The history of the damnable popish plot, in its various branches and progress published for the satisfaction of the present and future ages / by the authors of The weekly pacquet of advice from Rome.

SECT. 1.

WE have hitherto seen the restless and im∣placable malice of the Romish Priests and Emissaries, continually conspiring and endeavou∣ring by all kind of Arts, ever since the Reforma∣tion, to subvert the Protestant Religion, and there∣with the Government in these Nations; so that we may reckon the Raigns of our late Princes, by a Succession of Popish Treasons. In displaying whereof we have been the larger, as well that the World may take notice that their late dam∣nable Plot was nothing strange or incredible; (for what wonder is it to hear an Horse neigh, to find a Fox crafty, or a Tyger cruel, or see those con∣cerned in Trayterous and bloody practices, whose Doctrines recommend the same as Duty or Merit, and who have for so many Ages been inured there∣unto?) as also to satisfie the Reader, that the Conspiracy which now threatned us, is all of a piece with those under which our Ancestors la∣boured, that 'tis still the same Tragedy, though the Scenes have been often shifted, and the Actors varied according to the different posture of Af∣fairs;

a continued stream of Treason flowing from the See of Rome, which though sometimes interrupted, diverted, or (like the River Arethusa) hid under ground, yet it perpetually, sometimes swifter, sometimes slower, kept on its course: but how and by what accessional Springs, Forreign Tides, or Domestick Land-floods, it came now to swell to so great and extraordinary an Head, just ready to ore-whelm us, may be worth inquiry. To give an exact account of all Circumstances at home and abroad, that contributed to the ripening and facilitating of this Plot, and which favouring the Design, encouraged the Conspirators to push forwards the same at this, rather then another time, requires more conversation in Court-In∣trigues, than we dare pretend to. But most ob∣vious it is, to an ordinary Eye, that there were not a few advantages which might much flush their hopes at this Conjuncture, and rendred their De∣sign more probable and feizable, than at any other moment since the Reformation.