which he received oftner from the English Scholars than all the Vassals of his Triple Crown And untruely is the Magistrate noted of Negligence or overmuch Severity that lays wait to catch the Foxes and the little Foxes which spoil the Vineyard though afterwards without further punishment he reserve them to the day wherein God will take account of their Stewardship For if Aristotle's City defined to be a Society of men assembled to live well be the same which in our Law hath reference to the maintenance of the poor in Peace So long as we taste of the sweet of a peaceable Government we cannot say but that we live well and that the City consisting of Men and not of Walls is happily guided 8. An Oath is a weak Band to contain him that will for pretended Conscience sake hold no Faith with Hereticks or by Absolution from a Priest thinks himself at liberty to flie from any Promise or Protestation whatsoever Therefore when I remember that Watson the Priest notwithstanding his Invectives against the Jesuits gained liberty to forge his Traiterous Inventions and had others of his Society in the Complot I judge it safer to make Recluses of them than to suffer such to dally with us by Books and some idle Intelligences cast abroad only as a Mist to blear our eyes But how shall we finde means to apprehend those disguised Romanists that borrow the shapes of Captains Merchants Gentlemen Citizens and all sorts of people and by Equivocation may deny themselves to be themselves In Answer to this Question I will first shew the Reason why they are not pursued and taken and hereafter make an Overture how they may be boulted out of their Hutches The Nature of Man howsoever in hot blood it be thirsty of Revenge in a cooler temper it hath a kind of Nausea as I may call it or a distaste of taking away of the Lives even of the Nocent Insomuch that in all Assizes and Sessions an Offender can hardly be Condemned whom the foolish pity of many will not after a sort excuse with laying some Imputations on the Judge part on the Jury and much on the Accuser and such is their blind Affection that the Prisoner who perhaps was never recommended for Handsomness will be esteemed of them for one of the properest men in the company From hence it comes that the name of a Serjeant or a Pursevant is odious and the Executioner although he be the hand of Justice is esteemed no better than an Enemy of Mankinde and one that lost Honesty and Humanity in his Cradle Reverend Mr. Foxe was wont to say That Spies and Accusers were necessary Members in a Common-wealth and deserved to be cherished but for his own part he would not be of any of that number or wish his Friends to affect such Imployments And albeit that the Law permits and commands every man to apprehend a Felon do we not commonly see very many content to stand by and look on while others perform that Office Likewise it is evident That if such as are tender of their Reputations be very scrupulous personally to Arrest men for civil Actions of Debt they will be more unwilling Instruments of drawing their Bodies to the Rack or the Gallows especially when there is any colour of Religion to be pretended in their defence The diversity of Mens Faces is great but the difference of their Mindes in this case is more variable wherein the meanest have thought as free as the highest Besides this there are too many of the blinde Commonalty altogether Popish though not reconciled Papists who in their foolish Ignorance will say It is pity any should die for their Conscience though indeed they make honourable amends for their Treason Verily I know not what misgiving of their minde it is that makes men forecast the possibility of Alteration in matters of Religion and for that respect they are exceeding backward in discovery and laying hands on Seminaries yea and are timerous in enacting sharp Laws against them as those that silently say among themselves Sors hodierna mihi eras erit illa tibi Nay shall I speak a Bugs word There is no small number that stand doubtful whether it be a grateful work to cross Popery or that it may be done safely without a foul aspersion of Puritanisme or a shrewd turn for their labours at some time or other By which unhappy ambiguity it comes to pass that these Animalia amphibia the Priests I mean that prey on the Souls and Bodies of either Sex unattached revel where they list though they be no more seen than a man dancing in a net How much fitter were it for us courageously to invite them to our Party by Preaching or Confuting them by writing and unto the state wherein we stand wisely to apply the Exhortation of the Assyrian King to his Souldiers You are fools quoth he if there be any hope in your hearts to redress Sorrow by flight rather endeavour to make them flie that are the causers of your grief assuring your selves that more perish in slight than in the battle Even as many seeking to meet the Papists half way discomfort our own Party 9. It follows now according to the Method prescribed before that an Overture be made how to get the Jesuits and their shadows the Priests into possession It hath been heretofore recited that the unwelcome name of a Blood-sucker a Busie-body or a Puritan hath been shrewd Scarecrows unto many honest mindes by abrogating therefore of those or suchlike imputations many will be stirred up to undertake the apprehending of the Adversaries unto the Truth especially when for their pains and time employed they shall deserve and have the Titles of good Patriots dutiful Subjects and zealous Christians How ready is every common person to carry a Malefactor to the Stocks rather than to the Goal or Execution and doubtless they will be no less forward to attach a Priest when they are assured that the worst of his Punishment shall be a simple Restraint within the Walls of some old Castle A certain kinde of People there is with whom Money plays a more forcible Orator's part than any perswasion of the dutiful Service which they owe to their Common-wealth These men will not be negligent to give Intelligence and also to procure it faithfully provided that reward may help to line their thredbare Purses and exempt them from need to sell Liberty unto Seminaries And where assurance of gain is propounded for Discovery What Master or Housekeeper will trust his Servant with keeping of his Priest or sleep quietly while he is engaged to the danger of a Mercenary I remember that in Italy it was often told me that the bountiful hand of Sir Francis Walsingam made his Intelligencers so active that a Seminary could scarcely stir out of the Gates of Rome without his privity which success by mediation of Gold may as readily be obtained from Sivil Valedolid Doway Lovain Paris and
in that course I hold it safer to be ambitious of the Victory which is purchased with less loss of Bloud and to proceed as Tully teacheth his Orator Who when he cannot wholly overthrow his Adversary yet ought he to do it in some part and with all endeavour to confirm his own party in the best manner that may be 4. He that forbeareth to sow his ground in expectance of good Winde or a favourable Moon commonly hath a poor Crop and a lean Purse So shall it fare with this State if private Whisperings of discontented persons that never learnt to speak well be too nicely regarded yet ought they not to be slightly set at nought lest our Credit grow light even in the Ballance of our dearest Friends The Papistical Libels inform against us as if we were desirous to grow fat with sucking of their Bloud the very Walls of their Seminary Colledge at Rome are bedawbed with their lying Phansies and in every corner the Corner-creepers leave some badge of their malicious Spleen against us crying out of Cruelty and Persecution But if the penalty of Death be changed into a simple indurance of Prison what Moat can they finde in our Eyes to pull out or with what Rhetorick can they defend their obstinate Malipertness which with repaying us ill for good deserve to have Coals of Indignation poured upon their heads Visne muliebre consilium said Livia to Augustus let Severity sleep a while and try what alteration the pardoning of Cinna may procure The Emperour hearkened to her Counsel and thereby found his Enemies mouths stopt and the malice abated Some there are perchance that will term this Clemency Innovation and vouch the Precedent of that City who permitted none to propound new Laws that had not a Cord about their neckes ready for Vengeance if it were found improfitable But let such Stoicks know that there is great difference between the penning of a new Law and advice given for the manner of executing it neither by their leaves are all Innovations to be rejected for divine Plato teacheth us That in all Common-wealths upon just grounds there ought to be some changes and that States-men therein must behave themselves like skilful Musicians Qui artem Musices non mutant sed Musices modum 5. That an evil Weed groweth fast by example of the new Catholicks increase is cleerly convinced But he that will ascribe this Generation simply to his Majesties Heroical vertue of Clemency argueth out of the fallacy which is called Ignoratio Elenchi Was not the Zeal of many cooled towards the last end of Queen Elizabeth's Raign hath not the impertinent heat of some of our own side bereft us of part of our strength and the Papacy with tract of Time gotten a hard skin on their Consciences Parva metu primo nux sese attollit in altum But if we will with a better insight behold how this great quantity of Spawn is multiplied we must especially ascribe the cause thereof to their Priests who by their Deaths prepare and assure more to their Sect than by their Lives they could ever perswade It were Incivility to distrust a Friend or one that hath the shew of an honest man if he will frankly give his Word or confirm it with a sacred Oath But when a Protestation is made upon the last gasp of Life it is of great effect and possesseth those that cannot gain-say it upon their own knowledge The number of these Priests which now adays come to make a Tragical Conclusion is not great Yet as with one Seal many Patents are sealed so with the loss of a few Lives numbers of wavering Spirits may be gained Sanguis Martyrum semen Ecclesiae And though these Priests having indeed a disadvantageous Cause are in very deed but counterfeit Shadows of Martyrs unto a true understanding yet will they be reputed for such by those that lay their Souls to pawn unto their Doctrine with whom if we list to contend by multitude of Voices we shall be cryed down without all peradventure For the gate of their Church is wide and many there are that enter thereinto 6. By divers Means it is possible to come to one and the self-same End seeing that then the sum of our well-wishings is all one namely That Popish Priests may have no power to do harm it is not impertinent to try sundry paths which may lead us to the perfecting of our Desires Politicians distinguish Inter rempub constitutam rempub constituend according to the several natures whereof Statists are to dispose of their Counsels and Ordinances Were now the Rhemists and Romulists new-hatched out of the shell the former course of Severity might soon bury their Opinions with their Persons But since the Disease is inveterated variety of Medicine is judiciously to to be applied The Romans did not punish all Crimes of one and the self-same nature with extremity of Death For some they condemned to perpetual Prison and others they banished into an Island or some remote Countrey Even in the case of Religion they were very tender to dip their fingers in Blood For when Cato was Consul and it seemed good unto the Senate to suppress with violence the disordered Ceremony of the Bacchanals brought by a strange Priest into the City he withstood that Sentence alledging that there was nothing so apt to deceive men as Religion which always presents a shew of Divinity and for that cause it behoved to be very wary in chastizing the Professors thereof lest any indignation should enter into the Peoples mindes that somewhat was derogated from the Majesty of God Others more freely have not spared to place Religion I mean that Religion which is ignorantly zealous amongst the kinds of Frensie which is not to be cured otherwise than by time given to divert or qualifie the fury of the Conceit Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum Howsoever in valuing the power of a City or strength of Arguments quality and worth is to be preferred before number Nevertheless where the uttermost of our force is not known it imports much to have it conceived that the Multitude stands for us for Doubts and Suspicions cast in an Enemies way evermore make things seem greater and more difficult than they are indeed We have by God's Mercy the Sword of Justice drawn on our behalf which upon short warning is able to disunite the secret Underminers of our Quiet we have a King zealous for the House of the Lord who needeth not to fear less Success in shutting up of Priests than Queen Elizabeth had in restraining them in Wisbich-Castle where lest their factious Spirits should grow rusty they converted their Canker to fret upon themselves and vomiting out Gall in Quodlibets shewed that their Disease was chiefly predominant in the Spleen What Tempests they have raised in their Colledge at Rome their own Books and many Travellers can witness the storm whereof was such that Sextus Quintus complained seriously of the vexation
the Church contained in good nurture and Ecclesiastical censures will much more prevail to muzzle Popery than any fresh devices whatsoever Neither do I think it blame-worthy to affirm that our Cause hath taken harm by relying more on the Temporal than the Spiritual Arms for while we trusted that Capital punishments should strike the stroak we have neglected the means which would for the most part have discharged the need of such severity The Oath of Allegiance is not offered generally to Servants and mean people who if they had taken the Oath by Absolution of a Priest might recoyl from it or change their opinion at leisure without any ready means to discover their Legerdemain That Oath I fear will not be often pressed and to them that shift from place to place how can it be tendered The principal Papists now cover themselves in the crowd of the multitude but if we can discover the affection of the multitude they easily will be unmasked and being singled out rest ashamed of their nakedness which under correction of better judgment may be effected if every new comer to inhabit in a Town and servants newly entertained within a week or fourteen days be caused to repair to the Minister there in presence of the Churchwardens and other honest men to subscribe unto such brief and substantial Articles concerning Faith and Allegiance as shall be according to Gods Word and Justice ordained to distinguish the Sheep from the Goats In Forreign Countries every Host is bound to bring his Guest before an Officer there to certifie his name with the occasion of his coming and intended time of his abode in those parts and in case he stay longer he must again renew his Licence So curious and vigilant also are they to keep their Cities from Infection that without a Certificate witnessing their coming from wholsome places they may not escape the Lazeretto No less ought we to be watchful to prevent the contagion of our Souls than other Nations are of their Bodies Every thing is hard and scarcely pleasing in the beginning but with time some such course may be readily put in execution which I propound rather as matter for better heads to work on than peremptorily to be insisted on in the same Terms But lest any charge me with temerity that when I desire to know the multitudes inclination by the means aforesaid I satisfie my self with their Parrots Language pronouncing it knows not what I think it not impertinent to put them in mind that heretofore I have required instructions both precedent and subsequent and am ever of the mind That although all this cannot be done at once yet it is necessary always to be doing our best knowing that not to go forwards in Religion is the ready way to go backwards It is not the outward obedience of coming to Church that discovers the inward thought of the Heart it is the confession of the Tongue that must utter these secrets And where the Curates are insufficient or the Parish great I wish they had Catechists to assist them maintained by the Purses of the Recusants which Pension being collected for Gods Cause will free us of scandal though it grieve them to pay the Spiritual Army waged against their own Stratagems Surely by giving them way in petty matters they are grown to be very masterful in their Party Plato affirmeth That the Popular State proceeded from the Licence which the people took to make immoderate applauses in the Theaters when as by arrogating that immunity without controlement in place of their Governours and perceiving the Nobility to joyn with them in the same passions they thought their Heads as worthy to Govern as any of those that were made out of the self-same mould In like manner while we suffer ignorance openly to maintain such petty glimpses of Popery as are thought to be scarce worthy to be look't at and in small matters run an indifferent course which neither make sure Friends nor feeble Foes unawares they take the bridle from us and eat out Religion as it were by an insensible Gangrena Principiis obsta serò medicina paratur Cum mala per longas convaluere moras For by sufferance of breaking smaller Laws People are emboldned to set the greater at nought To comprehend all things in a Law which are necessary to the Reformation I neither hold it profitable nor expedient yet it is discretion to provide for the most important smaller matters whereof the Laws speak not are to be commended to the discretion of Parents Masters and other reverend persons who by example and advice may prepare younglings by Education and Custom to obey the Laws especially such as are in high place ought in this behalf to be like Caesars Wife Non solum crimine sed etiam criminis suspitione vacare and with circumspection to behave themselves that the world may conceive in requiring obedience to God and their Soveraign that they hold the multitude rather for companions than slaves if great men take another way they may seduce many by example though by words they express not their concealed opinions Tace loquere said God to Moses it is the speech of the heart that utters more than words and syllables and in our Common Laws it is held Maintenance when a great Personage onely by his presence countenanceth a Cause Neither let us secure our selves with this Argument The Papists are plyable in small matters ergo they will yield in greater and because they took no Arms in 88. therefore it were needless curiosity to suspect them now for who knows not that small baits are used to take the greatest Fish Vt cum esca una etiam hamus devoretur Wariness is the sinews of wisdom and nothing is more dangerous than to be secure in matters of State therefore for the Laws already made I wish that the most effectual of them which least concerns life may be executed for better it were not to make them than by neglect to set them at liberty seeing many offences there are which men would abstain from if they were forbidden but when a strict commandment is avoided without punishment thereout springs an unbridled Licence hardly to be reformed by any rigour To conclude I say freely that whoso endeth his days by a natural death he shall be subject to receive many mens dooms for every particular offence but when for Religions sake a man triumpheth over the sword that one eminent vertue razeth out the memory of other errours and placeth him that so dyeth in Paradice if common opinion may be lawfully vouched which glory having many followers and admirers awaketh even dull spirits to affect their footsteps and to sell their lives for the maintainance of the same Cause I need not envy the name of a Martyr to the Jesuit for his Cause if it be rightly weighed will blanch that Title but I desire to have all those lineaments defaced which may compound that counterfeit Image in prosecuting of which purpose if I have failed in my advice and by confused handling intricated the question I humbly request that a wise mans verdict may mitigate the heaviness of that censure It is neither good to praise bad Counsels because of their good success nor to condemn good Counsels if the Events prove not fortunate lest many be animated to advise rashly and others disheartned to counsel gravely Illi mors gravis incubat Qui notus nimis omnibus Ignotus moritur sibi Senec. Trag. His death deserveth more than common blame Whom all men knew too well and yet alone Alas he dyes unto himself unknown FINIS