AN ANSWER TO CERTAIN scandalous Papers, Scattered abroad under colour of a Catholic Admonition.  Qui facit vivere, docet orare. 
¶ Imprinted at London by Robert Barker, Printer to the Kings most Excellent Majesty.  
ANNO 1606.   

AN ANSWER TO CERTAIN scandalous Papers, scattered. abroad under colour of a Catholic Admonition.  
Having lately resolved to recall my Thoughts from the earthly theatre, where they sat and beheld the variable motions of men, with those cares and cogitations which are the proper companions of public ministers, hoping thereby to be made partaker of their contentments, which borrow from public Action, to give to private Contemplation; I persuaded myself, that I could never make choice of a better Subject for my meditation, then of the late Treatise, Entitled: His majesties Speech in the late Session of Parliament, together with a Discourse of the manner of the discovery of this late intended Treason. Wherein, so many true and lively Images of Gods great favour and providence, are represented: (Every line discovering where Apelles hand hath been) As all that observe the natural description of this Tree of Treason, amp; in Ramo & in Radice, may truly say, 
Cap 6. lib 2. Reg.  there needs no Elisha in our days, to tell the King of Israel, what the Aramites do in their privatest Counsels. In this Princely and religious work, his Majesty (like to those kings of whom Seneca speaketh, that do more good by Example then by Laws) hath increased our obligation, by leaving under his own hand, such a plain & perfect Record of his own true thankfulness to Almighty God, for his so great and miraculous graces; as neither the present Time, nor ages to come can ever be so ingrate, as not to retain the same in perpetual memory. A duty required by God of all his creatures, Non ad praemium, sed ad honorem. For as amongst all the excellent faculties of the mind (next to the understanding) Remembrance hath the precedency, for necessity and use: So in the accounts of all those services we own to God, (who desireth rather, we should remember what he hath been to us, then curiously to affect what he is in himself,) Remembrance is the first, and the first commanded. In this faculty we excel die beasts, and imitate the Angels: For they being present behold at once, GOD'S Goodness and Love, in the mirror of his Deity; and we upon earth, (in the Table of his Works) have a present and full view of that which God is, by that, which he doth. So as, although we cannot see him in himself, yet we do particularly see him in his means, especially in those great works of deliverances and defences, which he provideth for whole Nations and people, against public and private practices. And therefore if we shall grow forgetful, or think it sufficient for a day or a year to pay him our Tributes of humble thankfulness, when the Heathen themselves do continually offer unto their false gods, their cinnamon and Frankincense, Then shall our error be no less, then that of Israel, whose praise and prayers ended almost assoon as they had passed the Red Sea.  
But now while I was in this most serious and silent Meditation, (sometimes ravished with the infiniteness of GOD'S Mercy and justice, who restraineth the power of the wicked, as he did the Viper from the hands of Paul; sometimes comforted in calculating my days of happiness, to live under a King, blessed in himself, blessed in his Olive branches, beloved of men for his integrity and wisdom, and pleasing to God for his zealous endeavours, to cleanse the Vessels of his Kingdom from die Dregs and Lees of the Romish grape;) Even then (I say) when my heart was not a little cheered, to observe so much as the least note of my Name, in his Register, for one that had been of any use in this so fortunate a Discovery, (much like to the poor day labourer, who taketh contentment many years after, when he passeth by that glorious Architecture, to the building whereof he can remember to have carried some few sticks or stones:) Even then, was I most bitterly calumniated, with many contumelious Papers and Pasquil's, dispersed abroad in divers parts of the City, without any Author, and yet so continually coming upon me, one after another (like the messengers of job) as I could neither devise to whom to turn me to make my answer, nor yet imagine by what hard destiny I had drawn upon me their fury, thus to single me out for a Subject of so much bitterness, in the days of so great joy and gladness: Yea even in the time when I was persuaded, that they which had divided themselves for conscience sake from all Communion with us in our Religious offices, would yet have tuned their harps, to have joined with us in cheerful Songs for this our happy deliverance.  
Resting long in this debate with myself, whether I should now begin a warfare of words, that had so long put on an habit of suffering, especially against any of those, with whom Disputes are endless; because their end is clamour, without desire to receive satisfaction; After I had taken secret and faithful counsel, from the love and duty, which liveth always in me towards my Sovereign, and entered into serious consideration, how easily die errors of public Ministers, may reflect upon the best deserving Princes; having also heard from Foreign parts, how far my Name was there proscribed for a man of blood; I thought it fit in regard of the place I hold, to take some occasion to express myself in some clear terms; left any of those clouds which are unjustly cast upon me, might darken the brightness of his Royal mind, which hath been always watered with the mildest dew of Mercy and Moderation.  
And therefore although I know, that Stylus prudentiae est silentium, and do remember well the caution prescribed by Solomon, in the apprehension of scattered calumnies, wherein the follies of men like clouds of tempest are imagedm when they lack occasion to power forth showers of malice, on the heads of Persons in place of govemment: Yet finding myself in such an absolute possession over my own soul in patience, as it is not in the power of any calumniator to disturb the peace of a quiet mind; I through it meet to break silence, and to the intent my answer might be the better conceived, to set down first the Copy of one of their original writings; Whereof the tenor followeth.   

¶ To the Earl of Salisbury.  
MY Lord, Whereas the late unapprovable & most wicked design, for the destroying of his Majesty, the Prince, and Nobility, with many others of worth and quality, (attempted through the undertaking spirits of some more fiery & turbulent, then zealous & dispassionate Catholics) hath made the general state of our Catholic cause so scandalous in the eye of such, whose corrupted judgements are not able to fan away and sever the fault of the professor from the profession itself; as that who now is found to be that Religion, is persuaded, at least in mind, to allow (though God knoweth as much abhorring as any Puritan whatsoever) the said former most inhuman, and barbarous project: And whereas some of his majesties Council, but especially your L. as being known to be, (as the Philosopher termeth it) a primus motor in such uncharitable proceed, are determined (as it is feared) by taking advantage of so fowl a scandal, to root out all memory of Catholic Religion, either by sudden banishment, Massacre, imprisonment, or some such unsupportable vexations, and pressures; and perhaps by decreeing in this next Parliament, some more cruel and horrible Laws against Catholics, then already are made: In regard of these premises, there are some good men, who through their earnest desire for continuing the Catholic Religion and for saving of many souls, both of this present, and of all future posterity; are resolved to prevent so great a mischief, though with a full assurance aforehand of the loss of their dearest lives. You are therefore hereby to be admonished, that at this present there are five, which have severally undertaken your death, and have vowed the performance thereof, by taking already the blessed Sacrament, if you continue your daily plotting of so tragical Stratagems against Recusants. It is so ordered, that no one of these five knoweth who the other four be, for the better preventing the discovery of the rest, if so any one by attempting and not performing, should be apprehended. It is also already agreed, who shall first attempt it by shot, and so who in order shall follow. In accomplishing of it, there is expected no other than assurance of death; Yet it will willingly be embraced for the preventing of those general Calamities, which by this your transcendent Authority, and grace with his Majesty, are threatened unto us all. And indeed the difficulties herein are more easily to be digested, since two of the intended Attemptors, are in that weak state of body, that they cannot live above three or four months. The other three are so distressed in themselves and their friends; as that their present griefs (for being only Recusants) do much dull all apprehension of death. None is to be blamed (in the true censuring of matters) for the undertaking hereof: For we protest before GOD, we know no other means left us in the world since it is manifest that you serve but as a watch, to give fire unto his Majesty; (to whom the worst that we wish, is, that he may be as great a Saint in Heaven, as he is a King on Earth,) for intending all mischiefs against the poor distressed Catholics. Thus giving your Lordship this charitable admonition, the which may perhaps be necessary hereafter, for some others your Inferiors (at least in grace and favour) if so they run on their former inhuman and unchristian rage against us, I cease, putting you in mind, that where once true and spiritual Resolution is, there, notwithstanding all dangers whatsoever, the weak may take sufficient revenge of the great.  
Your L. well admonishing friends, etc. A. B. C. etc.  
Postscript.  
It may be your Lordship will take this but as some forged Letter of some Puritans, thereby to incense you more against Recusants. But we protest upon our salvation it is not so, neither can any thing in human likelihood prevent the effecting thereof, but the change of your course towards Recusants.   

THis being now one of their charges verbatim, because it is not my meaning to wander further, than the paths of their own uncharitable passions do lead me; I will only direct my answer to the several parts thereof; though the same as they lie, druert me from any other good or regular method.  
For the first part therefore, wherein this writer in the Name of the Catholics protesteth against the fact as an unapprovable & most wicked design; I must shortly say, that whosoever shall read the panegyrical oration of Sixtus Quintus, made upon the murder of Henry the third the French king, shall well perceive that sin to be preferred before the act of judith to Holofernes, by which Gods people were delivered; and may also observe in divers other cases, how generally our adversaries are inclined, to make an ill interprestation only of those things, which fail in execution (for otherwise foelix scelus virtus vocatur) to which may be added that which is vulgarly known, what number of Authors are illustrated strated in Rome, which strongly maintain the doctrine of deposing kings. Nevertheless, because I have ever loved to measure others by myself, and always wished that by some clear and constant course, the state of Christendom might be freed from all pernicious instruments, which seek not to plant peace, but to work confusion; I have been a long time sorry, that those which employ so many seditious spirits, daily to instruct the unlearned Catholics in those mysteries of deposing Princes, have not, by some public and definitive sentence orthodoxal (in which it is supposed the Pope cannot err) made some such clear explication of their assumed power over Sovereign Princes, as not only those which acknowledge his superiority, might be secured from fears and jealousies of continual Treasons and bloody assacinats against theirpeople; but those Kings also which do not approve his Papal jurisdiction, and yet would feign reserve a charitable opinion of their subjects, might know how far to repose themselves in their fidelity, in ciurl obedience, howsoever they see them divided from them in point of conscience. For whosoever shall attribute most to the force of Excommunication, shall never find it (if I mistake it not) further powerful either by the original institution, or in the succeeding practice for many years after Christ, then only to deprive men from spiritual graces, and to shut them as it were out of the doors of heaven, without so gross an usurpation, as to remove them out of the earth, or to destroy their being in Nature. Insomuch as the writ itself de excommunicato capiendo, and other such like courses, which are variable in sundry governments, have rather issued from the goodness of such Christian kings, as were desirous to work the better obedience to the Rules of the Church, then from any power of Excommunication in his own nature, all censures of the Church having left life untouched, sive fuerat Ethnicus sive Publicanus: Many of the heathen themselves having taught this for a rule, Bonos imperatores voto expetere oportet, quoscunque tolerare. And therefore I cannot but marvel the more at some dark and cautelous writings published of late upon this accident, & avowed under the name of one of their Prime men, wherein he hath bestowed many thundering words, against those which shall attempt against Princes by private authority, and yet reserveth thereby a  lawfulness thereof, in case it be directed by public warrant. A matter no less discrediting the sincerity pretended in this particular, than that most strange and gross doctrine of Equivocation, which is so highly extolled in the Church of Rome, though it tear in sunder all the bonds of human conversation. For who so shall please to read one place of the holy Father Saint Augustine (of whose Books by this occasion I have turned over some few leaves) shall find, that when the Priscillian Heretics in all their examinations before the Rulers of that time, did seek to dissemble their heresy, by using those answers of Equivocation, wherewith the Papists now maiutaine it lawful to deny all truth under a mental reservation, and wresting the words of S. Paul, who requireth every man to speak the truth to his neighbour, inferred, as if they might speak falsely to all others. This reverend Father sound and clearly refuted that irreligious Principle, with this short sentence; Cord creditur ad justitiam, o'er fit confessio ad salutem: Otherwise (saith he) Peter, who professed Christ in heart, and denied him in words, would never have redeemed his denial with so many Tears. This were to take away the Crown of Martyrdom, and to make all the holy Martyr's fools; who, making a conscience to dissemble with Heathen Magistrates, sealed with their blood the inward thoughts of their hearts and confessions of their mouths. Neither should any man profess this opinion, but he that seeketh to subvert all Laws and duties of Civil society, breaking out into this Expostulation, O fontes lachrymarum, Where are ye to be found, O ye fountains of tears? How shall we hide ourselves from the displeased face of Truth?  
For the second part, where you pretend an apprehension of so many massacres and pressures to come against Catholics, or some more horrible Law to be decreed in Parliament, then is already allowed, and therein tax me as one that am like to prove a fiery Instrument; Give me leave to tell you, That those are false pretences, which some lewd Impostor hath used as false glasses to multiply your fears.  
These poor Calumniations are like to Adam's fig leaves, unable to cover your shame. For as he sought a covering, non quia nudus sed quia lapsus; So is it your fault, not your fear, that maketh you cast those unjust Imputations upon your Prince and State. Sed pereuntibus mill figurae.  
These men that rule your consciences, have first dazzled your eyes with fearful, but false objects, thereby hoping to engage you more deeply in their pernicious Attempts.  
They have sought with Nero to set Rome on fire, and after to lay the blame on Christians.  
Thus hath your credulity been overtaken with vain shadows, whereas, the children of Wisdom are of slow belief.  
If therefore you had measured those things by the rules of Time, and had entered into a true comparison of things past, with things present; you must needs have conduded better of things to come. For if you behold the precedent Reigns of the two late sister Queens of different Religion, you shall find more blood in five or six years of the first, then in five and forty years of the second.  
Examine likewise, whether you have seen since this King's time, any the least prints of bloody steps. Hath he added new severities to the Laws of the former Time, which he found established? or hath he not in some things qualified them? and in other forborn to execute them, even upon those persons which publish with sound of trumpet the sentence of divorce betwixt his Subject and his Sovereignty? Let me appeal to your own consciences (which in every man holdeth place of judge and Witness) whether upon the present fury of this fiery Treason, which inflamed so many against the generality of the Papists (according to die nature of sudden peril, which hardly admits of rust distinctions) there hath been any one act of blood or cruelty committed; though all men know, that die greatest violences that could have been used in such cases, under colour of public safety, would have been interpreted to be the true effects of care and providence. Nam crudelitas si à vindicta, justitia est si à periculo, prudentia. Nay rather behold the excellent temper of his majesties mind, who doubting what the humour of sudden apprehension might produce at such a time, no sooner had performed his own public duty of Praise and Thanksgiving to God, but he pronounced in open Parliament how far he was from the condemnation of the general for particulars. All which being laid together, I doubt not, but those which are not in the desperate consumption of sin, will freely acknowledge his Majesty to be a Prince of PEACE and MERCY, that delighteth nor in the noise of Chains & Fetters, but rather with Theodosius deferreth Execution, and wisheth Se potuisse potiùs mortuos à morte revocare.  
And now for the imaginary Power, which it pleaseth you to ascribe unto us of his majesties Council, in which number, as a plotter against Romish Catholics, you make me to be one of the Quorum; I should take it always for an Honour and happiness, for me to receive not only injury, but persecution itself in so Noble a Society, where persons of so great Honour and judgement are Actors; who know full well, that Counsellors of Kings do stand for thousands or hundreds, only as it pleaseth them to place them; and that all their greatness groweth merely from humble endeavours, no further meritorious then as they are valued by a gracious acceptance. Nevertheless, seeing I am made by you a divided Member from the Body, and graced with so hard an Epithet as a Boutefeu, and that you are content to borrow my Name to scandalise the State you live in; I must freely say to you without bitterness, That howsoever it may serve your turn for a while, to make me the mark of your malice; yet those that rightly judge of the spirit in which this writer speaketh, will hardly imagine, that this Faction followeth any other Body, than the Body of Authority. It is not the Head alone, nor any other particular members that these men shoot at, but at the Church and Commonwealth; which like Hypocrates Twins have long both wept and laughed together. These are the things which the Enemies of this tithe do study to subvert, and not any poor greatness of mine, who am only great in the eyes of Enuy. Nay rather they are angry with Aristotle, who bids wise Princes keep down Faction, which is ever humble till it get the Key of Power. They are grieved, or rather heartbroken, to behold such an Unity of State and Council, as dares bid the world do, as she would be done unto. These are known so well to be the true causes of their Despair and Discontentment, as they shall ground a faith upon very weak Principles, if they imagine, that open vows of my destruction (a matter of so small consequence) can make them free from imputation of contriving higher Practices.  
But now for that which cometh in the third place, which is their protestation, that for the avoiding new mischief to come, it is intended by good men upon a spiritual Resolution, to take my life; and that there are five persons upon the secret, but all bound up by the Sacrament, whereof two are so weak and so sickly, as they can hardly forfeit two or three months of life: To these I can only say, that having their feet so nigh the grave, their ghostly father deserves small thanks, that will send them thither in bloody coffins. For they do neither carry the marks of Rome Heathen, nor of Rome Christian: for under Heathen Emperors, the victories were scorned, which were barbarously gotten, mixtis veneno fontibus: And when Rome was pure and primitive, you shall find the Arms of the Church were Tears and Prayers. But now their Oracles are so far degenerate from the former purity of that ancient Church, as they make murder spiritual Resolution, and openly threaten the lives of Kings that are Gods breathing Images; when die Prophet David trembled to violate the skirt of King saul's garment.  
All which considered, I doubt not but those Recusants which do discover such pernicious spirits, will out of the light of this fire perfectly discern the darkness and danger of that Religion, whereof the faith is lapped up in such an ignorant & implicit obedience; and so much the rather, because it hath fallen out so often, that the scruples of Conscience and seeds of Treason, have grown up as close together, as the husk and Come in one ear. And therefore I should think that those men, which carry the unlearned Papists, like Hawks hooded, into those dangerous positions, may justly challenge any that shall seek to rob them of the deserved Titles of Boutefeux and fiery matches. For these are they that have made their Church a Court, their religion a vassal to ambition, and are so hot upon earthly Honours, as they cannot distinguish Inter summa & praecipitia. These are they that enjoin men to eat their God, upon the bargain of blood; where those whom they deprave do know, that whatsoever God doth affect in goodness, he doth effect by good means. And howsoever they term our Sacraments as bare and naked signs; we may justly say that we have never hitherto brought them into the combination of murder, or into the house of crying sins. As for that sort of them which pretend to be so full of present grief, through the distress of themselves and their friends (for being only Recusants) as it dulleth all apprehension of death: Those that lack charity, will judge this dullness to be, Plus tristitiae quàm poenitentiae, more for sorrow that the project hath failed, then that it was concerned. As for the Plotters and stratagems whereof they complain, If those which use lawful means to prevent conspiracies, must be esteemed Plotters, and Subjects fit for procription; how shall his Majesty escape their censure, that was Gods chosen minister upon Earth for this particular Discovery? Or to what end do Princes admit of councillors care, or Secretary's vigilancy, (whose Offices are to stand Sentinel over the life of Kings, and safety of States) if their endeavours to countermine the secret mines of Treason, be thus exposed to misconstruction? Or if by stratagems those Laws are meant, by which all branches of Treason are punished; why do they forget that those ordinances are derived from the wisdom of Parliaments, two hundred years before my cradle? Besides, if any think it in the power of few, much less of anyone, to be able to extort determinations of extremity, or procure new Laws in Parliament by self humour; those neither understand the course of lawmaking, nor the wisdom, gravity, or nature of Lawmakers in this State, where Kings themselves, from whom (as from the Centre) all the lives and executions of Laws take their beginning, are pleased freely to admit their subjects negatives, with good and gracious acceptation.  
And now for myself, with whom you would condition to leave Plotting, as you term it, against Recusants: First, discretion telleth me, that as the Husbandman, which casteth his eye over-curiously upon winds and clouds, doth neither sow nor reap in season; so, that servant, whose faith and zeal in the service of Kings, becometh awful of enemies either for their power or envy, is neither worthy of favour nor protection. For when I consider die Prince I serve, that he hath not taken up wisdom of Government upon credit, but carrieth still the jethro of order in his own bosom, disposing the mean causes, to those that are fit to rule over hundreds, and over fifties, reserving still the greatest to the greatness of himself, like a King rich in the experience of many years Reign, over a free and valiant people, both by nature, seat, and education: I freely profess both before mine own and all other Nations, that although I participate not with the follies of that Fly, who thought herself to raise the dust, because she sat on the Chariot wheel: Yet am I so far from disavowing my honest ambition of my Master's favour, as I am desirous that the world should hold me, not so much his creature, by the undeserved Honours I hold from his Grace and Power, as by my desire to be the shadow of his mind, and to frame my judgements, knowledge and affections according to his: towards whose Royal Person I shall glory more to be always found an honest and humble Subject, than I should to command absolutely in any other calling. For the rest which may concern me in my Religion (howsoever darkened with this middle vail of sin and frailty) it is built upon the sacred grounds of Hope and Faith, in the precious blood of my Redeemer, without presuming upon any particular merits. And whereas they allege, that men resolved to die, are masters over other men's lives; My answer is, they have no more power than the least Spider, who by permission can do as much. And if the days of my life were in their hands; as they might peradventure take from me some months of joys: So am I assured they should take me from years of sorrows. But these poor threats amaze no hopes of mine, I am none of those that believe with the men of the old world, that the Mountains shake, when the Moules do cast. And far I hope, it shall be from me, who know so well in whose Holy BOOK my days are numbered, once to entertain a thought to purchase a span of time, at so dear a rate, as for the fear of any mortal power, in my poor Talon, Aut Deo, aut Patriae, aut Patri patriae deesse. For who doubteth that the Magistrates who converse with variety of spirits, must not sometimes undergo Tempests? All our actions are upon the open stage, & can be no more hidden than the Sun. If we deserve ill, we shall hear ill; Or if the present time do flatter us, yet when our glasses are run, (which cannot be long) that glory which maketh worthy men line for ever, dieth with us; and our posterity shallbe the heirs of our dishonour. And therefore suadeat loquentis vita non oratio. Besides, that error which in all mortal things hath her power, strength and declination; hath now her foundations discovered and her Towers taken, so as it is to be suspected, she will play so long with the temporal Sovereignty of Kings, as it shall be the glorious work of Kings to break down her walls and strongest defences: And therefore ill becoming servants to slack their pace, for fear of malice, but rather to rest assured, that unto such as faithfully bestow their time in the service of God, the evening and the night shall come upon them naturally one after another: Their faith shall ascend before them, and their good fame shall remain after them.  
To conclude, seeing God hath pleased to deliver us from so many unspeakable miseries and afflictions ready to have fallen upon us, like the visitation of jerusalem, whereof the Prophet speaketh; When their candle hath his cleared light, and when they sleep in the arms of peace, lo then shall he the time of their visitation: And seeing this should have happened unto us in the days of a just & gracious King, when every man rejoiced under his Vine and under his fig Tree: Let us both for the honour of our Nation, & the good of our souls, be mindful to inform ourselves so perfectly of all our duties both divine and human, as we may not become (through our own gross ignorance) the authors of our own confusion. Let no man set so high a price on that false reputation of keeping oaths to private friends, as for their sake to forfeit faith and loyalty to Prince and Country. Will you find true friends, saith Seneca? Search them inter recta officia, and there shall you find them So saith the Canon Law, Nonest appellanda fides, quae ad peccatum invitat. Tully in his books of Offices disputing the case inter Patrem & Patriam, If thy father (saith he) intent a Treason to his Country and State, and tell thee of it; thou must first dissuade, after threaten, and after accuse. For this is a Rule approved; In promissorio prore iniusta, iurans illicitum, obligator ad contrarium. And therefore seeing God hath saved us so miraculously from this confusion; whereof the mind of man (which within a moment searcheth from East to the West) can no way find the bottom; Let us make it appear unto the world, by the difference of our constant measure of thankfulness, that we esteem not this an ordinary act of God's providence, nor a thing to be imputed to any fault or failing in their plots or projects, but a miraculous effect of the transcendent power, far beyond the course and compass of all his ordinary proceed. Who although he seem for a time to give way, as though he regarded not how men come to their ends and purposes; (letting them grow like poisonful herbs,) yet at length when they are ripest, he will cut them off, and when they are fullest of their venomous quality, pull them up for other men's medicine; having made the Scorpion to carry the oil about him, which cureth the wounds he giveth. To which let us add this further Faith, that as the place where this prodigious Massacre should have been committed, is the same place where the ancient Religion of the Primitive Church, shook off the bonds and fetters of the Roman corruption under which it had long continued in servitude: So whiles the same Faith shall be Religiously and constantly professed, that it shall never be in the power of mortal man, to shake the least corner stone of that blessed and sure foundation.  
Thus have I given my pen her liberty to run her stage; thereby to free my mind traveling (as a woman with child,) with more weighty cogitations than I could contain in silence, or express in order; hoping my intentions shall receive a favourable censure, seeing they are bounded with honest and humble limits. If it be said that I have taken too slight an occasion to answer a slander that lacks an Author; I desire to be thus rightly concerned, that no man would have sooner contemned those Shewells or dead papers, which move with the wind, than I should, if so many advertisements from abroad, and Confessions at home (concurring with this calumny) did not in justice challenged at my hands some speedy course to preserve my poor reputation from these cruel aspersions. In which consideration, although my desires to wear out many days, are drawn within as small a circle as my fears, and both my spirit and judgement, far from such a dejection or weakness, as to endeavour, or expect a remove of fixed resolutions, by force of Arguments or protestations; Yet when I remember with Seneca, that even the great and fairest Kingdoms, whose Laws abound in bloody lines, do lose so much of their beauty, as they become no less deformed, than the basest Shambles; and when I know that our greater JUDGE, and SAVIOUR of the World, who alloweth voices to all kinds of sins, hath made the voice of blood to speak so loud, as it pierceth HEAVEN itself: I do presume so well of all indifferent and equal judgements, as my defence in this degree, shall never be held for a needless curiosity; Quia Inauditi, tanquam innocentes pereunt; Especially seeing mine own conscience telleth me so plainly, that as Clemency is the truest keeper of Kingdoms, So Cruelties are of all other the falsest Guards. If it be said, I have been too sharp in censuring the Romish Catholics in general, because I have been injured by some Infested spirits of that Profession; I do profess ingenuously, that I am not persuaded that such a Malice as this, which hath no Parallel, can ever fall into those hearts that hold any seeds of Conscience, or that these five pretended goodmen, which are combined in this resolution, have any sense of any Religion at all, but rather that they are some dispersed remnant of that impious Consort, whose eyes and hearts are daily wounded, to behold so many fair Mornings, to follow after so black a Day, as had prepared misery even for the child unborn.  
And when I do remember upon the death of the late Queen of happy memory, with what obedience and applause, both professions did concur to his majesties succession and now observe how little assistance was given to these late savage Papists, who had gathered together some few rotten branches, fallen from such decayed and withered Trees as CHRIST had cursed in the Gospel, hoping therewith to have set a Fire, and made a combustion in the State: Although my prayers shall never cease, that we may see the happy days, when only one Uniformity of true Religion is willingly embraced in this Monarchy; Yet I shall ever (according to the Law of God) make so great difference in my Conscience between seeing sins, and sins of Ignorance, as I shall think it Just by the Laws of men, Solum necis artifices arte perire sua.  
And now for answer to your Postscript, wherein you seek so much to divert me from suspecting those whom you call Puritans to be Authors of this Slander; I have only this to say, That you should never have needed to put yourself to so much pains for that persuasion, seeing neither the regular Protestant, nor those that are unconformable to the present Discipline of the Church, can ever be justly charged to have mixed their private differences with any Thoughts, much less with any Acts of bloody Massacres. Et hic baculum fixi.  
Further replies expect not therefore at my hands: I will henceforth rest in peace in the House of mine own Conscience, where if I do good deeds, no matter who sees them; if bad, (knowing them myself) no matter from whom I hide them: for they are of record before a judge, from whose presence I cannot flee. If all the world applaud me, and he accuse me, their praise is vain. Falli potest fama, conscientia nunquam. If this may not suffice, but that you will still threaten and exclaim, I must hear with patience, and say with Tacitus, You have learned to curse, and I to contemn: Tu linguae, ego aurium sum Dominus.