishop Whitgift's Character of the Puritans turbulent Spirits ibid. King Charles I. his Memorial of the great Numbers of Papists in the Parliaments Army and of the Papists and Phanaticks Confederating pag. 63 An Ingenuous and very true Account of the Dissenters combining with the Popish Party in the late Reign of King James II. against the Church of England pag. 64 Brethren in Iniquity OR The Confederacy of Papists with Sectaries for the destroying of the True Religion as by Law Established plainly detected A Letter from Sir William Boswell to the most Reverend William Laud late Arch-bishop of Canterbury remaining with Sir Robert Cotton's choice Papers Most Reverend AS I am here employed by our Soveraign Lord the King your Grace can testifie that I have left no stone unturned for his Majesty's Advancement neither can I omit whenever I meet with Treacheries or Conspiracies against the Church and State of England the sending your Grace an account in General I fear Matters will not answer your Expectations if your Grace do but seriously weigh them with deliberation For be you assured the Romish Clergy have gull'd the misled party of our English Nation and that under a Puritanical Dress for which the several Fraternities of that Church have lately received Indulgence from the See of Rome and Council of Cardinals or to Educate several of the young Friars of the Church of Rome who be Natives of His Majesty's Realms and Dominions and instruct them in all manner of Principles and Tenents contrary to the Episcopacy of the Church of England There be in the Town of Hague to my certain knowledge two dangerous Impostors of whom I have given notice to the Prince of Orange who have large Indulgences granted them and known to be of the Church of Rome although they seem Puritans and do converse with several of our English Factors The one James Murray a Scotch-man and the other John Napper a York-shire Blade The main drift of these Intentions is to pull down the English Episcopacy as being the chief Support of the Imperial Crown of our Nation for which purpose above sixty Romish Clergy-men are gone within these two Years out of the Monesteries of the French King's Dominions to Preach up the Scotch Covenant and Mr. Knox his Discipline and Rules within that Kirk and to spread the same about the Northern Coasts of England Let therefore His Majesty have an inkling of these Crotchets that he might be perswaded whenever Matters of the Church come before you to reserr them to your Grace and the Episcopal Party of the Realm for there be great Preparations making ready against the Liturgy and Ceremonies of the Church of England And all evil Contrivances here and in France and in other Protestant Holdings to make your Grace and the Episcopacy odious to all Reformed Protestants abroad it has wrought so much on divers of the Foreign Ministers of the Protestants that they esteem our Clergy little better than Papists The main things that they hit in our Teeth are our Bishops being called Lords the Service of the Church the Cross in Baptism Confirmation Bowing at the Name of Jesus the Communion-Table placed Altar-ways our manner of Consecrations and several other Matters which be of late buzz'd into the Heads of the Foreign Clergy to make your Grievances the less regarded in case of a change which is aimed at if not speedily prevented Your Grace's Letter is carefully

Lord Viscount Stafford That they designed to bring in Popery by Toleration as may be seen in his Trial. And now let any impartial Person judge who did most effectually serve the Papist Designs those who kept to the Communion of the Church of England or those who fell into a course of Separation I will allow what Mr. Baxter saith That they might use their Endeavours to exasperate the several Parties against each other and might sometimes press the more rigorous Execution of Laws against them but then it was to set them at a greater distance from us and to make them more pliable to a General Toleration And they sometimes complained That those who were most averse to this found themselves under the Severity of the Law when more Tractable Men escaped which they have weakly imputed to the Bishops when they might easily understand the true causo of such a Discrimination But from the whole it appears That the grand Design of the Papists for many Years was to break in pieces the Constitution of the Church of England which being done they flattered themselves with the hopes of great Accessions to their Strength and Party and in order to this they inflamed the Differences among us to the utmost height on purpise to make all the dissenting Parties to join with them for a General Toleration which they did not question would destroy this Church and advance their Interest And it is a most unfortunate Condition our Church is in That those who design to bring in Popery and the Dissenters who made so great bustles in the late King's Reign to keep it out should now both conspire towards the Destruction of our Church and use all their Art and Industry to undermine and blow up this strongest Bullwork of the Protestant Religion This Reverend and most Learned Person hath also well observ'd how subtilly the Romanists have managed our indiscreet Dissenters Zeal against the Church of England under a pretence of opposing Popery to be one of the more likely ways to bring it in Many Instruments and Engines they made use of in this Design many ways and times they set about it and although they met with several Disappointments yet they never gave it over And is it not very strange that when they can scarce appear for themselves others out of meer Zeal against Popery should carry on their Work for them This seems to be a great Paradox to unthinking People who are carried away with meer Noise and Pretences and hope those will secure them most against the fears of Popery who talk with most Passion and least Understanding against it whereas no persons do really give them greater Advantages than these do For where they meet with intemperate Railings and gross Understandings of the State of the Controversies between them and us the more subtle Romanists will let such alone to spend their Rage and Fury and when the heat is over they will calmly endeavour to let them see how grosly they have been deceived in some things and so will the more easily make them believe they are as much deceived in all the rest And thus the East and West may meet at last and the most furious Dissenters who would be looked upon as the greatest Adversaries to Popery become the easiest Converts This I do really fear will be the case of many Thousands amongst us who now pass for the most zealous Protestants if ever which God forbid that Religion should come to be uppermost in England It is therefore of mighty Consequence for preventing the return of Popery that people rightly understand what it is for when they are as much afraid of an innocent Ceremony as of real Idolatry and think they can Worship and Adore the Host on the same grounds that they may use the Sign of the Cross or Kneel at the Communion when they are brought to see their mistake in one Case they will suspect themselves deceived in the other also For they who took that to be Popery which is not will be apt to think Popery it self not so bad as it was represented and so for want of right Vnderstanding the Differences between us may be carried from one extream to the other For when they find the undoubted Practices of the Ancient Church condemned as Popish and Antichristian by their Teachers they must conclude Popery to be of much greater Antiquity than really it is and when they can trace it so very near the Apostles times they will soon believe it setled by the Apostles themselves For it will be very hard to perswade any considering Men that the Christian Church should degenerate so soon so universally as it must do if Epsscopal Government and the use of some significant Ceremonies were any parts of that Apostacy Will it not seem strange to them that when some humane Polities have preserved their first Constitution so long without any considerable alteration that the Government instituted by Christ and settled by his Apostles should so soon after be changed into another kind and that so easily so insensibly that all the Christian Churches believed they had still the very same Government which the Apostles left them Which is a matter so incredible that those who can believe such a part of Popery could prevail so soon in the Christian Church may be brought upon the like Grounds to belives that many others did so mighty a prejudice doth the Principles of our Church's Enemies bring upon the Cause of the Reformation And those who forego the Testimony of Antiquity as all the Opposers of the Church of England must do must unavoidably run with the Papists which the Principles of our Church do lead us through For we can justly charge Popery as an unreasonable innovation when we allow the undoubted Practices and Government of the Church for many Ages after Christ And the Excellent Learned and most pious Prelate Bishop Saunderson hath observ'd That those who reject the usages of our Church as Popish and Antichristian when assaulted by Papists will be apt to conclude Popery the old Religion which in the purest and primitive Times was professed in all Christian Churches throughout the World whereas the sober Church of England Protestant is able by the Grace of God with clear Evidence of Truth to justifie the Church of England from all imputation of Heresie or Schism and the Religion thereof as it stood by Law established from the like imputation of Novelty And in this he professes to lay open the inmost thoughts of his Heart in this sad Business before God and the World And he further saith The Dissenting Brethren were great promoters of the Roman Interest among us in the late Times of Usurpation by putting their helping hand to the pulling down of Episcopacy And saith he 't is very well known to many what rejoicing that Vote brought to the Romish Party how even in Rome it self they sung their Io-Paeans upon the tidings thereof and said triumphantly Now the Day

the Army as the King himself was certified by an Express from thence and wished to provide against it but two days before his removal by the Army from the Isle of Wight to his Execution It were worth the Enquiry upon what Ground the Author of Fair Warning affirmeth pag. 35 36 37. in the Second Part of 120 Prophecies concerning the return of Popery That Father Sibthorp in a Letter to Father Medcalfe acknowledgeth the Jesuits to have contriv'd the Murther of the King and that Sarabras was present and triumphing at the Murther of his sacred Majesty In pursuance of the Order from Rome for the pulling down both the Monarch and Monarchy of England many Jesuits came over who took several Shapes to go about their Work but most of them took party in the Army About Thirty of them or their Disciples were met by a Protestant Gentleman between Roan and Diepe to whom they said taking him for one of the Party That they were going into England and would take Arms in the Independant Army and endeavour to be Agitators This agrees with the Account Bishop Bramhall gave in his Letter to Bishop Vsher In the Year 1640 there was discovered to the Archbishop of Canterbury a design in which the Pope Cardinal Richlieu and many of the English Papists but especially the Jesuits were concerned in stirring up those Divisions that had just before broke out in Scotland for the Ruine of the King and of the Archbishop This may be seen at large in the Histories of those times and the very Papers themselves may be found in Mr. Rushworth's Collections vol. 3. p. 1310. c. Sir William Boswell likewise at the Hague made the like Discovery in his Letter to the Archbishop Father Salmonet declares in his History of our Civil Wars printed in France with the Allowance of the King That after the Engagement at Egdehill several Romish Papists were found among the slain of the Parliament Army And adds That the Parliament had two Companies of Walloons besides others of that Religion in their Army Salmonet Hist des troubles d'Angleterre liv 3. pag. 165. When the Rebellion also broke out in Ireland it was we know bless'd with His Holiness's Letters and assisted by his Nuntio whom he sent on purpose thither for that service And that the Papists had a flying Squadron in the Parliament Army How boldly soever this may be denied by some there is another proof beyond Exception in a Declaration of King Charles I. that he sent to the Kingdom of Scotland dated April 21. 1643. which hath been several times Printed And as an Author that wrote the History of the late Civil Wars has assured us the clean draught of it corrected in some places with the King 's own hand is yet extant so that it cannot be pretended that this was only a bold Assertion of some of the King's Ministers that might be ill affected to their Party In that Declaration the King studied to possess his Subjects of Scotland with the Justice of his Cause and among other things to clear himself of the imputation that he had an Army of Papists about him after many things said on that Head these Words are added Great Numbers of that Religion have been with alacrity entertained in that Rebellious Army against us and others have been seduced to whom we had formerly denied Employments as appears by the Examination of many Prisoners of whom we have taken Twenty or Thirty at a time of that Religion in one Troop or Company The Credit of this Testimony is not to be disputed but no Discoveries how evident soever they may be can effect some sort of Men that have a secret against Blushing This also plainly lets us see how that under the dissembled Disguise of being of their Parties the subtle Priests and Jesuits have crept in and mix'd themselves among our dividing Sectaries and cunningly made them the unhappy Tools and Instruments to effect their most pernitious Designs and Contrivances which otherwise without their aid they would not be able to compass and that the same Method not covertly but openly is still practised is too palpable to be gainsaid God grant the Eyes of our Dissenting Brethren may be timely opened for the seasonable preventing the Miseries and Evils that threaten our Government that they may not only see but follow the things that belong to the Peace and Prosperity of our Church and State before they are hid from their Eyes A Protestant Lady living in Paris in the time of our late Calamities was perswaded by a Jesuit going in Scarlet to turn Roman Catholick and when the dismal News of the King's Murther came to Paris this Lady as all other good English Subjects was most deeply afflicted with it and when this Scarlet Divine came to see her and found her melted in Tears about that heavy and common Disaster he told her with a smiling Countenance That she had no reason to lament but rather to rejoice seeing that the Catholicks were rid of their greatest Enemy and that the Catholick Cause was much furthered by his Death Upon which the Lady put the Man down the Stairs in great Anger saying If that be your Religion I have done with it for ever And God hath given her the Grace to make her Word good hitherto Many Intelligent Travellers can tell of the great Joy among the English Convents and Seminaries for the King's Death as having overcome their Enemy and done their main work for their Settlement in England of which they made themselves so sure that the Benedictines were in great care that the Jesuits should not get their Land and the English Nuns were contending who should be Abbesses in England An understanding Gentleman visiting the Friars of Dunkirk put them upon the Discourse of the King's Death and to pump out their Sence about it said That the Jesuits had laboured very much to compass that great Work to which they answered That the Jesuits would Engross to themselves the Glory of all great and good Works and of this among other Works whereas they had laboured as diligently and effectually for it as they so there was striving for the Glory of that Atchievement and the Friars shew'd themselves as much Jesuited as the Jesuits The same Gentleman who in his Travels hath found them in several places jealous of the Glory which the Jesuits ascribed to their only Order to have promoted the King's Death whereas other Orders had been as active as they in that great Atchievement I cannot leave unobserved that in the height of the late Usurpation and Tyranny two Heads of the Gun-powder Traitors that were set up upon the House of Lords were taken down not by high Winds but by the same Zeal which had plotted that Treason and with the leave of Traytors of another Feather which in time we may hear to be shrined up in Gold as Holy Relicks and working Miracles By this we see what a good Accord and friendly

33. c. saith Liberty of Conscience falsly so called may in good time improve it self into Liberty of Estates Liberty of Houses and Liberty of Wives and in a word Liberty of Perdition of Souls and Bodies This only would I know of you are Idolaters Hereticks Blasphemers and Seducers Evil-doers If so then look to your charge Rom. 13.4 Rulers must be a terrour to Evil-doers unless you mean to bear the Sword in vain And if you will God will not and if God take the Sword into his own hand once he will smite to purpose and execute vengeance throughly both upon the Evil-doers and upon you that have not been a terrour to them Oh therefore up and be doing that you may deliver the Kingdom out of the hand of the Lord for it is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the Living God O let not your Patience be interpreted a Connivence and your Connivence be taken for a Toleration it may be the Kingdom 's ruine but it will be your Sin Also in his Sermon before the Commons February 19. 1645. pag. 25. he thus addresseth to them Fathers and Brethren how will you call this keeping of Covenant with God had we a Parliament of Apostate Julians of whom it is reported that at what time he opened the Temples of the Heathenish Gods he set open the Christian Churches called home all the Christians that were banished both Orthodox and Heretick and gave them as we call it Liberty of Conscience but as Austin more truly phraseth it Libertatem perditionis Liberty to destroy themselves for that was his policy and end namely by Liberty of all Religions to destroy the true and the Professours of it too If we had a Parliament of careless Gallio's we should not wonder c. Mr. George Hughes late Minister of Plymouth in his Sermon before the Commons May 26. 1647. p. 34 preached thus I must say that Toleration must be a destructive Principle to the State or Church where-ever it be allowed experience hath shew'd us no less in Kingdoms and Churches called by God's name Ye Servants of Christ take heed of yielding to the pretences of Conscience The Devil and not Christ hath his throne there and no stronger hold for him than Conscience if he once takeit Christ will not suffer him to shelter there therefore you may not so much as in you lieth Object Do not other States and some of the united Provinces tolerate all these Heresies and protect them and yet they prosper who more Answ I desire not to meddle with other States unless I might do them good But 1. Can any Man say that Prosperity is a sign peculiar to Truth then let Rome come in and speak more than any for outward Prosperity 2. Are not spiritual Wickednesses as odious to God as carnal and are not these Heresies such which God condemns as works of the Flesh inconsistent with Christ's Kingdom 3. Hath God made an end of visiting Nations for the Sins of them when God hath done judging were a better time to urge this Example than now I pray God the evil day may not overtake these States the good God cause the cup of trembling to pass by them and purge their inquities peaceably but I am pressed in Spirit to say God hath not spared such State polities which have sought their own rise by the ruine of God's Truth Witness Jeroboam the Son of Nebat who made Israel to sin and as Seneca saith Qui non vetat peccare cum potest jubet he bids sin that doth not hinder it when he can God's Truth my beloved and not Man's example must be the Rule If Heresies yet must be let us mourn for what we cannot help It is a miserable Necessity when not allowed It will be rejoicing in Iniquity either for Church or State wilfully to tolerate Mr. Edmund Calamy in his Sermon before the Lord Mayor January 14. 1645. pag. 3. makes this Lamentation The Churches of Christ lie desolate Church-reformation is obstructed Church-discipline unsetled and Church-divisions increased The famous City of London is become an Amsterdam Separation from our Churches is countenanc'd Toleration is cried up Authority lieth asleep And pag. 4. Divisions whether they be Ecclesiastical or Political in Kingdoms Cities or Families are infallible causes of ruine to them See Mark 3.24 25. Again pag. 14. Hereby the hearts of people are mightily distracted many are hindred from Conversion and even the Godly themselves have lost much of the power of Godliness in their lives I say the hearts of people are mightily disturbed while one Minister preacheth one thing as a Truth of the Gospel and another Minister preacheth the quite contrary with as much considence as the former Pag. 17. If Divisions be so destructive to Kingdoms Cities and Families this reproveth those that are the Authors and Fomenters of these Divisions that are now among us These are the Iincendiaries of England If he that sets one house a fire deserveth hanging much more they that set a whole Kingdom on fire If he that murders one Man must be put to death much more he that murders three Kingdoms mark them saith the Apostle Rom. 16.17 that cause Divisions and Offences contrary to the Doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them avoid them as the greatest enemies of England these are like the Salamander that cannot live but in the fire of Contention These are of a Jesuitical Spirit and no doubt the heads and hands of the Jesuits are in all our Divisions Pag. 33. Take heed of the Land-destroying opinion of those that plead for an unlimited Toleration of all Religions even of Turcism Judaism c. the Lord keep us from being poison'd with such an Errour Our Saviour's saying in Matth. 12.25 riseth up against it Every Kingdom divided against it self is brought to desolation for it will divide Kingdoms against it self it will rend it in a thousand pieces it is a Doctrine that overthroweth all Church-Government bringeth in confusion and openeth a wide door unto all Irreligion and Atheism For at the same door that all false Religions came in the true Religion-will quickly get out and if it be as good for a Man to live where nothing is lawful as where all things are lawful surely it is every way as uncomfortable to live where there are all Religions as where there is no Religion at all Pag. 37. It is your Duty right Honourable whom God hath intrusted with great Power to suppress these Divisions and Differences in Religion by your Civil Authority as far as you are able least you are accessary unto them For God hath made you Custodes utriusque Tabulae Keepers not of the Second Table only as some fondly imagine but of the First Table also and not only Keepers but Vindices utriusque Tabulae Punishers also of those that transgress against either of them For you are the Ministers of God for good and Revengers to execute wrath upon him that doth

Person and that by the Poison which they spread the Humours of most Papists were altered and that they were no more Papist in Conscience and of Softness but Papist in Faction Then were there new Laws made for the Punishment of such as should submit themselves to such reconcilements or renunciation of Obedience And because it was a Treason carried in the Clouds and in wonderful Secrecy and come seldom to light and that there was no presuspicion thereof so great as the Recusancy to come to Divine Service because it was set down by their Decrees that to come to Church before Reconciliation was to live in Schism but to come to Church after Reconcilement was absolutely Heretical and Damnable Therefore there were added Laws containing punishment Pecuniary viz. such as might not enforce Consciences but to infeeble and impoverish the means of those about whom it resteth indifferent and ambiguous whether they were reconciled or not And when notwithstanding all this provision the Poison was dispersed so secretly as that there was no means to stay it but by restraining the Merchants that brought it in Then lastly there was added a Law whereby such seditious Priests of new Erection were exiled and those that were at that time within the Land shipped over and so commanded to keep hence upon pain of Treason This hath been the proceeding though intermingled not only with sundry Examples of her Majesty's Grace towards such as in her Wisdom she knew to be Papist in Conscience and not Faction and Singularity but also with extraordinary mitigation towards the Offenders in the highest degree committed by Law if they would but protest that if in Case this Realm should be invaded with a Foreign Army by the Pope's Authority for the Catholick Cause as they term it they would take part with her Majesty and not adhere to her Enemies For the other Party which have been offensive to the State though in another Degree which named themselves Reformers and we commonly call Puritans this hath been the proceeding towards them A great while when they inveighed against such abuses in the Church as Pluralities Non-residence and the like their Zeal was not Condemned only their Violence was sometimes Censured When they refused the use of some Ceremonies and Rites as Superstitious they were tolerated with much Connivency and Gentleness yea when they called in Question the Superiority of Bishops and pretended to a Democrary in the Church yet their Propositions were here considered and by contrary Writings debated and discussed yet all this while it was perceived that their Course was dangerous and very popular As because Papistry was odious therefore it was ever in their Mouths That they sought to Purge the Church from the Reliques of Papistry a thing acceptable to the People who love ever to run from one extream to another Because multitudes of Rogues and Poverty was an Eye-sore and a dislike to every Man therefore they put into the Peoples head That if Discipline were planted there should be no Vagabonds nor Beggars a thing very plausible And in like manner they promised the People many of the impossible wonders of their Discipline besides they opened to the People a way to Government by their Consistory and Presbytery a thing though in consequence no less prejudicial to the Liberties of private Men than to the Soveraignty of Princes yet in first shew very Popular Nevertheless this except it were some few that entered into extream contempt was born with because they pretended in dutiful manner to make Propositions and to leave it to the Providence of God and the Authority of the Magistrate But now of late Years when there issued from them that affirmed the consent of the Magistrate was not to be attended when under pretence of a Confession to avoid Slander and Imputations they combined themselves by Classes and Subscriptions when they descended into that vile and base means of defaming the Government of the Church by ridiculous Pasquils when they began to make many Subjects in doubt to take Oaths which is one of the fundamental Parts of Justice in this Land and in all places when they began both to vaunt of their strength and number of their Partizans and Followers and to use Comminations that their Cause would prevail through Vproar and Violence then it appeared to be no more Zeal no more Conscience but meer Faction and Division And therefore though the State were compelled to hold somewhat a harder hand to restrain them than before yet was it with as great moderation as the Peace of the State or Church could permit And therefore Sir to conclude consider uprightly of these matters and you shall see Her Majesty is no more a Temporizer in Religion It is not the success Abroad nor the Change of Servants here at Home can alter her only as the things themselves alter She applied her Religious Wisdom to Methods correspondent unto them still retaining the Two Rules before mentioned in dealing tenderly with Consciences and yet in discovering Faction from Conscience and Softness from Singularity Farewel Your loving Friend Fr. Walsingham The Learned Dr. Burnet now the Right Reverend Bishop of Sarum first published this Letter in the second Part of his History of the Reformation Pag. 418. and had he joined it to his Preface of Persecution before Lactantius his Book of the Death of Persecutors it would have vindicated the Proceedings against Dissenters in the Reign of King Charles II. from the odium of Persecution when the Laws were so justly and deservedly Executed against them for their insolent provocations This Sir Francis Walsingham was sometime before a Friend and Favourer of the Puritanical Party and therefore he is not in the least to be suspected of doing them wrong in the Account which he hath given of their unruly boisterous Carriage to the Government The Lord Keeper Puckering gave the like Account of their ungovernable Temper and how dangerous they were to the Government in his Speech to the House of Lords by Queen Elizabeth 's Command which you have in the following Page Lord Keeper Puckering's Speech IN the day of Queen Elizabeth the Puritans as well as Papists persecuted her Majesty so vigorously that they thereby open'd the door and prepared the way to the Spanish Invasion and although they were very troublesome and made a noise with their great numbers which would arise by disobliging them which were implicite threatnings to awe her Majesty into a favourable compliance with their insolent demands yet even in that critical time when she was inviron'd about with potent Enemies from abroad she was nothing terrified with the impetuous clamours of these domestick Foes nor would she stoop so much beneath the Honour and Dignity of the Government as to condescend even in that juncture of time to their unreasonable as well as ungodly desires And though they had also great favourers of them at Court as the Earl of Leicester Sir Francis Walsingham and others that were ready

to plead in their behalf yet would not her Majesty be prevail'd upon in favour or out of fear of them to doe the true Religion and the Church so much wrong as to grant them any Indulgence She did not like the Hobbian Politicks of the present age nor would she adventure upon the displeasing of God and the making him her enemy to gratifie them and gain their Friendship by establishing so great a sin as Schism or Toleration is but having a good Cause and trusting in God for a Blessing on it she was so far from giving them any Indulgence out of fear of their great numbers of which they boasted not a little that she proceeded against them with greater courage and resolution and immediately before the Spainish Invasion she moved the Parliament against them and gave order to the then Lord Keeper Puckering to warn the Parliament not to hearken to them which accordingly he did in his speech in the house of Lords in the following words Especially you are commanded by her Majesty to take heed that no ear be given nor time afforded to the wearisome Sollicitations of those that are commonly called Puritans wherewithal the late Parliaments have been exceedingly importun'd which sort of men while in the giddiness of their Spirits they labour and strive to advance a new Eldership they do nothing else but disturb the good repose of the Church and the Common-wealth which is as well grounded for the Body of Religion it self and as well guided for the discipline as any Realm that professeth the Truth And as the present case standeth it may be doubted whether they or the Jesuits do offer more danger or be more speedily to be repressed For albeit the Jesuits do empoison the hearts of her Majesty's Subjects under a pretext of Conscience yet they do it but closely and only in privy corners but these men do both publish in their printed Books and teach in all their Conventicles sundry opinions not only dangerous to the well setled State and Policy of the Realm by putting a Pique between the Clergy and the Laity but also much derogatory to her sacred Majesty and her Crown as well by the diminution of her antient and lawful revenues and by denying her highness Prerogative and Supremacy as by offering peril to her Majesty's safety in her own Kingdom In all which things however in many other points they pretend to be at War with the popish Jesuits yet by the Separation of themselves from the unity of their fellow Subjects and by abusing the sacred Authority and Majesty of their Prince they do both join and concur with the Jesuits in opening the door and preparing the way to the Spanish Invasion that is threatned against the Realm And 't is worth the observation says Dr. Heylin in his History of the Preshyterians pag. 280. That the Puritans were then most busie as well in setting up their Discipline as in publishing railing and seditious Pamphlets when the Spaniards were hovering on the Seas with their terrible Navy at what time they conceived and not improbably that the Queen and Council would be otherwise busied than to take notice of their practices or suppress their doings or rather that they durst not call them into question for their words or actions for fear of alienating the affections of so strong a party as they had raised unto themselves The serious apprehension of which mischievous counsels prevail'd so far on Leicester and Walsingham that they did absolutely renounce any farther intercession for them professing that they had been horribly abused with their Hypocrisie And it is as observable that their so much boasted of great numbers immediately did abate when the Laws were executed upon them and they presently submitted as soon as they did perceive that the Government would no longer trifle with them and endure their insolencies So likewise as Dr. Tompkins observes in his Pleas for Toleration discuss'd It happened in King James I. his days their loud clamours were presently silenced as soon as ever the King declared himself resolute at the Conference at Hampton-Court Nor would the Act of Uniformity made in the Year 1662 have had any less effect if it had not been accompanied with a general discourse at the same time of a Toleration to follow immediately upon it the hopes of which hinder'd many Nonconformists from conforming However the awe of this Act and the levying sometimes a Shilling for absenting from the Church wrought ry good effects insomuch that in most places where Fanaticks did greatly abound they were reduced to conformity and in a great City of this Nation containing fourteen Parish Churches as a Divine of good note that lived in it hath publish'd to the World there were not above six or seven that absented from the Church till the Popish and Fanatick interest in Conjunction together procured a Toleration in 1672 which drew them away from the Church again but upon the cancelling of that mischievous Indulgence and the using of a little severity in levying from some few of them their Shillings for absenting from Church they repair'd as formerly to their Parish Churches and a Dissenter was very rarely to be found So that although King Charles the second in his Indulgence declared that in twelve Years the Severities of the Laws had not work'd the desired end in bringing Dissenters to close with the Church of England and that King James the second in his Declartion for Toleration asserts That all the endeavours that have been used in the last four reigns for bringing this Kingdom to an Vnity in Religion have been ineffectual it was not because the means were defective or insufficient for the working this design but because the Laws which were enacted for this purpose were so much neglected or so often intermitted which if they had been steadily or constantly put in execution would have thoroughly cured the Nation of Divisions but when they were only upon some short and sudden fit put in execution and such frequent Connivences and Indulgences given afterwards to countenance and impower the Ring-leaders of the several Sectaries to seduce from the Church and to propagate and increase their Parties it could not be expected that the dissenting Parties should close with the Church And as the Learned Dr. Burnet now the Right Reverend Bishop of Sarum well notes in his reflections on the Declaration for Liberty of Conscience pag. 3. We can see no reason to induce us to believe that a Toleration of Religion was proposed with any other design but either to divide us or to lay us asleep for the destroying us The Popish Party as he rightly says Since Queen Elizabeth's gentle reign has been ever restless and has had credit enough at Court during the three last reigns not onely to support it self but to distract and divert us by somenting of our differences and by setting on Toleration c. and as he further judiciously observes while such intermitting Methods were