assist the Government manifest their own innocency and detect the guilty by endeavouring to promote the Common Security yet one would think that which they call their Religion and Conscience should oblige them to submit to this or any other way of Trial and discrimination they may hope for indulgence from Protestants though of differing opinions but they must not hope for the least crums of Indulgence or favour from Papists not all the services they have done them will be remembred with the least gratitude or tenderness no consideration of tender Consciences is able to soften those hearts who are more obdurate then Marble and Adamant and as Charles the Ninth of France in whose Reign the Massacre of Paris was executed said to the Prince of Condé Mass Death or the Bastile so would they say to all Protestants whether Dissenters or others Turn or burn For unless they be secret Papists which no body can tell but they are if they will not submit to a way of Trial and unless they resolve to be open and professed ones upon the first opportunity they cannot expect any favour or Clemency from prevailing Popery it is stream so rapid and violent that it drowns all that will not swim down the furious torrent and should that inundation break our banks all Protestants must either make Shipwrack of their Lives and Fortunes or of their Faith and a good Conscience for they would verifie their rule to a letter Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus No safety in any sence is with them to be found expected or so much as hoped for out of the Ark of their Church For though the Church of England as that which stands the main pillar of Truth be what they chiefly hate and endeavour to ruine yet in the fall thereof they would certainly crush all other Pretenders to Reformation of what names or distinction soever In extraordinary Cases of such impendent danger people do not use to be so critically scrupulous whatever they may be at other times but every mans fear is his own Pope and can grant dispensations for matters of greater scruple then this can be if any persons can think themselves secure or out of danger not onely at this time but at all times so long as England is infested with such Wolves and Tygers it must be such people as either have no Religion and so care not what is uppermost but like empty clouds can ride upon any wind and change into any form or such as desire the Romish Religion may again prevail and be established in these Nations or else such as are not sensible that the Doctrines and Practice of that Church teach and authorize Sedition Rebellion Murder and the utter extirpation of all Heretiques by all or any ways or methods whatsoever To convince people of this there is nothing more clear and evident not onely from the Writings of private Doctors among them but from several Bulls of former Popes and from the Decrees of their Councils which would be too long here to insert and are already notoriously known to all learned men and for those who want either opportunity or ability to peruse their Writings they may read enough in the Bloody Rubricks of their Actions to convince them of the reality as well as greatness of their danger nor need they seek for Foreign Examples who will not credit those before given our own Country and this City Renowned over all the habitable World will afford the most unlettered People instances more then enough both of former times and yet fresh and bleeding date Smithfield will never forget the cruel Bonfires of Queen Maries short life and Reign and what treatment our Fathers were to have received from the Invincible Armada of Eighty Eight had it proved more then an unluckly boast the whips chains shackles knives daggers and other Instruments of cruelty with which and Savage Butchers that Navy made the Ocean groan are certainly able to instruct the dullest or the weakest capacities Nor are the Jesuits grown more mild or gentle by the f equent disappointments which our merciful and gracious God had in compassion to us given them but rather more furious and exasperated and since Heaven refuses to favour their Treasons they have made a Covenant with Hell and an agreement with Death to take their part I will not repeat the confident and beyond all former things audacious Murthers which they have committed even since the discovery of their intended Conspiracy there is not a child in the Streets but can give a Narrative of the Tragedy so unrelenting and incorrigible are they even when the Rod of God is upon them and so blinded with the rage of cruelty and revenge that they will not see that the hand of God is gone out against them and what would they do then should God permit them to ride in triumph over our heads certainly their proud waters would have gone even over our soul they would have swallowed us up quick when they were so wrathfully displeased at us And whenever the bottom of this dark design shall be opened when these chambers of Death and habitations of Cruelty shall be exposed to the light of the Sun which it is to be hoped a little time will do the whole World shall be witness that there is little reason to doubt a syllable of what I have written There is but one thing more which at present I would propose to the Consideration of People and especially those of this City which is justly celebrated as the most noble Emporium or Mart of the World That our greatness strength and power our Riches and trade and in a word the well-being plenty and prosperity as well as the Peace of our Nation does in the greatest measure depend upon our Maritine strength there will not be found any who can deny That this strength at Sea depends upon the encouragement and support of Traffick and Navigation will likewise be agreed on all hands That it is therefore and ought to be the design of every good Subject and Citizen as well as it is of the King and Government to promote these will by an undeniable Consequence follow from these premises How invidiously all our Neighbours especially those of the Roman Religion look upon this great power of our Nation at Sea and how ingrateful that Vniversal Traffique which we maintain throughout the World is to them is easily to be observed by their endeavouring to come in with us for a share they know little of the affairs of France who do not take notice how industrious that Monarch and his great Ministers of State and particularly Monsieur Colbert are to encourage and extend the arms of their Foreign Trade and to discourage all besides the Natives of France and how Considerable within this few years they have have themselves in comparison of former times and whoever shall view the Ports of Thoulon Marseilles Brest Rochel c. And see them proud with their stately Castles
THE Established Test In order to the Security of HIS MAJESTIES Sacred Person AND GOVERNMENT AND THE Protestant Religion AGAINST The Malitious Attempts and Treasonable Machinations of ROME Nemo sibi nascitur Partim Patriae c. IMPRIMATVR Jan. 3. 1679. Geo. Thorp Rmo in C. P. D. Guilielm Archiep. Cant. Ã Sacris Domesticis London Printed by T. N. for Jonathan Edwin at the three Roses in Ludgate-street 1679. THE Establisht Test WHAT a Tempest should we have had if this Black Italian Cloud had broken over our Heads Never was Hurricane so double charged with Death and Destruction It would certainly have Rain'd Fire and Faggots and all Instruments of Cruelty upon the Innocent Heads of Poor Protestants But GOD have the Praise That we are in hopes to see it not only Blow over but that the Storm is likely to fall upon the Heads that raised it Some of these treacherous Dealers who have dealt so very treacherously with us are already fallen into the Pit which they had digged for Others and are ensnared in the mischievous Works of their own Hands and it is to be hoped for the Rest That their violent dealing will fall upon their own Heads for He who is Truth it self in whom we trust whose we are and whom we serve has assured us That Wicked and Bloodthirsty Men shall not live out half their Dayes for he who is the God of all Mercy abhors the cruel and decoitful Man In a Concern of so common and universal Nearness I cannot conceive any Person so little or inconsiderable in a Nation but since he must participate and have a share in the common Happiness or Misfortunes that shall happen he must also have a Right if not a Duty to endeavor to do what service he can to the Publique Every Mans Oar may and ought to be in the Boat to preserve her from sinking and though possibly I may value my endeavors in this little Scrole as cheap as any can desire yet the good Intention of it being the only thing that can give it a Recommendation that may also procure it Pardon and if it be demanded why I write 't is answered Not to increase the Croud of Pamphlets which at such Times fly about the Streets like Chaff before the Wind so that one is obliged to take some Pains to find the Wheat which some able and industrious Hands have winnowed from the Dross but it is perfectly out of Charity and for the Information of such who will not be at a greater Charge than such a Trifle And therefore I do not pretend to Instruct the great Managers of the Affairs of State or to meddle with the Needle and Compass of the Publique Bottom 't is dangerous medling with the Helm of State even sometimes for the Publique Pilots I am no Dictator of Politicks or Pretender to give Unerring Rules for our future Settlement or present Security but a Plain Honest Well-meaning Englishman who heartily Honor my Prince Love my Church and Wish well to my fellow Subjects And to manifest that I am so I will endeavor in short to shew to those of my own Sphere the common Danger under which we lie whil'st we are infested with these concealled Semenaries and Jesuites the probable Way to Detect and Discover them notwithstanding their Protean Faculties of Dissimulation Perjury and Putting on so many Shapes and the great Interest that every Man has to do his utmost to clear the Nation of such Secret Scorpions as Poyson both Mens Souls and Bodies It is in vain for us to hope to be free from Earthquakes and Convulsions of State so long as these Men of Tempestuous Principles are continually making their Fireworks in our very Intrals the Papacy is fitly resembled by the dreadful Aetna or Vesuvius which take Trace sometimes with the neighbouring Plains for many Years but when the sulphurious Mass of their Intrals is recruited then do they break out in horrid Flames to the terror of the Country round for many Leagues which they ruine and cover with barren Pamites and Ashes thus will the Romanists when one of their Plots is dicovered and prevented give us a little breathing not out of any Charity to us or Remorse in their own Consciences but to make us more secure till another Design is ripe for Execution We have often through Gods goodness escaped their treacherous Mines even when they were ready to Play but who is able to say We shall always be saved by Miracles if the Red Sea be divided for our sakes we must walk through it if we will escape to a Shoar or Safety something we must do and endeavor to promote our own Peace Safety and Security It cannot be doubted but the Roman Dragon has been and ever will be industrious and vigilant to regain this Hesperian Garden of England which in times past was wont to yield him such Plenty of Golden Fruit that one of the Popes was used to say That England was Putens inexhaustus A Spring of Treasure which could never be drawn dry and if the Italian Gulph which they Term the Apostolick Chamber could not do it he had some reason to say as he did We need not give our selves much pain to trace this Leviathan the crooked Serpent in all his windings and turnings by which he has endeavour'd to wrap and embrace us again in his painted but mortal Folds There has past no Princes Reign since the Reformation but what has been plagued with the pernicious Counsels or mischeivous Stratagems of these Sons of Matchiavel and they have all ways been endeavouring either by open Cruelty or secret Conspiracies to re-establish the Roman Tyranny among us To these inveterate Enemies of our Peace were our Ancestors obliged for all the Treasons and the Wars of Queen Elizabeths Reign Catena who writ the Life of Pope Pius the Fifth gives a full Narrative of the secret Counsels of that Pope and the King of Spain and attributes all those consequent Troubles in England and Ireland to the warm Zeal of that Pope to restore us to the Catholique Faith To these we owe that most barbarous hellish and detestable Design of the Gunpowder Treason in the beginning of King James his Reign over England But that upon which they had grounded so much confidence and which they intended should be one deciding Blow for all proving an Abortive Monster and the long-fancied Monarchy of the West to which the ambitious Spaniard had made so many years court in vain coming to decline into a mighty Nothing and that Nation having little left of all their aspiring Graspings after Empire besides the Pride that too commonly attends it there was a necessity of changing the measures of their Policy For Spain being by the help of the Inquisition the Cruelties of the Duke d' Alva and the Assistance of the English dismembred of so great a Strength as the seven Maritine Provinces of the Neatherlands and the fatal Eighty Eight having clipt her
to secure themselves in other particulars they will never so far as we yet know be compelled by us or allowed by their Superiors to partake with us in the Holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper I do not speak this to oppose any way of Publick proceedings against them by Oaths or Tests declaring their believing that there is no Transubstantiation of the Elements of Bread and Wine at or afer the Consecration of them in the Lords Supper c. if their Consciences can swallow and digest Perjury much good may it do them I am assured it can do us no injury but will certainly render them obnoxious to that Vengeance which must and will infallibly fall upon perjur'd heads and how sudden or severe that will be let them look to it for it nearly concerns them whatever they may think What I offer is only in a private way and to private persons that they in their sphere may be assistant to the Publick Ministers of Justice and of State in the discovery of these dangerous and cunning sort of Men and thereby contributing what lies in our power to our own particular and the general security of his Most Sacred Majesty whom God long preserve the Government our Lives Liberties Laws properties Religion and Posterity from the outrages violences treasons and Conspiracies of these our inveterate and mortal Enemies And certainly would all people be perswaded to be Vnanimous in this duty of coming three times at the least in every Year to celebrate and publickly receive the Holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper and an account taken of all such as refuse and absent themselves it would be impossible upon strict enquiry into their manner of life and other Circumstances and especially tendering it to them on some Lords day next after such their Examination that they should escape being discovered One would think that the proposal were so rational so easie and so Religious that none but the very Criminals themselves or their Accessories and Confederates should refuse this way of Tryal and discrimination nor is it possible for any impartial person to consider and deliberate of it but he must in his Judgment accuse such as shall refuse it as manifest favourers of Papists and Jesuits The Law Esteems all such as aid conceal and comfort Traitors or protect them from discovery to be Traitors themselves and though they may plead for themselves that they do not know them that are such and that may free them from the Penalties and danger of the Laws of Men yet this Ignorance being perfectly voluntary and proceeding from their wilful neglect of the way and means they had to detect them it will not excuse any persons in foro Conscientiae before God and their own Consciences from being guilty not only of the Murders and mischiefs that have already happen'd but of whatsoever may or shall happen hereafter for or by reason of their escaping undiscovered the true Maxim qui non probibet cum poâ—â—st jubet will infallibly lie against them at the great day of accounts He who has a possibility of preventing a Mischief and either neglects or refuses to do it most certainly in the sight of God the Righteous Judg is guilty of it I cannot tell what arguments to make choise of in such a Crowd of them as come thronging into my mind to persuade people to be willing and ready to perform a duty they owe to God and Man in order to the securing our Peace and Religion in their private Capacities as well as the Government is to do all that can be done or devised in order to it but however in short I will offer these following as to me appearing most pressing and considerable and if any other person can suggest more or more proper Motives it will become them considering the present necessity in charity to themselves and the Publick of offer them to the view and consideration of the people of these Nations First therefore I heartily wish that all people would consider with themselves that what I offer is no Innovation here is nothing proposed to them or imposed on them but what the wisdom of our Ancestors and of King James esteemed one of the wisest Princes in the World with the advice of his Parliament thought fit to pass into a Law and I hope that very Name will oblige people to believe the owe a duty of obedience to it all the difference seems to be this that when that Statute was made all Protestants in general received the holy Sacrament and onely the Papists were they who refused to do it whereas now it is to be feared through the industry of the Jesuits among us many who call themselves Protestants will refuse it as well as Papists however to shew the duty and the advantage of it especially were it a little accommodated to our present Circumstances and because it does not lie in the way of every person to consult the Statute at large I will faithfully set down so much of it as concerns our present Case and purpose Tertio Jacobi cap. 4. An Act for the better discovering and repressing Popish Recusants Forasmuch as it is found by daily Experience that many his Majesties Subjects that adhere in their hearts to the Popish Religion by the Infection drawn from thence and by the wicked and devillish counsel of Jesuits Seminaries and other like persons dangerous to the Church and State are so far perverted in the point of their loyalty and due Allegiance unto the Kings Majesty and the Crown of England as they are ready to entertain and execute any treasonable Conspiracies and practises as evidently appears by that more then barbarous and horrible attempt to have blown up with Gunpowder the King Queen Prince Lords and Commons in the House of Parliament assembled tending to the utter subversion of the whole State lately undertaken by the Instigation of Jesuits and Seminaries and in advancement of their Religion by their Schollars taught and instructed by them to that purpose which attempt by the only goodness of Almighty God was discovered and defeated and whereas divers persons * Observe that they judged all such as would not receive the Sacrament to be Popishly affected popishly affected do nevertheless to cover and hide their false hearts and with more sufety to attend the opportunities to execute their mischievous designs repair sometimes to Church to avoid the Penalty of the Laws in that behalf provided For the better discovery therefore of such persons and their evil affections to the Kings Majesty and the State of this Realm to the end that being known their evil purposes may be better prevented Be it enacted by the Kings most excellent Majesty the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled and by the authority of the same That every popish Recusant convicted or hereafter to be convicted which heretofore hath conformed him or her self or which shall hereafter conform him or