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B20784
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An essay for the conversion of the Irish shewing that 'tis their duty and interest to become Protestants : in a letter to themselves.
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Cox, Richard, Sir, 1650-1733.
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1698
(1698)
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Wing C6721
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30,538
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48
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like Faith in the Church Sect 101. Nevertheless I allow an Orthodox Church to be a great Help and good Guide in Explaining Scripture but how will you choose this Church but by the Notes and Characters of it in Scripture wherein the Church till you are of it can give you no Assistance To what purpose do you publish Notes of the Church and Arguments for it but to convince our Judgments You may as well propose them to a Horse as to a Man if he may not use his Understanding to distinguish If then we must trust our Iudgments in choosing what Church we will be of we may as well trust them in Points less material Sect. 102. I said An Orthodox Church is a good Guide But how shall we find it Even by this Mark That its Doctrine is consonant to the Holy Scriptures and its main design is the Glory of GOD and the Salvation of Souls It does not countenance Unjustifiable Means of gaining Proselytes nor Encourage Evil that Good may come of it On the contrary the Church of Rome uses a Thousand Artifices and Pious Frauds Sometimes frightning you with Superstitious Bugbears otherwhiles raising your Hopes upon false Notions and groundless Expectations and where her Subtilty fails her Cruelty supplies a Merciless Inquisition to force Those she cannot otherwise perswade to submit to her Tyranny and promote her Grandeur Sect 103. Let 's try her Sincerity in the Topicks made use of to deceive you and keep you in her Communion 1st They say you are an Irishman and ought manfully to support a National Quarrel 2dly That your Interest and Hopes of Recovering your lost Estate should render you inseparable from Popery 3dly That your Loyalty to K. James should oblige you 4thly That Popery is the Ancient Religion 5thly That 't is the Religion of your Forefathers 6thly That there is but One Faith and One Church which is that of Rome 7thly That Popery is the Safer Religion And 8thly That 't is not Honourable to change your Religion All which I shall endeavour to prove Fallacious or False Sect 104. The First is partly Answered Sect. 32. where it appears you are of English Extraction but 't will be a full Answer to say That we have no National Quarrel against you most of us having been born in this Nation nor do we look upon you when you come over to the English Interest and Religion to be other than Englishmen as you may see in the Noble Families of the Earls of Thomond and Insiquine and many others as Macguire Coughlan c. Between whom and those of English Extraction no manner of difference â—s made Sect 105. To the second I say It does not conâ—ern such of you as are Restor'd or in Possession â—or the Bulk of the common People who would get nothing but more Tyrannical Masters if the Old Irish were Restor'd nor the Merchants Lawyers Physicians and Gentlemen that lost no Estates why then should Tâ—ese suffer themselves â—o be us'd as the Cat 's Paw was by the Monkey â—n the Fable and let their own Fingers be burnt to â—ull Nuts out of the Fire of Rebellion for the Priest and the old Proprietor to eat 'T is certainâ—y therefore the Interest of all these to live in Peace and see Themselves and their Country prosper and flourish and to contribute to it by their Conformity to the Excellent Laws and Pure Religion therein Established Nay the Old Proprietor if he has any Grace Honesty or Bowels will rather delight to see his Country United and Settled in Peace and True Religion and seek for New Purchases by his Industry than endeavour to put it in a flame and hazard himself and his Friends upon vain and imaginary Hopes But as for the Priests I know them so well and their love of Gain that I have no hopes to convert them without a Pension Sect 106. As to the Third Loyalty to the late King James it has been partly touch'd upon before but I must add That Ireland was at first Conquer'd by the Blood and Treasure of England and thereby and by the repeated Oaths and Submissions of the Irish became part of the Dominions of England and and a Subordinate Kingdom to that Crown and since that by several Acts of Parliament Ireland has been Inseparably Vnited and Annexed to the Imperial Crown of England from whence it will follow That whosoever is King of England is ipso facto King of Ireland as much as he is of Berwick or the Isle of Wight and the consequence of that will be That when King James Abdicated England he deserted all its Dominions and among the rest Ireland And as soon as his Present Majesty was Declar'd King and had the Crown of England the same instant he became Lawful Rightful for I see no difference since Law is the Rule of Right King of Ireland and to conspire against him thenceforward was and is Treason and to levy War against him is open and actual Rebellion Sect 107. And this is proved not only by Reason and Constant Practice in all Ages but also by the greatest Authority the Law is Conusant of and that is the Opinion and Judgment of all the Judges in both Kingdoms and the Supream Authority of both Parliaments this is the Legislative Power for the King and Parliament cannot only Interpret but also Make Laws And they have both Authoritatively and Declaratively settled this Point so as to make it Binding both to the Iudgment and Consciences of all His Majesties Subjects From whence it follows That the pretended Loyalty your Priests encourage in you towards K. James is in Truth Notorious Disloyalty Undoubted Treason and Manifest Perjury and Breach of the Oath of Fidelity you have taken to King William But what care your Spiritual Guides for that if you would but help them to recover their Jurisdiction their Tythes and their Abby and Church-Lands Sect 108. As to the Fourth Antiquity 'T is no Constant Note of the Church for it had a Beginning the Churches of Jerusalem and Antioch are more Antient than that of Rome and yet have Apostatiz'd and the Greek Church is altogether as old and has had a constant Succession of Bishops But to give this a full Answer The Church of Rome has nothing Antient I mean Primitive but what we agree in Her New Creed shews that she has a New Religion as to the Points in difference which are already shewn to be Novelties introduced one after another as she had occasion and opportunity And therefore she declines to be tried by Scripture well knowing that is the Old Religion which was Revealed at first and is recorded in the holy Scriptures where Popery is not to be found Sect 109. As to the Fifth It follows from what has been said That Popery as now practis'd was not the Religion of your Forefathers Besides your Ancestors Renounced the Supremacy of the Pope by Indenture Anno 32 Heb. VIII And long before that by
AN ESSAY FOR THE CONVERSION OF THE IRISH SHEWING That 't is their Duty and Interest To Become PROTESTANTS In a Letter to Themselves S. BASIL EPIST. 80. Let the Holy Scriptures be Arbitrators between Us and whosoever hold Opinions consonant to those Heavenly Oracles Let the Truth be adjudged on their side DUBLIN Printed by Ioseph â—ay and are to be Sold at his Shop in Skinner-Row 1698. Price Six-Pence To my Country-Men The ROMAN CATHOLICKS of IRELAND Gentlemen Sect 1. I May with Reason expect that you should give some Regard to the following Admonitons since They Result from the Compassion of a Gentleman the Charity of a Christian and the Affection of a Friend and their Design is to promote the Safety and Happiness of the Kingdom in general and of You in particular Sect 2. Nor ought it to disoblige you that I explain my Friendship not to extend to your Popory or your Vices since 't is the Design of this Epistle to Reform both These 'T is better that my Affection should be founded as it is upon the Good Qualities you are endued with and the Disposition I think I perceive in You at This Time to a General Conversion and to become Good Subjects and Good Christians Sect 3. And since 't is your Interest to be so That you may live Comfortably in This World and be Happy in the Next you ought to be Diligent in Finding out and Careful in Pursuing the proper Methods for Attaining those Important Ends. Sect 4. But because they are most Obedient to their Physician who are throughly Convinced that their Distemper is Dangerous I ought first to Enquire how far you are from being Good Sabjects or Good Christians whilst you continue Papists in hopes it may prepare you to receive my Directions the more readily for your Amendment in both Sect. 5. How far too many of You are from being Good Subjects to a Protestant King whom you believe Damn'd and wish Dethron'd your own Hearts can testifie as your Tongues do every day whilst they express the Exultations of your Souls at every Misfortune that befalls the English and the Dissatisfaction of your Minds at the Glorious Successes of Our Victorious King Examine your own Hearts How much were you griev'd at that Common Good of a General Peace How loth were you to believe it even after it was Proclaim'd How many Ridiculous and Improbable Stories did you either Invent or Promote to keep up the Spirits of your Party during the War and particularly that groundless Sham of England's being left out of the Peace How often have you wish'd Success to those Enemies of Christianity the Turks in hopes it might divert the Confederate Princes and promote the Designs that were formed to Enslave Christendom How zealous were you for Arbitrary Power in the late Reigns in order to bring in Popery upon the Ruines of the Laws and Liberties of your Country But not to insist upon the Words of your Mouths or the Meditations of your Hearts Let us resort to Action and Enquire how it has been in former Times and sure it could not be well with Those who stifled the operations of their own Reason and gave themselves up to the Conduct of Popish Clergy whose Oath is so strict that as the Friar confessed They must be perjur'd to the Pope if they prove True to the King Sect 6 As to the Time before the Conquest your own Procurator-General Peter Walsh confesses Thaâ— never any Nation upon Earth came near the Milesian Irish in the most Unnatural Feuds that have been heard of Feuds says he so prodigiously Bloody that as they were first Founded so they still increased and Continued in Blood from the Foundation of the Monarchy in the Blood of Heber to the Murder of the Penultimate Monarch Moriurta Mac Neil Feuds continued with the greatest Pride most Hellish Ambition and cruellest Desires of Revenge and followed with the most horrible Injustices Rapines Desolations Perfidiousness Rebellions Treacheries and Murders for almost 2000 Years He proceeds and says That we never read of any other People in the World so Implacably so Furiously so Eternally set upon the Destruction of one another He tells you of 600 Battels fought Cruelly and Unnaturally by Men of the same Country Language Lineage and Religious Rites Tearing out the Lives of one another for Dominion or Revenge and that 118 Irish Monarchs were slaughter'd by their own Subjects whereof 94 were Murder'd and 86 of them succeeded by the Regicides Sect 7. And now Gentlemen pray consider whether any Christian ought to boast of the Loyalty of such Ancestors or glory in the Religion of such Fore-fathers Sect 8. But as it was thus bad before the Conquest it has not been much better since for it is manifest that there have been more Rebellions in Ireland since the Conquest than there have been in any two Kingdoms of Europe within that period Sect 9. But because the greatest Pretensions of Irish Loyalty were made to the Royal Family of the Stuarts who they say were of their Milesian Blood and Lineage and Descended from the Ancient Monarchs of Ireland it will be fit to give you a Summary View of your Ancestors Behavior and your own in their Reigns Sest 10. And first for King James I. 'T is certain that he had but little respect from the Irish for as soon as they understood him to be a Protestant and Resolv'd to continue so they oppos'd his Government Even the great Cities and 1603. Towns that had been stanch in former Rebellions were deeply Engaged in this Limrick Kilkenny Clonmel and Wexford were of this Number but Waterford and Cork were more obstinate than the rest so that the Lord Mountjoy found it necessary to march in Person with the Army to Reduce them Sect 11. This was follow'd by the Gun-Powder-Treason in England and soon after was the Conspiracy of the Earls of Tyrone and 1607. Tyrconnel and their Accomplices in Ireland which being discovered they fled to Spain and the next year upon promise of their 1608. Return with Succours Sir Cahir O Dogherty seiz'd Derry and Culmore and murdred the Governour and took the Field but about five months after he was defeated and slain which discouraged all other Rebellions in that Reign tho' the Seditious Behaviour of the Popish Members in the Parliament Anno 1613. came very near one and did in effect Threaten it Sect 12. The next that Ascended the Throne was King Charles I. Who without doubt had as good Title as his Son King James II And yet the Irish did Rebel against him Anno 1641. at a time when he was very much distress'd and in a manner more Barbarous and Bloody than ever had been known before And when that Kings Affairs requir'd a Peace the Irish Papists and especially those of the Nuncio's Party tho' they boasted of Loyalty then as loudly as they do now undutifully held him to Difficult and Destructive Conditions and Vary'd and