Farre it is God knowes from my minde to add affliction to his afflictions sufficiat Diei malitia sua nec unquam fuit mea consuetudo lacerato animo discere vitia amicorum talem zelum ut cum S. Augustino Loquar semper fensui magis impetum punientis quam caritatem corrigentis The same Saint tells mee how to handle Sall. Dilige saith hee dic quod voles But what shall I doe to a man that hath stained his soule with the spott of herisy with what waters shall I wash him for wyping away the staine with those of Siloe quae fluunt cum scilentio or those of Rasin quae transeunt cum tumultu The last seem the more naturall for purifying him though my inclination is more for the soft running waters of Siloe Had Sall's sinn beene noe more then a slipp of Ignorance or frailty wee could have covered him with a Mantle of Charity but the abominable abjuration of faith being a sinn of a high nature and full of Impiety against God against Christ and his unspotted spouse against Charity and the Holy Ghost I can not be silent but must openly rebuke his wickedness and maintaine truth against him before all the world can I see aman deare to mee vaunting and soe desperatly defying the Hostes of the living God and say nothing that cannot be Silence here were a great sinne being the true tyme of taking up Davids Sling and stone and throwing at this Gyant dominering and vaporing against the camp of Israell I am not to powre oyle upon the head of such a sinner flattery will not cure him I must then in charity chide him and Exprobrat his deserting the Catholick faith and if hee is wise and penitent hee will say with repenting David The Just shall rebuke mee in mercy and shall reprehend mee but let not the oyle of a sinner fatte my head After lamenting Sall's woefull perversion I begin to think of my deare Contry's affliction and with feare and amazement to inquire the ground and cause of persecution there and in Enland Nothing was less feared I am confident by the Catholicks of both Kingdoms then a tempest of this nature to come upon them lying safe as they conceived under the wings of soe great and mercyfull a Monarck as Charles the second a King of pardons How then say men came this about how could soe clement a King be induced to afflict soe loyall a people as the Catholicks of England and Ireland I see noe Mistery in this business all is cleare theire affliction and cause therof is well knowne over all Europ and is as I may say even the same with that of innocent Daniell whose Loyall fidelity to Syrus King of Babylon was soe cleare as his malignant Enemys said expressly of him wee shall not finde against this Daniell any occasion unless perhaps in the Law of his God the Crime then against Daniell and all the Jews was theire Religion upon this ground the Counsellers and great men of the Kingdome gott the King to sett forth an Edict against the Jewes for professing theire Religion and by this means Daniell was cast into the lake of the Lyons by a King that lou'd him The King lou'd Daniell but hee feared the great men who pressed the Law to be executed against Daniell and this feare more strong in the King then love made poore Daniell Companion to the Lyons Your Religion noble Contry-men your Religion is the sole Cryme for which you suffer Blessed for ever be the name of God for this your Religion hath stirred up this tempest which ought not to terrifye you over much seeing the Apostles our first Captains and Leaders in this holy cause those darlings of God endured hard things for Religion Prisons whippings contumilies and all sorts of vexations were to them delights and consolations they after being scurged went from the sight of the Councell rejoycing because they were accounted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus Doe not therfore feare all that men can doe against you while with tears and patience you march under the purple Standart of Crucify'd Jesus for in the end the day and victory will be yours feare not the power of men in this glorious tryall there be more with you then against you Legions of Angells though you see them not those heavenly hostes are pitching theire tents round about you Hee that Led the Children of Israell out of Egypt in wonders through the redd Sea neuer wants power to deliver you waite for his good tyme for hee will come A Table of sage Counsells that hung by the bed of Ptolomeus Arsacides King of Egypt by him Religiously obserued all the tyme of his raigne was delivered by a Priest of the Idols to the wise Emperour Marcus Aurelius whoe dying gave it to his sonn with this short speech My sonn leaving you Emperour of many Kingdoms I presume you will with that great power be feared of all and if you wil faithfully Keep the Godly Counsells in this Table you shall be infalibly beloved of all The Table of Counsells 1. I Neuer deny'd said the vertuous King Ptolomeus justice to a poore man for being poore nor pardoned a rich man for being rich 2. I neuer loved a rich wicked man nor hated a poore just man 3. I neuer granted favours to men for affection nor distroy'd men to satisfy my passion 4. I neuer deny'd Justice to any demanding Iustice nor mercy to the afflicted and miserable 5. I neuer passed by Evill without punishing it nor good withovt rewarding it 6. I neuer did Evill to any man out of Malice nor villany for avarice 7. I was neuer without feare in prosperity nor without courage in adversity 8. My dore was neuer open to a flatterer nor my eare to a murmuring detractor 9. I indeavoured still to make my selfe beloved of the good and feared of the Evill 10. I ever favoured the poore that were able to doe little for themselves and I was evermore favoured by the Gods that were able to doe much for all Those rare Counsells should be exposed in the houses of Kings and all puplick places to the view of men to be knowne of all in theire respective dignitys and callings and it would be a pious and noble action if our gratious souveraigne would be pleased to consider seriously with himselfe how farre these just and Laudable Counsells haue been regarded during the tyme of his raigne especially in conferring of estates and lands from one part of his subjects to another part of them contrary to all due course of Law and without hearing of the partys oppressed which hath been procured to be done by the undue information and perswation of certaine of his Councellers and Ministers of State and chiefly of the Chancellor the Earl of Clarindon If his Majesty shall doe this grace and justice to his Catholick subjects of Ireland thousands of Widow's and Orphans will be eased and relieved who
now sitt downe in great poverty Lamenting extreamly their Lands Houses and all they had wrongfully taken from them and this day possessed and injoy'd by those invaders God bindes all Kings and Iudges by this commandement Thou shalt not doe that which is uniust nor Iudg uniustly Consider not the person of a poore man neither honour thou the countenance of him that is mighty Judg justly to thy Neighbour God alsoe forbids to give away one subjects bread to another reason vertue and the lawes of God Nature and Nations are the rules that ought to guid all Princes and Magistrats in the goverment of the people under them Did not God himselfe complaine of Evell Iudges in this Kinde How is the faithfull Cittie full of Iudgment becom an harlott Iustice hath dwelled in it but now man-killers The Princes are unfaithfull Companions of thieves al love guifts follow rewards They Iudge not for the pupil and the widowes cause goeth not in to them And againe our Lord saith They are made grosse and fatt and haue tranegressed my words most wickedly The cause of the widow they have not Iudged the cause of the pupil they have not directed and the Iudgment of the Poore they have not Iudged Shall I not vissite upon these things saith our Lord or upon such a Nation shall not my soule take revenge Certainly it is against Gods just Iudgment to omitt such things and crimes unpunished There are thousands of distressed Catholick Pupils and wedowes his Majesty cannot chuse but know it that have not gott Iustice whose cause and complaint had noe Entrance into his Courtes they cry'd out for Iustice and were not heard they Cry'd for mercy and found it not and such as live of those oppressed soules are still crying to heaven and the King for remedy Poore desolate and dejected they are waiting at the doore of the Kings pallace and noe regard is had of theire tears prayres and petitions Wee are indeed becom the reproach of all Nations round about us by the craft and iniquity of States men that have poysoned the Fountaine of Iustice It is said of some of those that theire vices have farre exceeded theire vertues and that in all theire proccedings against our Nation there was found in them noe truth noe integrity noe Religion noe shame but an insatiable covetousness and a flameing ambition of making themselves great and powerfull and are not such men say you able to poysen the Fountaine of Iustice and mercy toe in a Kingdome This sore oppression and our necessitys every day growing greater forceth us to implore Iustice and mercy and to minde the King of what the Apostle saith to a King Non enim sine causa gladium portat If the Law of God will alow of soe many thousands of innocents to be destroy'd is a maxim that toucheth much his Royall Wisdome and to be distroy'd and sacrificed to augment the estates of men that were great and rich enough before can Iustice suffer this can the mercifull brest of a Clement King endure to see soe many sad spectacles of woes and miserys without all relief will not God at long running look downe and examin these cruell proceedings It hath been a principall care and study of some statesmen neare the King to oppress and overthrow the Catholicks of Ireland and at the same tyme to perswade his Majesty that wee ought to be destroy'd by Iustice and Law Theire Malice they have evidenced in theire language and viperous writings Of this stuff you have enough in the Earle of Orerys answer to Peter Welsh his letter to the then Marquis now Duke of Ormond desiring ajust and mercifull regard of the Reman Catholicks of Ireland what could be more rationall then such a demaund yet Orery must quarrell with the contents of said letter and beleh out poyson against the whole Nation and theire Religion To this answer P. W. replyed and solidly confuted Orery lett the indifferent Reader after deliberation Iudge of which side truth sollid reason and learning is in the writings of both It vexed Orery above all measure that P. W. advanced these two propositions 1. That the worst of the Irish Papists were no Regicids 2. That the Irish Papists fought against such men when England Scotland and the Protestants of Ireland deserted the Royall cause To the first Orery makes this pittifull answer That the Irish Papists are no Regicids let it be considered that the Doctrin of Regicids is common in Romish Schools and the practice in theire courts This is a false Calamny tell us Orery in what Romish University or School is this Doctrin Common in what Catholick Court is this practice you can not tell us and therfore you are convinced of Calumniating Catholick Schools and Courts which is no creditt for you In the meane tyme wee demaund Orery in what School was the Doctrin had by which Crumwell and the rabble of blooddy Rebells murthered the good King Charles the first in the School of Geneve or Rome Speak freely your minde and tell us on what side were you when the King was murthered of Crumwells party or the Kings of Crumwells party you were then and had you been then in London likely this is the opinion of many you had been a high man in that blooddy jury and after that Kings death noe man desired more as was generally spoken of you to King Crumwell and unKing our present soveraigne then you To P. W. his second proposition you answer thus That to touch the annoynting is virtually to touch the annoynted take away the regalia and in effect you take away the King Orery all this is true but what Illation make you of this who I pray are those that touched the annoyntings and the annoynted the Catholicks of Ireland or Cromwells party whose faithfull Ianniser you haue been The annoyntings you haue touch'd formally all the Regalia the Kings Cittys Townes Forts Militia and for addition to your treason you made open warre against the Crowne and King it was Crumwell and you all touched then the annoynted virtually and here you stayd not but touch'd the annoynted formally when you put him to death by an unheard and most blooddy solemnity and as it were by Iustice or course of law an asacinate that hath contaminated the glory of the English Nation though the best and most of the Peers and good people of England abhorr'd it Your answer to this second proposition you conclude thus Had the Devill had leave to touch Jobs person hee would not haue spar'd him when hee touch'd all that was his You say right Orery but what say you to this that you and your Companions after touching all that was the Kings have touched his sacred person and Barbarously kill'd him See and recken among your selves what Kinde of Divells you were then and if you haue not gon a stepp farther against your owne King then the Divell did against Job Orery you might take us for men of
people crying out comfort theire harts for they are perrishing and let it be done as God would have it to be done by your Majesty that the blessings of the poore may fale upon you as they did upon Iob and all the blessings of heaven But why great King give mee pardon for speaking to you why have wee your Catholick subjects of Ireland been neglected even to ruine and Distruction what did your Majesty see in us that could render us in capable of the pardon granted to the Rebells in generall if our rising in arms which was against our fellow-subjects for our owne defence and not against the Crowne hath bin Iudged a Rebellion by your Royall Father and your selfe I hope you hould us farre smaller Rebbels then those that made open warre against the Crowne and your Majest'ys and in fine Murther'd your Father why then are they pardon'd and wee not but incase our Revolution hath bin Iudg'd a Rebellion and in case it had bine truly soe upon the place made and concluded Anno 1648. The Marquis of Ormond hauing bin your Royall Fathers Commissioner to that Effest Wee had an act of Oblivion from your Father of blessed Memory for all that had passed and after confirmed by your Majesty this Act of Oblivion hath wyp't away the Rebellion ergo it can not rise againe in Iudgment against us nor can wee be punished for a Crime already forgiven this being soe why are wee cast of why left under a staine of Rebellion the true Rebells being forgiven why being Innocent doe wee suffer this contumely why are wee strucken downe as dead men by your Royall Hand Lands Houses Estates and all wee had being conferr'd on men which have noe right to them our Enemy's and one tyme your owne they pretend noe claime to our estates and livings noe pack't stipulation or convieance by your Majesty's pleasure only that 's theire sole tytle they hold all and wee have lost all By what Law are wee thus treated and destroy'd by that of God or Nature or Nations all done against us is against all those Lawes and against the Law of Englaend to a good Law by which noe man is to be deprived of his lands and goods but by a due course of Law the benefitt of this Law was denied us Wither then shall wee turne what are wee able to doe for our selves the Father is not able to helpe the Child nor the Child the Father Mothers are weeping over theire little ones languishing in want and hunger If wee are Innocent the Act of Oblivion hath made us soe though wee had bin guilty before why are wee cast out of our Houses despoyl'd of our Lands and Estates that our Forefathers have possessed soe many ages If wee have committed any Crime or treason against the Crowne your Royall Father or your selfe that was not remitted it were a greater mercy to hasten us into the other world by a short and violent death then to condemne us to a lingering one to be consumed in coldness hungar and nakedness and a shamefull slavery at home and in all the Regions of Europ Your Majesty hath been pleased to tell publickly the Peers and People of England That wee abroad have followed your Majesty from Kingdom to Kingdome and that with all cheerfullness and obedience that wee received and submitted to your Royall Orders and betook our selves to what fervice your Majesty directed at that tyme most convenient and behooffull to your Majesty though attended with inconveniences enough to our felves and your Majesty Iudged this our demeaniour very worthy of Protection Iustice and favour Your Kingly Language the 27. Iuly 1660. to the House of Peers touching the Act of indemnity was this I hope I need say nothing of Irelande and that they alone shall not want the benefitt of my mercy they have shew'd much affection to mee a broad and you will have a care of my honour and what I have promised to them These veritys uttered by your Majesty are owned by our greatest Enemys for such and that wee sacrifised our selves and all wee had faithfully and hartily in your Majestys service Let mee demaund here where then have been Braghall Coot Cloathworthy and others of that band those Grandees your Majesty hath been pleased to honour with great titles the two first were made Earls of Orery and Montrath and the last Cloathworthy that knowne plunderer of the Queens Chappell and summersett House an infamous man created viscount Massaren where I say againe have these men been in the dark day of your Callamitys and adversitys what were they then doeing They were then stiffly struggling against your Crowne and person and Laying about them with maine indeavours that the Royall Family of the Stuarts should neuer returne to theire owne Dominions to which purpose they contrived the forementioned horrid ingagement In those days they stiled your Majesty only Charles Stuart to call you King was a treason among them And what is don in the end After all theire villanys contempt of Royall Family open Rebellion and warr against the Crowne and after putting the good King to death after our fidelity obedience and harty affection to your Majesty and after your owne Kingly Testimonys and expressions of the same the matter hath been strangly carryed How The knowne Rebells had your Majestys pardon they were magnify'd had places of trust and profitt in the cammon wealth and to boot they carryed away our Houses Lands and Estates by your Majestys Graunt under the great Seal O tempora O mores O Laceratam Iustitiam And what is our lott and share of this Tragicall play after your Royall promisees of all favour and Protection wee are left naked and desolate crying to God as those of Jerusalem did distroyed by theire Enemys Remember O Lord what is fallne unto us behold and regard our reproath Our inheritance is turned to Aliens and our Houses to strangers Wee are Pupills without Fathers the joy of our hart hath failed our quire is turned to mourning This is our deplorable state what your Majesty will doe with us or for us is only knowne to God aud your selfe and wee are to pray that God will be pleased to incline your hart to such a resolution as may bring us some comfort which wee much need Cor Regis in manu Domini quocunque voluerit inclinubit illud Give freedom great King to a poore Priest to speak truth to your Majesty it is noe new thing that good Priests speak to Kings and God himselfe saith hee will curse the blessings of those Priestes that will not speak truth and give glory to his holy Name And the Prophet Malachias tells your Majesty that regard is to be had of what the Priest says For the lipps of the Priest saith that Prophet shall keep knowledg and the Law they shall require out of his Mouth because hee is the Angell of the Lord of hostes The truth I presume to speak to you my King with
all submission and sincerity is this That your Majesty hath great cause to feare the heavy Iudgments God for soe many thousands of Wedow's and Orphans perrishing for want in the view of the world by that fatall sentence called the Bill of Settlement Iob tells us God hath and doth somtyme punnish Kings Balteum Regum dissoluit cinget fune renes eorum Hee Looseth the Belt of Kings and girdeth theire reynes with a cord Hee Loosed the Belt from your Fathers side and girded his Reynes with a cord of sore affliction and yet hee was esteemed a sober just chast King God is a God of Iustice holding an Iron Rod in his hand stretched over the heads of all Kings Emperours and Popes and tells them Potentes Potenter tormenta patientur Ezechias the holy King when the Prophet told him hee should dy turning his face to the Temple said Quis est qui sic humiliat sublimes reges terrae Examen my Soveraigne and ponderwell the words of that good King and how hee was frighted hearing from the Prophet that hee should dy Dy you must great King when that shall be God alone knowes Et post mortem sequiter Iuditium Those men that abused your Authority on Earth will make noe answer for you your selfe must before that Tribunall receive as the meanest of your subjects according to what you have done in this life Many men use to speak to Kings Omnia placentia But those will be found in the end flatterers and false Prophets I speake to your Majesty as a Priest of God should speak naked truth sic liberavi animam meam Your Majesty will doe well to sitt downe and deeply Meditate upon this weighty poynt and theme of eternall Damnation or salvation Having exposed to my Soveraigne our calamity's ruine and miserys and offered humble prayers for ease and mercy I now turne my speech to you my most deare and honourable Countrimen for your sake I have spoken noe way minding redress for what I my selve have lost which was somthing If Iustice shall be don you and cause of joy come from the Kings good pleasure and determination prays God and the King for that Happiness and pray to God for his long and prosperous Raigne But if this shall not be done God permitting things to goe on as they doe either for punnishing ours and our Fathers sinns or for trying our patience in this world Let his holy Name be ever blessed beare patiently your poverty and you shall finde poverty a great blessing S. Iohn Chrisostome compares it with Martyrdome Egestas saith the Saint bene tollerata facit Martirium I doe not think there can hardly be any found in the world that have come to a greater distress and poverty then that you endure suffer all willingly for God's sake and you are sure of a Crowne minde often that excellent sentence of S. Augustin Saeculi homines infaeliciter faelices sunt Martyres autem faeliciter infaelices erat The men of this world are unhappily happy but the Martyrs have been happily unhappy This is your case or very like it soe as in your nakedness your are happier then those that have all that was yours living in pleasurs and plenty Let this alsoe be some comfort to you that you have but lost those things you could not long hould nor shall the present possessors long enjoy them Though they think theire fortuns in that Land surely settled they are but Pilgrims in the way as you are and must part as you shall and with more greef and feare for having more then you have and then they shall know and feel Gods Iudgment for what they have done to you In all your afflictions I shall pray and conjure you to demean your selves like good Christians paying faithfully to God his due and to the King his to the King Fidelity and Obedience in Civilibus and that for Conscience sake to God Veneration and highest Worship which can not be performed without professing a true Rcligion the same you are of wherfore let noe wordly preferments or comodity's that men can conferr on you nor punishments they can inflict shake your Religion but hould the same constantly in all tempests and stormes for of it depends eternall salvation And to speak at the present tyme of your great afflictions imitate I pray you the three Isralites cast into the furnase of Babilon and you shall finde as they did an Angell to comfort you They in the fyre blessed the name of God when Azarias standing in the flame said Blessed art thou O Lord the God of our Fathers and laudable and glorious is thy Name for ever because thou art just in all things which thou hast don to us and all thy works are true and thy ways righteous and thy Iudgments true for wee have sinned and done unjustly revolting from thee and and now wee follow in all our harts and feare thee and seek thy face confound us not but doe with us according thy meekness and according to the multitude of thy mercy deliver us in thy mervells and give glory to thy name O Lord. None of you have suffered soe much as innocent Iob set him before your Eyes invironed with the messingers of all his disasters One of them said to him The Sabeanâ— tooke away the Oxes and Asses and kill'd thy servants A nother said a fyre from heaven struck thy sheep and thy servants and consum'd them all The third The Chaldeans made three troups and invaded the Cammels The last told him A vehement winde came from the Country of the desert and shook the foure Corners of the House wherin thy Children were feasting and falling oppressed them and they are all dead Iob hearing all this sad newes blamed not the Sabeans Chaldeans fire from heaven or winde coming from the Country of the Desert nor did soe much as mention them But hee rose up and faling on the ground adored and said Naked I came out of my Mothers Wombe and naked shall I returne thither our Lord gave our Lord hath taken away as it pleased our Lord soe it is done the name of our Lord he blessed Bless you likewise the the name of our Lord for all that hath befalen you offering all up purely to his holy will One thing my honoured deare Country-men I seriously commend to your pious Considerations the ensuing weighty golden sentence of S. Cyprian Deus unus est saith hee Christus unus est una Ecclesia Cathedra una supra Petrum Domini voce fundata aliud Altare constitui aut sacerdotium novum fieri prater unum Altare unum Sacerdotium non potest Qnisquis alibi collegerit spargit Adulterum est impium est sacrilegum est quodcunque humano furâ—ro Institutitur ut dispositio Divina violetur Let the words of this most holy Bishop and Martyre goe to the hart of every one of you This one God hath created you This one Christ hath redeemed you This one Church hath baptized you and imbued you with the Elements of faith and Christian Rules of living well This one and holy Chaire of Peter hath governed you and all the Christian world in verity and sanctity all a long from the Apostles tyme. There is but one Altar and one Priesthood and this only in the Roman Catholick Church hee that gathereth out of this congregation disperseth This Church only hath the keyes of heaven and true Commission to save soules any power on Earth that seeks to pull downe this Altar to Abolish this Priesthood to distroy this Church is Impious Adulterous Prophane and Sacrilegious The holy Doctour gives another Devine Counsell to his people Nemo vos fratres errare a Domini viis faciat Nemo filios Ecciesiae de Ecclesia tollat pereant sibi soli qui perire voluerint That is to say let noe man bring you into error from the pathes of our Lord let none take out of the Church Children of the Church those that have a minde to perrish and be lost let them be lost alone Let Egan a lost dissolaite Fryer that latly fell and this Sall and all such prophane men that will not remaine In Gods House let them perrish alone seeing they will haue it soe doe not you follow theire evill example Impiety and maddness but wisely stay within the Ribbs of the Ark the holy Roman Catholick Church Ad quam teste Cypriano perfidia non habet accessum And out of which great Augustin assures us there is noe hopes of salvation And be constantly and Religiously obedient to the Apostolick Sea and to the man that stands upon the Rock Clement the X. conspicuous for his Zeal and Piety on earth the prime Lord of the House of God with full power to guide and governe all soules in the way of salvation Praying God of his infinit goodness to graunt you in your great afflictions fortitude patience and comfort to his holy Protection I commend hartely you and my selfe this 23th December 1674. Isa Cap. 38 1. Cor. Cap. 10. Apoc. Cap. 12. Dictum S. Ambrosy Isa Cap. 8. Psal 140. Act. Apl. cap. 5. Levit. cap. 19. Isa Cap. â— Ierem. Cap. 6. Ad Rom Cap. 13. Ad Hebr. cap. 11. In Merc. Britanicus * Bos in Lingua Iudae Epist Plato legum 2. lib. Prov. cap. 10. Eccles cap. 21. Exod. cap. 22. S. To. 2a 2ae q. 6. A. 7. De grafys ex cap. significasti desce 36. M. 35 In 2a 2ae q. 40. q. 64. and the interpriters of holy writt in Rom. 13. 3a part lib. 2. cap 1. In 2a 2ae q. 64. a 7. In 2a 2ae q. 40. a 1. dub 2. con 1. Mac. l. 2. cap. 15. 2a 2ae q. 40. a. 1. d. 10 con 1. §§ ad L Aquill L scientiam §§ qui cum aliter Instit Moral P. 3. l. 3. q. 6. q. 6. n. 7. de Iustitia Iure Out of the Narrative of the Earl of Clarindons Settlement and Sale of Ireland Out of Clarendons Settleement and Sale of Ireland pag. 8. Psal 71. Psal nonâ—â—… Iob. cap. 29. Ierem. Threnâ— cap. 5. Malac. cap. 2. Iob. cap. 12. Dan. cap. 3. Iob. cap. 1. S. Cyprianus Epist 40.