our Fears and Apprehensions and thereby give us the opportunity to break the snares of our Enemies to which nothing can so effectually contribute as our uniting in the Protestant Religion of the Church of England God of his infinite mercy who maketh men to be of one mind in an House who is the Author of Peace and the Lover of Concord who breaketh the Snares of the Ungodly turneth their Wise-men backward and their Counsels into Foolishness grant that in this our day we may see and know and follow the things that make for our Peace that so our Divisions may not be our ruine that the Enemies of our Countrey and Religion may not triumph over us but that by our Vnion with the Established Government in Church and State we may defeat the designs of our Enemies and disappoint their expectations God long preserve the Life of our Dread Sovereign and defend this Church the most true Apostolick of any Church upon the face of the Earth The End of the First Part. THE SECOND PART OF FOXES AND FIREBRANDS Or a SPECIMEN Of the Danger and Harmony of POPERY and SEPARATION WHEREIN Is proved from undeniable matter of Fact and Reason that Separation from the Church of England is in the Judgment of Papists and by sad Experience found the most compendious way to introduce Popery and to ruine the Protestant Religion Tantum Religio potuit suadere Malorum DVBLIN Printed by Jos Ray for a Society of Stationers and are to be Sold by the Booksellers of Dublin MDCLXXXII To the Most Reverend the Archbishops The Right Reverend the Bishops and the rest of the Reverend Divines of the Reformed Church of IRELAND Reverend Fathers THe Publisher of these Collections of this Treatise knows none so proper to whom he may dedicate it as your selves for as You are those Venerable Persons that intend the Spiritual Good of this Kingdom and whose Function doth oblige you to watch for the good of Souls so he doubts not but any the meanest Present will be candidly accepted of that tends to the promoting of so glorious a design It hath been the unhappiness of these Kingdoms ever since the Reformation to meet with brisk oppositions in point of Religion not only from professed Enemies but disguised Friends and the Churches of England and Ireland had no sooner shaken off that Idolatry and Superstition that overspread and deformed the face of primitive Apostolical Religion but like the woman in the Revelations Cap. 12. she was persecuted by the Dragon who raised up all his Arts and Stratagems to devour that child of the Reformation which had cost her so many throws and agonies The Papists on one hand and the Puritans on the other did endeavour to sully and bespatter the glory of her Reformation the one taxing it with Innovation and the other with Superstition and too near an approach to those superstitious Rites and Ceremonies which she had reformed what justice there is in either of the accusations the world is sufficiently sensible of by the many learned Volumes that have defended both her Doctrine and her Discipline in opposition to them both and I presume that every unprejudiced Reader will cast the balance on the Churches side and conclude that there is more of spight and malice than truth in the imputation For it cannot be imagined that the Churches of England and Ireland should be guilty of Novelties in point of Doctrine when they did so lowdly tax the Church of Rome with Innovations and pretended them as one great justifiable ground of their separation from it and to symbolize with that Church in superstitious Rites and Ceremonies is in effect to say that they were resolved to maintain what they had abjured and act contrary to all the declarations that they had published to the World in their own defense But it will appear farther from this discourse that these objections were suggested to our dissenters from the Papists who have frequently acted and preached in the habits of dissenters and though they pretend to be more zealous against Popery than others yet they are not ashamed to whet their swords at the forges of the Philistines and make use of their arts and assistance for the ruine of the Church I wish they would but seriously reflect upon these things and consider that by insisting in the paths that the Papists have chalked them out they are advancing the interest of Popery and will in time do their work as succesfully as if they had laid their heads together to subvert the Government both in Church and State That they may not any more be seduced by such kind of artifices is not only the design of these Papers but the hearty Prayers of Your most Humble Servant R. W. Foxes and Firebrands c. The Second Part. THat the Reader may have a clearer insight into the following discourse and understand how little the Doctrine of depriving or resisting Princes was countenanced by the first Reformers it may not be inconvenient to entertain him with the pious and Loyal speech of the great Pillar of the Reformation Archbishop Cranmer whereby it will appear how averse he was either to the Jesuitical Doctrines of deposing Princes for disowning the Popes Authority or the late Phanatical pretences of taking Arms against the King where ho neglects his duty or stands not to the promises and Covenants that he makes at his Coronation The Speech is as followeth MOST DREAD AND ROYAL SOVEREIGN THe promises your Highness hath made here at your Coronation to forsake the Devil and all his works are not to be taken in the Bishop of Rome's sence when you commit any thing distastful to that See to hit your Majesty in the teeth as Pope Paul the Third late Bishop of Rome sent to your Royal Father saying didst thou not promise at our permission of thy Coronation to forsake the Devil and all his works and do'st thou turn to Heresie For the breach of this thy promise knowest thou not that 't is in our power to dispose of the Sword and Scepter to whom we please We your Majesties Clergy do humbly conceive that this promise reacheth not at your Highness Sword spiritual or temporal or in the least at your Highness swaying the Scepter of this your Dominion as you and your Predecessors have had them from God neither could your Ancestors lawfully resign up their Crowns to the Bishops of Rome or to his Legats according to their ancient Oaths then taken upon that Ceremony The Bishops of Canterbury for the most part have Crowned your Predecessors and Anointed them Kings of this Land yet it was not in their power to receive or reject them neither did it give them authority to prescribe them conditions to take or to leave their Crowns although the Bishops of Rome would encroach upon your Predecessors by his Bishops Act and Oil that in the end they might possess those Bishops with an Interest to dispose of their Crowns at their pleasure
FOXES AND FIREBRANDS OR A SPECIMEN OF THE DANGER and HARMONY of POPERY and SEPARATION Wherein is proved from undeniable Matter of Fact and Reason that Separation from the Church of England is in the judgment of Papists and by sad experience found the most compendious way to introduce Popery and to ruine the Protestant Religion Tantum Religio potuit suadere Malorum The Second Edition In Two Parts Dublin Printed by Joseph Ray for a Society of Stationers and are to be sold by the Booksellers of Dublin 1682. TO THE READER Christian Reader HAving about the year 1678. set forth in Print the two Examinations of Faithful Commin and Thomas Heath not with a design to exasperate or provoke any party in Religion but partly to lay open the Plots and Contrivances of the Romish Emissaries to dash Protestants amongst themselves and cunningly undermine that Reformation by divisions which they were not able to subvert by a more open assault It pleased the Learned Dr. Henry Nalson to publish these Examinations together with few judicious Remarks and Collections of his own under the Title of Foxes and Firebrands and dedicate it to Mr. Baxter and Mr. Jenkins the two great Pillars of our present Separations And finding that the First Part was so kindly received by the World that the Impressions were so suddenly bought up and thereby an encouragement given to proceed in adding some more materials in order to a Second Part as upon the same subject I have therefore for thy information caused the First Part to be Reprinted and a Second added to it that so the History of these Jesuitical divisions might be more compleat and absolute The Collections in this Second Part are most of them either out of the Memorials of that great Minister of State the Lord Cecil or from the testimonies of persons that are still living and also able to attest the truth of what is here related I am not conscious to my self of any injury that I have done either to Religion in general or the true sincere Professors of it since neither the Reputation of the one nor the Interest of the other are concerned in the evil designs of those parties that have a form of Godliness but deny the power of it in their practices I may perhaps have disobliged the two extreme Factions in Religion the Papist and the Puritan by exposing their Combinations for the ruine of that Protestant Faith which is by Law happily established and setled among us And if I have done so it is because I tell them the truth and lay the scene of things nakedly before them and I hope the Reader will look upon it as an argument of my candor and sincerity that I do not study to gratifie any party in Religion but have rather invited their prejudices upon my self by saying these things that are disobliging to them both The truth is my chief aim and design in the whole affair is to have our dissenting Brethren disabused and to pull away the scales from their eyes which obstructs their prospect into the danger of their separations to let them know that the first feuds of their divisions were sown by the Priests and Jesuits that whilst they are carrying on the same designs of Schism and Separation they are introducing Popery though they do not think of it and making a way for the admission of that mystery of Iniquity into the Churches of Great-Britain which cost their fore-Fathers so much Blood to cast out If they did seriously consider of these things I am confident they would return to the bosom of the Church and no longer endanger the safety of the Protestant Religion by aspersing Episcopacy and libelling the Government of the Church of England and continuing the course of that Separation which was begun by the Papists cherished by the Separatists and will in the end tend to the utter ruine both of the Conformists and the Nonconformists which hath already brought one good King to the Block and was again like to shake the Crown and Scepter of a second Almighty God make us all-wise to foresee and to prevent our danger R. W. To Mr. Richard Baxter Mr. William Jenkins c. SIRS WIse and Good Men are always wont to look at and consider the consequences and ends of things where our divisions and separations will terminate is but too obvious things cannot long stand in this posture our vain jangling will come to the Umpirage either of the sharpened Sword of the Law or the terrible Law of the Sword the one is grievous the other intolerable upon which Party soever it shall fall for the ill influences of Religious Quarrels are such upon the Civil Government as will oblige that for Self-preservation to prevent the last by the use of the first and by timely severities to obviate future miseries I have yet seen nothing offered by Dissenters which will not necessarily increase rather than cure our Divisions and above all that Toleration which is so warmly pleaded for by those Nonconformists who pretend to give an old Answer to a new Sermon of Dr. Stillingfleet's is certainly the most intolerable It is a Door which will let in infinite Divisions and Subdivisions Errors and Heresies and by giving people liberty to go either to Church or Conventicle will give the lazy profane and Atheistical liberty to go to neither to the great dishonour of God and the inevitable decay of Christian Religion it will infallibly give the Papists all the advantage these following Papers discover they desire to introduce Popery upon the ruine of Protestant Religion it will oblige the Supreme Magistrate to act against his own and the publick Conscience of Christianity and to establish Iniquity by a Law For such are the Doctrines and Practices of some Dissenters in the judgment of all but themselves and of all Dissenters in what they oppose one another I know not how they come now to unite so close against the Episcopal Party for I know their Breaches are incurable and the time was when Presbytery was as much Babylon to Independents as Episcopacy was to the Presbyterians and so of the other Sects and Schisms which makes some people apply that of the Psalmist to this Confederation Psal 83. against the Church of England For my own particular I know but one Remedy for these growing Evils and that is to permit the Sovereignty to lodge where God Almighty has placed it and to submit to it for Conscience sake I think the Authors of the Political Catechism allow his Majesties Power to be of God He is the Minister of God for our good Now who is to be judge of the goodness and fitness of laws Religious Moral or Political either the Prince or the people If the people then is not the King Supreme contrary to St. Peter 1 Ep. 2. cap. 13. If the King be the Umpire in the case every private Conscience is bound to submit to the publick Conscience which is the Law
of the Nation which the King with the advice and by the consent of the wisdom of the Nation has judged and therefore established for the publick good So that the Contest of Dissenters appears to be for Empire and Sovereignty and who shall be the Supreme Judge of the Goodness and Expediency of Laws Answer to Dr. Stillingfleet's Sermon and they do very ill to quarrel at Clergie-mens Coaches and Liveries who themselves are grasping at Crowns and Scepters And if any or many private men shall not judge these Laws so good as those they would have imposed they ought to submit and study to be quiet and not make the greater Duty of Mercy and Peace of the Church submit to the Sacrifice of what may be is but Opinion and still sub Judice I have a Theme before me too copious for an Epistle and shall therefore that I may not transgress the bounds of one dismiss the other I only offer these following discoveries of the Danger to which Protestant Religion and these Nations are exposed by obstinate Separation to your cool and retired thoughts and hope you are too good men and Christians to esteem me Your Enemy because I tell you the Truth Philirenes ERRATA PAge 34. line 24. for her read his p. 39. l. 1. for Cecil read Civil p. 69. l. 6. for Coronensis read Connorensis p. 80. l. 14. for their read you p. 129. l. 26. for Lord read Letter FOXES AND FIRE-BRANDS c. THat the Papists have ever since the Reformation of Religion in Europe The restless design of Papists to regain England to Rome been most invincibly industrious in these Kingdoms to bring the Church of England to ruine and a total subversion there cannot remain the least doubt or scruple For besides apparent matter of undeniable Fact during the Reigns of Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles the First and our present Gracious Sovereign whom God long preserve there are these Reasons which have and do animate them in the repeated prosecution of that desperate Enterprize First A vain Enthusiastick Opinion The Reasons moving them vigorously to prosecute their wicked Design which in this last Century they have generally embraced That there shall be a Fifth Monarchy of their Church For the erecting of which they embroil their Brains 1. An Enthusiastick Belief of the Fifth Monarchy of the Church of Rome and the whole Christian World wrest the Prophecies of the Scripture and the pretended Writings of the Sybils to countenance this beloved Chymaera Now they look upon the English Nation become Heretick and revolted from the Faith as too potent and considerable in this part of the World to permit them to hope for any success till that Church and State be either so broken as to be disabled to oppose them or be reduced to the Roman Faith and Obedience Secondly 2. The Church of England the only Bulwork of the Protestant Religion and their most potent Enemy They look upon the Church of England therefore as the only Bastion or Bulwork of the Protestant Religion and Interest from whence there have sprung so many and such a constant succession of able Champions for Truth and so long as that Church continues are like to do as will eternally baffle all the Arguments and Reasons they have hitherto or can produce to support their tottering Cause and in all probability will in time so expose them as to convince the World of the Apostacy of Rome from the ancient Primitive Christianity and induce them to knock off the shackles of blind Obedience which their Ignorance and the Romish Artifice have fastened upon the hands of all Princes and People under the Papal Jurisdiction and whatever some people may imagine * This is apparent because they raise them themselves there is nothing formidable to Rome in these little Sects of Separatists who being by their own Eternally sub-dividing Principles like the Sheaf of Arrows in the Apologue unbound will be broken without any great difficulty but the Church of England being a Body compact firm and well put together and wearing so much of the Primitive Purity and Antiquity both in Doctrine and Discipline is the Gordian knot which till by the Sword of Pope Alexander they can untie they can never hope to conquer the World by that of Peter and therefore that Church is the constant mark of their Hate and Envy and to undermine her Foundations they set themselves and all their Engines to work with all possible Diligence and Application I remember to have heard a pretty odd Relation An Instance of a Pope's Charity to the English Hereticks which came from a Person of Quality of this Nation who was at Rome in the time of our late Troubles This Noble Person having demanded liberty to have an Audience of his Holiness obtained it and was treated with great Civility and Respect After the Formalities of the Visit were over the Pope enquired what News from England to which the Gentleman replied with great testimonies of Compassion and gave him a short recital of the Tragical Adventures of the Civil War at which the Pope fell into such an indecent laughter that the English Gentleman smartly repartee'd Sir Certainly this is a Scene for Pity not for Laughter Well young man said the old Pope having gravely composed himself you say true and I take your reproof in good part but added he I cannot forbear this testimony of Joy when I consider that God is about to convince you of your Errors by these severe Methods and by their own hands to destroy one of the best drest Heresies that ever appeared in the World since that of the Arians Thirdly 3. Secular Interest Ambition and Honour the Romish Clergy look upon themselves to be extreamly injured in point of Interest and that they are unjustly and violently dispossessed of all the Dignities and Revenues of the Bishopricks Cathedrals Abbeys Monasteries and other religious Houses and these Promotions Dignities and Revenues are from time to time conferred by the Pope upon titular Bishops Deans c. who de jure pretend a Right to them and hope de facto to possess them so soon as they can by any Arts or Ways reduce these Nations to the Obedience of the See of Rome Nay the Pope himself has the Vanity or Impudence to be tickled with the sweet imagination of Sovereignty and to pretend from the Resignation of King John to Pandulphus his Legate a Title to the Imperial Crown of these Realms Now ambitious men animated by these Hopes and professing as matter of Faith that they are free from all the Obligations of Duty and Allegiance to Heretical Princes and Vsurpers as they term ours and at least in pretence being inflamed with an ardent Zeal for the conversion or confusion of us poor Hereticks and having always the dazling beams and lustre of Interest and secular Advantage in their eyes together with the hopes of Heaven as the merits
Heth. Let me see the Letter once more Mr. Dean See my Lord this Letter is directed to another man named Thomas Finne but my name is Thomas Heth. B. You are not the first man that hath altered your Name How long have you been in Town H. About three weeks B. To what intent came you hither H. Upon two accounts my Lord first to visit my friends for my Brother Nicholas was Bishop of this See formerly Secondly to be preferred for the Dean promised to recommend me to your Lordship B. Mr. Dean Did you promise to prefer Mr. Heth Dean I did my Lord and upon that account I permitted him to Preach before you but this Paper hath altered my intentions After this Examination it was resolved to send to Mr. Heth's Lodgings at the Queens Arms in Rochester where upon search in one of his Boots were found his Beads and several Papers among which was a License from the Fraternity of the Jesuits and a Bull dated the first of Pius Quintus to Preach what Doctrine that Society pleased for the dividing of Protestants particularly naming the English Protestants by the name of Hereticks In his Trunk were several Books for denying (l) The Papists Authors of the Sect of Anabaptists Baptism to Infants with several other horrid Blasphemies which being brought before the whole Assembly then present the Bishop adjourned the Court appointing another day for further Examination till they had acquainted her Majesty and her Honourable Council with these passages and sent for further Instructions how to proceed in this Affair In the mean time Heth was committed a close Prisoner and manacled till Order came from the Board On the 25th of November being Thursday the Bishop called a Court and sent for Heth who coming before him a great number being assembled to hear the Matter the Bishop spake as followeth Mr. Thomas Heth It is visible how you have not only deluded several poor Souls but also abused her Majesty and the Ministry of this Kingdom by your Romish and Jesuitical Policy purposely to sow Sedition in the Church of Christ it is well known that though your Society have taken the Name of Jesus by terming themselves Jesuits yet you have denied Christanity which is Christ for several have been called by the Name of Jesus but none by Christ from which all true Believers term themselves Christians By this means you endeavour to bring the people back to your Popish Zeal again (m) Those who still continue these Separations which the Jesuits first begun are desired in the Name and Fear of God to consider whether they are not guilty of the same Abuses A Prediction that Separatists shall when they see how they have been abused by the Jesuits unite with the Church of England to extirpate Popery which they have endeavoured to re-establish by overthrowing the Protestant Religion by their own Divisions But you will be mistaken for that sort of people whom you endeavour through a blind pretended Zeal to withdraw from the Church will be at last your Bane and hate your Society so that at the end when ye shall think ye have accomplished your evil designs and fall upon the Church of Christ those very people whom ye have after these Satanical Delusions beguiled will not so much through Love joyn with Christ to overthrow your Evil Intentions as through perfect hatred to your wicked Policies To several mens knowledge as we have since enquired after thy Actions thy Hostess and her Husband have declared that thou hast spoken against thine own Order yet thou by thy outward Purity hast defiled thine own Calling under pretence of purifying the Church of England What canst thou therefore say for thy self that thou mayest not be made a publick Example to all Spectators for thy wicked Schismatical Sedition sown within these Her Majesties Dominions Wilt thou openly declare before God and the World thy wicked and evil intentions which caused thee to run into these Schisms and reform thy course of life which now thou livest in and not only my self but the whole Court here assembled will endeavour to get thy Pardon and provide for thy future maintenance H. My Lord I know not what I might have done had I not been so publickly examined * Shame the true reason why some persist in their Opinions and not Conscience or Religion but seeing my Vocation is so publickly known I shall not acknowledge my self to be guilty of any Misdemeanor for I have fought a good Fight for Christ whose Cause I have taken in hand †A true but dear Experiment to which the Church of England may write a sad Probatum This Experiment I tried among my Countreymen that the World may see that all those who term themselves Protestants are not of the Church of England though they speak against Rome The Bishop hearing him speak so obstinately said Behold my Brethren a Jesuits Confession how he hath declared he had set up a certain Form of Religion purposely to withdraw you from the Church of England These things will be among us while we are a Church (a) A thing soberly to be considered by Dissenters but woe be to those Deluders or to those who will be deluded by them We have a good Law and the Light of the Holy Gospel now flourishing among us which hath for these many years past been absconded (b) A necessary Caution to all such as value their Souls Bodies or Estates the Peace of the Publick or the Protestant Religion therefore my Brethren consider the condition of your Souls (c) Cedro digna an Aphorism of undoubted Truth If you start aside once from your Principles having the right way so plainly set before you ye will not only run into Popish Slavery again but be in peril of a total confusion of Soul and Body (d) Which without the Assistance of Separatists is humanely speaking impossible and if Rome get once her Foot upon these Dominions again not only your selves and your Children but your Princes and Nobles shall become Slaves to her Idolatry After this Heth was remanded to Prison and for three days brought to the Market-place at Rochester where he stood by the High-Cross with a Paper before his Breast in which were written his Crimes then he was Pillored and on the last day his Ears were cut off his Nose slit and his Forehead branded with the Letter R. and he was condemned to indure perpetual Imprisonment but it lasted not long for a few months after he died suddenly not without the suspition of having poysoned himself From this Narrative we may observe Observations to be deduced from this Narrative that the chief Rise and Original of our unhappy Divisions and Separations is to be fetched from the devilish Policy of the Papists counterfeiting a design to advance the Reformation of the Protestant Religion to a greater Purity that the Pope Cardinals and Jesuits have been always instrumental in
raising these Divisions and Separations and that they judge this the most effectual way to introduce Popery that they hate out Bishops and Prayers and delude innocent and unwary people into a dislike and hatred of them that there is no way to discover them but by their sowing these Seeds of Separation and Sedition and that therefore it is the Interest of all true Protestants to unite with the Church of England and thereby give that deadly blow to the Romanists which the Bishop here seems prophetically to foretel and to quit these Separations which otherwise will hazard the ruine of the Protestant Religion by the Introduction of Popery Thus have the Romanists dealt with us and perswaded many to break down the Walls of our Church to make room for the Wooden Horse of Reformation whose Belly is charged with more Sects Opinions and Divisions than that which conquered Troy was with crafty Greeks All the Reigns of Queen Elizabeth and King James they were busie in preparing the materials and undermining the Foundations of the Church of England but in the Reign of King Charles the First thinking themselves strong enough by the assistance of the Factious they had raised to effect their designs they gave Fire to the Train and with the pretended fears of Popery and Tyranny they first set Scotland next Ireland and then England into the flames of a most horrid cruel and unnatural War which they managed by the strength and power of Dissenters from the Church of England To confirm the Truth of this I will give the Reader an account which I find in Mr. Rushworth's Historical Collections Rush Hist Col. pag. 970 971. a Book much valued among Dissenters who tells us of a Proposition made to the King of Spain and discovered about the time that the Spanish Armada came upon the Coast of England in the year 1639. where among other passages discoursing of an Enterprize upon Scotland which was then in an high Ferment of the Covenanters against the King Bishops and Common-Prayer the Proposer thus argues that there could be no Fleet set out so strong as to attempt them by Sea except all the Kingdom contribute to it which says he Cannot be done except all the States joyn of which we of the Confederacy shall be the greater Part and so the Enemy shall forthwith be forced either to give Liberty of Conscience to the Catholicks or put themselves in danger of losing all Observe first The Scots had no enemies but the King or as they pretended his evil Counsellors particularly Canterbury and Stafford who all run the same Fate which the Papists in Habnerfield's discovery of their Plot had contrived for them Secondly Liberty of Conscience was the ground of the Quarrel Thirdly They of the Confederacy were the greatest part of the States but it is evident the Covenanters were the greatest part of the States for they had turned out the Bishops at that time and if there be sense in the Words or truth in the Relation it gives a remarkable glimpse of Light into this dark Vault and imports a secret confederacy against the King and Church of England between the Papists and Covenanters and that that formidable Armada was designed for the assistance of the Covenanters and the next page gives not only a greater Light but a clear vindication of the King from any such complyances with the Papists as were suggested and made the foundation of the War As for the King of Great Britain adds he If he will not give Liberty of Conscience he shall be reduced to it with no little damage Now who were they that pressed for this Liberty of Conscience and did reduce these Nations to it all people know And a little after he urges this design from the danger if the King of England being Confederate with all the Hereticks of Holland and Germany Enemies of God and Spain should be able to carry on his Pretensions and Title to the Crown of France add to this that there is no improbality that they who would treat with France and Richelieu as was proved the Covenanters did by a Letter written by the Lord Lowdon to the French King would make no difficulty to do the same to the Spaniard then the most Potent Monarch of Europe and which confirms the Opinion I do not remember the Scots made any complaint of this great Fleet as designed against them But that which makes the thing plain is the discovery which was made to Sir William Boswell by Andreas ab Habnerfield which was communicated first by Sir William to my Lord of Canterbury and by him transmitted to the King then at York Novemb 1640. The whole is printed by it self Rush Hist Col. pag. 1314. and in Rushworth's Collections and is too long here to insert but the principal parts and matter of the Plot was this That there was a design on Foot by the Papists against the Life of the King and the Archbishop That to effect this the Scottish Commotions were raised and fomented by the Jesuits that they exasperated the English Dissenters by the severity used against Pryn Burton and Bastwick and the Scots by the Fears of Popery upon the Imposition of the Common-Prayer Book that Cuneus or Cou the Pope's Legate and Chamberlain a Scot Chaplain and Almoner to Cardinal Richelieu were the great Negotiators of this Conspiracy and that the design was to embroil these Nations in a Civil War The Troubles came on so fast as may well be supposed precipitated for fear of a further prosecution of this discovery that the Archbishop lost his Head for refusing a Cardinals Hat and opposing the Scottish Covenanters and the King this because he would not give away the Crown and pull down the Mitre by granting Toleration And however the following Distractions and Rebellion stifled the further prosecution and discovery of this Plot yet the Tragical Event justified the Truth of the Discovery What the consequences of these Proceedings would have been if Providence had permitted those Usurping Powers to come to any firm Establishment God only knows but a Tyranny in the Church like that of the Papacy is most suitable and natural to the-Tyrannical and Arbitrary Government of Rebels Regicides and Usurpers But God miraculously restoring our Gracious Sovereign King Charles the Second to his Throne and the Church of England to her pristine Splendor we were in a State of Tranquility till of late years But the Papists envious of our Happiness began or rather continued to leaven the disaffected party of men in Church and State against both and how far they had driven on their designs for a second Revolution few people can be strangers the old Stories were revived and new ones minted to raise fears and jealousies of Tyranny and Popery to set us altogether by the Ears The Scots were animated to a Rebellion and did actually break out into a form'd Rebellion the Dissenters were busie every where to calumniate the Bishops and Church
as Popishly affected the Lawn Sleeves were threatned and the Episcopal Party branded with all the names of Ignominy so that the rich and wise Citizens of the great Metropolis of London knew scarcely whether their greatest danger was from Papists or Phanaticks Wealth being always a Crime in Popular Tumults and Insurrections Sedition was as commonly talked and as hot as Coffee was drank and in a word from the Court to the Cottage none could escape the imputation of Popishly affected who durst write or speak in vindication of the Church of England or against Dissenters And that all this was but a Branch of the late horrid Popish Plot against his Majesties Life the Government by Law established and the Protestant Religion I offer the Testimony of Dr. Oats the first and principal Discoverer who all along charges the Papists the disguised Priests and Jesuits with managing the intemperate heat of Separatists against the Government and we cannot without bringing a manifest and dangerous disreputation upon the rest of his Evidence but believe him when upon his Oath he assures us that the Jesuits creep in among Dissenters under the disguise of Nonconforming Ministers to divide and exasperate to raise and blow up Animosities and Calumnies into actual Rebellion against the Civil Government under a pretence of their dislike of the Ecclesiastical Thus in his Printed Narrative Paragraph 1. He informs us that Richard Strange Provincial John Keins Basil Langworth John Fenwick and Harcourt Jesuits did write a treasonable Letter to one Father Suiman an Irish Jesuit at Madrid in Spain in which was contained the plotting and contriving a Rebellion in Scotland of the Presbyterians against the Episcopal Government In order to which they had employed Matthew Wright William Morgan and one Mr. Ireland to go and Preach under the Notions of Presbyterians and give the disaffected Scots a true understanding of their sad Estate and Condition in which they were by reason of Episcopal Tyranny exercised over them and withal to tell them they had now a fair opportunity to vindicate their Liberty and Religion and that it could be done no other way but by the Sword Paragraph 18. That the Fathers of the Society in Ireland were very vigilant to prepare the people to rise for the defence of their Liberty and Religion and to recover their Estates Paragraph 35. That the Jesuits by order of the Provincial were to send new Messengers into Scotland to promote the Commotions there and to inform the people of the great Tyranny they lay under by reason of their being denied Liberty of Conscience and that not being to be procured but by the Sword they must take that course to purchase their Liberty Paragraph 43. That two new Messengers were sent into Scotland on the 5th of August 1678. one by the name of Father Moor the other of Sanders aliàs Brown with instructions to carry themselves like Non-conformist Ministers and to Preach to the disaffected Scots the necessity of taking up the Sword for defence of Liberty of Conscience these the Deponent saw dispatched Paragraph 50. The Deponent Dr. Oats saw a Letter from Father Ireland August the 7th 1678. where among other things he intimates the joy he had that the disaffected Scots would not lay aside their endeavors for and after Liberty and Religion and that the Catholicks of Scotland had promised to use the utmost of their Interest to keep up the Commotions there Here let me be permitted to make a little break to confirm this Evidence by a remarkable Passage which fell out the last year in the tragical end of the Lord Forresler This Lord was the person that after the defeat of the Rebels at Bothwel-Bridge took occasion upon the Indulgence granted by His Majesty to erect a House within two miles of Edinburgh for a publick Conventicle of Non-conformists and for his building this Synagogue went for a zealous man among them but so it hapned that not long after he was barbarously murdered by a Woman Relation with whom he had incestuously lived many years After his death a Dispensation was found in his Closet from the Pope to marry her which it seems he delaying to do she took his Life as the price and reparation of her abused Honour Raviliac Redivivus which plainly shews that these Supporters of the Nonconformists may be and are secret Papists But to proceed Paragraph 51. Among other mysterious Phrases relating to the Plot John Keins told the Deponent that the Provincial had taken great care of keeping alive the differences between the disaffected Scots and Duke Lauderdale that Mum and Chocolate should be put down and the Order of the Magpies should be turned to their primitive Institution and Habit. By Mum and Chocolate meaning the Protestant Peers and by Magpies the Bishops And for a clear vindication of the Bishops and Episcopal Clergy of the Church of England from the unjust imputation of being Popishly affected the common brand which Nonconformists burn upon their Reputation Paragraph 72. He informs us that the Pope had issued out a Bull in which he disposes of the Bishopricks and other Dignities in England as follows Arch-Bishops Canterbury Cardinal Howard York Perrot Superior of the Secular Priests Bishops London Corker President of the Benedictine Monks Winchester White aliàs White-bread Provincial of the Jesuits Durham Strange late Provincial of the Jesuits Salisbury Dr. Godden Norwich Napper a Franciscan Friar Fly Vincent Provincial of the Dominican Monks Exeter Wolf one of the Sorbon Peterborough Gifford a Dominican Friar Lincoln Sir John Warner Baronet a Jesuit Chichester Morgan a Jesuit Bath Wells Dr. Armstrong a Franciscan Friar Carlisle Wilmot aliàs Quarterman a Secular Priest Chester Thimbleby a Secular Priest Hereford Sir Thomas Preston Baronet a Jesuit Bristol Mundson a Dominican Oxford Williams Rector of Watton a Town in Flanders a Jesuit St. Davids Belson a Secular Priest St. Asaph Jones a Secular Bangor Joseph David Keimash a Dominican Friar Abbots Westminster Dr. Sheldon a Benedictine Monk Sion House Skinner a Benedictine Monk Deans Canterbury Belton a Sorbonist St. Pauls Leybourn a Secular Secretary to Cardinal Howard Windsor Howard with twelve Benedictine Canons Chichester Morgan a Secular VVinton Dr. VVatkinson President of the English Colledge at Lisbon With many other Dignities of the Church disposed of to Foreigners in that Bull. Paragraph 74. That twelve Scotch Jesuits were sent into Scotland to keep up the Commotions in Scotland and that they had instructions given them to carry themselves like Nonconformist Ministers among the Presbyterian Scots And Pag. 67 of the Narrative numb 7. One means he says they were to use to bring in Popery was by seditious Preachers and Catechists set up sent out maintained and directed what to Preach in their own or other private or publick Conventicles and Field meetings Now as in reason we cannot believe the Papists are less sollicitous for their Affairs in England than in Scotland and Ireland so we cannot but conclude
the Papists rejoycing at the conjunction of England and France by the Marriage of Charles the First and Queen Mary of France hoping thereby to raise such another claim to the Crown of Egland as France did in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth by that Match of Mary Queen of Scots they contrived a way to set Ireland in an uprore for King Charles the First was no sooner setled in his Throne when Ireland was full of the rumour of Lewis the 13ths preparations and intentions for the invading of the same as appears as well by the Records of the Council if doubted as also by Sir James Ware 's Memorials The noise of these preparations caused the Lord Henry Faulkland then Lord Deputy of this Nation to advise with the Privy-Council what course to take for to oppose these French intentions They upon consultation in this affair set forth a Proclamation that the chief of the Kingdom should meet at Dublin and then to demand a general Contribution of the Inhabitants for to raise and maintain Forces to oppose that King The Castle of Dublin being first appointed for that Assembly St. Patrick's Church in Dublin was afterwards ordered for this Assembly to meet at The Papists were upon high terms The Papists would not assist their King but upon terms and would not contribute towards the safety of this Nation unless the Lord Deputy and Council would grant them a toleration for their Religion and also leave to build themselves Churches and pretended Religious Houses as many as they listed and where they pleased in all Cities and Corporate Towns These their proposals put a stop to these proceedings for the present so that this Assembly was for the present dismissed it being about Michaelmass Term anno 1626. And another day was nominated for them to meet again until they had acquainted his late Majesty with their demands yet in the interim James Vsher late Primate of Ardmagh assembled all our Protestant Bishops together and so prevented these Popish demands by this their protestation as follows The Protestant Clergy of the Church of Ireland their protestation against these Popish terms The Religion of the Papists is Superstitious and Idolatrous Their Faith and Doctrine Enormous and Heretical Their Church in respect of both Apostatical To give them therefore a toleration or to consent that they may freely exercise their Religion and profess their Faith and Doctrine is a grievous sin and that in two respects For first it is to make our selves accessary not only to their Superstitions Idolatries Heresies and in a word to all the abominations of Popery but also which is a consequent of the former to the perdition of the seduced people which perish in the deluge of the Catholick Apostacy For the second to grant them toleration in respect of any Money to be given or Contribution to be made by them is to set Religion to sale and with it the Souls of people whom Christ our Saviour hath redeemed with his most precious Blood And as it is a great sin so also a matter of most dangerous consequence the consideration whereof we commend to the Wise and Judicious beseeching the Great God of Truth to make them who are in Authority zealous of God's Glory and of the advancement of true Religion zealous resolute and couragious against all Popery and Idolatry Amen Signed Ja. Armachanus Anto. Midensis Ro. Dunensis Coronensis Richard Cork Cloyn Roscensis Tho. Killmorensis Ardahensis Mich. Waterfordensis Lismorensis Mal. Cassilensis Tho Fernensis Laughlanensis George Derensis Andr. Aladensis Theo. Dromorensis Franc. Limiricksensis This being confered and agreed upon the 26th Novemb. Anno 1626. Upon the 23d of April following Doctor George Downham then Bishop of Derry the next Assembly being then to meet in the midst of his Sermon in christ-Christ-Church Anno 1627. Dr. Downham then Bishop of Derry his protestation against these terms in christ-Christ-Church in Dublin took occasion to speak something to this purpose saying that many amongst us for gain and outward respects were ready to consent to a toleration of a false Religion which if they did they were guilty of putting to sale not only the souls of Papists but their own souls also This is not my opinion said he only but the opinion of the Archbishops Bishops and of the Protestant Clergy of his Majesties whole Kingdom which I think fit to publish He had no sooner uttered these words when all the Protestants then in that Church cried out aloud Amen Amen Then making a respit till the people had done crying out Amen I spoke nothing to hinder the Kings Service for we all of the Clergy desire not only the sole Army of 5500 men that being the number may be maintained but also a far greater Army besides the Trained-Bands and could wish that his Majesty would reserve to himself the most of those particular Graces of late offered and granted to the dishonour of God and to himself the prejudice and impeachment of true Religion and what was wanting might be supplied by the Countrey to which he exhorted all true Christians and faithful Subjects The people upon this cried unanimously Our Lives and Fortunes be at his Majesties command for the good of the Protestant Faith of England The next day the late Lord Primate Primate Vsher his words against the same toleration Vsher Preached before the same Auditory and took these words for his Text Love not the World nor the things that are in the World Which words he applied according to those times These two Sermons so prevailed with the Protestants so strengthened their resolutions that they proposed so largely towards a maintenance for an Army to oppose the French King that these Popish Proposals which we have already mentioned fell and the Papists much ashamed and discontented then the Lord Deputy and Council dismissed this Assembly There is one material thing to be observed by the Reader The Lord Faulklands Lady known to be a Papist that this Lord Faulklands Lady was a great Heiress to an Estate in England which caused her Husband to seek all means the more to please her she being a fickle minded woman in her judgment The Papists of this Kingdom depended much on this Ladies being of their own Religion although outwardly whether out of compliance to her Lord or by the advice of Popish Policies she went to Church but going out of this Kingdom into England she returned unto her Popish inclinations which then was a signal testimony of her Religion all along These Jesuitical projects were not sufficient to satisfie a Romish appetite A Riot committed by the Popish Clergy anno 1629 seeing that these devices could take no effect the Jesuits and Friars of Dublin out of spleen began to Preach Sedition unto the Papist Inhabitants within that Metropolis continuing after this method for certain days it came at last to Lancelot Buckley alias Bulkley his ears then Archbishop of the same See who
Original of this Jesuitical Lord was seized on amongst other Papers it was supposed to have been written by one Winter a Jesuit and Nephew to the same Winter who was executed for the Gunpowder-Treason in King James his days now about 77 years since This Parliament sat upon the day appointed being upon the 17th of March 1627. Sir John Finch the Queens Attorney then being chosen Speaker of the House of Commons at which Assembly his late Gracious Majesty saluted both the Lords and other Members thus My Lords and Gentlemen THese times are for Action The Kings Speech for Action I say not for words therefore I shall use but a few and as Kings are said to be exemplary to their Subjects so I would wish you would imitate me in this and use as few falling upon speedy consultation No man is I conceive such a stranger to the common necessity as to expostulate the cause of this meeting and not to think supply to be the end of it and as this necessity is the product and consequent of your advice so the true Religion the Laws and Liberties of this State and just Desence of our Friends and Allies being so considerably concerned will be I hope arguments enough to perswade to supply for if it be as most true it is both my duty and yours to preserve this Church and Common-wealth this exigent time certainly requires it In this time of common danger I have taken the most ancient speedy and best way for supply by calling you together If which God forbid in not contributing what may answer the quality of my occasions you do not your duties it shall suffice I have done mine in the conscience whereof I shall rest content and take some other course for which God hath impowered me to save that which the folly of particular men might hazard to lose Take not this as a menace for I scorn to threaten my inferiors but as an admonition from him who is tied both by nature and duty to provide for your preservations and I hope though I thus speak your demeanors will be such as shall oblige me in thankfulness to meet you oftner than which nothing shall be more pleasing to me Remembring the distractions of our last meeting you may suppose I have no confidence of good success at this time but be assured I shall freely forget and forgive what is past hoping you will follow that sacred advice lately inculcated To maintain the Vnity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace This Speech of his Gracious Majesty to the moderate Members was acceptable to the Factious or Puritanical sort an amasement and to the Papal sort so affected a terror or guilt of conscience making them look asquint upon themselves and were it not for shame they would have run on their old course with violence which the Jesuits had plotted as the Letter taken at Clarken-well aforesaid specifieth yet to smother their private future intentions they concorded with the moderate sort to grant his Majesty some Subsidies The Court of Rome by their Emissaries sprinkled here having intelligence of the seizure of these Papers to slip their necks out of the Halter consulted with those whom they had made sure as appeareth by the Letter in these words We have not opposed it meaning the calling of this Parliament but rather furthered it so that we hope as much in this Parliament as ever we feared any in Queen Elizabeths days How the Jesuits laid their contrivance on the Church of England Then smelling how the Duke had discovered their Romish Policies they began the better to gloss their intentions to lay before the House several grievances touching Religion aspersing at that time Neale the then Bishop of Winchester and Laud then Bishop of Bath and Wells to be the two Supporters of Arminianism whereas the Letter sheweth it was their own act and contrivance Also in this Grievance they lay all their mischief by them devised upon the Duke of Buckingham saying he was the cause of these vexations Therefore for the better satisfaction of the Reader Vide pag. 113 114. we shall lay before you the heads of these Grievances then presented in Parliament as William Sanderson in his History of the Reign of King Charles the First sets them down The Grievances being thus 1. THe danger and innovation and alteration in Religion This occasioned by 1st The great esteem and favours many Professors of the Romish Religion receive at Court 2 dly Their publick resort to Mass at Denmark-House contrary to his Majesties answer to the Parliaments Petition at Oxford 3 dly The Letter for stay of proceedings against them Lastly the daily growth of the Arminian Faction favoured and protected by Nele Bishop of Winchester and Laud Bishop of Bath and Wells whilest the Orthodox parts are silenced or discountenanc'd 2. The danger of Innovation and alteration in Government occasioned by the billetting of Souldiers by the Commission for procuring one thousand German Horse and Riders as for the defence of the Kingdom by a standing Commission granted to the Duke to be General at Land in times of Peace 3. Disasters of our designs as the expedition to the Isle of Rhe and that lately to Rochel wherein the English have purchased their dishonour with the wast of a million of treasure 4. The want of Ammunition occasioned by the late selling away of thirty six last of Powder 5. The decay of Trade by the loss of three hundred Ships taken by the Dunkyrkers and Pyrates within these three last years 6. The not guarding the Narrow-Seas whereby his Majesty hath almost lost his Regality Of all which evils and dangers the principal cause is the Duke of Buckingham his excessive power and abuse of that power And therefore they humbly submit it to his Majesties wisdom whether it can be safe for himself or his Kingdom that so great power both by Sea and Land as rests in him should be trusted in the hands of any one Subject whatsoever These Jesuitical contrivances not being able to disswade the late King from his tender affections unto the Duke How the Jesuits contrived the Duke of Buckinghams death but rather encouraged his Grace more which the Jesuits perceiving they contrived his death whereupon the 23d of August following he was stabb'd by one John Felton who in his examination being asked why he kill'd the Duke he replied I shall be brief I killed him for the cause of God and my Countrey Yet that the Reader may the better compare the Leter directed to the Father Rector at Bruxels and also the heads of the grievances before mentioned with the Confession of John Felton we here lay before him as the same Author sets it at large in these words And after some discourse Feltons Confession See Sanders pag. 122 123. Sir said he I shall be brief I killed him for the cause of God and my Country Nay said the other there may be hope of
whence the Reader and whole Nation may take notice especially those in present Power who should prevent such dangerous growing mischiefs with greatest care not connive at them any longer 1. See Cromwells Speech in the Painted Chamber Sept. 4.1654 p. 16 17. That there are multitudes of Romish Emissaries and Vermin now residing and wandring up and down freely amongst us to seduce and divide the people by setting up new Sects and Separate Congregations in all places and broaching new Notions and Opinions of all sorts or old Heresies or Blasphemies not saying Masses praying to Saints and Images or crying up the Popes Supremacy c. as heretofore 2. That they are the chief Speakers and Rulers in most Separate Congregations and particularly amongst the Quakers amongst whom the Franciscan Friars act their parts as well as the Jesuits 3. That they have their several Missions and Directions into all parts from their Generals and Superiors of their respective Orders residing commonly in London * Cromwell's Speech p. 16 17. where they have a Consistory and Council sitting that rules all the affairs of the things of England besides fixed Officers in every Diocess and are all fore-acquainted both with the places and times of their several Missions seeing Coppinger could so certainly predict the time of their Mission and coming to Bristol where they have done much harm and assaulted and disturbed the Ministers both in publick and private 4. See Thomas Campanella de Monarchia Hispanica c. 25.27 That the Popes and these his Emissaries chief endeavors are to draw the people from our Churches publick Congregations Ordinances Ministers and Religion and to divide and tumble us into as many Sects and Separate Conventicles as they have Popish Orders and thereby into as many civil Parties and Factions as possibly they can to ruine us thereby Matth. 12.25 27. 5. That by this their new Stratagem and Liberty they have under the disguises of being Quakers Seekers Anabaptists Independents Ranters Dippers Anti-Trinitarians Anti-Scripturists and the like gained more Proselytes and Disciples and done more harm in eight or nine years space to the Church and Realm of England more prejudice dishonour and scandal to our Religion and Ministers than ever they did by saying Mass or Preaching Printing or any point of the grossest Popery in 80 years time heretofore And if not speedily diligently restrained repressed will soon utterly overturne both our Church Religion Ministery and State too in conclusion having already brought them to sad confusions and distractions Now that which gives great cause of suspicion See Regula Fratrum minorum sub Francisco Militantium Ven. 1500. that these Quakers are either disguised Franciscan Fryers or their seduced Disciples and Emissaries is 1. Their rambling about from place to place by two and two together to vent and spread their Errors as the Franciscan Friars use by the †See Regula Fratrum minorum sub Francisco Militantium Ven. 1500. Rules of their Order are bound to do and the Queens Franciscans did here of late 2. Their use of vile and course Array and condemning not only all Pride and Luxury but lawful decency in Apparel in themselves and their Proselytes in imitation of the * See Surius Ribadeniera in vita Regula Fratrum Minorum Sancti Francisci Franciscans 3. Their perswading people to desert their lawful Callings and Employments to embrace a kind of idle monkish lasy life and ramble about from place to place to vent their pretended Visions Revelations Prophecies Messages and New Lights a practice usual with Franciscan Friars and St. Francis their Founder 4. Their rude and uncivil behaviour in refusing to salute or shew any reverential respect honour or humble deportment towards Magistrates or other persons of what quality soever either in words or gestures of which the rude Cynical Franciscans are most guilty of all other Popish Orders contrary to express Scripture Precepts and Presidents Exod. 20.12 Deutr. 5.19 Matth. 15.4 Ephes 6.2 5. Rom. 13.1 2 7. Hebr. 12.9 1 Pet. 2.13 14 17 18. an observable Text against them Tit. 3.1 2. 1 Tim. 6. v. 1 2 3. a notable Text Ephes 5.33 Gen. 18.2 3. c. 19. 1 2. c. 23.7 c. 24. v. 31. c. 27.19 c. 33.3 4 6 7. c. 37.9 10. c. 41.43 c. 42.6 c. 43.26 28 29. c. 48.12 c. 49.8 Exod. 11.8 Ruth 2.10 1 Sam. 20.41 c. 24.8 c. 25. v. 23 24 25 41. c. 28.14 2 Sam. 9.8 c. 14.22 23. 1 King 1.16 23 31 47. c. 2.19 2 King 2.15 c. 4.26 27 37. 1 Chron. 21.21 Est 3.2 which compared with Matth. 10.12 c. 5.4 Mar. 9.15 Lu. 1.40 Acts 18.22 c. 21.7 c. 25.13 1 Cor. 16.21 2 Cor. 13.13 Phil. 4.21 22. Col. 4.10 12 15 18. Rom. 16.15.7 9. to 17. 2 Thes 3.17 may teach these rude Quakers and their Disciples far better manners and civility both in their gestures behaviours and words than now they exercise 5. Their Doctrines that the Saints are perfectly holy in this life and do not sin being able to stand perfect in their own power That they are as equally holy just good and free from sin as Christ and God himself maintained by * The perfect Pharisee p. 1 2 11 14. Fox Naylor affirmed of St. Francis the Father of the Franciscans and justified by them in their Writings as you may read in Surius Ribadeniera in the Life of St. Francis and the blasphemous Book Conformitatum Beati Francisci ad vitam Jesu Christi l. 3. cum addition Heir Bucchii Bon. 1590. first writ by Bartholemaeus de Pisa and approved by a General Chapter of the Franciscans held at Assise Aug. 2. 1389. and ratified by their Popes Antonini Chronicon Tit. 24. c. 1 2. Vincentius Belvacensis Speculum Hist lib. 3. c. 97. and Mornay his Mistery of Iniquity London 1612. p. 347 348. It is the observation of many learned intelligent (a) And of G. Emmot a late reclaimed Quaker in his Northern Blast Protestants who have pryed into the Opinions and Practices of all our late New Sects That in their Books Writings Speakings Preachments (b) Witness Extreme Vnction used by many Separate Congregations and their recusancy to hear our Ministers or come to our publick Ordinances and the like Practices are interlarded and mixed with some Jesuitical and Popish Tenents Opinions Ceremonies Practices by which we may as visibly discover a Jesuit a Popish Priest or Fryer in them as we may a Lion by his paw And nothing in my judgment more clearly detects the Popish Fryers Priests and Jesuits to be the principal inventers erectors of Actors Rulers Speakers amongst our Quakers and other New Sects then their pretended (c) See G. Emmot his Northern Blast with Gilpin's book both relenting Quakers extraordinary sudden extravagant Agonies Trances Quakings Shaking Raptures Visions Apparitions Conflicts with Satan Revelations Illuminations Instructions in new divine Mysteries and Seraphical Divinity whereof they pretend they were wholly ignorant
of such Industry to blear the eyes of others I say such men and such principles must of necessity lay them under the constant and restless temptations of attempting all things to regain their earthly and gain a heavenly glory into the bargain Nor can it be supposed that they will stick at the violation of any Laws Divine or Humane by Treasons Perjuries Wars or Bloodshed which they think so far from sinful that they esteem them meritorious and acceptable Services to God being done in order to the Salvation of Sinners and the Exaltation of their Church Now the ways and methods by which they propose to effect these The methods Papists use to convert Hereticks as they think and stile them glorious Undertakings are these First 1. To divide Protestants amongst themselves Since they are hopeless to convince or perswade by force of Arguments they endeavour to divide Protestants among themselves and this they have done ever since the Reformation by raising Sects and Separations from our Church in matters of Doctrine and Practise and again subdividing these into lesser Parties and Fractions under pretence of greater advances to Purity and a thorough Reformation and as this Principle may proceed to no doubt they will pursue it in infinitum Thus I have been credibly informed that a St. Omers Jesuit declared that they were twenty years hammering out the Sect of the Quakers and whoever considers the Positions of those People will easily be induced to believe them forged upon a Popish Anvil They refuse all Oaths a neat covert for Priests and Jesuits to evade the Tests of the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and avoid the punishment which follows their discovery the despise the Scriptures so do Papists they contemn our Sacraments especially the Eucharist so do Papists they do above all things vilifie the Ministers so do Papists and in many other Doctrines they bear a great Analogy and Conformity one with the other The opinion of a Fifth Monarchy looks extreamly like another Spawn of the Jesuits and had that prevailed as it once was in a fair way to do that would have done their business and indeed was the last Sect I think started among us as if designed for their purpose for it would have been an easy translation of that Monarchy to the Papal Throne till Christ should come in person to have exercised it himself and I find a remarkable hint of this in Dr. Oats's Narrative and Depositions Parag. 34. where the Jesuits and one Green with eight other Fifth Monarchy men club together for the firing of the City of London And indeed herein the Papists have been most industrious and it is but just to fear they are so still to animate those Separations they have created with Principles of Hatred and Animosity against the Church of England as will admit of no reconciliation nor any lower terms of Satisfaction than her utter Ruine and intire Subversion and they move every stone that not one stone must be left upon another in that glorious building for this purpose they have endeavoured to perswade the people into an hatred of the Governors of the Church by telling them of their near approaches to Popery against which and the Pope himself to cover the Artifice it is no matter how bitterly they inveigh so long as by this Stratagem they divide men from the Church Thus have they drawn off the people from the love of the stated and authorized publick Prayers and Service of the Church by introducing practising and commending that Novel-way of Praying Extempore to which Gavan the Jesuit was so inured that he could not at his Execution forbear running into an Enthusiastick Fit of it This has been a Key which has opened the doors of many lips to blaspheme God and Religion to utter vain idle impertinent seditious heretical and impious Harangues the very froth of Fancy and the scum of Effrontery which yet they have dedicated to God Almighty and though it was really a Sacrifice of Fools have fathered it upon the Spirit of Wisdom and of this the Papists have made no small advantage to proselyte people from ours to the Romish Communion and yet they first recommended this Engine to the people they have opposed it too and exalted it above the Common Prayers as more Spiritual and prevailing branding those with all the titles of Infamy and which has succeeded to their wish and is now generally taken up as a great truth by all Dissenters that the Liturgy is nothing but the Mass-Book in English and the very dregs of Popery Idolatry and Superstition Secondly 2dly Having divided us to destroy us by those Divisions Having thus successfully divided us and inflamed Dissenters with a Zeal so hot against the Church of England as is fit upon all occasions both to take and give fire they endeavour to blow up those Sparks into a Flame they perswade Dissenters Episcopacy is guilty of most intolerable Ambition Pride Avatice and Tyranny they press them to maintain their liberty of Conscience against the Antichristian Yoke of Ceremonies and to pull down Babylon and take hold of all occasions to run them into open Hostilities and Rebellion against the Civil as well as the Ecclesiastical Power and Government and all this in hopes to destroy us with our own Weapons that then they may erect their Church Triumphant upon the Ruines of ours which they have rendred truly Militant En quo discordia Cives Perduxit miseros The sincere and tender love I have for my Dear and Native Countrey the compassion I have for the wounds of a Bleeding Church and Nation and the great Honour and Esteem I have for the Protestant Religion as professed and practised in the Church of England which I have not embraced out of the complyances of Education but the Force and Conviction of Reason grounded upon deliberate Debates and a near Examination oblige me to contribute all I can to rectifie the misunderstandings which have occasioned our unhappy breaches and divisions nor could I think of any expedient more conducive to the attaining my design than the exposing to the open view of the World the Artifices of these our inveterate enemies wherewith they have given us so many both secret and open wounds as have once already proved almost mortal and incurable for the poyson of Asps is under their lips and they shoot sharp and envenomed Arrows which wound at a distance and kill by degrees and if we give them opportunity to redouble their blows they will in all humane apprehension lay us weltring in our own and one anothers blood without the assistance of any other Massacre than what we execute upon our selves And now in regard that Generals are rarely so forcible or convictive though never so true as particular matters of Fact These Practices proved by particular Instances and matter of unquestionable Fact in hopes of doing a charitable office to those who have been hurried down this Popish
be more admired by the people so the Hereticks will asperse that Heretical King and his Church as little differing from us These Instructions I am commanded to recommend unto you as being approved by his Holiness Julius the Third your Supream Father and his wholsome Council to be handled and performed to the utmost of your Powers Wealth Parts Learning and Capacities for the good of the Mother-Church Dated the fourth Ide of November 1551. Beneventum Upon these consultations I was amazed to behold these and other the contrivances that hath been contrived against the Church of England ever since King Henry her Royal Highness Father fell from the See of Rome How the Converts contrary design turned to his Conversion but yet duly taking memorandums of these things for my curiosities sake at first then designing to have practised these instructions at last seriously pondering upon these devices and upon several others of this kind which would contain a large volume to set them out to publick view I pretended to come over hither to practice the same and to colour my feigned intention I said I took these memorandums for my instructions and so left Paris in the month of April anno 1566. and landed at Dover the month following from whence I came to this Kingdom where since I have satisfied the Archbishop and the rest of my Brethren the Clergy by my last confession publickly in this City of Dublin Yet for further assurance of my confidence in the Protestant Faith of England now established by her Highness and her Parliament of this Nation I Samuel Mason being strucken in years not knowing how soon it may please the Almighty God to take me from hence as also to take off all evil Calumnies Aspersions and Suspitions of me Samuel Mason as if I should dye in the Roman Church I do humbly lay this my Narrative before your Lordship as Chief under her Highness in these her Dominions of Ireland for a true and signal testimony of my fidelity to her Highness her Government both in Church and State Dated at Dublin the 24th day of August 1566. Samuel Mason I was the more desirous to keep this Memorial of this Convert John Garvey his design for preserving of this memorandum by reason the Speech for the declaring of her Conversion was spoke in my Cathedral I being but the year before by her Royal Highness preferred to that Deanery as appears by her Majesties special Letter now on Record and also I have inserted this amongst others of my Diaries to remain hereafter with other of the memorandums concerning this Deanery desiring my Successors to follow the same for the publick benefit of their Successors and to be produced as time shall serve for their several occasions most opportunely and fit The Convert continued not fully two years in his Parsonship or Parish before he died The Converts death and burial my self preaching his Funeral Sermon where several with sorrowful tears lamented the loss of so true a Penitent choosing this Text suitable for his Conversion Blessed are they that die in the Lord c. whom all must suppose did as appears by his hearty Recantation and declaration aforesaid He was buried in his Parish at Finglas two miles distant from Dublin on the Feast of St. Bartholomew Ann. Dom. 1568. In the year of our Lord 1584. Sir John Perrot then Lord Deputy of Ireland taking his Progress into the Province of Connaught there came to his Lordship a Friar Carmelite named Malachias Malone by some called O Malone Brother unto Mr. William Eughter who had been of that Order about 36 years even from the beginning of King Edward the Sixth's Reign this Malachias and Sir John then having had great conference together in private After which this Friar in the face of a whole Congregation then met together in St. Stephens Church of Gallway renounced the Pope's Supremacy and also the Popish Religion At this Recantation he first entred into the Church in his Friars Weeds The Friar's actions and speech upon his Conversion saying to the Congregation these words Peccavi contra Deum Creatorem meum contra Reginam contra Leges Regnorum ejus Then taking off his Friar's Weeds he said Away with these Cloaks of Sin I will cloath my self with the Gospel of Jesus Christ Now good people bear witness from henceforth I conform my self to the Religion established in these her Majesties Dominions by her Majesty and her Parliaments of England and Ireland At this time several of the Roman Catholick Friars and Jesuits lurking about that City of Gallway Sir John Perrott's care of Malachias had a design against this Convert which coming to Sir John's ears he would not permit him to remain in that Province but caused special care to be taken of him and so brought him before to Dublin where he was carefully looked after and lay amongst my Lord Deputies Servants the said Lord allowing unto him a certain allowance for his maintenance during his Government in that her Majesties Realm of Ireland Sir John being this year absent from Dublin three months and odd days returned thither with this Friar upon the 11th of October following and so gave her Majesty and the Lords of the Council here an account of this his Progress amongst the rest this of Malachias was also Upon St. Simon and Jude's Feast being the 28th of October and in the same month of his return to Dublin Sir John the Archbishop of Dublin Lord Chancellor the Primate of Armagh the chief Judges and others of her Majesties Council assembled in the Castle of Dublin This said Malachias as appears by their Letters unto the Lords here of her Majesties Council having acquainted Sir John and that Council of several matters and discoveries which he had to reveal unto them he was called for to appear before them at which time he declared how he had been a grievous Traytor to God and to her Majesty and there declared this declaration in writing following having got Mr. Fenton to write the same that the Lord Deputy and Council might read it the easier I Malachias ô Malone born at Bullintobber in the County of Mayo The Friars Confession before the Lord Deputy and Council of Ireland Anno Christi 1522. in the year of our Lord 1548. upon the Assumption of our Blessed Lady I received the Order of Mount Carmel generally called Friars Carmelites and became a Member of that Order of the Convent of Ballinsmale in the said County continuing therein for the space of 12 years before I departed from thence Afterwards in the year 1561. I journied towards Cecil in Spain in the company of Tho. Lynch Garrott Fitz-Gerald of my own Order also in the company of my Cousin James Malone John Bourke Philip Corwine and of Thady ô Bryan who in the City of Sevell took on them the Order of St. Francis I tarried at that City about two years and from thence journied into
prefixed time appointed and plotted by the Irish Papists to rebell in the year 1641. found with other papers at the taking of Droghedah after the Rout of Remines My Lord IF you can procure a Patent for the City of Dublin to make their Mayors Lord Mayors as well as London This Letter directed to the Lord Viscount G. their policy will be to offer the Catholick Aldermen to become free of the same none being so proper to consult herein as Alderman Jyans who must declare to the Table of Aldermen the great affection your Lordship hath for that City and also tell them how you are going over and shall tell His Majesty how much they be his faithful Subjects and in case they would accept of your Lordship you would honour their City to become their first Lord Mayer and so procure them Letters Patents for that Dignity and that it may remain upon Record how a Noble Peer of the Realm became the first Lord Mayor thereof This being broken unto them and his Majesties Letters procured for the passing of this Patent the work is in a manner perfected We be in a fair way ere long to asswage Heresie and her Episcopacy for Exetor's Book hath done more for the Catholicks than they could have done themselves he having written that Episcopacy in Office and Jurisdiction is absolutely Jure Divino which was the old quarrel between our Bishops and King Henry the 8th during his Heresie then disputed upon which Book doth not a little trouble our Adversaries who declare this Tenent of Exetor's to be contrary to the Laws of this Land You will see a great Oke fall speedily which formerly shaded poor Ireland's Glory All is like to prosper here so I hope with you there You shall have no more from me till we meet at London which I hope will be shortly Your Lordships Humble and True Servant at call T. White London Feb. 12. 1639. Copia vera ab Originale Vt fuit cum Hen. Midensis Episcopo In the year 1640. See Mr. Prynne's demonstration shewing how the Papists contrived the late Kings Murther and the then Rebellions in Scotland and England George Con a Scotch-man being then the Pope's Nuntio Prynne's Rome's Master-piece pa. 18. Sir William Boswell being then Agent for his Majesty at the Hague having intelligence of a Plot then advising by the Jesuits and the Church of Rome to take off his Majesty in case he would not tolerate their Religion wrote this discovery unto William Laud then Archbishop of Canterbury who immediately shewed the same to his Majesty The Papists upon this account and also remembring the overthrow he gave to Fisher the Jesuit thought they could not accomplish their evil design unless they took away this Pillar of the Church also then under a dissenting disguise they cast aspersions on this holy Father knowing nothing could make him more odious to the Commonalty than to say that he was a Papist or endeavoured to bring in Popery thus continuing in the gall of bitterness until he was cut off also Rome having accomplished her desires thus far now begins to aim at a higher strain His Majesty being about this time in great distress wanting Moneys and other necessaries to support him against Romish and Puritanical policies made his application to those Subjects whom he knew he might confide in who served him faithfully to the uttermost of their abilities yet several Judas's sprinkled amongst them betraid them with their kisses for it is well known as we shall afterwards make it appear from sufficient Authors how Rome ordered her affairs under-hand For to propagate this Plot of hers she divides her Emissaries thus She sprinkles some of her Tribe amongst the faithful of the Church of England and suffers them openly to declare themselves Protestants yet with Oaths and Protestations to pretend to serve their King Then with the dissenting party she Jesuitically disguises her self into a Puritanical dress to serve the adverse party hereby the better to find out the intentions of Kings and Princes and so to play her Game accordingly by which means they brought the Head of that glorious Kingly Martyr to the Block To prove that Rome was the chief Instrument to draw the Subject into this horrible Engagement we will begin to bring that Reverend person Dr. Du Moulyn for one of our Authors who in his vindication of the sincerity of the Protestant Religion writes thus When the business of the late bad times are once ripe for an History How Rome contrived the late Kings death See Dr. Dumoulyn pag. 58 59. and Time the bringer of Truth hath discovered the mysteries of Iniquity and the depths of Satan which have wrought so much ruine and mischief it will be found that the late Rebellion was raised and fostered by the arts of the Court of Rome that Jesuits professed themselves Independent as not depending on the Church of England and Fifth Monarchy men that they might pull down the English Monarchy and that in the Committees for the destruction of the King and the Church they had their Spies and their Agents The Roman Priest and Confessor is known who when he saw the fatal stroke given to our holy King and Martyr flourished with his Sword and said Now the greatest enemy that we have in the World is gone To confirm what this Reverend Divine hath written we entreat the Readers to cast their eyes on these words which Mr. Henry Fowles specifies in his History of the wicked Plots and conspiracies of our pretended Saints pag. 14. His words being thus When the late King was murthered Prynne's brief necessary vindication pag. 45. Mr. Henry Spotswood riding casually that way just as his Head was cut off espied the Queens Confessor there on Horseback in the habit of a Trooper drawing forth his Sword and flourishing it over his own head in triumph as others then did At which Mr. Spotswood being much amazed and being familiarly acquainted with the Confessor Another testimony shewing how Rome contrived the death of the late King rode up to him and said O Father I little thought to have found you here or any of your Profession at such a sad spectacle To which he answered that there were at least forty or more Priests and Jesuits there present on Horseback besides himself The resultancy of this Story is home and pat and for the truth of it I refer you to Mr. Prynne Other Authors could we cite but to rational men knowing these two be sufficient proofs for our vindication we shall proceed no further for a testimony yet we shall desire the Reader to consider how so soon as these Priests and Jesuits had perfected this evil fact to take off the malignity of it from themselves they hit it in the teeth of the dissenting Party to this day therefore as a warning to the dissenting Party we shall desire them to consider how they were gull'd and brought into this ignominy The Papists in a
hath hitherto continued This Narrative the said Nowland himself confessed un William Muschamp Esq now one of his Majesties Commissioners for the farming of his Revenues there who can certifie that this Nowland made his brags how he serv'd the Independants at Plymouth There is yet in Ireland a Clergy-man of the Church of Rome Mr. Andrew Catherwood his Narrative of one Jackson a pretended Saint yet a Romanist one Jackson by name who has Preached as we are informed by our Author for these several years past viz. ann 1668 1669 and 1670. within and about the Counnty and City of Limerick amongst the Nonconformists in those parts This Fox when he began to Preach at Limerick received from those Nonconformists at one time about fourscore Cobbs for a Sermon then Preached unto them after which he invited an acquaintance of his Mr. Andrew Catherwood to a Treat at which time he spent about twenty shillings of this summ the said Mr. Catherwood assuring us who heard him declare these words that this said Jackson was the first that ever brought him to a Bawdy-house within that City The said Mr. Andrew Catherwood doth likewise affirm that this Jackson would often pretend that he had received Letters from Francis Marsh then Bishop of Limerick and would frame these Letters as if they had weekly come from him saying that that Bishop would fain have him to Preach in his Cathedral but it was against his Conscience so to Preach therefore he had rather Preach to his Flock for Charity than to the Bishop for Gain This he framed to cologue with his Followers and would shew these pretended Letters of his to please them Mr. Catherwood also affirmeth that this Jackson would say Mass disguised to the common sort in that County upon week-days and although he seigned this outward Godliness amongst the Dissenters at Limerick that he came up to Dublin and there Preached amongst our Ministers in our Churches and after to cologue with the Dissenters in that City he pretended to them to fall from the Church of England and Preached in the Meetings where as he the said Jackson confessed to Mr. Catherwood he got about 13 l. Sterl collected by the Meeting-houses in Dublin This Jackson was born at Abberdeen in Scotland he is a great Scholar and a Traveller for he hath travelled into France Italy Germany and Spain In Spain he taught a School as being Vsher under a publick Schoolmaster there he still wandreth about this Kingdom of Ireland and was lately seen in the County of Mayo The then Bishop of Limrick Fran. Marsh now Archbishop of Dublin we suppose may have heard of this Impostors pranks already mentioned during the time that his Grace was Bishop of Limrick which if testified would strengthen this Mr. Catherwoods Evidence who declared this above Narrative unto us whose names hereafter follow Robert Ware Esq John Madden Student in Physick of Trinity-Colledge in Dublin and before Pearse Welch being upon the 25th of Feb. 1681. Thus far have we laid before you the practices of Rome devised to divide the Protestant Church of England therefore the dispensations allowed by her Popes and Clergy be many and large as appears by what you have already heard purposely to drive on and set forward her impious Plots she therefore dispenses with her Adherents to take the shape yea even of a member of the Church of England not out of love thereunto but to accomplish her intended purposes For example-sake there was a certain Knight Sir E. L. well known over his Majesties Dominions of England Scotland and Ireland who came into this his Majesties Kingdom of Ireland anno 1670 or thereabouts It is not unknown unto the Inhabitants and Citizens of Dublin that in the year following 1671 upon the one and twentieth of May there hapned a surious fire in his Majesties Castle of Dublin during which flames the Lord John Butler afterwards created Earl of Gowran third Son to his Grace James Duke of Ormond now Lord Lieutenant of the Nation took great care and pains to extinguish the same which had it been trusted unto the said Knight we question whether half the Buildings now there extant would have been seen this day For this Knight under the pretence of saving the rest of the Buildings within that Castle would have blown up the great Hall belonging to this Palace To execute this project the quicker he caused a Barrel of Gunpowder to be placed in the middle of that Hall and so to have dropt a train of Powder and to set fire to the same But this brave spirited Lord coming in at that instant and enquiring why that Barrel was there placed and having heard the project he most couragiously although the flames were over his head lifted up the Barrel of Gunpowder and carried it out on his shoulders saying I approve not of this project When this Fire hapned as is generally reported by several of the Citizens of Dublin that night the water of the City was stopt so that the Castle-pipe had no water but what they were fain to bring in from the Mill-pond in the Stable-yard without the Castle-walls It hath been generally reported that this Knight went secretly to Mass at this time but whether he did or no it was observed that he would walk before the then Lord Lieutenant amongst the Gentry to Church with his Bible publickly under his arm to be seen This posture disguised his Religion which since is discovered although at Church he would seem very zealous turning to the Texts of Scripture as fast as they were quoted by the Minister There is a Learned Doctor Doctor Salls testimony concerning this Knight some years now past who turned unto the Church of England Andrew Sall by name formerly an Ecclesiastick of the Church of Rome who hath affirmed how he had heard formerly when the Lord J. B. went Embassador into France that this Sir E. L. went with that Lord and that the French King being taken with the Knights humors he and that King covenanted together after this manner This Knight was to give intelligence to the French King The Covenants between the French King and this Knight acting under-hand for him making this Proviso for himself that in case he should be discovered and thereby incur the King of Englands displeasure if he fled into France he should be there succoured and the French King there to provide a place for him Several others besides this Divine have heard the same besides what the Letters of News have mentioned to this effect For the perfecting of this Covenant it is visible and known how he hath been accused to be one of the Conspirators in the late Popish Plot anno 1678 for which he was clapt up but afterwards being released upon Bail he fled into France where he is not only succoured to this day but likewise provided for and there preferred to be an Abbot in Paris where several of his Majesties Subjects have seen him ranting