other Causes of them Which is the reason I give out of that little and accurate Piece the following Passages and even in the Authors words which relate to our present purpose THey therefore he means the English Nation and the The Brief Narrative Pag. 6 7 8 9 10 11. whole World may be pleas'd to know that we to wit the Irish are so farr from justifying any horrid actions perpetrated at that time when but a few of any quality raised a Rebellion in the North as we have and still make it our request that those Crimes and all Massacres and Murthers then or after committed whoever shall be found guilty of them be punished Yet we may not omit although no Motive whatsoever could justifie their Undertakings to represent that before they fâ—ll from their Obedience to the Government Sir William Parsons one of the Lords Justices that supplyed the Deputies place at a publick Entertainment before many witnesses did positivâ—ly declare that within a twelve-month no Catholick should be seen in Ireland Many hands were sought and thousands were found to subscribe a Petition tending to the introducing of a severe Persecution against Catholicks who were the farr greater number of the Inhabitants of Ireland And that the menace of an Invasion of a Scotish Army of which men at that time did frequently discourse bred frightful apprehensions So as these and other grounds of suspition being improved by such among them whose particular Interests could be most favoured and better advanced in unquiet times laid the foundation of that Rebellion But even these men and at that time when the Lords Justices did not appear to be prepared for resistance by their Râ—monstrance humbly begg'd their Grievances might be redressed by the advice of the two Houses of Parliament then met at Dublin But the Lords Justices who by their words and actions not only expressed their unwillingness to stop the farther growth of these Distempers but meant to increase them and were often heard to wish that the number were greater of such as became Criminal by proroguing the Parliament made them desperate However the Nation by their Representatives in the two dayes which were only allowed them to sit husbanded their time so as to leave to posterity a monument of their aversion to such attempts by declaring that those men had traeiterously and rebelliously taken Armes and offering to employ their Lives and Fortunes in reducing them to their Obedience if they might be permitted then to sit But this was denied them and by a strange change from the antient form of Government a Parliament then sitting was prorogued whereas our Ancestors upon a farr less occasion than quieting of so high Distempers were usually called upon to assist the King with their Advice To this may be added that the Marquess of Ormond proposed at the Council-Board the raising of five thousand men in the space of three weeks if he might be authoriz'd so to do with which strength he undertook to dissipate those then weak beginnings of the ensuing mischiefs and to prevent their farther growth but was refused it So as thus farr we may observe who they were that widened the wound instead of stanching the blood This foundation being thus laid that which at first was but a spark and might be easily quenched began to flame And freedom of Rapine having suddenly drawn numbers together the unreprest Conspiratours became a formidable Arme and besieged Tredah passing the River of Boyne which was â—â—e Rubicon of the Pale and had in all former Rbeellions been maintained with their blood by those antient English Colonies planted there Now it was that the times began to favour the design of the Lords Justices and their Party in the Council which was as forward as they to foment the Distractions For the Ulster Army lying in the bowels of the Country the Forces being not yet come out of England and the Natives themselves both unarm'd and distrusted by the State they were forced at first by their regular contribution to prevent the desolation which would have followed their refusal to supply them Hereupon such Contributors began to be looked upon and characted as men fallen from the Government And a Party that was sent from Dublin having killed at Santry but three miles distant from thence some innocent Husbandmen among whom there was two Protestants and carried their heads as in triumph to the City the neighbour Inhabitants alarm'd thereat had recourse to such Weapons as first came to hand and gathered in a Body Whereupon the Lords Justices set forth a Proclamation in nature of a safe Conduct by which these so in Armes and Mr. King of Clontarffe by special name had five dayes respite to come in and present their Grievances But before three nights of the time prefixed were expired Mr. King 's house was pillaged and burnt by direction of the Lords Justices Not long after supplyes being arrived out of England and the siege of Tredah raised and consequently the force removed which necessitated the Inhabitants to comply with the Ulster Army the Nobility and Gentry of the Pale prevailed with Sir John Read his Majesties sworn Servant a Stranger to the Country un eâ—gaged and an eye witness of their proceedings then upon his journey to England to take the pains to present their Remonstrance to the late King of ever blessed memory and to beg pardon for what they were thus compelled to act But he poor Gentleman coming to Dublin was apprehended and not concealing the Message intrusted with him was put to the Rack The most part of the questions which were then asked him in that torment being no other than such as might lead him to accuse the King and Queen to be Authors and Fomenters of that Rebellion Moreover the two Houses of Parliament in England for the better induciâ—g the Rebells to repent of their wicked Attempts commended to the Lords Justices according to the power granted them in that behalf to bestow his Majesties gracious pardon to all such as within a convenient time c. should return to their Obedience The Lords Justices notwithstanding such Order and his Majesties gracious pleasure signified to that effect by their Proclamation dated in November 1641. limited such his Majesties and the Parliaments of England their favourable and general Intentions to the Inhabitants of a few Counties provided alwayes they were no Free-holders and afforded them no longer time than ten dayes after the Proclamation to receive benefit thereby But notwithstanding these restrictions the Lord of Dansany Sir John Nettervill Patrick Barnewall of Kiibrue and many others who had notice of his Majesties gracious Inclination towards the Nation and the Parliament of Englands Order in favour of them submitted to the Lord Marquess of Ormond then Licutenant General of his Majesties Army who recommended them to the Lords Justices intimating that the good usage to be extended to them would have an influence on many others and be a great motive to
Majesty and binding even before God and Man in order to such as have not forfeited them whereon I said enough before and that therefore it is impertinent for any material difference or to this Gentleman's purpose whether I reject or admit his Charge here being it cannot be denied that the delusion whereof the Gibeonites made use imposed a farr greater and even an intrinsick force compulsion or necessity on Joshua or such as deprived of essential freedom and all kind of consent as to these Gibeonites or to any had been within the Lot appointed in the Law for his People which yet I have shewed the force compulsion or necessity imposed on his Majesty by whomsoever to conclude any of those Cessations or Peaces with the Irish cannot be said to have imposed So it is no less manifest this Gentleman imposes on his Majesty that which he shall never prove or that his Majesty should have said that the Irish Papists forced compelled necessitated him into Cessations and Peaces Whereas indeed if we make any true construction of his Majesties words in his Declaration whence only this Gentleman must pretend his ground for an assertion so false it must be obvious even to the most common understanding that his Majesty sayes that force compulsion necessity for concluding a Peace with the Irish were imposed upon him by those that erected that odious Court for taking away the life of his dear Father as I have before demonstrated by giving and granting at large his Majesties very words 2. The Gibeon tes were strangers but the Irish Papists were at least ought to have been Subjects All true but nothing Pag. 91. to his purpose Articles made by a King with his Subjects in Armes bind even by the Law of Nations even before they are confirmed in Parliament else what could the Barons plead before a Parliament sate if Magna Charta did not bind the King that gave it What so many other agreements in the world as I have before said Or how should Kings or their Rebellious Subjects when a Parliament can not be held without them ever come to an attonement And surely this very Gentleman would plead for his life and his estate too since he can now to possess other mens the Letters from Breda even before the Act of Indempnity was passed and when he was in Armes against the King as I suppose he was sometimes had he yielded in some extremity upon Articles of War wherein he had conditioned for life liberty and estate for himself and his party he would plead these Articles if he saw any danger of his or their estates and even plead them before such Articles were confirmed by a Parliament nay plead them I say even in case his own estate and all those belonging to his party had been formerly sold or bestowed by the King on Adventurers in Parliament And yet both he and his party would be in that case by the Laws and Conditions of his and their Birth Subjects Whether he or they be so by inclination or longer at least than the loaves will hold I know not certainly though I hope better of them all than this Person of Quality seems to do of me or my Countrymen 3. The Gibeonites never broke those conditions granted to Pag. 91. them though by those conditions they were in effect Slaves but the Irish Papists broke yea often if not alwayes theirs though after an unparalleld Rebellion they were in effect made Lords of all the Land even the bloody Stage upon which they had acted their guilt Lest this Gentleman should have intended it as material to say that the Gibeonites were in effect Slaves I must tell the Reader these Gibeonites enjoyed peaceably without fear or danger when their Articles had been once published and debated not their lives only nor their liberty alone but life and liberty and houses and goods and lands and Cities and all they did pretend either of religious or civil right And that their slavery was no other than to provide Water and Wood for the Sacrifices and publick House of the God of Heaven And therefore any man will think they had a great deal of reason never to break those conditions granted And albeit I think there was as little reason for any Irish Catholick to break the conditions given them especially in that Peace of 48. and that I know nevertheless some if not many have yet I do and will constantly till I be convinced with other arguments than this answerer gives which I believe I shall never be always deny the universality generality or indefiniteness of this proposition The Irish Papists broke yea often if not always theirs in that sense at least he must have had or intended to import if he would speak to any purpose that is in relation to the Peace of 48. in which meaning as I have before sufficiently declared by relating this Gentleman's proofs and otherwise the falsity of this assertion so I now again briefly averr that neither the universality or generality nor greater part nor ruling power nor the formal or virtual representatives of the Irish Papists broke as much as once that Peace so far were they from brcaking often if not alwayes the conditions of it And if none of all these did though confessedly some of the Irish did or the lesser or even a great or considerable part of them if he will have it so did what is that to the Universality or Generality at least which that indefinite charge of his imports or what indeed to any other Irish Catholick to conclude them but the very individuals that did so He might as well and as truly have said that the Protestants of England or English Nation were against the King and for Cromwel or the Rump Parliament when both or either did most cruelly Tyranize For not only some of those Protestants or of that Nation but even so great and considerable a party were so nay which is more both the representing and ruling power which the Protestants or Nation of England were known at that time to own or at least which in effect and even with all formalities represented and ruled them whether by force and coaction or not it matters not here without any contradiction were so Whence it is that I may advance a little further yet and may tell this Gentleman that can be no refuge for him if he should say that he can maintain peradventure some appearance of Truth in some part at least of this proposition that the Irish Papists broke yea often if not alwayes theirs or which is the thing I mean that he can maintain that latitude universality generality or indefiniteness in relation at least to some one breach and some one Peace viz. that of 46. For I can averr confidently that all his arguments to prove this will by a manifest sequel of reason prove that the Protestants or Nation of England broke all their ties of Duty and Allegiance and Faith
whom God preserve from the unjust Contrivements of this Person of Quallty's good Subjects could upon his Restoration or before he was restored entertain without injustice a resolution to deprive all the honest Loyal Party of London Bristow c. nay all those were faithful to him and his Father in England Scotland Wales and Ireland of their Estates 59. When I say that the hand of God hath punish'd them to wâ—t the refractory Cities of Limerick Waterford and Galway and other such if indeed any other hath been such but sayes this Gentleman that the Magistrate Pag. 30. should spare because God punishes is a non sequitur Though the Lord sent Hornets before Israel to drive out the Hivite and Canaanite and Hittites yet he commands Israel to destroy those Nations and their name from under Heaven And although this be true is it not a non sequitar that the Magistrate is bound to destroy them because God punishes them Will he not leave in his Majesties power to be merciful And will he not give me leave to intercede for the poor remains of those Citizens whom God was pleased to spare to the end perhaps that the goodness of our Soveraign might be magnified in their deliverance And certainly himself must grant that Law given to the Israelites for extirpation of the Hittites c. must not extend to the destruction of any other People and that it binds not any Christian Prince or People 60. I profess I am ignorant of what this Gentleman Pag. 31. means by the Sin of Apostacy in the Irish if he means the Catholicks generally with relation to the Peace of 48. and I believe it was only mentioned to bring in Lots Wife and the Pillar of Salt into which his whole discourse makes it very probable he could wish every Irish Catholick turned that would look back either upon City or Country But however this be he was very ill advised to make the Reader or P. W. reflect on the known undeniable reiterated Apostacy of even a Person of Quality of this Gentleman 's own good people even before and after the year 48. 61. This Gentleman allows me that God delivered Pag. 31. just Lot yet that he transplanted him to Zoar and that even so the King has provided a Zoar for the Innocent whether their souls may escape and live And I say that if his Majesty had not provided that Zoar for more company than the Innocent it would be very thin set with those his English Protestants Besides that if he would have his Example parallel in all things as himself though unreasonably would have mine of the Gibeoniteâ— to be he should have told his Majesty that all the Cities Towns and Villages of the Irish should be destroyed razed even from the very foundations and the Land it self rendered unhabitable to Catholick or Protestant or Man or Beast even as farr as Zoar and as much as the anger and revenge of man could effect 62. As it is his Majesties part to provide for securing the Peace of the Kingdom so it is my part to pray that no Sword be put into the hands of any that from their heart Pag. 31. do not think themselves obliged in Conscience to maintain Monarchical Government the Birth right of our Soveraign and the Interest of his Crown 63. Alwayes when there is speech of Catholick Tenets this Gentleman stumbles unhappily For where he sayes The Doctrine of Regicide is common in the Roman Schools he mistook them for the Schools of Geneva and of those of Pag. 32. their Principles Had he but enquired he might have learn'd that the Doctrine of Regâ—cide among Catholicks is heretical and so declared by a general Council even that of Constance I mean though this Gentleman may therefore except against the Fathers there 64. From their Doctrine thus mistaken he descends to prove them Regicides in fact by the same arguments that would conclude all Rebells that ever have been to be Regicides for sure such Rebells must set up a distinct Government for by the Laws of the Government they deserted they must have been hang'd and sure such Rebells did not fail Pag. 32. to magnifie their Jurisdiction and give Laws to their Party to avoid confusion Yet in so many thousand years no man besides this Writer found out the way to make them Regicides But what Royal Peculiars the Irish Papists usurp'd Pag. 32. that might make them so Criminal beyond others never came to my knowledge They neither used Scepter nor Sword nor Cap of Maintenance nor Mace the Kings Armes were not cut in their Seal nor did they conferr honours on any And this Gentleman that speaks so much of extending the Jurisdiction of their Government throughout Ireland might do them right to let the Reader know that precedent to that Article in their Model of Goverment this Irish Model of Government is inserted Item That all and every person or persons within this Realm shall bear Faith and true Allegiance unto our said Soveraign Lord King Charles by the Grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland His Heirs and lawful Successors And shâ—ll uphold and maintain His and Their lawful Rights and lawful Prerogatives with the uttermost skill and power of every such person and persons against all manner of persons whatsoever 65. Among the many particular Observations with which I have and shall be hereafter forced to charge the memory of the Reader I beg of him that he be so just as not to allow this Gentleman to calumniate the Nation for the Crimes of particular men And when he repeats even to tediousness the same thing not to expect from me a reiteration of the same answer Here he sayes again and as untruly as before that the Irish Papists did distrust disobey oppose and excommunicate the Lord Lieutenant and this Pag. 33. upon no other ground than that the Clergy of James-town did so when I have proved before out of his own Doctrine Observe Reader that the Person of Quality never once mentions the Bishops convened at James-town nor James-town it self not out of any desire to conceal or pass over that un-Bishop-like Errour of theirs But of purpose to delude thee and make it seem a general Act of the whole Nation which was only the Transgression of a few Prelates of free Representatives that the Nation opposed their proceedings Again he sayes that the Irish Papists did conspire to murther the Lord Lieutenant or which is worse to deliver Pag. 33. him to the worst sort of Murtherers that is to Cromwell whom perhaps this Gentleman served at that time when he himself Fol. 30. ascribes this design only to the Citizens of Waterford If Arguments of this nature be admitted I can prove by the same Logick that his Majesties Army under the Command of the Duke of Ormond was defeated at the Battel of Rosse in the year 43. for it is certain that some
in England against his late Majesty of ever blessed memory was in the Year 1647. considerable in Ireland The Defence of his Majesties Roman Catholick Subjects of Ireland against the Oâ—jection made lately touching their proceedings in the Yâ—aâ— 164â— relating to the Protectâ—on of some foreiâ— Prince who being then free from any opposition in England and in absolute power to dispose of their Forces for carrying on their Design in Ireland the said Catholicks fore-seeâ—ng the danger they were in met in the winter season of that year in a general Assembly at Kilkeny where they took in Consideration That his said late Majesty was in restraint That all addresses to him were forbidden And that some of the Members of the Parliament who spake in favour of his said Majesty were excluded 86. In that sad extremity there being no access to his said late Majesty for imploring either his Justice or Mercy all Laws Humane and Divine did allow the said Catholicks to take some other Course in order to their Defence and Preservation not against his said Majesty but against those who laid violent hands on his sacred Person who designed the abolishing of the Regal Authority and resolved to destroy and extirpate the said Catholicks 87. The said Catholicks therefore in the Month of January in the said Year 1647. did in the same Assembly conclude that the Marqâ—ess â—â— Antrim Viscount Musker now Earl of Clankarâ—hy 〈◊〉 â—coffry Brown Esquire should be employed into France â—â—e Bishop of Ferns and Nicholas Plunkett Esquire into Rome and some others to Spaiâ— That the said Agents sent â—â— France were by their applications to his now sacred Majesty then Prince of Wales and to the Queen his Mother to declare the danger the said Catholicks apprehended and humbly to beseech them to find out some expedient by which those Calamities might be diverted That the said Agents were likewise intrusted in case of absolute necessity to implore the aid and protection of some forein Princes but they were limâ—ted not to act any thing in order to such forein protection other than by the direction of the said Persons who were employed to receive his Majesties commands That upon the said application made to his Majesty the Duke of Ormonds Commission was renewed for his being Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and his Excellency qualified with Power to conclude a Peace with the said Catholicks Whereupon without excepting the Concessions to be had on the Conclusion of that Peace all further proceedings concerning the Protection of any Foreiner were stopt and the said Agents recalled they nor any of them having ever moved or acted any thing relating to any Foreiners protection That tâ—e Agents so employed to Rome on their return in the Year 1648. did in the publick Assembly then sitting give 〈◊〉 a satisfactory account of their said Negotiation that it encouraged the whole Assembly to hasten the Conclusion of the Peace then in agitation Which can be testified by very many yet living whereof several are now in this City and that accordingly a Peace was soon after concluded in the said year 1648. Wherein the Concessions which are absolute are only removing of Incapacities and Indempnity for â—â—e lives of the said Catholicks the rest being temporary untill his Majesties further pleasure in Parliament were known 88. And the said Catholicks are so conscious to themselves of the resolution they took from the beginning to persevere irremovably faithful through all extremities to his Majesties Interest that they are well assured though those who now possess their Eâ—tates have the Books of the said Irish Assemblies and the Transactions of the Councills intrusted by those Assemblies in their hands yet can they not make it appear that there was any actual Treaty or Offer for transferring the Subjection naturally due from them to his Majesty or the Right of his Majesties Dominion over them to any Foreiner whatsoever or any thing tending thereunto but what is herein acknowledged 89. To aggravate the hainousness of this Mission which was no other than is related he adds that the Commissioners to Rome were authorized to declare they raised Armes Pag. 44 45. for the freedom of the Catholick Religion And then he flies out to those Excursions with which he garnishes each Dish of the great Feast he has with so much pain and industry prepared for his Party Certainly sayes he if ever they may be believed to speak truth it is when they speak to the Pope Pag. 45. And this truth which is sought to be extorted from them by so witty an argument is a truth I never heard denied by any of them viz. That they in part raised Armes for the freedom of the Catholick Religion though partly too nay primarily at first and in relation to the generality of Irish Catholicks who were forc'd out for the safety of their lives and natural being Nay it is probable that they instructed their Commissioners to press this Article wherein his Holiness was most interested to the Pope as an especial motive to procure them assistance But was this the whole truth Did they raise Armes for no other end than for the freedom of the Catholick Religion Nay did they raise Armes for no other end than this and the safety of their lives too Will not this Gentleman that believes them so obliged to tell the Pope the Truth have so much charity for them as to think they likewise spake truth in the sight of Heaven when they protest and swear before God his Saints and his Angels that they will bear during their lives true Faith and Allegiance to their Soveraign Lord Charles by the Grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland his Heirs and lawful Successors and that they will to their power during their lives defend uphold and maintain all his and their just Prerogatives Estates and Rights c Could this Gentleman that set down in his Book the very Oath be ignorant of what himself writes Or can his malice be so great as to think that those who meant to perform that part of the Oath which concerned Religion were resolved to be willful Perjurers in that which concerns the King 90. This Gentleman to shew how rigorously penal this freedom of the Catholick Religion was to be to the Protestants Pag. 45. instances Dean York who was forced to bury his own Children that dyed at Galway in a Garden Certainly if there had not been many indiscreet Zealots in Ireland the Kingdom had not felt the miseries to which it is reduced But they were farr from being all so And to oppose an instance to this Sir Cyprian Horsfall a Protestant by the allowance of David Rooth Bishop of Ossorie was buried within the Cathedral Church of Kilkeny 91. Taking only upon trust for this Gentleman acknowledges he has our Papers what he speaks of those instructions Pag. 46. to which he again resorts we may well say that his Logick has taught him to make strong
inferences upon weak grounds For taking both the Texts together which this Gentleman to make the Comment the fuller hath divided and reflecting upon the evill times and the necessity to which the Catholicks were reduced and how nothing was to be acted but by the advice of those that were employed into France to his Majesty and the Queen his Mother it was no wonder supposing the Pope would be munificent towards the maintenance of that War which besides the interests of Catholick Religion had for scope the re-inthroning of the King that his Holiness should be admitted to receive reasonable satisfaction by the Articles and to oblige the Pope to descend to such Conditions as might be granted in matters of Religion that they were to represent to his Holiness the lowness of their own condition the power and strength of their Enemies and to solicit for considerable aides whereby to maintain a War And not only that but to ascertain and secure the same Pag. 46. 92. This and no other being the sense of those Instructions cited by this Gentleman himself And that their imploring of aid and protection tending to no other end Is it not strange he could conclude with saying Still the Pag. 47. Pope is their King Does it appear by this That the Irish Papists hang as their Faith in God so their Loyalty to the Prince on the Popes sleeve Yet after his accustomed manner Pag. 47. he comments thus upon that Text and would liken the protection they sought to the power of the Protector Pag. 47. in England which beyond Royal was Tyrannical although some men by elaborated speeches strove to make it Legitimate by conferring Kingship on Cromwell 93. We are now come to the Year 1648. and here again we find this Gentleman forgets not to allege with the same truth he had before that the Irish Papists disowned the Peace Pag. 47. then made disobeyed opposed conspired to murther excommunicated and banished his Majesties Vice-Roy But should I repeat my Answers as often as he reiterates his Charge my Reply would grow to a Volume And therefore I referr the Reader to what is formerly said as I do to what belongs to his summary Conclusion 94. It is true that in some points of Faith the Catholicks oppose both the Protestants and Sectaries but the Catholick Pag. 48. and Protestant Royalist agree in point of Loyalty The fighting against the Regicides or Sectaries And to prove this by an Experiment more convincing than that which this Gentleman formerly gave us these two Parties joyned for two or three years under the same Command in the same Army to fight against those this Gentleman's Protestants which can be no other than Sectaries And if not the fighting but the ground and end of the fighting Pag. 48. proves which is the good Subject This reaches home to those that to palliate their evill intentions feigned themselves Protestant Royalists And when Cromwell went into Ireland deserting his Majesties service presented him with the fruits of their treachery the City of Cork and the rest of those strong holds in Munster whilst the true Protestant Royalist and the Irish Catholick stuck to their Principles And not content to abstain from the Rebells in Ireland many of them adhered to his Majesty in his banishment and followed his fortune abroad Now how could Sampson himself tye their tails together that scarce ever met but as Enemies is a riddle to me Pag. 49. 95. The reason why I said that the power of this Gentleman 's Protestants in Ireland was no greater than his Majesty was pleased to make it was grounded on the reports which were daily brought to London of the Phanaticks menaces Pag. 49. not to give way to the execution of any of the Kings Orders by which any of the Natives was to be restored And knowing that there wanted no hands among the Protestant Royalists and the Irish Catholicks sufficient to bring them to reason I slighted their threats and their power to second them by saying that it is no greater as in truth it is not than his Majesty is pleased to make it As for the Elogium that follows if the Gentleman holds himself to my intention he must allow that it wholly concerns the Phanaticks 96. This Gentleman sayes after his manner That the Contents of those Articles are in themselves unwarrantable except Pag. 50. in case of necessity which hath no Law His Majesty Concerning the Pleâ— of Justice grounded on the Articles sayes he having condescended by them that the Militia Treasury and Army of fifteen thousand Foot two thousand five hundred Horse of Irish Papists and even in effect the Legistative power should be in the hands of twelve men to be chosen by Irish Papists and that there should be no alteration in England of what they in Ireland should thiâ—k sit to transmit to his Majesty and that the Rebells should be pardoned without consent of Parliament when his Maâ—esty in Parliament adjudged such pardons before conviction to be ruâ—l and void and that they assumed the Legislative power by repealing Poynings Act all which sayes he is against Law and the Oath the King takes at his Coronation 97. What a task would the answering of all these Heads this Gentleman vents at a breath prove to me if these Articles of Peace were not so common as to be in the hands of very many This Gentleman will give me leave to ask him whether he himself believes the King broke his Coronation Oath or Pag. 51. gave away his Militia because he granted that this so considerable an Army should be kept on foot under the conduct of his Lieutenant of Ireland for maintenance of his interests in so great streights as his Majesty was reduced to at a time when his enemies had thrice that number in the Field against him Did the King break his Oath or give away his right in the Treasury because he gave power to his Lieutenant with the advice of certain select Persons of the Natives to levy money for the maintenance of this Army and for other charges incident to the Government Or do those select persons assume the legislative power of the Kingdom because it is inserted in those Articles that both Houses of Parliament may consider what they shall think convenient touching the repeal or suspension of the Statute commonly called Poynings Act And cannot his Majesty pardon his Subjects of Ireland although he give his Royal Assent to an Act past in the Parliament of England by which such pardon before conviction is declared null and void 98. He adds That although the Irish Catholicks chiefly Pag. 51. pleaded for restitution of their Estates by vertue of those Articles yet if they had prevailed therein upon the score of that plea it must in consequence have adjudged for them the benefit of all the other Articles as a Right But this Gentleman foresees not that he is to
every of them And hereunto I subscribe my Name And I shall give the Reader that pure that holy Oath indeed the Solemn League and Covenant which was the Head-spring of those others and the Fountain of all Evills that overflowed the three Nations WE Noblemen Barons Knights Gentlemen Citizens The Solemn League and Covenant Burgesses Ministers of the Gospel and Commons of all sorts in the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland by the Providence of God living under one King and being of one Reformed Religion having before our eyes the Glory of God and the Advancement of the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ the Honour and Happiness of the Kings Majesty and his Posterity and the true publick Liberty Safety and Peace of the Kingdoms wherein every ones private Condition is included And calling to mind the treacherous and bloody Plots Conspiracies Attempts and Practices of the Enemies of God against the true Religion and Professors thereof in all places especially in these three Kingdoms ever since the Reformation of Religion and how much their rage power and presumption are of late and at this time increased and exercised whereof the deplorable Estate of the Church and Kingdom of Ireland the dâ—stressed Estate of the Church and Kingdom of England and the dangerous Estate of the Church and Kingdom of Scotland are present and publick testimonies We have now at last after other means of Supplication Remonstrance Protestations and Sufferings for the preservation of our selves and our Religion from utter ruine and destruction according to the commendable practice of these Kingdoms in former times and the example of Gods people in other Nations after mature deliberation resolved and determined to enter into a mutual and solemn League and Covenant wherein we all subscribe and each one of us for himself with our hands lifted up to the most High do Swear 1. That we shall sincerely really and constantly through the Grace of God endeavour in our several Places and callings the Preservation of the Reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government against our common Enemies The Reformaâ—â—on of Religion in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Word of God and the Example of the best Reformed Churches And shall endeavour to bring the Churches of God in the three Kingdoms to the nearest Conjunction and Uniformity in Religion Coâ—fession of Faith Form of Church-Government Directory for Worship and Catechising that we and our Posterity after us may as Brethren live in Faith and Love the Lord may delight to dwell in the midst of us 2. That we shall in like manner without respect of persons endeavour the extirpation of Popery Prelacy that is Church-government by Archbishops Bishops their Chancellours and Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-Deacons and all other Ecclesiastical Officers depending on that Hierarchy Superstition Heresie Schism Prophaness and whatsoever shall be found to be contrary to sound Doctrine and the power of Godliness lest we partake in other mens sins and thereby be in danger to receive of their plagues And that the Lord may be one and his Name one in the three Kingdoms 3. We shall with the same sincerity reality and constancy in our several vocations endeavour with our Estates and Lives mutually to preserve the Rights and Privileges of the Parliaments and the Liberties of the Kingdoms and to preserve and defend the Kings Majesties Person and Authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms That the World may bear witness with our Consciences of our Loyalty and that we have no thoughts or intentions to diminish his Majesties just power and greatness 4. We shall also with all faithfulness endeavour the discovery of all such as have been or shall be Incendiaries Malignants or evil Instruments by hindering the Reformation of Religion dividing the King from his People or one of the Kingdoms from another or making any faction or parties amongst the people contrary to this League and Covenant that they may be brought to publique Tryal and receive condign â—unishment as the degree of their offences shall require or deserve or the Supreme Judicatories of both Kingdoms respectively or others having power from them for that effect shall judge convenient 5. And whereas the happiness of a blessed Peace between these Kingdoms denyed in former times to our Progenitors is by the good Providence of God granted unto us and hath been lately concluded and setled by both Parliaments We shall each one of us according to our place and interest endeavour that they may remain conjoyned in a firm Peace and Union to all Posterity and that Justice may be done upon the wilfull Opposers thereof in manner expressed in the precedent Article 6. Wee shall also according to our places and callings in this common Cause of Religion Liberty and Peace of the Kingdoms assist and defend all those that enter into this League and Covenant in the maintaining and pursuing thereof and shall not suffer our selves directly or indirectly by whatsoever combination perswasion or terrour to be divided and withdrawn from this blessed Union and conjunction whether to make defection to the contrary part or to give our selves to a detestable indifferencie or neutrality in this Cause which so much concerneth the glory of God the good of the Kingdoms and honour of the King but shall all the days of our lives zealously and constantly continue therein against all opposition and promote the same according to our power against all lets and impediments whatsoever And what we are not able our selves to suppress or overcome we shall reveal and make known that it may be timely prevented and removed All which we shall do as in the sight of God And because these Kingdoms are guilty of many Sins and provocations against God and his Son Jesus Christ as is too manifest by our present distresses and dangers the fruits thereof We profess and declare before God and the World our unfeigned desire to be humbled for our own sins and for the sins of these Kingdoms especially that we have not as we ought valued the inestimable benefit of the Gospel that we have not laboured for the purity and power thereof aâ—d that we have not endeavoured to receive Christ in our hearts nor to walk worthy of him in our Lives which are the causes of other sins and transgressions so much abounding amongst us And our true and unfeigned purpose desire and endeavour for our selves and all others under our power and charge both in publick and in private in all duties we owe to God and Man to amend our lives and each one to goe before another in the example of a real Reformation That the Lord may turn away his wrath and heavy indignation and establish these Churches and Kingdoms in Truth and Peace And this Covenant we make in the presence of Almighty God the
Inheritance of their Fathers and the bringing upon them all the miseries that are consequent to such a Design and Enterprize and actual effecting of it even by the armed power of a King were other oppressions and most grievous too as they were against the very nature and essence of their League in the highest nature And therefore the Children of Saul were not only executed for having killed their Brethren but also for these other cruel injustices done to such others as did with their lives escape his fury if I say the testimony of the very Executioners of these Children be admitted Whence and out of those other natural reasons concomitant as likewise out of the known Declaration of Gods intention and promâ—se in so many Places and Books of holy Writ which I omit to give because I am in hast to conclude my Observations on this Difference and that those reasons and places are obvious and by none denied that is a Christian to punish even whole Kingdomes with most exemplar scourges even sometimes with the translation of the Principality to another people for such publick injustices and out of the rule moreover of comparing Scriptutes which rule this Gentleman must admit the falsity of the three next ensuing Particulars must appear and the byassed evill comment which I justly suppose our Person of Quality will make on that of tâ—e first Verse of the 21. Chapter 2 of Samuel because he slew the Gibeonites must appear likewise being the words aâ—e not exclusive or negative but positive or affirmative only and being we may easily understand how the Oracle would have expressed in the fewest words and most significant all those evills of Saul against the poor Gibeonites which provoked Heaven to a punishment so exemplary even upon the whole Nation represented by him 146. But in answer to the last particular I need not allege more than the very known Law of God to Moyses where express command was given the Israelites to kill every Mothers 〈…〉 7. 〈…〉 2 and 3. Child of the Amorrhites and never to make truce or peace or league with them Which is the reason our Person of Quality must confess if he deny not Scripture even in his own sense of it that Saul and his people had not sinned at all nor consequently brought any Judgements of God upon himself or his Children or Kingdom after him had not his killing the Gibeonites been against the conditions and Articles of that league 147. So that from first to last and more especially out of this observation on that last particular of the meaning which he must have if he mean to say any thing against me I may evidently conclude that in what ever sense this Gentleman would have his fourth Difference understood or into what ever kind of argumentation he would have it moulded he cannot inferr any difference that will not appear to an understanding man very immaterial and very impertinent and no way becoming an Argumentator so acute and subtile and laborious too 148. I had almost forgot what he said in the perclose of this undiffering difference that his Majesty kept them to Pag. 92. wit the Articles of 48. and they that is the Irish have broke them Indeed his Majesty hath not only kept them while he had any power left him or his Lieutenant or Deputy in Ireland by this Gentleman's friends but I am confident will keep them now again and ever henceforward if this Gentleman or his Associates do not put anew such necessities on him as may hinder the free current of Justice to all his Subjects indifferently Which I hope the Providence that restored our good King so miraculously and preserved the poor Catholicks of Ireland alive under so many changes of Tyrants will never give any the power to do And for his assertion of their having broken them I have already 〈◊〉 92. more than sufficiently disproved it in his meaning or as to the generality of that Nation 149. Yet his Parenthesis Or that the utmost that the Protestants desire even to the worst principled of the Irish Papists 〈◊〉 91. is to make them hewers of wood and drawers of water I do allow in a good sense For indeed such as are truly the Protestants have more of compassion to even the greatest Delinquents of the Irish than to desire their Transplantation to the Isles of America and to send them away even naked as this Gentleman 's Protestants have done to whole Townships of them and intended to do with all the residue had not the great mercy of God and fortune of Charles the Second put a sooner period to their tyranny than this Gentleman peradventure sometime either expected or desired 150. As for his observing transiently that P. W. seems to threaten his Majesty with those Judgements come upon the Pa◠〈…〉 Kingdom of Israel and Saul's Children for the breach of Articles P. W. sayes the manner of relating those Judgements the modesty of the language and his own hearty wishes in the Letter immediately following his relation of that Example leave no ground for this injurious note May Providence and the Kings Righteousness and your sage Council my Lord obstruct all occasions of reflecting on this and so many other Examples of God's revenge of Article-breaking any further than that the best of Kings may see the worst of evills attending the Counsells of our Adversaries and that their Power whatever it be cannot be so dangorous as their Demands against our Articles is the hearty prayer of P. W. there against those or the like or indeed rather against any kind of Judgements on his Majesty so false it is that P. W. seems to threaten his Majesty with those Judgements Unless peradventure his Majesties most loyal Counsellours and fastest Friends and godliest Prelates debating a Case and reasoning for the justice of it in the absence or even in the presence too if you will have it so of his Majesty or making publick speeches in the Parliament House or preaching in the Church even before all the Estates of the Kingdom and alleging exemplar punishments of God in former ages and in the particular of such a controverted Case as for example in that of Article-breaking or of any other you please and alleging them out of holy Scriptures and pertinently and only to disswade his Majesty from embracing or to lay before him the dangers of regarding some ungodly wicked Counsells that others would suggest and yet alleging such with all due respects for and answerable affections to his most sacred Majesty I say that unless such men and in such Cases or in such Auditories or Places would seem to threaten his Majesty with those Judgements they should relate as inflicted exemplarily upon other Princes in the like Case Neither can P. W. justly be taxed even with seeming to threaten his Majesty with any such Or if they in such cases would seem indeed to threaten so and yet be no way blamed nor
to his late Majesty and his lawfull Successor whom God of his mercy contâ—nâ—e long and happiâ—y aâ—d gâ—oriously sitting on his Fathers Throne and his Posterity to the Worlds end I confess that Peace was rejected and most perfidiously scandalously and fatally too rejected but I will ever say nevertheless it was rejected by a disobedient Army by some in that ungodly Clergy men and a few other contrivers of mischief who by their numbers proceedings hypocrisie force craft c. and by their breach of their own Oath of Association and by their faithfulness to their own acknowledged supreme Governours of the Confederacy the Council and general Assembly and by making themselves by such arts the prevailing party amongst the Irish Catholicks at that very nick of time when the Peace of 46. was proclamed in Dublin Kilkenny not only may be said to have had in many things a perfect resemblance unto the Janizaries of England and their Adherents there in the Parliament and Council and amongst the Clergy and Laity in general but even to have had the same proportion to the Confederate Catholicks in general which those English Mamalukes and their partakers had to the loyal Protestants and mournful at that time Nation of England To demonstrate which I shall give more evident proofs if it shall and when it shall be necessary as now it is not in answer to this Gentleman 's present Design or Book than he shall be able to give satisfactory answers And shall at this time content my self with telling the Reader that if the then Donogh Lord Viscount of Muskry now Earl of Clancarthy Edmond Lord Viscount Montgarrett Walter Bagnell Esquire Sir Robert Talbott Baronet Thomas Tyrell Esquire Richard Beallings Esquire Gerott Fennel Esquire Sir Lucas Dillon Knight Jeoffry Brown Esquire Sir Pierce Crosby Knight Sir Richard Blake and other Members of the supreme Council and Commissioners who concluded that Peace and published it at Kilkenny and in pursuance thereof received there the Lord Lieutenant with all due respects and demonstrations of hearty joy and loyalty their imprisonments soon after both there at Wexford and other places and their other sufferings then by and under their lately before fellow-Confederates and the power or authority by which they were so imprisoned and under which they so much suffered the illegal violent forcible usurpation of it even I say against the Laws of the Confederacy and Oath of Association and without any consent or even advice or requisition but plainly against the known will and inclinations of the generality of the Confederates when the Lord Nuncio and two or three more by the countenance and terrour of armed Legions beeking them made a new supreme Council and himself President of it and joyned Council and Congregation together and immediately after hurried on two Armies in an evil hour to besiege the Lord Lieutenant at Dublin and harass'd the Country in their march und being disappointed by the justice of God towards them and favour of Heaven to the Loyal Party and to the generalâ—â—y even of the Confederatss returned in great displeasure and rage and through despair convoked an Assembly which otherwise he was never like to do but of such men where they could possibly as were known to be most averse from all thoughts of Peace and being sate overawed them and took away all freedom from them however they were composed and even forced them by threats of Excommunications and power of that Army near the Town whereof they were sure for such designes to reject the Peace even after the Commissioners who concluded it were cleared upon too manifest evidence to have proceeded according to their instructions to a tittle and by a full Authority given them by the precedent General and free Assembly of the Nation I say that if all these proceedings be considered and particularly the force that lay then upon all the Provinces and Quarters and People that should otherwise have freedom of Election to Assemblies and Suffrages in them and that would in case of such due freedom unquestionably vote for a perfect submission to that Peace the resemblance and proportion above given will appear manifestly to all indifferent men that have but even a very ordinary knowledge of the Irish Nation and affairs since 41. and of the difference of interests among that People these 500. years past since the first English Conquest under Henry 2. and consequently it will appear that our Person of Quality will find himself obliged either to maintain a truth in this very false assertion which yet I believe he will not dare The Protestants and Nation of England were guilty of the sacrilegious breach with Charles the 1. which through so many wiles brought him at last to the Scaffold Or to confess that the Irish Catholicks or Nation of Ireland cannot be said to be guilty even of that one persidious breach of the Articles of 46. much less guilty of having often if not always broke the Conditions either of that or any other And yet I alwayes grant him what I know to be true and am right sorry to know that even some thousands have been guilty of that horrible breach in 46. Nay grant moreover all my Conscience or knowledge or which is the same thing to me all that the truth it self will permit me to grant him that some few Persons of Quality and some Regiments and some Towns too of the Irish Catholicks have often if not alwayes broke the Conditions either of the first or last Peace or of both but withall say that some Persons of Quality and some Regiments of England and Scotland both and some Towns too broke their Allegiance and Faith and often too if not alwayes in a farr more pernicious and horrible nature with his late and present Majesty And that my Answerer will not therefore charge their Crimes on the Protestants or Nation of England or on the universality generality or greater part of them which yet such an indefinite expression had he used it must do 135. But however this be or any thing else I have said in relation to that Peace of 46 it can neither make nor marr his Objections or my Answers on the subject of the last Peace or that of 48. which is that only where on our contest is and must be Neither can any thing said here be drawn to a consequence that I would recall or decline what I have confessed in my Letter of the Judgements of God most justly pursuing the Irish Nation in general for the breach of publick Faith so notorious and scandalous in that of 46. albeit the Nation in general be not guilty of it We know the very Army of God hath been defeated for the Judges Chap. 7. V 4. aâ—d 5. sin even of one man alone as we find in the case of Achan at Ai and whole Nations and great Kingdoms and flourishing Empires most exemplarly punished and by conquest and slavery and subjection to a forein power
for the sins of the lesser part of the people and sometimes for those of a very few and Innocents too involved in the common calamity but involved justly by him who is above all Laws by his Soveraign Dominion over all Creatures and by that privilege which is incommunicable to any earthly Judge or King doing Justice in a legal way where he may discriminate persons 136. To that which our Person of Quality adds here to end his third difference that the Irish after an unparalleld Rebellion were in effect made Lords of all Ireland even the bloody Pag. 91. stage upon which they had acted their guilt I say that in a few words are two manifest untruths and one superfluous impertinent exaggeration so often repeated and one too which may be returned on himself and those he pleads for not only with so many wicked Maxims and sinfull advices but with so many known falsities and impertinencies 137. Though I detest all kind of Rebellion against lawfull power as being condemned by the Laws of God and Nature yet I can tell this Gentleman that Rebellion of Ireland was not only parallel'd but surpassed and surpassed too in a thousand degrees by many Rebellions of other Countries even amongst Christians For not to speak of that of Catalonia in our own days the Sicilian Vespers and the Butchery of Suisses and the murther of the Danes in England and a hundred others which we read in History did surpass it and surpass it so And all those did that by design and in effect subverted the very fundamentals of all Government Civil and Religious And I am sure if none else did that of this Gentlemans Clients and their partakers must have done so who made their Rebellion the most unparallel'd indeed by the most execrable Parricide that ever was not to mention so many other adjuncts to render it incomparably worse than that of the Irish the cruel butchery of so many thousand subjects the perpetual ruine of so many millions of innocent people in the three Nations and the subversion in part executed and for the rest intended of all the very fundamentals of the Commonwealth both Temporal and Ecclestical yea of all Religion and of all propriety and birth-right whatsoever And though I acknowledge and hope all Irish Catholicks do his Majesties very gracious Concessions and favours in the Articles of 48. Yet I must tell this Gentleman those very Articles no less manifestly convince of untruth what he says here that by them or otherwise the Irish were in effect Pag. 9 made Lords of all Ireland then it is apparent out of the very Articles and no man of reason would believe otherwise though he never had read them and yet seen this Gentlemans assertion to the contrary they were not such as forced from his Majesty all the Regalia both Ecclesiastical and Temporal nay I say now nor any essential or integral part of the Regalia albeit this Gentleman affirms in another they were and I have already proved they were not And if this be true my answer to his Oâ—jection concerning the Regalia as it is evidently such without any question or contradiction but that very untrue and very irrational one of this Person of Quality how can it be true that the Irish were in effect by these Articles made Lords of all Ireland For to have been made otherwise he doth not dispute as there is no ground for any such dispute Nay since the Irish Catholicks by these Articles or otherwise were not made Lords or did not pretend the Lordship Right Possession or Use of any Protestants Goods Lands Houses Estates c. either English Scots Welsh Irish or of any other Nation having right by his Majesties Laws or pretending such to live in Ireland how could they in effect be made Lords of all Ireland So farr they were from any such thing that they excluded not any nor were made capable to exclude any at all from any kind of Rights either Civil or Religious the very possession of such Churches as they then held in their own quarters at the making of that Peace not being assured them otherwise by Articles of Peace Pag. 8. Art 1. those Articles than that they should be permitted or should not be disturbed from that possession till a Parliament were convened As for his exaggerating repetition of the bloody Stage upon which they had acted their guilt I am sure he may be upon Pag. 91. certain grounds and particular instances answered 1. by charging those who are his white boyes with having made that Stage more bloody and as inhumanly too nay yet far more than those very Irish miscreants of the rascal multitude have that acted their guilt even of so barbarous murthers either precedently concomitantly or subsequently however this Gentleman will have it upon their fellow Subjects of the Protestant Religion in that Country Whereof if he will see some particulars I refer him to R. S. in his Book printed at London 1662. intituled A Collection of some of the Murthers and Massacres committed on the Irish in Ireland since the 23. of October 1641. 2. By denying his supposition of the Irish Nation or Catholicks of Ireland or of their known Representatives the Supreme Council or General Assembly or Commissioners that concluded that Peace or of the generality nay of any considerable party of the people after at any time confederated with the rest or that submitted to that Peace or now desire the benefit of it to have so acted their guilt upon that Stage as to be guilty of the bloodiness of it by any barbarous or inhumane Crimes of Murther which I know this Gentleman aims at in this exaggerating repetition For if he mean any thing else or that of the breach it is answered already And that he may see I give him not a bare denyal for an answer I refer him to the 18 Article of that Peace of 48. where in the 21 Page of these Articles printed he may read the publick desires of that whole Nation For there he will find it provided by them that such barbarous and inhumane crimes as shall be particularized Articles of Peace in 48. Pag. 21. and agreed upon by the said Lord Lieutenant and the said Thomas Lord Viscount Dillon of Costilloe Lord President of Connaght Donogh Lord Viscount Muskery Francis Lord Baron of Athenry Alexander M. Domel Esquire Sir Lucas Dillon Knight Sir Nicholas Plunket Knight Sir Richard Barnewall Baronet Jeffrey Brown Donagh O Callaghan Tirlagh O Neile Miles Relly and Gerrald Fennel Esquire or any seven or more of them as to the actors and procurers thereof be left to be tryed and adjudged by such indifferent Commissioners as shall be agreed upon by the said Lord Lieutenant and the said Thomas Lord Viscount Dillon of Costilloe c. or any seven or more of them and that the power of the said Commissioners shall continue only for two years next ensuing after the date of their