every of them And hereunto I subscribe my Name And I shall give the Reader that pure that holy Oath indeed the Solemn League and Covenant which was the Head-spring of those others and the Fountain of all Evills that overflowed the three Nations WE Noblemen Barons Knights Gentlemen Citizens The Solemn League and Covenant Burgesses Ministers of the Gospel and Commons of all sorts in the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland by the Providence of God living under one King and being of one Reformed Religion having before our eyes the Glory of God and the Advancement of the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ the Honour and Happiness of the Kings Majesty and his Posterity and the true publick Liberty Safety and Peace of the Kingdoms wherein every ones private Condition is included And calling to mind the treacherous and bloody Plots Conspiracies Attempts and Practices of the Enemies of God against the true Religion and Professors thereof in all places especially in these three Kingdoms ever since the Reformation of Religion and how much their rage power and presumption are of late and at this time increased and exercised whereof the deplorable Estate of the Church and Kingdom of Ireland the dâ—stressed Estate of the Church and Kingdom of England and the dangerous Estate of the Church and Kingdom of Scotland are present and publick testimonies We have now at last after other means of Supplication Remonstrance Protestations and Sufferings for the preservation of our selves and our Religion from utter ruine and destruction according to the commendable practice of these Kingdoms in former times and the example of Gods people in other Nations after mature deliberation resolved and determined to enter into a mutual and solemn League and Covenant wherein we all subscribe and each one of us for himself with our hands lifted up to the most High do Swear 1. That we shall sincerely really and constantly through the Grace of God endeavour in our several Places and callings the Preservation of the Reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government against our common Enemies The Reformaâ—â—on of Religion in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Word of God and the Example of the best Reformed Churches And shall endeavour to bring the Churches of God in the three Kingdoms to the nearest Conjunction and Uniformity in Religion Coâ—fession of Faith Form of Church-Government Directory for Worship and Catechising that we and our Posterity after us may as Brethren live in Faith and Love the Lord may delight to dwell in the midst of us 2. That we shall in like manner without respect of persons endeavour the extirpation of Popery Prelacy that is Church-government by Archbishops Bishops their Chancellours and Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-Deacons and all other Ecclesiastical Officers depending on that Hierarchy Superstition Heresie Schism Prophaness and whatsoever shall be found to be contrary to sound Doctrine and the power of Godliness lest we partake in other mens sins and thereby be in danger to receive of their plagues And that the Lord may be one and his Name one in the three Kingdoms 3. We shall with the same sincerity reality and constancy in our several vocations endeavour with our Estates and Lives mutually to preserve the Rights and Privileges of the Parliaments and the Liberties of the Kingdoms and to preserve and defend the Kings Majesties Person and Authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms That the World may bear witness with our Consciences of our Loyalty and that we have no thoughts or intentions to diminish his Majesties just power and greatness 4. We shall also with all faithfulness endeavour the discovery of all such as have been or shall be Incendiaries Malignants or evil Instruments by hindering the Reformation of Religion dividing the King from his People or one of the Kingdoms from another or making any faction or parties amongst the people contrary to this League and Covenant that they may be brought to publique Tryal and receive condign â—unishment as the degree of their offences shall require or deserve or the Supreme Judicatories of both Kingdoms respectively or others having power from them for that effect shall judge convenient 5. And whereas the happiness of a blessed Peace between these Kingdoms denyed in former times to our Progenitors is by the good Providence of God granted unto us and hath been lately concluded and setled by both Parliaments We shall each one of us according to our place and interest endeavour that they may remain conjoyned in a firm Peace and Union to all Posterity and that Justice may be done upon the wilfull Opposers thereof in manner expressed in the precedent Article 6. Wee shall also according to our places and callings in this common Cause of Religion Liberty and Peace of the Kingdoms assist and defend all those that enter into this League and Covenant in the maintaining and pursuing thereof and shall not suffer our selves directly or indirectly by whatsoever combination perswasion or terrour to be divided and withdrawn from this blessed Union and conjunction whether to make defection to the contrary part or to give our selves to a detestable indifferencie or neutrality in this Cause which so much concerneth the glory of God the good of the Kingdoms and honour of the King but shall all the days of our lives zealously and constantly continue therein against all opposition and promote the same according to our power against all lets and impediments whatsoever And what we are not able our selves to suppress or overcome we shall reveal and make known that it may be timely prevented and removed All which we shall do as in the sight of God And because these Kingdoms are guilty of many Sins and provocations against God and his Son Jesus Christ as is too manifest by our present distresses and dangers the fruits thereof We profess and declare before God and the World our unfeigned desire to be humbled for our own sins and for the sins of these Kingdoms especially that we have not as we ought valued the inestimable benefit of the Gospel that we have not laboured for the purity and power thereof aâ—d that we have not endeavoured to receive Christ in our hearts nor to walk worthy of him in our Lives which are the causes of other sins and transgressions so much abounding amongst us And our true and unfeigned purpose desire and endeavour for our selves and all others under our power and charge both in publick and in private in all duties we owe to God and Man to amend our lives and each one to goe before another in the example of a real Reformation That the Lord may turn away his wrath and heavy indignation and establish these Churches and Kingdoms in Truth and Peace And this Covenant we make in the presence of Almighty God the
other Causes of them Which is the reason I give out of that little and accurate Piece the following Passages and even in the Authors words which relate to our present purpose THey therefore he means the English Nation and the The Brief Narrative Pag. 6 7 8 9 10 11. whole World may be pleas'd to know that we to wit the Irish are so farr from justifying any horrid actions perpetrated at that time when but a few of any quality raised a Rebellion in the North as we have and still make it our request that those Crimes and all Massacres and Murthers then or after committed whoever shall be found guilty of them be punished Yet we may not omit although no Motive whatsoever could justifie their Undertakings to represent that before they fâ—ll from their Obedience to the Government Sir William Parsons one of the Lords Justices that supplyed the Deputies place at a publick Entertainment before many witnesses did positivâ—ly declare that within a twelve-month no Catholick should be seen in Ireland Many hands were sought and thousands were found to subscribe a Petition tending to the introducing of a severe Persecution against Catholicks who were the farr greater number of the Inhabitants of Ireland And that the menace of an Invasion of a Scotish Army of which men at that time did frequently discourse bred frightful apprehensions So as these and other grounds of suspition being improved by such among them whose particular Interests could be most favoured and better advanced in unquiet times laid the foundation of that Rebellion But even these men and at that time when the Lords Justices did not appear to be prepared for resistance by their Râ—monstrance humbly begg'd their Grievances might be redressed by the advice of the two Houses of Parliament then met at Dublin But the Lords Justices who by their words and actions not only expressed their unwillingness to stop the farther growth of these Distempers but meant to increase them and were often heard to wish that the number were greater of such as became Criminal by proroguing the Parliament made them desperate However the Nation by their Representatives in the two dayes which were only allowed them to sit husbanded their time so as to leave to posterity a monument of their aversion to such attempts by declaring that those men had traeiterously and rebelliously taken Armes and offering to employ their Lives and Fortunes in reducing them to their Obedience if they might be permitted then to sit But this was denied them and by a strange change from the antient form of Government a Parliament then sitting was prorogued whereas our Ancestors upon a farr less occasion than quieting of so high Distempers were usually called upon to assist the King with their Advice To this may be added that the Marquess of Ormond proposed at the Council-Board the raising of five thousand men in the space of three weeks if he might be authoriz'd so to do with which strength he undertook to dissipate those then weak beginnings of the ensuing mischiefs and to prevent their farther growth but was refused it So as thus farr we may observe who they were that widened the wound instead of stanching the blood This foundation being thus laid that which at first was but a spark and might be easily quenched began to flame And freedom of Rapine having suddenly drawn numbers together the unreprest Conspiratours became a formidable Arme and besieged Tredah passing the River of Boyne which was â—â—e Rubicon of the Pale and had in all former Rbeellions been maintained with their blood by those antient English Colonies planted there Now it was that the times began to favour the design of the Lords Justices and their Party in the Council which was as forward as they to foment the Distractions For the Ulster Army lying in the bowels of the Country the Forces being not yet come out of England and the Natives themselves both unarm'd and distrusted by the State they were forced at first by their regular contribution to prevent the desolation which would have followed their refusal to supply them Hereupon such Contributors began to be looked upon and characted as men fallen from the Government And a Party that was sent from Dublin having killed at Santry but three miles distant from thence some innocent Husbandmen among whom there was two Protestants and carried their heads as in triumph to the City the neighbour Inhabitants alarm'd thereat had recourse to such Weapons as first came to hand and gathered in a Body Whereupon the Lords Justices set forth a Proclamation in nature of a safe Conduct by which these so in Armes and Mr. King of Clontarffe by special name had five dayes respite to come in and present their Grievances But before three nights of the time prefixed were expired Mr. King 's house was pillaged and burnt by direction of the Lords Justices Not long after supplyes being arrived out of England and the siege of Tredah raised and consequently the force removed which necessitated the Inhabitants to comply with the Ulster Army the Nobility and Gentry of the Pale prevailed with Sir John Read his Majesties sworn Servant a Stranger to the Country un eâ—gaged and an eye witness of their proceedings then upon his journey to England to take the pains to present their Remonstrance to the late King of ever blessed memory and to beg pardon for what they were thus compelled to act But he poor Gentleman coming to Dublin was apprehended and not concealing the Message intrusted with him was put to the Rack The most part of the questions which were then asked him in that torment being no other than such as might lead him to accuse the King and Queen to be Authors and Fomenters of that Rebellion Moreover the two Houses of Parliament in England for the better induciâ—g the Rebells to repent of their wicked Attempts commended to the Lords Justices according to the power granted them in that behalf to bestow his Majesties gracious pardon to all such as within a convenient time c. should return to their Obedience The Lords Justices notwithstanding such Order and his Majesties gracious pleasure signified to that effect by their Proclamation dated in November 1641. limited such his Majesties and the Parliaments of England their favourable and general Intentions to the Inhabitants of a few Counties provided alwayes they were no Free-holders and afforded them no longer time than ten dayes after the Proclamation to receive benefit thereby But notwithstanding these restrictions the Lord of Dansany Sir John Nettervill Patrick Barnewall of Kiibrue and many others who had notice of his Majesties gracious Inclination towards the Nation and the Parliament of Englands Order in favour of them submitted to the Lord Marquess of Ormond then Licutenant General of his Majesties Army who recommended them to the Lords Justices intimating that the good usage to be extended to them would have an influence on many others and be a great motive to
did shrink and would have been guided in their retreat at any rate Therefore the Army ran away 66. I was astonish'd to find that this Gentleman because I writ that when England Scotland and the Protestants of Ireland wholly deserted the Royal Cause the Irish Pag. 33. Catholicks fought against the Regicides in defence of his Majesties Rights should break out into so immoderate passion against me And asking of some Friends whence they conceived this should proceed I was told by one of them better versed in the propriety of English words than I am that the words to desert in English are alwayes taken in a bad sense and among Souldiers signifie commonly not only a desisting from action but a joyning with the Enemy which I protest was not nor in truth could be my meaning I say in relation to those Protestant Royalists that having past unblemish'd through all tryals and being over-pow'red and seeing no way under Heaven left them to maintain the most just Cause which they endeavoured through all extremities to assert deseruerunt causam gave it over and laid down Armes And this and no other being the sense I intended that assertion should carry I believe this Gentleman himself will say the Irish Catholicks were the last in the three Dominions that laid down Armes and gave over to fight for the Royal Cause And it may be that he himself is a witness beyond all exception in the case since perhaps he might have assisted to take in Limerick and Galway after which sieges there was no further exercises of that kind given to Cromwell and his Associates any where in favour of his Majesties interests And this truth this Irish Papist dares speak in the sight of Heaven how bitter soever Pag. 33. this Person of Quality is pleased to be against him both in his expressions and silence And yet further can tell both him and others that since he is loath to call me Rebel as he sayes I am no less him though if the arguments to prove me a Rebel and those may be alleged for his having been such were put in equal ballance his side would perhaps Pag. 33. overweigh not only a thousand but even ten thousand to one 67. Now setting apart as I always do the Protestant Royalists of England and Scotland and those of Ireland who know and will aver that they were dismiss'd where the Irish Catholicks prosecuted the War against the Regicides under the Lord Lieutenant and the Marquess of Clanrickard Lord Deputy of Ireland I will proceed to give the Reader a more faithfull Narrative of the actions of those times As for the Irish Papists their being Regicides themselves at least so far as conspiring to murther his Majesty in effigie at Pag. 34. Waterford c. These are but flourishes that may amuse the ignorant but will not satisfie the judicious Reader 68. King Charles the First of happy memory having been forced during the late troubles in the year 43. to make a Cessation of Armes with his Irish Subjects the Covenanting Party of the Scots in Ulstor and some of the English both in Ulster and Connaght that adhered to them paying no Obedience to his Majesties Authority by which it was concluded continued their Acts of Hostility and found employment both for the Armes of the Irish Catholicks in them parts and those whom the Lord Lieutenant authorized to joyn to suppress them while the Party in Munster for some time submitted to his Majesties Commands in accepting the Cessation and in that space of time sent over Forces to his assistance following therein the Lord Lieutenants directions and examples who shipp'd from Dublin upon that occasion the greatest part of his Army under his command in Leinster 69. It is certain that both English and Irish were engaged by duty to transport their Armes into England for his Majesties assistance but to say that the Irish were engaged by Pag. 35. Articles to do the same is a meer fiction and the more notable that at this time the clamour the Kings Enemies in England had raised against Popery and his Majesties countenancing of it was so great as particular persons of that profession could scarce find admittance to serve in his Majesties Army At length those English Protestants in Munster in the Month of June 1644. upon pretence of Plots and Machinations against them by the Irish Catholicks Pag. 35. whereof to this day no proof was produced nor in that time any colour alleged without informing the chief Governour of the Kingdom or giving him the least intimation of their resolutions deserted the Royal Cause and thence after untill the year 48. fought under the banner of his Majesties Enemies and were enlisted in their pay 70. I cannot blame this Gentleman that he seeks good company for those whom he meant to patronize and would Pag. 36 34 35. rank them with those under the Lord Lieutenants immediate Command in Dublin who near upon four years after having seen two Armies of the Confederates under the Command of the Nuncio near the City fearing a second attempt having had their quarters entirely destroyed obeyed his Majesties command in giving up Dublin and the rest of the Garrisons to the Parliament To make the parity reach home the party in Munster should have attended the commands of a lawful power and although they have obeyed necessity and laid down their Armes yet it had been their duty as Subjects and Souldiers to have behaved themselves as did the generous Officers at Dublin who neither sued for nor accepted employment under the Enemy And I may well say that this their defection was fatal to his Majesties interest in Ireland for had they kept themselves in a condition to joyn with the rest of the English Protestants in the Peace which was concluded in the year 46. the confusion which was introduced by the breach of it had been prevented and Owen ô Neill had wanted strength to countenance that rupture 71. In the Year 48. the Lord of Inchiquin having been advertized out of France of the resolution taken again to engage the Lord Lieutenant in the service of Ireland and the supreme Council of the Confederates having received the same advertizement both readily condescended to a Cessation of Armes in order to the Peace which was to follow And the Lord of Inchiquin who with wonderful dexterity managed that affair maugre the opposition of some of the Officers prevail'd with the Army under his Command to declare for the King And it cannot be denied that they proved very useful in the Cause as well in the prosecution Pag. 34. as after in assisting to take in Drogheda Dundalk and other Garrisons kept by the Enemy after the conclusion of the Peace But the defeat at Rathmynes and the landing of Cromwell made them think of bettering their fortunes by siding with the more successful Party And their Fellows having already betrayed the Garrisons intrusted to them to Cromwell
Majesty and binding even before God and Man in order to such as have not forfeited them whereon I said enough before and that therefore it is impertinent for any material difference or to this Gentleman's purpose whether I reject or admit his Charge here being it cannot be denied that the delusion whereof the Gibeonites made use imposed a farr greater and even an intrinsick force compulsion or necessity on Joshua or such as deprived of essential freedom and all kind of consent as to these Gibeonites or to any had been within the Lot appointed in the Law for his People which yet I have shewed the force compulsion or necessity imposed on his Majesty by whomsoever to conclude any of those Cessations or Peaces with the Irish cannot be said to have imposed So it is no less manifest this Gentleman imposes on his Majesty that which he shall never prove or that his Majesty should have said that the Irish Papists forced compelled necessitated him into Cessations and Peaces Whereas indeed if we make any true construction of his Majesties words in his Declaration whence only this Gentleman must pretend his ground for an assertion so false it must be obvious even to the most common understanding that his Majesty sayes that force compulsion necessity for concluding a Peace with the Irish were imposed upon him by those that erected that odious Court for taking away the life of his dear Father as I have before demonstrated by giving and granting at large his Majesties very words 2. The Gibeon tes were strangers but the Irish Papists were at least ought to have been Subjects All true but nothing Pag. 91. to his purpose Articles made by a King with his Subjects in Armes bind even by the Law of Nations even before they are confirmed in Parliament else what could the Barons plead before a Parliament sate if Magna Charta did not bind the King that gave it What so many other agreements in the world as I have before said Or how should Kings or their Rebellious Subjects when a Parliament can not be held without them ever come to an attonement And surely this very Gentleman would plead for his life and his estate too since he can now to possess other mens the Letters from Breda even before the Act of Indempnity was passed and when he was in Armes against the King as I suppose he was sometimes had he yielded in some extremity upon Articles of War wherein he had conditioned for life liberty and estate for himself and his party he would plead these Articles if he saw any danger of his or their estates and even plead them before such Articles were confirmed by a Parliament nay plead them I say even in case his own estate and all those belonging to his party had been formerly sold or bestowed by the King on Adventurers in Parliament And yet both he and his party would be in that case by the Laws and Conditions of his and their Birth Subjects Whether he or they be so by inclination or longer at least than the loaves will hold I know not certainly though I hope better of them all than this Person of Quality seems to do of me or my Countrymen 3. The Gibeonites never broke those conditions granted to Pag. 91. them though by those conditions they were in effect Slaves but the Irish Papists broke yea often if not alwayes theirs though after an unparalleld Rebellion they were in effect made Lords of all the Land even the bloody Stage upon which they had acted their guilt Lest this Gentleman should have intended it as material to say that the Gibeonites were in effect Slaves I must tell the Reader these Gibeonites enjoyed peaceably without fear or danger when their Articles had been once published and debated not their lives only nor their liberty alone but life and liberty and houses and goods and lands and Cities and all they did pretend either of religious or civil right And that their slavery was no other than to provide Water and Wood for the Sacrifices and publick House of the God of Heaven And therefore any man will think they had a great deal of reason never to break those conditions granted And albeit I think there was as little reason for any Irish Catholick to break the conditions given them especially in that Peace of 48. and that I know nevertheless some if not many have yet I do and will constantly till I be convinced with other arguments than this answerer gives which I believe I shall never be always deny the universality generality or indefiniteness of this proposition The Irish Papists broke yea often if not always theirs in that sense at least he must have had or intended to import if he would speak to any purpose that is in relation to the Peace of 48. in which meaning as I have before sufficiently declared by relating this Gentleman's proofs and otherwise the falsity of this assertion so I now again briefly averr that neither the universality or generality nor greater part nor ruling power nor the formal or virtual representatives of the Irish Papists broke as much as once that Peace so far were they from brcaking often if not alwayes the conditions of it And if none of all these did though confessedly some of the Irish did or the lesser or even a great or considerable part of them if he will have it so did what is that to the Universality or Generality at least which that indefinite charge of his imports or what indeed to any other Irish Catholick to conclude them but the very individuals that did so He might as well and as truly have said that the Protestants of England or English Nation were against the King and for Cromwel or the Rump Parliament when both or either did most cruelly Tyranize For not only some of those Protestants or of that Nation but even so great and considerable a party were so nay which is more both the representing and ruling power which the Protestants or Nation of England were known at that time to own or at least which in effect and even with all formalities represented and ruled them whether by force and coaction or not it matters not here without any contradiction were so Whence it is that I may advance a little further yet and may tell this Gentleman that can be no refuge for him if he should say that he can maintain peradventure some appearance of Truth in some part at least of this proposition that the Irish Papists broke yea often if not alwayes theirs or which is the thing I mean that he can maintain that latitude universality generality or indefiniteness in relation at least to some one breach and some one Peace viz. that of 46. For I can averr confidently that all his arguments to prove this will by a manifest sequel of reason prove that the Protestants or Nation of England broke all their ties of Duty and Allegiance and Faith
to his late Majesty and his lawfull Successor whom God of his mercy contâ—nâ—e long and happiâ—y aâ—d gâ—oriously sitting on his Fathers Throne and his Posterity to the Worlds end I confess that Peace was rejected and most perfidiously scandalously and fatally too rejected but I will ever say nevertheless it was rejected by a disobedient Army by some in that ungodly Clergy men and a few other contrivers of mischief who by their numbers proceedings hypocrisie force craft c. and by their breach of their own Oath of Association and by their faithfulness to their own acknowledged supreme Governours of the Confederacy the Council and general Assembly and by making themselves by such arts the prevailing party amongst the Irish Catholicks at that very nick of time when the Peace of 46. was proclamed in Dublin Kilkenny not only may be said to have had in many things a perfect resemblance unto the Janizaries of England and their Adherents there in the Parliament and Council and amongst the Clergy and Laity in general but even to have had the same proportion to the Confederate Catholicks in general which those English Mamalukes and their partakers had to the loyal Protestants and mournful at that time Nation of England To demonstrate which I shall give more evident proofs if it shall and when it shall be necessary as now it is not in answer to this Gentleman 's present Design or Book than he shall be able to give satisfactory answers And shall at this time content my self with telling the Reader that if the then Donogh Lord Viscount of Muskry now Earl of Clancarthy Edmond Lord Viscount Montgarrett Walter Bagnell Esquire Sir Robert Talbott Baronet Thomas Tyrell Esquire Richard Beallings Esquire Gerott Fennel Esquire Sir Lucas Dillon Knight Jeoffry Brown Esquire Sir Pierce Crosby Knight Sir Richard Blake and other Members of the supreme Council and Commissioners who concluded that Peace and published it at Kilkenny and in pursuance thereof received there the Lord Lieutenant with all due respects and demonstrations of hearty joy and loyalty their imprisonments soon after both there at Wexford and other places and their other sufferings then by and under their lately before fellow-Confederates and the power or authority by which they were so imprisoned and under which they so much suffered the illegal violent forcible usurpation of it even I say against the Laws of the Confederacy and Oath of Association and without any consent or even advice or requisition but plainly against the known will and inclinations of the generality of the Confederates when the Lord Nuncio and two or three more by the countenance and terrour of armed Legions beeking them made a new supreme Council and himself President of it and joyned Council and Congregation together and immediately after hurried on two Armies in an evil hour to besiege the Lord Lieutenant at Dublin and harass'd the Country in their march und being disappointed by the justice of God towards them and favour of Heaven to the Loyal Party and to the generalâ—â—y even of the Confederatss returned in great displeasure and rage and through despair convoked an Assembly which otherwise he was never like to do but of such men where they could possibly as were known to be most averse from all thoughts of Peace and being sate overawed them and took away all freedom from them however they were composed and even forced them by threats of Excommunications and power of that Army near the Town whereof they were sure for such designes to reject the Peace even after the Commissioners who concluded it were cleared upon too manifest evidence to have proceeded according to their instructions to a tittle and by a full Authority given them by the precedent General and free Assembly of the Nation I say that if all these proceedings be considered and particularly the force that lay then upon all the Provinces and Quarters and People that should otherwise have freedom of Election to Assemblies and Suffrages in them and that would in case of such due freedom unquestionably vote for a perfect submission to that Peace the resemblance and proportion above given will appear manifestly to all indifferent men that have but even a very ordinary knowledge of the Irish Nation and affairs since 41. and of the difference of interests among that People these 500. years past since the first English Conquest under Henry 2. and consequently it will appear that our Person of Quality will find himself obliged either to maintain a truth in this very false assertion which yet I believe he will not dare The Protestants and Nation of England were guilty of the sacrilegious breach with Charles the 1. which through so many wiles brought him at last to the Scaffold Or to confess that the Irish Catholicks or Nation of Ireland cannot be said to be guilty even of that one persidious breach of the Articles of 46. much less guilty of having often if not always broke the Conditions either of that or any other And yet I alwayes grant him what I know to be true and am right sorry to know that even some thousands have been guilty of that horrible breach in 46. Nay grant moreover all my Conscience or knowledge or which is the same thing to me all that the truth it self will permit me to grant him that some few Persons of Quality and some Regiments and some Towns too of the Irish Catholicks have often if not alwayes broke the Conditions either of the first or last Peace or of both but withall say that some Persons of Quality and some Regiments of England and Scotland both and some Towns too broke their Allegiance and Faith and often too if not alwayes in a farr more pernicious and horrible nature with his late and present Majesty And that my Answerer will not therefore charge their Crimes on the Protestants or Nation of England or on the universality generality or greater part of them which yet such an indefinite expression had he used it must do 135. But however this be or any thing else I have said in relation to that Peace of 46 it can neither make nor marr his Objections or my Answers on the subject of the last Peace or that of 48. which is that only where on our contest is and must be Neither can any thing said here be drawn to a consequence that I would recall or decline what I have confessed in my Letter of the Judgements of God most justly pursuing the Irish Nation in general for the breach of publick Faith so notorious and scandalous in that of 46. albeit the Nation in general be not guilty of it We know the very Army of God hath been defeated for the Judges Chap. 7. V 4. aâ—d 5. sin even of one man alone as we find in the case of Achan at Ai and whole Nations and great Kingdoms and flourishing Empires most exemplarly punished and by conquest and slavery and subjection to a forein power