that Title under which he might act that power so that it is not the Confederate Catholicks fault if a PROTECTOR were not in Ireland before the Sectaries had set up one in England Nay their Commissioners then sent to France and Spain were required in case of the Popes refusal of being their Protector to offer it to either of those Kings nay to any Popish Prince from whom to use their own words they might have most considerable aids In effect they are willing any one should govern them but he who onely had the Right to do it But yet as becomes obedient sons of the Church of Rome the Pope has the advantage of the preemption It appears the Irish Papists hang as their Faith in God so their Loyalty to their Prince on the Popes sleeve and certainly it is not probable that those should defend his Majesties Right over whom 1 a forreign Prince 2 such a forreign Prince as considers His Majesty as an Heretick and consequently an enemy hath full power and 3 That power on the strongest account even that of Conscience and Religion In the year 1648 another Peace was concluded with the Irish Papists but after that they disowned disobeyed opposed conspired to murther excommunicated and banished his Majesties Viceroy as appears by the former instances In sum when the power of Ireland was in the hands of the Irish Papists they design'd and endeavour'd to betray it to Forreigners But when in the hands of the Protestants of Ireland they absolutely and without antecedent conditions submitted it and themselves to his Sacred Majesty As to their fighting against the Regicides I answer 1. Vitious extremes are not onely opposite to virtue but also one to the other Papists and Sectaries oppose each other and both the Protestants 2. The Spaniard and the Dutch fought against the Regicides yet neither of them in the day of Tryal proved themselves friends to his Majesties Rights 3. 'T is the Cause not the Suffering onely which makes the Martyr 't is not the fighting but the ground and end of the fighting which proves which is the good Subject and of that let even P. W. judg by the former Instances The last Argument pretends to commutative Justice and is usher'd in by a comparison and preoccupation The former thrice pressed way of comparison is yet propounded here again but with less injustice here than before the comparison before was between Papists and Protestants here between Papists and Presbyterians Anabaptists Quakers Fifth Monarchy men Independents To which I shall onely say Whatever tenents opposit to Regal power may be found among any Sectaries are if not learn'd from I am sure taught by the Romish Schools Papists and Sectaries like Sampsons Foxes are tyed by their tails though their heads be divided their way may seem contrary but they all tend to the same end the ruine of the Corn-field As P. W. ushers in his Arguments on one side with a comparison so on the other with a preoccupation relating to the power of those which he calls Adversaries and declareth it to be no greater than his Majesty is pleased to make it To the truth of this Declaration the Protestants of Ireland freely consent professing to the world that though their Army is such as sufficed to subdue the Irish Rebels when universally confederated throughout the Kingdom and supplied by Forreigners with Money Arms and Ammunition and strengthen'd with no less than the Popes blessing and Nuntio yet their power consists not in Arms or Armies Fortifications or Men but in loyalty and obedience to his Sacred Majesties Commission and Authority and is consequently as P. W. says no greater than his Majesty is pleased to make it And since this is the true State of the Protestant both principle and interest As in truth it is even their Adversary being their Judg 't is likely therefore that P. W. declares they are his Adversaries for I believe his Friends are other guess men But doubtless those are fittest to be trusted with power who are no stronger by it even by their enemies acknowledgments than He which gives it is willing to make it than those who never had power but what they forc'd from his Majesty and who never employ'd that power the whole stream of their own actions being their Judges but against that Sacred Majesty from whom they wrested it The Arguments following plead Iustice and that Iustice grounded on the Articles of 1648. and judged by the sad consequences threatned on the breach thereof whether we regard men or God Though concerning the Articles of 1648 enough hath been instanced already yet to leave P. W. without occasion of Cavil it will not be unfit to add somewhat more here 1. The Contents of those Articles are in themselves unwarrantable except in case of Necessity which hath no Law 2. The Condition of those Articles whereon they were principally if not onely founded hath been often and intirely violated by the Irish Papists The Contents of those Articles are unwarrantable unless in case of necessity because they are contrary to an higher obligation according to the Rule both of publick and private justice 1. His Majesty at his Coronation binds himself to God to govern these Kingdoms according to their respective Laws and let P. W. himself consider how agreable it is to Law or publick Justice that the Militia Treasury an Army of fifteen thousand Foot two thousand five hundred Horse of Irish Papists and even in effect the Legislative power it self should be in the hands of twelve men to be chosen by Irish Papists or that there should be no alteration in England of what they in Ireland should think fit to transmit to his Majesty for the settlement of that Kingdom or even that the Irish Rebels should be pardoned without the consent of Parliament when his Majesty in Parliament the seventeenth year of his Reign adjudged such pardon before conviction to be null and void hereby even when they treated with his Majesty concerning the affairs of this Kingdom assuming the Legislative authority of it by repealing the Statute made the 10. of Henry the VII commonly called Poynings Law and the explanatory Law thereof in 3. and 4. of Philip and Mary And though hitherto they chiefly pleaded before his Sacred Majesty in Council but for so much benefit of the Articles of peace in 1648 as would restore them to their forfeited Estates yet if they had prevailed therein upon the score of that plea it must in consequence have adjudged for them the benefit of all the other Articles as a right For if any of those Articles are due to them by an obligation of Iustice all are then due to them by the same obligation and since as appears by his Majesties Gracious Declaration in Council of the 30 of November 1660. that they have no right to any of their forfeited estates nor any title but what his Majesties mercy and bounty hath vouchsafed safed to diverse of them it
a Pardon for nay not so much as a Protection from his Majesty for sins past without the consent of their Supreme Council This is a fine bearing Faith and Allegiance to the King this is a good upholding and maintaining the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom They swear too that these Acts of highest Rebellion they will to the hazard of their Lives and Estates assist prosecute and maintain But they proceed further for they swear not to accept of or submit to ANY PEACE made or to be made without the consent and approbation of the General Assembly of the said Catholicks ANY PEACE that is let the Conditions be never so good let the Person that grants them be the King Himself they will not accept of it they will not submit unto it without c. If the King would so far forget those signal Crimes which made them need his Pardon and Protection and would not so much as name them but make a Peace with them as if they had never done any offence yet they swear that not one of them shall accept of or submit to such a Peace but as is before expressed nay to show how perfect a ROMISH Confederacie it is if any Individual should be struck with the horrour of his Crimes he cannot fly to the Kings Mercy for Pardon or Protection without Perjury And to inveagle such as had not then been polluted with those sins they swear to protect all such as shall enter into their guilt and thereby in consequence threaten to ruine such as shall not This is admirable bearing true Faith and Allegiance to the King and maintaining the Laws of the Kingdom But this is not all for they further swear in these words viz. For the preservation and strengthening of the Vnion of the Kingdom upon any peace to be made or concluded with the said confederate Catholicks as aforesaid They will to the uttermost of their Power insist upon and maintain the ensuing Propositions until a peace as aforesaid be made and the matters to be agreed upon in the Articles of peace be established and secured by Parliament The first Proposition to which this Oath relates and to which it is annexed is expressed in these words viz. That the Roman Catholicks both Clergy and Laity in their several capacities have the free and publick exercise of the Roman Catholick Religion and Function throughout the Kingdom in as full lustre and splendor as it was in the Reign of King Henry the Seventh or other Catholick King his Predecessours Kings of England and Lords of Ireland or in England That is to say That none should be admitted to live in Ireland but Papists for none or very few but such were in the Reign of those Kings in Ireland The second Proposition mentioned follows in these words viz. That the secular Clergy of Ireland viz. Primates Archbishops Ordinaries Deans Deans and Chapters Archdeacons Prebendaries and all other Dignitaries Parsons Vicars and all persons of the secular Clergy and their respective successours shall have and enjoy all and all manner of Iurisdictions Priviledges and Immunities in as full and ample manner as the Roman Catholicks secular Clergy had or enjoyed the same within this Realm at any time during the Reign of the late King Henry the Seventh sometime King of England and Lord of Ireland any Law Declaration of Law Statute Power or Authority whatever to the contrary notwithstanding That is to say Their Wills must be the Law and since they think fit to set up POPERY in Ireland and to banish the true Religion out of it it is but requisite they should take the maintenance from the Legal and give it to the Titular Clergy And least we should doubt this to be the true meaning of the second Proposal they clearly explain it in the fourth which follows in these words viz. That the Primates Archbishops Bishops Ordinaries Deans Deans and Chapters Archdeacons Chancelours Treasurers Chaunters Provosts Wardens of Collegiate Churches Prebendaries and other Dignitaries Parsons Vicars and other Pastors of the Roman Catholick secular Clergy and their respective successors shall have hold enjoy all the Churches and Church-Livings in as large and ample manner as the LATE PROTESTANT CLERGY respectively enjoyed the same on the first day of October in the year of our Lord 1641. together with all the profits emoluments perquisites liberties and the rights of their respective Sees and Churches belonging as well in places now in possession of the Confederate Catholicks as also in all other places that shall be recovered by the said Confederate Catholicks from the adverse Party within the Kingdom SAVING to the said Roman Catholick Laity their Rights according to the Laws of the Land That is to say Our Clergy shall have All therefore yours can have nothing this is a perfect Fifth-Monarchy Principle for here Dominion is onely founded in pretended Grace none being to have the benefit of the Laws of the Land but the Papists Nay his Sacred Majesty because a PROTESTANT is as such denied any one of those Rights which the meanest of the Irish Rebels because a PAPIST is to enjoy as such and lest their words for it should not be taken they confirm it with an OATH The Legal and Orthodox Clergy of Ireland may see in this what goodly Provision had been made for them and their respective Successours if this pious Roman Catholick Confederacy had succeeded But least this their first Oath of Confederacie might be thought a thing they were surprized into in the first heat and fury of the Rebellion and least the takers of it should forget what the Imposers of it would have them believe they were bound unto by it some time after premeditately and in cool blood they caus'd it a second time to be taken in terminis and subscribed with a preamble to it the close whereof runs in these Words viz. And for that it is requisite that there should be an unanimous consent and real union between all the Catholicks of this Realm to maintain the premises and strengthen them against their adversaries it is thought fit by them that they and whosoever shall adhere unto their party as a Confederate should for their better assurance of their adhering fidelity and constancy to the publick Cause take the ensuing Oath viz. I A. B. c. In the begining of the said Preamble they give the priority and precedency of place to the Defence of their own Estates and Liberties to that of the defence of his Majesties Regal Power Prerogatives Honour State and Rights That is to say They will mind themselves before the King which they fully explain in the third Oath of their Union and Confederacie which after their rejection of the Peace concluded with them by his Majesties Authority they entered into took and subscribed and which follows in these words viz. I do swear and protest that I will adhere to the present Vnion of the Confederate Roman Catholicks that REJECTED THE PEACE lately agreed
the Confederates were expelled out of Ireland must be denied their Rights even when a peace is concluded Nay possibly those Peers might not be considered as estated Lords whose Estates the said Confederates had possest themselves of so that by the Acts of the Rebellion they were to lose their Lands and by the Desires of the Rebels to lose their Votes And perhaps if Protestant Peers which the Rebellion had forc'd into England would have returned into Ireland to vote in this intended Parliament they might had this Instruction took place been denied to vote in Person as well as by Proxy on account that they were not estated persons by reason their Lands were then in the possession of the Rebels who had taken good care that the Peace should not oblige nor be accepted by the confederate Catholicks till all the Articles of it were established secured by Parliament The Confederates rest not here but to make all things surer the 44th Instruction is set down in these words viz. That such as shall be recommended by the supreme Council of the Confederate Catholicks shall be by his Majesty called by Writ to sit in the Vpper House In the 23d Instruction before mentioned they attempt to hinder the constitution of the House of Peers to be as by Law and Custom it ought to be and in this 44th Instruction they attempt to constitute it as it ought not to be In the foregoing Instruction they endeavor to stop the true Fountain of Honour and in this Instruction they would make themselves to be the Fountain of Honour Nor does this Instruction run with the introductive words of the former viz. You are to be Suitors or humble Suitors to his Majesty but positively set down as if what they demanded were rather a Right then a Favour neither do they limit their recommendation of such as are to be called to sit in the Upper House to such onely as were his Majesties Subjects or his Rebels but indefinitely viz. all that shall be recommended by the Supreme Council of the confederate Catholicks so that the forming of the House of Peers the great and inseparable Right and Prerogative of the Crown they not onely desire to WREST from the King but also they desire to VEST IT IN THEMSELVES Nor do they stop there but by this Instruction had it been granted they would have had the power to have constituted the House of Lords OF FORRAIGNERS and doubtless amongst those his HOLINESS's NUNTIO then amongst them would scarcely have been forgotten Thus far the Catholick Confederacie had well provided for the composition of the House of Commons and the House of Peers as far as concern'd the Temporal Lords Now I shall let the Reader see that their care was no less in providing that the House of Peers should be as well constituted for the Spiritual Lords which they manifest in their 25th Instruction which follows in these very words viz. You are to be Suitors to his Majesty that the Writs of summons be issued to the ARCHBISHOPS AND BISHOPS WITHIN OVR QVARTERS and they to have PLACE AND VOTE in Parliament This is a Request INDEED here is not onely a taking away of the Right of the Protestant Archbishops and Bishops but a giving of it to the Papists Nay would not this have been if granted an owning that the POPE by his Consecration had the Right to send Peers into the House of Lords if not to create them But since they were sworn by their Confederacy to have the free and publick exercise of the Roman Catholick Religion and Function throughout this Kingdom in its full lustre and splendor as it was in the Reign of King Henry the seventh or any other Catholick King his Predecessor Kings of England and Lords of Ireland 't is no wonder they take the surest Ways to reach that End But yet the wisdom of the Kings of England and their experience of the Irish Papists has been such that had all these Instructions been granted to them yet they could not have reach'd their Design which the said Papists well knew and therefore to throw down ALL Impediments in their 21th Instruction which follows in these very words they further desire viz. You are to be Suitors to his Majesty That upon the first sitting of the next Parliament That an Act may be transmitted for the suspension of POYNINGS HIS ACT intituled An Act that no Parliament shall be holden in this Land until the Acts be certified into England and all other Acts inlarging or explaining the same And that it be afterwards left to the consideration of the Parliament whether the same shall be ALL TOGETHER REPEALED or continued In these Instructions the Confederates show a Catholick Care of the Roman Catholick Cause They were not contented to attempt by force and open Rebellion to wrest this Kingdom from the Crown of England but having failed thereof in that way they endeavour to effect it in this first they will have a PAPIST chief Governour and that to use their own words the Commissioners must not onely INSIST UPON but must IN NO SORT RECEDE FROM Then they must have a Parliament and that not onely to be constituted against the Kings undoubted prerogative the known and ancient Laws of the Land and Priviledges and Rights of both Houses but also must be compos'd according to the desires and inventions of the Irish Papists and because by Poynings's Act no Bill or Bills could be transmitted into England till first they had past the chief Governour or Governours and privy Council of this Kingdom and then were certified to his Majesty and privy Council in England by the said chief Governor or Governors and privy Council to be good and expedient for this Kingdom and then were not to pass in Parliament here but as approved of by his Majesty and Council in England and remitted hither under the Great Seal of England whereby the Crown of England was wisely secured that nothing should be enacted here to the prejudice of it The said Irish Papists desire that in their said next Parliament Poynings's Act might be suspended and all other Acts enlarging and explaining the same and then that it may be left to the consideration of the Parliament SO CONSTITUTED whether the same shall be ALTOGETHER REPEALED or continued that is to say That the LAMB be put into the Claws of the WOLF and then leave it to the consideration of the Wolf whether or no he would devour him If it should be said That the fore-mentioned Instructions were onely the Confederates desires to his Majesty I onely desire to know whether they made those desires with an intention to have them denyed or granted If the first it was ridiculous if the last it was rebellious But by all this it undeniably appears If the providence of God and His Sacred Majesties Wisdom and Care had not disappointed the boundless designes of the said Irish Papists not onely the Protestant Religion and the Professors of