ORIGINAL PREFACE.*

TO THE READER.

COURTEOUS READER,

THIS is not a new, but an old, approved book (by the authority and advice of some pious and learned persons), newly reprinted. So that there is no need of any commendatory Preface, to court you into a good opinion of it, or any apology for myself and this edition; its own worth will justify the work. It is no lying legend, no vain romance, no spurious or unlicensed seditious pamphlet, but an authentic history of an impious and prodigious Roman Catholic' conspiracy of a Popish Powder Plot; (1) See the Acts containing the examination, trial, and evidently of Parliament, 3 Jajust conviction and condemnation of Popish this plot is truly cobi, cap. 4, 5, where Powder traitors,-a villany so black and horrid called (in the body of -I do not say unchristian only, but-so inhu- the act), "An HELman and barbarous, as has no parallel in any of the Jesuits and age or nation, Jewish, Pagan, or Turkish, nor, Seminary Priests." indeed, could have, before the invention of gunpowder, and the unhappy institution of the (2) "Approbata et Jesuitical Society, by a3 fanatical lame soldier, Jesu, a Paulo Papa Ignatius Loyola. For, before that time, the III, anno Christi world had no instrument or means so pernicious 1540."- Vide Bullam as gunpowder, and capable of effecting such a Cal. Oct., 1540. In PauliIII.,dataRomæ mischief; nor any order of men so impious, as to Mag. Bullario Roapprove, design, and endeavour to execute a mano: Lugd., 1655, tom. 1, page 738. villany, so manifestly repugnant to the law of nature and Scripture, to the undoubted principles of Ignatius Loyola, (3) See the Life of human reason, and Divine Revelation. I well by Father Ribadeknow, that in these six last centuries, the Pope neira, one of his own Society.

· [A few obsolete words, which might have proved tedious, have been modernised; the phraseology and sense have, however, been strictly preserved.-ED.]

A

LISH CONSPIRACY

confirmata Societas

Innocentio III.; an

Hæreticis.

66

rus infinitus.".

and his party have murdered many thousand better Christians than themselves (whom they (4) Vide Concil. are pleased to miscall heretics), by armies raised, Lateranum 4, sub and highly encouraged to execute such bloody no 1215. Can. 3, De and unchristian purposes; by their Inquisitions and premeditated assassinations; as by their own authors may, and evidently does appear. One of them (and he an historian of good antiquity (5) Peremptus and credit), tells us of an INFINITE NUMBER of hæreticorum nume- heretics (the innocent Waldenses he means), Math. Paris, in Hen. thus murdered. And a learned and pious person III., ad annum, says (and proves it out of their own writers), 1234, page 395. that in the space of thirty-six years (and in (6) Jac. Usserius France only) 104,747 of the same Waldenses, et Success. Eccles., were inhumanly slain, upon the same account. сар. 10. And in sixty years (as the account is made, and (7) Dr. Crakan- by the testimonies of their own authors proved), thorp, contra Spa- no less than 142,990 of the same poor innocent latensem, cap. 18, Christians, and in the same country, were, by the Pope and his party, barbarously murdered. And of later times (to omit all others), a pru(8) Father Paul, dent and sober Roman Catholic tells us, first of of Venice, History of 4,000 Waldenses, and then of 50,000 Protestthe Council of Trent, pages 119, 120. ants cruelly slain, in the same country, by (9) Idem ibid, the authority and approbation of the Pope page 423. Vide Thu- and his party, "drunk with the blood of the ad Annum saints."

Armach. de Stat.

sec. 19, &c.

anum

1572. De Nuptiis

Parisinis et La

8

I confess, that those were impious and proniena Protestantium digious Popish cruelties; yet such as were not absolutely and immediately pernicious, and destructive of the poor persecuted Christians. For,

in Gallia.

I. When armies were raised to ruin them, they had some time to consult their security, to fight (if they were able); if not, to fly, and so preserve their lives.

II. When they were caught, and called into the Inquisition (and so to a seeming legal trial), they had some time to make their defence, at least to pray, and make their peace with heaven.

III. And the execution of those cruelties was upon particular persons, in some village, city, or province.

But the Gunpowder treason and conspiracy we are now speaking of, contrived by the impious subtilty of the Jesuits and their associates, and to be executed by the pernicious violence of gunpowder, would have been (had it taken the designed effect) a far more secret and sudden, a more universal and compendious villany: all the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, all the Commons, and (horresco referens) the King himself blown up, and so murdered in a moment: that is, not some particular persons only, but the whole kingdom assassinated; not in effigy (as in some countries they hang malefactors they cannot catch) but in its real representatives, the whole Parliament of England. A conspiracy so inhuman and barbarous, of such diffusive and universal mischief, as (before that time) never was, nor would nor could have been approved, continued, and executed, without gunpowder and Jesuits. But for a more full discovery of this treason, I refer the reader to the book itself, and our public' Acts of Parliament concerning it.(1) See the Acts Yet, to give him some further satisfaction and above cited, 3 Jacobi, cap. 4, 5. reason for the second edition of this book, let him be pleased to know,

I. That since the happy discovery of the late damnable and hellish conspiracy (as the two Houses of Parliament truly call it), (2) At a Confermany pious and learned persons, desirous ence of both Houses, Nov. 1, 1678. to look back and consider the particulars of the Gunpowder Plot (both conspiracies being hatched and hammered in the same Popish forge, by the Jesuits and their adherents) did diligently seek after this book I now publish; but, above seventy years being passed since the first impression, they found it not; and, therefore, to satisfy their desires and supply that defect, it was thought convenient and (as the condition of the kingdom now stands, or staggers) necessary to reprint them.

II. Though the Gunpowder conspiracy was hatched in hell, and carried on with all the

sworn secrecy and impious policy imaginable, yet(there being no policy against Providence, nor any mischief so mysterious as to be hid from that all-seeing eye of Him with whom we have to do) the most gracious and good God of heaven and earth opportunely discovered that traitorous conspiracy, and (in great mercy) prevented the mischief intended to his people. This was a miraculous mercy never to be forgotten, but (with all gratitude) kept in perpetual memory by our whole nation. "God hath so done his marvellous works, that they ought to be had in remembrance." When God delivered his people out of Egypt, he instituted the passover as a memorial, that they and their children. might for ever remember it. And when our blessed Saviour redeemed us from (more than Egyptian bondage) the slavery of sin and Satan, he also instituted a sacrament, to help our infirmity and be a memorial of his unspeakable mercy- 566 DO THIS IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME.' All our gracious God requires or expects from us is, a grateful memory and acknowledgment of his mercies, which is impossible to be done if we forget them. Seeing, then, that this book contains an authentic history of the great misery and mischiefs intended, and by Popish policy and cruelty prepared for this nation, and the unspeakable mercy of our most gracious God preventing it, it was thought fit to reprint it, as a memorial that men might read and remember these mercies, and renew and continue their gratitude for ever for them.

III. Another reason why this book was a second time printed and published was, that all (who had a mind and time to read it, without partiality and prejudice) might have authentic evidence to convince our adversaries: who not only in remote countries beyond the seas, but here in England,