THE Established Test, In order to the Security of HIS MAJESTY'S Sacred Person, AND GOVERNMENT, AND THE Protestant Religion.  
AGAINST The Malicious Attempts and Treasonable Machinations of ROME.  
Nemo sibi nascitur,  
Partim Patriae, etc.  
IMPRIMATUR Jan. 3. 1679.  
Geo. Thorp. Rmo. in C. P. & D.  
Guilielm. Archiep. Cant. à Sacris Domesticis.  
London, Printed by T. N. for Jonathan Edwin, at the three Roses in Ludgate-street, 1679.   

THE Established 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 Reigned 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 itself, 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 Days; 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 endeavour to do what service he can to the Public: Every Man's Oar may, and aught to be in the Boat, to preserve her from sinking; and though possibly I may value my endeavours in this little Scroll, 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 writ? 'tis answered, Not to increase the Crowd 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 Public Bottom; 'tis dangerous meddling with the Helm of State, even sometimes for the Public Pilots; I am no Dictator of Politics, or Pretender to give Unerring Rules for our future Settlement, or present Security; but a Plain, Honest, Wellmeaning Englishman, who hearty Honour my Prince, Love my Church, and Wish well to my fellow Subjects.  
And to manifest that I am so, I will endeavour in short to show to those of my own Sphere, the common Danger under which we lie, whilst we are infested with these concealled seminaries and Jesuits; 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 Poison both men's 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 entrails; 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 sulphurous Mass of their entrails, is recruited, then do they break out in horrid Flames, to the terror of the Country round for many Leagues; which they ruin 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 God's 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 endeavour 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 Gulf, which they Term the Apostolic Chamber could not do it, he had some reason to say as he did. We need not give ourselves much pain, to trace this Leviathan the crooked Serpent, in all his wind and turn, by which he has endeavoured, to wrap and embrace us again in his painted, but mortal Folds: There has passed no Princes Reign since the Reformation, but what has been plagued with the pernicious Counsels, or mischievous 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 Elizabeth's Reign: Catena, who writ the Life of Pope Pius the Fifth, giveth 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 Catholic Faith. To these we own, 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 Grasping 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, dismembered of so great a Strength as the seven Maritine Provinces of the netherlands; and the fatal Eighty Eight having clipped her Pinions of Power at Sea; Portugal revolting to the Family of Braganza; they judged, that even Hope of Assistance from so crazy, maimed, and disjointed a Crown, was a vain Impossibility. France was full of Civil Broils, occasioned by the Pretensions of the House of Guise, and the Princes of the Blood to the Regency, during the Minority of Francis the Second, and Charles the Ninth; and in danger of becoming totally Huguenot itself, had not the Bloody Vespers of St. Bartholomew in the Year 1572. by the Parisian Massacre, as they thought, let out the most dangerous and Feavourish Protestant Blood in the Body; and after that, had it not been rescued from that danger in the Head, by the more than Roman, the Roman Catholic courages of Clement and Ravilliac, by whose Assassinating Hands the Two Henry's, the Third and Fourth fell; so that little hope of help was to be expected from that Quarter, to regain England to Obedience to the Catholic Faith of Rome. Germany was at too great a distance, and too much Lutheran, and composed of too many jarring and perpetually jealous Interests, to expect any Succour from Ratisbonne; nor was it well able to defend itself from the furious Shock of the Warlike Gustavus King of Sweden; who in probability had he lived any considerable time, would have made good the Anagram of his Name, and changed it to Augustus.  
These Circumstances of Affairs, and the posture in which Europe then stood, obliged the Sons of limping Loyola, to put off the Lion's Skin, and begin to play the Fox; and to try if Art, and Artifice would not repair what their unsuccessful Treasons and improsperous Arms had in vain attempted. And now the Aftergame they had to play for so great a Stake, was to be managed with their most refined Skill: from henceforward Divide & Impera must be the Word; the secret Spring that must move the mighty Machine, by which they were to complete our overthrow. All their Arts were used to sow Dissensions, Sects, Schisms, Fears and Jealousies among us; and by pretending a danger and fear of Popery, really to make the way easy to introduce it. The first crop which they reaped, and the early Earnest of their future Harvest, was the loss of the Palatinate, by which the Protestant Interest in Germany sustained a most dangerous Blow, and the Catholic received a considerable accession both of Power and Proselytes: for by this time, they had so infected England with Fears and Jealousies, that King James could not get a Parliament to part with a Penny of Money for the Relief of his Son-in-Law the Elector, unless he would pawn his Crown and Prerogative for it. Nor could his Successor King Charles do any thing towards Resetling that unfortunate Prince in his rightful Inheritance; nor in conclusion to preserve his own.  
Flushed with this lucky Hit, and the succeeding loss of Rochel, they now resolve closely to follow the Blow, and pursue their point; and by making the Popish Party in England appear good and loyal Subjects, zealous for the Crown, and opposite to the Factious of the several Sects, they were resolved by this one Artifice to ruin the Heretics, by their own Divisions: for by this means the Papists began to appear quiet and innocent, and not only so, but Loyal Subjects and Friends to the Crown: this they knew would disarm the Penal Laws in force against them, of their usual severity; and that would at once increase the number of their own Proselytes, and that of Dissenters too; and whilst many were recalled whom the fear of Persecution had staggered from the Romish Religion, the Indulgence which was shown them, gave such Apprehensions and Alarms of the growth and fear of Popery, that it augmented the number of Dissenters, and gave a colourable pretext to the Factions and Disloyal among them to manage their Designs with the greater facility.  
For this unmerited Clemency of our Princes, naturally tender of the Lives and Fortunes of their Subjects, so long as they saw no appearance from them, but of Innocence, Kindness and Loyalty; they constantly perverted to this ingrateful use, secretly to instil a Jealousy into the Minds of their Protestant Subjects, of their disaffection to the Protestant Religion: insinuating that the Suspension of the Penal Laws in force against Roman Catholics, was the effect of the Prince's inclination to Popery. Now the Court was certainly making a tack towards the Coast of Italy, and it would not be long before they came to an Anchor in Tiber: for what could make it more clear and manifest, than the Kindness, as well as Indulgence which was shown to those of that Persuasion? This deadly Poison, thus sweetened and guilded over, went down with the Querulous and Credulous Multitude of dissenting Protestants, and was not a little forwarded by those Factious and Discontented Promoters of the late Rebellion, as the most serviceable Engine, to batter down both the Crown and the Church. What unconceivable pleasure was it now for these concealed Romanists, to stand behind the Scene, and prompt both Parties, to Act the bloody Tragedy which they had composed? Without all doubt, this intoxicating Jealousy, made great Numbers of innocent and undeserving Persons stagger into the other Extreme; and the extraordinary fears and cry of Popery, drive Men so far from that, that at last by the violence of the increasing Storm, they threw overboard all their Loyalty, and in a manner all Religion.  
Had not that great Man Archbishop Laud, been one of the Jonahs' that was first heaved over the Decks to allay the Tempest, we had certainly had then a full discovery of the whole Design; as most fully appears by the Letters now lately Printed of Sir William Boswell, 
The ground Design of the Papists in the Reign of King Charles the First, etc.  the English Ambassador in Holland, to the Archbishop, Andreas ab Habernfeilds, the Archbishops to the King, and his Majesty's Answer; together with a particular of the whole Design of the Papists, who are therein by Name mentioned, to ruin the King and Archbishop, and with them the Church and State by Civil Wars, which were begun by their contrivance in Scotland. But it was too much the Interest both of the Papists and Rebels, to suppress those Papers, and the further discovery of those Designs by his hasty death; for had he lived to complete the Discovery, all the Aftergame of both Parties, had been counter-plotted; and though possibly the Rebels knew nothing of the Design till after his death, and that his Papers fell into their hands; yet, than they were too far embarked in the Civil Wars, to sound a Retreat, and to proclaim themselves Murderers, for taking away the Archbishop as a Papist, whose Innocence would thereby have been fully vindicated, and their Gild made notorious, to the ruin of all their Esteem with the People, and the utter confusion of their Ambitious Design of Sovereignty, and erecting a Commonwealth upon the Ruins of the Monarchy.  
So that nothing can be more clear and evident than this; That from the subtle Practices of the Jesuits, those Diversities in Opinion, and Differences in Practice among Protestants, received their Encouragement, if not their Rise and Original: and while every new Sect pretended still to outdo others in the Purity of Reformation, and a further escape from the Superstition of the Romish Babylon, they were all made Instrumental to undo the Protestant Religion; and a thorough Reformation became the Apple of Contention between the Prince and the People: the King was accused of favouring Popery, and designing to introduce it; and with it, Arbitrary Tyranny, the Natural Child of that Religion, because he would not comply with the Zealous Fury of some Popular Spirits, to throw down the Hierarchy of the Church; which is one of the Fundamental Pillars of our Government. The other by their disobedience to the known and Established Laws of Church and State, became guilty of Disloyalty, and were not without just cause suspected of Dangerous and Treasonable Designs against the Royal Person and Government, which they did endeavour to conceal under the specious pretences, and taking shows of Zeal against Popery, and eager forwardness to promote the pretended Reformation.  
Thus did these subtle Foxes, like sampson's, while their Heads looked several ways, carry those Firebrands between their Tails, with which they set us all at last into a Flame; continually fanning with their pestilent Breath, those Jealousies and mutual Animosities, between the Sovereign and his Subjects, till they had reduced three of the most potent and flourishing Kingdoms in Europe into Ashes, and had filled us with Blood and Confusion. Thus far they had succeeded in their Enterprise, that they had absolutely ruined the Monarchy, and pulled down the old Cathedral, without Establishing, or so much as ever intending, so far as any body could conjecture, any Church at all; and while in Policy they tolerated all Religions, they fairly opened a way for us to have none at all; and which was the thing the Jesuits aimed at, to work us from our own Divisions to destroy one another, and at last, either by Force or Policy, to reduce us to the Unity of the Roman Church: And doubtless they were in hopes in a little time to have accomplished this great Design; when unexpected Providence, what by the People's general weariness of the Tyranny of those many Governments, and by the Loyalty of the Remainders of the Church of England, whom no Cruelty nor Oppression could remove from their firm Principles of Allegiance; brought back with the general Joy of the People, their long Desire, our Banished Sovereign, Restoring Him miraculously to a Peaceful Throne; and with Him, Restoring to these Languishing Nations their Ancient Government and Laws, their long-wanted Liberty, and Religion.  
Now were the Roman Conspirators at a loss again, seeing their hopes defeated, and their expectations gone; and therefore encouraged by former Successes and Experience, they begun to play their old Lessons over again; and we had scarcely taken breath after our violent Revolutions, when they began again to trouble our calm Waters, that so they might fish with more advantage: But by the Loyalty of the Parliament, and Vigilance of the Ministers of State, that being like to prove a Work of too long time for Men of so much impatience; and though they had made so great a progress as to raise some Disorders in Scotland, for which two of them were under the disguise of Presbyterians executed there; yet the generality of the English were too sensible of the goodness of their present Condition, and sufficiently instructed in the Calamities of a late Civil War, to enter into a second; and above all, this great City manifesting upon all occasions great Testimonies of their Loyalty and Fidelity to His Majesty and the Government, they were forced upon new▪ and more precipitate Counsels.  
How they have managed their Affairs, and with what cruelty they had laid their Designs, is by the Goodness of God already in a great measure, and it is to be hoped will be fully discovered; it was in short a Design against His Majesty's Sacred Person, and the Government, our Laws, Lives, Liberties, and the Protestant Religion; a Design as universally laid, as it was to have been tragically executed: The present Race of our Kings, were either to have been wholly extirpated, or become vile Tributaries to the Triple Mitre. One would think it impossible that such barbarous and savage Actions should proceed from any of Human Race; or that there would be found any, who have so far lost the Native Generosity of Englishmen, which in the Times of the Papal Monarchy, durst bid defiance to his Encroachments, as to prostitute the Imperial Crown of these Realms to Vassalage and Slavery.  
A stolen smile will part from me, to think how all this while these Purblind Conspirators could not see how short an Enjoyment they, and their great Three Crowned Master, must have had of the bloody Spoils of England. There is a certain great Neighbour of theirs, who has told a Pope, That he does not value his 
* Witness the Column erected at Rome in disgrace of the Pope, for a Petty Affronted offered his Ambassador t●ere.  Holiness at a Farthing; and who would certainly have made the Moral of old Aesop's Fable good upon them; the Lion, Fox, and Bear, had made a Hunting Match; the Fox and Bear, Subtilty and Cruelty took the Prey; but the Lion, as most powerful, challenged it wholly for himself, and had it without a Murmur from his fellow Hunters, who were glad at that rate to compound with his armed Paws, for the security of their own Skins.  
I cannot believe, but that the whole World will entertain this discovery with Horror; and though the Jesuits will with the greatest Effrontery deny, or mitigate it, yet certainly their Religion will receive the Blow which they intended for ours: for who that is not resolved to quit Humanity itself, can believe that Religion to be true, which is to be propagated with Treasons, Murders of the most Purple-dye, violation of all that is Sacred in Human Society, Law, Justice, Equity, the most Solemn Oaths, Promises, and Covenants? Who can believe the Pope the Successor of St. Peter in Faith and Doctrine, when he shall under his most Authentic Hand and Seal, Absolve the Subjects of any Prince from their Natural, Civil, and Religious Allegiance to their Lawful Sovereign; when he shall grant Pardons to whosoever shall Murder him, and dispense with all the Oaths that have been, or can be taken, to secure the Royal Person, or the Government by Law established? Nero that Monster of Nature, from whom he claims a Succession at least of Practice, set Rome on fire, slew his Friends, made Cruelty his divertisement, and became a Parricide out of Curiosity, Ripping up his Mother's Belly, that he might see the Nest that had brought that Viper into the World. Flaming London is a witness that the second Rome can equal, if not exceed the First; and the Pope scorns to come behind Nero, since he can Command, Authorise, and Pardon the Murder of those who are the common Parents of our Country; and more than that, who wear the Sacred Character of the Eternal Majesty, being Gods to Men, though but Men to GOD.  
How God Almighty does and will resent this Affront and Indignity put upon him by this Usupation upon Heaven and Earth, is in some measure visible already; and 'tis to be hoped, will yet be more, to the Shame and Confusion of such pretended Catholic Religion, but real Atheism, and most Diabolical Impiety; and how far the rest of the Crowned Heads of Europe, will by this example become sensible of their own danger, and the common injury herein offered to all the Royal Masters of the Universe I cannot tell, but Cum proximus Ardet Vtalegon; When their Neighbour's House is threatened to be fired over his Head, it is time for them ●o look about them: No Prince can live in security, so long as there is Poison, Pistol, or Poniard in the hands of such Desperadoes, as not valuing their own are, for the Interest of the Catholic Religion, Masters of other men's Lives; so long as the Pope may for Heresy Arraign, Condemn, Excommunicate, Depose, and Deprive Sovereign Kings in the Consistory, and Arm both their own, and the Subjects of Foreign Nations against them; gives his Benediction, with Rewards and Promises both of Heaven and Earth, to take away the lives of the Heirs, that so he may seize upon the Inheritance; and so long as he challenges to himself the boundless Prerogative of being the Sole and Supreme Judge of what is Heresy, and by virtue of that ●ower, may define whatsoever is contrary to his Grandeur and Interest, to be that damnable and Capital Sin.  
But this is not our Concern, our Neighbours may do as they shall please themselves, and Nurse this Mitre till it shall devour the Crown; we have something nearer home to employ our thoughts, considerations, and most industrious endeavours upon; and with that Charity which gins at home, to take care how we may secure ourselves.  
That all Degrees, Ranks and Conditions of Men, are possessed with a real detestation and abhorrence of such a villainous design, there can be no reason to make a doubt; their own Interest will oblige them to it; had the Net of this great Roman Fisherman been drawn up upon us, all had been Fish that had come to the Net, all would have been involved in the common Calamity; for had the Mischief been form into perfect Monster, had it come to its growth and strength, all Sorts and Degrees of Men, without difference or distinction, who would not have abandoned the Protestant Religion, and submitted to the Roman Yoke, must have fallen as Sacrifices if not to their Religion, yet to that Policy which necessarily attends Cruelty and Usurpation, the Deities which now the Romans worship. Nor could these ambitious Zealots, have ever believed their unjust Dominion sufficiently secured from the danger of future Relapses, but by the entire destruction of all those, whom they could not trust, or might either suspect or fear, & by seizing their Estates, to enable themselves with Force and Arbitrary Power and Tyranny to take away the Liberties and Opportunities of opposing them, from such as they must permit to survive the general Massacre; that so they might be out of fear from those whom they intended to make, and treat like Slaves.  
Had the Royal Oak fallen under their treacherous designs, what favour or mercy, could either the lofty Cedars, or the humble Shrubs and Plebeians of the Wood have expected from their hands? They who were grown so hardened in Mischief, to attempt first upon the Sceptre, would never in their Consciences have scrupled at the Sheephook: They who could not blush to shed the Blood of the Sovereign, would never have disputed to let out whole Rivers of the Subjects.  
If this had been the Project of a few Zealous Recluses, or managed by the hot Brains of some Shave Heads; or had it been the undertaking of some few Discontented Laics, there might have been some colour of excuse for the Religion in general, there being ill Men of all Religions, and even among those who profess the Truest: When there were but Twelve Apostles, one of them was a Devil, a Traitor, and covetous Murderer: But when He, who styles himself the Vicar of Christ, the Successor of St. Peter and St. Paul, the Infallible Head of the Catholic Church, who cannot Err from the True Faith, the Supreme Judge of Controversies, the Keeper of the Keys of Heaven and Earth, Hell and Purgatory, when he shall be the Principal Instigator, Promoter and Encourager of Murder, Usurpation, Treason, and Rebellion, sure no Man can believe, but that either the Faith of Rome is not the Catholic Faith, or that the Church of Rome, if this be her Faith, is no true part of the Catholic Church. For if we may Judge of the Tree by the Fruits, such horrid and infamous Practices, seem to make the Pope appear, the Successor of Iscariot, who betrayed his Master to be Crucified, rather than of St. Peter, who was himself Crucified for Planting and Propagating the Faith of Christ by Rules of Meekness, Tenderness, Love to all Men, and particular obedience to Kings as Supreme, and to Magistrates as God's Vicegerents and Ministers of Justice upon Earth; and indeed, whoever shall consider these Actions of the Pope and the Jesuits, will think them to be expected only from the fierce Cannibals of the West Indies, who have neither Morality, Law, nor Religion; and not from those who style themselves the Pillar and Ground of Truth, the only Professors of the true Faith and Religion.  
It is certainly therefore the interest of every Man who is not a Papist, and I doubt not the wishes and desires of all Men, to be secured from the attempts of such inhuman and cruel Men, who would make no more difficulty to cut the Throat of a Heretic Protestant, than to dash out the Brains of a Mad Dog; and above all the rest of England, it is the more particular concern of this great and populous City of London to be secured from them: Her-present Glory may be a sad Testimony of their infamous Treachery, and hellish Malice; Her Beauty is raised upon those Ashes to which they had reduced her, one of them confessed and died for it; and in which we have reason to think they designed to bury her for ever: the damp, that he put upon her in her present Trade, which is deservedly the general complaint, is from their Practices; and that insecurity in which we live to fall into the hands of these merciless Assassinates, makes men's lives uneasy, their days unquiet, and their nights tedious, and both expensive, beyond the proportion of their present Trade, whilst they are obliged by such strong and constant Guards, to purchase their security at the expense of their Money, Time and Health.  
That His Most Sacred Majesty, and the Honourable Houses of Parliament are Assiduous and Intent, both to discover and punish the Authors of these Treasons and Mischiefs, is obvious to all Men; that they will take all the care that mortal Men can do, both to secure us for the present, and establish us for the future upon the best Foundations of a lasting Safety, no person can doubt: But when they have done their part to the utmost; when they have wound up their Justice and their Counsels to the highest pitch of Wisdom; when they have made the Fence of the Laws impregnable in all appearance; yet unless every Subject in his Place, will contribute something towards the common Security, these pernicious Foxes will either lurk undiscovered among us, or creep through and escape the hands of Justice, though it pursue them never so closely.  
For if we can suppose the strongest Bonds of Oaths of Allegiance, Supremacy, Tests, Abrenunciations, Declarations, or what Human Wisdom can devise; let the words be as plain and perspicuous as the Beams of Day; let all the care imaginable be taken to obviate them in their Equivocations, Mental Reservations and Evasions; let them declare that they believe that the Pope has no Power to Absolve them; or that such Oaths are not null and void from the beginning, because there was not Bona fides ab initio: All this will not be sufficient; for the most Criminal among the Papists will be the least scrupulous of any Oath that shall be tendered to them; nor will think this Perjury, or if it be, will they therefore decline it, so long as they are beforehand armed with an Antidote from Rome, which can expel all the Poison and the danger of such Oaths, and not only so, but render them meritorious, as being part of the Persecution which they suffer from Heretics, in defence of the Catholic Religion; and they who fear the Pope more than God, and believe that he has power to remit all Sins of this Nature, if they esteem them Sins, will think themselves secure from the stroke of Divine Vengeance due to perjured Heads; and which is all they have to look too, they imagine themselves hereby sure to escape the danger and severity of Human Laws.  
And thus eluding the Trial and Discrimination of an Oath, they will securely enjoy their Lives and Liberties, and remain Masters of all the Opportunities of still contriving, and managing their mischievous Counsels, and Treasonable Attempts: For this we are to assure ourselves, that so long as they can escape the danger of punishment, they will never give over the Enterprise. And though God Almighty may not permit them to run to the full extent of their Malice, which terminates in nothing short of our utter Ruin, the Subversion of the Government, and Extirpation of the very Name and Religion of the Protestants; yet will they give us many Disturbances as to our Peace and Quiet, and be able to do us many private Mischiefs, both at home and abroad: for they are a Generation of Men too learnedly malicious, and too well acquainted with the Italian Genius of Matchiavel, and Caesar Borgia, not to be able to do us all possible Injuries; and they are too inveterate not to be feared at all times; but more especially when they either flatter us, or seem asleep, and not to regard us. Manet altâ ment repostum; The hatred and animosity which they bear us, is successive and eternal; the Quarrel is Immortal, and made an Entail like that of Hannibals against Rome; the old rigid Carthaginian his Father swore him before the Altars of his Country Gods, that he should be perpetuus Romani nominis Osor, and to espouse an Eternal hatred of the very Roman Name; nor need we much doubt but they have taken the same Oath before their Altars, to hate the Name of Protestant. Not all the Clemency, Indulgence, or Humanity that can be shown them, is capable of taming this bequeathed Fierceness against us; and let poor Protestants treat them with all the Christian meekness, temper, and compassion, as becomes the noble profession of their innocent and Heavenly Religion; they will upon the first opportunity, repay them with the blackest ingratitude, and most incompassionate Cruelty; two Crimes, which cannot be outdone by all the Vices of Nature and of Hell.  
That these men have been the great Masters who have improved all our Dissensions, few judicious and observing People have for many years doubted, and it is now apparent from the Voluntary Confession, of those who have had sufficient Reason to know 
Mr. Oats and Mr. Bedow.  and whoever Considers how much it was their Interest to dash us one against another and so to break us in pieces, and what large advantages they have made of our mutual discords; to what Extremities by this single Artifice they had reduced us; while with our own Swords, we did all we could, and almost all they could desire of us to undo ourselves, and ruin both the Reputation and Protestant Cause itself; I say, whoever will bring these things together, will be easily induced to believe, that they have been the prime Actors in, as well as contrivers of our Divisions. Thus did we give them opportunity to enter among us with security; and while, as the late dying Archbishop Laud in his Speech upon the Scaffold prophetically observed, the Cry of Veniunt Romani the Romans are coming in upon us, went among a Credulous and abused People, these very Romans whom we so much feared, under other names came in reality upon us, and had almost taken away our Place, etc. Nation. Thus did we furnish them with Conveniency and Arguments to gain Proselytes to their boasted Unity, while they in return, furnished us with mutual Animosities, Jealousies, and Arms to destroy ourselves.  
Nor is this the only fruit which they have already reaped, and do hope still to reap from those Seeds of Discord which they have sown, and so industriously cultivated among us: Here likewise they post themselves as in a wood, and lie in Ambuscade, ready to annoy us; and in the mean time remain secure from being attaqued themselves, or so much as known or discovered; and being able to transform themselves into any shape, like Highwaymen who have committed Murder and Robbery, 'tis but turning the Coat and changing the Peruque, and they face and laugh at the Hue and Cry which does pursue them.  
How dangerous their Company is in this Town, several tragical Examples have lately convinced us; nor can we be secure from Fire, Sword, and Poison, so long as these Mortal Enemies Lodge within us. Now it is morally impossible, and they know it, and for that very purpose have been so very industrious to promote our divisions, I say it is impossible so long as those continue, either to discover them, or get quit of them; since when they find themselves closely hunted by the Laws, they will undoubtedly Herd with some Sect or other and so Escape.  
His Majesty by his Proclamation has commanded all Papists who are not Householders, Travellers, etc. to departed from this his Imperial City: but who believes that there are not great numbers of them, and Jesuits and Priests especially still in Town? and in probability, those who are most guilty, and most desperate: for here in the Crowd they think themselves secure, which they could not hope to be in the Country, where the Jealous peasants, not acquainted with any but their fellow Cottagers, are all in an uproar at the sight of a strange face, and read Firebals and Treason in his very Countenance; and therefore will not fail to carry him before his Worship the next Justice of the Peace; and the Justice for his own security is bound to secure such persons as appear suspicious, unless they can give a very good account ot themselves. Whereas here in Town, a Priest or Jesuit takes a Lodging at a Quakers, can thou and thee, and yea and nay, as well as the best of them; goes to the Silent meeting with his Landlord, and it may be upon occasion, if the Spirit moves, he can disgorge himself against the Priests of Baal, the Hirelings; the burden of Tithes, the uselessness of humane Learning, he can talk of the light within him, and the witness of God, and vilify the Scriptures as a dead and carnal Letter; and such Common-places of discourse as are grateful to the People; and so he passes for one of their Friends.  
Our Jesuit incognito passing thus under the Masque of a Sectary, the Constables of the Parish, as is their duty, and pursuant to the public Orders for the Common security, come to my Neighbour the Quakers to know what Lodgers he has in his house; he strait informs them such a person, and gives in the false name by which he goes; they inquire what he is? he tells them he is one of their Friends who has lodged there so long; the Officers it may be only in drollery tell him they suspect he is a Priest of the Roman Church; Nay verily that he is sure he is not, for he hates the Beast and the Scarlet Whore, he has heard him say so, in the Meeting. Well! the Lodger himself, it may be if within, is so confident as to face the Officers, who tell him he must take the Oath of Obedience; Nay, replies he, Friends, I cannot swear, the light within me witnesses to the truth, which says, Swear not at all, but let your Yea be Yea, and Nay Nay, and gins an Harangue against all Oaths. The Officers imposed upon as well as the Good man of the House, by the fineness of the stratagem, leave him, only entering his borrowed name in the List, without suspicion that he is a Papist, and much less, a Priest or Jesuit. Thus does he scape , and is at liberty; and when in a place remote from his quarter, he rendezvouzes with his fellow adventurers in Masquerade, they laugh at all the World; and in despite of all Laws and the strictest search, as if they had King Gyges his enchanted Ring, they walk invisible and secure; and want neither freedom, nor opportunity, to contrive, carry on, and execute their horrible designs, of firing our City; assassinating such as are active in opposing them; endangering as much as ever the Royal Person, the Government, and Religion.  
I do not particularise in this Sect, as the only shelter or secure harbour for these Popish Conspirators, though it may be, their esteeming all Oaths unlawful, their deriding and disusing the holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper, their Contempt of the Scripture, their state of perfection in this life, and several other of their Tenets, so agreeable to the Romish Doctrines and designs, qualify them more than many others to be deceived by the Jesuits, and are more proper to afford them shelter and security.  
Not that this will excuse any other Sects from the same danger; and I see no reason why we should not suspect, that several stickling Itinerant Teachers, who travel as Apostles among the Independents, Anabaptists, etc. may not as well be Jesuits under these disguises, as those two Executed in Scotland, who went under the Notion and Character of Presbyterians; who yet, as Mr, Oats has deposed, had their Commissions to Preach Sedition and Rebellion, from the Rector of the English College of Jesuits at Douai, and he from the Pope.  
The is no question but a Jesuit can put on any dress of Religion, to serve the Interest of the Catholic Cause, and will not scruple to take up the patronage even of the good old Cause, and appear an eager Separatist in any shape, the better to accommodate himself with a Capacity of promoting our Ruin by our dissensions and divisions: this gives him a certain opportunity to unhinge people from their Allegiance to the Crown and Obedience to the Established Order and Government of the Church, the two butts against which he levels all the arrows of his poisoned quiver: and all the while he seems so fierce against Popery, and Ceremonies, he gains one point more of the Compass by which he sails, which it is pass undiscovered, and under that disguise to help to blow up the Coals of misunderstandings, Jealousies, and Animosities, between the King and his Subjects; with which at last he hopes to set them into a blaze, and to warm his own hands at the fire which shall consume them.  
And to further this design, it is to be known that a Jesuit can be of any quality, Trade or profession, a Gentleman, a Merchant, a Lawyer, a Solicitor, a what you please: for the Romish Janissaries are the tribute Children of all Europe, of the most pregnant Genius and universal Capacity that can be gleaned up in any Schools; and these besides their Learning in which they are trained up suitably to their Inclinations, are also instructed in all such arts, as may accomplish them, and render them agreeable in conversation to all sorts of people; and in order to their being serviceable to their Concealment. Who would have believed Mr Price, Steward to my Lord Marquis of Worcester to have been such an eminent Jesuit, as to merit the Character of one of the most ingenious and wisest men in orders in the World? in all companies he passed for an ingenious man and a Virtuoso, and I have heard a worthy Gentleman and famous Lawyer say, he thought he was one of the ablest Solicitors in England; but he, as well as others were, I dare be confident far from suspecting him to be what he is now charged with, or the wise man upon whom the Conspirators so much relied for his Counsels and Conduct of their late Hellish Conjuration? and in such a crowd of people of all sorts as inhabit this Spacious City, and over grown Suburbs, how easy a thing is it for great numbers of them to settle themselves as Inhabitants, especially the secular Jesuits, who apply themselves to Civil affairs, as Factors and Merchants Trading to Foreign parts? and how impossible is it to discover them to be what they are, detestable Conspirators who maintain a secret Correspondence with all Courts of the Roman Religion to our prejudice, and principally with the Court of Rome, so long as they publicly own themselves to be of some sect or other, and pass under the Characters of Presbyterians, Independants, Anabaptists, or any thing but of the Church of England: for that is their mortal hatred; that, is what they do above all things covet to destroy; as being the frontier and Bastion of the Protestant Religion: and could they entirely ruin that, which is the thing they labour for night and day, with all the application imaginable, velis & remis, tooth and nail, and for the accomplishment of which great work they transform themselves into secure these various disguises, they make themselves secure of the Rest; whom they would play at one another, till they worried and devour themselves; and at last, fall an easy Conquest to the Roman Mitre.  
Whoever he was that writ that discovery made to the late King and Archbishop Land, he assures us that of the four Orders, of ecclesiastics, Politics, Seculars, and Intelligencers, scarcely all Italy, Spain, and France, afforded so great a number of Jesuits, as the City of London then did, and that there were more than fifty Scottish Jesuits then, who had conspired against the King and Government, by raising a Civil War among us: and we have no reason to believe that their numbers are lessened, when their conveniencies are increased. Under these disguises they do more effectually carry on their wicked designs of keeping up and increasing our disorders and divisions; for it is the close Cabal that does the mischief; and poisons the Common people of any Sect with principles of disloyalty and faction; when they are under the Rose than do they vomit out all they can to enrage people against the Government both in Church and Stolen: whereas the public discourses of most dissenters, either out of Ingenuity or fear of punishment, are managed with more Caution, and less violence.  
I am not so vain as to believe, that these Truths or at least dangerous probabilities should gain entire Credit even with those whom they do so nearly concern; I am but too sensible that the impressions which some men have received into their minds, are so firmly riveted into their belief, that they will not be persuaded to abandon them, though that be they only probable way to establish their own, and the Common safety and security of our Nation, one may almost with the same ease remove Black-heath, as persuade some people that they are secretly managed by Romish Priests and Jesuits; that they are accessary to the dangers of introducing Popery; or that they secure them from discovery, and that punishment which in the opinion of all men they have justly merited.  
But certainly they who wish well to their Native Country; to the public peace and security of the Nation; to their own lives, Liberty, Property, or Posterity; if they will act according to the natural principle of self-preservation, or the Dictates either of Law, Reason, or Religion, must do it these two ways.  
Either first, they must contribute all they can actively, towards the discovery of these dangerous Conspirators; by all lawful ways and means.  
Or secondly, if that comes not within their power or knowledge to effect, they must do all they can not to obstruct their discovery, or be accessary to their Concealment; and they ought with the same Caution to avoid the sheltering, or even unwilling securing of them from the hands of Justice, as they would avoid the Common mischiefs, dangers, and Calamities, which they and the whole Nation, may fear from them, or suffer for want of such a discovery.  
Now how willing soever any people may be to pursue at once their duty and great Interest, by the first, yet in regard it will be difficult, hazardous, and uncertain how they shall succeed; and the notorious cunning and dissimulation of these Malefactors protecting them, not only from vulgar discovery, but many times from the most Critical, and piercing Eyes of the wisest Statesmen; there can therefore be nothing left for all true and honest Englishmen and real Protestants, but to clear themselves; and by such a Touchstone as will certainly distinguish, the Papist and Jesuit from the Protestant, to vindicate themselves and discover the other.  
It may be some persons will think me very Confident in offering such a Shibboleth as may certainly detect these Ephraimites, if all Protestants would make use of it: but I am not solicitous what any persons may think: if it be such an easy Expedient as will do the work, so effectually, that the Enemies of our Peace, Religion, and Country, cannot avoid being discovered by it; and if it be such a Method as all true Protestants may and aught to make use of; it will be the opinion of the best and wisest men, and that is only valuable, that they who refuse such a Test and way of Trial, must, either be Accomplices and Confederates with Papists and Jesuits; or however accessary to all the Mischiefs which may happen, by their obstructing and frustrating such a Discovery.  
It has before been intimated, and is notoriously observable by all people, how they do, and may elude all Oaths which may be offered them as a way of discrimination; for the greatest Criminals, having the greatest concern to lie concealed, will not scruple in their extreme danger and necessity, any or all the Oaths that can be framed or offered them to take: and being before hand armed by dispensations and pardons from their Omnipotent Pope, they will consult their own safety and the good of the Catholic Cause, without fear of swearing, or forswearing themselves; so that such Oaths will prove but Cobwebs to take the lesser Flies; while the Wasps and Hornets who carry the sting and the poison will break through them and escape.  
Nay, possibly, they would not scruple to join with us in our Public Service and Solemn Worship, which as much as some people account Popish and Superstitious, the Papists do detest and abhor; Nor would they refuse to hear Sermons in our Churches; though so long as there are so many Meetings of several sects they will be secured from those hardships too: for it is but joining themselves to some of those of the Separation, and they both avoid that way of Trial, and are more able successfully to prosecute their great design of overthrowing the Established Government both Civil and Ecclesiastical.  
But that which they abhor, and esteem so damnable and deadly a sin as cannot be capable of any Dispensation, Pardon, or Indulgence, is to Communicate with Protestants, whom they believe and esteem the greatest Heretics, that ever were in the World; both in respect of their disowning Transubstantiation, and because we are all under the Pope's Curse and Censure of Excommunication. This is that which will in all probability distinguish the Papist and Jesuit from the true Protestant; for whatever they may be allowed to do 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 Public proceed 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 Lord's Supper, etc. 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 perjured 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 Public 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 persuaded to be unanimous in this duty of coming three times at the least in every Year to celebrate and publicly 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 Lord's day next after such their Examination, that they should escape being discovered.  
One would think, that the proposal, were so rational so easy and so Religious, that none but the very Criminals themselves, or their Accessories and Confederates should refuse this way of Trial and discrimination; nor is it possible for any impartial person to consider and deliberate of it, but he must in his Judgement 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 happened, but of whatsoever may or shall happen hereafter, for or by reason of their escaping undiscovered: the true Maxim, qui non probibet cum po●●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 Judge, is guilty of it.  
I cannot tell what arguments to make choice 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 own 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 Public of offer them to the view and consideration of the people of these Nations.  
First therefore I hearty 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 only 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 Protestant's will refuse it as well as Papists: however to show 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 Majesty's Subjects, that adhere in their hearts to the Popish Religion, by the Infection drawn from thence, and by the wicked and devilish 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 King's Majesty, and the Crown of England, as they are ready to entertain and execute any treasonable Conspiracies and practices, as evidently appears by that more than 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 Scholars 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 hid 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 King's 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 herself, or which shall hereafter conform him or herself, and repair to the Church, and continue there during the time of Divine Service, according to the Laws and Statutes in that behalf made and provided shall within the first Year next after the end of this Session of Parliament, or within the first year after that he or she shall after this Session of Parliament so conform him or herself and repair to the Church as aforesaid, and after the first Year, once in every Year at the least, receive the blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper in the Church of that parish where he or she shall most usually abide, or be within the said Year, wherein by the true meaning of this Statue he or she ought to receive.  
And if there be no such parish Church, then in the Church next adjoining to the place of his or her most usual abode. The forfeiture for the first year twenty pounds, for the second Year forty pounds, and for every Year after threescore pounds. And the Officers are therein by rewards encouraged to present the Monthly absence of all Recusants from the Church; and for default of performing their duty are to be fined, as in the Statute more largely appears.  
Were this Statute with a little variation fitted for our Circumstances, and duly put in Execution, it would be impossible but that all Recusants must in a small time be detected; and by consequence those dangerous Jesuits and Seminaries, whose whole design is to contrive, plot and execute, their horrible Treasons against both Church and State: and unless people can be brought to comply with their own Interest as well as duty, the Excellent Method of that Law will be wholly impracticable; and it will be impossible to effect or attain the end, for which it was so wisely intended: for so long as such numbers of people who call themselves Protestant's, shall wilfully absent themselves from their Parish Churches, under the show of Religion; and by their Example so many who have no Religion at all, but perfectly out of Idleness, looseness and debauchery, shall stay at home, or do worse abroad; these Traitors and Conspirators will expect and find Security, by pretending to be dissenters: and so long as there are so many who never regard any Laws of God or Men, Civil or Ecclesiastical which enjoin them to receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper, these will also pass undiscovered among the throng: for it is all one to a Jesuit, whether he pass for a separatist, Libertine, or Atheist, so long as he believes himself a good Catholic; and so long as thereby he has the opportunity of concealment, and thereby to prosecute the main Affair of propagating the Popish interest and Religion, by the Ruin of Protestants and Protestant Religion.  
And therefore, in the second place, I wish that all people would seriously reflect with themselves at whose door the guilt will lie if by their means mischief either public or private overtake us? If the glorious Light of the Gospel, the Lamp of Eternal Truth should come to be extinguished by the Superstitious darkness of Rome; if by the Subversion of England, the whole Protestant Cause should suffer and be ruined, as in all probability, if that Bullwork were blown up, it must; or however suffer a persecution as Sharp and cruel, as all those ten of the Primitive ages put together; the Pagans being nothing so ingenious and wittily Cruel as the Jesuits: if Millions of souls should by a false Religion come to perish Everlastingly: if our streets and fields should blush with the blood of Massacred Protestants, our houses be reduced to ashes, and our miserable posterity, with such as should survive the Common Rage and desolation, should be made and sold for bondslaves: certainly there must be a strict account given to Almighty God by whose default all this came to pass? he gives us the means of securing ourselves and if we neglect, the fault and guilt will be wholly theirs who do obstruct it; our blood will be upon their heads who hear the Trumpet and see the Sword coming and are so far from taking or giving the Alarm, that they join with ours and their own Enemies, if they be not secret Papists, and put a Sword into their hands to slay us: when God to whom vengeance belongs, shall make Inquisition for blood he will not forget the cry of the poor; he will not forget those who have been the occasions, no more than those who were the Actors of cruelty; and how it is possible for those who obstruct the discovery of Popish Priests and Jesuits, not to be in the sight of God and men guilty of all the Miseries and mischiefs which may be occasioned by their concealment, I must protest myself to be utterly ignorant.  
If there can be found any persons so incredulous as not to be apprehensive of these dangers from them, and who may that way think to evade the necessity that lies upon them to contribute their utmost towards this Discovery: I will in short endeavour to convince them from Former Examples. Let the horrible Massacre in France be remembered, in which according to the Relation even of Popish Historians, there perished near a hundred thousand Protestants of all Ages, Sexes and Conditions: among which, twenty Lords of Eminency, twelve hundred Gentlemen, persons of great Condition in the City of Paris, besides what fell in other places: The subtle Contrivance and deep dissimulation with which it was managed, and the Exquisite and ingenious Cruelty with which it was Executed, may sufficiently Instruct us, what we are to trust to, from such Murderers, as glory in what is the shame and reproach of humane Nature, and render the most propitious and merciful Divinity, a cruel and sanguinary Being, while they pretend to please and do him acceptable service by such bloody sacrifices, as even heathens generally by the light of mere nature thought he abhorred: and who encourage one another in mischief, as if the Heavenly Paradise, were an Aceldama, and to be purchased with the price of blood: making such actions of ●orror and Cruelty as even exceed belief, meritorious performances capable to enrol them in the Catalogue of their Calendar Saints: though we know none shall ascend the holy Hill, but they who have clean hands as well as a pure heart.  
If this were not sufficient to convince us at the expense of our neighbours, that which comes nearer to us, is the Rebellion and Massacre of the English Protestants in Ireland; the fatal Flambeau, which kindled our English Flames; the Cruelties which were then exercised are beyond Expression and belief, three hundred thousand souls perished by most, cruel deaths, according to computation, and God only knows how many more, who could never be brought into account: and both in this and the Parisian Massacre how many of those who escaped the barbarous Rage of these merciless Butchers, perished afterwards with cold, hunger, nakedness, and all the hardships that attend the miserable Condition to which they were exposed? Wither to fly they knew not, but generally to the Woods and Forests, nor there, how to supply the necessities of Nature, having nothing left them but their lives, and no way of securing those long from the importunities of Cold and Famine; thus did they languish out a few miserable hours till faint and weary, they became a prey to the Wolves, or fell into the paws of the Tories, the less merciful beasts of the two. How many mournful and desolate Widows, how many distressed and miserable Orphans were then exposed to all the miseries of lif●, before they knew what it was to live, and compelled to suffer all Extremities before they had done good or evil? Oh Injustice and uncomiserating Cruelty! Oh more than brutish Inhumanity!  
And if the Romish Religion, command, encourage and reward such execrable barbarity, to be exercised upon the Innocent, what kind of Revenge can we imagine will they nor invent for those, who dare oppose them? what torments, what lingering and retail deaths would they think enough for such grand Heretics as have slain their Apostles, whom they have employed to convert us to the Catholic Faith? Suetonius reports of Tiberius Caesar, one of the Pope's predecessors in the Roman throne, that he was a person so extraordinary cruel, that when a condemned person made it his importunate request that he might be dispatched quickly, he gave him this bitter Sarcasm in answer, Nondum tecum redii in gr●tiam, No Sir, by your favour, you and I are not yet come to be such good friends. Certainly not only Romulus, but Rome herself, her Kings, Emperors and Popes have been nursed by Wolves; for sure the breasts of any thing that has humane shape, must instill sentiments more tender and compassionate.  
There is not the most guilty head, that shall suffer deserved Death for this Execrable Conspiracy, but will be esteemed a Saint and Martyr in the Romish Church. Their great St. Thomas of Canterbury, so famous for his Shrine and Miracles, and the infamous Prayers made to him, as a Rival of the Son of God, who was by the account we have of Him in our History, as ungrateful a Rebel to his Prince as can be imagined, may abundantly satisfy us in that particular: and if ever they come to reckon with us for such precious blood; it may be easily conjectured, at what rate we must pay for those Canonisations: let us be assured that a thousand fold would not be looked upon as a Compensation for the lives of such, as though we justly think Monsters, they believe to be Miracles of men while they lived, and would persuade their blind Votaries, that their very shrines can do▪ Miracles after their Death. The Pope and his Ministers of Cruelty will never be so far reconciled to any Protestants that shall come within their power as to let them die at once; but would be as gracious to them as Caligula another Heathen Pope or Emperor was to such as by his Tyranny were condemned to die; and that as the Historian relates was, that he was used to command them to be so executed ut se sentirent mori. He would not have them lose their lives by Leger de main and a slight of hand, but they must die by inches, and be sensible of every slow degree of approaching death.  
What pen can describe the terrible dresses of uncommon deaths which would be invented for us? What tongue is able to express its ghastly shapes, and the new fashioned garments of Cruelty, or the rage of prevailing Popery? What heart can think of them, and of suffering them without the extremest horror? If death in his mildest and most natural appearance be so dreadful, as to deserve the title of the most terrible of all Terribles, what must he be when he is accompanied with all the Inventions of Tyranny? Who that saw them, or that heard the sad Relation, can remember London in her raging Flames without astonishment? who can think upon her dismal Ruins and ashes without amazement? how did all faces gather blackness? how were they pained? what tremble of heart at the flying Rumours of a Massacre then intended? What horror, Confusion and astonishment would lay hold upon us, if we should see our Enemies break in upon us like an overflowing fire; a fire devouring before them, and behind them a flame burning, the land as the Garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness? and no possibility of Escaping, but they who fled from the fire must fall upon the glittering Sword; they who escaped the drawn sword; must perish by Famine: and is it possible there should be any persons who will not contribute all they can to prevent these, which are not only imaginary, but real dangers?  
Can it be looked upon as a thing so indifferent, that people should run all these hazards, that a whole Nation should lie at Stake and perish, rather than they will abate a foolish scruple, or a rigid opinion to preserve them; rather than go to the places dedicated to the service of God and receive the holy Sacrament, thereby to dec are their own Innocence, and detect the Authors of our danger, the Enemies of our Peace and Safety? Sure it is much easier to kneel at the holy Table, out of Reverence, not adoration, of the Bread and Wine; then to have the choice either to kneel and adore a Consecrated Wafer, or to kneel at a Stake in Smithfield? Is it not far better to wash our hands in innocence, and offer unto God the sacrifice of thanksgiving; then to be guilty of the blood of so many as should suffer by our being accessary to the accomplishment of the Traitorous designs of the Jesuits; and Sacrifice a Nation and many succeeding generations, many people of other Nations to the Romish cruelty, merely out of obstinacy to our own prejudices, and it may be Fancies, which these very Jesuits and Seminaries have put in our heads? Certainly all those who would not be thought, and in the Eye of the Law Esteemed Recusants and Papists, ought not to make the least scruple to use this or any other lawful and necessary expedient, that shall by the public Wisdom be thought necessary for our common preservation: Nor will it be satisfactory that they shall in words disown the Church of Rome, and declaim against it, or disavow all Confederacy or Complotting with the Papists: the arrantest Jesuit in England will do this upon occasion, to save his own life and endanger ours: and if they hinder the building up of the Walls of our Jerusalem, what does it signify how much they either say they do, or hate the Church of Rome, since whether they conspire with the Papists, or not, if they assist them in accomplishing their intended Design of Ruining the Protestant Religion, it is the same thing? only with this difference, that what the one party does with Design, the other does with their folly.  
And though men should not value their Estates, Lives, or Liberties, which some people seem willing to part with, rather than 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 crumbs of Indulgence or favour from Papists; not all the services they have done them will be remembered with the least gratitude or tenderness; no consideration of tender Consciences is able to soften those hearts who are more obdurate than 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 Shipwreck of their Lives and Fortunes, or of their Faith and a good Conscience, for they would verify their rule to a letter, Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus, No safety in any sense 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 chief hate, and endeavour to ruin; 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 man's fear is his own Pope, and can grant dispensations for matters of greater scruple than this can be: if any persons can think themselves secure or out of danger, not only at this time, but at all times, so long as England is infested with such Wolves and Tigers, 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 authorise, Sedition, Rebellion, Murder, and the utter extirpation of all Heretics, by all or any ways or methods whatsoever.  
To convince people of this, there is nothing more clear and evident, not only 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 Rubrics 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 Mary's short life and Reign; and what treatment our Fathers were to have received from the Invincible Armada of Eighty Eight, had it proved more than an unluckily 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 Murders, 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 Traffic and Navigation will likewise be agreed on all hands. That it is therefore and aught 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 Universal Traffic 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, Breast, Rochel, etc. And see them proud with their stately Castles of Wood, heretofore strangers to the Tides of France: whoso shall withal reflect upon the actions of Tobago in the West-Indies, and Palermo in Sicily, where the Heer de Ruyter, who had saved Holland from the power of England fell under the rising Arms of France: he that will bring these propositions together, shall be able to draw a Demonstrative conclusion from them, that France, will in a few Years struggle hard for the Dominion and Sovereignty of the Seas.  
Nor will they make any Scruple, if Interest did not animate them to it, upon the account, or at least the pretence of Religion, to disturb and weaken us Heretics, in our Trade, and Navigation, especially in the Levant, where by the Commodiousness of their Ports, they will have all the advantages to do it: and if once they come not to dread our power, or be able to grapple with us in the straits, and make themselves Masters of that important place of strength and situation Tangier, they will either totally exclude us if they can, or however come in with us for the greatest share of the Commerce of the Mediterranean; and if they shall gain their point so far, as to cut off one Limb of our Traffic, our Navigation and by consequence our Power at Sea, will by degrees decline apace: and what we lose, they will certainly gain; and if they arrive to that degree, to ride Admirals of the Ocean, of necessity we shall be permitted only to truckle under them, and shall have just so much trade, as we steal, or they are not able to manage.  
Now the most probable way that can be proposed to ruin our Traffic and Navigation, and thereby to secure and increase their own; is to discourage Foreign Merchants, and oblige them to withdraw their Effects, and to starve ours for want of Trade: for by this means they will in a few Years be able to give new Laws of 
* An Island in France, where the first Maritine Laws were made.  Oleron to the Seas. The ready way to Effect this, is to keep us in continual broils among ourselves: for what a damp must it of necessity give to all Merchants, both English and Foreigners to be in such an insecure Condition, that they must have not only the hazards and damages of Winds and Seas, Rocks and Pirates to venture upon, but that they must be every moment in fear of suffering Shipwreck on the shore? The Change I doubt not is sufficiently sensible of this truth at present; and if one sees a full morning Change, it is more to barter news, then to drive bargains; and that trade brings in no Customs to the Crown, nor Riches to the Nation; and so long as we cannot be secure, but that by the treachery of these Jesuits and Seminaries, our City may again be reduced to ashes, our persons secretly murdered, that we know not who to trust, nay the Royal Person and Government destroyed in a moment, and men's Estates given to the ravage of the Murderers, what encouragement can Merchants have to trade? so long as there are so many poisonous Spiders laying their cunning nets and toils to take and destroy them: what courage can the Innocent and industrious Bees have to gather Honey for the Common Hive?  
Besides it is worth our Consideration, how defenceless so great an Island as this is, and how liable to Foreign Invasions, and Depredations, if either their own Shipping and Naval power decays, or does not exceed or at least equal that of our Neighbours: and should any of them grow so potent at Sea, as either out of Ambition, or Zeal to propagate the Catholic Religion to attempt an invasion upon us; how dangerous is it to have a party within ready to join with them, to complete a Conquest upon our Ruin?  
Assuredly, so long as there are so many Seminaries and Jesuits among us, they will constantly be gaining Proselytes among us to their own Church, and making factions and divisions in ours: whereas were we clear of them, we might hope in time the number of Papists would decrease, and certainly many of the more simple and innocent Papists, startled with the blackness of this horrid treason, or for fear of the penal Laws, will return to their Allegiance and duty; and many more would, if they were not buoyed up by the imaginary dangers with which their Priests affright them, or encouraged by the meritoriousness of that obstinacy, in which they do all they can to confirm them: But so long as the Romish party can by our Divisions shelter their Priests from discovery and the just punishment of the Laws, they will not only be confirmed in their pertinacy, but they will be always ready to receive such impressions of disloyalty from them, and upon occasion to throw off, not only all duty and Allegiance to their Sovereign, but all morality, and even humanity itself, in defence, and for the promoting of the Catholic Interest: and so long as we have so many sorts of Protestant Dissenters, who will not submit to any certain way of Discovering who are Jesuits, and who are not; we must certainly be contented, whether we will or no, to have these Amorites and Jebusites in our Land, as Goads in our sides, and thorns in our Eyes: we must sit down with our fears and dangers, and only have the feeble power to know and lament our misery, but not to help it.  
To conclude, If either our Lives, our Liberties, our Religion, our Interest, our Duty or our Danger, the glory of our Nation, or the natural affection we own to our Posterity, have any power or Influence upon the people of these Nations, to be unanimous in detecting the Authors of our present fears, or future apprehensions; they all call aloud upon every man, to use all lawful ways and means to clear themselves from the dreadful guilt of being Accessories and Confederates to our own, and the ruin of the Reformed Apostolic and truly Christian Religion; and if nothing of all this will move the hearts of men to compassionate themselves, God have compassion upon us! And if we must suffer, permit us to fall into his hands, for his mercies are great; l●t us not fall into the hands of Men, and of all Mankind, not into the hands of these Wicked and Bloodthirsty Men, whose Tender Mercies are Cruelty itself.  Exurgat Deus, dissipentur inimici. 
FINIS.