YOU cannot imagine [ Honourable Associators, for so I must call you, since some body has been pleased to write you, Knight and Burgesses, &c. in the Head of his Paper, tho' to bring in the business, he might as well have call'd you Traytors and Rebells:] You cannot imagine how heartily the Pope laugh'd at the first perusual of your Association, when it arrived at Rome, and how migh­tily it tickl'd the Cockles of the Old Man's heart, to see it drawn so exactly to his mind. He was never in so merry and blith a humour in all his Life; and it was very remarkable, that the Antient Gentleman read every sillable and Iota on't over and over again, without putting on his Spectacles, when he has not done the like these many good years. So strangely do some things delight (and even tickle) some People, that the very conceit of 'em can make the Bloud circulate much more fast and briskly, than it used to do; can make a Decrepid Bald Man as fro­liksom and airy as the best Youngster of them all, and can Illuminate the Eyes as well the Mind of Old Age. Well, the Holy Father was resolv'd to weep, and weep he did, for joy; and after some few Mawdlin Tears, it was his good pleasure to drop two or three words to the Red-hatted Sparks about him: These are the men for my turn; These will most Infallibly do the business: You may Plot again and again; but when all is done, there is no way like to this, to bring down the stubborn Necks of that Heretical People under my Toes.

Now, I being inform'd of this t'other day by a Letter I casually lighted on, that came from one of your Correspondents at Rome, did wonder very much at the News; and could hardly believe it, till I look'd a little more narrowly into the Draught of your Association; and then I began to be pretty well convinc'd, that it was a Damnable and Jesuitical Thing written by some Members of the Society to­wards the advancement of Popery, let their Declaration in outward view be never so severe against it. However, I have determin'd with my self to suspend my belief to the afore-mention'd story, till some of you will take the pains to give me better Intelligence, or return me your Resolutions to the following Quaeres, which I here present you withal. And,

• I. Whether the Pope gave you a Dispensation and Absolution from your Oath of Allegiance, before you were to enter into this Association?
• II. Whether 'tis not a meer Cheat and Blind put upon the world, when you pre­tend so much to Defend the Protestant Religion; seeing one of its chiefest Doctrines is, Obedience to the Civil Magistrate; and the very entrance into this Combination, without and against Authority, is repugnant and contradictory to That Principle; And they who act against it, and espouse the Contrary, (which is one of the most discrimanating Doctrines of the Church of Rome) may be presumed easily, not to stick at the Less, but to be Virtually, and in effect Rank Papists?
• III. Whether in that place where you say, Lest this Iust and Pious Work would by any means be obstructed or hindred, for want of Discipline and Conduct, &c. you do mean, there may be Impediments in the carrying on; and that it must be a Work of Time, since Rome was not built in a day?
• IV. Whether by the Meritorious Works you aim at, in Delivering His Majesty from His Councils, and in Disbanding His Guards; you expect as high and mighty thanks from Heaven, as they did from the King's Father, who said in the days of Yore; We deserve and expect Approbation,
  Sc. Protest. 1 [...] Decemb. 1638.
  and Thanks from His Majesty in His own due time, for keeping His Evil Councellours and bad Pa­triots, from putting their hand in His Subjects?
• [Page]V. Whether Stephen Colledge did not excellently well (and with Suceess) follow that Popish Aphorisme of Machivel, to put on the Masque of Religion; when at his Tryal he said, All the Protestants of England were concern'd in it; least he should come into the same cause with Garnet, who in one of his private Letters shew'd his Fear, least he should not be Enrol'd in the Albe of the Martyrs; for that, there were not objected against him any matters of Religion?
• VI. Whether this Association has not in it's form a near Consanguinity with the Bloudy League of France, and be not patch'd up out of i's Holy Reliques?
• VII. Whether you are not like to the Polititians of the Court of Rome, Huomini senza pro senza Anima, Men without Fear of God, or Regard of their own Souls, who, while they strive to advance their Religion; have lost all Religion themselves.
• VIII. Whether Mercenary Forces do not signify the Guards by an Equivocation, and the Exclusion of the Duke, the Destruction of Monarchy, and Pulling down a Power Arbitrary in Imagination, the setting up another Real one?
• IX. Whether your most Execrable Complot in Swearing to Casheer all Arbitrary Sway, and to Propugne the Protestant Religion, and to Destroy the Duke, may not very patly be Parallel'd by a wicked Passage in a Book call'd, The Defence of the English Catholicks, Chap. 5 ' The Danger is so evident and inevitable, that God hath not sufficiently provided for our Salvation, and the Preservation of the Church and H. Laws, if there were no way to Restrain such wicked Princes, &c. And then it follows,— ' The Bond and Obligation we have enter'd into, for the Service of Christ and his Church, far exceeds all other duties, which we owe to any Humane Creature, &c.
• X. Whether by this Ʋnion intended to Disunite Protestants, you do not take the best way to bring in Papism?

Lastly, Whether, by Consequence the Now-Abhorrers of the Association, do not likewise in that, Abhor and Detest Popery?

And now, Gentlemen, If any Member of you will answer these Interrogatories, by way of clearing your selves from the Scandal of a Pack of Popishly-Affected Persons, I shall look upon my self so far oblig'd to you, as either to Answer your Answers, or to propose some New Doubts to You, or to that same Ignatius Loyola, who may be as good at Expounding, as making of Riddles; and whom some Mad People follow with such a Precipitate and Blind Obedience, as only befits them, whom the Devil drives. But better things are now hop'd from you, since you could not but see very lately the Fact of all Rebels in the Resemblance of the Old Covenant and New Association, consumed by the Flames. The descent to Hell is very easy, and Ignatius, though he may Limp and Halt never so much, may get thither timely enough to come to the Roast-meat.

Some of your own Popish Authors say of him, Satis constat eum in Pueritià, Profanos admodum haufisse Spiritus, certain it is, that in his Childhood he drew in very Prophane Spirits; and that, in Adolescentiâ, Militia ac Vanitati sese dedit, in his Youthful years, he betook himself to Wars and Vanity, being of a Defultorius's Disposition, and ready to serve any Party, that could pay best. But at Pomperopolis, being Strenuously ingag'd in Battle; his Leg was sorely wounded, and it turn'd to a very good Account, for accepto hoc Luculento vulnere ad Deum conversus est, having received this huge wound, he was Converted to God, letting out of it all his sin­ful Bloud: And using ever since a Tap-stilt to support his Body, he has walk't so Firmly with God, as he is become the Founder and General of a most Sacred Society; though still some think this Walking is only an Halting between God and Baal and running Crooked courses, as Israel did in the days of Elias. However let him go how or whither he will, The Popes blessing ever-more go along with him.