hear Men make such a Business of a true Catholick's not keeping his Word with Hereticks Alas has not a whole Council declared That Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks and themselves put in practice what they had so determined with an infallible Spirit by burning John Huss to whom they had given their Promise for safe Conduct And indeed is it not against common sense that a Man should devote and vow himself to a Religion that declares nothing less than Destruction to all that oppose it and yet should be bound by his Promise to preserve the Enemies of that Religion Is not his Obligation to his Religion greater than any other Obligation he can lie under Therefore such a Promise as long as a Man is a true Roman Catholick is Nonsense is a Contradiction and utterly Unlawful or rather Impossible to be kept It is as if a Man shou'd say I will do that for you which I cannot do So that in making King James break this his Word with the Hereticks Father Petre did no more than what he was bound to do as a true Roman Catholick and much more as one of the Order of the Jesuits which not only is under the common Obligation of all other Papists but was founded with this particular Design for the Destruction of Protestant Heresie But some will say Why was there used so much poor Dissimulation before-hand to make Men believe and become so confident That the late King was a Man that could and would keep his Word Dissimulation is mean in any Man but much more in a great Prince To this we answer Are not true Catholicks to use the Cunning of the Serpent against Hereticks the Spawn of the Serpent And if true Catholicks are bound by their Religion to destroy Hereticks as most certainly they are Are they not to use the means to do it And can there be any safer or surer Means than by deceiving them And if it be lawful and commendable to deceive them once as the General Council of Constance has declared Is it not much more commendable to deceive them often by a long train of Dissimulation This Accusation then is wholly blown off from you good Father Petre and you appear to be a true Roman Catholick Guide of the Order of the Jesuits and the late King a true Son of the Roman Catholick Church and a true Disciple of your Order all the Merits of which he well deserves to partake of You both acted according to the Principles you profess and therefore must be acknowledged to have acted honestly A second Objection is Ingratitude A heavy Charge The Hereticks say That it is well known that the Church of England had always stood firm to the Royal Family and particularly had preserved the late King from Ruine had kept off the Stroke of the Laws from him had saved him from being cut off by the Bill of Exclusion had so often ventured their Lives and Fortunes for him and thereby ineurr'd much Hatred Reproach and Slander being continually call'd Papists or Papists in masquerade for their pains How then say they was it possible that a Prince so much Obliged by a People as never Prince was more should as soon as they had setled him on the Throne turn so bitter an Enemy to the Church of England-Men above all others For so he often declared That he looked upon them as his worst Enemies How is it possible to be believ'd say they that he should cast all these off with a Get you gone you are not to be Trusted and receive into his Bosom a SETT of new Friends the very worst of all the Dissenters Men of no Interest or Reputation and declared Enemies not only to him but all his Family and which one would stand amaz'd at whom so lately before he himself had unspeakably disoblig'd by hanging up their Friends in the West in such numbers as plainly shews that at that time he thought of nothing else but destroying all that sort of Men Now that he should make them his Favourites and treat them as if they were really such though he hated them now as much as ever he did only that he might have their help to destroy their old Friends whom he knew they hated for being so and would be glad to destroy for that Reason this was Ingratitude with a Witness And this amongst Hereticks looks like a heavy Charge but indeed how light is it to any Man that understands any thing of Roman Catholick Principles Is not a true Catholick's Obligation to Holy Church much greater than his Obligation to particular Persons â—specially to Hereticks Or indeed can a true Roman Catholick have any Obligation to any Man that is an Enemy to his Religion The late King's Religion was the dearest thing to him in the World and the promoting of it he esteem'd his greatest Glory He then that oppos'd his Religion and put a stop to the acquiring of his desired and darling Glory of converting an heretical Nation and saving a Succession of Souls to the Worlds end ought certainly to be accounted his greatest Enemy And did ever any Man oppose this glorious Design like the Church-of England-Men Did not their Nobility and Gentry universally shew their stubborn aversness and throw up their honourable and profitable Places rather than they would let the least thing pass that might help on the glorious Work Were not those Heads of Heresie the Bishops so obstinate that they chose to go to a Prison rather than to make the least step towards a Compliance And did not the Clergy in general venture to lose their Livings and to beg with their Wives and Children rather than they would read the King's Declaration On the other hand Did not some Dissenters comply to the taking off the Test and Penal Laws Accept Dispensations and submit to the Regulation of Corporations Make flattering and fulsome Addressers enough to compile a new Academy of Compliments And supposing they had done none of all this as some of them scorn'd it Yet is not dividing of Hereticks the way to destroy them And did not the cherishing of Dissenters promote Division So that that was the only means that cou'd be thought of for pulling down the Church of England which is the main or rather the only Stay of the Northern Heresie that which gives it all its Strength Beauty and Reputation What though some Men the late King encourag'd and caress'd had a hand in killing his Father and others of them had petition'd for his Blood Yet if the cherishing of them was necessary to promote the Good of the Roman Church was he to neglect that for which all his Preachers told him he was rais'd to the Throne and preserv'd divers times by Miracle and so be ungrateful to his GOD to be grateful to Men nay to Hereticks Was he not bound to lay aside all humane Considerations either of Love or Hatted for the sake of this blessed Design The late King then had
A Friendly Letter TO Father Petre. Concerning his Part in the Late KING's GOVERNMENT Published for his Defence and Justification Licens'd May 3. 1690. J. Fraser LONDON Printed for Richard Baldwin in the Old-Baily MDCXC A Friendly Letter to FATHER PETRE c. Reverend Father HAving some particular Obligation to you more than every body knows I thought my self obliged in point of Gratitude which goes a great way in my Religion though it is nothing in yours to endeavour to make you some kind of Requital and not knowing now where to find you or any of your Friends I was at a great loss how to discharge my self of that Debt At last I considered that to do you a real piece of Service behind your Back were much better than an empty Thanks to your Face and I knew of no greater Service I could do you than to vindicate your Reputation to the World and to shew that you have always acted like an honest Man that is one that is true and constant to the Principles he Believes and Professes which I take to be a good definition of an Honest Man And this I do not at all fear to demonstrate to your greatest Enemies As a farther proof of my desire to serve you I will likewise make bold to offer your Reverence some Advice which if ever it has the luck to reach you and you have the Wisdom and Honesty to follow it I will presume to say shall establish your Reputation to all future Ages And in doing you these two pieces of Service I hope I shall fully discharge what Obligation I have to you and sufficiently shew my self your Friend But you will say How comes your Reputation to need a Vindication Sir I must deal plainly with you and tell you That I can go no where but I find every one blaming the strange miscarriages of the late King James and the wiser sort that knew that Prince well and how wholly devoted and given up he was to the Roman Catholic Religion say That it is impossible he should have gon on in such courses without the permission at least or rather the direction of his Spiritual Guide which you had favour to be So that whatsoever wrong course the late King fell into and persisted in you are to Answer for it to whose Guidance there is no doubt he wholly resigned himself and truly this you and I and all the World must grant But for your Vindication I will shew that in advising and encouraging the late King in all these things the Hereticks call Miscarriages you acted most agreeable to your Principles that is the true Principles of a Roman Catholic Guide of the Order of the Jesuits and therefore cannot I think but be confessed to be an honest man We will then descend to Particulars of what is laid to the late King's Charge and necessarily lights upon you the Guide of so devoted a Prince's Conscience First The Hereticks say That it is without Example and beyond any ingenuous man's Imagination that a Noble and an High-born Prince should for many years make it his Glory to have his Word esteemed most Sacred and raise men to the highest Trust and Confidence in it so that men were ready to Blaspheme when they talked of this subject and to compare his Word to the Word of God and say That Heaven and Earth could sooner pass away than his Word fail And when he had raised men to the highest confidence in it with the greatest solemnity to give this Sacred Word to his People first in his Privy Council and afterwards in full Parliament and to bind it with the highest Solemnity in his Coronation-Oath That he would invioably preserve to 'em what they accounted most dear that is the Laws of the Land and their Religion established by Law And yet that this Prince assoon as he was warm and as he thought safe in his Throne should without any regard to Honour without any fear of God or shame of Man so openly and apparently break this Sacred Word this they say is to do all that lies in a man's power to destroy all Trust and Confidence amongst Men and to put an end to humane Society Now that he did break this Sacred Word in the face of the Sun and in the sight of all Men no Man can be so senceless to deny that can but remember what was done with the Law of the Test that Bulwark of the Protestant Safety how it was wholly taken away by a total Dispensation and that with a bare-faced design to bring in Popery by making Popish Officers Masters of those they call Hereticks Lives and Fortunes which mischief that Law was only intended to prevent 'T is true a Law may be dispenced with in some particular cases where a thing is contrary to the Letter but not to the meaning of the Law because the Intent and Meaning of a Law is the Law But totally to dispence with a Law against the plain and whole Intent and Meaning of it is certainly to render the making of Laws Ridiculous and Useless and to dissolve the Constitution of the Government Then for preserving the Church of England according to his two solemn Promises in Council and Parliament and indeed his Promises an hundred times over to particular Persons Did He not say they take the right course to preserve the Church of England in setting up the Ecclesiastical Commission to call in question any that maintain'd the Doctrine of the Church of England against growing Popery which was Propagated Cherish'd and made to Grow as much as 't was possible in our cold and stubborn Climate on purpose to supplant and thrust out the Profession of the Church of England Did He not say they keep to his Word to defend and preserve the Church of England when as fast as the lesser Episcopal Sees became vacant for the good were kept for Original Catholicks he fill'd them up with such special Fellows the very Scum and Dregs of all the Clergy on purpose to make the Name of Protestant Bishops stink and be abhorr'd and to have fit Tools wherewith to Abuse Oppress Suspend and Deprive all the honest Clergy over whom he set these Beasts whose Filth and ill Manners prophan'd the very Name of Bishops Did He not say they begin finely to preserve the Church of England according to his Promise when he took care to poison the very Fountains and planted one of the best Colleges in Oxford with Jesuits This and the like stuff the Hereticks make a great noise with and say Was not Father Petre an accursed Villain to perswade and thrust on the poor Bigotted Prince to do things so manifestly contrary to his solemn and so often-repeated Profession But methinks I see you and your Brethren ready to burst your fides with laughing when you hear all this dismal Charge as Hereticks think it against you And so truly would any Man laugh heartily that understood any thing of Catholick Principles to
Principles for a good Catholick ought certainly to love Holy Church better than Father or Mother Wife or Children And did not the glorious Saint Q. Mary of England endeavour to cut off her own Flesh and Blood her own Sister to set up Timothy Malt on the Throne of her Fathers She wou'd have done as much no doubt by her own Daughters if she had had any and they had been Hereticks and stood in the way as her Sister did She was as Unnatural as lay in her power for Holy Church And this Trick had taken then and in all likely-hood at this time the Malt 's had been the Reigning Family instead of the Stuarts had not K. Philip spoil'd the design partly hoping when he had buried Q. Mary he might marry that Sister of hers and so hold this Kingdom in her right and partly fearing that if his Son by his first Wife Don Carlos should happen to Die this young Malt should carry away the Crown of Spain from any Son that might be born to him afterwards or from his Daughter the Infanta Isabella that was as good a Catholick as he If K. Philip err'd in this he made amends for it afterwards for when some Years after this he came to understanding that his own Son Don Carlos was inclin'd to the Protestant Heresie in high Indignation at this and Zeal for Holy Church he threw off all natural affection at once to that his only Son and not content to exclude him from the Succession he took a surer way to secure the Catholick Religion by making him die in Prison This heroical Action of his though he modestly represented it to the then Pope Pius V. in his Letter which I doubt not your Fatherhood has read in the Life of that Pope now a Saint in your Kalendar written by Girolamo Catena the Secretary of his Favourite Nephew and Printed at Rome with a Dedication to Pope Sixtus V. yet his Holiness set a just value upon it and because he cou'd go no higher for a Parallel he resembled it to God's giving his Son for the Redemption of Mankind For says your Historian he presently call'd a Consistory and there caus'd this Letter to be read and then with Eyes and Hands lifted up to Heaven he broke out into the Apostle's Words He that spared not his only Son but gave him up for us all How shall he not with him c. That which this great Saint and Head of the Church judged to be so highly Meritorious in King Philip was indeed a higher Instance by many degrees of abandoning natural Affection than that was to which you perswaded King James But your Work was the easier especially having to do with a Prince that would think it a very Scorn to be told that any Catholick King of them all had a greater Zeal than he has for the Catholick Church And for the necessity of it that he should find out some way or other to disinhereit that Heretical Daughter whom he used to call by the Name of Queen Bess you need not tell him that she was as likely to do as much Mischief to the Church as ever Queen Elizabeth did and therefore she ought to be prevented in the same manner as that Queen should have been if King Philip had not hindred it For the doing of this in that way of a Mock-Childbirth you had such a Queen to act it for you as perhaps never was in the World an Italian by Birth that has the Blood of four or five Popes in her Veins an adoptive Daughter of France a most bigotted Disciple of your Order one that seem'd to have been sent hither for such a purpose far ' un fioliolo by all means to get a Son I would not seem by setting forth the Necessity of this or the Advantages you had for the doing of it with so much Ease Closeness and Secrefie to derogate any thing from your Merit good Father in the Advice or Contrivance of any thing else that was properly yours For whatsoever that was as no doubt your Part was very great in this whole Business it cannot be denied that it was worthy of your Self and your Order and most agreeable to the Principles of your Church Fourthly The last Accusation of the Hereticks against the late King and consequently against his Guides and against You in particular seems to me the greatest and truly it strikes a Horrour into all Men's Spirits that think on it They say How could it be propos'd to reduce this heretical Land to the Roman Catholick Religion without making it swim in Blood Your Arguments never did much any where but least of all in England where you have been so often foil'd by the Learned Men of the Church of England and where your Religion also is so much against the Interest of the Kingdom Therefore it was observ'd by an old experienced Missionary that had staid long in England That this Nation was to be reduced to the Roman Catholick Religion by nothing but the Sword And said he when the young Missionaries come first over they think they can do mighty Matters with their Arguments but after they have been in England some time they are all of my Opinion And indeed this is so known and received a Maxim amongst you That England is never to be converted but by the Sword That the late King himself in a Speech to the Parliament of Scotland told them That he knew the bringing in of the Roman Catholick Religion into these Realms must cost so much Blood and make such a Desolation that he had the greatest Horrour at it imaginable and hop'd that none of them wou'd have such hard Thoughts of him as to believe him capable of so much Cruelty and Barbarity even as Hazael said to the Prophet Well then King James knew well enough what it would cost and what must be done to bring in Popery and yet Popery he was resolv'd to bring in as I am sure every Man in England believed two years since and every Man must believe in spight of his Heart that knows the Jesuits his absolute Guides What Excuse then can be made for so great Cruelty intended 'T is the Business and End of a King or Supreme Governour to defend from Injury to Preserve and Protect the Lives and Fortunes of his Subjects How then can any one be a King over those he thinks himself bound and resolves to Destroy There are some indeed so tender-hearted in themselves and of such tender Understandings to boot that they won't believe this or at least are afraid to be known they believe it And therefore they say Surely the late King did not Design to bring in Popery at all or at least not by such rough ways But by such ways all experienced Catholicks conclude it must be brought in or not at all The Question then is only Whether the late King resolv'd to bring in Popery and if his Guides were not resolv'd to bring it in by
come and Reign over them again 'T is true the Church-of England-Men have always taught the Doctrine of Non-resistance and do not think a Prince for Male-Administration to which any Prince may be liable is to be Dethroned and therefore they stood by King Charles the First to whose Charge at the worst nothing could be laid but some particular Acts of Male-Administration and who had no Principle that Obliged him to destroy his People and who 't is plain never design'd it But no Protestant living can be so sensless as to think he is not bound to take Protection where he can have it to defend him from a Prince who is bound and will follow his Conscience to destroy every Man that will continue a Protestant Such a Prince contradicts all the Ends of Government and is utterly uncapable of it for no Man can in any Law or Equity be the Governour of those whom he is bound to Destroy and that as being absolutely necessary for the Saving his and their Souls There is no hopes then ever to bring back your Devoto into England unless he should turn Protestant which I believe you nor he would agree to for the gaining of Ten Thousand Kingdoms To what purpose then will you hazard the Lives of so many good Roman Catholicks and endanger the losing of the Lands and Stock of the Holy Society besides so many large Estates of Roman Catholicks in England out of which you may continually have good pickings upon such a lost Game 'T is true the shedding of Hereticks Blood is nothing but the spilling of so many good Catholicks Blood as hath been spilled already and is like to be lost upon such a vain and unlikely attempt is certainly that which you cannot approve Now all this needless expence of Catholick Blood and Treasure will be saved if you can but perswade your Devoto immediately to sequester himself from the World and give himself wholly to Contemplation and Devotion which will compleat the Glory of his Piety and finish the Saint After that he hath done all that was to be done for the Roman Cathhlick Religion in an active State What remains for him to do but to betake himself to the Contemplative which the Roman Church has always taught to be the highest State of Perfection upon the Earth And as in all other matters so in this be sure you have no reason to doubt of the ready Compliance of your Devoto for he hath already shewn an earnest longing after this State of Perfection as appeared sufficiently by his most Pious Expressions to Mr. Chudley when he took his leave of him to go to be a Carthusian O God! said he How much I envy you this Happiness And how sorry am I that I cannot go with you I do believe therefore good Father that in the Opinion of most of the Roman Catholick Church you will be guilty of a very heinous Sin if you do not promote this most earnest Desire in this Zealous Prince for to speak seriously to you in the Words of some of your greatest Saints Will you commit so great a Sacriledge as to rob God of one that would give himself up wholly to him Will you rob the Virgin Mary of such a Princely Husband Have you no regard to the great Merit of this Prince And after that he hath done all that was to be done for the Roman Catholick Church Will you envy him as a Reward of his Labours in his Old Age to enjoy the sweet and happy Ease of a Contemplative Life To sit down quietly and reflect upon the Great Things he hath done and suffered for his dear Mother the Roman Catholick Church where he may read at leisure the Legends of the Roman Saints and have the comfort to see that his own Deeds have surpassed all theirs where he may expect and wait for his own Canonization the greatest share of Heaven the Romau Church can give him Do not therefore good Father as you value your own Credit or all that in the Romish Church is Sacred as you prize the Lives of Multitudes of Roman Catholicks as you esteem their Wealth and Treasure and hope to have a share in it or as you desire to finish the Noble Work you have hitherto so well carried on and to complete your Saint or as you fear the dreadful Sin of Sacrilege do not hinder this Pious and Ardent Desire of this Zealous Prince to become a Recluse either of the Carthusian Order according to his own Wish or what other you think most convenient for him according to the Patterns that have been set him by so many Noble Kings and Princes of your Church Assure your self that by encouraging him in this Desire you will purchase to your self and your Order an overflowing Merit endless Fame and perhaps some Money besides For the Hereticks of England are not so ill-natured but that though they would not have one over them that is bound to kill them yet to do him any real good they would I am perswaded afford him a Princely Maintenance enough to reward you Nobly and to build a Monastery whereof he himself might be Governour and after all this he may leave enough behind him to pay for his Canonization Not to mention old Stories of Kings in former times you have two Examples fresh in your Memories of Crowned Heads that did the same thing in different ways one a Disciple of Yours the King of Poland that Reigned 'till he and his Country were utterly weary of one another and then he wisely retired and went into a Monastery The other Queen Christiana of Sueden who was indeed a wise and subtle Woman she being turned of your Religion plainly saw That a Protestant Body could not have a Popish Head and therefore timely compounded for a good Maintenance and relinquish'd Had you not better then perswade your Prince to take some such Course rather than to spend a great deal of precious Catholick Blood and Treasure To waste and wear out his Life in Trouble and you to get nothing by it I had thought of other things to Advise but if you take my Advice in this as all the World knows you may if you will then there will be no need of any other But if you will not be advised in so plain and so easie a thing as this To what end should I offer you any other Therefore think of it and Judge of me as you please But in my poor Opinion I have given you Faithful Advice and therein shewn my self Your Friend FINIS