Rebellion though many of the Reformed Divines are as I shal shew you of another sentiment Yet even those that do agree with me will nevertheless confess that by reason of carnal passions Grace must be predominant to resist so strong a torrent Was it not strange in the beginning to behold Abbies destroyed Bishopricks gelded Chanteries Hospitals and Colledges turned to profane uses Nay after a change of Liturgies and Rites to see people renounce their pious Vows and out of Godliness grow more licentious and loose These and the like unexpected alterations it being a pitiful thing as Stow says to hear the lamentations in the Country for Religious houses spurred men forward to resist for people saw the Conflagration and none knew in what it would determine or end But now Noble Country-men the Scene is quite altered for now we know the full scope of your designe now we are inured to the gentle Yoak of Protestant Kings and now we are so incorporated by our long acquaintance and joynt sufferings that all humane proneness to contend which our Enemies called Principles of Faith is wholly eradicated and taken away Having thus shew'd you that our Principles are not dangerous to Kings that our actions have been zealous for Kings and moreover that it is impossible we should again fall into those misdemeanours into which natural frailtie and misusage drove the foregoing age I will now with your permission examine the Answer of our Minister to each particular Paragraph and by it shall still farther let you see as well his pernicious ill nature as his detestable Positions and Designes But my Lords and Gentlemen I shall beseech you first throughly to peruse the Apologie it self it being the ground of the whole Dispute and because it hath been mangled by him into many imperfect Sections I have thought fit to print it here entire to the end you might run it over with the more ease and that by the whole connexion and dependance which mutilation spoils you may the better consider the real integritie I had in putting out that true and submissive Vindication TO ALL THE ROYALLISTS that suffered for HIS MAJESTY AND To all the rest of the Good People of ENGLAND The Humble APOLOGIE of the ENGLISH CATHOLICKS My Lords and Gentlemen THe Arms which Christians can use against Lawful Powers in their Severity are only Prayers Tears Now since nothing can equal the infinity of those we have shed but the Cause viz. to see our dearest Friends forsake us we hope it will not offend you if after we have a little wip'd our eyes we sigh out our Complaints to you We had spoken much sooner had we not been silent through consternation to see you so enflam'd whom with reverence we honour and also to shew our submissive patience which used no slights or tricks to divert the debates of Parliament For no body can imagine where so many of the great Nobility and Gentry are concern'd but something might have been done whenas in all ages we see things of Publick advantage by the managers dexterity nipt in the bud even in the very Houses themselves Far be it from Catholicks to perplex Parliaments who have been the Founders of their Priviledges and all Ancient Lawes Nay Mâgna Charta it self had its rise from us which we do the less boast of since it was not at first obtained in so submiss and humble manner We sung our Nunc dimittis when we saw our Master in his Throne and you in your deserved Authority and Rule nor could any thing have ever grieved us more then to have our Loyalty called into Question by you even at the instigation of our greatest Adversaries If we must suffer let it be by you alone for that 's a double death to men of Honour to have their Enemies not onely Accusers but their insulting Judges also These are they that by beginning with us murthered their Prince and wounded you And shall the same Method continue by your approbation We are sure you mean well though their designe be wicked But let it never be recorded in Story that you forgot your often Vows to us in joyning with them that have been the cause of so great calamity to the Nation Of all Calumnies against Catholicks we have admired at none so much as that their Principles are said to be inconsistent with Government and they themselves thought ever prone to Rebellion My Lords and Gentlemen Had this been a new Sect not known before something perchance might have been doubted but to lay this at their doors that have governed the Civilized World is the Miracle of Miracles to us Did Richard the First or Edward Longshanks suspect his Catholicks that served in Palestine and made our Countries Fame big in the Chronicle of all Ages Or did they mistrust in their dangerous absence their Subjects at home because they were of this Profession Could Edward the Third imagine those to be Trayterous in their Doctrine that had that care and duty for their Prince as to make them by Statute guilty of death in the highest degree that had the least thought of ill against the King Be pleased that Henry the Fifth be remembred also who did those Wonders of which the whole World does still resound and certainly all History will agree in this that 't was Old Castle he feared and not those that believed the Bishop of Rome to be Head of the Church We will no longer trouble you with putting you in minde of any more of our mighty Kings who have been feared abroad and as safe at home as any since the Reformation of Religion We shall onely adde this that if Popery be the enslaving of Princes France still believes it self as absolute as Denmark or Sweden nor will ever the House of Austria abjure the Pope to secure themselves of the fidelity of their Subiects We shall always acknowledge to the whole World that there have been as many brave English in this last Century as in any other place whatsoever Yet since the exclusion of the Catholick Faith there has been that committed by those who would be fain called Protestants that the wickedest Papist never dreamt of 'T was never heard of before that an absolute Queen was condemned by Subjects and those stiled her Peers or that a King was publickly tried and executed by his own people and servants My Lords and Gentlemen We know who were the Authors of this last Abomination and how generously you strove against the raging Torrent nor have we any other ends to remember you of it but to shew that all Religions may have a corrupted spawn and that God hath been pleased to permit such a Rebellion which our progenitors never saw to convince you perchance whom for ever may he prosper that Popery is not the only Source of Treason Little did we think when your Prayers and ours were offered up to beg a Blessing on the Kings Affairs ever to see that
day in which Carlos Gifford Whitgrave and the Pendrels should be punished by your desires for that Religion which obliged them to save their forlorn Prince and a stigmatized man for his offences against King and Church a chief promoter of it Nay less did we imagine that by your Votes Hudlestone might be hanged who again secured our Soveraign and others free in their fat possessions that sat as Judges and sealed the Execution of that great Prince of happy Memory We confess we are unfortunate you just Judges whom with our lives we will ever maintain to be so nor are we ignorant the necessity of affairs made the King and you do things which formerly you could not so much as fancy yet give us leave to say we are still Loyal nay to desire you to believe so and to remember how synonymous under the late Rebellion was the word Papist and Cavalier for there was no Papist that was not deemed a Caualier nor no Caualier that was not call'd a Papist or at least thought to be Popishly affected We know though we differ something in Religion the truth of which let the last day judge yet none can agree with your inclinations or are fitter for your converse then we for as we have as much birth among us as England can boast of so our breeding leans your way both in Court and Camp And therefore had not our late Sufferings united us in that firm tie yet our like humors must needs have joyned our hearts If we erre pity our condition and remember what your great Ancestors were and make some difference between us that have twice converted England from Paganism and those other Sects that can challenge nothing but intrusion for their imposed Authority But 't is generally said That Papists cannot live without persecuting all other Religions within their reach We confess where the name of Protestant is unknown the Catholick Magistrates believing it erronious do use all endeavours to keep it out Yet in those Countreys where Liberty is given they have far more Priviledges then we under any Reformed Government whatsoever To be short we will only instance France for all where they have publick Churches where they can make what Proselytes they please and where 't is not against Law to be in any Charge or Imployment Now Holland which permits every thing gives us 't is true our Lives and Estates but takes away alle Trust and Rule and leaves us also in danger of the Scout whensoever he pleases to molest our Meetings Because we have named France the Massacre will perchance be urged against us But the World must know that was a Cabinet-Plot condemned as wicked by Catholick Writers there and of other Countries also Besides it cannot be thought they were murthered for being Protestants since 't was their powerful Rebellion let their Faith have been what it would that drew them into that ill-machinated destruction May it not as well be said in the next Catholick Kings Reign that the Duke of Guise ande Cardinal Heads of the League were killed for their Religion also Now no body is ignorant that 't was their factious Authority which made that jealous Prince design their deaths though by unwarrantable means If it were for Doctrine that the Hugonots suffered in France this haughty Monaroh would soon destroy them now having neither Force nor Towns to resist his Might and Puissance They yet live free enough being even Members of Parliament and may convert the Kings Brother too if he thinks fit to be so Thus you may see how well Protestants live in a Popish Country under a Popish King Nor was Charlemaign more Catholick then this for though he contends sometimes with the Pope 't is not of Faith but about Gallicane Priviledges which perchance he may very lawfully do Judge then Worthy Patriots who are the best used and consider our hardship here in England where 't is not only a Fine for hearing Mass but death to the Master for having a Priest in his house and so far we are from preferment that by Law we cannot come within ten miles of London all which we know your great Mercy will never permit you to exact It has been often urged that our misdemeanours in Queen Elizabeths and King James's time were the cause of our punishment We earnestly wish that the Party had had more patience under that Princess But pray consider though we excuse not their faults whether it was not a Question harder then that of York and Lancaster the cause of a War of such length and death of so many Princes who had most right Queen Elizabeth or Mary Stuart For since the whole Kingdom had crowned and sworn Allegeance to Queen Mary they owned her as the legitimate daughter to Henry the Eighth and therefore 't was thought necessarily to follow by many that if Mary was the true Child Elizabeth was the Natural which must needs give way to the thrice noble Queen of Scots 'T was for the Royal House of Scotland that they suffered in those days and 't is for the same illustrious Family we are ready to hazard all on any occasion Nor can the consequence of the former procedure be but ill if a Henry the Eighth whom Sir W. Rawleigh and my Lord Cherbury two famous Protestants have so homely characterized should after twenty years co-habitation turn away his wife and this out of scruple of Conscience as he said when as History declares that he never spared woman in his lust nor man his fury Now for the fifth of Novēber with hāds lifted up to Heaven we abominate and detest and from the bottō of our hearts say may they fall into irrecoverable perdition who propagate that faith by the blood of Kings which is to be planted in truth and meekness only But let it not displease Men Brethren and Fathers if we ask whether Ulysses be no better known or who has forgot the Plots of Cromwel framed in his Closet not only to destroy many faithful Cavaliers but also to put a lustre upon his Intelligence as if nothing could be done without his knowledge Even so did the then great Minister who drew some few ambitious men into this conjuration and then discovered it by a Miracle This will easily appear viz. how little the Catholique Party understood the design seeing there were not a score of guilty found though all imaginable industry was used by the Commons Lords and Privy Councel too But suppose my Lords and Gentlemen which never can be granted that all the Papists of that age were consenting Will you be so severe then to still punish the Children for their Fathers faults Nay such Children that so unanimously joyned with you in that glorious Quarrel wherein you and we underwent such sufferings that needs we must have all sunk had not our mutual love assisted What have we done that we should now deserve your Anger Has the Indiscretion of some few incenst you 'T is true that is
A REPLY TO THE ANSVVER OF THE CATHOLIQVE APOLOGY Or a cleere vindication of the Catholiques of England from all matter of fact charg'd against them by their Enemyes M. DC LXVIII PREFACE TO ALL THE ROYALLISTS that suffered for HIS MAJESTY AND To all the rest of the Good People of ENGLAND My Lords and Gentlemen IF formerly the English Catholiques by their Apology did in treat your Intercession to our Gratious Monarch in suspending the execution of those severities then proclaimed I a member of that faithful Body must now beseech your Iustice against the malice of a Parson who not only strives to oppress the Loyal but also by the inferences of his Discourse would stifle hereafter zeal and mitigate if he could the fire that resides in the breasts of all generous Subjects Can any thing touch men of Honour more then after the loss of so many Lives and Estates insultingly to have it said It was but your Duty Nay to go yet farther even in a barbarous falsity that Necessity only forc'd us to what we did and that at all times you would rather far have had our room then Company What Preacher preacht this in the days of old Or who told us when Cromwel lived Be gone you are no friends to Caesar It was our Duty I confess and a Duty which no good man can refuse his Soveraign neither shall we ever be shockt in the fervour of it by the Doctrine of such a Rabby The reason why I now take up the Gantlet of this Goliah is to shew the candour of our Actions being yet purer then his words are black which though many could do far better then I yet here I appear challenged into the List as Author of the late Apology Author I can call my self if plain words may create that Title but the Duty and Submission is the sence of the whole Catholique Party and for the matter of Fact Books are the preservers of it which will for ever record our Innocence in despite of such detraction and calumny A Jesuit the Minister is pleas'd to call me though I had not the happiness to be bred in their learned Schools but the trick of this poor man plainly appears that thus he hopes to make Truth it self suspected because by the Preaching of such Pastors the ignorant as children consider Sarazens have most fond Ideas of the Society and of all Priests in general My Lords and Gentlemen Before I go any farther I think it most necessary to tell you what moved me to write that Pamphlet which wken you have well weighed you will find in the intention perchance that Piety which is usually lodged in an English Heart and that you may assure your selves of the sincerity of my thoughts Know that if my Arm was too weak to weild a Sword in the late just War I had then a passion to wish my years greater But though I thus lost the Honour of laying my life at the feet of the injured Father I had yet the satisfaction to hazard it for the Son even before and since his happy Restauration For my neer Relations they all suffered in the Common Cause which as it brought death to some so to others the sale of their cōsiderable Estates and the best Fortune that any could expect was to be crowded into the dreadful List for Cōposition I am sure my zeal to the Royal Family has been as forward to my power as the best more then which no body certainly can do nor have I ever been farther Satyrical against those that stand at Helm then by innocently saying We Catholiques are always most unfortunate This is the Profession I have lived in and in the same loyal Faith will I end my days Doubtless then I could have no sinister design in publishing the Apology the good end I had let the World consider My first Motive was the Law of Nature which gives the Needy leave to call for Mercy nor was there at any time a Nation so cruel that ever yet denied this favour Could there be a more frightful sight then to see the whole English World on a sudden point and cry Fie on them Fie on them What scoffing Blasphemies did the Seditious utter How did Tenants begin to confront their Landlords Nay omitting several insolencies of the Rabble I knew some Justices by reason of private spleen to their Neighbours seize on a Servant threatning his commitment unless he made Oath what his Master daily did Thus then in a trice we became an Eye-sore to our Friends and a by-word among the Common Ennemies But now my Minister will nimbly demand Is not this accusing the King and blaming the whole Parliament for their Advice and Counsel To which I answer first with the great Embassador of Heaven God forbid Nor is it possible for a man who would hazard whatever is dear to him on Earth for the glory of his Country to harbour such thoughts against lawful and just Authority Pray Master Parson let me ask you Whether Laws in all places are executed by inferiour Officers according to the intent of the Legislator Remember Sir the infinitely wise Bill of purging Corporations and you will find how private revenge converted it into quite another thing This is a Flayl against which perchance no wisdom can make defence but nevertheless 't is Vineger and may force a shriek from the opprest without offence to Government My Lords and Gentlemen I do with all submission acknowledge that Counsellors especially the Supream may advise their Soveraign to put Laws in force without giving a reason to the Publick and moreover I do farther say that it was mercy that they were till then suspended yet it is no crime even when they are revived humbly to beg for favour And to illustrate this consider I beseech you an Example Imagine that his Majesty being returned an honest Cavalier was restored to his House which with two parts of his Lands lay round about a City the prime Jewel in the Royal-Diadem Here the good man sitting now under his own vine daily blesses God for the happiness of the Nation and here each moment he conceives fresh joys by considering how superlative his late sufferings were If now on a sudden both Houses upon mature deliberation should beseech his Majesty to make use of old Laws to new fortifie this his most considerable place which consequently would destroy this Subjects Estate no body I think could wonder to see him amazed and troubled Suppose then to diuert this ruine the poor mā should beseech his friends to intercede should shew his sufferings should urge reasons that his house would be a strength to the Town and that the Kings Enemies have certainly some bad design by his calamity For all this the Prince is no way necessitated to grant his request Because reasons which seem strong to a Party concerned may yet in themselves be frivolous when they are weighed by judgments who know far better the state of things
Indices against Catholiques he would have seen that let Rebels declare what they will they 'll soon find excuses and publickly make use of those very things when t is for their advantage against which in the beginning they openly profest Was not Godliness Godliness the cry of all the Saints yet because dexterity was needful they admitted into their league H. Martin and others who were then as notorious for their Vices as afterwards eminent in all the abominations of the Land Again if the Papists were pursued against Bishops there was as fierce a Chase and ever after Popery and Prelacy were continually plac'd in the same Parenthesis For my part I believe the English Episcopacie stuck more in their stomacks then we because Hereticks hate most that Religion which is but one remove above them and from which they are ever iustly taxt rebelliously to have gone out Besides the Catholikes being of a Faith for which the People had a prejudice could no ways obstruct the Reformation which they so earnestly intended 'T is plain then against Prelats they had as great if not a greater Pique yet when it conduced to the reducing of North Wales and subduing of Sir John Owen they made commander of their Forces not onely a Bishop but an Arch bishop also I mean that real Chimaera his graceless Grace of York But why do I trouble you with these probable arguments to prove the possibility of our reception when as the matter of fact is certain not done in a corner but in the Palace of a King and in the sight of all his Nobles Sir Arthur Aston a Catholick of Quality and Experience offered our late Souveraign his service and the service of many more upon the first preparations of War The good Prince sincerely gave him thanks but told him that by reason of their Religion he durst not admit them into the Army for the Rebels who never omitted a pretence would make use of this to discredit him among the people This Knight being refused thus rode in all haste to London and made the like tender to Essex The Earl upon the proposal consults the Cabal who presently advised him to accept the offer and so a formal Commission was given Sir Arthur He immediately posted back to the Court and there shewed the Commission to his Majestie which when he saw and together with it the Intrigue of these Juglers he not onely gave Sir Arthur a Command but from that time declared all Catholicks welcome who thereupon from every Quarter hastned to his help and succour The Designes which the Rebels had herein were many for by this they not onely hoped to get to themselves a Party well versed in War great in Bloud and of Estates answerable to that Bloud but also were sure at the same instant to weaken as much the King as they brought strength to themselves and besides they farther considered that this might adde a gloss to their proceedings abroad because all Neighbouring Princes being Catholiques would then probably look on their actions with a more partial eye Scripture also which is the stalking-horse of all Sects could not be wanting to them who had already with a Curse ye Meroz invited all to Rebellion That very Example might have been a Warrant that the Godly Profane may joyn in a Confederation At least 't was evident that the children of Israel who went to fight the battels of the Lord used Rahabs assistance a Harlot of Jericho for which service they shew'd favour to all her fathers house And why then might not the Elect when the Cause required it receive aid from us though children of the Whore of Babylon Doubtless in Conscience this advantage could not have been omitted by the Saints since it might have been a means towards our Conversion as Cromwel afterwards urged when he so passionately stickled to bring in the Jews My Lords and Gentlemen Thus stood our Case and thus are we now reviled by a Minister after such true and faithful Services Yes so Loyal have we been that I defie all mankinde to shew one that was false unless perchance those that renouncing their God and shaking hands with Religion were owned as Converts by the people Nay let any man read but the Account of the Pyrenaean Treaty printed by the Dutch and others and there he shall see that Cromwel esteemed us the greatest of his enemies for so he told the Duke of Crequi when he desired him as a request of his Mistress the Queen Mother of France to cease his notorious persecutions against us Certainly nothing can more fully proue the sincere and disinterested meaning of the Catholiques then the Kings miraculous Escape from Worcester for he fell not there into the hands of men of Qualitie onely but among Papists of all ranks and conditions There were Priests there were Trades-men there were Labourers there were old women there were young fully acquainted with his misery and though at the same time death was proclaimed to the Concealer and to the Discoverer a reward able to make a poor man Emperour in his own thoughts yet no danger no gain could make them betray him whom by their Faith they were commanded to conceal Men of education and parts may sometimes have by designes even in the best of their doings but they of low degree being unacquainted with the artifices of the World declare the full reality of their hearts having nothing lodged there but the religious Principles which from their youth they received from their Ghostly Father My Lords and Gentlemen I must here conjure you not to put any forc'd interpretation upon my words for I do not now Apologize for any Extravagancies done by our Predecessours in the beginning of the Reformation onely let me beseech you to look on their Case at that time with the gentlest aspect that may be Height of temptation may perchance move pitie in Magistrates though not pervert their Justice and let me desire him that will judge to lay his hand on his owne brest and truly examine there what he himself would do in this condition Suppose he were of a Religion which he thought the visible Church from age to age delivered which he knew his ancestors to have happily lived under and which he saw profest by all the Kingdoms about him suppose then on a sudden by the preaching of two or three men base in their rank and taxt in Moralities obyne another a flame should break out through all Europe and turn topsie-turvie this venerable Building to make way for divers unlike Fabricks every on of which each Architect affirmed was according to Gods own Word and Model I ask him then in such a devastation which to use Camden's own phrase The world stood amaz'd and England groan'd at what would flesh and bloud move him to 'T is an Article of my Faith that neither Heresie nor Turcism because ill must not be done that good may come of it can be opposed by
their Treason in his Majesties absence have been convicted since his return when as no Papist could ever yet be suspected for the least defection from our Soveraing Can this man think himself Canon of Canterbury and dare say that the Priest is known who flourisht his Sword at the fatal stroke when as no body knows him no not he himsef Doubtless he means some Hugonot Minister for what Cavalier was ever in France and knows not how those Saints adored Cromwel hating from the beginning to the end both our King and his Party Let the World judge of this Story concerning this nameless Priest by him whom he names viz. Mr. White whose Book of Obedience and Government he lays as a blot on all of our Religion when as this Mr. White has not only been sharply used by the Catholicks of England but he and this very Book were openly condemned by the Pope himself nor durst he since shew his head in any Catholique Countrey Thus may be seen the Conscience of this Monsieur who would charge us with a crime which at the writing he knew was false from this son of Darkness has my Minister and others owned to have received their light and what kind of light it is pray be pleased farther to observe He tells us That a year before the Kings death a select Company of English Jesuits were sent from their whole Party to consult with the Faculty of Sorbon who you must know Reader are the greatest Catholick Enemies the Society has in France whether they might lawfully make away the King The Doctors answered affirmavely to the Question being then stated in writing but afterwards when the Pope saw that the Kings Murther was decried by every body he commanded tha Jesuits to burn all the Papers about the Question but one of them was shewed by a Papist to a Protestant Yet for all this secrecy commanded by the Pope Du Moulin tells us p. 58. that at Roan many Jesuited persons told a Protestant openly on the news of the Kings death That they having often admonished the King from time to time to remember his promise at Marriage of becoming a Papist were forc'd to take these courses for his destruction After this History he says p. 61. That the Friers at Dunkirk and by the way there was never in that Town a House of English Scotch or Irish Friers told a Protestant Gentleman that had a mind to pump them That the Jesuits would fain engross the Honour of the Kings death to themselves but the truth was they had laboured as effectually as the Jesuits to compass it Then he tells pag. 60. That thirty Jesuits neer Diep met a stranger a Protestant Gentleman on the Road and told him that they were going into England to be Agitators in the Independent Army Good Protestant Reader I am quite tired with this senceless stuff and if you think it false consider what a jewel you have got from France but if you can deem it true let me entreat you hereafter never to fear Jesuite or Priest for I am sure such prating fools can never do you harm Besides I wonder how it came to pass that all the Great Cavaliers caress't the Jesuits and always employ'd them in much business during the Kings exile neither were they then or the rest of the Popish Priests less welcome to the Royallists of England But pardon me I beseech you Reader if I use so many words about a matter that deserves so little yet I cannot but confess I am engaged to the Frenche Divine for being so notoriously malitious and foolish nor did I ever think that Sir Walters discovery of the Plot in 1641. of blowing up the Thames to drown the City could ever be parallell'd but here I now find it outdone Have we not seen Good Reader that such ridiculous Stories as these have lately ruined the Kingdom and can any man believe if they once come in fashion again they will end with Papists No doubtless for both Church and Court will soon find the smart as by experience we begin to feel For my own part I should never have taken notice of Sieur du Moulin or his Book had not my Minister owned him as I said for his informer and now I see he has imitated him also in his method for my worthy Answerer calls me a Jesuite and so the Dr. does Philanax though I am confident he knows him to be a Lay-man and a married man also But now Reader it will not be amiss to tell you why this Mr. du Moulin is so angry with the Jesuites You must know that Petra Sancta a famous Writer in the Society taxes the Drs Father for jugling viz. for being in France a Presbyterian and in England Episcopal and so complying for gain with those Ceremonies which his Calvinistical Brethren abominated as superstitious This old du Moulin his reverend father as the Dr. calls him writ a Letter forsooth as his son says to the Rebels at Rochel to exhort them to obey the King in breaking up their Assembly which was then hatching the Rebellion that presently after broke out and yet though it has been lickt and amended I doubt not by the Doctor you may find That a ground of his perswasion was because they were not strong enough to resist the King and besides the Reverend Divine in that perswasion to Loyalty concludes Notwithstanding all he had said they ought to look after their safety fort'was unreasonable for them to separate their Assembly with the peril of their persons Of the same Loyal judgment also I find the Dr. himself for after all his rayling against Jesuites for Sedition he confesses the Term was expired of the grant of the strong Places to the Hugonots Nevertheless he says they seem to be justified for keeping those Towns by the reason of the first Grant which was to preserve them from their bitter Enemies This was the Doctrine you see of this worthy Divine who also vindicated the actions of the Reformed in Geneva Holland Germany c. and therefore I wonder not at his aspersing us for our service to our King and Country 'T is not my business to run over all his Book in order having one of his Disciples already to deal with but this I must tell him and the rest of his Tribe That since they steal one from the other none of their Fopperies shall go unanswered and this they may find in some part or other of the present treatise SECT V. APOLOGY Nor could any thing have ever grieved us more then to have our Loyalty called into Question by you even at the instigation of our greatest Adversaries If we must suffer let it be by you alone for that 's a double death to men of Honour to have their Enemies not only accusers but for their insulting Iudges also ANSWER IV. His Objection here is Men of Honour have no cause to fear either single or double Deaths
quite geven over my Minister for though he had no regard of himself me thinks he might have had more respect for our King then to parallel his Grand-mother with Wallis You must know Reader that Edward the First by his valour conquered Scotland and made all the Nobles swear Fealty to him About Ann. 1300. when all things were thus at quiet up starts Wallis a poore private Gentlemen who though he had distressed the English a while yet never so much as once pretended to the Crown either by Sword or Birth Afterwards he was taken by our King and executed for his Insurrections Is this man then a fit parallel with Mary Stuart owned not only as Queen of Scots abroad but by Queen Elizabeth her self also who often sent and received Embassadors from her with the same state as was used to the King of France or any other Potentate What King Iames and King Charles thought of the action I know not but I wish it had never been done Concerning the other part of his Answer First I did never charge the Kings Murther on any body but those that were the Authors of it he knows best whether he was one of them or no this I am sure of he can falsifie and to use Harrisons words blacken as well as the best of them as you may see all a long and especially in the next Section Secondly I do verily believe that King Charles died a sincere Protestant And lastly I am so far from laying any crime upon the Cavalier Protestants that I think them as brave and as worthy Gentlemen as any Nation bears But this I must say that the English Church though of an honest intention is built upon such Principles that as long as it lasts it will hatch a dissenting brood and these graceless Children upon every advantage will be ready to Rebel This is then the benefit entailed by Hen. 8. Reformation which has as Baker confesses so shaken the Church that it has stood indistraction ever since SECT XIII APOLOGY My Lords and Gentlemen We know who were the Authors of this last abomination and how generously you strove against the raging torrent nor have we any other ends to remember you of it but to show that all Religions may have a corrupted spawn and that God hath been pleased to permit such a Rebellion which our Progenitors never saw to convince you perchance whom for ever may he prosper that Popery is not the only source of Treason ANSWER XIII Here he says since we do know who were the Authors of the Abomination he desires us to be plain for he thinks I have spoke more truth then every man is aware Cardinal Richelieu he says began the Rebellion in Scotland then it broke out in Ireland blest with his Holiness Letters and Nuntio Lastly England we unsettled by giving occasion of jealousies which the Phanaticks made use of for their purposes Besides all this he says the Murther of the King also was agreed on in the Councels of our Clergy and therefore in vain could the Royallists resist the raging Torrent REPLY XIII Lord what blasphemies are here and what a heap of unsorted falsities are put together without any probability or proof Because Richelieu a great Minister of State who intrigued in every Nation is supposed to have dealt with the Presbyterians of Scotland the Papists of England were the cause of the Rebellion This is rare Logick especially every body knowing that fire and water agreed better then those Saints and we I wonder the Papists were not guilty of the dangerous commotion anno 1666 in that Kingdom But this is so ridiculous that I should be more abominable then he if I made more words of it Nor does that great Anti-Papist H. L. in his Reigne of Ch. 1. scruple to write that the Liturgy or Common Prayer was the Originall of the Scotch troubles In the next place if the flame break out in Ireland which Heath a Protestant historian sayes can be noe where more imputable then to the Parliament's unwarantable proceedure against my Lord Strafford we in England are again the cause of it so that if forraign Catholicks or forraign Protestants Rebel still we must be the Authors that never had any correspondence with either of these Nations nor have to this day as all the World sees Well then may this man falsely charge the Pope who is remote when he dares say thus of us who can so easily contradict his calumnies Lastly for England he urges we were the occasion of jealousies and they made the War O ridiculous impudence If the majority of both Houses conspire against the King suggest in open Debates fears of their own hatching and at the same time with all violence persecute Papists yet we are to be blamed and causers of the Commotions Certainly this is like him that cursed the Lord Chancellour because his horse stumbled I am sure many grave men of your Coat Mr. Parson ingenuously confest that it was the Translation of the Bible or the too frequent reading of it by the ignorant which is a consequent of the Translation that caused our disorders Consider now Reader this strange man for if his malice had not exceeded all bounds he would have told you That the Non-conformists took root assoon as the Reformation That Queen Elizabeths prudence kept them a little down That in King James his Reign they grew much stronger and that great Statesmen have often blamed that wise Prince because to keep things quiet in his Reign he occasioned the Tide to rush in with such irresistable force in our late unhappy times Thus was this storm by knowing Pilots foreseen long ago But would not a man now think this Minister had abused us sufficiently No he must yet go farther even The Kings death was agreed to in the Councels of our Clergy Doubtelss he cannot mean our Priests by the word for what did their agreeing signifie more then if the Mayor of Quinborough and his Brethren agreed that the Janizaries should strangle the Grand Seignior Had our Priests any power in England Were they not forced to skulk always in holes and hanged as often as taken I am sure Iesuites Seculars and Friers were executed no Order escaping al being fish that came to net But now I remember my self Mr. Parson pretends to be skilled in Rhetorick and perchance he uses a Trope of his own making that is That because two Negatives make an affirmative or a thing contrary to themselves therefore his four falsities in this one Section shall dubb an irrefragable truth opposite to each single assertion The Ministers meaning then it seems is this That in stead of our being false to the State We have been most intirely faithful to our King and Country Good Reader I must ask you pardon for saying any thing against these vain and groundless cavils seeing the whole World knows that never were men more earnestly Loyal then we Beware therefore of
fellows in Germany For were the Government of that Country united an not so rent into factions with diversities of Religions as Sir Edwin Sandys observes breeding endless jealousies heart-burnings and hatred it needed no other help to affront the Great Turk and to repulse all his forces to the security of Christendom This therefore was one of the advantages which the Reformation brought Certainly I spoke plain enough and that without deceit viz. Where the name of Protestant is unknown that is where it has not been yet planted the Catholike Magistrates take care to keep it out But where their number or rebellion has moued their natural Prince to grant them terms in those places I say they live with more liberty then Catholikes under any Protestant Government Flanders was never compelled to let the Reformed have extraordinary priviledges Neverthelesse there are many Protestants in that Province and particularly in the Wallon Countries nor have they their Ministers hanged though these places are under the obedience of the most Catholike King What reason has the Minister to say I could name no other Country But France where Protestants have open Churches has he forgot Poland even Crakaw it self where theire Orthodox Socinian Cathechism was made Let him also think on Hungary both which are Popish Kingdoms under Popish Kings Nay in Piedmont it self they have open Churches yet a man may legally be hanged in England if he have but a private Chappel Besides this Reader there is much difference between Papists and Protestants because all Countries were possest by us and the Reformed had no pretence to Government except in England and in a small Province or two in Germany but what they got by Rebellion Therefore as a man that is turned out of his house by a stranger may expect more then the stranger being dispossest can do from the right oâ—ner so Papists may justly expect more liberty from Protestants then they can upon any pretence from Papists yet Protestants live to this day freer in Catholique Kingdoms then we do under them For Protestants may have employment in Poppish Countreys but Papists are debarred from Offices in all Countries I except none that are of the Reformed Faith I know not what the Minister would be at that the Low-Country Papists were the chief cause why the Spanish yoak was thrown off 'T is true there were many factious Catholikes there at that time stirr'd up by the insinuation of the Reformed as Saints enflame honest men now adays Yet for all this not only the first insurrections tumults were according to Strada acted by the Calvinists at Tournay Lisle and Valencien but also in the year 1581 as the Protestant Author of Europae Modernae Speculum will tell you by a publick Instrument they declared their King Philip to have rightfully fallen from the Dominion of those Provinces then united under the profession of the Reformed Religion neither would they ever afterwards suffer the Papists to have any share in the Government for fear they should bring all things back again to their true Lord an Master But now suppose Reader I had not proved the Dutch villany by the testimony of a Writer of the Protestant Religion I hope 't is no excuse to their Rebellion though some Papists did by accident facilitate their work For if so then the Murther of Charles the First by the Independents and their erecting a Government without King or Lords were not Rebellion because the whole body of the Presbyterians began the play which afterwards but 't was too late they seemed to detest and openly to exclaim against How the Edicts of France were obtained you shall hear in this next Section SECT XVIII APOLOGY Because we have named France the Massacre will perchance be urged against us But the World must know that was a Cabinet-Plot condemned as wicked by Catholick Writhers there and of other Countries also Besides it cannot be thought they were murthered for being Protestants since 't was their powerful Rebellion let their Faith have been what it would that drew them in to that ill-machinated destruction ANSWER XVIII Here he says the French Massacre was so horrid a cruelty that Thuanus tells us That considering men and having turned over the Annals of Nations he could find no example for it in Antiquity that it was cloakt with shews of Amity and a Marriage between the Houses of Valois and Burbon to which the chief Protestants being invited were after their jollity of mirth in the dead of night butchered in their Houses without distinction of Sex or Age till the channels ran with blood none escaping but the Bridegroom and the Prince of Conde who were afterwards the one poysoned the other stab'd by men of our Religion He proceeds that this which I say was condemned by Catholick Writers was also extolled as glorious by others of them and that one may guess at my meaning and that I am of their sentiment since first I call it a Cabinet-Plot a fine soft word for the Butchery of 30000. persons Secondly in answer to them that call it murther I seem to blame it as done by halves in terming it an ill-machinated destruction Lastly in saying that it was their Rebellion drew it on them let their Faith have been what it would when indeed it was their Faith let their Obedience have been what id would for the King never had better Subjects then those that were Massacred noâ— worse Rebels then the Massacrers Then he tells us that the brave Coligni was the first killed and his head was sent to Rome and his Body dragged about Paris and besides he says that the Duke of Guises factious Authority as I sweetly stile it was a black Rebellion and to decide whether they were massacred for Protestant Religion or Rebellion because both himself and I may be partial he desires to take judges between us To make it appear it was not for Rebellion they were massacred he cites K. James who says I could never learn by any good and true intelligence that in France those of the Religion took Arms against their King In the first Civil War they stood only upon their Guard c. To prove that they were massacred for their Religion since I will admit no judge but the Pope he undertakes to shew us that it was his judgment from Thuanus a Catholick Writer who tells us The Pope having an account of the Massacre read the Letter in the Consistory there decreed to go directly to St. Marks and solemnly give thanks for so great a blessing conferred on the Roman Sea and the Christian World That soon after a Jubilee should be publisht throughout the whole Christian World and these causes were exprest for at viz. To give thanks to God for destroying in France the Enemies of the Truth and of the Church That in the evening the Guns were fired at St. Angelo Bonfires made and all things performed usual in the greatest Victories of the Church
drew in had their disloyalty out witted and were nevertheless Traytors still For 't is clear by being drawn in both parties were sufficiently disposed for it What I lay upon Cecil he says is a groundless and an impudent Fiction which I am properly the author of for no body ever spoke it before but in railery He asks by what Tradition or Revelation I received it sixty years after the fact when as neither K. James nor Bellarmine nor the Apologists of that age knew any thing of it He desires to know who were Cecils setters that would be hanged that his art might not be suspected for none were saued and Garnet said he would give all the World to clear his name and Conscience of the Treason These are strong presumptions for the Negative of Cecils having no hand in the Plot but he says there is only my bare word for the affirmative which if it be enough â—ere is a never-failing Topick to write Apologies for any Villany viz. that the then great Ministers of State drew them in In Queen Elizabeths days we had a higher game to fly at to wit her Title to the Crown but durst not make so bold with King James otherwise we had not stoopt to a Minister of State He says farther that I strive to diminish the Plot by calling the Plotters Desperadoes who could not be called so by reason of Poverty because their Estates were great nor by reason of discontents for there was not a man as King James said that could pretend a cause of grief If the cause was because they had not all they desired it is so far from excusing them that it gives occasion to suspect me I ought he says to call the Discovery a Miracle because King Iames named it so and especially since Bellarmine acknowledged it so but 't is no wonder that I who will not call the Plot Treason will not allow the Discovery to be a Miracle SECT XXVIII APOLOGY This will easily appear viz. how little the Catholique Party understood the design seeing there were not a score of guitlty found though all imaginable industry was used by the Commons Lords and Privy-Councel too ANSWER XXVIII He says few understood the very design for 't was not safe to tell it many but Papists generally knew there was a design and pray'd for the success of it Though but a score were in the Plot yet fourscore appeared in Rebellion nor is it probable so small a number could think to do much by surprizing Princess Elizabeth unless they expected other assistance But Treason he says is hated by all when unsuccessful REPLY to ANSW XXVIII 'T was never in my heart and so will all that know me testifie to think that the Conspirators in this Treason were not Traytors in the highest degree or that any punishment could equal the blackness of their offence In the Apology I am sure there are no words that can be rackt to this for my intent there was only to shew in short that the Catholick body was innocent knowing nothing of the entreprize That the Plot for which these were executed was made or at least fomented by the Policy of a great Statesman And lastly though the design had been suggested by Papists alone and unanimously approved by all yet we that live now are guilty of no sin and therefore 't were severe to be punisht for it That the Catholick Body had no hand in the Treason most plainly appears by the quality of the Actors and by the number of them I know there were four or five Gentlemen of Ancient blood engaged but I look upon that as no wonder for out of the first twenty Catholicks accidentally met I 'll lay a considerable wager to find as great Families as any were there unless that of the Percies yet this Percy was a man of no fortune nor am I certain though I well know my Lord Northumberlands Relations whether really he was a kinsman or only for names sake called his Cozen. A Plot is lookt upon as general when a good number of the Chief of a Party are intrigued in the design The Catholick Noblemen were then not only as considerable as any but also the considerablest of the Nation for at that time there being no Duke but the late King the first Marquess the first Earl the first Viscount and the first Baron were of our Profession and I believe 't will be granted that the Lords Winchester Arundel Mentacute and Abergavenny and so proportionably the rest of the Papal Nobility had Estates able to be Partizans if they thought fit in any conjuration Now none of these Noblemen nay not one of all the Peers nor any more of the Gentry then the Traytors whom I will by and by mention had a hand in the design therefore to call this as the Minister and others do an universal Popish Plot is in it self a contradiction or at least a riddle beyond my capacity to unfold For the number of these Gunpowder Traytors they were but thirteen Laymen in all whereof four viz. Catesby Percy and the two Wrights were killed in the apprehending Tresham died in the Tower And eight suffered as Faun Keys Baâ—eâ— Graunt Rookwood the two Winters and Digby and 't is evident there were no more of the CoÌ„spiracy seeing that in all their examinations no Gentleman was discovered which could not happâ— out of design to save their friends because several secret particulars they revealed and Baldwin Hammond Tesmond and Gerard being Jesuites were as the Minister says found Actors in the Plot. If then the Malefactors did accuse their Confessors as our Adversarys calls them certainly they would never have spared others had there been any more guilty Besides this of their accusing no-body the Commons Lords and Privy Councel were so vigilant that they left no stone unturn'd to find the depth of the Plot and to shew how nice they were in all manner of suspitions the Lords Sturton and Mordant two Catholicks were fined only because absent from the House that day by which 't is plain they were so far from finding positive proof that there was not the least glimpse of any thing otherwise they would never have descended to so slight a possibility for there is not a day wherein the Parliament sits but there may be found more Catholicks out of the House then were then Nay the circumspection was so great that my Lord Northumberland a protestant was imprisoned for many years as thought perchance to know somewhat because being Captain he had admitted Percy into the Band of Pensioners Thus Reader you see how impossible it is that the Catholick Party were involved here in and for the fourscore that appeared with them in Rebellion they were only Servants and Horse-boys who as Sanderson says were watcht hourly for fear of quitting their Masters and this also Speed confirms affirming that these were ever ready to steal from the Conspirators and that more care was
draw them as we see by a hundred years experience into perpetual confusion and discord SECT XXXXI APOLOGY Yet this is a mis fortune we now plainly feel that the longer the late transgressors live the more forgotten are their crimes whilst distance in time calls the faults of our Fathers to remembrance and buries our own allegeance in eternal Oblivion and forgetfulness ANSWER XXXXI We can now allow you to complain and commend your selves without measure having proved already that you do it without cause SECT XXXXII. APOLOGY My Lords and Gentlemen Consider we beseech you the sad condition of the Irish Souldiers now in England the worst of which Nation could be but intentionallie so wicked as the acted villanie of many English whom your admired Clemencie pardoned Remember how they left the Spanish service when they heard their King was in France and kow they forsook the emploiment of that unnatural Prince after he had committed that never to be forgotten act of banishing his distressed Kinsman out of his Dominions These poor men left all again to bring their Monarch to his home and shall they then be forgotten by You Or shall my Lord Douglas and his brave Scots be left to their shifts who scorn'd to receive Wages of those that have declared War against England ANSWER XXXXII. He says That to swell our Bill of Merits I take in the Irish and Scotish Souldiers as if they were a part of English Catholicks and as if I were the first that thought of them God forbid he says they should not be considered and he is neither good Christian no nor good Subject that would not contribute his proportion to it But he says I have a drift in mentioning the Irish for I mingle them with the worst of that Nation namely with those infamous Butchers that cut the throats of at least an hundred thousand Protestants It was so black an action that I knew not how to mention it in its proper place viz. after the French massacre because I had not wherewith to colour it but being still conscious it was a blot on our cause I thought fit to place it here that these brave men might mend the hue of the action He says further I deal as ill with the English Royallists by affirming they pardoned many English whose acted villanies were so wicked that the worst of the Irish could be but intentionally so wicked REPLY to ANSW XXXXII. Pray Reader consider the wicked folly of this man for here he denies us a part in the good actions of the Irish and yet all along he has laid their ill actions at our door nay in this very Paragraph he twits us with it when he says I was conscious it was a blot on our cause but I will pass by this as usual and go on Truly Reader the case of the Irish in Arms toucht me as neer as my own concerns and pray see the strange Hypocrisie also of this Minister that says God forbid these poor Souldiers should not be considered and that he is neither good Christian nor Subject that would not contribute to it and yet in the same exhortation endeavours all he can to have the Laws executed which must needs force these forlorn men either to beg or steal By this we may find what his contribution is and therefore God deliver all honest men from such a merciless creature and was ever man so abominable knowing many of the Kings Judges were pardoned to reproach my assertion that the worst of this Nation be but intentionally so wicked as the acted villany of many English whom the clemencie of the Parliament pardoned Is not this in plain terms to say that the business of Ireland was greater then the Rebellion of England and horrid Murther of our Gratious King which has drawn an eternal disgrace upon the whole Nation in general If this man who uses the word US at every turn ranking himself thereby among the Royallists be a Royallist then I 'll hereafter say that Bradshaw was one also SECT XXXXIII APOLOGY How commonly is it said That the Oath of renouncing their Religion is intended for these which will needs bring this loss to the King and you that either you will force all of our Faith to lay down their Arms though by experience of great integrity and worth or else if some few you retain they are such whom Necessity has made to swear against Conscience and therefore will certainly betray you when a greater advantage shall be offered By this test then you can have none but whom with caution you ought to shun and thus must you drive away those that truly would serve you for had they the least thought of being false they would gladly take the advantage of gain and pay to deceive you ANSWER XLIII He asks me who are said to intend this Oath if it be those that have no Authority 't is frivolous if such as have Authority 't is false and he farther says that he verily believes 't was never said thought nor wisht by any one that loved either the King or Peace of the Nation REP. to ANS XLIII The Minister is here just as he uses to be for many were upon this account disbanded before he put out his Answer and since all the rest of the Catholiques have been cashiered as 't was expected by every body when he writ SECT XLIV APOLOGY We know your wisdom and generosity and therefore cannot imagine such a thing Nor do we doubt when you shew favour to these but you will use mercy to us who are both fellow-Subjects and your own flesh and blood also If you forsake us we must say the world decays and its final transmutation must needs quickly follow ANSWER XLIV Here you imagine for the Souldiers and imagine for your self and as if you really thought your self in danger you begg for mercy of the Royallists in such words as your Predecessor the first Moderator used to the Rebels Only for the last strain we do not know that any one hit upon it before nor do believe that any one will ever use it again SECT XLV APOLOGY Little do you think the insolencies we shall suffer by Committee-men c. whom chance and lot has put into petty power Nor will it chuse but grieve you to see them abused whom formerly you loved even by the Common Enemy of us both ANSWER XLV It seems Committee-men are intrusted with his Majesties Authority or none must use it against Papists for fear of being accounted Committee-men It is time to have done when we are come to the dregs of your Rhetorick SECT XLVI APOLOGY When they punish how will they triumph and say Take this poor Romanists for your love to Kingship and again this For your long doating on the Royal Party all which you shall receive from us Commissioned by your dearest friends and under this Cloak we will glady vent our private spleen and malice ANSWER XXXXVI Sir though you set your self to