because he is not fully come over to you in point of religion? If he be short in that, you will quickly find out, upon that score, another Majesty. His Father, who complied with you too much, you rejected; and now would make the world believe you would make the Son's interest a great part of the state of your quarrel.-How can we but think there is some reserve in this, and that the Son is agreed to do somewhat more for you than ever his Father did. Or else tell us, Whence this new zeal is? That the Father did too much for you, in all Protestant judgments, instead of many instances let 'this' be considered: what one of your own doctors, Dr. Enos of Dublin' says;' who (writing against the Agreement made between the Lord of Ormond and the Irish Catholics) finds fault with it, and says it was nothing so good as that which' the Earl of Glamorgan had warrant from the King to make; but exceeding far short of what the Lord George Digby had warrant to agree 'to,' with the Pope himself at Rome, in favour of the Irish Catholics.1

I intend not this to you; but to such Protestants as may incline to you, and join with you upon this single account, which is the only appearing inducement to them, 'To them I intend it,' seeing there is so much probability of ill in this abstracted ;— and so much certainty of ill in fighting for the Romish religion against the Protestant; and fighting 'along with men under the guilt of so horrid a massacre. From participating in which guilt, whilst they take part with them, they will never be able to assoil themselves, either before God or good men.

In the last place, you are pleased,-having, after your usual manner, remembered yourselves first, and his Majesty (as you call him), next; like a man of your tribe, with his Ego et Rex meus,—you are pleased to take the people into consideration, lest they should seem to be forgotten; or rather that you might make me believe they are much in your thoughts. Indeed I think they are! Alas, poor laity! Alas, poor laity! That you and your King

1 Antea, vol. i. p. 241.

might ride them, and jade them, as your Church hath done, and as your King hath done by your means, almost in all ages!—But it would not be hard to prophesy, that the beasts being stung and kicking, this world will not last always. Arbitrary power 'is a thing' men begin to be weary of, in Kings and Churchmen; their juggle between them mutually to uphold civil and ecclesiastical tyranny begins to be transparent. Some have cast off both; and hope by the grace of God to keep so. Others are at it! Many thoughts are laid up about it, which will have their issue and vent.1 This principle, that people are for Kings and Churches, and Saints for the Pope or Churchmen (as you call them), begins to be exploded;-and therefore I wonder not to see the fraternity to be so much enraged. I wish the People wiser than to be troubled at you, or solicitous for what you say or do.

But it seems, notwithstanding all this, you would fain have them believe it is their good you seek. And to cozen them, in deed and in truth, is the scope of your whole Declaration, and of your acts and decrees in your foresaid printed book. Therefore to discover and unveil those falsities, and to let them, 'the people,' know what they are to trust to from me, is the principal end of this my Declaration. That if I be not able to do good upon them, which I most desire (and yet in that I shall not seek to gain them by flattery; but tell them the worst, in plainness, and that which I am sure will not be acceptable to you); and if I cannot gain them, 'I say,' I shall have comfort in this, that I have freed my own soul from the guilt of the evil that shall ensue. And on this subject I hope to leave nothing unanswered in all your said Declarations and Decrees at Clonmacnoise.

And because you carry on your matter somewhat confusedly, I shall therefore bring all that you have said into some order; that so we may the better discern what everything signifies, and give answer thereunto.

1 Paris City A.D. 1789-95!

You forewarn the people of their danger; which you make to consist: First, in the extirpation of the Catholic Religion; Secondly, in the destruction of their lives; Thirdly, in the ruin of their fortunes. -To avoid all which evils you forewarn them: First, That they be not deceived by the Commander-in-Chief of the Parliament Forces: And in the next place (having stated 'the ground of' your war, as aforesaid), you give them your positive advice and counsel to engage in blood: And 'then' lastly 'you' bestow upon them a small collation in four ecclesiastical Decrees or Orders,-which will signify as little, being performed by your spirit, as if you had said nothing. And the obligation that lay on you' to all this you make to be your pastoral relation to them, over your flocks.

To which last a word or two.1 I wonder how this relation was brought about! If they be flocks, and you ambitious of the relative term, 'Yes,' you are pastors: but it is by an antiphrasis, -a minime pascendo! You either teach them not at all, or else you do it, as some of you came to this conventicle who were sent by others, tanquam Procuratores, or as your manner is, by sending a company of silly ignorant priests, who can but say the mass, and scarcely that intelligibly; or with such stuff as these your senseless Declarations and edicts!-But how dare you assume to call these men your flocks, whom you have plunged into so horrid a rebellion, by which you have made them and the country almost a ruinous heap, and whom you have fleeced and polled and peeled hitherto, and make it your business to do so still. You cannot feed them! You poison them with your false, abominable and antichristian doctrine and practices. You keep the Word of God from them; and instead thereof give them your senseless orders and traditions. You teach them implicit belief:--he that goes amongst them may find many that do not understand anything in the matters of your religion. I have had few better answers from any since I came into Ireland that are

1The Lord Lieutenant is very impatient with this last; flies at it first.

of your flocks than this, that indeed they did not trouble themselves about matters of religion but left that to the Church. Thus are your flocks fed; and such credit have you of them. But they must take heed of losing their religion. Alas, poor creatures, what have they to lose?

Concerning this, ' of losing their Religion,' is your grand caveat 'however;' and to back this, you tell them of Resolutions and Covenants to extirpate the Catholic Religion out of all his Majesty's dominions. And you instance in Cromwell's Letter of the 19th October 1649, to the then Governor of Ross,1 repeating his words, which are as followeth, viz. For that which you "mention concerning liberty of conscience, I meddle not with "any man's conscience. But if by liberty of conscience, you mean a liberty to exercise the Mass, I judge it best to use plain “dealing, and to let you know, Where the Parliament of England "have power, that will not be allowed of." And this you call a tryannical resolution; which you say hath been put in execution in Wexford, Ross and Tredah.

66

Now let us consider. First, you say That the design is, to extirpate the Catholic Religion. Let us see your honesty herein. Your word extirpate is as ill collected from these grounds, and as senseless as the word Catholic, ordinarily used by you when you mention Catholic Roman Church. The word extirpate supposes a thing to be already rooted and established: which word 'is' made good by the proof of Covenants, 'by' your Letter-which expresses the non-toleration of the Mass wherein, it seems, you place all the Catholic Religion (and therein you show some ingenuity),3—and 'by' your instance of what was practised in the three towns aforementioned: do these prove, either considered apart or all together, the extirpation of the Catholic religion?

By what law was the Mass 'ever rooted, or' exercised in these places, or in any the Dominions of England or Ireland, or King

1 Antea, vol. i. p. 493.

3 Meansingenuousness,' as usual.

2["religion" in pamphlets.]

dom of Scotland? You were intruders, you were herein open violaters of the known laws! And yet you will call the Covenant, 'and' that 'refusal' in the Letter, and these practices 'at Wexford, Ross and Tredah,' extirpations of the Catholic Religion,-which had' thus again 'been' set on foot by you, by the advantage of your rebellion, and shaking-off the just authority of the State of England over you! Whereas, I dare be confident to say, you durst not own the saying of one mass, 'for' above these eighty years in Ireland. And 'only' through the troubles you made, and through the miseries you brought on this nation and the poor people thereof (your numbers, which is very ominous, increasing with the 'numbers of the' wolves, through the desolations you made in the Country); only by all this' you recovered again the public exercises of your Mass! And for the maintenance of this, thus gained, you would make the poor people believe that it is ghostly counsel, and given in love to them as your flocks, that they should run into wars, and venture lives, and all upon such a ground as this! But if God be pleased to unveil you of your sheeps-clothing, that they 'the People,' may see how they have been deluded, and by whom, I shall exceedingly rejoice; and indeed for their sakes only have I given you these competent characters (if God shall so bless it) for their good.

And now for them, 'the People of Ireland,' I do particularly declare what they may expect at my hands in this point; wherein you will easily perceive that, as I neither have flattered' nor shall flatter you, so shall I neither go about to delude them with specious pretences, as you have ever done.

First, therefore I shall not, where I have power, and the Lord is pleased to bless me, suffer the exercise of the Mass, where I can take notice of it, 'No,' nor in any way' suffer you

["For Cromwell to pretend that he was not 'meddling with any man's conscience' when he prohibited the central rite of the Catholics, and all the ministrations by the clergy on those occasions of life where conscience, under awful penalties, demanded them, was as idle as if the Catholics had pretended that they did not meddle with conscience if they forbade the possession or use of the Bible, or hunted Puritan preachers out of all the pulpits." Morley's Cromwell, p. 308.]