Neighbours This Prince Protestant Historians conclude to be the least deserving of all our Governours for passing by his youthful Rebellion the Murthering of his Nephew his Atheism c. which they record 't is he that lost our whole interest either by Conquest or Matches in France and discontenting all his People never obliged any body that I heard of unless the Mayor and Corporation of Lynne This yet is no excuse to the Pope but shews only the unhappiness of the Nation that it had not a more generous Prince for Sr. Rob Cotton call's him a licentious soueraigne to defend our Rights and Priviledges Now for Transubstantiation it is true that in this Councel the word was first made Authoritatively use of as in the Councel of Nice the word Trinity but the sence and meaning of both Trinity and Transubstantiation was in the Scripture and held from age to age Nay the word Transubstantiation it self was used by grave Authors in Writings before Object 2. Concerning the Decrees and Bulls of Popes he says that from Gregory VII they made such a trade of deposing Kings that no weak King could wear his Crown but at the Popes curtesie and that Boniface VIII declares in these words We say and define and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary to salvation for every creature to be subject to the Bishop of Rome To this I answer that in the next Century or a little more after K. John there were more weak Kings in England then eiher before or since viz. Hen. 3. Edw. 2. Ric. and yet the Popes did not offer to take away their Crowns or ever stirred to perplex them though their wicked Subjects gave the Pope opportunity enough Nay though Hen. 3. denied any acknowledgment upon the gift of King John yet the Pope assisted him against the Rebellious Barons And for the composition of Edward the Seconds troubles his Holiness sent him two Cardinals but the Rebels would not accept of their Mediation as knowing them too much of the Kings Party Besides I told you again and again that the Popes Decrees and Bulls are not alwayes held infallible and may be opposed as they often have been by stiff and Religious Papists nor will good Catholiques scruple to do it especially about Temporal affairs And if Popes should speak in such a Dialect as the Minister urges they mean subjection in Spiritual matters 3. Object Among the Divines that agree to the deposing of Kings he mentions some Jesuites as Bellarmine Suarez Valentia Parsons or Creswel Mariana also he names though he confesses him cōdemned Out of these he cites several places to this purpose viz. As Jehojada deposed Athaliah so may Popes deal with Kings To this I say Let the Jesuites answer for their own Doctrine for I am sure they are of age and able also neither did they ever tell me otherwise but that I might reject such and the like opinions they being only the private fancies of some of their Order It has never been my study to pore upon Schoolmen nor is it worth my pains now to search Libraries whether they have said so or no which truly I do very much doubt of For my part I cannot think Jesuites such King-haters because Kings would then hate them when as on the contrary we see all Princes caress them and make them their Confessors At this time the Jesuites are in this Office to the Emperor the Queen of England the King of France the Queen Regent of Spain the King of Poland and as I take it to the now King of Portugal for they belonged thus to the late old King and Queen of that Kingdom the Dukes of Bavary Newburgh and many other great Princes of Germany are also their Penitents all which considered I must look upon Jesuites in general to be faithfuller Subjects then Protestants imagine for Kings though Papists are not always fools But suppose Jesuites were Villains what is that to the Catholick Faith must Cambridge be Babylon and the English Religion false because the Mēbers of one Colledge suppose Emanuel were thought knaves and hypocrites The other Divines and Canonists whom the Minister urges are Baronius Bertrand Lancelotus Peron Rossaeus who say according to his citations things to the same purpose about deposing of Kings All this put together Reader is the force of his Argument The Objection about Councels and Bulls you see is nothing about Divines I have already given you a touch but now I will handle it a little fuller You must know the Soul of man being so sublime and towring there is no profession in the world but that the wits of it aim to resolve all difficulties that can be proposed in the Science This makes Philosophers Metaphysicians and Schoolmen run into those seeming odd subtleties with which their writings are cram'd In the like manner Casuists thinking it a disgrace not to be able to answer something to whatever can be proposed treat in their Books about all Cases which their nimble fancies can start Among many impertinent niceties and curious Questions this of deposing Apostatizing Princes comes to be handled some perchance are for it others in may be against it Now because some have adjudged That upon a notorious falling away the Church may give to the sound the Dominions of the infected sheep lest the whole slock might be tainted immediately the Minister and other Protestants declare that the dethroning of Kings is the Catholique Doctrine I am sure this was not so absolutely agreed to by the English Protestāts themselves at least in discourse that there could be none found among them who have favoured the opinion which we are said to hold how many well-meaning men fought against Charles the I only because they falsely thought him a Papist and I my self have heard those of condition say when the King was abroad that should the Pope and his crew peruert him they would oppose his return There was no danger of this because his Majesty like his Father and Grādfather has so great a veneration for Protestantism but yet this that I urge was frequently spoke of and no body that reads this but has heard such discourses often What has been done about Religion in this our Country I shall tell you hereafter and at present I shall shew you that we Papists are not the only Rebel-teachers but that there are Reformists that profess this Divinity also Luther says You complain that by our Gospel the World is become tumultous I answer God be thanked these things I would have be and wo me miserable if they were not Zwinglius If the Roman Empire or what other Soveraignty soever should oppress the sincere Religion and we negligently suffer the same we shall be charged with contempt no less then the oppressors themselves whereof we have an example in 15. Jer. where the destruction of the people is Prophesied because they suffered their K. Manasses being ungodly to be unpunisht
says the King of France will believe what he pleases For his Majesty well knows the Pope gave away France formerly fomented War against Hen. 4. and would do the same against him were it not for his Power and Religion REPLY IX I shewed you before in the sixth Reply that though the Reformed have actually taken away from their lawful Governours so many Dominions yet the Pope never gave away but England and France which nevertheless are still under their proper Soveraigns Consider then whether since the light of the Gospel appeared the Protestant or Popish manner of dealing has been most destructive to Princes and judge if this be an Answer to my demand which was Whether France acknowledging the Pope be not as absolute as Sweden or Denmark that are Protestants If so it follows then that Popery does not enslave a King We are beholden to the Minister for confessing the King of France is of the same Religion with the Pope for I have heard some in England say he was a Protestant Thanks be to God there is no danger of a breach between Rome and France in matters of Faith for as the very Gazets told us An. 1664 when the French Army was in Italy The King having owned the condemnation of Jansenius even then sent to the Pope to prosecute the Jansenists in France Henry the Eighth will be a warning to his Neighbours for revolting hereafter from the Church for instead of a little Ecclesiastical dependence on the Sea of Rome he has embroiled England in perpetual confusion about Religion millions of Sects daily dividing and subdividing each of which pretend they are in the right and each quote Scripture for their Opinions And by the way Reader be pleased to remember that had not this King of ours destroyed Religious Houses all the truly devout Sectaries at present would have voluntarily been cloister'd there who now distract both the Kingdom themselves for having no quiet place to vent that zeal which boyls within they become a prey to a few wicked men that blow up their well-meaning Piety into disorders and sedition Nay many of the discontented Factious themselves who now lie open to the sway and hurry of their own passions would have been glad of such a retreat honorable to all even from the Monarch to the Pesant Therefore I see now why Speed a Protestant when he made an end of his Catalogue of the destroyed Abbies spoke in this manner We have laid to your view a great part of King Henry's ill the waste of so much of Gods revenue however abused But Cambden is yet more tart for he says That many Religious places Monuments of our Forefathers Piety and Devotion to the honour of God and Propagation of Christian faith c. were in a moment prophaned and the Riches disperst which had been consecrated to God since the English Nation first profest Christianity SECT X. APOLOGY Nor will ever the House of Austria abjure the Pope to secure themselves of the fidelity of their Subjects ANSWER X. To this he says the Austrian Family being so linckt to the Pope by possessing Naples Sicily and Navar by his Gift and theire Subjects also being Papists it were a mad way to secure themselves by changing Religion But what is that says he to England where since the extrusion of that trash we call the Catholick Faith the King and people are no more Papists and having been often troubled by us have reason by experience to fear our designs REPLY V 10. To this I reply That the Spaniard being now in actual possession can as well defend these places were he a Protestant as Millan Flanders c. which are not the Popes gift or as well as other Reformed Princes have done their Countries And for the Subjects being Papists that is nothing For all subjects before Luthers time were Papists also The Minister therefore grants me here all that from the first I desired For if our former Kings were considerable abroad and as safe at home as since the change of Religion If the King of France be as absolute as Denmarck or Sweden and if the House of Austria cannot better secure the fidelity of their Subjects by becoming Protestants then by continuing Papists I say it must necessarily follow That Kings and Kingdoms by being Papists are not less absolute then if Reformed and by the same Consequence their Subjects not one whit faithfuller to their Lords by being Protestants then if they were Papists Tell me then where is the Temporal advantage of Reformation and whether our Answerer has not bauld long in vain since he now by this grants me that Kings may be absolute and Subjects faithful under Popery and yet lately he affirmed That Popery is inconsistent with Government by reason of Princes dependence on the Pope in Ecclesiastical matters and that all Papists are prone to Rebellion by the Determination of our Councels Bulls and Divines But the Minister says What is all this to England where Prince and people are Protestants I answer 't is thus much to England That now it is plain 't is an errour that Popery is inconsistent with Government and it also shews that Princes get no power in the long-run by reforming but on the contrary perpetual disorders follow How dangerous we have been to our Protestant Princes shall be discust in the Reflexion on the Popish misdemeanours in the Reigns of Queen Elizabeth and King James But how faithful and serviceable we were to King Charles the First and Second all Europe has sufficiently declared in our behalves SECT XI APOLOGY 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 at no time dreamt of ANSWER XI Here he asks what may that be for four or five of our Kings of our own Religion have been murthered by Papists that lately Hen. 4. of France was killed by Ravillac and. Hen. 3. by Frier Clement And besides this we have killed by whole Townships in England Ireland France and Piedmont REPLY 11. What a Volume might there be here writ if every matter mentioned were to be fully discust But these are the artifices of the Brethren that when they know not what to say run to another thing in hopes to puzzle an ordinary Reader who cannot imagine hearing so great a buzze but that there must be something at least of real My assertion in the Apology was That our former English Papists never did such villanies as have been committed since the Reformation To this he answers nothing but impertinently runs to the private Murthers of some of our Kings Is this proportionable Good Reader Who knows not that the Murtherers of Ed. 2. Ric. 2. and Hen. 6. were so conscious of their wickedness 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
bold as Hectors in their denials that has affirmed the Church of Rome never governed the civilized World But since this Minister mentions here Popish ignorance I must desire the Reader if he knows any of our Profession in the Country to tell me whether generally speaking they are not esteemed more learned then their Neighbours of the same rank and degree I am sure they that live at London are thought by their Protestant Acquaintance as well bred and as greate scholars as any of their condition with whom they usually converse Concerning our Priests consult their Books and tell me then whether they have been out done or no and if any English man would know how they are abroad let them go but to his next Neighbours the French and there in every Diocess he shall find a Clergy not only learned to admiration but so far outgoing the Hugonot-Ministers that one would think they lived not in the same Clime or Region Nay what is yet more there is neither private nor publick Library in this very Island but seven of ten of the choice Books in all Sciences were writ by Catholicks Is not this Good Reader strange ignorance for Protestants to be thus deceived and implicitly led on by their Pastors contrary to what they hear and see This I must say is incredible blindness and exceeds that of the silliest Papists who if they are cozened it must be in things beyond their capacity or by distance far remote from them But now in England nothing is more common then to have wise Protestants run into this and the like fond fancies and at last when they can say no more they are fain to shift it off with this Phanatical evasion That it is true Papists are carnally but not spiritually learned SECT V. APOLOGY Did Richard the first or Edward Longshanks suspect his Catholicks that served in Palestine and made our Countries Fame big in the Chronicles 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 ANSWER VIII To this he says the Reigns of these Kings were in the dark times of corruption yet that Richard I. bequeathed his Pride and Lechery to the Clergy and Monks That Edward I. outlawed the Clergy for obeying the Pope in not paying Taxes That Edward III and Hen. V. made good Laws against the Popes usurpation and Becket vext Hen. II more then Hen. V feared Oldcastle Moreover that all these Kings did not differ so much from Protestants as the Papists now do and to conclude he asks did not the Pope force K. Iohn to do homage for England wrestle with Edward the first for Scotland and often lay claim to Ireland REPLY 8. Certainly Reader the Minister is besides himself since he can say the English differed not so much from the Protestants then as we do now Has the man railed all this while against the Tyranny of Popes and urged those times as the height of their Authority and then comes to this evasion I would fain know if the Clergy and Religious were since ever more in power then in those days was there ever more of Pilgrimages and all sorts of Devotion which Protestants call Superstitious were not Schoolmen then most in their splendor And lastly could any Publican Lollard Wickliffian or new Sect stir but the whole Kingdom presently detested them Who then will ever believe a word more he says when he is so strangely impudent to no purpose But these are the worthy tricks used to keep the poor people in ignorance and just with as much truth are the Fathers called defenders of the Protestant Religion for the Fathers stiled them always Hereticks that ran out of the visible Church For the Laws that have been made by any of our Kings if they made any against Ecclesiastical usurpations God reward them and to this all Catholicks will say Amen Concerning K. John we have already spoke enough And for the Popes claim to Scotland judge Reader whether any man can be fuller of falsity and malice then this Minister my Adversary For here he would have the World think by his placing this Accusation after King Johns business and by calling it the Popes wrestling with Edward I. for the Soveraignty of Scotland there was some notorious injustice done by the Sea of Rome In short the business was only this as you may find in Hollingshead the most violent English Historian against Papists that ever yet writ The Scots having always an animosity against the English and not knowing how to resist the Victorious Arms of Edward who was again coming with a great Army against them surrendred the Kingdom or so pretended to Boniface 8. He thereupon sent to the King to desist because the Crown belonged to the Church Edward immediately returned an Answer and so did all the Barons of England to manifest the Kings right and the invalidity of the new pretence The Pope says Hollingshead when he deliberately pondered the Kings Answer with the Letter from the English Barons waxt cold in the matter and followed it no farther Thus Reader you see how the case stood and how Catholiques are wronged by ill men nor is there any difference between a false aggravation and a downright lye In the same manner are we used in this Accusation of Ireland for the Pope never medled with Ireland but since the Reformation and so invaded it in the time of Queen Elizabeth of which you shall see farther in the Section of Popish misdemeanors in her Reign The parity between S. Th. Becket and Oldcastle is doubtless very odd the last being a Rebel with Complices in arms against Henry the fifth the other disputing only about Priviledges which he said were grāted to Priests Just as if our Peers should stād upon the freedome of their Persons were there a design to have them imprisoned as other Subjects or tried by a common Jury Besides all Princes of Christendome then owned Becket for a Saint when as no body unless such a man as Fox thought Oldcastle deserved any thing but the Gallows SECT IX APOLOGY We will no longer trouble you with putting you in mind 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 only add this that if Popery be the enslaving of Princes France still believes it self as absolute as Denmarck or Sweden ANSWER IX He
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 ANSWER XVI He says he aggrees with me in all that is truly Catholick and differs only in what we have innovated he respects our breeding but suspects whatever leans to forreign jurisdiction 'T is a flam that we have twice converted England and that sure we mean it has been twice converted by persons sent from Rome which we will never perswade any one to believe that has tasted Church-History without our Fathers chewing it for him But supposing this true he asks whether we wouldt infer that because they received good from the Primitive Christians of that place they must lay themselves open to receive any ill that my happen to them from their dangerous Successours REPLY XVI Concerning his saying that he agrees with me in all that is truly Catholick I kiss his hands for so said Jacob Behmen and so I dare say will Mr. Woodcock this being the old Song of all Hereticks I have proved before that forreign Jurisdiction in Spirituals may well agree in all Governments and no Kingdoms have been more happy at home or glorious abroad then when the Pope was their Spiritual Pastor But methinks my Gentleman might have acknowledged tha the last Conversion at least was Popish it being performed Ann. 596. in the time of Pope Gregory whom Fox calls the basest of all his Predecessours and it was done also by Austin a Monck which very name is enough to tell a Protestant the Missioner was Popishly perswaded Moreover this Austin survived his Master Gregory and consequently was according to Fox who dreames that he lived in England 16. yeares not only obedient to Boniface the 3. the Great Antichrist but made his Companion Lawrence his Successour who had the like veneration for Popes though they then stiled themselves Universal Bishops as all Protestants affirme nor did ever Canterbury deny the Roman Sea till Cranmer in the time of Hen. 8. If any man yet shall not think Austin Papist enough let him read St. Bedes History or rather some Protestants about it among which let J. Bale an Apostate Frier be one who will tell you That Austin was sent to convert the Saxons to a Popish Faith and that he taught false Doctrine and minded more the getting oblations for Masses then the Preaching of the Gospel Yet Fox though he call St. Austin Pharisaical says nevertheless that those Missioners did Miracles before King Ethelbert For the Conversion under King Lucius all Reformed Historians confess that Pope Eleutherius sent Damianus and Fugatius two Ministers forsooth as Heylin calls them who preacht Christ to the Britains No man can doubt then if these were sent from Rome but that they taught the Faith of Rome Now when Austin whom you see the Protestants already confess Popish came to convert the Saxons he had conference with Dinoth the Abbot and several of the Monks at Bangor who still preserved Christian Religion among the British In all their Dispute we finde no debate but about the Customes of the Church nor did Austin demand of them any more then the alteration in keeping of Easter and some Ceremonies in Baptism but had there been any difference in Faith and doctrine as Speed sayes positwely there was none Historians would not have failed to remember that seeing they take notice of things of lâ—ss moment and besides every body knows how scrupulous the Church was in Doctrine having condemned the Arrians Eutychians Nestorians and the like for some things which to ordinary and humane capacities seemed but meer niceties This then proves plainly that Austin the Popish Monck who also according to Hollingshead infected us with the poyson of Romish Errours preacht no other Doctrine then what the British had received afore but the the British according to Fox and others of our Protestant Authors were the uncorrupt preservers of Gods word having received from their King Lucius who lived about 180. years after Christ Let any man therefore judge who are most Primative whether he that has the face to deny that Papists twice converted England would not also deny our Saviour were it as much for his advantage as we see this to be SECT XVII APOLOGY But it 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 it 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 all Trust and Rule and leaves us also in danger of the Scout whensoever he pleases to molest our Meetings ANSWER XVII He says That what is generally said of Popish persecutions is also generally believed and that I answer deceitfully in mentioning those Countreys only where the name of Protestant is unknown and no liberty given them but omit those where it is known and no liberty given as in Flanders now and in England when it was Catholick I instance he says in France because I could find no other place but I should have considered how the Edicts of the Protestants liberty were obtained and how they are observed But if the Edicts were observed he says it is no argument that because a Liberty not against the Law is allowed them it should be granted us against the Law The Papists in Holland he says lent the chief help to fling of the Spanish yoak and therefore deserve more then we who would have brought it on our Country again REPLY XVII I could not imagine the Minister would have discover'd so great a Truth for now Reader you see that he confesses that whatsoever is said of Papists is generally believed How are Papists traduced What Stories are told of Popes How many things of the whole body of Papists and all taken for Gospel as the adversary himself acknowledges Thus people are possest with a horrour of Qu. Mary's days as if all were really true and yet as I have treated before there has been more bloud Judicially spilt about Religion by those that have excluded the Pope then has been by Papists from the Conversion of the Nation to its fall What does the Minister mean by Protestants known and no liberty given Italy and Spain know Protestants nay the Turk himself knows them and is obliged to the disturbances made by Luther and his
contrite for killing a Cardinal since he kept another still in prison Nor does this famous Author say any thing of giving nine years Indulgence to his Subjects that should fight against him and yet if the Pope had done so he must answer for his own actions to God Almighty and not all the Members of the Catholique Church But why does this poor Minister continually harp upon James Clement whom the Divel had seduced for this work The Minister would have called me worse then a Turk as he has already done if I should lay at his door the actions of Hugh Peters who was as I think ordained at least as bad as he were Concerning the Popes Speech you must know Reader that it was a thing forged as Tortus says and never heard of but at Paris some Grandees having hopes thereby to animate their Party and others a design to defame the Sea of Rome and if you consider it you will find the Pope had no reason to rejoyce at but much to lament the death of this Prince For Henry the Third was always a most firm son of the Church and easily brought again to whatever could be desired But when he was gone an apparent Hugonot was to succeed whom though for the present they might think they were able to deal with yet necessarily at best there would be a perpetual distraction among them and besides wise men know that accidents are common in such cases and to be sure the least success on Henry the Fourth's side would have ruined the Popes interest To his Conclusion I have answered before sufficiently viz. That Protestants live better under Papist Governments then Papists do under theirs therefore I say again who the Persecutors are let the World judge SECT 20. APOLOGY If it were for Doctrine that the Hugonots suffered in France this haughty Monarch 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 Iudge 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 ANSWER XX. Here he denies the consequence That if the Hugonots then suffered for Doctrine this haughty Monarch would soon destroy them now for he says he may persecute and not destroy them or destroy them but not so soon Nor is this Monarch he says as Catholick as Charlemaign for if he were he would be Patron of all Bishopricks in his Empire make the Pope know the difference between a Prelat and an Emperor and not chop Logick about Gallicane Priviledges he would also call a Councel as Charlemaign ded against Image-Worship to separate errours from the Faith This he says were a good way to destroy the Hugonots by taking away the causes of strife but any other way he cannot without violation of his Laws Then he says we complain of hardships we feel not and insult over the Hugonots who would mend their condition with changing with us Popish Peers he says sit in English Parliaments as well as Protestants in French That we have as free access to our Kings Brother as they to theirs and that he knows not what we would have unless we would Catechise his Highness as the Abbot did the Duke of Glocester He concludes That we complain of those Laws we never knew executed and which I say I know never will be But the Laws he says were made to guard the lives of our Princes against our Trayterous practices REPLY XX. I must here again Reader desire your judgment whether this consequence in the Apology be not as natural as can be viz. If the Protestants suffered for Doctrine when by reason of their strength it was dangerous to disturb them then doubtless this haughty Monarch being as much a Papist in Faith as any of his Ancestors would soon destroy them now having neither Force nor Town to resist his might and puissance Certainly this is as impertinent a cavil as his insisting upon Charlemagn who was Emperour as well as King of France and therefore had more Authority then if he had been but a single Monarch Besides I wonder he should urge him as Quarreller with the Pope being as great a friend as ever that Sea had For he grave to it the Exarchate of Ravenna the Marca Anconitana and the Dukedome of Spoleto which are the greatest part of the Church-Lands in Italy All the power the ancient Caesars had I know not if it were great I wish they had never parted with it but what they have granted I think now as truly helongs to the Pope as any Priuiledges that Towns or Royallty's can call theirs by the Gracious concessions of our famous Princes How shameless is this man that can say the Hugonots would mend their condition by changing with us and yet he cannot deny they have all the advantages before mentioned How prettily also after his usual manner doth he pervert my meaning in saying we have free access to his Highness for my Argument runs thus That the Hugonots may convert the Kings Brother without any prejudice to them by Law when as it is death to a Catholique to pervert as they call it the meanest of his Majesties Subjects But God send the King may never find more unfaithful Servants then such nor the Duke those that shall wish him worse then the worthy Abbot whom he is pleased to mention He has a fling also at me because the Catholique Peers sit in the House which is quite besides the thing I urged For I said the Hugonots must needs think they live happily enjoying not only their Religion in publike but also being capable of any manner of Employment even to be chosen Members of the three Estates nor is there any Parliament of France but has many of their Religion in it On the contrary Catholikes are born with an incapacity of Employment like the Villains as it were in Ancient times who had no propriety in the Kingdom If some few Lords sit in their House 't is not any favour the Nobility bear to Popery but because they have gravely considered that it would be wonderful injustice to turn out a Party for difference in Religion and permit other dissenters to continue Now seeing there are so many Opinions in the World to turn out all God knows upon whose Children the Lot may fall
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
even in matter of Fact Besides Councel's ordinations are to be taken according to the prudent meaning of the Legislators and oftentimes beare another sense then the bare words taken as they lie and weighed out of due circumstances seeme to signifie Nor will this seem strange to an English University man since they grant that in some matters God is not pleas'd that the Scripture it self should in it's obvious sense be taken as infallible for no body will there say that all the Philosophy in the Bible is unquestionable or that the Mathematicks of it is to a Tittle just The Molten Sea is described to be ten Cubits in diameter from brim to brim and that it was round and that a line of thirty cubits did compass it Now who is it having read less then the first six Books of Euclid but can demonstrate that this is not altogether exact The Blood is not now thought by their learn'd Physitians to be the life of a Creature but the Vehicle Nor do their Astronomers believe that the Stars are less then the Sun or Moon though in Genesis they are called the two great Lights The solution to these Objections is easie and in every Sophisters mouth viz. that the Holy Pen-men writ of such matters either briefly as that measure of a Circle is to this day ordinarily express'd or else according to the Hypothesis or Opinion then assented to by the World But where this Sacred Word speaks to us doctrinally 't is to be believed on pain of Damnation so a Councel when it determines of faith we are to reverence those determinations as coming from the Holy Ghost Neverthelesse it 's other Constitutions being but humain lawes are changeable and oftentimes admit several exceptions nor doe they alwais bring with them such an inevitable obligation that there is not possible way to avoid it's bond For Promulgation c must precede This plainely appeares by the Councel of Trent to the doctrine whereof all Catholiques whatsoever submit though the rest of it's Decrees bind not in France no in any place els where they are yet unreceived But the case now in controversie needs not all this for I suppose the Minister will not deny but that the Emperors of the East and West the Kings of England Frāce Hungary Jerusalem Cyprus Arragon c. may agree together if they please to purge their Kingdoms of Heresie and upon failure that the Church shall give their Dominions to another that will perform the compact These Princes Reader that I have named were present by their Embassadors at this Councel and what was there done was by their consent the Albigensian Heresie beginning then to be somewhat numerous Nor did those Monarchs thinke themselves in a worse condition for this Ordination Moreover we never heard that any Catholique King since ever did Protest or exclaim against the Councel which doubtless they would have done had they been in any dangerby it On the cōtrary we know that Mariana as the Minister confesses was condemned for barely inclining to the opinion of thus deposing Kings which judgmēt could not have pass'd against him had this been by any Councel adjudged an Article of Faith 'T were a mortal sin in me and I should presently incur all Ecclesiastical censure if I did deny Transubstantiation by reason it is an Article of Faith and so declared by this very Lateran Councel but as for the absolute powre of deposing Kings it is held by severall as a meere opiniō and opposed by many as fals nor wil Divines say they are the worse Catholicks for it Certāly it were not unlawful if the Princes and States that own themselves Christians should now in an Assembly agree by reason they saw Judaism or Turcism encreasing that every one of them must do what he could to hinder this growth and in case any was found favouring it his Dominions should be given to another This I say without doubt is lawful and though it were not made to bind our Posterity yet it might be hoped that the zeal of so sacred an Assembly would make Governours hereafter diligent to weed out all Infidelity What therefore was here ordered was to oblige the Kings who by compact acknowledg'd the procedure and 't was also imagined that succeeding Catholique Princes would be more careful to keep their people from error when they should call to mind that this was agreed to in a Councel where the East and West met for the Patriarch's of Constantinople and Hierusalem were present Antioch and Alexandria sent deputies and which consisted of 77. Primates 412. Bishops and above 800. Abbots and Priors besides the Embassadors of so many Monarchs all which put together makes this to be the greatest Councel that ever was Much more could I say concerning this Councel and many other considerations for brevities sake I am forced to pass by But Pray Reader before I end let me mind you of this That the Popes never give away as men call it a Kingdom from a Prince simply Heretical but from one that is an Apostate and so revolted from the Church For we see that Hen. 8. was condemned yet nothing was done to his Son Edw. 6. And again though Queen Elizabeth who went to Mass in Queen Maries time and also had actually owned the Pope by keeping her Embassadour in the beginning at Rome was deprived of Soveraignty by the Bull of Pius Quintus yet no censure past against King James K. Charles the first or this present Monarch and the reason is because they always professed themselves Protestants and never acknowledged his Holiness as their Bishop and Pastor Therefore Protestāt Magistrates have no reasō to fear either Pope or Papists The Answerer having urged this Councel to vilisie it the more tells us 't was Innocent the III. who there presided that deposed our K. John and Otho IV. and then runs extravaganly to a forraign thing in hopes to make it more disgustful viz. that this Councel which made Rebellion a duty made Transubstantiation an Article of Faith Concerning King John I have told you before that Popes as private Doctors may err nay it is not certaine that without a Councel they are infallible even in their interpretations of faith much more therfore they are liable to err in their actions Neither doe I canonize or approve whatsoever Popes have done in deposing Kings And if some Popes have transgress'd it follows not that all have no more then because some Princes have been Tyrants their Predecessors and Successors must be so too Differences between Kings and Popes I consider as between Man and Wife for in all Quarrels the right can be but on one side yet it happens through humane imbecility and revenge that the most injured often commits some absurdity or other by which the Peccant party may gain a very seeming advātage No brave English King needed to have more feared Popes then they needed to have feared their other gaping
all was done in the dark nor would they ever own otherwise then that they dyed without violence For t was given out that the death of the first of these Princes came by extreame Griefe That the other Starved himselfe and that the last died of a Naturall sicknesse But the execution of the Queen of Scots was bare-fac'd in the sight of the World and which was more under the cloak of Law My Lord of Leicester was sensible of the dishonour that would accrew to the Nation and therefore sent Walsinhham a godly Divine to satisfie his conscience that it was lawful to poyson her but the Minister could no more convince his penitent then the Saints could Harrison about the clandestine Murther of the Grandchild And doubtless the whole intrigue against Q. Mary gave precedent and boldness to our execrable Parricides openly to do their detestable villany in a formal method and manner This procedure against the Queen contrary as 't was imagined to the Law of Nations she being both a Guest and an absolute Princess drew an universal odium upon the Kingdom for the Reproach was entailed on the whole nation by the apparition of a mimicall and Counterfeit justice as Osborne call's it nor did any Englishman either Papist or Protestant ever misse to be upbraided with it abroad till the greatness of the abomination against King Charles made them leave off a little speaking of the first to remember us more piquantly of the last Is it to excuse the two unheard of 〈◊〉 that he tell me of four or five Kings since the Conquest made away by Papists It may be it is that I should again retort that since Hen. 8. Reign there were but b four Protestestant Monarchs and three of them were said to come to violent deaths But what is Ravillac's murther of Hen. 4. to us in England more then to Saxony the poysoning of Edw. 6. by the Lord Robert Dudly for so Sir Richard Baker conceives he hid I know Clement the Frier destroyed Hen 3. so did Judas his Master and yet neither the Disciples nor Christian Religion were ever thought the worse for it For the Murther of the Protestants in IrelaÌ„d I shew'd you in the beginning how we detested it CoÌ„cerning the Blood spilt in FraÌ„ce I shall speak at large in the Paragraph about that Massacre But I wonder the PiemoÌ„thusiness should be unged by Royallist for I remeÌ„ber when CroÌ„wel made a CollectioÌ„ for theÌ„ in pretence but for himself in reality the Cavaliers ever stiled them Rebels and said the Duke of Savoy was necessitated for his quiet to subdue them thus by Arms. Yet for all their hard usage I wish we had as much freedome as they Now for Queen Maries Reign which this man so often calls the Bloody days I will here speak a little eternally to stop his mouth hereafter First Reformed Historians agree that the Queen her self was a marveillous good woman therefore it was not she but her Bishops that were cruel Again every Englishman knows that no man can be put to death amongst us without Law therefore they were not the Bishops but the Laws that were cruel which Laws still continue and have been made use of since the Reformation by Q. Elez. K. â—ames to burne Hereticks Yet for all these Laws there died of Protestants in the whole but 277. as Baker and other Protestant Writers record Besides were these 277. now alive 200. at least in stead of pity would be thrown into prison and there rot for Non-conformists but all things were called Saints in the dawning of the light even so much as Collins and his dog for Fox in his Act 's and Monuments say's that Collins beeing mad and seeing a Priest hold up the Host to the people tooke a dog and held it up as the Priest did the Host for wch he and the dog were burnt Yet though this Collins be own'd by Fox to be mad never the less he places him as a Martyr on the 10. of Octob. as may be seen in his Calendar In the next place let me know whether a man may be executed for this Tenets in Religion or no If it be lawful why might not Papists put to death men who they thought deserved it as well as Protestants If no man ought to suffer for his Conscience why did Edward 6. and Q. Eliz. condemn so many Hereticks in their time all which were executed but some few that recanted and so saved their lives Or why did K. James put to death Legat and Wightman but because he religiously thought it was unfit they should longer live to blaspheme Over and above these that died for a Religion of their own making I saw a Roll at Doway wherein to the year 1632. there suffered out of that one House 105. Priests since which there died many out of the same Colledge Add to these many out of the Portugal Spanish and Roman Seminaries many of other Orders and many Laymen also who have been executed for owning the Pope in Spirituals or for having a Priest say Mass in their Houses according to the obligation of their Consciences If these were then all numbred I am sure there suffered many more Catholicks omitting the innumerable Confiscations by the Protestant Government then ever there did Protestants by the Catholick Nay if together with Catholicks I should reckon all sorts of people that died for their Conscience though enemyes to Popery which may be found in Fox Stow and others in the Reignes of Hen. 8. Ed. 6. and Queen Elizabeth it is evident there has been more Blood spilt on a Religious account under our Princes that disowned the Pope then by the Papists from St. Augustins Conversion to Luthers time Iudge then if Catholicks be so bloody as they are reported and thought SECT XII APOLOGY 'T was never heard of before that an absolute Queen was condemned by Subjects and those stiled her Peers or that a King was publiquely tried and executed by his own people and servants ANSWER XII Here he says That the Q. of Scots was beheaded under Elizabeth by the same colour of right that Wallis suffered under Edw. 1. whom I call he says a brave Prince namely that of Soveraignty which our Princes challenged over Scotland but that King James and King Charles never imputed this to Q. Elizabeths Religion Concerning King Charles's Murther he says that I would take it ill a Turk should charge the Ministers faults and his Parties upon me but I do worse then a Turk in charging these mens faults upon the Protestants for the Murtherers were neither then nor since of the Ministers Communion He sayes King Charles declared he died for the Protestant Religion and Laws of the Land that also in his Letter to the Prince he says none of the Rebels were Professors or Practicers of the Church of England which gives no such Rules REPLY XII Nay now I have
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
this man for it was he or some of the like Principles that out of malice against the late King wickedly divulged That his Majesty had underhand caused the Irish Rebellion that he had a mind to bring in Popery and to enslave the Nation had sent for an Outlandish Guard Thus cried the English Rebels against their glorious Prince and thus now invents this Minister Stories to mischief if he can his innocent fellow-Subjects and Country-men And who can be guiltless if assertions without any shadow of proof shall be received against him SECT XIV APOLOGY 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 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 Juddes and sealed the Execution of that Great Prince of happy Memory ANSWER XIV He says That many of my Church were not of my Party and that if some of them did the King eminent service in the Critical day of danger so did the Protestants too therefore it is not to be ascribed to our Religion Nor is it reasonable to requite particular men by having those Laws abandoned which secure us against as great a danger 'T is barbarity for any Christian but those of our Sect to question his life that exposed it for his Prince or to do this in any age except Queen Maries for then Sir Nich. Throgmorton was so dealt with But the Minister detests such times and such examples and he knows the King will reward deserving persons without trespassing on his Laws Lastly he desires me to be favourable to the stigmatized man whom I do not hate he knows for his offences because the King whom he formerly displeased bears with him for he contributed much against the Phanaticks to his Majesties restauration and would not willingly live to see the Pope turn him out again REPLY XIV What is the meaning of this distinction That many of my Church were not of my Party Have we not been all of the same Party or can there he named a Papist that was not for the King even in te worst of times But Good Mr. Parson have you all this while cut our throats and do you now come with your insignificant flatteries that there were some eminent among us for Loyalty I fear not the worst you can say and for the best I scorn it Did I ever say otherwise then that the Protestants were to be honoured for their wonderful service to the King Was not the Apology directed to them and have I not always declared that his Majesty ows as much to them as ever Prince can owe to Subjects Certainly 't is no lessning of their worth because we did our endeavours and have been fellow-sufferers with them in that Glorious Quarrel I never prest in the Apology to have any particular body exempted We only say there Little did we once think that the necessity of affairs would occasion the Royal Party to advise the punishment of us all and in the crowd those worthy Preservers of the King at Worcester Yet Sir with your permission it were not so unreasonable neither as you would have it for the service of some few to suspend the Laws against a Party You have read I know the Scripture and therefore may remember Mordecay's case who by saving the Kings life not only preserved himself and his Nation from Ruine but obtained also honour and freedom for them all But what do you drive at by Throgmortons usage Will you never leave perverting History or at best betraying your own ignorance First you must know Reader that Throgmorton by none of our Historians is mētioned to have done any service for Queen Mary Yet Hollins head has his trial at large which John Lilburn afterwards copied out to the life where no evasion is omitted and certainly it had been then a fit time to urge merits had he had any But suppose he was as eminent and faithful as Bedin field Jerningham c. Must that excuse a man from being fairly tried for Treason This Sir Nicholas Throgmorton you must know with others was accused as a Conspirator with Wyat for which he had a Tryal and was acquitted by his Jury Why distempered Sir 't is so far from our business that we do earnestly desire in the Apology upon the least offence against the State the Transgressour may die without mercy and this I 'le be bound Col. Carlos and the rest of those brave men shall willingly subscribe But will you worthy Country-man that know his Majesties thoughts so well engage that none of the factious shall murmure at him for rewarding those that have done well Now for the stigmatized I find Mr. Parson you pretend to be very well acquainted with their actions If they have done any thing which God knows is little and not to the hundreth part of their transgression let them thank God for the grace he has given them to do the King at length service but I am sure if they really meant well they would never promote the harassing of a faithful Party till they found them machinating against their Prince I have no particular spleen to any man yet cannot look on those men as either of wit or honesty who needlesly disoblige and who strive with violence to have Christians persecuted for Religion when as they themselves are the first that rail against all mankind if their own Consciences be toucht though it be by the establisht Laws of the Nation SECT XV. APOLOGY We confess we are unfortunate and 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 Cavalier nor no Cavalier that was not counted a Papist or at least thought to Popishly affected ANSWER XV. He will pass over our fawning on the Parliament and commending our selves and believes us as we did the Sectaries that called the Cavaliers Papists He wonders why these Royallists should be termed Popishly affected but if the Papists were judged Cavaliers they afterwards were ashamed of it In Ireland whole Armies were up against the King In England some came in voluntarily to serve him but more were hunted into Garrisons it being well known we should bring his Majesty more hatred then service The greatest part of us that
fought for him when his fortunes stood fell off when he declined Then he asks us where we were from that time forward in all those weak efforts of gasping Loyalty We were flattering he says and giving sugered words to the Rebels as now we do to the Royallists for we addrest our Petitions To the Supream Authority of the Nation the Commonwealth of England that we had generally taken and punctually kept the engagement We promist if we might enjoy our Religion we would be most faithful and useful Subjects of England We proved it in these words The Papists of England would be bound by their interest to live peacefully and thankfully in the exercise of their Conscience and becoming gainers by such compassions they could not so easily be distrusted as the Prelatick Party that were loosers Moreover the Minister on his own word says we farther proved all this by real testimonies which not to shame us toe much he will pass by in silence Now if after all this we were deemed Cavaliers we were much wronged REPLY 15. Good Mr. Parson speak truth and you will shame no body but your self have you bespattered us all this while with falsities and will you now do it farther by your Pedantick Rhetorick Pray Reader to speak moderately is not this man the archest wrangler that ever was for if he dares disown a thing which all men know how will he then cavil do you think at what is known but only to the Wise was ever any thing so evident as that the Rebels deemed all Papists Cavaliers and all Cavaliers Papists I do not infer that therefore all Cavaliers were Papists only I say they were generally so called nor is any body ignorant that the reason was to make them more hated by the people as this Minister by his false glosses would at this instant serve us Concerning our frankness to serve the King it is so fully treated in the Preface that no truth was ever more plainly made manifest But what made this mad man ask where we were in all those weak efforts of gaspink Loyalty Were not we where the rest of the Royal party were Some of us were in London some with the King some about dispatches some in the Tower some sold to the Islands and in fine was there any Plot but the Catholicks were as numerous in it proportionably as any other Subjects Was ever man so impudent as to deny this Yes the Minister does it and farther says we were flattering the Rebels wich Addresses and owning them the Supream Power of the Nation Reader lest this should be a stumbling-block to the weak I wille give you some account of the matter After the Rebels had trampled down Monarchy and enslaved the whole Nation by force it happened that a Lay-Gentleman with whom I have no manner of acquaintance but have heard him ever esteemed of much wit and integrity seeing the then ruling Grandees pretend by their Principles to be against all Persecution for Conscience thought it would not disoblige the Catholiques or any body else if he stickled a little for a private Toleration The Protestant Cavaliers had many daily Congregations at London which the constancy and courage of Dr. Wild Dr. Gunning Dr. Thriscross c. with some sweet words also forc'd the Rebels to a kind of connivence at but the Papists could not follow the same Method For whereas the Protestant Ministers if the Governement had on a sudden fell to severity knew they should be but carried to the White Hart or at most imprisoned for a day or two a Popish Priest was sure to be hanged and all his Auditory fineable also by the known Laws of the Land This Gentleman therefore to try the pulse of the Rebels that juggled in all their Professions writ two Books called the First and Second Moderators the thing in it self could not be discommended but for the wording he I mean the Author is to answer for it The Books I have not by me but you may be sure the Minister has quoted the worst things in them and I question not a little whether all be true he mentions having already found him false as you see in many particulars I need not vindicate the Gentleman for he can do it himself to the purpose My business at present only is to admire the folly of my Adversary who hand over head lays as a crime the indiscretion which is the most that can be said of it of a private man to all his Party Would not this Logick then make the whole Church of England guilty of Phanatick Principles because Dr. Taylor writ for liberty of Prophesie And if our Gentleman may be thought to have shewed his Papers to some Catholiques before they were published 't is every jot as probable the Dr. made Protestants acquainted with his Book before it was sent to the Press It is very severe doubtless if the inconsiderateness of one should not only be fathered on us all but urged against us equal to the Treason of the late Transgressors No people on Earth can be safe at this rate nay all the Protestant Cavaliers themselves those great patterns of Loyalty would be involved if such consequences were allowed Every body knows that some Great men got out of Decimation by favour and that many Gentlemen it may be out of prudence knowing the end of Plots refused to receive Letters much less Commissions from the King How many Souldiers also were there that served Cromwel at Jamaica and other Places neither failed there a compliance in Poets too as in Cowly and Cleveland themselves and for Lawyers there was no want of them in Westminster-Hall wsensoever a Cavalier had need The Ministry also of the Nation had some among them that were not able to resist Temptation for there were not a few that took the Covenant and Dr. Martin in his printed Letters taxes a great One for complying with the Presbyterians abroad But why does my Minister lay the taking of the Engagement as a crime against us seeing it was generally taken through the whole Kingdom no body being capable of Law that had not done it Nor did any body fail of calling the Parliament the Supream Authority of the Nation if they had Law-suits Petitions or any thing else of that Nature Is this a blemish to the Cavaliers in general No 't is so far from it that even the most of these I mention when occasion served were ever forward in the Kings concerns But all things perchance are lawful to all men so they be not Catholicks SECT XVI APOLOGY We know though we differ something in Religion the truth of which let the last day judge yet none can agree with your inclination 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
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
when he speaks of the commotions of a Party yet here I am accused to think Rebellion no crime and to excuse their faults because I tell you what Papists in those days said for themselves The Minister can call himself a Loyal Subject and yet defend the Hugonots who were the most notorious and insolent Rebels that any History can shew nor had they any other pretence for the Massacres and continual ravages committed by them but Mr. Calvin and Mr. Beza's telling them God said thus and thus and therefore unless their respective Kings would suffer them to destroy a Religion in quiet possession since the Reign of Clouis they would bring Armies into the field and fortifie Towns against their Liege-Lords as every body knows they did till subdued in the time of Lewis the XIII I think good Mr. Parson I am as well known in England as your self and am sure can find more Protestants of Quality that shall engage for my Loyalty thē you can people of any sort 'T is not this Minister Reader only but others have called my narration of the matter of fact a questioning of Queen Elizabeths Title judge you by my words in the Apology whether it be so or no nor could I omit in honour the Plea of the foregoing age their misdemeanours being every day thrown in my dish But suppose I had questioned her Title there is no Treasonable intention in it I am sure because the Title of our King has no dependance upon that Princesse nor was she the first of our Monarchs against whose right Posterity has argued No body is blamed for saying King Stephen was an usurper or that Edward the Fourths Title was better then that of the three preceding Henry's What is 't then I beseech you were the fact proved against me I have committed that Protestant Authors have not done and worse Sr. Walter Rawley in his Preface of the History of the world has not only something to say against almost all the Kings of Englād but Buck in his Ric. 3 has bastardized Hen. 7 and all his offspring and thereby invalidates theire title to the Crowne either as Yorkists or Lancastrians Nor does Speed refraine from questioning the right of most of our Princes from the Conquest till Henry the fowrth's Reigne Yet none of these have been branded with the Character of ill Subjects 'T is he that is to be accounted wicked who sedititiously descants on Titles to breed Commotions and Disorders The Minister says I defend the calumny of those Catholicks in saying 'T was a very hard question whether the right to the Crown lay in Queen Elizabeth or in the Queen of Scots Reader that which I said was That this was a harder Question then the Dispute of York and Lancaster which cost so much Blood and Treasure and because I would know your opinion I will state these two Questions to you York had the interest of a third brother by Marriage Lancaster that of a fourth Brother and these two dispute about the Crown of England which women are capable of The second Question is this Henry the eighth married his brothers wife who was said to be a Virgin for Prince Arthur was but fifteene and a little more wen he died By this Princess K. Hen. had our Q. Mary and after he had lived with her 20 years he fell in love with a handsome young Lady whereupon he had in short time a scruple of Conscience that it was unlawful to live longer with his old wife because she had been-married to his brother His Conscience being still tender he caused the Scriptures to be searched and found not only there the Marriage to be void but that the Pope himself had no power in England and besides that rich Abbies were also contrary to the word of God Being thus truly informed he threw away Wife Pope and Monks and married the other by whom he had Queen Elizabeth while his first Wife lived 'T was thought by many curious wits that there could be but one of the daughters legitimate because both Mothers were contemporaries and that to Christians the Scripture permits but one wife at a time After the death of this King and his Son 't was put to the Kingdom to decide which of these children were lawfully begotten both Lords and Commons acknowledged Mary for their Queen which was as much to say she was born in true Wedlock Nor did Luther himself fail to disapprove of Queen Elizabeths birth I doubt not but the people were informed of the cause of the Kings scrupule as also that this brother Arthur had never known his wife Nay before K. Henry married Queen Katherine she protested she was a Virgin and offered to be tryed by Matrons The Bishop of Ely also deposed That the Queen whom all even the King himself esteemed for a Saint had often in confession told him she never carnally knew the Prince Nor in the whole examination was there any colourable pretence produc'd but the common vanity of all boys to be thought men before their time For 't was affirmed Arthur should say the next morning after Marriage that he had been in Spain that night Besides this there were those I believe that told the People that though St. John forbad Herod to take his brother Philips wife because his said Brother was then alive for Josephus sayes Herodias parted from her husband Philip in his life time and in contempt of the lawes married Herod yet he never prohibited by those words a Christian to marry his sister in-law if her Husband were dead The Case being thus fancied by the Papists in the time of Queen Elizabeth they argued that if Mary was the true Child then the other was the Natural but Mary was owned Legitimate And my Lord Bacon say's the ligitimation of Queen Mary and Elizabeth were incompatible Ergo the Kingdom not being Elective Mary Stuart the next Legal Heir must necessarily succeed her Yet suppose these Papists were wrong in their conclusion I am sure nevertheless I am still in the right viz. That it is a harder Question to resolve whether the Marriage be Null if a woman marries two Brothers then whether a third or fourth brother has the better Title to the Crown for that was the contest betwixt York and Lancaster But the Minister urges if the Papists thought Queen Elizabeth an Usurper why did not they stir sooner for there was no Rebellion he says in ten years and when after ten it broke out in the North there was not the least mention made of the Q. of Scots or her Title I wish the Catholicks had not only sat still ten years but forty five years also yet to shew you that this Minister will be wrōg in every thing I shall give you a most succinct account of this business Queen Mary of England in the latter part of her Reign was in open war with France and the Qu. of Scots was
followed the method of his Predecessors and would have continued it had not the barbarous usage of the Queen of Scots provok'd him to an Excommunication and all hostile endeavours His Bull I know speaks not of Bastardy in plain terms yet with our Ministers good leave the Pope in that very Bull calls our late Queen Mary Legitimate which saying was as much against Q. Elizabeth as if he had spoken in a bolder phrase For as I urged before my Lord Bacon says That the Legitimations of Q. Mary and Queen Elizabeth were incompatible In this manner the Popes acknowledged her and for the Marriages which were offered her to very much purpose forsooth urged by the Minister from forreign Monarchs it proves no more right then that Mrs. Cleypole had been truly our Queen if France Spain or the Emperor had made love to her and I believe no body doubts but Suiters would have flockt had she been unmarried and sole Heir to her Father Though Gregory XIII sent to invade Ireland and Sixtus V. gave England to the Spaniards yet I do not see that this can touch us Catholicks in the least though the Minister thinks it a mighty Argument For if the French King may invade St. Christophers or any part of our Dominions without drawing the Name of Villain on him or his people Why may not the Pope being a Temporal Prince send forces to subdue what Country he pleases The Bishop of Munster for his smart endeavours against the Hollanders was never blamed but on the contrary commended by us and certainly the Pope is as absolute and as good a man as he Kings you see may fall upon their Neigbours themselves and without breach of Morality incite others to do the like and while Popes are free Princes they cannot be reproach'd for using that liberty without great partiality and malice This Minister foolishly handles all things and you may see his intent is only to make a noise for 't is no advantage in our present Dispute to him to shew what Kingdoms Popes over-run or give away That which he ought to prove was That it is Article of Faith amongst us to assist the Pope in every such invasion or Gift That this is not so you may plainly see for one fifth of the Turks Army are of his Christian Subjects and yet none of them are ever blamed as heritiques for defending the grād Seigniors Territories In the next place whē was it heard that any English Catholick was fain to do pennance like an accurst persō for assisting the Queen against the Spanish Invasion for there was no◠Papist then in England for the Spaniard Or who in Ireland in her Reign thought himself given to the Divel for fighting against San Joseph who came for the Kingdom upon his Holiness account For the Bishop of Armath confesses The English Papists in Ireland were faithfull in all the invasions by Spaine or Pope Now whether Pope or Spaniard intended after Conquest to restore the Kingdom to the Queen of Scots or her Heirs I know not but this I am sure of that 't was as probable as that the Hollanders who were assisted by the Arms of some Caualiers and the good wishes of us all would have given King Charles the Second possession of England had they got it from the Rump If Clement the Eighth earnestly strove that Queen Elizabeths Successours should be Catholiques I suppose no body can blame him for it but I would fain have it shewed me that King James's admission to the Crown a Protestant from his Childhood was opposed by the Catholiks of this Kingdom If they stickled not after his Mothers death for him as they did for her this answer is sufficient That he was not used like her nor did he for fear of prejudicing his future admittance ever desire any body to stir in his behalf I suppose Reader you wonder why I should challenge any man to shew me how the English Catholicks opposed King James his Succession when as this Minister tells us out of Cambden That the Papists negotiated the Spanish Invasion That afterwards they perswaded the Earl of Darby to pretend to the Crown That Doleman alias Parsons writ in the behalf of the Infanta's Title and to conclude his Accusation de declares That the Catholicks of Scotland Huntly and others raised a powerful Rebellion against this Prince First Concerning the Invasion the Minister says more then the Author himself whom he quotes for Cambden only says that some English Fugitives did promote it and who knows not that Fugitives in all ages and in all Religions machinate against those whom they call their Oppressors and on the other side who is ignorant that many Papists more considerable far then a few fugitive Priests for most of the chiefest were so assisted the Kingdom in that War and in all its other contests abroad Secondly If some of these Fugitives did perswade my Lord of Darby it was I say again done like Fugitives nor had they ever the consent of the Catholiques for it It was certainly a very rediculous Plot in them to make a Protestant Nobleman that had so poor a Title their Soveraign and if it were really designed It must I am sure have been performed by the Protestants themselves for the Papists had no power not being able so much as to set up the Qu. of Scots who had so plausible a right though they wanted not the assistance of the Pope Spaniard and all the Guisard Faction And by the way this Earle was not poison'd as the Minister would have it for Stow has a Diary and the Particulars of his sicknesse and say's The causes of all his deseases were thought by Phisitians partly a surfet and partly distempering himselfe with vehement excercise 4. days togeather in Easter weeke Thirdly For Dolemans Book who writ it God knows Parsons denied it at his death and I believe he was not the Authour because in some of his works he speaks so much to the advantage of K. James Moreover he was a man of far more wit then to write so foolish a thing for was not that man strangely simple that would dedicate his Book to my L. of Essex as the Minister would have it to prick forward an ambitious man and yet the whole matter of the Treatise is to prefer the Infanta's Title before all persons whatsoever But Reader if this kind of arguing be lawful that the errours of some unknown men must be laid to a whole Party how miserable would the Protestants themselves be when we come to try them by the same Touchstone I will not stoop to so mean and insignificant a Topick but tell you what Protestants still alive can testifie viz That in the latter end of the Queens Reing My Lord of Hertfords Title was often cried up to Tumult in the streets Nor had that a slight impression he being esteemed next to the Stuarts in blood on many a wellmeaning man
opposite to all the designs of a Conspirator for 't was certain either it would make my Lord carelesly contemn the admonition since it came from an idle fellow in the street or else if he were apprehensive he would necessarily shew it to friends by which as I said there might be no little hazard to have all found out Now on the other side this interval was benecifial to a Machivilian because he knew 't would not only be more grateful to the Privy-Councel to have time to consider on difficulties but also foresaw if the King and Lords through surprize or otherwise should not hit on the Plot he must be forc'd to start hints the execution being so neer at hand which might easily have made him suspected for contriver and how ungrateful sulch a wickedness would have been to an upright Prince he him self could not but well imagine Thus Reader you see the intention of the Letter was to have the thing discover'd and thus could he ruine his Enemies and make his own vigilance appear for without such and the like remembrances the wit of great Ministers is soon forgotten both by their Prince and People Nor did Cecil miss of another reward also for as Sanderson says he was made Earl for his service in this business That which I assert here does not lessen the quickness of the Kings judgment for his insight as much appears whether the Letter were writ by a Statesman or a Conspirator Neither does this strike at the Festival enacted because the Parliamēt finding by the prisoners taken there was such a Plot could not but thank God that theyr trayterous intention was discovered And truly if a score of wicked Christians had conspired against Nero himself I would not gain say the remembrance of the delivery in what Countrey soever it were observed All that I here shew is that the Catholique Party had no hand in the Treason there being but thirteen Laymen in all as you see plainly proved and these very thirteen were doubtless drawn in by their mortal Enemy for the Letter came by his contrivance beeing as Osborn b confesses a neate devise of the Treasurer's nor was he ignorant from time to time of all their actions He that lived in our times has seen the Reign-of Queen Elizabeth reacted For in those twelve years from 1646. to 1658. you may remembrer the establisht Religion of the Nation altered an absolute Soveraign executed with formalities and pretences of Law The French fond of our amity the Spaniard beaten and lastly the zealous youth drawn into Plots with all ease imaginable His Majesty had those about him that had learnt this Art in their old Mistress's Service and this the all-knowing King at last found out for 't was impossible that ever he would have been favourable to the Catholikes again had he not in length of time been assured thad they were innocent of all machinations against him Reader he was a constant Protestant and yet so kind to us the last half of his Reign of which Wilson complains that neither the Spanish Match nor any other worldly hopes could have obtained this had he not been convinc'd we never had a design of destroying him and His. Nay the King in his own Declaration about it says That the generality of his Catholique Subjects did abhor such a detestable Conspiracy no less then him self Having thus replied to his Answer in the four last Paragraphs there rests now a little to be said to some short jerks of his which he loocks upon as witty and home First he is troubled that I call the Powder-Treason Misdemeanor Fifth of November Conjuration all of them being soft words To this I say I am very sorry I have offended him and in my next Apology if that will content him I 'll speak in the longest sentence of the Cōmon Prayer about the matter but my past errour grew from this because significant brevity is aimed at by most and therefore when we speak of or to the King we say Sir or your Majesty and not at every word Charles the Second by the Grace of God King of England Scotland France Ireland Defender of the Faith c. so in handling this affair I use those short words that express the whole matter to the full for I think Treason is a Misdemeanor when more then one are in it 't is a Conjuration and the Fifth of November is the common phrase of the Kingdom 2. ly He says that K Iames's Male-Line were to have been all destroyed Now Baker says That the late King then D. of York was only to have been suprized by Percy But the matter is not material and I cite these Protestant Authors only to shew that the malice of the Minister will make him erre in every thing Thirdly He thinks that my comparing of Cromwels drawing in the Cavaliers with this of Cecils is very odd and unequal For the Cavaliers he sayes were cheated into a lawful Action but the Powder-Traytors were out-witted into Treason To this I say that my comparison was never intended as you may see if you look into the Apology to make an equality of Justice or Honour in their sufferings but to remember you how easie it is for Trapanners to draw people into Plots and from thence to the Gallows Fourthly Concerning his desire to know who was Cecils setter to decoy in the rest I answer I cannot tell Nor should we ever have known who was Cromwels Instrument had not Sir S. Morland most Loyally discovered him There were three or four the Minister names discovered by the Conspirators who knew of the Plot and afterwards died obscurely abroad Even so died Gifford the Priest Walsingham's setter never visibly rewarded who corrupted the Brewer and so drew the Queen of Scots into the trap that ruined her as has been already mentioned Fifthly Because he is angry with the word Desperadoes I have altered it in this Edition and put in lieu Ambitious men I am sure the word in it self is proper enough for most were poor and King James in his Proclamation against Percy call's them men for the most part of desperate estates But had they been never so rich or in esteem it would well have fitted with them also for my Lord of Essex and Marshal Byron were really Desperadoes and yet wanted nothing had they known their own happiness Lastly He says few knew the manner but most knew there was a design on foot and prayed for the success of it Suppose Reader this were true that a design was recommended to the prayers of the Catholicks what were they guilty of by it for at that time the Chief of them were solliciting at Court to get some little ease after their long misery and therefore the rest might well think their prayers were fit to be desired But all this is a fiction Thus Reader I have now left nothing unanswered that he has urged and thus you see the Reasons I
have to believe the Plot it self a Trick and besides 't is plain the Body of the Catholicks had no hand or inclination to the thing which the wiâ—e K. James at last as I said well knew therefore was gratiously pleased to let the beams of his mercy shine again upon them SECT XXIX APOLOGY 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 underweÌ„t such sufferings that needs we must have all sunk had not our mutual love assisted ANSWER XXIX He says suppose falsly to avoid truth for who says all Papists then were consenting or who can deny there be some in this age of the same Principles with those Traytors and though we be not punisht for our Predecessors actions yet we ought to be restrained that we may not do like them Though I would he says shuffle men of these Principles by the word unanimously among those that served the King yet those good Servants are not so many but the others may be easily distinguisht Concerning those that only suffered with the Royallists the Minister thanks them for their love but not for their assistance for the Protestant Cavaliers could not sink lower but some of us floated like cork and others swam upon the bladders of dispensation and therefore as they received no help from our swimming so they apprehend no assurance of us by our sufferings REP. to ANSW XXIX Pray Reader what is in this Answer that confutes the Apology for what man of our Party did not faithfully serve the King to his power and who of us in his Majesties absence had not estimation among the rest of the Cavaliers according to his ranck and quality was there any Party in England more deprest then we Were not Priests of all Orders hanged were not others imprisoned during life Had not we three times more Estates sold then any people else and were not the Laws put in force so that to those that had something two parts of it were also swept away Cromwel by is Maxims kept us poor because we should not be service able to the King and now our Gratious Monarch being returned this Godly Minister thinks fit to advise our restraint as he calls it which in plain English is to desire we should beused as that Tyrant used us for fear we should do like our predecessors i. e. assist his Majesty for I am sure all of them did so and many confirmed that duty with their Blood Can therefore be on Earth greater wickedness then this not only to be forgetful in prosperity but thus with calumny to asperse those who were faithful fellow-sufferers with the Royall Party in the height of all theire misfortunes Reader the hopes of this pitiless man is that rigour and despair may stagger us in our Loyalty but herin I defie him for nothing can move them to contend whom coÌ„science and Love have obliged to be obedient SECT XXX APOLOGY What have we done that we should now deserve your Anger Has the Indiscretion of some few incenst you 'T is true that is the thing Objected ANSWER XXX Sir our anger is only a necessary care that what you call your indiscretions may not grow up to be such as you lately called your misdemeanours SECT XXXI APOLOGY Do not you know an Enemy may easily mistake a Mass-Bell for that which calls to Dinner ANSWER XXXI We know he may upon a Fast-day for then you use to ring your Vesper-Bell before Dinner And how can a simple Heretick tell whether it call you to pray or to eat Fish But we do not know that ever any of you was brought into trouble about that Question SECT XXXII APOLOGY Or a Sequestrator be glad to be affronted being Constable when 't was the hatred to his person and not present Office which perchance egg'd a rash man to folly ANSWER XXXII Possibly he may be glad of it For 't was the Jesuitical distinction between Person and Office that first helpt him to be a Sequestrator and now he sees the distinction come in play he may hope to have his place again REPLY to ANS XXXII Reader you see he will divide a Paragraph and answer to each division as he hath done in these three last though it be gibbrish and nothing to purpose The ringing of a Mass-Bell in Lancashire the affronting a Constable and some other such things were Accusations brought to London against us But how impudent is the Minister to say we were never in trouble as he knows for this when as every body knows what a do there has been ever since these complaints were alleadged by the known Enemies of the Kingdom SECT XXXIII APOLOGY We dare with submission say let a publick Invitation be put up against any Party what soever nay against the Reverend Bishops them selves and some malicious informer or other will alledge that which may be far better to conceal Yet all mankind by a Manifesto on the House-door are encouraged to accuse us Nor are they upon Oath though your Enemies and ours take all for granted and true ANSWER XXXIII He says here 's an ambush for Bishops to have them esteemed Popish because I reverence them and obnoxious in such matters as I say it may be better far to conceal But he knows my kindness and defies my malice They are Olympia's Bishops need concealment but the Bishops of England are of another make and hold not their credit at any ones courtesie He farther says what could the Parliament do less then invite the People to bring in their grievances to the place of Redress and 't was great hardship he says that the House of Commons did not give Oaths to the Accusers which no House of Commons ever did upon any occasion REPLY XXIII If my respects to the Prelats of England have offended this Minister I am sorry for it We and the whole World know how zealous they are for Monarchy and therefore I wish they had no greater Enemies then Papists But if there be an ambush laid for them Judge Reader whether we or the Cobler of Glocester have done it 'T is an usual phrase among Catholicks when they shew the wickedness of Lyars to say they are so abominable that they will not stick to calumniate the Church it self therefore I think kind expressions ought to have had a better requital For Donna Olympia's Bishops I suppose those of our Kingdom take them selves to be of the same make for hers received their Orders from Rome and from the same Fountain as I have read the Church of England pretends to derive all Ordination whatsoever The Minister needed not to have told me that the Commons cannot administer Oaths for I know the Orders of that House better then his Worship I was not troubled that no
run counter to his Royal inclinations when he punishes the weak and harmless ANSWER XXXVI He says he desires only to be safe and against our dangerous Principles neither our affability nor hospitality can defend them for the Irish never treated Protestants better then the year a fore they cut their Throats The best means of security is the execution of the Laws by which those that renounce their disloyal Principles will be distinguisht and the disloyal and seditious only kept weak REPLY XXXVI I have sufficiently treated the Irish Rebellion in the first Reply neither have I bin wanting to shew you that a Protestāt Author viz. Heath lays the cause of it on the English Long-Parliament which occasioned so many mischeifes by their wicked beginings against that good Prince encouraged the designes of the rest of his seditious subjects Nor had the Scots themselves bin then wanting by their actuall levying warr against their King corresponding with his forrain Enemies to prick forward seeing they were successefull all those who studied commotions disorders Judge then whither they were the Papists of England or the Reformed in both Kingdomes of Great Brittain that farthered the Irish Rebellion But now that the Irish never treated Protestants better then the yeare before they curt theire throats is a foolish invention of this shamelesse Minister nonsense in it selfe Nor was it practicable unlesse the English had like the Israelites in Egypt bin sojournours at will had nothing to doe with the Government For would it not be a mad expression to say that the Hugonots of France better treated this yeare the Papists there then they had done before or that the Round-heads treated the Cavaliers more kindly then they had done since the Kings Restauration But this is un Coup d'esprit a peice of witt of the Worthy Minister truely so great a one that I admire it should doe it much more were it not soe common SECT XXXVII APOLOGY Why may not we Noble Country-men hope for favour from you as well as the French Protestants find from theirs A greater duty then ours none could express we are sure Or why should the United Provinces and other Magistrates that are harsh both in mind and manners refrain from violence against our Religion and your tender breasts seem not to harbour the least compassion or pity These neighboring people sequester none for their Faith but for transgression against the State Nor is the whole party involved in the crime of a few but every man suffers for his own and proper fault Do you then the like and he that offends let him die without mercy And think always we beseech you of Cromwels injustice who for the actions of some against his pretended Laws drew thousands into Decimation even ignorant of the thing after they had vastlie paid for their securitie and quiet ANSWER XXXVII He says he has answered our instances of French Protestants and Dutch Papists When we governed the civilized World he says we hanged and burnt men for no cause but Faith which proves Protestant Barbarity better then Popish civility yet these were little for their credit unless they could say that none of us suffered but by the known and necessary Laws of the Kingdom 'T is necessary to maintain the Kings Authority and Peace of the Nation and if we call Religion any thing contrary to these whether ought they to alter their Laws or we our Religion He says as Inquisitors bedress one with Pictures of Devils that is to be burnt for an Heretick so I put Cromwel on any thing I would render odious but they are weak that see not the difference betwen Cromwels Edicts that ruined men for Loyalty and Laws that restrained them from Treason and Rebellion REPLY XXXVII How childishly rediculous is this Ministers Allegation That none of us suffered but by known Laws What does he mean Did we ever when we governed England put any to death but by the known Laws established many hundred years before the Malefactors were born and which are still on foot and used to this day by Protestants against Hereticks But fully to reply to this Answer I cannot better do it then by beseeching you to read over this short Section of the Apology again and then tell me whether any request can be more reasonable and Christian or whether this way of involving the whole in the crimes of a few be not exactly the Procedure of Cromwel SECT XXXVIII APOLOGY We have no studie but the Glory of our Soveraingn and just libertie of the Subjects ANSWER XXXVIII Sir If we may judge by your works there is nothing less studied in your Colledge SECT XXXVIIII APOLOGY Nor was it a mean argument of our dutie when every Catholique Lord gave his voice for the Restauration of Bishops by which we could pretend no other advantage but that 26. Votes subsisting wholly by the Crown were added to the defence of Kingship and consequently a check to Anarchy and confusion ANSWER XXXVIIII This is no argument of your Duty for sure you are it no Lord. Nor is it likely that these Lords followed your direction in the doing of this Duty REPLY to ANS XXXIX Good Mr. Parson 't is more then you know but that I am a Lord yet whether I am or no the Catholick Lords and I are of the same Loyal Principles and what they did any other Catholick would have done had he been Member of their House SECT XL. APOLOGY 'T is morally impossible but that we who approve of Monarchy in the Church must ever be fond of it in the State also ANSWER XL. If you mean this of Papists in general that which you mean morally impossible is experimentally true For in Venice Genoa Lucca and other Popish Cantons of Switzerland they very well approve of Monarchy in the Church yet they are not fond of it in State also But if you mean this of the Jesuitical Party then it may be true in this sence that you would have the Pope to be sole Monarch both in Spirituals and Temporals REP. to ANSW XL. I think I have been as lately at Lucca Genoa and Venice and know the places as well as the Minister 'T was not therefore my meaning that there were no Popish States but that generally Popery tends to Monarchy and on the contraty Calvinism from which the Church of England differs only in Bishops leans altogether to a Democratical Government Heretofore in the Civil Wars of our Country there was never the least mention of a Commonwealth but still the Rebels would have a King and rather then fail one of another Kingdom I beseech God that the present Principles have no other tendency but to Monarchy for Reader you must know that Principles may blindly lead men to a thing which not only their judgments but their inclinations loath as for example the Reformed both in judgment and inclination desire unitie but their Principles in spite of all endeavours will
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