or even as this superstitious Idolatrous Church of England Man who for all that with his devout Litany and humble Lord have mercy upon me miserable Sinner is in the judgment of him who shall be Judg of the quick and the dead like to go up to his House justified sooner than the boasting Pharisaical Presbyterian Separatist notwithstanding the large self-justifying Inventory of his own Perfections and Performances There are few but would be of my judgment in this particular that these men are strangely puft up with this wind-Tympany of Pride if they had but convers'd with them and seen how big and swell'd they look with self-conceit or if they had but heard them vilifie lessen and despise all others upon whom the best their Charily can bestow is a little scornful Pity Alas poor Souls they are in blindness Errour and Ignorance and do not see those saving Truths which concern their precious and immortal Souls or their everlasting Peace and Welfare CHAP. X. Of the ill Consequences this Doctrine has upon the private Communities where it comes From hence proceeds a certain breach of Vnity No People so addicted to Debates Envyings Strife Backbitings Whisperings Slanders condemning censuring all who are not of their Way to be Reprobate as are the Separatists Vncharitableness and Atheism hereby extremely propagated they separate the dearest Eriends and by creeping into Houses and beguiling silly Women divide those whom God had joined together they are curious busie-bodies in espying out the faults of all others which they publish to make themselves appear the Elect and all others Reprobates All this is done to fit them to act upon the publick Theatre of the World which they practise in private Villages or where ever they dwell FROM Themselves let us pass to their Neighbours and there we shall see the ill consequences this Doctrine has upon them as they are Members of any Community or private Society of Men. Hereby the Unity of the Spirit Eph. 4.3 which is the Bond of Peace and Perfection is utterly destroyed and wheresoever this Doctrine once enters there does immediately follow as St. Paul says to his Corinthians Debates Envyings Wrath 2 Cor. 12 20. Strifes Back-bitings Whisperings Swellings Tumults innumerable Disputes great heats in discourse and coolings in Charity strong arguings though weak Arguments from these men of perverse minds condemning censuring judging reproving and reproaching all their Neighbours who will not join with them and by running into the same Excess of Spiritual Riots unlawful Meetings Conventicles or Assemblies under pretence of serving God become new Men as they believe and speak themselves to be all those who look not through their Opticks are blind the Wicked and Reprobates If for this talkative and troublesome humours any of their Neighbours reprove or rebuke them presently it is because they know nothing of God or of goodness If hereby they purchase the aversion of the Sober or more Judicious the Prudent and Ancient who will tell them it was not so in their time but there was more true love faith and honesty when there was less disputing about Religion when men went all one way to the Church and Heaven and that it was never a good world since they came into it Oh! these are your formal Moral men who are setled upon the Lees and hereby they fortifie themselves in their Errors because they know the world must hate them which Hatred they make another infallible Sign of the true Church and which is just such another as the former Mark of Persecution and if one or both of these are true all manner of Thieves Robbers Murderers and combined Villains must undoubtedly be of their true Church because they are hated of all men except their Confederates and justly persecuted for their contempt and breaking of the Laws as these men are who for all their fine pretences are no less Malefactors nor less dangerous to the publick welfare of the State than the other and I am sure far more in one sense because they are more numerous and of worse design And whatever they may say it is for that danger which the natural Principle of Self-preservation teaches all men it is for their doing so many ill Offices setting Families and whole Towns together by the ears disturbing the peace and quiet of all their Neighbours it is for these and such like uncharitable practices that they deservedly pull those aversions upon themselves and not as they vainly please themselves for their being Religious which those that see through them and their Form of Godliness to their wicked Intentions say they cannot see any true Religion in them at all and cannot hate them for what they are not guilty of NOR does this a little advance the encrease of Atheism amongst us and it may be we need not seek much further for the true Reason of the great and sensible Decay of Christian Piety in the present Age. I have known in some places those who were of no particular Faction nor had listed themselves under the Standards of any Party who yet forsook the assembling of themselves together at the Church the Prayers and Sacraments for which I could never hear them give any other account but that it was impossible to know which was the right Way to Heaven or the true Religion whilst so many different Opinions pretend with an equal Confidence that they are in the Right and all others wrong and this sort of People wanting both Will and Abilities to judg are easily perswaded to dispence with all Religious Performances their natural inclinations having never very strongly bent them that Way and should the succeeding Age make but as considerable a step towards Heathenism as the present has done we should stand in need of a Second Joseph of Arimathea to convert our Posterity to the Christian Faith as 't is said the first did our Ancestors NEITHER has this Infection seized only upon the vulgar but even those persons who have been able to fly from other Plagues have been surprized by this Contagion and possibly Leviathan who is so much accused for debauching green heads has not made so many Proselytes to Atheistical Principles amongst the tender and unsettled Minds of young Gentlemen as the many Disputes and Uncertainties which of late have by our Dissenters been occasioned about which is the true Religion where whilest every one boldly challenges the sole acquaintance with Truth they come all at last to be suspected of Falshood and amongst so many glistering and well-set Counterfeits and Pebles the true and inestimable Diamond by the difficulty of discovery is in danger to be mistaken if not absolutely lost And the young Gallant whilest he makes it his Pastime as much as Cock-fighting to set the Doctor of his Parish as he calls him and a Quaker Anabaptist or Presbyterian into a dispute about Religion though he fancies the Rencounter very pleasant and thereby gets a fine Scene of Divertisement yet he certainly loses
all of them in their Application do generally confute yet does most unavoidably follow the other of absolute and unconditional Decrees which all Dissenters in reality hold whilst they affirm themselves the only People of God and all others Reprobates And therefore in this assurance of their being the Chosen and Elect of God they possess the greatest inward Peace and Tranquillity imaginable The Consideration of that Infinite Love of God and his free and distinguishing Grace to call them and pass by the rest of Mankind this particular and undeserved favour which they wholly monopolize and appropriate to themselves begets in them a Reciprocal Love to God for if God so loved them when they were Enemies as to send his only begotten Son out of his bosom purposely to save and redeem only a few out of the whole Mass of Mankind in the World of which few they are a part when in the mean time he passes by Millions more Wise Mighty and Learned without taking notice of them or doing any thing for them more than to harden their hearts that so he may take occasion to condemn them for refusing that Grace and Mercy which by reason of his Previous Decree they could not possibly accept How much then are these obliged to God for making such a difference How ought they to love God This Love still increases their confidence and security they are therefore sure that this is the Hope which maketh not ashamed which is the Anchor of the Soul because the Love of God is shed abroad in their Hearts and at last they arrive at such a certainty as will not permit them to have the least doubt but that they are the Vessels who are chosen to Honour who by this Grace are fitted for future Glory This fills their Earthen Vessels brim-full of Satisfaction and a Joy which upon all occasions runs over at their Mouths and to which they will tell you could you but once come to experience it all other Comforts are far inferiour Now they have sweet Communion and Fellowship with God their Conversion is in Heaven nay Heaven and all that is good and great stoops down to dwell with them And thus these things which are nothing but the pure Effects of this strong Imagination that they are the Elect are to them infallible Signs of their Election and they think the Spirit bears witness with their Spirits that they are the Sons of God by giving them this Joy in the Holy Ghost and in believing and so the Mother begets the Daughter and the Daughter begets the Mother like the Riddle of Ice and Water in infinitum a Simile not at all unfit for such a slippery and unstable Principle as is the Foundation of this their Perswasion But the mischief is that all that ever you can say or do to represent unto them the danger they are in signifies little or nothing for they look upon you to be carnal and not able to discern such spiritual affairs as this is BUT if you chance to tax them with Hypocrisie which is but too common you cannot do them a greater kindness for that convinces them beyond all other Arguments and confirms them in the opinion of their own truth and sincerity and that you are mistaken since they know and do sensibly feel those real Effects of Joy and Pleasure which you would perswade your self and them they do but counterfeit NAY further they are so far from believing any body but themselves that they will not believe the Scripture if that would perswade them that they do not walk in the Spirit or are not led by the Spirit or that they have not yet put off the Old Man and the former vain Conversion and crucified the Flesh and the lusts or desires and affections thereof CARRY them to that place of Saint Paul where he tells us what are the lusts of the Flesh and what are the fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5.19 Now saith he the works of the flesh are manifest Adultery Fornication Vncleanness Lasciviousness Idolatry Witcheraft Murders Drunkenness Revellings and such like all these they will tell you they have put off and are become new men and all this we must believe because in the outside of their lives they have quitted some scandalous and notorious sins which before they were guilty of and have got an affected way of hard words and talking about Religion some austerities of life in which they think all sanctity consists all which may be nothing but a Form or Fashion of Godliness and in which they have not yet out-done many Heathens who were strangers to Grace and I am sure in their opinion shall be so to Heaven But though they still live and it may be more than ever in the most notorious allowance and daily practice of Hatreds or Enmities Variance Emulations Wrath Strife Seditions or Factions and Divisions Heresies Envyings Murthers if not of mens Persons yet of their Fame and Reputation which is as dear and tender as life all this is nothing Tell them as oft as you please as the Apostle there says 1 Cor. 3.3 Of which things I have told you before as also in times past that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God they will neither believe him nor you Tell them as he does the Corinthians that whilst they are full of strife envyings and divisions one of Paul another of Apollos one of this mans Congregation another of that mans Church they are yet carnal they will laugh at you but neither credit him nor you Tell them that they who resist the Supreme Magistrate his Power and Authority his Laws and subordinate Ministers of Justice shall receive to themselves damnation they will answer they shall not if they do it for Conscience sake He says Rom. 13.2 5. they must be subject for Conscience sake they say they must not be subject but ought to do as they do and be disobedient He tells them there is a necessity for it wherefore ye must needs be subject from a necessity founded upon Nature Law Reason Policy self-Interest and Religion they will reply there is no necessity nay that it is a burthen and oppression to Good Men Christian Liberty and tender Consciences How true they are may be a question but it is none whether they are not a sort of unmannerly Believers thus to contradict an Apostle nay all the twelve and Christ too if they say not what pleases them TELL them they despise Governments 2 S. Pet. 2.5 and therefore are presumptuous self-will'd such who are not afraid to speak Evil of Dignities of the things they understand not sporting or pleasing themselves with their own deceivings or with deceiving themselves and that for these things they shall utterly perish they will not believe it concerns them but though they are manifestly guilty of the Crimes they will be ready to throw the punishment there or elsewhere mentioned upon your back IF St. Jude
the Pasture and not permitted to make all Common or range into the Corn-Fields Though after all these brags I have not met with any person whose observation has found Money more plentiful or Trading a Farthing better even in the time of the Toleration But lastly By this Separation they are sure to undermine the foundation of all Government which is the principal thing they always aim at both in Church and State for by their departing from one and Disobedience to both they bring their Power into question and contempt and whilest they endeavour to render them odious tyrannical heathenish and persecuting superstitious and unlawful and yet escape unpunished by the hopes of the like impunity they encourage others to follow their example and insult over the Laws and to esteem of all Power as the Frogs in the Fable did of their Wooden King And this is all in order to the accomplishment of their ultimate Design which is the subversion of the present Government both Civil and Ecclesiastical in order to the setting up a new one according to their own Phancies and Humours Now to demonstrate the unlawfulness of this Doctrine it were enough to shew that in Publick they will rarely own it themselves and will never charge the reason of their Separation upon any of these ends but upon the Ceremonies of the Church to which they pretend their Consciences will not give them leave to submit I think we shall cut the Sinews of this pretence and shew how feeble and lame an Excuse it is If we consider That these Ceremonies by their own confession are acknowledged to be indifferent in their own Natures and the reason they give why they are unlawful is because they are Imposed the Liberty of Conscience being thereby taken away Now this is a most certain truth that an indifferent thing when commanded by a Lawful Authority ceases to be indifferent and becomes necessary for all the Authority of the Church to command or impose is only exercised upon indifferent things What is absolutely necessary is commanded by God whatever is unlawful is forbidden by him so that they must of necessity either take away all Liberty from the Church to impose indifferent things that so they may have their Liberty which is unreasonable to desire and if granted them would destroy that Liberty which they would have or they must deny the lawfulness of the Authority that commands and determines indifferent things otherwise let them confess that they seek for a knot in a Rush to maintain the Quarrel But the plain Truth is the Vse they have for this Engine of Separation is to shew by their Example that they believe the Authority which commands these things is no Lawful Authority that therefore the impositions are not necessary or Obedience to them a Duty for rtherwise I cannot think them so sottish but they know it is and I am satisfied if they were in Power they would use the same Arguments to persuade to Obedience which now we do though they have stronger in their Budget upon occasion than have been yet employed to make them obey But for a further manifestation of this Error we will bring it to the Doctrine of our Blessed Lord S. Mat 13.29 in the Parable of the Tares The zealous Servants were for a present Separation and Extirpation of the Tares from among the Wheat But the Wise Master was of another judgment Not so lest they should root up the Wheat also and certainly as before was shewn this Separation of theirs has not fail'd of that effect but has already rooted up much of the good fruits of Charity Peace and Vnity out of the Church and has left us the Tares of Dissention in their room of which we may well say an Enemy hath done this And whether this Doctrine is pursued to the uttermost would not lead them to Extripation of the Tares let their Holy League witness For they all hold that Dominium fundatur in gratiâ and the Wicked have only a borrowed Right to whatever they have of Life and Fortune And how easie it is for religious Covetousness to perswade them when in Power to invade the Rights of Sinners and spoil the Egyptians will appear if we call to mind former things which though the Gracious Act of Oblivion has pardon'd them for they will never pardon the forced Restitution of the Kings Bishops Dean and Chapter-Lands But this being only a Parable may not be sufficiently convictive Let us look therefore for Example St. Joh 13.15 Now the Blessed Jesus who tells us he was to be our Example was so far from Separation or making Communion with Sinners a Crime that it was one of the greatest Objections against him S. Matt. 2.10 11 12 13. that he familiarly converst eat and drank with them and was a Friend to Publicans and Sinners S. Matt. 11 19 which accusation he did not excuse himself of but justifie from the good designs of thereby calling Sinners to repentance Nor do we find that ever he separated Himself or his Disciples from the Communion of the Jewish Church though full of such Types and Ceremonies as he came by fulfilling to abrogate but as his custom was he went into the Synagogue on the Sabbath-Days went up to Jerusalem to celebrate all the commanded Festivals even to the last Passeover at which he was betray'd And further to shew us that we ought not to break Vnity or Communion with those who continue in the Visible Church he was as conversant with Judas as with the rest of the Apostles and yet he knew from the beginning who it was that should betray him knew Judas to be a covetous Hypocrite and worse than that a Devil and it is more than probable that he himself at the first Institution gave the Holy Communion to Judas as will appear to any that reads that place of St. Luke Chap. 22. from the thirteenth Verse to the two and twentieth And for the lawfulness of Separation let us hear St. Jude who having given us such a Character as I shall hereafter shew exactly fits these men lest their fair pretences should still endanger our mistake he concludes it with this distinctive Note of Separation These are they if you know them by nothing else you shall be sure to discover them by this These are they that Separate themselves S. Jude 19 Sensual or Animal having not the Spirit for all their great pretences to it unless Sedition Faction and Rebellion be Fruits and Effects of it as before has fully been made appear Could they prove us guilty of Idolatry or that we erre in any Substantial Fundamental point of Religion then their Separation would not only be lawful but necessary but till they can do this and convince us that we are not a true Church their Separation from us is unchristian and unlawful condemned by Christ and his holy Apostles But all this is nothing Their Religion must be such as
their pretended Gifts and Parts few of these Men have been observed to be very ready or excellent And this is one great Reason and the Reason why they use it why the People do so much nauseate the Publique Prayers of the Church and prefer these Enthusiastick Raptures before them Just thus did the People of Israel despise that Angelical Food the Heavenly Manna of which 't is said that it had Omnimodum Saporem a particular taste to please every palate and yet those murmuring Tribes were not contented with it but their Souls were dried up Num. 11.6 because there was nothing for them besides this Manna and they would linger after the Eleshpots and the Quails though they came with a Tempest and went away with a Plague Many Persons I doubt not resort to the Church to satisfie the itching of their Ears and to hear what the Minister can say and if he be an Apollos and Eloquent Man it happens to him as it did to the Prophet Ezekiel and he is unto them as a very lovely Song of one that hath a pleasant Voice and can play well on an Instrument for they love to Hear his Words but they Do them not With this gilded Fly it is that these cunning Anglers bait the Hook with which they first tickle and afterwards take so many Trouts Having first set abroad this Doctrine they do with all vehement earnestness promote it amongst the People and in so doing kill a great many Birds with one Stone for they do thereby extreamly please the Vulgar to whom nothing of Religious Duties is so pleasing as Preaching and at the same time mightily advance their own Designs Hereby also they add not a little to their own Veneration and Fame and something to that which has some Savour The dear Benevolences And they are always careful to tell them how willing they are to spend and be spent for the good of their Souls for their sakes and the Gospels and thereby ingratiate themselves into the Love and insinuate their Opinions into the liking of many who are won upon by these Considerations first to hear them after a while to approve of them and become their followers and Disciples which when once they are they cry up and Trumpet out the Praises of their Teacher for an able painful godly man in all Companies and Places where they come and thus roul the Snow-ball as big as they can Now the advantages which they expect and receive by this are not a few for first as before was said they infinitely oblige the People and gain upon their Love pretending to do all this freely and out of pure Love and tenderness to their Souls knowing well enough that Magnes amoris amor the great Loadstone of Love is Love and therefore they demand nothing but are contented with what they will freely bestow upon them for their pains which by this Wheedle comes many times to be more than otherwise they could ever have expected or than some of their Followers can honestly or conveniently spare of whom some what with this Liberality to their Teachers and what by their frequent gadding abroad to hear Sermons and in the mean time neglecting the affairs and concerns of their Families at home or which is as bad trusting them wholly to Servants come to be in a condition fit to be relieved themselves and to my particular knowledge some of them are not in a little Danger of burthening the Parishes where they live by wasting what should be for a future Provision for their Families in this Godly way of Gossiping and though by this great Zeal and travailing about they may think themselves or be flatter'd by their Treachers into an Opinion that they are excellent Christians yet St. Paul thinks and pronounces them worse than Heathens for if any man provide not for his own especially those of his own Family he hath denied the Faith and is worse than an Infidel And if the Disciples be such what are the Doctors Sure I am if this be not the Effect it very well may and if more People be not possessed with this rambling and vagrant Religion it is not for want of Exhortation or encouragement to forsake all and follow Christ and to go from City to City to hear the Word of the Lord in this great Famine and scarcity that there is of it as with those abused places of Scripture they perswade People there is and spur them forward in this Wild and travailing Religion Should now a whole Family be all at once possessed with this humour and in the heat of Summer in Hay-time and Harvest for Conscience sake lock up the doors or if the Servants were more careful of Heavenly than of Earthly things leave them open and jaunt ten or twelve Miles to an Exercise and it may betwice or thrice in a Week besides Sunday what must become of them they might like the Grashopper sing in Summer but like her they must either die and starve or steal in the Winter unless the Neighbourhood were more Charitable to them than they are to themselves and none of all this is either impossible or improbable But what a brave time should we have if a whole Town or many Towns together should be bitten with this Gad-Fly The old People and Children who could not march over the Threshold would be bravely nurs't at home I have known something like this and where a poor Child has been left at home by the tender Parents for all whole natural affection if some of the Neighbours had not been more charitable and compassionate Nurses it might have perish't and that it is not generally thus it is not the fault of these Godly Teachers as they call them And if it does not by this way increase the Poor of the Nation of which there is so general a complaint in all Places I am sure their absenting themselves from their Parish Churches and giving incouragement to those who have no Religion to do the same gives opportunity to many loose and idle People to creep into Parishes where they lurk till the time for removing them is expired whereas did all people resort to Church a new Face would soon be taken notice of and care would be taken to remedy the inconvenience A second advantage is that hereby they do gradually accustome the People by following their pleasing Novelties to dislike neglect and contemn the Church and her Ministers Prayers and Sacraments which last especially the Holy Eucharist I have known them willing to receive at the hands of a meer Lay-man though to say Truth few of their Teachers are any other rather than they would repair to their Parish-Church to receive it of their lawful Priest because there they must be obliged to hear the Antichristian Prayers superstitiously or idolatrously kneel and have Communion with the Wicked all which are an abomination unto them and absolutely unlawful And are not these blessed fruits of these mens being Instant in
they hope to see that laid also in the Dust Dust I speak not this to irritate you or your Paritisan but to lenifie and consider Sir if God should smite you what may become of you Wife and Children but if you causelesly resolve to be a Snare and a Trap a Scourge in my Sides and a Thorn in mine Eyes I leave the whole matter to him who is higher than the Highest and judgeth righteously and only telling you this that this is not the ‖ ‖ Quaere what is Way to bring me and others in love with what you invite me to I conclude with my Prayers for the * * A kind supposition that he to whom he writ was blind and unconverted and a good way to perswade his Parishioners that such a blind guide must lead them into the Ditch illumination of your mind and conversion of your heart and am SIR Your to serve you for your Souls good But farther The suspension of the Execution of the Laws and the infliction of those Penalties which men of good Tempers never make use of without a Reluctancy they constantly abuse to fortifie their followers in their persuasions for they alwayes attribute that Impunity to an over-ruling hand of Providence or to the remorse of Considence which is indeed the pure Effect of Clemency and proceeds from the tendemess of the subordinate Ministers of Justice But they cry it is the Lords doing and a return of their Prayers and comes from that particular Care which God takes of them who will not suffer the Malice of the Wicked theirs and therefore his Enemies to prevail against them I will not say but that it is an effect of the Excellency of the Divine Nature who by his goodness and long-suffering would lead them to Repentance but if they despise the Riches of his Grace as much as they do all other Clemency they will find that those favours will not last alwayes and what Mercy cannot there will be an unavoidable necessity that Severity must punish if it cannot reclaim There is one place in the Acts of the Holy Apostles Acts 5.34 to 41. which they make constant use of to encourage their Party and to discourage Weak and Timorous Minds from medling with them lest they should be found to fight against God as they perswade People all those do who do any wayes oppose them who with so much confidence call themselves the Children and People of God Now that this is upon the Holy Records as the word of Gamaliel and not as the Word of God and an un-erring Rule for our Direction or Practice is plain because it is neither universally true nor obliging which whatever is the Word of God most undoubtedly is for every Work and every Counsel which does stand is not of God 'T is thought by some there was a Time when all or the Greatest part of the Church was Arrian and Athanasius the only or principal Person that did oppose it I hope they will not agree That that Heresie was of God or ought not to have been opposed because it stood so long and flourish'd But they will say You see it came to nought because it was not of God and I say we are obliged to Athanasius whom it pleased God to inspire with so much courage and a better understanding of this place than they would have us have as boldly to stemm the Flood and oppose his Buckler in defence of the truth against so many Legions with which 't is said the World was at that time possess'd But what a prodigious conquest progress growth and increase has the superstitious Doctrine and most damnable Heresie of Mahomet made in the World all or the greatest part of Asia a considerable part of Europe and the most of Affrica being become Proselytes to that Detestable Impostor and I hope no good Christian will allow this for a sound argument That Mahometanism is therefore a Work or Counsel of God because it does stand and has stood for above this thousand Years and that it ought not to be opposed lest whilst Christians fight against the Turks they should be found to fight against God and could the Turks bring this to be an Article of our Creed they would soon fulfill their so much Believed Prophesie That their Empire and Religion shall be universally extended over the whole World Nay should this be admitted as universally true there is no Error in the Church of disorder in the State which we may indeavour to suppress and the Country Constable seeing a company of armed Peasants about to commit a Riot instead of Charging them in the Kings Name to desist and repair to their several habitations and employments or to keep the Peace may for the neglect of his Duty plead if this Counsel or Work be of God as it may happen to be pretended and that it is for Conscience-sake it will stand and all that I can do will be to no purpose to overthrow it and it may be whilst I go about to suppress it I shall be found to fight against God but if it be of Men it will come to nought and this will bring us perfectly to the Mahometan Principle by which they always pass their Judgment of Persons or Actions according to the Events And that all the whole Councel as it is there said should agree to one Doctors Opinion and that built upon so slender a Reason as two single Instances is so wholly Miraculous that it cannot be look'd upon as any thing less than an Effect of that Power and Goodness of God which did so wonderfully manifest it selfe for the support and Propagation of that Truth which was his own that Counsel and that Work which really was of God CHAP. XVII A more particular Survey of their Policy in rendring all Expedients useless which have been applied to reclaim them from that place in Ezra 7.16 Of Capital Punishments Of Imprisonment how they make of advantage to them to confirm their Cause and Followers and to bring a general Odium upon the Laws and Government their evasions to escape Forfeitures Of their complaints of the injustice and oppression of the Penal Laws Of Banishment A Coffee-house Dialogue about it betwixt Mr. Kinglove of and a Grand-child of Martin Mar-Prelates LET us pass on from Generals to Particulars and there we shall find what great Artists they are in eluding all the most prudent endeavours which have been made use of to suppress their growth We will therefore consider of the several Remedies which have been applyed to reclaim them to Obedience as they are propounded by the Prophet Ezra And whosoever will not do the Law of thy God and of the King let Judgement be speedily executed upon him whether it be to Death or to Banishment or to Confiscation of Goods or to Imprisonment And though they may say this is only the Command of a Heathen Emperor let them consider that Ezra is so far from thinking it