I Have receiued yours of the 21 ^th of Iune, where­in you referre mee for answer to part of mine of Iune 20 ^th to what hath passed betweene you and his Excellency the Marquis of Ormonde, when I perused those papers of yours; I observed how you put of the maine objections against the chiefe ac­tors in England as not concerning you at all, can the horrid and treasonable Paricide of a lawfull Soveraigne, by rebellious Subjects, contrary to all laws of God and man, contrary to soe many oathes and obligations, detested by all Europe, the abrogation of the antient liberties, and priviledges of Parliament, the totall subvertion of the fundamentall constitutions of their native country the extream­est violation of the rights and properties of their fellow subjects, and the assuming, of an absolute arbitrary power, over their lives and fortunes by the Sword, be crimes of the highest nature in the Actors: and yet the maintainers and abbetters of them, in their Tirannicall vsurpations remaine innocent, and unconcerned.

I observed further how you plead his Majesties limitation of his Regall power and his committing of the managery of the Irish warre, to his two houses of Parliament in England, and upon that found­ation, you ground the justice of your Proceedings, suppose the laws of England did tye our common Soveraignes hands from doing acts of grace in Ireland, suppose they did obliege the subjects of this Kingdome in their lives and Estates, without their owne consents, yea before they bee heard, suppose this doe not render the subjects of Ireland, the veriest slaves in the world, nor make voide our free charters as antient and as large as those of England it selfe, suppose that solemne Act to introduce the English statutes into Ireland, to have been needlesse & superfluous, supposing all you will have to be supposed, yet now there is not the least shadow of the two houses re­maining, the upper house being quite taken away, and the house of Commons, become a suppositions changling, certainely they are none of his Majesties two houses, which have taken away both Majesty & [Page 2]Monarchy, Lastly that warre hath noe affinity with this, That was to suppresse Rebellion, this to maintaine Rebellion, That was to defend the Protestant Religion, the liberties of Parliament, the rights of the subject, this is meerely for the subvertion of all theise p [...]der those things seriously, without prejudice, and you will quickly finde what tottering grounds you have laied to support the weight of soe much Christian blood and the devastation of the whole Kingdome, and how little you have answered to his Excellencies reasons.

I proposed a conference and you reject it, as not consisting with Prudence in matters of this consequence, and subject in these times to construstions and misconstructions, Certainely if advice and de­liberation be necessary it is in maters of moment and Consequence.

If you be your selfe, that is free to follow, reason and Conscience and not engaged to the dictates of other men, nor willfully wedded to an implicit faith, but ready to imbrace the truth whensoever it shall be revealed (which every good Christian ought to be) a conference had been the likeliest meanes, to take away misconstructions, and be­get better constructions. This made the office of Embassadors soe sacred, that quarrells might not become immortall, for want of con­ference, & right vnderstanding There is a blessing promised to Peace­makers, but a judgment hangs over their heads who nourish conten­tions, This rejecting of a conference seemes to me to argue strongly either a diffidence in your cause, or a resolution, to hold the conclusion without any regard of the premisses, or a distrust of my ingenuity. We both professe the same ends, why should we differ soe much in the meanes, I thought a conference would take away the vaile, and either discover our difference in the first, or have happily reconciled us in the later, to which I was resolved to come without prejudice or obstinacy, contending more for truth then, for victory, as willing to have con­discended to you had you been in the right, as I am unwilling to depart from you [...]w, because I am assured that you are in the wroung, It is indifferent to me what cause is right, soe I be in the right cause, And though I have left your party, because you have left your prin­ciples, it is but as a man leaves his brothers house, whilest it is infected with some contagious disease, with a minde to pray for you, and a [Page 3]desire of revnion with you, soe soone as I may with safety, This is not to forsake you, but to provide for myselfe, you say you are sa­tisfied in the justice of your cause admitt you be soe, yet take heed this be not for want of due discussion, or out of an implicit trust, and adherence to others, or a prejudice in your affections, which robbes and betraies reason of its due succours, and like a false glasse makes things appear otherwise then in truth they are, Be it spoken with­out the beast disparagdment to your person or partes, which I honour and desire to love, you cannot be more resolute then Saul was in his pharisaicall opinions, or then many thousand heretickes and Shisma­tickes of all sortes in the world are at this day, who might be cured, if they did not stopp their cares, against the voice of the Charmer, Principles may be erronious, and nothing is more ordinary then to mistake a party for a principle, The only reason which you give for your resolution, is that Gods blessing hath dwelt visibly upon your cause, as still it doth, when God blesseth men in evill courses, it is the greatest judgment, his waies are alwaies just, but often secret, The evening commends the day, and the conclusion often differs from the first Acts of the Tragily howsoever, ascribe not that to the meritts of your cause, which may be due to the sinnes of the advers party.

My sword you say hath been prosperous, but you advise mee to consider the cause wherein I then appeared, If over my cause were just (which you confesse) it is soe still and therefore I may still hope for the same blessings, yet the prosperous [...]es of it, did not assure mee that it was good, but the goodnes of it did, and still doth give mee hopes that it will be prosperous.

But you tax mee now for joineing with the bloody Rebells, and setting my selfe against those of the Protestant Religion contrary to my former engagements, how ill doe these words become you, who adhere to and maintaine the bloodiest Rebells in the world, that is those in England, who are soe strictly joyned and vnited with Co­lonell Monke, who if I be not misinformed, hath made a Cessation with the bloodest of those that you intend and recommended them to the Parliament for farr better conditions, then wee give to those who submitt to his Maiesty, This is evident that h [...]e maintaines, a strict league and correspondance with them, then with his Majesties loyall [Page 4]English Subjects, witnes his owne letter to Collonell Collom Brien mac Mahon, the originall whereof is in my hands, excusing the ta­king of a prey upon mac Mahons lands, and promising his owne endeavour, and major Caddugans for restitution thereof, in these words, It seemes this misfortune happened to you, upon an Infor­mation that you were removing with your Creaghts, and that you kept the horse you have to joyne with Ormondes being of that faction. those whom you call in publique bloody Rebells, you hugge and protect in private, but his Majesties freinds are those you most maligne.

Is that an horrid Crime in us which is a vertue in your selves, observe how partiality doth blind your eyes, is this our Crime that you prosecute with such outcries that wee have not rooted out a nation, and those whose ancestors with their bloods, did propagate the English interest in this Kingdome, but as becometh Christians, have received the penitent to mercy, after they have thrust from them their misleaders, That wee acknowledge them for fellow sub­jects to whom his Majesty hath extended his grace, that wee refuse not their assistance in the defence of our Common King and Country, now that they have left their unlawfull courses, to concurre with us in our just and pious ends, whom we prosecuted as Rebells formerly, If there were any blemish in this as there is none, it reflects princi­pally on those whose Religion infusing better principles into them, have been to the scandall thereof, contrivers and fomenters, of all our mischeifes, first necessitating us, to make use of the joint concurrenc of those of the Roman cumunion, for our common defence & then blam­ing us for joyning rather with them then to have both our bodies and soules inslaved by a packe of insulting Rebells, No, no, sir wee have seen to our cost, how much our divisions have conduced and would conduce to their greedy and ambitious ends.

As for that charge you lay to mee I smile at it, and advise you se­riously to looke into your selfe, I have changed the party but not the cause, you have changed the cause but not the party, make all things the same they were pretended to mee and the world, and I am the same I ever was, but when time hath discovered the hidden misteries and jugling trickes of cheating mountebankes and imposters, for moe to [Page 5]persist in their fellowship, were not constancy but selfe willed obstinacy, I have as you desire seriously considered my former engadgments and the more I ponder the more I finde my selfe oblieged in honour and conscience to desert that party, I engadged my selfe by oath to defend the Kings person prerogative and posterity and therefore I cannot consent to that execrable murther, of his Majesty, and the utter disinheritance of my now gratious Soveraigne, I engadged to preserve the lawes, and therefore I cannot without wilfull perjury, see the lawes subverted by a factious Army I engadged to maintaine Religion, and therefore cannot indure to see the resurrection of all schimes, herecies blasphemies, out of the grave of oblivion, wherein they have been long buried, I engadged for the just liberties of the Parliament, and people, and therefore am bound to oppose the anni­hilating or exvnaniting the power of Parliament by an handfull of upstarts and the transferring the people from the service of their law­full Soveraigne to the vassalladge of domineering Rebells give mee leave with the same freedome to put you in minde, of your oaths and engadgments, both as a subject, and a professor of the lawes and those not obtruded upon you, by feare or force not disalowed by a lawfull superior nor repugnant to law or precedent obligations.

Lastly for the Protestant Religion if you intend that of the Church of England wherein you were baptized and breed wherein your fa­ther was, your uncles are and your brother professeth to bee an emi­nent pastor, I am ready to joine hands and heart with you in the defence and propagation thereof if you desire a generall Sinod of all the Protestants in Europe, to beget either a neerer vniformity, or a right­er understanding among us, I shall endeavour the same alsoe, within the bounds of my calling, But if by the Protestant Religion you in­tend a confusion or invndation of all those monstrous and heterogene­ous errours, which have over spread the face of the English Church, or if you thinke it lawfull for private persons or subordinate, Ma­gestrates, without the consent, against the will, of their lawfull So­veraigne, to introduce novelties into the Church, according to their particular fancies, I must crave leave to dissent from you.

And now sir to conclude all whether you or I doe entend or endea­ [...]our more Really the advancement of the Protestant Religion, and [Page 6]the English interest in this Kingdome, that is the defence of the Eng­lish Subject in his just propriety the monarch of England in his just Soveraignty, I appeale to God the searcher of all hearts, and to the tribunall of Christ before which wee must one day giue an account of our actions much more might be said in our defence but this is sa­tisfactory if not to you yet to him who desireth is be

For Collonell Michaell Iones. Th [...]se.

YOur Lordships of this date I re [...]ieved, it being in pur­suance of your former of the 20 ^th instant, Therein I finde a large recollection of what had been once and againe forme [...]ly offered and urged by the Lord of Ormonde, endeavouring the diverting mee from my course by laying before mee the late proceedings in England.

The cunto and to your Lordship is the Answer the same sum­marily, which was formerly given on the like occasion. That in all that, the service heere is noe way concerned: only as to a Christi­an fellow feeling of each others suffering, And in what this service hath suffered by those unhappy differencies obstructing those supplies, whereby the worke heere had been before now finished, otherwise I see not how from those distractions in England is to bee concluded ( either in Honour or Reason) what you intend my giving up to the Rebells and their adherents this place and Charge committed mee: which by Gods grace I shall never doe.

Your Lordship now againe press [...]th that Conference defined in your former. And particularly, you except to my saying, That is [Page 7]prudence it was not to bee admitted in matters of this consequence, you tell mee; that if advice and deliberation bee necessary it is in matters of moment and consequence.

(But my Lord) it is not understood of advising with Enemies whose Councells, although never soe specious, are to be suspected. Nor was it said that advice was not necessary in matters of conse­quence: but that discourses and a verball Conference (which was that spoken of,) and that at the distance wee are with each other, was not in prudence to bee admitted especially in causes of this con­sequence. The Lord of Oxmonde soe apprehended it, whole trans­actions first with the Irish and after with the Parliament Commi­ssioners passed not in discourses but in writting, and that as to very circumstances. writeing (surely) not conference is the prudent and cleare way for such proceedings. let not therefore my de­clining that your way be apprehended as proceeding either out of diffidence of my cause; or from a Resolution to bold the conclusion without respect had to the premisses; or out of any distrust of your ingenuity: but as not being a way secure and fatisfactory. Neither am I enabled by the Parliament to dispute and debate their intrests otherwise then in the way wee now are, by the Sword: wherin I doubt not of a good conclusion the Lord asisting mee.

It troubles you much that I mention the Lords blessing this his owne cause with us; you say, that God blesseth men in evill cour­ses. A good cause (I know) may some time suffer. Yet is it not incongruous (Circumstances considered) to conclude the justice of a cause from Gods blessing it: seeing his blessing is expected and assured to his worke by speciall promise, the sinnes of those there­in instrumentall not interposing. But it seemes very strange what you say, (and the Stranger, if it bee the sence of those Divines with you) that God blesseth men in evill courses. Gods suffering them for a time to proceed in evill succesfully, is not a blessing of them in evill courses, there being to evill none of Gods blessings appropriated. But for us, it is our comfort that wee can and doe thus boast of the Lords blessing this his worke in our hands, wherein hath been mightily, & visibly magnified the Glorie of his power and truth and goodnesse even in the lowest of our Condition, to [Page 8]us an Evidence of his owne cause with us. And in soe concluding I but assume the same freedome, which your Lordship hath done: you having (in effect) soe concluded from the succesfullnes of your Sword: And this our cause is the same with that which your Lord­ship seemed then to hold.

Your Lordship justifieth your joyning with the Rebells by way of Recrimination; objecting the same to others. If to mee you intend it, I speake it plainly, it is a Charge very unjust, (to say no more)

But as to your selfe, you stick not openly to professe and justify your proceedings in that kinde, asserting it a Christian act: for therein (you say) you Received penitents; strange Penitents are they, who after soe much blood, and spoile of Innocents are now soe farre from satisfiing their wrong doings, that they professe themselves not guilty: and whose Penitence is only in that they failed in accomplishing their evill in fullnes; which in the now setling them in that power given in your Christian union with them, they may haue hereafter fitting opertunity to accomplish to the uttermost, soe, as they may not need further Penitence in that Particular.

You smile (you say) at that Charged to you of your Changing. At it (my Lord) do your Enemies smile: but griefe it is to your friends, and all well affected. who your friend, can smile at your falling away and (to speake plainely) at your betraying that trust reposed in you? can you smile at you turning that sword put into your hands by the Parliament, against those who have soe trust­ed and maintained you? were you called out against these bloody Rebells, and for the Protestants, and can you smile to see your selfe now in the head of those very Rebells or with them, and for them, and that, against even English and Protestants? can you smile (my Lord) in your betraying those poore English (your Care and trust,) and in offering them up (in time) a sacrifice to the malice of their mortall Enemies, having first removed (and by their hands alsoe, which is intended) those here, who pitty them, and by whom they might bee from those evills rescued. You tell me, that you have not changed your Cause but your Party, and what was your Cause then (I beseech you) and what is it [Page 9]now? was not the prosecution of this Warre against the Rebells then your Cause? this was surely your Trust and (for any thing ap­pearing) was it that only or principally in your trust? and are you not now taken of from this? is this your Cause now? are you not now changed to the quite contrary? your Cause (you say) is the maintenance of the King, of Laws, of Religion, and of the Liberties of Parliament. so indeed in your Covenant. But your sticking unto these (if unto them you sticke) excuseth you nothing, as to your failing in that principally Committed to you in that Province, the employing those Armes and powers given you against the Rebells our common Enemies. There is not the meanest Covenanter who pre­tends not equall intrest with you in these common engagements; but you were, besides all hese, eminently called above others to that high trust, from which you have soe fallen as your Honour is no way salved no [...] vindi [...]ated by a pretended adheiring to other your profession. your doing somethings, excuseth not your failing in that principally expected from you.

You object to us new raised Heresies &c. wee detest them as much as you or any; neither account we them any part of our Doctrine, and of the Religion now professed in the Church of England I wish some of your Lordships Divines now with you ( whose pennes are parhapps in this Charge to us) were not chargable with corruption in that kinde, makeing way for Heresies, and even for Popery it selfe alsoe, being thereby, with others of like straine, authors of those evills this day covering the face of Church and State, where­of they may bee in due time sensible.

Much more (you say) might bee said in your defence I beseech your Lordship to re [...]erve it for some time of better leasure, and for some other person fitter for such debateings. Wha [...] I have now done, was for shewing my selfe nothing satisfied with any thing yet by your Lordship delivered, and that others might not bee abused in suffering yours to passe me unanswered. But for the future, I desire, your Lordship would be pleased not to trouble your selfe not mee in thi [...] kinde any further. I am otherwise emploved then [Page 10]to spend time in answering some there, whose penns are at better leasure then either yours or mine at present. So I remaine

For the Lord Baron of Inchiquine These.