the Bishop of Derry Hopkins who was then there did protest against their shutting out the King's Forces and refused to joyn with those who did it for which and other Reasons this Author then gave he was against any Bodies going to the North or joyning with them as being a joyning in Rebellion About the Year 86. or 87. After his going from Wexford Waters to several of the Bishops of Munster he wrote a Letter to a Person of undoubted Credit giving an Account of what happened in his Journey and of the Substance of what he Discoursed with the Bishops of Waterford Corke and Cloyne he wrote That among other things he advised them as the only way to prevent the Dangers that were imminent to a steaddiness in their Loyalty and Religion and that he asserted that if the King and our Temporal Governors should enact unjust Laws that the Subject has no Remedy but Patience against whom we allow no other Weapons but Prayers and Tears and that it was a most unlawful thing for any to call in a Foreign Force or erect a New Government to redress unjust Laws And adds That it is a sad thing that it is not observed that Rebellions in the State and Schisme in the Church arise from this one Principle to wit That Subjects may in some Cases resist or seperate from their Lawful Governors set over them by God Whereas the Principle of Non Resistance is a steady Principle of Loyalty and it will be found no easier Matter to shake either the Church or State that is settled on it And he repeats it again That it is intolerable for the Members of any State to flee to Foreign Succors out of Pretence that their own Governors have made Laws against Reason Conscience and Justice and foolish to allege in their Defence That all Mankind is of one Blood and bound to help one another Which now he has made his great Argument in this Book Chap. 1. Sect. 5 What is above-written I have from the Person to whom he wrote it and more to the same purpose and if he desire it his Letters shall be produced The same Person told me that about the beginning of this Revolution he was in Company with the Author and another Gentleman I think it was Dr. Dun who blamed the preaching of Passive Obedience so high as the cause of what had befallen us whom this Author smartly reproved and vindicated the Doctrine of Passive Obedience to the highth But that Zeal and Courage has left him with his Principles or while he counterfeits his Principles there is a difference of assurance in defending some Causes which makes him now shun all those who knew his former Principles and have not changed as well as himself He refused to see all the time he was in London last August and September a Deprived Bishop with whom he was as intimate as any Man and had contracted a great Friendship and when he was minded of it to see his Old Friend he would not said they should fall into Heats And beginning of this last October 1692 being in Oxford on his Road to Ireland Mr. Hudson of University-College was with this Author in the Schools-Quadrangle at the very time Mr. Dodwell his admired Acquaintance was going up to the Library and Mr. Hudson asking whether he should call after him our Author forbad him saying He knew Mr. Dodwell would be angry with him If he thought that Mr. Dodwell was in an Error he ought to have endeavoured to convince him No he knew that Mr. Dodwell stood upon the same Ground where he left him and that it was he himself had Prevaricated and forsaken his first Love and therefore was ashamed to meet with the Man who knew his Principles so well before and who had stuck close to them in the Day of Tryal The very sight of such a Man is an upbraiding of their Cowardise and Unconstancy who have deserted their Principles and raises Guilt in their Faces which their Eyes would discover though they were hardened against a Blush Heu quantum mutatus ab illo From the well reputed and deserving Dr. K. who honoured and admired and loved Mr. Dodwell above most Men would have gone far to see him and was proud of corresponding with him and now shuns his sight as Guilty Sinners would the Face of Heaven O if this Author had retained his Integrity how much greater would he have appeared in the Friendship Esteem and Fellow-Suffering of this Great Man then in his Guilty Purple But Deserters must shew their Zeal and discover their own Shame Behold now how he starts and quotes it as a full Proof of King James's Arbitrary Designs That it was Enacted in their Act of Recognition in Ireland That the Decision in all Cases of a misused Authority by a Lawful Hereditary King must be left to the sole judgment of God Indeed I was amazed to see him quote this as so strange a thing which is over and over to be found in the Acts both of England and Scotland and Ireland as if he had not only forsaken but quite forgot what he had formerly taught He has got new Principles and a new Language p. 182. it ought to be 190. for it is false Printed he says K. J. was ungrateful to the Irish Protestant Clergy This is very familiar but what was the King's Ingratitude Because if they had been disloyal in Monmouth or Argile's Rebellion they might have made an Insurrection c. So that this Author thinks the King is in their Debt for not Rebelling And I suppose this is all the way that they brought him to the Throne as this Author says in the same place It seems these Irish Clergy have been mighty Men and we have not known it But he says that by their Zeal for King James they lost the Affections of their People This is a Scandal I verily believe upon the Irish Protestants They were I hope better Men I have known some of them and this Author ought to know them better I have not heard that any of the Irish Protestants took Offence at that Passage which this Author Printed in the Preface to a Sermon of the Lord Bishop of Kilmore's preached in the Author's Church of St. Warborrough's in Dublin in March 1684. the first year of King James's Reign It was entituled St. Paul's Confession of Faith There in a Letter of this Author 's to the Lord Bishop which is Printed in the Preface he avers positively in these words viz. It is impossible for any one of our Communion to be disloyal without renouncing his Religion This past better with the Irish Protestants Dr. Till Extent of Loyalty in his Serm. 2 Apr. 80 before K. C. 2. than that Super-Loyal Strain of our famous Dr. Tillotson which he Preached before the King at Whitehall Apr. 2. 1680. upon Josh 24.15 did please the Church of England men here other than those who took the Court for the Standard of their
quotes an Authority against him which is Bishop Bilson whom our Author too quotes for having set down this Opinion of Grotius with what he supposes to be the Ground of it he immediately subjoyns a contrary Authority But Bishop Bilson says he speaking of such Popish Cruelties adds That if the Laws of the Land do not permit them to guard their Lives when they are assaulted with unjust Force against Law or if they take Arms as you do to depose Princes we will never excuse them from Rebellion Thus Bilson as Faulkner there quotes him Now judge what reason this Author had to produce this Passage of Faulkner and how sore the was put to it when he could find nothing else to say to bring himself off from that Declaration which pursuant to the Law of the Land he had so solemnly read in the Presence of God and His Church in the Time of Divine Service The Evils of Tyranny and of a Civil War compar'd But leaving his Quotations to be Examin'd in their proper Place Let us go on with him to the Merit of the Cause to the Reasons he has to offer why submitting to the Tyranny of our Lawful Governors is a greater Evil than raising a Civil War in the Nation to prevent it for that is the Case And is the Explanation of what he meant above by Tolerable and Universal Evils N. 3. p. 3. viz That we ought to bear only with Tolerable Evils from our Governors or when the Mischief is not Universal or if it be Universal where it is yet Tolerable and not so mischievous in the Consequence as a Civil War Thus our Author And indeed he has given advantage enough against him in this Comparison which he advances of the Evils of Tyranny and Rebellion or a Civil War as he more gracefully Words it For do but bear with any King and think nothing Intolerable from him till he destroy as many as a Civil War I will not take the full advantage of the Comparison Do but stay till he destroys the thousand part as many or bring such universal Ruin and Devastation to the Kingdom and I 'll undertake there is no Passive-Obedience-man in the World but would conclude him as mad as Nebuchadnezzar and no more to be obey'd than a Man Raging in a Feaver So vast a Disproportion there is 'twixt the Evils of Tyranny and Rebellion So much is the Remedy worse than the Disease The Cruelty of a Tyrant says one is like a Clap of Thunder it strikes with great terror But a Civil War is like an Inundation which sweeps down all before it without noise Thus one Man brought upon the Scaffold by the Arbitrary Command of a Tyrant makes more noise than Ten thousand kill'd in the Field in a Civil War But that does not make the Evil the less but the greater while we are made willing to destroy our selves And do it more effectually in one day than the bloodiest Tyrant could find in Heart to do in his whole Reign All the Men put to death by the Arbitrary Command of Tyrants since the beginning of the World in all the Kingdoms of the World will not amount to half the Number of those who perished in the Roman or the English Civil Wars Those who have perished within these Three years in Ireland are many more than all the English Tyrants ever put to death So much safer are we in God's hands than in our own In their hands where God has plac'd us and though he often makes them like the Sun and Sea scourges for our Sin yet he has promis'd to keep their hearts in his hand and to turn them as seemeth best to him Prov. 21.1 we have more promise of Safety there than when we are delivered over to the Beasts of the People whose madness David compares the Raging of the Sea Psal 68.30 In short the Restraint of Government is the true Liberty and Freedom of the People since if they were at Liberty from Government they would be expos'd to one another which would be the greaten Slavery in the World The great Mistake is in the foolish Notion we have of Liberty which generally is thought to consist in being free from the Lash of Government as School-boys from their Master and proves in the Consequence only a Liberty to destroy one another This Author's Remedy for Tyranny to kill half the Nation And yet to purchase this Liberty our Author thinks it worth the while to cut the Throats of one half of the Nation These are his Words To lose even half the Subjects in a Civil War is more tolerable than the loss of Liberty Here is a terrible Sentence one half of a Nation cut down at a Blow we must expect some very good Reason for this He says An Age or two will repair the Loss of Subjects But if Liberty be Lost it is never to be retrieved Now I thought the quite contrary to this had been true That Men might be Rescu'd from Prison but not from Death That therefore Liberty might be retriev'd but Lives never He says An Age or two will repair the Loss of Lives that is other Men will live But does that Retrieve those that are Lost He may as well say That I regain my Liberty if another Man gets his Liberty But he says If Liberty be lost it is never to be retrieved Why then would he Sacrifice half the Nation to seek to retrieve it He says It brings certain and infallible Destruction And will he contend against Infallible Destruction I would ask whether he thinks the Irish Protestants did not loose their Liberty under King James If they did not His whole Book is false If they did Has not K. W. retriev'd it If not Let him answer his Thansgiving Sermon But if K. W. has retriev'd their lost Liberty then his Position is false viz That if Liberty be lost it is never to be retrieved So far is it from being certain and infallible as our Author assures us But let us see if we can find out the Reason of this strange Assertion And you have it not obscurely hinted in the Words immediately before viz. And indeed the greatest Mischief of a Civil War is the Danger of subjecting the State to the Absolute Power of some potent General as it hapned at Rome Florence and in England in the late Civil War This indeed is the Mischief and Danger of a Civil War Since the same Power that enabled your Deliverer to Rescue you will enable him also to keep the Power when he has got it And who will not keep it when it is in his Power As Oliver did in the late Civil War of England and happen'd in Rome Florence c. But now our Author has told us the Disease he ought to have given us the Remedy if he knows any For you cannot take Arms against a Tyrant but under the Command of some General And then how do you know but he
Their Master was stronger and commanded more Armies than all their Enemies And this Author knows very well that Tertullian in his Apology for the Christians told the Emperor Non Deesset nobis vis Numerorum that it was not for want of Power or Numbers that the Christians did not defend themselves against him for they fill'd his Armies his Cities his very Court but that it was from the Principles of their Religion which would not allow them to take Arms against their Lawful Emperor though a Persecutor But I need not mind my Author of this he has taught it often and zealously He knows the History of the Thebean Legion and a Thousand Examples of this Case that are never to be answered upon his new Principle which runs contrary to the History of the Church both under the Law and Gospel and God's own Determination in the very Case this Author puts for the most Advantage of his Cause As the Scripture so our Author named the Homilies he quotes nothing out of them it was not best He says They press with great force the Inconveniencies of such a War that is a Civil War for Liberty or Religion Our Author's defence of himself from Jovian And that the Author of Jovian design'd his First Chapter to shew That Resistance would be a greater Mischief than Passive Obedience and tells us in the Body of the Chapter That the Inconvenience of Resisting the Sovereign would be of ten times worse consequence than it which our Author confesses in the general is true as it relates to private Injuries or the Ordinary Male-administration of Government This has been sufficiently Answered in what is said before but as to the Authorities he quotes I cannot but observe to you with Admiration how directly contrary they are to the use for which he has vouched them That Chapter he cites of Jovian is so far from stinting Non-Resistance to relate only to private Injuries or the ordinary Male-administration of Government that in the very beginning of that Chapter after he has told what Sovereignty is he makes it essential to the Rights of Sovereignty to be free from Resistance or forcible Repulse and to be unaccountable It is Pag. 241. of the Book where he proves that if it were otherwise It would make the Subjects Judge over the Sovereign and in effect destroy Sovereignty and make the Sovereign inferior to the People and therefore says he pag. 242. to cut off all Pretences of Resistance in the English Government the Three Estates as I have proved before have declared against all defensive as well as offensive War it being impossible for the Sovereignty to consist with the Liberty of that Pretence In all Sovereign Governments they must trust their Lives and Liberties with their Sovereign The King is bound in Justice and Equity and for Example sake to observe his Laws but if he will lay aside all Conscience and the Fear of God his only Superior the Rights of Soveraignty secure the Tyrant as well as the Good King from Resistance If he will not act as becomes God's Vicar if he will obstruct or pervert the Laws and govern Tyrannically yet still there is left no remedy to his Subjects by the Law but moral Perswasion for the Laws Imperial of this Realm have declared him to be an Inconditionate and Independent Soveraign See Sir Orl. Bridgman's Speech pag. 12 13 14. and exempted him from all Coërtion of Force If they will turn Tyrants neither fearing God nor the Censures of good Men they are by the Laws of the English Empire as free from Punishment Compulsion or Resistance as the Caesars were He may bear the Sword not for the Defence but for the Offence and Destruction of his Subjects but if he do they have no Authority to Resist him they cannot without sinful Usurpation oppose their Swords to his Grotius condemus all violent Defence against unjust Force from publick Authority Contra vim injustissimam sed Publico-nomine illatam If they Kings do Wrong if they Tyranize it over their Subjects He God will punish them and turn their hearts if he sees fit But their Subjects must not defend themselves by violence against them they must not take up Defensive Arms against them because they are in God's stead for Whosoever Resisteth the Power Resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that Resist shall receive to themselves Damnation as it was written by the Apostle in the time of a wicked Tyrant Grotius says That Reason compels us to confess that Oppression is to be endured lest too much Liberty follow upon the contrary and the Examples of the Ancient Christians teach us that any Violence is to be endured which the Supreme Power lays upon us upon the account of Religion for they are in a great Error who think that the Christians before the time of Constantine abstained from Resistance because they wanted sufficient Strength If the former the Doctrine of Non-Resistance make a Land obnoxious now and then to a Tyrant the latter the Doctrine of Resistance would make it perpetually obnoxious to the Rage and Fury of the deluded Rabble who in Riots Tumults and Insurrections for which they would never want Pretences were Resistance in any Case allow'd are able to do more mischief in a week than ever any Tyrant did in a year The Rage of the worst of Tyrants generally wrecks it self upon particular Persons or Parties of Men but in a Civil War which is worse than any Tyranny all must suffer without distinction Had our Saviour allow'd Subjects under pretence of defending themselves and their Religion to Resist their Sovereign he had come indeed to destroy Mens Lives Though Tyranny be ill yet he knew Resistance was worse Let them suppose him to be a complicated Tyrant to be Pharaoh Achab Jeroboâ—am and Nebuchadnezzar all in one nay let the Spirit of Calerius Maximin and Maxentius come upon him yet I 'm sure it will cost fewer Lives and less Desolation to let him alone than to resist him but if it would not I had rather dye a Martyr than a Râ—bel I appeal to the late Rebellion which the Rebels called a Defensive War to verifie this Doctrine for there was more Blood spilt in it in one Battel than in all the Tyrannies and Persecutions of the Nation since the Conquest and in the two Kingdoms there hath been more Christian Blood shed in Rebellions since the Reformation by pretended Undertakers of Defensive War than throughout the whole Roman Empire in nine of the first ten Persecutions Let us imagine a Popish Prince as biggoted in Religion and as Sanguinary in his Temper as may be now Reigning over us yet he could not likely cause so much Ruin Bloodshed and Desolation in his whole Reign as a War between him and his Resisting Subjects would cause in one Year Wherefore it is plain That it is the Interest even of the People themselves that so great a Power should be in the Soveraign
as the worst of all People And howsoever they call themselves or be named of others yet are they indeed no true Christians but worse than Jews worse than Heathens and such as shall never enjoy the Kingdom of Heaven And the third Homily speaks in these Words How horrible a Sin against God and Man Rebellion is cannot possibly be expressed according to the greatness thereof For he that nameth Rebellion nameth not a singular or one only Sin as is Theft Robbery Murther and such like but he nameth the whole Puddle and Sink of all Sins against God and Man against his Prince his Country his Country-men his Parents his Children his Kinsfolks his Friends and against all Men universally all Sins I say against God and all Men heaped together nameth he that nameth Rebellion And besides the dishononor done by Rebels unto God's holy Name by their breaking of their Oaths made to their Prince with the Attestation of God's Name and calling of his Majesty to Witness And in the fourth Homily having shewn the horrible destruction of Corah Dathan and Abiram and others for their Rebellions and Murmurings Now says the Homily if such strange and horrible Plagues did fall upon such Subjects as did only murmur and speak evil against their Heads What shall become of those most wicked Imps of the Devil that do Conspire Arm themselves Allemble great Numbers of Armed Rebels and Lead them with them against their Prince and Country Spoiling and Robbing Killing and Murthering all good Subjects that do withstand them as many as they may prevail against Though not only great Multitudes of the Rude and Rascal Commons but sometime also Men of great Wit Nobility and Authority have moved Rebellions against their Lawful Princes Though they should pretend sundry Causes as the Redress of the Commwealth which Rebellion of all other Mischiefs doth most destroy or Reformation of Religion whereas Rebellion is most against all true Religion though they have made a great Shew of Holy Meaning by beginning their Rebellion with a Counterfeit Service of God as did wicked Absalom begin his Rebellion with sacrificing unto God Yet neither the Dignity of any Person nor the Multitude of any People nor the Weight of any Cause is sufficient for the which Subjects may move Rebellion against their Princes And for so much as the Redress of the Commonwealth hath of old time been the usual feigned Pretence of Rebels and RELIGION now of late beginneth to be a Colour of Rebellion let all Godly and Discreet Subjects consider well of both and first concerning Religion What a Religion it is that such Men by such Means would restore may easily be judged even as Good a Religion surely as Rebels be Good Men and Obedient Subjects and as Rebellion is a good means of Redress and Reformation being itself the greatest Deformation of all that may possibly be But as the Truth of the Gospel of our Saviour Christ being quietly and soberly taught though it do cost them their Lives that do teach it is able to maintain the true Religion so hath a frantick Religion need of such furious Maintainers as is Rebellion and such Patrons as are Rebels Now concerning Pretences of any Redress of the Commonwealth made by Rebels every Man that hath half an Eye may see how vain they be Rebellion being as I have before declared the grearest Ruin and Destruction of all Commonwealths that may be possible Wherefore to conclude Let all good Subjects considering how horrible a Sin against God their Prince their Country their Country-men against all God's and Man's Laws Rebellion is being indeed not one several Sin but all Sins against God and Man heaped together considering the mischievous Life and Deeds and the shameful Ends and Deaths of all Rebels hitherto and the pitiful undoing of their Wives Children and Families and disinheriting of their Heirs for ever and above all things considering the Eternal Damnation that is prepared for all impenitent Rebels in Hell with Satan the first Founder of Rebellion and Grand Captain of all Rebels Let all good Subjects I say considering these Things avoid and flee all Rebellion as the greatest of all Mischiefs And as the fifth Homily ends knowing these the special Instruments and Ministers of the Devil to the stirring up of all Rebellions avoid and flee them and the Pestilent Suggestions of such Foreign Usurpers and their Adherents and embrace all obedience to God and their Natural Princes and Sovereigns c. These are the Words of our Homilies which have much more to the same purpose But I am afraid I have transgressed upon your Patience in repeating so much of them But I was in more than ordinary concern to see our Author so gravely vouch the Homilies on his side which might pass with those who have not consulted them therefore forgive my insisting so long upon them and I will not trouble you to apply all this to his Hypothesis I should reckon it an Affront to your Understanding to attempt it Only I pray keep this with you That you know what stress to lay upon this Author 's Confident Vouching We are now come to our Author 's lesser Quotations which might be spar'd for after examining what he offers from Reason from Scripture from the Homilies and Publick Acts of our Church and from our Acts of Parliament and the Laws what Private Writer can have Authority to over-ballance all these But if even those very Authors he quotes either make nothing for him or make directly against him then we must suppose That he thought his Cause very destitute when he could find no more to say for it From Grotius He begins with Grotius Introduction n. 1. p. 2. these are the Words of his Quotation This is Grotius's Opinion says our Author in his Book De Jure Belli Pacis lib. 1. cap. 4. § 11. where citing Barclay he says Ait idem Barclaius amitti Regnum si Rex vere hostili animo in totius Populi Exitium feratur quod concedo consistere enim simul non possunt voluntas imperandi voluntas perdendi quare qui se hostem Populi totius proficetur is eo ipso Abdicat Regnum sed vix videtur hoc accidere posse in Rege mentis compote Qui uni Populo imperet quod si pluâ—i nâ— Pâ—pulis imperet accidere potest ut unius Populi in gratiam alterum velit perditum If a King be carried with a malicious design to the Destruction of a Whole Nation he loseth his Kingdom which I grant since a Will to Govern and to Destroy cannot consist together therefore he who professes himself an Enemy to a Whole People doth in that very Act Abdicate his Kingdom But it seems hardly possible that this should enter into the heart of a King who is not mad if he govern only one People but if he govern many it may happen that in favour of one People he may desire the other were destroyed
inevitably occasion the total Ruin and Destruction of the North. This is his Charge and in his own Words In Answer to which I will not take Advantage of his misquoting this Proclamation which we may suppose for that Reason he forgot to Print among the very many Papers of far less Consequence which fill up his Appendix But we have it Printed in one of the late Irish Protestant Pamphlets called An Apology for the Protestants of Ireland c. and I have annexed it to this that you may see it the Author calls the excepted Persons Twelve whereas in the Proclamation there are but Ten. I lay no great stress upon that difference of Number it will not inhaunce the matter much But it shâ—ws that the Author has not been so exact in his Vouchers as he ought Of which or something worse it is a much greater Proof that in reciting the Causes which that Proclamation names for the Descent of that Army he does not keep to the Words of the Proclamation which instances Particulars this Author could not deny as Breaking of Prisons Discharging of Prisoners Seizing upon his Majesties Arms and Ammunition Imprisoning several of his Majesties Army Disarming and Dismounting them c. But the Author wisely avoids naming any of these least he should be oblig'd to disprove them only says in general as you have heard That the Proclamation charges them with Rebellion Killing Plundering c. Which he manfully denies every Word of it Therefore let us fairly Examine what I have before Quoted our of him And that we may fix his loose and artificial way of Dealing in Generals sliding unperceivably from one Matter to another and huddliug many Things together to distract the Reader I will reduce his Charge to these Heads First That before the Descent of the Army with whom came the Proclamation dated the 7th of March 1688. the Lord Deputy did not so much as summon the Associators in Ulster Secondly I will Examine who those great Robbers were in the North who Plundered the Protestants there And thirdly We will see whether the Northern Associators gave no other Provocation to the Government than to defend themselves against these Robbers For the First We are furnished with a Confutation of him from the very Proclamation he Quotes viz. That of the 7th of March 1688. which mentions a former Proclamation requiring the Associators to disperse and promising them Pardon There was one of this Nature I know not if there were any more dated the 25th of January 1688. which was sign'd by several Protestants of the Council as the Earl of Granard Lord Chief Justice Keting c. Besides this Mr. Osborn was sent down to the North by my Lord Deputy before the March of the Army to use all Perswasions to them to lay down their Arms to tell them the very Day the Army would March and he kept it That though Ten were excepted in the Proclamation yet he would insist but upon Three and if it should appear that they took up Arms meerly for Self-preservation then he would Pardon even the said three Persons also That he demanded no more of them than to deliver up their Arms and serviceable Horses as you may see in Mr Osborn's Letter to the Lord Mazereene of the 9th of March 1688. which I have taken out of the abovesaid Apology for the Protestants in Ireland and affixed to this n. 3. Add to this the offers which my Lord Deputy sent to the Gentlemen in the North by Sir Robert Colvill viz. That if his Country-men would continue Quiet in their respective Habitations they should be only Charg'd with the Incumbrance of two Regiments This is told in the Faithful History p. 10. and this was long before the March of that Army to the North. I have heard of several other Messages and even Arts that my Lord Tyrconnel used to Quiet the Disturbances in the North of which he was at the beginning very Apprehensive and used his utmost Endeavours to appease them as all the Accounts the Irish Protestants have Printed here do with one Consent declare And I have heard some of them say That they dreaded nothing so much as that Tyrconnel durst not send an Army against them and that the Irish would submit without any Opposition and so they would get no Forfeitures so much they overvalued and their Enemies feared the strength of the North though both lived to see themselves mistaken Let this suffice as to the first Point viz. That my Lord Tyrconnel did not forget to summon the North before he sent down the Army against them in March 1688. If repeated Proclamations and Messages may be called Summons As to the second of the great Robbers in the North. We do not speak now of the common Robberies of High-way-men That has always been and will be in all Countries more or less but of such Armed Bands of Robbers as forc'd the whole North to Arm and Regiment themselves and enter into Associations and Confederacies and a formal War to defend themselves against these Robbers who he says were Men intrusted by the Lord Deputy with Arms and Employments so not common Robbers And by the Account of all that came from the North this was so far from being true that the Irish there were in mortal Fear of the Protestants and commonly durst not sleep in their Houses but lay abroad in the Fields least they should fall upon them No Irish were suffered to live in the Country who did not take out Protections from such of the Protestant Gentry as were allowed by the Associators to grant such Protections Nor durst they Travel from their own Houses without Passes The Protestants made them contribute equally at least with themselves in all their new Levies and forced them to work upon their new Fortifications at their Pleasure which they did without grudging and any thing to please those who were absolutely their Masters and in whose hands they reckoned their Lives to lye every moment and many Insults and Threatnings they bore from the Commonality of the Protestants who made full use of their finding themselves at Liberty from all Government and to domineere over those who were intirely at their mercy The Faithful History p. 9. says Amidst those Convulsions Robberies in other Parts the North only remained undisturbed Our Author himself in what I have already quoted says plainly That the Protestants kept the whole Country within their Associations from being Pillaged Where then were these great Robberies he speaks of He may say In other Parts of Ireland But that is not our present subject but only the Condition of the North. And the Author places the Scene there when he says That they the Gentlemen in the North did not attempt any thing upon these Armed Robbers except in their own defence when Invaded and Assaulted by them nor killed any but whom they found actually Robbing So that all this must be in the North where many Witnesses attest and the
equal Justice does belong To you therefore dread Sir the Second Cause our Faith's Defender the wonderful Restorer of our captiv'd Liberties in greatest Humility but with unlimited Zeal and joyfull Hearts full of sincere Affection we yield our utmost and unfeigned Thanks the onely thing valuable which our Enemies left us wherewithal to Sacrifice and of which their Malice could not rob us We cannot but with Horrour stand amazed when we recount our never to be forgotten Sufferings our frequent causeless Imprisonments the Plundering our Goods the Confiscation of our Estates the innumerable Oppressions the illegal Exactions the tyrannous Hatred of our Persons and in a word the unchristian behaviour in all the Actions of our Enemies infinitely surpassing an Egyptian Servitude when Baal's Priests contented not themselves with their Idolatry alone to pâ—o4â—igate our Altars but in prosecution of their profane and ungodly Malice contrived the leading us captive to our Churches and each Ancestor's Tomb became our respective Couches then it proved literally true that our Liberties were offered a Romish Sacrifice on our own Altars Thus far Almighty God permitted them Then it was that our Enemies grew ripe for divine Vengeance then it was that you mighty Sir stept in and by your own victorious Arm to the hazard of your Royal Person rescued us from the hands of our Enemies then and not till then did Arbitrary Power Popery and Slavery terms almost convertâ—ble receive their period Wherefore to you dread Sir our only King our Lives Liberties Goods and Estates we humbly offer and at your Royal Feet great Sir we come prepared ready to lay them down for the defence of your Majesties Royal Person for the suppression of Popery for the maintenance of the Protestant Religion and the support of your Majesty's undoubted Right to these your Kingdoms and Dominions In testimony whereof we have caused the common Seal of the said City to be hereunto affixed this Ninth day of July in the Second Year of your Majesty's Reign Numb 23. His Majesty's Protection to the Inhabitants of Belfast June 3. 1689. James R. WHereas several Merchants and other our Subjects late Inhabitants of our Town of Belfast have quitted their respective Homes either by the Instigation of Persons ill affected to us or out of fear and taking up of Arms or seduced by sly and false Insinuations from the Duty and natural Allegiance they owe Us by means whereof they are very much impoverished in their Fortunes and they and their whole Families reduced to great Wants in strange places to the Depopulation of our said Town and lessening of Trade and Commerce therein Now forasmuch as we have received Information that the said Persons are by woful Experience convinced that they have been thus misled and frighted from their Duty by Persons for the most part desperate in their Fortunes or disaffected unto Us and our Government and that they do heartily repent of their having been so imposed upon and do resolve to return again to their Habitations Trade and Commerce so as they may receive our Assurance of Pardon for the time past and Protection for the time to come And We being willing and resolved to reclaim our Subjects by Mercy and to shew that We rather delight to forgive than punish do hereby promise to give a full general and free Pardon and Indemnity for the Crime of High Treason to all such Person or Persons as have for the space of twelve Months last past inhabited Our said Town of Belfast and shall within the space of forty days return to their Dwellings and Habitations there as also full Pardon and Indemnity of all Pains and Forfeitures which the said parties or any of them might have incurred or be subject or liable to upon account of having committed the said Crime of High Treason and that the said persons and every of them may peaceably and quietly enjoy their Estates Houses Stocks Goods Chattels Lands Tenements and Hereditaments within the said Town of Belfalst or elsewhere they upon their arrival severally taking the usual Oath of Allegiance and Fidelity to Us before the Sovereign or other chief Magistrate for the time being of our said Town of Belfast And of this Our Will and Pleasure thus signified in behalf of Our said Subjects late Inhabitants of Belfast We hereby will and require all our Officers both Civil and Military to take notice and that they presume not to imprison indict or molest any person or persons either in their Persons or Goods who upon this our Indulgence can claim the benefit of this our free Grace and Favour Given at our Court at Dublin Castle the third day of June 1689. and in the Fifth Year of our Reign By his Majesty's Command Melfort Memorandum That the Oath of Fidelity mentioned in this Protection was not exacted as it is told in this Narrative but the Protestants were received into Protection without any Oath at all required from them Numb 24. The Lord Melfort's Letter to Mr. Pottinger Sovereign of Belfast July 9. 1689. Dublin Castle July 9. 1689. Sir IN Answer to yours of the 3d Instant I can onely tell you that the necessary Orders are given for the Subsistence of the Garison in that place without being a Burthen to the People That for such of the Inhabitants as have been deluded or frightned to quit their Dwellings in that Town and fly into Scotland where there appears any moral impossibility of complying with the King 's gratious Intentions to them without any Act of their own and that they have not taken part with any in Rebellion against his Majesty the King will not stint his Mercy to any narrow time his Inclination leading him rather to reclaim his People by indulgent than severe or rigid Courses I have ordered the Names of such as were Inhabitants there and entituled to the Benefit of the King's Promise of Pardon to be brought me in order to be struck out of the List of Persons to be attainted I am Sir Your humble Servant Melfort For his Majesty's special Service to Thomas Pottinger Esq Sovereign of Belfast at Belfast Numb 25. Coll. Hill's Letter to Mr. Pottinger Sovereign of Belfast May 1689. Sir I Did not intend that Business of the Sheriff should have been carried so far for it will draw all the O Neals upon my back and yours and if he should be sent for it may be a trouble to some to go up against him and will breed ill Blood in his Friends And since Coll. Maxwell hath so well redressed Matters already it will be needless and no other order is needfull more than a Letter to him owning his Care in this matter and desiring the continuance thereof but by all means if you can stop his being sent for otherwise it may meet you and me one time or other to our Prejudice by him or his Friends Here are six Companies of Coll. Cormuck O Neal 's Regiment quartered here and a Troop of Dragoons in Malone