THey that go about to conquer Ireland, and to reduce it to a form of compliance and obedience, shall find inward advantages from the consciences of their enemies, and designment of providence to pursue those sins in which they lye, stubborness, idleness, ingratitude, with those punishments which are aspectabiles, and not usually adjourned to the general doom of the great day. A thing of the largest inhance­ment of enterprise and extent of possibilities, when Da­vids Sword is drawn out of the sheath of the Ephod, and we stand bound, not onely by the fundamental Max­ims of State, but by the very tenour and right of our be­ing (which as it is antecedent to State-relations, so it is primalily obliging) to be instruments in the hand of God, assuming us for the respective distributing and awarding his judgments.

Ireland hath been formerly to us what Italy was to the French, a grave or Caemetery, a burden to our State ra­ther then a profit, and it almost stood like France in our Title, the ground uncertain; we have had a successive right for hundreds of years, no particular dispathy with the Nation, but what was accidental, and of a secondary intention from our different Religion, and those reven­ges which are deepest impressed, and have the most inde­lible character (Religion towards their Country making it Sacramental) set on them amidst the often struglings for the life of their liberty; For Nimrods and hunters of men know this, that if the people, that unruly beast, be not kill'd at one blow, their distemperd bloud will be unfit to dye the Robes of Soveraignty. But if we look about the world, the Art of keeping that which the sword bequeaths, and presents no other Title but what howsoever the conquered thinks unjust, is almost among things lost, in which the Romans were their Crafts-masters: And 'tis in our hopes, that as some no­ble spirits have renewed their Discipline and instaured the ancient credit, and severity of the field; so this consi­derable part of wisdom shall not long lie neglected.

The Spaniard seems to have some skill in this secret of Government, as the Italians say, where they fix their Empires they are eternal; but every one knows to well their Arts, as likewise the Turks.

But to come somewhat nearer the businesse, since the wisdom of the State hath looked on that unpolisht part of their Dominion, and desired wisely to secure it, as the avenues and approaches of this Nation, and the pre­sent case of things gives us opportunity, we may exercise that part of wisdom which looks forwards.

We are not generally now of so quick a sence of out [Page 3]sufferings, nor are the issues of our zeal so strong, as to actuate our passions into a general extirpation of so large a moity of Christendom, we are better taught, it is the re­serve of Omnipotency to punish with deluges; for as inseriour Tribunals do not reach all sins, so do they not take notice of all persons in their collective capacities: How shall the corrective part of justice which is most allowable, have any room when it comes with fire to burn up its subject?

Christians by a more exalted advanced Discripline more accomplishing its design, as the great medium of rational society & commissure of mankind, hath taught us other securities then revenge, which always (if great & politickly universal) swells over the banks & bounds of Christianity: or if limitted and confin'd leaving exas­perations in the persons, gives an eternity and infinity to evil. We proceed not to the defalcation of a person who is not incurable, and to count any one desperate and de­relict, is tacitely to resolve not to live up to the exten­sive latitude, and intensive heigth of our Religion, whose exemplarity, if drawn out and approximated to persons in the circumstances of duties, would expel from ratio­nal nature, and disposess any baseness that pretends to render it insanable.

There may be room for a general pardon, Gospel Cities of Refuge, an overture which, unless the spirits of the enemy be very high, (as they are not in those Provinces at this time) and so it breeds contempt, may have an effect, as carrying a hand of superiority over a party, and is infinitely remote, far from any thing of equality, or acknowledgment to that party we have already de­signed to mercy before a victory; And all Reason of State besides reason of morality, and experience in our Nation [Page 4]hath found it advantagious to reduce things to the Sanctuary, by first posting up Pardons and tearms of composure, which no endeavour of enemies or braveries of contempt can make so transient, but somewhat will be sticking; For those Protections which were former­ly given, and Leases of life now, upon the submissions of persons, are of a more uncertain tenure, of a more privat mercy and advantage to Officers, then of publick reputa­tion to the clemency of the State; the difficulty of suing them being anxious, their limited tearms usually expire­ing together with their Loyalty. The Majesty of the State, which is religiously to be maintain'd with the cir­cumvallations of Laws and Prerogatives, may wisely se­cure this Act of mercy from slightings, with publick re­sentments of the depretiation of such an overture, with convenient restrictions and exemptions of persons, and particular advantages to greater submissions, or signal merit and service, all in the for malities of Law given out, as at the request of the Provincials.

The case of Religion is of a deeper disquisition, the Nobility of that Kingdom have made it a pretence through all the course of their rebellions, and the Irish Sea is not tempestuous, unless beat upon by the wind of such seditious pretences; They speak with some passion, that our tyranny was worse then Pharaoh's, entituling their particular interest with the general concernment of Christianity, defence of Faith and Law of God. That Speech of the Spaniard, that they were a peeple so barba­rous that he did not think Christ dy'd for them, is to be thought to be the result of his despair and anger, freely breathed out before his confinement he was to undergo, for his disservice to that Master that knew how to use the pretentions of Religion, in a design once dearer to him [Page 5]then his life. This fewel to the fire of the rebellion, is not to be taken away by a persecution of their Religion; for they are so inhumane and unlike men, that we are first to reconcile them to our nature, humanity, and their own reason, before we can put them in a capacity of the duties and propositions of our Religion; For we must not understand any thing by Religion in its objective property extensive to Faith, but many partial objects of assent complicated together, which like pearls would be cast to swine, when they are represented to faculties utterly uncapable of rational Proposals: and as natural actions which do not communicare materiam with spi­rituals nor ends, are first existent before they were privi­ledged by God into means and relatives to our end and eternities: so we first exist as men, before we are fit for the super-inductions & after-sanctions of Christianity; Nor would this fierce proceeding have a better reason from the nature of Religion, which is of another judica­ture and appeal, and to be brought into the soul by in­trinsical arguments. Tortures although they weaken the nerves of Religion, yet they stretch them larger and di­stend them, the nature of Religion arming; for certain­ly, 'tis a Religion creeps on the ground and doth not re­late to God, (which yet all Religion does) which neither by the profest severity of punitive duty & documents of mortality, or expectations and prepossessions of future state (arguments of state speaking home to the soul) each of which the worst of Religions, and therefore the wisest will most pretend, could fire the affections natu­rally of a violent and inflameable matter into some ex­presses of extasy amidst torments, where it hath all the advantages of its improvement to an high ascent, that the instances of death turning all hopes to future, [Page 6]and making them almost present can furnish with, which one blaze at the time of death carries so much of confirmation in it, to popular minds that have not Reli­gion in the intellect, as it is too dangerous an argument to be publickly urg'd, when wiser heads are almost start­led in privat. I'le add this one thing, if once this obtains that the power of sounding and interdicting cōmunities of society, shall meerly hang from the differences in our overtures of Religion, we having left plain fact and com­pact, are already run into a rule of morality, for civil constitutions and sanctions of State, our Divines will be our Lawyers; and this rule of morality, being according to the goodness & malice of acts which are of a dubious and obscure disceptation, of various apprehension and circumstance, we run our selves into the toyls of confusi­on, and affront highly sociable nature, by giving it under the power of a Law, which is not a proportionate means to bring us to the end design'd in its Creation.

The violent prosecution of their Religion will but pro­cure a further alienation from us, for their lying in that Religion being of secret reason, & only punible by God that knowes it, and under his notice and cognizance, wee have no reason to put outermost which will satisfy their exasperated spirits in the justice of such proceedings; yet whatsoever Toleration bee granted in this necessity of things, private, or in out-townes it must bee composed with infinite caution that it may not seeme to give jus verum but only impunity; for by experience wee know that those Edicts of pacification in France which the wis­dom of the Councel of Henry the fourth lookt on as the only remedy left for to heal the wounds of that Nation, made by two great Factions, bringing that State to an Engagement which was infinitely to the disadvantage [Page 7]of superiority by making it stoop to a lesser relation, was cause of most of the ensuing wars, and besides being (as all such things are) full of limits and cautions, and like a stream of an unconstant and doubtful channel now receding to this party, now to that, would breed e­ven in the exactest performances eternal matter of confu­sion; thus should we be alwayes conquering and yet ne­ver overcome, a thing dangerous to us who have alwayes an estate there to lose, when we have not our forces there to succour it.

I wonder when some Kingdoms so easily take the vein of the Religion of their Conquerours, fitting the Crown of Soveraignty and Robes of Priesthood to the same per­son, according to first institutions in their different ca­pacities, and yet the principles of this Nation have risen when there was nothing to commend or scarcely to make the Religion tolerable, yet surely 'tis fit we think God had his ends in this action & sudden conquest, and hath design'd the care to us of eating it out by prohibitions, in publick Towns serting up men vehement in their affe­ctions, exemplary care to be had against the founding of Irish Seminaries, instituting and executing all the seve­rest politick Laws against any strangers that should se­duce them, or incense them, giving them to understand universally, that we stand now on tearms of compositi­on with Spain, from whence they were wont to flush their hopes, and animate rebellions, and that whilst there be born an even hand over the respective Nations, in tearms of compact or usury, or indifferent (upon their se­curities) preferments and promised immunities and ex­emptions: yet there is to be a particular bosome open, and encouragement to any that embrace the reformed Religion, care to be that Churches may be repair'd, and [Page 8]that function that serves at the Altar, be secur'd from the disrespect or contempt of their enemies, either in persons or service, and in the chief Cities and Towns there may be other Schools besides the University in Dublin, the Statutes of which may be renewed, and good sti­pends for Professors, and encouragements, the deloga­tion of which business, is referr'd to such men as need no particular instructions; Hither the youth and Gentry of the Nation being invited, they may learn at least to hear well of the Protestant Religion, and there may be laid a fair ground for insinuation, or at least a moderateness in their opinions.

And since the plague, and war, and justice, (and indeed the Commander in this war hath been but a judge iti­nerant) have laid wast the Land; care must be taken of po­pulations and reinforcing the stock of the Creation; yet in this business, we must not look on our sending Colo­nies as letting out the distempered bloud of this Nation, or as an honored exile for men of most broken hopes and profligate spirits, nor yet must it be the seat to minds discontented with the present Government, least that controversie be added to all the other Propositions of rebellion; but they must be persons of indifferent, honest, ineffective spirits, fit for those employments which do not exercise the fingers but the arms, and that not onely from the nature of that wasted harassed Nation which wants these Arts to recover it; but out of the account of the danger of fellulary idle professions, which leave men wind enough to make up into discourses. We must not judge the advantages of Colonies by the vastnes and cir­cuit of the ground they overspread, but by the strength and union; the first in this numerousness of the Irish Nation, is rather to be prevented then wished; for be­sides [Page 9]the uncomfortableness of cohabitation with such ill neighbours, and their envy, which will be consequent to our out-witting them, and flourishing in their own Countrey, which usually Plantations do, as being parts of a whole somewhere confederate with them & careful of them, and having fresher hopes, and only a general curse on the Land to struggle with, not yet by particular defilements having made it more barren, 'tis to break the power of the Nation, and to dispark the English-Pale by cutting it into many streams.

Wise-men once thought, that if not the equality and evenness of our justice and Government, yet the parity of our condition with the Irish, would have brought them to an uniformity in State, and greater compliances; yet we have found, this may be hudled up amongst the many oversights in prosecution of the relative interest of that Nation. We all know that for all these forty years of Peace and Plenty, their Nobility respected in our Court, their Religion not much opprest, they were in­grafted into our familyes, filled every place but our Churches, and had we not bin to deal with acts of cruelty but with nature, could our blood have softend this Ada­mant we had bin secure, for by the intermixture of mar­riages, and interlacing privat allegiances, we conveyed English bloud into their veins, somewhat degenerating into their rudenesses, and naturalizing their incivilities; yet in the last horrible Rebellion, a business of secret cau­ses and secretest contrivance, all kindreds, tenants, wives were design'd, not scarcely the greatest courtesie through the extensive body of the whole Nation, in all the variety of relation, could endear them, as to save the lives of any by revealing their complices: never had humanity task to recover such minds. All the advantage their dissemi­nation [Page 10]had was this, that the ruine sooner and more uni­versally overflowed them: had the main body bin in the chiefest Towns and Cities, they had bin a general terror to the Provinces, strength to the Nation, and could not possibly have presented to us a spectacle of so much sad­ness and resentment, by exhibiting to us the greatness of what we did possess once by the space that their ruins cover'd; It would be good that the undertakers in Plantations be bounded by plots, according to exact prescriptions & the securer conveniences of the Coun­trey, which must be more severely lookt into, because men in such undertakings, will prefer the covetousness of their desires before the securing themselves or the Nation.

It will be necessary to raise a Tribunal of justice; In this there are two cases; either it may be Marshal, according to the Military condition of the Nation, which kind of Government, as it is necessary it should be put into such hands whose actions are commenced with zeal and severity, because it hath something more in it of abso­luteness then ordinary forms; so is animalis justitia a virid way of domination for an unsetled State, and for diffusing greater terrour, guarding the majesty and au­thority of the Laws: The other process is by Judges and those relative subordinations, as Sheriffs, Bayliffs, &c. as we have in the Counties of England, and to which that Nation hath been formerly used, and it hath this of endearment in it, that as it is of a more moderate and civil Robe, and being a long harangue and series of orderly acts and solemn proceedings, and containing under it many appellatives that are expresses of subor­dination and course, it will be the most infallible, visible and living argument of plenary possession, power, and [Page 11]protection, that our Reason from any Topick can make out.

The Nobility among them maintayn their Authority over them with cruelty, taxations, rites of their Coun­trey, barbarousness in their creations and installments into the successions of their predecessors, by Genealo­gies far fetcht and deduced without any light of History through the dark Mazes of Antiquity, and other En­chantments, which carrying with them the custom and reverence of their Religion, do exceedingly bolster up their usurpt pretensions: This is a rank of a doubtful usage in the condition of this State, where there are not particular persons unlesse by a civill command of Go­vernment, and generall reverence of the conquering Nation, in such a successive heigth of blood and great­ness; and of these they will bee apt to remember that they were once below them, and may be again, conquer­ed Nobility living most unwillingly under free States, where there is not a Court to entertain them; yet for all this, the Romans by the Majesty of their Nation gave a Title, paramount to the bloud and honour of the great­est Princes of the world, by hallowing any person that was intrusted in their service; I wish this had been better observed in this State hitherto; that course which some Kings of Scotland took towards the Nobility, in a case almost paralel may be considered; but to destroy their petry Dominion, the peeple may be taken under the im­mediate protection of the State, and what Land they hold of their Lords, may not be rented according to arbitrary uncertain assessments, but certain rents and sums, as our Farmes in England. But thus by weakning the Nobility, the peeple might rise, dangerous to a pee­ple that would not thank us for being disenslaved, but [Page 12]think themselves nearer a general Liberty. For as God first moving the parts of the Creation, infused a quantity of motion in every body, and collectively over all the world; which in the main body of things, is still the same, not suffering any imbellishment in its main stock, though by particular communication one part now moves in the air, another lyes on the ground: so there is infused into Kingdoms and the world a main stock of spirit, motion, activity, which although now is in the Nobles, and then in the peeple, according to the variety of the conjunctions of causes and bandying of contin­gencies; yet in its diffusive issue is still maintain'd inva­riable, entire.

It may bee wisdom to maintain still a difference of Coynes in both the Kingdomes, and that ours may not bee transported thither to the impoverishing the Nation and furnishing the Rebells with money, when many occasions bring it into their hands, which may fur­ther them in their rebellion by procuring things they want for them in other Countries. And for further convenience in this business there may bee offices of Exchange according to the distinct proportions in London, Chester, Bristow, Cork, Waterford.

If I knew any vertue they had, I would have it encouraged, making it if particular to run through the whole object and habit, if restrai­ned and provincial, to bee general and National; or by actuating it if it be but in the power of their nature.

To conclude; Let us not despayre of them, but carrying our things with wisdom, expect providence, which is to acts of wise and politick natures what concourse is to natural powers; and tho Hell may seem to plead dereliction with our Maker, as to the tenure of that nation, yet wee shall presume on God by interpreting his silence into aliena­tion, imposing significations upon eternal acts, which we do not do in our owne before constitutions; Nulla est prescriptio contra Deum, because of the infinite right hee hath to any thing that was once his owne; if hee does yet take no notice of them: no man that speakes worthily of God dares imagine that as hee made them by his word, so hee must forfeit them by his silence.