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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52246	Foxes and firebrands, or, A specimen of the danger and harmony of popery and separation wherein is proved from undeniable matter of fact and reason that separation from the Church of England is, in the judgment of papists, and by sad experience, found the most compendious way to introduce popery and to ruine the Protestant religion.	Nalson, John, 1638?-1686.; Ware, Robert, d. 1696. Foxes and firebrands. Part 2.	1682 (1682)	Wing N104; ESTC R7745	85,255	246

our Fears and Apprehensions and thereby give us the opportunity to break the snares of our Enemies to which nothing can so effectually contribute as our uniting in the Protestant Religion of the Church of England God of his infinite mercy who maketh men to be of one mind in an House who is the Author of Peace and the Lover of Concord who breaketh the Snares of the Ungodly turneth their Wise-men backward and their Counsels into Foolishness grant that in this our day we may see and know and follow the things that make for our Peace that so our Divisions may not be our ruine that the Enemies of our Countrey and Religion may not triumph over us but that by our Vnion with the Established Government in Church and State we may defeat the designs of our Enemies and disappoint their expectations God long preserve the Life of our Dread Sovereign and defend this Church the most true Apostolick of any Church upon the face of the Earth The End of the First Part. THE SECOND PART OF FOXES AND FIREBRANDS Or a SPECIMEN Of the Danger and Harmony of POPERY and SEPARATION WHEREIN Is proved from undeniable matter of Fact and Reason that Separation from the Church of England is in the Judgment of Papists and by sad Experience found the most compendious way to introduce Popery and to ruine the Protestant Religion Tantum Religio potuit suadere Malorum DVBLIN Printed by Jos Ray for a Society of Stationers and are to be Sold by the Booksellers of Dublin MDCLXXXII To the Most Reverend the Archbishops The Right Reverend the Bishops and the rest of the Reverend Divines of the Reformed Church of IRELAND Reverend Fathers THe Publisher of these Collections of this Treatise knows none so proper to whom he may dedicate it as your selves for as You are those Venerable Persons that intend the Spiritual Good of this Kingdom and whose Function doth oblige you to watch for the good of Souls so he doubts not but any the meanest Present will be candidly accepted of that tends to the promoting of so glorious a design It hath been the unhappiness of these Kingdoms ever since the Reformation to meet with brisk oppositions in point of Religion not only from professed Enemies but disguised Friends and the Churches of England and Ireland had no sooner shaken off that Idolatry and Superstition that overspread and deformed the face of primitive Apostolical Religion but like the woman in the Revelations Cap. 12. she was persecuted by the Dragon who raised up all his Arts and Stratagems to devour that child of the Reformation which had cost her so many throws and agonies The Papists on one hand and the Puritans on the other did endeavour to sully and bespatter the glory of her Reformation the one taxing it with Innovation and the other with Superstition and too near an approach to those superstitious Rites and Ceremonies which she had reformed what justice there is in either of the accusations the world is sufficiently sensible of by the many learned Volumes that have defended both her Doctrine and her Discipline in opposition to them both and I presume that every unprejudiced Reader will cast the balance on the Churches side and conclude that there is more of spight and malice than truth in the imputation For it cannot be imagined that the Churches of England and Ireland should be guilty of Novelties in point of Doctrine when they did so lowdly tax the Church of Rome with Innovations and pretended them as one great justifiable ground of their separation from it and to symbolize with that Church in superstitious Rites and Ceremonies is in effect to say that they were resolved to maintain what they had abjured and act contrary to all the declarations that they had published to the World in their own defense But it will appear farther from this discourse that these objections were suggested to our dissenters from the Papists who have frequently acted and preached in the habits of dissenters and though they pretend to be more zealous against Popery than others yet they are not ashamed to whet their swords at the forges of the Philistines and make use of their arts and assistance for the ruine of the Church I wish they would but seriously reflect upon these things and consider that by insisting in the paths that the Papists have chalked them out they are advancing the interest of Popery and will in time do their work as succesfully as if they had laid their heads together to subvert the Government both in Church and State That they may not any more be seduced by such kind of artifices is not only the design of these Papers but the hearty Prayers of Your most Humble Servant R. W. Foxes and Firebrands c. The Second Part. THat the Reader may have a clearer insight into the following discourse and understand how little the Doctrine of depriving or resisting Princes was countenanced by the first Reformers it may not be inconvenient to entertain him with the pious and Loyal speech of the great Pillar of the Reformation Archbishop Cranmer whereby it will appear how averse he was either to the Jesuitical Doctrines of deposing Princes for disowning the Popes Authority or the late Phanatical pretences of taking Arms against the King where ho neglects his duty or stands not to the promises and Covenants that he makes at his Coronation The Speech is as followeth MOST DREAD AND ROYAL SOVEREIGN THe promises your Highness hath made here at your Coronation to forsake the Devil and all his works are not to be taken in the Bishop of Rome's sence when you commit any thing distastful to that See to hit your Majesty in the teeth as Pope Paul the Third late Bishop of Rome sent to your Royal Father saying didst thou not promise at our permission of thy Coronation to forsake the Devil and all his works and do'st thou turn to Heresie For the breach of this thy promise knowest thou not that 't is in our power to dispose of the Sword and Scepter to whom we please We your Majesties Clergy do humbly conceive that this promise reacheth not at your Highness Sword spiritual or temporal or in the least at your Highness swaying the Scepter of this your Dominion as you and your Predecessors have had them from God neither could your Ancestors lawfully resign up their Crowns to the Bishops of Rome or to his Legats according to their ancient Oaths then taken upon that Ceremony The Bishops of Canterbury for the most part have Crowned your Predecessors and Anointed them Kings of this Land yet it was not in their power to receive or reject them neither did it give them authority to prescribe them conditions to take or to leave their Crowns although the Bishops of Rome would encroach upon your Predecessors by his Bishops Act and Oil that in the end they might possess those Bishops with an Interest to dispose of their Crowns at their pleasure

was to the Council of Trent in the year 1559. How the Jesuits to ingratiate themselves with the Pope and to mislead the Commonalty make him and his acts above God and the holy Scriptures just at my coming thither that the Pope and the Council were above all that is called God and of greater force than the Scripture was for which opinion one Veratus returned this Society thanks from the Council and so it was upon the Jesuits opinion voted in that Council that their Acts and the Popes were beyond the Law the Prophets and the Scriptures The Messenger between the Council of Trent and the Jesuits of Paris Ludovick de Freake the Council of Trents Messenger between them and the Jesuits of France who brought them these Instructions to destroy the Church of England from Beneventum the Archbishop named Casa was Ludovick de Freake formerly a Priest in England who brought with him up to Paris from the Council several kind of Indulgences and Instructions for that Society to undertake and grant and teach Part of the Instructions were thus to take notice of the confessions of the people of France especially of the Nobles and Gentry and in case they suspect any thing detrimental to the Holy See of Rome then to confer with three or more Confessors of the suspition and so to take memorandums of certain questions to be asked of the party so suspected the next time Also to converse with the Noblest and to discourse variously until they find which way he is inclinable most and to please them accordingly in their discourse and in case any of you be or chance to be any of their Confessors ye are to take memorandums of things doubtful and suspitious and at the next Confession to urge them to those parties then confessing by which any three or more are to consult and give the See of Rome and her Councils intelligence more or less that the Mother-Church might be informed and all evil prevented that is or shall be intended against her You are to associate with all strangers Heretical This Dispensation of the Pope hath beguiled many wise men in England as well as Christian Catholick if Heretical to be civil and not to discover your profession and for the better procurement of these designs designed or to be accomplished ye may with leave of any three of the Society be permitted to wear what dress or habit you think convenient provided the Society hear from the party so dispenced Any of you thus dispenced with may go with the Heretick to any of their heretical Meetings permitted by Acts or Contracts of Peace between Princes by this contrivance ye may both inform the Mother-Church and in case any of you be employed to assist her to go into any of the heretical Villages or Territories you will be the more able to serve the holy See of St. Peter and keep your selves from suspition In case any of ye be thus employed The Popes Dispensation with Impostors to Preach all Doctrines in England to confound that Church ye are dispenced with either to go with Hereticks to their Churches or as you see convenient If you own your selves Clergy-men then to Preach but with caution till ye be well acquainted with those Hereticks you converse with and then by degrees add to your Doctrine by Ceremonies or otherwise as you find them inclinable If ye be known by any of the Lay Catholicks you are to pacify them by saying secret Mass unto them or by acquainting other Priests who are not able to undertake this work with your intentions who doth generally say Mass unto them If the Lay men be of any Parts or of Wit you may dispence with them also reserving the same provisoes and thereby he may acquire an Estate and be the more able to serve the Mother-Church In case they scruple in taking of Oaths you are to dispence with them assuring them that they are to be kept no longer than the Mother-Church sees it convenient The Popes manner of dispensing with Oaths a good memorandum for Protestant Juries to recollect and to consider Or if they scruple to swear on the Evangelist you are to say unto them that the Translation on which they swear his Holiness the Pope hath annull'd and thereby it is become Heretical and all as one as upon an ordinary Story-Book In case in strange Countreys ye be known by Merchants or others trading or travelling thither for to strengthen your designs the more for your intention you are dispenced with to Marry after their manner and then ye safely may make answer that Heretical Marriage is no Marriage for your Dispensation mollifies it so that at the worst it is but a Venial Sin and may be forgiven Ye are not to Preach all after one method The Popes contrivance to demolish the Protestant Church of England but to observe the place wherein you come If Lutheranism be prevalent then Preach Calvanism if Calvanism then Lutheranism if in England then either of these or John Husses opinions Anabaptism or any that are contrary to the Holy See of St. Peter by which your Function will not be suspected and yet you may still act on the interest of the Mother-Church there being as the Council are agreed on no better way to demolish that Church of Heresy but by mixtures of Doctrines and by adding of Ceremonies more than be at present permitted Some of you who undertook to be of this sort of the heretical Episcopal Society This Dispensation shews how the Pope for his purpose dispenceth even with the Protestant Church of England it self for her gain bring it as near to the mother-Mother-Church as you can for then the Lutheran Party the Calvinists the Anabaptists and other Hereticks will be averse thereunto and thereby make that Episcopal Heresie odious to all these and be a means to reduce all in time to the Mother-Church You are further during the time you take these shapes on you to observe thus much of the rules of the Mother-Church This Dispensation shews that the Pope and his Emissaries be the Factions between the King Parliament and Subjects the Mother-Church disowneth the Regal Power to be her Superior especially the Heretical Powers Regal or otherwise Upon this ye are to take these measures You must bemone your Followers and Auditors saying Are not we persecuted for righteousness sake What Flesh and Blood can endure this We be more zealous against the Pope than they and yet we be persecuted By these means your cotrivances will light on those ye lead along and not on your selves This will advantage you much hang you or burn you they dare not but their perpetual acts against the party that follow you will take off the late severities they lay on us in saying We burnt the Hereticks their Ancestors and so at last bring that odium upon that Heretical Church in England which they have thrown on us And as you will

do present weekly methods ways and contrivances for the Church of Rome which hold the great Council for the week following in employment how to order all things for the advancement of the Romish Faith Some of these contrivances coming to my hands by the help of the Silver key be as follow 1. The people of England being much averted from their Mother-Church of Rome they have thought fit sounding out their inclinations how the common sort are taken with the Liturgy in English for to offer her Grace to confirm it with some things altered therein provided that her Grace and the Council do acknowledge the same from Rome and her Coucil which if it be denied as we suppose it will then these are to asperse the Liturgy of England by all ways and conspiracies imaginable 2. A Licence or Dispensation to be granted to any of the Romish Orders to Preach speak or write against the now established Church of England amongst other Protesters against Rome purposely to make England odious to them and that they may retain their assistances promised them in case of any Princes invasion and the parties so licenced and indulged dispenced with to be seemingly as one of them and not to be either taxed checkt or excommunicated for so doing and further for the better assurance of the party so licenced and indulged the party to change his name least he be discovered and to keep a quarternal correspondence with any of the Cardinals Archbishops Bishops Abbots Priors or others of the chief Monasteries Abbeys c. At which quarternal correspondence shall not only give the Pope intelligence of Heretical conspiracy but be a full assurance of their fidelity to Rome This proposal was much debated in the Council which caused some of the Council to say how shall we prevent it in case any of the parties so licenced flinch from us and receive a good reward and fall off from our correspondency 3. It was then ordered that there should be several appointed for to watch the parties so licenced and indulged and to give intelligence to Rome of their behaviour which parties are sworn not to divulge to any of those so licenced or indulged what they be or from whence they came but to be strange and to come in as one of their Converts so that the party shall be cautious how and which way he bendeth It was afterwards debated how it should be ordered in case any of the Heretical Ministry of England should become as they who had these Licences and what should be done in that case 4. It was then answered by the Bishop of Mens that that was the thing they aimed at and that they desired no more than separation amongst the Hereticks of England and by so doing in case any animosity be amongst them the Church established by the Heretick Queen as they so termed her Grace there would be the less to oppose the Mother-Church of Rome when-ever opportunity served This reason of the Bishop pacified the whole Council 5. It was granted not only Indulgence and Pardon to the party that should assault her Grace either private or in publick or to any Cook Brewer Baker Physitian Vintner Grocer Chirurgion or any other Calling whatsoever that should or did make her away out of this World a Pardon but an absolute Remission of Sins to the Heirs of that parties Family sprang from him and a perpetual Annuity to them for ever and the said Heir to be never beholding to any of the Fathers for pardon be they of what Order soever unless it pleased himself and to be one of those Privy-Council whosoever Reigned successively 6. It was ordered for the better assurance of further intelligence to the See of Rome to give Licences to any that shall swear to that Supremacy due Obedience and Allegiance to her Powers to dispence with Sacraments Baptism Marriages and other Ceremonies of our now established Church in England that the parties so obliged may possess and enjoy any Office or Employment either Ecclesiastical Military or Civil and to take such Oaths as shall be imposed upon them provided that the said Oaths be taken with a reserve for to serve the mother-Mother-Church of Rome when-ever opportunity serveth and thereby in so doing the Act in Council was passed it was no sin but meritorious until occasion served to the contrary and that when it was so served for Rome's advantage the party was absolved from his Oath 7. It was also ordered that all the Romish Orders as well Regular as Secular to cherish all the Adherents of the Mother-Church of Rome whenever occasion serveth to be in readiness at the times that shall be appointed and to contribute according to their capacities what in them lieth for the promotion of the Romish Cause 8. It is ordered that the Romish Party shall propose a Match for the Queen of the Catholick Princes for to further or promote the Romish Faith 9. It is ordered upon pain of Excommunication and of a perpetual Curse to light on the Families and Posterities of all those of the Mother-Church of Rome who will not promote or assist by means of Money or otherwise Mary Queen of Scotlands pretence to the Crown of England 10. It is also ordered that every Romish Catholick within England and Ireland or any of Englands Territories to contribute to those Romish Bishops Parish Priests c. that are privately or shall be by Rome set over them to pay all the Church duties as if they were in possession upon pain of Excommunication of them and their Posterity 11. It is ordered that the See of Rome do dispence with all parties of the Roman Faith to swear against all Hereticks of England as elsewhere and that not to be a crime or an offence against the soul of the party the Accuser taking the Oath with an intention to promote or advance the Roman Catholick Faith The Original being kept private in her Majesties secret Closet amongst other Papers of secrecy at that time not to be published having a Correspondent at that time in Italy to send her Majesty Intelligence of forreign conspiracies and contrivances This same noble Peer mentions in the same Book of his Memorials this relation which is also suitable for our purpose In the month of June A Relation of a Puritan Preacher permitted by the Jesuits to Preach dissention at Norwich Anno 1584. was Francis Throgmorton seized on in London and several Treasons were laid to his charge although he was a Papist yet he was a great friend to one Samuel Harper who several times Preached after a Puritannical manner in the Town of Norwich This great conversation of his with this pretended Minister caused great suspitions to arise in that Town amongst the Inhabitants there being more than ordinary betwixt these two It chanced that one Richard Cade an Inhabitant of the same Town being present then at London How it came to be discovered and at the Trials of Edward Arden and