THE UNGRATEFUL BEHAVIOUR OF THE PAPISTS PRIESTS AND JESUITS Towards the Imperial and Indulgent Crown of England Towards them From the Days of Queen Mary unto this present Age. LONDON Printed for James Magnes and Richard Bentley in Russel-street in Covent-Garden MDCLXXIX Omnibus Christi Fidelibus Vt Causae Regis magnae Britanniae Franciae Hiberniae verae Antiquae Apostolicae Fidei Defensoris ejusque Parliamentorum Justicia toti Orbi Christiano Innotesceret THough it hath not been deemed prudent that Legislators should in their Acts and Sanctions render their reasons of them lest by so doing they might haply invite and court contradiction from some ill-affected thereunto which might prove derogatory unto their Supreme Authority by giving occasion to the governed to wrestle with their reasons rendred and alledged and if they should think though erroneously that they have resolved or confuted them they would then also think that they have taken all vertue and efficacy from the very Laws themselves Yet it hath ever been esteemed acceptable and good Service to Government it self that Subjects should defend the just Laws of their Princes and especially those wherein Religion is concerned And Religion being or ought to be the grand concern of every Individual I hope I shall not be thought to wander inconsiderately out of my own Province whilst I endeavour to justifie the late Act of Parliament for preventing dangers which may happen from Popish Recusants I must confess that I dare not adventure my Salvation or Damnation on blind obedience or Implicite Faith or on any Deputies Proxies Popes Priests or Fryars nor take their bare word without express warranty from Scripture especially being commanded to search them and thereby to try them that say they are Apostles and are not and being pre-cautioned lest by good words and fair speeches the Hearts of the simple be deceived Rom. 16.17 In which kind of Arts the Papalins are most expert I have exposed this Treatise to the consideration of all Christians but more especially of all Kings Princes and Governours not to implore their Countenance or Protection of any error that haply may be found herein that were not only unmannerly but injurious to Majesty it self If what is here written cannot be justified by its own truth and effort of sound reason let it fall to the ground and be obliterate for ever For no error or falshood or any false equivocating reasonings can ever be pleasing to the God of Truth and therefore ought not to be supported or countenanced by any sublunary Majesty whatsoever Justa ratio sapientem non possit offendere The chief aim and great design in this Publication is to justifie to all the Christian World His Majesties great Title of Defender of the Faith truly Antient Catholick and Apostolick by his ready compliance with His great Council his Two Houses of Parliament to put away the evil from this our Israel by this His Act that both this and future Ages perceiving it to have been grounded both on great reasons of State and true grounds of Religion all the World may be the better satisfied and his own Subjects may hear and fear and do no more so presumptuously It is the great duty of every individual Christian for Truth and Conscience sake but more especially of Gods Lieutenants on Earth even for necessity and reason of good government also nay even out of duty to him by whom they reign to maintain and preserve Religion in its purity For this very end God hath ordained Kings and Queens to be his Vicegerents on Earth and conferred greatness and Majesty upon them to make them Defenders nursing Fathers and nursing Mothers of his Holy Church in which Calling the greatest of them can never give a good account of this their Charge and Stewardship except it be by a constant watchful care in matters of Religion As it is not prudent in civil Politicks for any Prince to receive a great succour from a more puissant Empire so it is as imprudent for any temporal Prince or Power to indulge or countenance any Sects that own any dependence on a Foreign Head Ecclesiastical or Civil especially if Sworn to advance that Head and promote his Interest And such a Head is the Pope who claims to be superiour to all Princes to be exempt from all Controll and exempts his Ecclesiasticks from their subjection and obedience unto their natural Princes and whom if you will believe them they cannot chastise though they are rebellious that he hath Power over all and can deprive Kings of their Kingdoms that in any difference between the Ecclesiastical and Secular the judgment appertains to the Ecclesiastical as to the more worthy And as is the Pope so are his Papalins The same Hour they become his Proselytes they also become his sworn Vassals and Advocates Can it be other than an infinite prejudice done to the Authority of Sovereign Princes if they should but supinely permit or be constrained to change or but to suspend their own Laws at the Beck and Pleasure of another State or Interest passing from one Law to another or tacitely by conniving only to acknowledg that he borrows from any other any power of governing in matters Civil or Ecclesiastical and therefore but just and reasonable for Princes to secure their own power by wholsome Laws preventing all Popish influencies that haply by some Wiles or politick Stratagems might oppose them or interfere with them in order to gratifie and support their own interest contrary to the interest of those Princes whose Subjects they are The main Bane of true Church power hath been the great opinion that the Antient and first converted Emperors had of the Abilities piety and devotion of the Antient Fathers Ecclesiasticks which confidence begat in them supiness and negligence of their own power and that gave occasion and encouragement to the Popes and their Ecclesiasticks to usurp and encroach upon their Authority whilst they little regarded their own power which God had fairly stampt upon them consequently neglecting their duty as if they were to render no account to God for themselves or their Subjects as if the care and defence of Religion and Piety were the least of their concerns tolerating for their own interest the people to be deceived by suffering the Pope to set up new Orders and Rites under the umbrello of Religion but in reality for his own Empire and profit without considering that such Orders and Customs by tract of time carry along with them their own warranty and so secretly invite belief which at length become meerly serviceable to the interests of those that manage them viz. the Popes and consequently disserviceable and disadvantageous unto Princes and all temporal Governments And such Orders being received and continued by the present Princes are no small obligations to their Heirs and Successors to continue them by reason of that former Authority engraven upon them by Custom and their Predecessors Now what does this Act
Eliz. both in person and by Her Embassies abroad did aver That Her Will and Intention was not to punish Her Subjects for their Religion and Conscience fo 13. It is also observable That after the Sanguinary Laws were Enacted that no Priest or Jesuit remaining here that had before these Acts taken Orders beyond Seas and lived quietly was ever called in question for his Religion In all the Laws though extorted from the Queen by so many Rebellions and Treasons there was nothing that did reflect upon an old quict Queen Maries Priest or any that were Ordained within the Land by the Romish Bishops then surviving so they were not over active and busie in Treasons and Conspiracies This also was such another Example of Royal favour as was not to be parallel'd in Queen Maries time And yet it s very remarkable That the chiefest of all these and the most of them had in the time of Hen. 8. Ed. 6. either by preaching writing or arguing taught all people to Condemn yea to Abhor the Authority of the Pope for which they had also yielded to both the said Kings the Title of Supreme Head c. and many of their Books and Sermons against the Popes Authority were printed both in English and in Latin to their great shame and reproach to change so often but especially in prosecuting such as themselves had taught and established to hold the contrary A sin near to the sin against the Holy Ghost Just Brit. f. 4 5. The Priests themselves confessed that such of them as upon examination were found moderate were not so hardly proceeded with in so much as 55. by the Laws liable to death were in 1585. when great mischiefs were in hand only banished A Regal Favour not to be parallel'd in Queen Maries days Import Considerations f. 29 30. Having seen how Faithful and Loyal Papists have been to Princes of their own Religion and also to Edw. 6. and Queen Eliz. Princes of a different profession let us now see how faithful they have been to King James and his posterity Such were the deep malicious and early Councels and designs of Papists against our protestant Princes and Reformation it self in the bud as they would have it that they were not content by all open and secret Councels Powers and Artifices imaginable that Rome France Spain Catholick Princes Priests and Jesuits could contrive or possibly suggest to Assassine and destroy that incomparable Princess Queen Eliz but in her days laid such a found ation and ground-work for future disturbances ruine and destruction even to all her Successors and to this Nation and to the Protestant Religion that hitherto it hath wrought and is still working by undermining powers and policies the effect whereof we feel even to this day and so like to continue to all successive Generations as long as the Seminaries and Jesuitism continue whose Trade and Business it is to encourage themselves and others in mischiefs and to Commune among themselves how they may privily lay snares In the Year 1568. The English fugitive Priests assembling themselves at Doway by the design of William Allen of Oxon the most learned amongst them did Collegiate together in a common Colledge-like Discipline Vide the Hope of Peace 20. to whom the Pope assigned a yearly pension Afterwards being banished the Netherlands by Don Lewis Requesens the King of Spains Deputy A like Seminary was erected at Rheims by the Guises the Queen of Scots Kinsmen Camb. 216.206 and another at Rome by Gregory XIII And afterwards another founded at Valledolid that there might never want a successive Generation of Men of corrupt Minds Heady High-minded despisers of Dominion Idolatrous and Traiterous Priests to poison England with their false Doctrines and traiterous principles In these Seminaries it was quickly defined That the Pope hath by the Law of God fullness of power over the whole World as well in Ecclesiastical as Temporal matters and that he out of his fulness of power may Excommunicate Kings and being Excommunicate depose them and absolve their Subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance Then were divers Priests well instructed in such Principles and Doctrins sent into England This done divers traiterous Combinations and Conspiracies both Forrein and Domestick were plotted as here so elsewhere is related Then the Jesuits on one side Camb. 297. and the Fugitive Noble-men and others on the other side with different affections suggested unto Mary Queen of Scots such dangerous Councels that the Seculars afterwards charged the Jesuits as procurers and Instruments of her death And the Jesuits when they saw there was no hope of restoring the Romish Religion either by her or King James her Son began to forge a new and feigned Title in the succession of the Kingdom of England for the Spaniard so wonderful faithful were they to King James and they sent into England as Pasquire saith one Saimer a Man of their Society to draw a party to the Spaniards and to thrust the Queen of Scots forwards to divers dangerous practises by telling her that if she were refractory neither she nor her Son should Reign mjost faithful Men still and by exciting the Guises her Kismen to new stirs against the King of Navarre and the Prince of Condey that they might not be able to aid her This their faith fulness such as it was lasted not only before King James came to the Crown but afterwards as will e're long appear Did not Fa. Parsons in Spain contest bitterly with Fa. Creighton Parsons to settle the Crown on the Infanta and Creighton on the King of Scots Did not Fa. Parsons with Sir William Stanley thrust on Hesket to perswade Ferdinando Earl of Darby to Claim the Crown Did not he perswade York and Young to fire Her Majesties Store-houses Did not he perswade Fr. Dickenson and others to tempt Water-men to fly with Ships to the Spaniards as hath been intimated before Dialogue 93. Thus you see how many several Titles did they seign and set up to set by Q. Eliz. from the Crown and to set up M. Q. of Scots whom they prompted and annimated unto so many Concrivances of dangerous Consequences that brought that Princess unto that sad Catastrophe and consequently were the occasion thereof and so confess'd in print by themselves they left no stone unturned Paul and 4th would not acknowledg her and why Because forsooth this Kingdom was held in Fee of the Apostolick See that she could not succeed being Illegitimate and that it was a great boldness to assume the Name and Government without him and therefore refused to hear Sir Edward Kerne her Ambassador All this and more was pretended to have been done in favour of that Admirable person M. Qucen of Scots But what think you would they have done if the Tables had been turned And Q. Eliz. had been an Illegitimate Papist and M. Q. of Scots a Legitimate protestant would you then have been so zealous and industrious for the Q.
to the Lords Justices by the same Lord Dillon as also by their frame of their new Common-Wealth found in Sir John Dungans house not far from Dublin and sent up thither out of Connaught to be communicated to those of Leinster the sum of which and other such like is summ'd up and may be seen to have that purport in the Irish Rebellion written by Sir John Temple f. 80 81 82. § Indeed if the Irish Papists had been so Loyal and Faithful as they now boast themselves to have been Nay had they had the least spark of gratitude for that King who had disobliged so many by obliging them so much they would never in his distresses have capitulated so severely and on the Swords point with him nor have held him to such hard tearms as they did in all their Treatises which they used only as Stratagems to Trapan not to serve His Majesty For in the Year 1643. when a Cessation was concluded with them by the Kings Authority and both English and Irish Engaged by Articles to Transport their Armies to England for His Majesties Service the English did it the Irish only pretended they would do it when the English were gone and then according to one of their old Maxims Nulla fides servanda cum Haereticis they plotted and attempted the ruine of the small Remnant of English left behind in Munster where the Lord Inchiquin commanding by the Kings Commission and the English with him were necessitated to stand on their own defence against the Popish Army Orery 25. Though in the Year 1645. the Earl of Glamorgan gave as Adventageous tearms as they could ask and condescended to such hard and dishonourable propositions on the Kings part as the then Marquess now Duke of Ormond in Justice and Honour neither could nor would condescend unto and though the Commissions of the confederate Catholicks solemnly engaged the publick Faith for the performance of them one Article whereof was 23. b. That they should send 10000. to serve His Majesty c. yet did they not in due time perform their plighted Troath herein which was a great disservice to His Majesty In which slender performance of theirs they could have no other end than thereby to render the Rebells in England more irreconcilable to His Majesty that so that War might be kept up that they might the better gain by Fishing in those troubled Waters so that they well hoped to give Law to both It was the constant observation of the Protestant Army there that the lower and more unfortunate the King was in his successes in England the higher were the demands of the Irish for the Truth is how Loyal and dutiful soever their pretences were towards the King yet their design was to set up for the Pope and the establishing the Romish Religion and erecting its Spiritual Monarchy at least if not a Temporal with it The Arch-Bishop of Iuum was a principal Agent in the Irish Wars and of the Supreme Council of Kilkenny He attended the Army about this time to visit his Diocess and to put in Execution an Order for the Arrears of his Bishoprick granted to him from the Council at Kilkenny which Order together with the Popes Bull and several other Letters of Correspondence between him and his Agents from Rome Paris and several parts of Ireland were found about him whereby it did appear that the Pope would not at the first engage himself in sending of a Nuntio for Ireland till the Irish Agents had fully satisfied him that the Establishment of the Catholick Religion was a thing feaseable and attainable in that Kingdom in which being satisfied he was content to sollicite their cause with Florence and Venice c. and also to delegate Farmano his Nuntio to attend the Kingdom who after some delays in France was at last posted from thence by express Order from the Pope and he arrived at the River of Kilmore in a Friggot of 21 Guns in October with 26 Italians of his Retinue Secretary Belinges and divers Regular and Secular Priests and also with great Supplies for the service of the King no doubt as 2000 Muskets 4000 Bandaliers 2000 Swords 500 Petronells and 20000 l. of Powder all which arrived at Brooke-Haven the same Month together with 5 or 6 Deskes or Small Truncks of Spanish Gold how far all those Popish Auxiliaries conduced to the Kings service and the Protestant Interest I leave to all Contemporaries to judg As in the year 1645. so in that Year 1646. after a peace concluded with them they treacherously attempted to cut off the Lord Lievtenant and his Army with him who marched out of Dublin on security and confidence of that peace 24. b. The same year the Council and Congregation of the Confederate Catholicks of Ireland obliged their General Preston by a solemn Oath to exercise all Arts of Hostility against the Lord Marquess of Ormond the Kings Vice-gerent and his Party and to help and advise with Council and assist in that service the Lord General and Vlster employed in the same Expedition In the Year 1647. from Kilkenny 18. January the General Assembly of the Confederate Catholicks of Ireland employed Commissioners to Rome France and Spain to invite a Forrein power into Ireland To Rome they sent their Titular Bishop of Ferns and Nicholas Plunket Esq Knighted there by the Pope for his good service therein to declare that they raised Arms for the freedom of the Catholick Religion which are their own words in the Third Article of those their Instructions Orerey This is consonant to the Oath framed the same Year with some Addition to what had formerly been taken by the said General Assembly and pressed on all sorts of people under pain of high Treason which Oath enjoyns the maintenance of these ensuing Propositions 1. That the Roman Catholicks both Clergy and Laiety in their several Capacities have the free and publick exercise of the Roman Catholick Religion and Function throughout the Kingdom in as full lustre and splendour as it was in the Reign of Hen. VII or any other Catholick King his Predecessors Kings of England and Lords of Ireland either in Ireland or in England 2. That the Secular Clergy of Ireland viz. Primates Arch-Bishops Bishops Ordinaries Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-Deacons Prebendaries and other Dignitaries all other Pastours of the Secular Clergy their respective Successors shall have and enjoy all and all manner of Jurisdictions Priviledges and Immunities in full and ample manner as the Roman Catholick Secular Clergy had or enjoyed the same within this Realm at any time during the Reign of the late King Hen. VII sometimes King of England and Lord of Ireland any Law Declaration of Law Statute Power or Authority whatsoever to the contrary notwithstanding 3. That all Laws and Statutes made since the 20th Year of Hen. VIII whereby any restraint penalty or other restriction whatsoever is or may be laid upon any of the Roman Catholicks either of the
Councils Decrees great and learned men Abjurations and the like And I appeal yet further to all the World if our Popish Traytors here have not in defiance of our Laws and for their Justification Honour and Encouragement been rewarded at Rome with Honours and Offices made Holy Martyrs Canonized for Saints and their very Bones kept for Reliques Mighty Motives I must confess to perswade us to reward and tollerate such men and such a Religion A Religon that no Protestant I might go farther can embrace without becoming worse than bruitish by unreasoning themselves out of their own reasonable Souls yea their very Senses according to Jer. 10.8 14 23. They are altogether bruitish and foolish Their Stock is a Dostrin of Vanities Every Man is bruitish in his knowledg Every founder is confounded by the Graven Image for his molten Image is falshood and there is no Breath in them Nay the Pastours are become Bruitish and have not sought the Lord And what are they but bruitish that will not know that will not understand and that hare reproof Now let all the Romish Doctors and Jesuits shew if they can if the Doctrines of the Popes power to Excommunicate Depose and Murder Emperours Kings and Princes and to absolve their Subjects from their Oaths of Obedience and Allegiance to them And if the Extravagant de Majoritate Obedientia and that other of unam sanctam be not in as full force and vertue now at Rome as ever only the most Christian King did cudgel Clement the 5th into better manners and made him to expound that Extravagant of Boniface the 8th in favour of him and his Subjects by another of Meruit de privilegiis And did not Paul the 5th Innocent the 10th and Alexander the 7th of later days ratifie these monstrous opinions with a particular respect to the case of His Majesties Subjects of Great Britain And shall we after all these demonstrations of their rancour and malice towards us and our Religion mitigate or suspend our Laws that secure us or ought not they rather to repent and amend their lives their Religion and their Doctrins I appeal to all unbiassed persons if they have not incapacitated themselves of all possibility of ever giving any probable security to a prudent State whilst they remain in the Communion of that Church by becoming Votaries to Rome by their Vows and Oaths except they will abjure them and imbosom themselves in our Church And shall we then fear to Countermine such destructive bloody principles and practises by moderate and cautionary Laws preventing them or by any precautions to disappoint the mischiefs designed against us and which if they should fall upon us were never to be repaired by any future Laws or punishments how severe soever Let God and the whole World be Judg between us I must confess my self so little discerning that I cannot perceive any difference between the Idolatry of the Jews and that of the Papists The Jews were reasonable Creatures had the same senses and faculties inward and outward as Papists have and can it then reasonably be imagined that the Jews after they were come out of Aegypt and had themselves broken off the Gold Ear-rings which were in the Ears of their Wives of their Sons 32. Ex. and of their Daughters and given them to Aaron to Make a Golden Calf withall Should yet be such Changlings so void of all sense and reason as to think That that very Calf made but Yesterday by Aaron should be the very God that brought up them and their Fathers out of the Land of Aegypt so many years before It is true they said These be thy Gods O Israel that brought thee up out of the Land of Aegypt and accordingly built an Altar proclaimed a Feast unto the Lord not unto the Calf offered burnt Offerings and brought peace Offerings and sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play i. e. to Idolatrize 1 Cor. 10.7.1 To play the fool by thinking to please God by making a representative of him for they could only mean that the Calf represented that God not that it was the very God that brought them out of Aegypt leading and defending them by a Cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night Those Athenian Idol-worshippers whose Altar inscribed to the unknown God Acts 17.23 argues That their Sacrifices and Devotions did not certer and terminate in the Idols they worshipped but had respect to the true God though unknown to them whom therefore they did ignorantly worship whereby it is manifest that their worship had respect unto God Paul did declare unto them to be him that made the World and all things therein c. Vers 24 25 26. Is Romish Idolatry less or other I doubt not Jehu riding in pomp in his Chariot brag'd and boasted of his zeal towards God as much as Papists Come see my zeal for the Lord 2 King 10.16 and pretended worship to God when he worshipped representatives 1 Cor. 10.18 20 21. Psal 106.37 Deut. 32.17 Golden Calfs nay Devils 2 King 10.29 2 Chr. 11 15. By which it is plain that their worship did not terminate in the Calves but had a farther prospect even a respect to God himself Is not Romish Worship the same where 's the difference Crux Legati a dextris collocari debet quia ei debetur Latria If the Legates Cross must be placed on the right hand for that very reason because Latria which is the same Worship and Reverence which is due to the one only God Graece servitus dicitur quae quantum ad Religionem attinet non nisi uni soli Deo debetur Vide Isid 12. lib. Vide August contra Faust Manich. lib. 20. c. 21 Vide Aquin. 1 2. q. 130. Art 3. is due unto it I for my part must acknowledg my self so thick Scull'd as not to discern any difference between the Jews worshipping the Calves and the Papists worshipping the Cross their Breaden God or any Pricture Thing or Representative though Vasquer be so bold as to ascribe Worship even to a Wisp of Straw Tho. Aquin. summ part 3. Quest 25. Artic. 3. Concludes Sic sequitur quod eadem reverentia exhibeatur Imagini Christi ipso Christo cum ergo Christus adoretur adoratione Latriae c. That the same Reverence is to be given to the Image of Christ and to Christ himself and by consequence seeing Christ is adored with the adoration of Latria also which induces me to believe that that in Jeremiah ch 10. is as truly applicable to the now Romanists as to the Jews of old All which seriously considered and that though Supreme Magistrates have power moderately and in measure by wholsom Laws not by Fire and Faggot Tortures and Inquisitions to compel and to secure the true Religion and undefiled and their Realms professing the same yet I find no warrant in Bibliis Sacris for any power to tollerate and indulge any false Religion in
to Swear by the Lord and Melchom to hear as Protestants but believe as Papists to cry the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord boasting of the high Priviledges the Gospel hath and doth afford us and yet not to walk by the Rules and Precepts thereof which in plain English is to talk indeed like Saints but in truth to do like Devils Why then should we hazard the Eternal wellfare of our precious immortal Souls upon nice points of Logick upon peradventures and come at last and when it is too late unto an Had I wish'd Remember Nehem. 13.23 26. Did not Solomon King of Israel sin by these things yet amongst many Nations was there no King like him who was beloved of his God and God made him King over all Israel nevertheless even him did strange Women cause to sin § Moreover it hath been the practise of the Church in all Ages to cast out the Leaven of contrary Doctrins and Profession In the time of Enos before the Flood the Servants of God began to worship God by themselves apart from the prophane Generation of Cain Ishmael was cast out of Abrahams House because he was a scorner of Isaack Jacob reformeth his House and putteth away the strange Gods Gen. 35.2 Joshua maketh the Gibionites hewers of Wood and drawers of Water for the House of God Josh 9 13 David expelleth the Idolatrous Jebusites out of Jerusalem 2 Sam. 5 8. Asa put Maacha his Mother from her regiment because she was an Idolatress and brake down her Idols 2 Chron. 15.16 Josias put down the Chemarins a Sect of Idolatrous Priests 2 Kings 23.5 Zerubbabel would not suffer the adversaries of Judah to build the Temple with them but refused their service which they offered Ezech. 4.3 This was the Law Thou shalt make no Covenant with them nor with their Gods they shall not dwell in the Land lest they make thee sin against me Exod. 23.32 33. Deut. 7.2 3 4. The Graven Images of their Gods shall ye burn with fire Thou shalt not desire the Silver and Gold that is on them nor take it unto thee lest thou be snared therein for it is an abomination to the Lord thy God Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thy house least thou be an accursed thing like it but thou shalt utterly detest it and thou shalt utterly abhor it for it is a cursed thing Deut. 7.25 26. Neither shalt thou set up any Graven Image which the Lord thy God hateth Deut. 16.22 Where Gods Ark is there Dagon shall be thrust out of his place and fall down before it 1 Sam. 5. § One kind of vile and base Idolatry when Men Worship their own Fancies as Papists Quakers and Enthusiasts amongst others now adays do observing that for a Religion which their deceived minds imagine then may not Princes wink at corrupt and vitious Religion which is an inward and ghostly worship of Idols seeing no man and therefore no Prince can serve Two Masters Mat. 6.24 Luke 16.13 And the Service that Princes yield Christ in respect of their Royal vocation consisteth in making Laws for Christ which if they do likewise for Antichrist it cannot be salved but that they serve God and Mammon or rather cease to be Servants of Christ in that they renounce their Master by serving his Adversary And they cannot but know that silence provoketh and sufferance imboldeneth their Subjects to forsake God and his Church Even as in civil Affairs the slacking of Justice doth maintain disorder the life of the Law is penalty when duly executed wherefore the great Law-giver to his own Israel useth such enforcements Every state and Kingdom hath Refractories whom nothing restrains but penalty indeed penalties executed do scarce reform yet is Treacle made up of such Vipers for preserving others All Israel shall hear and fear Deut. 17.13 and do no more presumptuously Servility is much in men of best inclination they are not always led by the Spirit of Ingenuity Psal 51.12 Draco his Laws are yet extant their severity is deemed over rigorous providing death for least offences lenities in some enormities is no less blamable whilst Adultery laughs at the white sheet or secures it self of redeeming that shame with purse or power As offences grow though but in circumstances so ought Penalties Num. 30.32.35 Maxima peccandi Illecibra est impunitatis spes There is no greater encouragement or enticement to sin than hope of Impunity Some wise Men begin to think as that Sage Politician spake by occasion of Nerva's remissness in Government Praestat vivere ubi nulla quam ubi omnia sint licita It 's better to live in that state where nothing than where all things are lawful David was so far from suffering the worship of any strange God within his Realm that he protesteth Their offerings I will not offer neither make mention of their names within my lips Psal 16.4 When would he think you confirm their Honour and Service with his Royal Authority that thus disdained them common civility he had a more Ennobled Spirit more Divine Principle and would shew it by the sublimity of his Actions Quo major suum eo plus laborabo as the Sun Josh 23.7 Deut. 12.3 Num. 32.38 scorned to know wicked persons or to let them tarry in his sight he was engaged to do something more than ordinary being called to be Gods own Anointed and that the observation of Gods Laws was the noblest Ornament of His Majesty and that the Law was express against it Make no mention of the names of other Gods neither let it be heard out of thy mouth Exod. 23.13 The good Kings of Juda were favoured and blessed of God for walking in the Ways of David their Father and purging the Land from all Sacrifices and Ceremonies not prescribed by Moses's Law Contrariwise Solomon was rejected for admitting other Gods to be served within his Dominions besides the God of Israel though this tolleration was granted in respect of his own Wives that were strangers Nehem. 13.36 Jerohoams politick devise to Worship the same God in Dan and Bethel after a new manner turned to the destruction of himself and his Posterity Therefore Jehosaphat reproved by Jehu visited his Kingdom from Beersheba to Mount Ephraim and brought his people back unto the Lord God of their Fathers 2 Chron. 19 2 3. That the false Priests and Prophets did so over-bear the true Prophets of God Jeremiah Ezechiel c. to the ruine of the City and Kingdom was the fault of Jehoiakim and Zedebiah And at this day it is the fault and folly of Christian Kings that suffer the grand Seignior of Rome to impose upon them and that the Church of Rome is not either reduced to her primitive truth and purity from which she is degenerated and brought to better conformity vvith the truly Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church or else demolished as the Jewish Synagogue vvas § Gratian at his first entring finding all places