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B20784
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An essay for the conversion of the Irish shewing that 'tis their duty and interest to become Protestants : in a letter to themselves.
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Cox, Richard, Sir, 1650-1733.
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1698
(1698)
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Wing C6721
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30,538
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48
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Inhanc'd upon him as his Necessities increas'd and when the Peace of 1646. was made it was within three weeks after Perfidiously Broken by Publick Edict of the Clergy at Waterford Those that did observe it were Excommunicated by the Nuntio and the Kings Heralds that went to proclaim it were basely Affronted both at Waterford and Limrick to the great hazard of their Lives and contrary to Allegiance Good Manners and the Law of Nations Sect 13. Nor were they more dutiful in His Majesties Extremities for they delayed the Peace of 1648 until a Fortnight before his Death and even then Forc'd Conditions upon Him that Hastned his Fate And this Peace also was perfidiously violated as well as the former not only because Limrick Waterford and other great Towns would not obey the Lord Lieutenant Ormond according to Stipulation but also because they Persecuted him with a Thousand Affronts and Indignities and at last Drove him out of the Kingdom even whilst he was Cloathed with the Royal Authority And they were no less Undutiful to the Lord Deputy Clanrickard tho he was of their Own Religion so that they had no other Quarrel to him but that he was the King of England's Deputy and yet without his Concurrence or Knowledge they sent Agents to Offer the Kingdom to the Pope the French King the Duke of Lorain or indeed any Body that would take it from the English Sect 15. As to the Reign of King Charles II. they lived in too much Hopes to plunge themselves into Open Rebellion However they gave this Demonstration of their Inclinations That in a National Synod held by Extraordinary Favour at Dublin Anno 1666. They refused to let the People take an Oath of Allegiance which their own Procurator-General P. W. had fram'd for them but on the contrary Persecuted him and his Adherents for endeavouring to Bind them to a Heretick Government by so strict an Oath and they also refused to beg Pardon for the Rebellion of 1641. one of their Bishops publickly averring That he knew none at all guilty of any Crime for any thing done in the War Sect 16. And as for King James II. You must allow that your Partiality was to his Popery and not to his Person or his Title and that you valued him as your Popish Friend and not as an English King since you paid him no more Respect or Loyalty than your Own Interest required and when that varied you shewed little Respect to Him or His Interest but on the contrary us'd him very ill in many things and particularly in the Instances following Sect. 17. First Whereas nothing could more Prejudice or Disoblige the People of England or Defeat King James's hopes of being Restor'd there than the ill Usage of the Protestants especially Clergy-men in Ireland yet did you Barbarously and Ungratefully abuse the English in all parts of the Kingdom you Assaulted and Wounded some of the Clergy and forc'd from them several of their Churches contrary to Law and contrary to King James's Express Command whom you Aw'd to that degreee That thô he issued a Proclamation to prevent seizing any More Chnrches yet he did not think fit to insert a Clause for the Restitution of those that were illegally taken before Sect 18. Secondly Contrary to King James's Interest and Inclination and to the Fundamental and Inherent Right of the Crown of England you made This Kingdom Independent of That You forc'd him to call a Parliament Unseasonably when he had need of the Members to promote the Siege of Derry You baffled Poyning's Law and Repeal'd the Act of Settlement and Prohibited Appeals and Writs of Error from hence to England Sect 19. Thirdly Whereas you had Cried Up and Asserted King James's Dispensing Power in England and therefore should have done so in Ireland that we might have thought you in Earnest yet you were so far from this that by your Severe Bill of Attainder whereby you endeavour'd to Ruine Women and Children some that were never in Ireland and more that had never done you any harm you took away the King's Power to Pardon which is the Inherent Right of the Crown Sect 20. Fourthly Thô the Chancellorship and Treasurership of Christ-Church Dublin were founded by Queen Mary and the Namination to those Dignities reserved to her and her Successors yet did the Titular Archbishop of Dublin clandestinely obtain Bulls from Rome and put in two Priests into those Places against King James's Will and thô he offer'd them Equivalents yet they Contested the matter so Obstinately with him that he was forc'd to pronounce the Bulls Surreptitious and to write to Rome to Justifie himself in a long Letter wherein he complains heavily of this Undutiful Attempt upon his Undoubted Right lamenting that the Clergy were not satisfied to Invade his Prerogative in other matters without Intruding even into his Chappel-Royal Sect 21. So that 't is manifest that the Pretended Loyalty of Superstitious and Bigotted Papists especially Clergy-men is appropriated to the Court of Rome and not to the Crown of England And if you will consider that you in Ireland who believe the Supremacy and Infallibility of the Pope whenever the Pope Excommunicates the King as Paul III. did Henry VIII and Pius V. did Queen Elizabeth must either renounce your Allegiance or your Religion and turn either Protestants or Rebels and if you will likewise consider Father John Talbot the Jesuit's Assertion That it is to no purpose to Exact an Oath of Allegiance from Papists because 't is lawful in Point of Conscience to break that Oath the next hour provided you follow the Doctrine of Probabilities and understand that any one Doctor is of that Opinion You will perhaps be of my Sentiment That 't is difficult for one that is Govern'd by a Popish Priest to be a Good Subject to a Protestant King And this may lead you to Examine and consequently to Detest and shake off a Religion so Inconsistent with True Loyalty Sect 22. My next Enquiry should be Whether you are good Christians or can be so whilst you are wrap'd up in so much Superstition and Ignorance Pray consider whether your Religion does not consist too much in Outward Shew and Pageantry without the Power of Godliness in your Hearts How formal and vain is your Devotion that is satisfied with the Number of Prayers without regarding the Words or understanding the Meaning and without any Intention or Attention of the Mind How hypocritical are your Mortifications whilst they are perform'd sometimes by Deputy and sometimes in a Trivial and Ridiculous Pennance Is it not a Mockery to pretend to Fast upon the best Fish Fruit White-meats and Wine that can be got In a word Do not you place your Piety in being of a Party and make Vnity and Communion with the Pope the Sum and Substance of Christian Religion and expect your Salvation from meer Chimerical Notions such as the Treasures of the Church the Indulgence of the Pope the Absolution of
or that a Visible Governour or Head of the Vniversal Church is necessary or practicable On the contrary our Saviour assures us His Kingdom is not of this World and exhorted his Followers not to strive for Preheminence as Worldlings do And Luk. IX 46. He rebuked their Reasonings who should be greatest Sect 55. Secondly Let him prove that S. Peter was the Vicar or Pope so appointed by our Saviour On the contrary the Commission was to all the Apostles John XX. 23. He said unto THEM Whosoever Sins YE remit they are remitted unto them c. Matth. XVIII 18. Whatsoever YE shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven Matth. XXVIII 19. Go YE therefore and teach all Nations And S. Paul tells us That to HIM was committed the Care of ALL THE CHVRCHES That HE was not behind the very Chiefest Apostles and HE withstood Peter to his Face because he was to be blamed and I think that the single Text in St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians Chap. II. vers 9. is of it self sufficient to confute this pretended Supremacy It runs thus And when James Cephas that is Peter and John who seemed to be Pillars perceived the Grace that was given to me Paul they gave to me Paul and Barnabas the right Hand of Fellowship that we should go unto the Heathen Romans Grecians c. and they unto the Circumcision the Jews Sect 56. Thirdly Let him prove that Peter's Power whatever it were was to go in Succession On the contrary Peter's Authority was Personal as his Gifts and Graces for the Exercise of it were He was filled with the Holy Ghost and so was Qualified to be Christ's Vicar No body will say so of those many Atheists Hereticks Blasphemers Sodomites and Murtherers that have pretended to be his Successors Sect 57. If the Supremacy was to survive Peter why should it not descend to St. John the Beloved Apostle who out-lived Peter many years rather than to the Bishop of Rome What Title has that Bishop to it Did our Saviour order it so Or who else did Sect 58. Let your Priest shew that Peter was Bishop of Rome and who made him so On the contrary being an Apostle he could not properly be a Bishop of any particular See any more than the King can be said to be Governour of Limrick Besides He was the Apostle of the Circumcision or of the Jews and so could not be Bishop of Rome nor can you prove he was there at all At least the Popish Tradition of his being there 25 years is certainly False nor have you more than a doubtful Historical Testimony of his being ever at Rome which is not sufficient for such an Important Point upon which the whole of Popery does depend and to which you require a Divine Infallible Faith Sect 59. Besides Your Learned Men do not yet agree Whether Peter alone was Bishop of Rome or Peter and Paul together or who were the Immediate Successors to Peter so Uncertain is their History or Tradition in this matter and if you add your received Doctrine That want of Intention in the Priest or Bishop makes a Nullity in the Sacrament of Order you cannot be sure that Innocent XII is a Bishop at all much less Successor to St. Peter Sect 60. Thus is the Divine and Infallible Certainty you boast to have of your Religion as distinct from ours built on a Supremacy which you see is supported by very Improbable if not False Assertions But 't is good enough for you who are not suffered to Examine the Grounds and Reasons of your Faith but take your Religion upon Trust and venture your Salvation upon the Opinion of others whose Business it is to make a hand of you and who therefore keep you in the Dark that they may have the better Opportunity to pick your Pockets Sect. 61. But that which demonstrates Popery to be a Politick Contrivance is That after such confident Preâ—ences to Supremacy and Infallibility they are not agreed where it resides Their Arguments and Proofs tend to make the Goverment of the Church Monarchical in the Person of the Pope whom they pretend to be the Vicar of Iesus Christ which infers Infallibility without which he were a dangerous Center of Vnity But wisely knowing that many of the Popes had but a very bad Faith if one might judge it by their Works and that they were so Fallible and Foolish to contradict one another and sometimes the Truth even Ex Cathedra they have dexterously turn'd about and Debased the Government of the Church into a Republick by subjecting the Pope to a General Council and making his Holiness Vicar of the Church instead of Vicar of Christ and by placing Infallibility in the Pope and Council Sect 62. Nor are they of One Opinion in this Main Point the Diocess of Rome and the Gallican Church have very different Notions of this matter which has been defined both ways in their General Councils which makes them shy of Declaring their Opinion in this knotty Case And if you ask your Priest he will hardly give you a plain Answer to it For first There has been no General Council since the Apostles time nor can be unless the Christian World were under one Emperour or some other means could be found to Summon All Nations and and to have their Representatives at the Assembly Those which are reputed General Councils are improperly called so not that the Whole Church was there even by Representation but because their Decrees being Orthodox were Generally Received What then shall we say to the Council of Trent where only some of the Pope's Servants and a very few Prelates from three or four Nations Decreed New Articles of Faith Is it not absurd to call it a General Council when England Ireland Scotland Denmark Sweden Muscovy most part of Germany and the Low-Countreys the Greek and Armeman Churches and many others neither had a Representative there nor could safely send one Sect 63. But secondly They are shy of fixing the Infallibility in Pope and Council because it will be enough to confound that Position to shew That a Pope and Council have Erred or that they have Contradicted one another for in that Case one must be in the wrong Sect 64. And I conceive your Loyalty will not suffer you to deny that Pope Innocent III. and the Council of Lateran Erred when they Decreed That Princes who did not Purge their Kingdoms of Heresie should be Deposed for this gives the Pope Power over Princes in Temporals which surely you will not approve of thô he put it in Practice very smartly against our King John and the Emperor Otho the Fourth Sect 65. Certainly Pope Liberius and the Council of Sirmium Err'd when they decreed Arrianism for the Council of Nice has decreed and all Christians I hope believe the contrary I suppose the Pope and Council of Lateran Erred in advancing the Pope above the Council if not the Popes and General Councils of