WORKS OF DARKNESS Brought to LIGHT, OR A Glance on the mystery of Iniquity, carried on in these three Nations by the JESVITS, To the utter subversion of Religion and Government, and an attempt to subject us to Popish Tyranny: With proposals to prevent the same.  
By S. W.  
LONDON, Printed in the Year MDCLIX. May 30.   

WORKS OF DARKNESS Brought to Light, etc.  
IT is reported, that the Athenians finding a boy picking out the eyes of birds, caused him to be put to death, supposing this petty cruelty an infallible omen of his proving a tyrant, when of riper years. I could wish that this device were put in execution against Jesuits and Popish emissaries, whose boldness attempts so high, as not only to seduce this Nation in Peccadilloes, and suckling Heresies, but strikes even at the two eyes of religion, Magistracy and Ministry, Government and Religion; A sad omen that their aims and highest expectations are to enslave us to their damnable desires. To make a recapitulation of their former essays to subvert religion, by removing those from places of trust by dags, daggers, and poison, who have engaged their power to the utmost in the defence of the reformed religion for the good of their country, were but to light a candle to the Sun; their very Calendars blush to see so many Traitors canonised for Saints. And it may justly be feared that in time this plague of Popery arising from Antichristian Rome, will spread its infection farther than ever the victorious arms of their mother City did, even at that time when she was styled the Mistress of the world, which to preven● is whol●y and primarily incumbent upon you, to whom the divine Providence hath, as to Vicegerents, resigned the reigns of government. And know, that if the power he hath lent you, be not employed by you to the reformation or confusion of the enemies of Religion, and by censequence this enemy of God, who ha●h commanded a strict walking therein, he will make you memorable examples of treachetie to Religion, and apostasy from piety to all eternity. Neither can any sober man impute those calamities (of which of late we have deeply tasted) to any other cause than the toleration of Schisms, Heresies, and damnable errors, which of late days hath been permitted amongst us; and I am confid●nt that the noxious clemency of our Ancestors hath wronged the Devil of his due, by delaying or revoking those lega, proceed, which by the law of this Nation have, or aught to have been made against Heretics; and especially the chief of them, Emissaries, and Seminary Priests: which like the Egyptian Frogs and Grasshoppers, do now adays swarm in England, Scotland, and Ireland. For certainly, if any may be thought disturbers & breaers of the public peace, none more guilty thereof than Jesuits, than whose damnable maxims none more destructive thereto. Some few of which I shall instance in, and by the f●o● of Hercules you may guess the bulk of his whole body. 

1. That Kings may impose a tribute as just, according to a probable opinion, and that the people may refuse to pay it, as being unjust, according to another probable opinion, and by consequence the same thing may be lawful and unlawful at the same time.  
2. That subjects do not sin when they refuse without any reason alleged to submit to a law, whereof there hath been legal Proclamation made by the Prince.  
3. That Clergymen are not subject to secular Princes, and that they are not obliged to any obedience to their laws, even though those laws are not any ways contrary to the State Ecclesiastical.  
4. That a man outlawed by a temporal Prince may not be killed out of his territories, but that he who is proscribed or excommunicated by the Pope may be killed in any part of the world, because his jurisdiction extends over all.  
5. That it is lawful, as well in judgement as out of judgement, to swear with a mental reservation, without any regard had to the intention of him who obliges a man to swear.  
6. That it is sometimes allowable, and that so as a man shall not be guilty of any mortal sin, to kill an adverse party, or to defame him by charging him with crimes he is no way guilty of.  
7. That it is lawful for an Ecclesiastic or Religious man of any order, to kill a detractor, who threatens to discover notorious crimes of him or his Religion, when there is no other way to prevent it.  
8. That it is lawful for any man to kill any one of what degree soever, that is excommunicated by the Pope.    
Now what damnable consequences may be inferred from these devilish maxims, and what horrible murders and outrages have upon these principles been perpetrated, no age but can produce multitudes of examples; no Nation whither these pestilential Jesuits ever came, but hath sufficiently felt the lash and smart of their inhuman butcheries. Witness the Low-Countries, France, Spain, the West Indies, and (not to be tedious in a matter so plain) even this our native Country can produce lively, though not living monuments of their devilish Cruelty. To free us from the slavish, attempts of these Spiritual Egyptians, no way safer or speedier than to make a way for the reformed Religion through the Red Sea of their blood, to that flourishing estate which it once enjoyed under our Ancestors of happy memory. To the effecting of which, I humbly conceive these following proposals effectually tend. 

1. That all those penal Statutes which have been made against Pope●y, Jesuits, and Papists, and have for a long time lain do●m●nt, may be now put into speedy and severe execution to the intents and purposes for which they were created.  
2. That none Popishly affected be employed in any place though of the smallest trust.  
3. To appoint in every County according to the largeness thereof, a certain number o● pious and well-affected men, and them to authorise to make strict inquiry and search after such persons, inhabitants, as are popishly affected, and to that end do commonly harbour and conceal in their houses Jesuits, and Seminary Priests, and them to summon before the Judges of the Assizes in their several circuits, to answer such things as shall be objected against them.  
4. That such persons as cannot give a lawful account of their absence from Church, may be dealt with according to the Statute in that case provided, the money so raised being employed to set the poor of the County on work.  
5. That no meetings may be made or assembled on week ●aies or Sabbath days, but in such places as are or have been lawfully consecrated, appointed, and set apart for the worship of God, as being unwarrantable by the Scriptures, or Laws of this Nation.  
6. That none be suffered to rrade or work as apprentices, journeymen, or otherwise within England, or the dominions thereunto belonging, but such as are natives thereof, and lawfully bound to their respective Master, or have served the full time of their apprenticeships here in England or the dominions thereunto belonging, unless the servants of Merchants, who are employed as Factours here. Because there are many Jesuits that do exercise manual occupations in this land under the habit and notion of Laymen, more subtly and safely seducing others.  
7. That in the respective ports, havens, harbours, and bays of this Commonwealth, and the dominions thereunto belonging, an account may be taken by the supreme officer and officers of the said place, of such persons, who as passengers are imported or exported, and the occasion either of the ingress or egress of the said persons into or out of this Commo● wealth, or the dominions thereunto belonging, and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 search and enquiry may be made into the commodities they import, to prevent the bringing in of popish books.  
8. That a set number of able Divines be authorized to read over and licence such books brought into this Nation as they shall judge not destructive to the peace thereof, whether the said books be originally written in English, or translated into English, and to read over, and according as they think fit to allow or disallow all such books as shall be written in England, or the dominions thereunto belonging, in the aforesaid Language, or translated thereunto, to be printed, and a penalty inflicted on the offenders in the cases aforesaid.     
FINIS.