I Should be very sorry there were any iust reason to be­leeue that since my departure from that Kingdom any endeauors haue bin used to instruct you otherwise than I haue don, as to the inviolable Duty and Obedience you ow to His Maiesty's Gouernment, and the Laws you liue under. And, though your former unanimous and humble acquiescence to my constant Doctrin in this particular will not permit mee to haue the least doubt of your loyalty and peaceable behauiour, yet, because Aduersity is a strong Temptation, and temporall necessities the most forcible of all motiues to our corrupt nature, I thought fit to arm your soul against all such assaults, by summing up in this Epistle the substance of what I haue so often inculcated unto you by word of mouth in my Exhortations.

I hope you remember that I alwayes endeauor'd to print this Great Truth liuely in your Minds, that the Hap­pines of Man in this present state consists more in pos­sessing the riches of a good Conscience than the conve­niencies of this world: Good and Bad Fortune (as they call them) are but improper Nick-names and foolish Notions, if by that language bee meant Riches and temporall Pro­sperity. Tis the depraued condition of human nature which makes us affectionately couet and unresignedly resent the loss of such paltry trash; whose very Nature tells us' tis [Page 2]of too base an alloy and of too mean and low a pitch of worth for a soul sprung from Heauen and wing'd by Christianity to fly at. The apprehensions wee frame of our greatest and most important concerns of Eternity, and of the proper Means for it's attainment, are so dim, for want of rendering our Faith liuely by attentiue consideration, that wee are apt to miscall that Persecution which is indeed a sweet Prouidence of our Heauenly Father; and to imagin that Pouerty and other Marks of Predestination are so ma­ny Misfortunes which make us miserable: Neuer conside­ring from how good a hand they com, or indeauoring by Patience to make that excellent use of them for which they were intended, to wit the Salvation of our Souls.

To confirm you there fore in these Truths, and to settle you steadily in the submission you owe to the Laws of the Land, as well as in the Charity you are by Christs sweet law obliged to bear towards your Protestant Neighbours and fellow-subiects, I will state your case worse than really it is, and suppose you were all driuen to that utmost and worst extremity of begging your bread: I say, though you were reduc'd euen to that staruing condition, yet ought you not endeauour to better it by plotting or con­spiring against His M.^ty'^s Gouernment, Person or Subiects; or by disturbing the peace of the Kingdom. You ought not, I say once more, do this and the reason why you ought not, is as euident as it is that you ought not to sin; to deny which Truth is to deny, not some one point or some few single truths, as do Hereticks, but the whole intire Doctrin of Christianity, and the Common Light of Reason to boot.Rom. 13. Read the Holy Scriptures, and you will find S. Paul tells us that Christians are bound in conscience to obey their Heathen Emperours; and that, vvho euer resisteth them, re­sisteth the ordinance of God; also, that by so doing they pur­chasse to themselues Damnation? Matt 22. Does not Christ himself command us to pay Tribute unto Cesar, [...] 21. the badge and to­ken of our Temporall vassallage and Obedience? [...] Pet. 2. Does not S. Peter bid us be subiect to the King as hauing Preeminences?

[...] their attainment of Eternall Happines.

Did Mortalls make sober and attentiue Reflexions upon the surviuency of their Soul, and that the future condition which finally attends it, stretches its duration to an endles Eternity, their Reason, which Custom and Passion hood­wink, would readily discouer how iust it is to conform them selues to Gods holy will in this particular, and euen to take content in their afflictions, For, tell mee, I beseech you, what is this world? Truth makes answer for you, and assures us all y^t. tis onely â Theatre of foolish and false shows: A short Comedy, or rather indeed a short Pro­logue of euerlastlng sadnes to such as take most delight in it. A perpetuall Conflict between life and Death, Sicknes and Health, Fear and Hope, Ioy and discontent. Again, what is an Inheritance? A parcell of land whereof our Ancestors were Masters as long as they liu'd; which term of Life (the onely interest any of them could pretend to) is valu'd but at seauen years purchase: Is it reasonable then think you, to fix your hearts so unremouably and passiona­tely upon that earth, as if your Souls were to turn into it aswell as your Bodies? Poor Souls! After â mans death hee has no expectation of any good for his Temporall Estate, being quite out of all circumstances of enioying the least conueniency from it. Nor has any separated Soul the least Concern for any worldly Inheritance, but those vahappy ones who hauing ouer-loud' it here, feel the fond affection to such â perishable and fleeting Good, racking their wills with a bitter torment for the eternall loss of it. Nor lastly, do they concern themselues so highly for the Temporall Prosperity of their Children or Relations. No, no, the blinding veil is then taken from their eyes, and they see plainly, nay feel experimentally, that nothing is at all valuable but as it conduces to attain Heauen; and that neither Riches nos Pouerty (but onely virtue) are the proper Means to compass that happy End, both of them indifferent and unconcerning, and onely good or bad, as they are well or ill made use of; but yet with this differen­ce, that Riches are by far a more dangerous incitement to [Page 8]lull our souls with the loue of this world, and deturn us from virtue: Nay euen the damned Souls are wiser than to concern themselues with wislshing those Friends whom they retain a naturall affection for, such trifling aduantages. That rich man who so much enuyd' the Happines of Laza­rus in Abrahams bosome, was not sollicitons for his Bre­threns worldly Interest, but for their instruction. which passage though it be a Parable, yet tis a most sure proof of the Folly of such as lament the loss of their Fortunes more than the loss of Gods Grace, and are more concernd' for acquiring or conseruing an Inheritance in this world for themselues or their Relations, than for that of Heauen. what doth it profit a man to gain the whole Vniuerse if his Soul in the mean time suffers any Detriment? And that soul suffers not onely Detriment but Eternall Damnation, that will attempt to possess an Estate by so unlawfull means as Rebellion against Superior Powers, and the Laws by them establisht.

I remember one of the greatest Peers of Ireland (went­worth, late Earl of vildare) desir'd my opinion concer­ning the apparition of a Spirit which hanted him not long before his last sicknes, and the aduice it gaue him. Some circumstances which were obserued by his vertuous Lady and others as well as himself, made his story very credible to mee: but his assuring that the spirit neuer re­commended to him Repentance of his Sins, or reflexions upon the Vncertainty of this world, or any other thing for the good of his Soul, and that it onely exhorted him to mind Temporall affairs, and to restore his Family to its ancient greatnes, made mee suspect (as I told him) it was no good spirit that appear'd to him; nay a worse one than that of Diues; for this desired that som would preach to his Brethren against the vanities of this world, that did the quite contrary. And, truly, a Spirit that would moue men to restore their Friends and Families to the Seats and Splendor of their Ancestors by violating the Laws of the Land, must be of the same nature.

Therefore Dearly Beioned, I coniure you earnestly [Page 9](as one who tenders your saluation as his own, and beli­eues hee must render to God an Account for your Souls) to bear with Patience this Cross which Christ has shared with you. Faint not vnder so light â Burthen; hee carries the heauiest part: Hee was innocent, you are guilty; Hee submitted himself voluntarily, you must suffer unauoida­bly. Bee spiritually wise then, and make a meritorious vir­tue of this happy necessity. Let not the vain hopes of bet­ter Times, or the desire of passing a short Moment some thing more commodiously plunge you in to the intolera­ble miseries of Hellfire for all Eternity. Lose not the solid Substance of true Happines for an ayery shadow; the fruits of Faith for a groundles Fancy. You haue lost your reall Estates, let not Imaginary ones fool you out of your Duty and the recompence which God has promised such as will patiently expect it. Resist manfully against those deceitfull temptations, and build not Castles in the ayre. I say deceitfull; for of all Temptations Hope, if not well grounded, is the most dangerous: In others, a man runs the hazard of being deceiued by the Deuill and out ward appearances; but when hee has once entertain'd Hope, both vngrounded and also of false Goods, he will most certainly be deceiu'd by himselfe; and the more, by how much hee is in this case confident and assur'd that hee intended himself no preiudice, but an aduantage. Against the fair words and promises of others wee are armd by the suspicions and cautions wherewith nature and Expe­rience has furnisht us: but against that fair prospect of distant Goods within our view, where with wee please and entertain our thoughts, represented rather by our fond wishes than by any probability of releef, there is no defence. wisedom is naturally the safest Guard against such an inbred Enemy lying in a close ambush in our own breast; but (alas!) those inordinate affections to worldly things paint them to our deluded Imagination in such gay and liuely colours of Hope, and so easily attainable, when there is no such thing, that the wholsome Maxims of wi­sedom are stifled in our passion, and Folly (which now has [Page 10]got the rains) driues the will blindly head long into the dangerous precipice of ouer-late and fruitles Repentance. That therefore which I principally aym at, is, to root out of your hearts this delusiue Hope, as the chiefest obstacle of our happines in the next world, and of our content in this; which is apt to entice whole nations to their ruin, and lastly, is the most mouing Temptation to make weak Souls break the best Orders of the world, and infringe the most sacred Laws of Christianity and Conscience.

You will say that were it not for Hope, Heart Would break: Nor will I deny that Christian Hope is the most comfor­table cordiall for afflicted souls; That Hope, I say, which is grounded upon Divine Faith of an euerlasting Inheri­tance: Hope that does secure as well as promise possession: Hope that makes us despise all Temporall Happines, and erecting the Soul to take her flight to wards Heauen, makes her at her taking her rise, spurn the subiect Earth. Let this Hope replenisht with all solid satisfactions, bee your com­fort, not that empty one of possessing estates already dis­posed of, whose flashing glimpses has daseld your eyes, and deluded you for so many years. Do but lay it once to heart how great the disproportion is between a Temporall and an euerlasting Inheritance, and it will quickly cheer up your Spirits, and wean your wills from that fond propension wee are still apt to retain to what was once our own, though wee know it could neuer long continue so. The longest liuer that euer was since the Creation, did not ar­riue to enioy the world a thousand years; and, put case euery man did so, yet it would signify little or nothing to such as still long to continue it, because the present time, (or to speak more properly, Instant) fills us but with sor­row for the time that's past, and with perplexity for the future. Those noble Souls who fix their Hopes and Thou­ghts upon Heauen, do from that height look down un­moud upon the vicissitudes of sublunary affairs, and the storms of subiect Fortune; and tis onely those weaker ones that degenerate from the Excellency of their spiri­tuall Being, who are shock't with the loss of a peece of [Page 11]Land which God knows they had not right allowd' them by the course of nature to enioy aboue a moment: And that too such a moment, that on it E'ternity depends: A moment on whose well or ill' spending is grounded the determination of our finall and euerduting state, either of Salvation or Damnation. Can wee then bee so stupid' as to misspend this precious Moment, and the time which God's mercifull Providence has allotted us to prepare for death, and purchase the Kingdom of Heauen, in sighing and solliciting for a pittifull parcell of earth; and that, because wee hope to pass our dayes as our Ancestors did theirs, in more plenty and folly than now wee can? This argues want of courage aswell as Christianity. Omne solum forti patria est, sayes the Roman Orator. If the constant man makes euery Country his own, questionles a Christian ought not bee so set upon any worldly Inheritance as to indanger his sure Title to Heauen and the eternall loss of his Soul for the enioyment of so uncertain a Settlement.

Perhaps some may conceit this doctrin too sublime for the Layty, and more proper for Monks and Hermits than for married men who are bound in Duty and Conscience to prouide for their wiues, Children and Families. Bee not seduced, Dearly Beloued, by such specious mistakes or false suggestions: The Layty is as much obliged to practice Christian Virtues as the Clergy, and married men ought to loue their Neighbours and suffer patiently their own Cros­ses, aswell as Monks and Hermits. Some Euangelicall Counsells and works of Supererogation are peculiar to the Ecclesiasticall state, but God's Commandements are proper to all Christians. I do not pretend that Lay-men are bound to sell their Lands and voluntarily embrace that Pouerty which Religious Orders profess; but I must maintain that they are obliged in conscience to submit to Providence, and to bear patiently the forfeiture of their Possessions, without disturbing the Publix peace or the Priuate Rights of such as enioy them by virtue of de Laws of the Land. They may haue recourse to the Cours of Iudicature and to His Ma^ty'^s Iustice and Mercy, but not to any other Tribunal upon earth.

Though the ancient Practice of Gods Church bee a suffi­cient and most conuincing proof of this Truth, yet it were not amiss to confirm it with a reason deduced from the par­ticular auersion which God hath to Rebellion, and Distur­bers of Gouernment. Soueraigns are the Images of God, as wee maysay, according to his Prerogatiue: Nor does their Soul onely naturally resemble him as hee is a Spirit, but their Soueraignty and Office represent him under a Ciuill or Politique notion, as hee is Supreme Lord and Master of his Creatures. As sure as hee is King of the whole Vniuer­se, so surely they are his Vice-Roys in their respective dis­tricts. And can wee think y^t this Great King will look on those with any other eye than as on Traytors who disobey and rebell against his Vice-Roy? Does not the Order of the world plainly inform us that euery Superiour Power re­sents the contempt of a Subordinate one, as avilifying his own, which instituted it, and in virtue of which it acts? Or can wee think that God is not more offended when we disregard him under that character and Title, than when wee commit other Sins? Do not wee see that it stands with good reason y^t sublunary Kings pass by some disrespects and indignities which reflect upon them in other regards, wi­thout inflicting very seuere punishments on the offenders; But such Transgressions as touch their Supremacy or Power of gouerning, are accounted Treason, and punisht with the utmost of all Temporall Ills, Death? And this is the rea­son why Idolatry is so hainous in the sight of God, because it dethrones him who is King of the whole creation, and setts up an vsurper in his place, to receiue that incommu­nicable honour, which is so iustly and properly his. Ap­plying this then wee shall find that when subiects rebell against their King or his laws, they contemn God, who ap­pointed them his officers to rule his world, according to his Attribute of Supreme Lord and Master; because Kings, as such, represent God's Soueraignty, and are in that regard his Images as well as his Anointed; and who so euer con­temns the Image, contemns the Prototype; Tis the known Doctrin of those of our Profession that wee ought to ho­nour [Page 13]the former for the later's sake; they onely therefore that hold no distinction between an Image and an Idoll may take an ombrage at this doctrin, but the very grain and genius of our Religion obliges us to it strongly, and leaues us no power to unrawell that ty of inviolable obedience to our Earthly Soveraigns which is so manifoldly inter­wouen in our very Christianity. The summe of all is this, that since Disobedience to our King necessarily implies a disobeying God, 'tis euidently consequent that wee can haue no more right to rebell against him than against God himself: and that, since God has so essentiall a hatred against sin as not to consent wee should commit the least veniall one, though by so doing wee should conuert and saue the whole world, how can it be imagin'd that hee will allow of so great a crime as rebellion upon any score, euen of maintaining Religion or converting Souls, much less upon that meer Temporall motiue of sauing or regaining an Estate?

And now, Dearly-Beloued, giue mee leaue to exhort you in Christ's name, who is the Author and earnest Re­commender of that best Soul-saving Virtue of Charity, and in God's name as hee is the Soueraign Gouernour and Di­sposer of the Vvorld, not to look with a maligning and spitefull eye upon your Protestant Neighbours as Vsurpers of Estates, but as placed in Possession of them by the King who is God's Vicegerent, and consequently by God himself; as also to consider y^t the Diuine Goodnes doing euer what is best for the spirituall good of his Creatures, if they make right use of it, his holy Intention was by permitting your Temporall losses, to lay more effectuall means for the sal­vation both of theirs and your own Souls. Consider that their Souls are by creation the Images of God as well as yours; for which reason alone, were there no other, you ought to loue and honour them, and pray for their Con­version; which doubtles has been God's design in this great Revolution: In doing which you haue God's own word (and who would not take his security), t'is impossi­ble you should bee losers if you practise the doctrin you [Page 14]profess and wee teach. If any of them bee harsh to you, bear it patiently; if charitable, bee thankfull. I know there are many of them pitty your condition, and offer to compound for your claym, notwithstanding their Posses­sion and the Legality of their Title. I know also that euery man is apt to conceit himself to bee the best Iudge of his interest; but giue mee leaue, who ought to haue no other but the good of your Souls, and am equally concern'd for the Saluation of all, to wish with all my heart you did agree and liue together in true Christian Brotherly Chari­ty, lest your Dissension cause your damnation; as it must ineuitably if it arriue to that height as to break that most excellent virtue, without which all others are dead, (as wanting that which onely giues life to all the rest) and bear no fruit of merit towards the attainment of Heauen. Vvhat a happy man should I esteem my self if by my prayers and endeauours I could contribute any thing to so pious a work, and so proper for one of my calling? what pains and dangers would I not undergo? How willingly would I leaue the contentmens and conueniencies I at pre­sent enioy in the best Climate and Country of Christen­dom, to liue in that less happy soil, not so favorable to men of my profession? I shall not value any inconvenien­cies if you giue mee the least encouragement by receiuing cheerfully and heartily my aduice in this present matter, which concerns so neerly the good of your Souls and the peace of that Kingdome. I flatter my self, and I hope, not vainly, with expecting your ready inclinations for so ne­cessary à resolution, and so becoming persons of your principles: and therefore resting in this confidence I will make no farther delay, but prepare my self (as I hope I haue you by this letter) for so Christian and meritorious a work. Notwithstanding this only is my design, I fear, that if in order therunto I should once more implore and obtain with my Lord Lieutenants allowance a Iustice of the peace his warrant for securing a notorius malefactor (though a Friar by profession) falsely pretending papal priuileges, of not being questioned for his adulteries, rapes, [Page 15]sedition, exacting moneys by counterfeit Bulls as the sup­posed Vicar Apostoliks Collector, and his Keeping a Com­munity of vicious vagabonds, upon poor peoples charges, under the name and pretext of Religious Nouices, I fear, I say, if I should in a legal way indeuor to haue such scan­dals and seditions punished by the Kings authority, it will be represented again to the Parliament of England as an exercise of foreign iurisdiction, and be made the ground of an other persecution.

Howeuer I coniure you most earnestly, that if any should endeauour to teach you any doctrin contrary to this which I giue here under my hand, and am ready to seal with my blood, you will look upon them as Vvolues, whatsoeuer their profession or habit seem to be. You haue had expe­rience of som Preachers who pretend great zeal to God and the Kings seruice, and yet, at the same time Rebellion, and Murthers were proou'd against them. These are the men you must not giue ear to, nor conuerse with, lest you bee infected with their Doctrin and peruerted by their Example. Hear and follow the Pastors who are answerable to God for your souls, not mercenary hirelings to whom the care of them does not properly belong. And yet if either these, or I, or an Angell from Heauen should go about to persuade you that it is lawfull to molest your Protestant neighbors, or defraud them of their goods, or enter upon their possessions by any means or method which the Law of the Land doth not allow, giue them no credit, but let them bee to you as an Anathema. God of his mercy grant you light to see, strength to bear, and a truly wise Christian Prudence to husband and make that excellent aduantage of your sufferings which God's All­seeing Vvisedome ordaind them for. In the Iargon of wordly language they are call'd Misfortunes; but, beleeue mee they are the same measures which the sweetly-con­triuing Oeconomy of diuine Providence euer took to make his Seruants happy.

Be of good comfort then and reioyce that your names are writ in the Book ef Life: nay bless' God that you are [Page 16]thought worthy to imitate Christ's Example, and that you haue the surest Marks of Predestination, which are wordly Pouerty and Contempt; But to haue their due and full effect of benefiting your Souls, these sufferings must bee accompany'd with Patience and accepted as fauours from that hand, which alone can redress them here, or else will surely reward them hereafter: but it seldom does both. I hope you will be so wise as to make choyce rather of the last; and pray and endeauour that both your selues and your posterity may rather remain in the condition you are reduc't to, than seek to better it for the moment o [...] this life by hazarding that euerlasting Inheritance, the loss whereof (and of no other) can possibly make you unfor­tunate. The Peace of our Lord IESUS-CHRIST bee with you.