Love of the People by Virtue and Extinguish these Factions by a severe and constant Execution of our Laws as I said before but however this they may be certain of the Enemies of the established Religion are their Irreconcileable and Sworn Enemies And this brings me to the third Thing necessary to be known viz. The several Factions we have amongst us and how to Govern them Which I reckon to be three the Popish the Puritan and the Common-wealth Party which is made up of Men of all Religions in pretence tho in the Bottom they may be suspected to have none Popery was once the Sole Religion of England Popery and altho they were well disposed to throw it off by the Exactions and Oppressions of the Court of Rome in the days of Henry the 2d and King John as appears by the Complaints made of them in the Reign of Richard the 2d and at other times in Parliament yet when Henry the 8th resolved to Extinguish the Pope's Supremacy by an Oath many stuck so heartily to it that they Suffered Death of whom Sir Thomas Moore was the Chief who had been Lord Chancellor of England and besides that Prince maintained the greatest part of the Popish Doctrine intire to his last breath Edward the 6th reformed the Doctrine too but he Lived not long and Queen Mary his Successor threw all things back again into their former state and reconciled her Self and the Nation to the Pope Queen Elizabeth on the other side fallowed the Example of her Brother and settled the Religion as now it stands but then these irregular Motions kept mens Minds in great Suspence so that they knew not what to think and some men had changed so often to Comply with their Princes that at last they were ashamed to change any more and so Continued Papists in Queen Elizabeths time tho they had been Protestants in the Reign of Edward the 6th Others imbraced the Protestant Religion then with a resolution to desert it again if the Times Changed but their Children became sincere and they died in that Profession when they never had any occasion to alter it with Safety And many thro Prejudice and Education and for Want of Means and Ability to Examine things Continued in the Popish Religion but yet the greatest part of the Nation took up an hearty Aversion for it out of a detestation of the Cruelty they had seen used in the Reigns of Henry the 8th and Queen Mary and of the Treacheries they had seen practised against Queen Elizabeth whom they infinitely Loved and Admired And indeed the Length and Prosperity of her Reign had in all Probability put an End to that Faction in England if two things had not kept up their hopes and revived it The first of which was their Expectation that Mary Queen of the Scots would have succeeded her in the Throne who was true to them and when this was Cut off by her death tho that was a long time after yet they still flattered themselves some other person of their Perswasion would inherit her Crown and put an end to their Sufferings And the truth is it is the Nature of Mankind to hope for Extraordinary assistances from God especially when they suffer for Religion and this is it that maketh it so difficult to Extirpate those Factions that are built upon that pretence The second thing that tended to uphold Popery in England was the Policy of Philip the 2d King of Spain who to revenge the Assistance the Queen lent his Subjects in Flanders then in a War with him built several Colledges at Doway and other places for such Priests and Jesuits as fled over to him out of England and endowed them with some small Revenues and these made it their business to draw over as many of the English Youth as they could especially of the Nobility and Gentry and there they bred them up in an invincible hatred of the Religion by Law Established and Others they sent over with Orders to preach up Popery as much as they durst and had it not been for this there had been very few Papists left at that Queens death who reigned 44 Years Tho King James were infinitely disobliged by this Faction at his first coming to the Crown by the Powder-Plot and so made Severer Laws against them than Queen Elizabeth did yet neither were they Carefully Executed in his or his Sons times yet this Faction sensibly decreased and a great part of those that remained were ruined by the War and the late Plot in this King's time hath proved very effectual to bring off many more from that Opinion so that by one means or other it is become one of the most despicable Factions in this Nation and if the Blow had been well followed might perhaps have been intirely ruined Had Queen Elizabeths Methods been well pursued by all her Successors they must in likelyhood have been Extinguished but there was an Odd sort of Policy taken up which was to Slacken the Execution of the Laws against them that they might be a Counter-ballance to the Puritan Faction which produced two great Evils First They were so far from lending us any Assistance against the Dissenters that their Priests encreased the Number of them by Preaching up their Opinions and Adding to them as appears by a small Pamphlet called Foxes and Firebrands which proved they were the Fathers of Extemporary Prayers in Publick assemblies And by several other such Stratagems which they imployed against us Secondly These Dissenters made it their great business to inculcate into the Heads of the Rabble an Opinion That all the Lenity that was used towards the Papists proceeded from a Love to Popery which both made more Puritanes than there would otherwise have been and made them better thought of by the Rabble so that instead of Diminishing or Weakning that Faction it encreased it and added reputation to it and the Papists made the same use of it and drew over some Weak and Unsteady Souls to joyn with them so that our Enemies encreased on both sides but especially the Dissenters and this was all we ever did or can get by that Extravagant piece of Policy Besides all this the People will ever entertain jealous thoughts and be discontented at all those that ever so little favour the Papists and so long as there is any Number of them amongst us besides all the disquiet they give us the Factious Dissenters will take hold of that pretence to do us a mischief as time and opportunity serve So I conclude it is the Interest and Duty of all Magistrates to put the Laws against them Constantly and Vigorously in Execution and especially those against sending their Children beyond Sea to be bred in the Seminaries and Jesuites Colledges where they learn more Malice and more Skill than they could do in England And because this is a work of time it is their Duty in the interim to shew the People two things First That
our Dissenters Gain by all their Perjuries between 40 and 60 what are they the better for all those they have procured or abetted since is not the hand of God against them in all they undertake defeating all their Projects and Designs and making them every day more Odious than others For my part I do not fear that perjurious Projects will ever prevail or do any body any good but the Crime being spread so vastly I fear a National Judgment a Calamity that shall be as general as the Sin and then no man will be free from suffering the sad Effects of it thô those that have procured it will smart most by it and this is enough to oblige every good Man that loves his Countrey especially all Magistrates to stand in the gap and to prevent the further Growth of it as much as is possible by discountenancing it and punishing it too as occasion serve Some are of Opinion this Sin might be stopped by a severe Law against it but I am of another mind and I heartily believe more innocent than guilty Men would suffer by it if we had such a Law because these wicked Wretches make Parties to uphold one another and will lay things so well together that it is almost impossible to discover the Cheat and then as for Oaths to prove them that they never want whereas good Men are not so vigilant suspecting as little ill as they mean and so would be more exposed to the force of such a Law But as for Publick Officers especially Constables and such like I wish together with their Oaths they might be compelled to enter a Recognizance of the same Condition with their Oaths which if it were but of small value as X or XX lib. it would work much upon them and in a great measure put a stop to this Impiety for some that do not reverence an Oath wou'd yet fear to forfeit their Recognizance and in time Religion would return and take away the necessity of such double Obligations As for Private Concerns there is excellent provision made by a late Statute 29 Car. 2. Cap. 3. and the extending it to a few more particulars might be very useful and till this can be done Men must commit as little as is possible to Verbal Testimonies by taking all things they can in Writing 2. Another of the best and most effectual means that is left to stop this inundation of Perjury is for Magistrates to express a great detestation of it not only by their words as Occasion serve but by their Actions too by shewing themselves to be exceeding Careful not to do any thing that is contrary to their Oaths and sometimes giving that for a reason of it for that makes a greater impression upon the Minds of Men than any words without it because it is at once a Verbal and a Practical Declaration and their Authority will make it the more taken Notice of and regarded The Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance are so frequently Administred that I need not take any further notice of them here but that which more immediately concerns the Justices of the Peace is as followeth YE shall Swear that as Justice of the Peace in the County of C. in all Articles in the King's Commission to you directed you shall do Egal Right to the Poor and to the Rich after your Cunning Wit and Power and after the Laws and Customs of the Realm and Statutes thereof made and ye shall not be of Councel of any quarrel hanging before you and that ye shall hold your Sessions after the form of the Statutes thereof made And the Issues Fines and Amerciments that shall happen to be made and all Forfeitures which shall fall before you ye shall cause to be entered without any Concealment or imbefilling and truely send them to the King's Exchequer ye shall not let for Guift or other Cause but well and truly you shall do your Office of Justice of the Peace in that behalf And that you take nothing for your Office of Justice of the Peace to be done but of the King and Fees accustomed and Costs limited by the Statute And ye shall not direct nor cause to be directed any Warrant by you to be made to the Parties but ye shall direct to the Bailiffs of the said County or other the King's Officers or Ministers or other indifferent Persons to do Execution thereof So help you God You shall do Egal right the very way of Writing which word Egal instead of Equal shews this Oath is of great Antiquity and that it hath been very carefully Transcribed when there have been so much scruple made of changing a G. into a Q. according to the Latin and our present Authography and it would be a burning shame to us if we that are Sworn should be less careful of the Articles in it than the Clerks have been of the Letters And that ye shall hold your Sessions how they can Answer it to God or Man I know not who reside in any County or act as Justices of the Peace in it and yet never appear at any Sessions by the space of many years together without any lawful excuse or hindrance or those who come and take the King's Wages and before half the Business is done betake themselves to the Tavern leaving two or three to finish and conclude the Business so that if any Controversie arise it must be left to another time or ended as it can rather than as it ought it is true neither of these Disorders can be Punished by the Court but then it is because the Law supposeth that Men of that Quality will not need it but will religiously observe their Oath so that the fault is so much the greater because it cannot be Punished but by God only I shall not make any more Reflections on this Oath because this whole Discourse is but a kind of Commentary upon it and whatever I have omitted is taken notice of by Lambard and other Writers But the Care of a Magistrate ends not in himself but is to extend to Others and therefore he ought to take great heed that he minister none but Lawful and Necessary Oaths Secondly That if he find Men ignorant he give them good Advice and sharp Reproofs in case of the least failure By Lawful Oaths I mean such as the Laws and Customs of England will allow him to give and therefore before he take an Oath he ought to consider whether he have Power to do it for thô he hath a great yet he hath not an unlimited Power as is manifest by that Parenthesis which is so frequent in our Statutes which Oath the said Justices are by this Act Authorized to Administer which is repeated almost as often as a new Power is given them and for the most part in these very words And yet I doubt not but when good Reason requires where ever they may Hear and Determine they may do it upon Oath thô the Statute doth not
more to govern them and they that have not had the happiness to meet or imbrace this should do well not to Expose their unpolished Humours and Manners to the Contempt of others who yet may be very useful men in other Places SECTION IV. I Have hitherto considered the Justice of Peace no further than as a Man and a Gentleman But Blessed be God for it England is a Christian Country and one of the best Parts of the Catholique Church too and therefore not only the Natural and Civil Capacities and Qualifications of Men are to be considered when Magistrates are to be chosen but their Religions too and most Especially By this I do not mean in this place whether they are Protestants or Papists Phanaticks or men who love the Church tho I shall Consider of this in due time but whether they be good Christians For many men account it an honour to them and a piece of good breeding to Express no more reverence for God and Religion than they do for a forsaken Mistress to whom they pretend to have made Love only out of Ignorance in their Youth for want of understanding better things I do not intend neither in this place to make an Exact Description of the several parts of Devotion and Religion but I only consider those parts of it which fit a man for Government which I humbly Conceive are these 1. A Due Veneration of God 2. A Love for his Service in himself and others 3. A Good Esteem for his Ministers 4. An Earnest desire of the Salvation of all under his Care and Charge As God is the Fountain of all Power and the Author of all Government So he is the Supream Governour and Preserver of it and by his Providence disposes the hearts of Men as he thinks fit and in his Justice and Mercy makes Retribution to them according to their Deserts but especially his Eyes are ever upon Princes and Magistrates to Reward them if they do well to Punish them if they do amiss and abuse the Power which he hath given them for the good of Men and his own Glory And those men that have this Sense of him deeply imprinted in their hearts will ever have a great Veneration for him and as occasion serve express it by due consideration that not only their Actions which are visible to men but the most secret Motives of them that lie out of the reach of their Eyes are open to God Almighty Those who Thus Reverence God shall be sure to have his Providence watching always over them to protect them in all dangers and direct them in all difficulties And he will by it strike that aw and fear of them into the hearts of the People that shall keep them in better Obedience than all the force in the World will do without it and this will render their Government Easy and their Actions Prosperous But on the Other side how can any man have the impudence to expect either Protection or Assistance from God when he knows at the same time that he hath not any respect in his heart for him Nor in truth do this sort of men do it but trust wholly to their own Wit and Power which always in the End deceives them and leaves them to the Scorn and Contempt of the World God in his Justice making this frequently the Punishment of their Impiety against him All men that have any Sense know it so necessary that the People should have some Religion and a great Opinion that their Governours are Pious and that without it there will be no possibility of Governing them that they who have expressed no inward Veneration for it have owned a belief that it was a Crafty Invention Juggled up betwixt the Priests and the Princes of the World to Keep the Multitude in aw which tho it is false yet it shews at the same time that these men are of opinion that it would be difficult if not impossible to keep the People in a due Subjection without it And Machiavel would not have his Lewd Prince without the opinion of Piety however wicked he really was Now if this base Hypocrisie be of so great use in Government which is destitute of the blessing of God and liable to be looked thro Every moment of what Use must solid sober Piety be which will shine forth in all that a man doth or speaketh and procure at once the Love and Favour of God and Man 2. This Reverence of God is to be expressed by a great and constant Care to Serve and Worship him both Publickly in the Church and Family and Privately in the Closet for God is so great a Being that Nothing we can do but this is of any use to him he stands in no need of us nor of our Service any further then as it tends to our own good here and hereafter and therefore it is ridiculous to pretend to believe there is a God and live Wickedly without any regard to his Service nay prate Foolishly and Atheistically in all Companies as some do But the Justice of Peace of all men is to be most religiously Careful to perform his Duty because the Eyes of all are upon him and they will be sure to follow his Example if ill and the Inconvenience will not end there neither they will within a While revenge all their Piques against him which will be many with Stories of his Impiety and Negligence and from thence argue That he is a man of no Religion the Consequence of which is That he is not Master of any honour or honesty and so this dishonour will at last fall upon himself and end in contempt Nor doth his Care like that of Private men end in his Family tho it were well if some extended it but so far but he must take care that all under his Jurisdiction do it For so much is England degenerated from its Ancient Devotion by reason of the Divisions amongst us that without this not onely the Conventicle but the Ale-house will be better furnished than the Church if Care be not taken by them that are in Authority to Prevent it by a Severe Search and Punishment of these Miscreants Nay to that height of Impiety are we grown that if We trust to the Oaths of them that are to inform us even Perjury shall be imploy'd to delude us and the Law a strange Religion this is in the mean time to make use of the Worst of Crimes to protect them who pretend to be the Children of God from Temporal Punishment and with them and for their sakes all that will run into Debauchery But so it is and nothing but the Care of the Magistrate can prevent it and if he be not diligent to do his duty herein he must answer it to God and Man It is not many Years since a War raised by these Religious men on that pretence destroyed our King and brought our Gentry into the basest Slavery that ever fell upon them
they may if they please believe this shall never happen again but if it doth they can thank no body but themselves and I am sure they can neither expect reasonably any Assistance from God nor Pity from Men if it should be otherwise because they might have prevented it if they would 3. That men that have no regard for God and his Service should shew no Esteem for the Priest is no great wonder the Consequence is unavoidable And as this proceeded at first from the Other So it may be a good Means to Cure the distemper to teach the People not only to Honour God and his Sanctuary but to Reverence his Priests and here the Magistrate may Contribute very much by his Example and Authority But then this Reverence is not due to all who call themselves Ministers there are too many that are crept in amongst us who are the Ministers of Satan Sowers of Sedition and Upholders of Schism the less the Magistrate reverences them the better it will be for him But there is one Sort of Kindness too commonly shewn to Clergy-men that I wish they would lay aside and that is their Inviting them to their Drinking-Meetings and almost forcing them when there to pledge all the Healths and go to the Bottom of the Glass too at every Round I cannot imagine where the Pleasure of this lies the Wine would be as easy the Company might be as brisk and the Frolick as pleasing if the Chaplain and Neighbour-Minister were Visiting the Sick or Studying to improve himself Nor can I think they pretend to please God Almighty by it whilest they render his Service contemptible and the Priesthood odious and infamous For my part I cannot believe this can proceed from any other than the Devil because it serves no bodies turn but his and the Enemies of Our Church and I have ever observed the Atheist and irreligious to be most guilty of it The best honour that can be shewn to a Clergy-man is to remember he is more immediately related to God and out of a due respect to his Character to curb those little irregularities which at another time a man might fall into and indeed nothing is more contrary to Virtue and Sobriety than the Attempting to Debauch them whose Presence should restrain us from Excesses and no Vice exposeth them more then Insobriety to the Contempt of the Rabble and other lewd Men and certainly God will accordingly severely reckon with those who thus dishonour him in his Ministers and beyond all other men with Magistrates if they be guilty of it The Turks have a sort of men who pretend to be descended from Mahomet and wear Green Turbans to distinguish them from the rest and if at any time they happen to offend any of the other Turks they approach these Children of their Profit with great respect and having first very reverently taken off the green Turban and laid it by they then bang the Man without Mercy or Discretion but we never hear they endeavour to draw them into any thing Contrary to their Law 4. The Ultimate End of all Religion is the attainment of the happiness of another Life and all that can be any way subservient to that end ought to be so used And for this end did God Almighty institute all humane Society and Government also and hath ever since preserved them from Ruin So that he Expects from every Person that is placed in any degree of Honour a more immediate Care and Concernment for the Salvation of their inferiors and he that doth best discharge his duty in this respect may Expect to meet the best Recompence from God here and hereafter Grotius hath proved this so well that I will not attempt to do it after him but refer the Reader for that to his Piece of the Power of Magistrates in Sacred Affairs and pursue the Conclusion of bringing it as much as may be into practice It is certain then nothing can be more acceptable to God Almighty than this and his Blessing is the best Reward any man can pretend to and the onely one which almost a Justice of the Peace can Expect and which is really worth his thoughts There is nothing in the Next place will so effectually lessen his Cares and his Troubles as this for if ever he can bring men to a true sense of this they will afterwards be easily governed and it will make his Office Acceptable and Delightful to them and his very Chastisements will be thought Kindnesses and be well resented But if men should prove unreasonable yet God would certainly undertake for him and protect him from their Violence and reward his Virtue too with the Euges of a Well done thou good and faithful Servant and he should thereby assure his own Salvation however Section the 4th HAving thus dispatched those Religious Qualifications I did propose to speak of I come in the Next place to speak of those Moral Indowments without which the other cannot well be Supposed to be the first of which I shall mention is a Prudent and Wife Administration of all his Affairs As Reason distinguisheth a Man from a Beast Prudence So this Prudence is it which Exalts one man above another and directs him not onely to what is just but to what is fit Justice teacheth a man to give every man his due and Prudence directs him to do it Seasonably and when and where to use Clemency or Severity as there is occasion for it And in Executing all Penal Laws this is of great and dayly use and makes those Laws a Blessing or a Plague to men and indeed he that always imploys the utmost of his Power will sometimes use the letter of the Law against the equity of it Prudence will also make his proceedings Safe and Regular so that he shall not fear to reflect upon what he hath done nor others to approach him when he is to do them when they know before-hand what they may Expect from him Prudence and due Care in him to Search every thing out that comes before him in the Course of Law will prevent his being deceived and the Cosequences of it his injuring others by that deception Next to Prudence I place Patience and Industry Patience without which he can never hope to attain his End he must not expect that either Party will at first frankly and ingenuously represent the truth of things to him one party will speak a little too much and another a little too little and by this and other Arts so disguise the thing that if he be not a man of more than Ordinary Patience and Industry to Search it out he will be in great danger of Doing great injustice Nor will the putting Parties always to their Oaths do it for many men have so little sense of them that it is almost all one to lie and forswear themselves but yet giving them time and cross-Examining them or putting them one from another the truth will
sure of a fair Tryal before the Law take them away Our Poor are Carefully and kindly provided for in all urgent occasions We have Magistrates dispersed all over the Nation for our Security and for the rest our highest Courts are open four times in the Year where all men may have equal Right the Poor as well as the Rich and besides there come two of the Judges twice in every Year into every County that if any man hath cause for it he may complain and have Right done him We have four Sessions in every Year wherein the Justices of the Peace or a great part meet to determine what a few could not and by Appeals redress their Errors and there is not a Country Village but the King hath an Officer in it to Secure our Peace and Apprehend Malefactors Now a man would think such a Government as this should be beloved by all that knew and had Lived in it and so it would without question if it were not too strict for ill men who have designs upon their Neighbours Liberties and Fortunes tho they pretend the quite contrary And such Men are not fit to be trusted with any share of the Government in order to promote their wicked purposes The Next thing necessary in a Justice of the Peace is a Competent Knowledg of the Nature and Temper of the English People especially those under his Charge By the word People I mean only those the Justice of Peace is to govern for all that are above that degree are out of my Bounds and need not be Considered by me England being an Island and lying Exposed to perpetual Changes of Winds and Weather more than the Continent doth their Humours and Spirits are in perpetual Motion and this affects their Minds too and makes them very uncertain and very much given to Change if those that have the Conduct of them do not frequently inculcate the danger of it and severely punish those that give occasion to the beginnings of Commotions that so this fear may Counterballance this Natural inclination to Change 2. The English Blood is very easily Irritated and hard to be allayed whilest it is in its fury Especially if it be inflamed with Drink and Excess or exasperated with ill usage and Injustice And that is the true Reason why we need so many persons to Keep the Peaâ—e amongst them and so many Laws to Secure it and prevent Excess in Drinking and Idleness which is the Occasion of Quarrels and the Nurse of Poverty And the great Care of the Magistrate should be to Cure this First by preventing all Menaces or Threatnings by requiring Sureties of the Peace of them that use them Secondly All Grievous Slanders such as tend to the Ruine of mens Reputation and Livelihood by Securities of the Good Behaviour Thirdly All Excess by a Severe Execution of the Laws against Tipling and putting down those Alehouses that suffer Disorder and Excess Fourthly To be sure not to give them any occasion to complain of Injustice and Oppression by an Exact Care to Keep to the Rule of the Law which will Justifie him and keep them quiet for I have not observed but that they submit patiently to that Severity which the Law imposoth on them if they be once satisfied the Law is so 3. What William the Conqueror observed of the Normans is as true of the English If they be Governed Well and Severely they are Valiant and in great difficulties Excel all other men endeavouring to master their Enemies But if this be neglected they tear and destroy each others for they Love Rebellions and Seditions and are ready for all sorts of Mischief Let them therefore be restrain'd with severity and be forced by the Rein of Discipline to keep the Path of Justice for if this Wild Ass be suffer'd to go Unyoaked they and their Princes will be Overwhelmed with Poverty and Confusion This saith that Prince I have learned by much Experience 4. But then they must be Governed Well that is with Prudence and Justice as well as with Severity for it may be there is no Nation under Heaven so impatient of Injury and Wrong as the English and whatsoever is not precisely according to Law they will Esteem such and when occasion serve revenge it But neither can they bear too much Lenity and Mercy they grow insolent when they are Flattered and Courted and never regard those that seem to fear them The Advice therefore of the Conqueror is good and as fit for our Days as if it had been given but Yesterday 5. The English are not more Couragious in Visible and Apparent Dangers which they never fear than Timerous and Suspitious of every thing they hear the most incredible silly Story in the World frights them into Disorder and Confusion and without Examining the truth or possibility of the Report they rush into Action and follow them that pretend to Lead them out of those difficulties And of this we had abundant Experience in the late Times and have lately had enough again to remind us of it and herein the Care of the Magistrate should be to punish severely the Spreaders of Libels and false Reports and the Fomenters of False delusory fears and jealousies 6. The English are very Religious Naturally and in the Times of Popery almost ruined themselves by their Liberality to the Church and Monasteries but the folly of that being discovered at the Reformation they have since run to the other Extream and almost ruined the Church by tearing what they could from it and they are now as mad of running after every new Sort of Teacher that pretends to shew them an undiscovered Way to Heaven as they were of the Monks and Fryars before and this hath a mischievous Effect upon the State too and will Eternally endanger our ruine till it be redressed by a Constant and Severe Execution of our Laws against Conventicles of which I shall speak more when I come to Consider our Factions 7. In Antient Times the People were so addicted to the Nobility and fond of their Gentry that two or three discontented Noblemen made nothing to bring an Army into the Field and fight their Soveraign but the Wars betwixt the Houses of York and Lancaster having almost totally Ruined and Extinguished the Antient Power of the Nobility Henry the 7th by Politick Laws Henry the 8th by his Violence and Queen Elizabeth by her Severity against the Great Men and Condescentions to the Populacy have so turn'd the Tide the other Way that the People do now as much Slight and Undervalue them And to this the Factions in Religion have contributed very much for one of the first Principles these Lanthorn men teach their followers is to despise their Betters and suspect and speak Evil of their Superiors which Added to the Natural Envy all men have for them who live in a more splendid condition bids fair for the Extirpation of all our Gentry and Nobility if they do not regain the
these reliques of Popery are not in any Capacity of doing us any great mischief if we do not contribute to it by our own folly they being few in Number and generally hated Secondly That the Dissenters are never a Whit better than the Papists in many of their Opinions or Practices especially those that relate to Government and that tho they have ever declaimed most furiously against Popery yet they have always maintained under-hand a Correspondence with them and they have mutually helped one another to destroy us And even when the Dissenters knew it not have they been influenced by Popish Emissaries in disguise who inflamed their fiery Spirits during our late Rebellion and drove them to that height of Fury that they Murthered their Prince and an hundred thousand of their fellow Subjects with unheard of Barbarity and yet in the mean time little thought whose Agents they were and now the Secret is discovered they pursue the same design and lay all that is past to these Papists tho not one of a Thousand was so as all the World knows It were more ingenuous to Confess their Error and forsake all those Courses and Principles which gave the Jesuits opportunity and encouragement to push them on to such Lewd and Wicked Practices Before I was aware of it The Puritane Faction I am fallen upon the second Faction which is the Puritane this was at first all of a piece and all Pure Presbyterians but in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth began to subdivide and in the Late Rebellion they Crumbled into so many that they have now no common Ligament to Unite them but their hatred to the Religion by Law Established and Presbytery which gave them all life is now one of the smallest and most Contemptible amongst them The Rise of this was owing to the Marian Persecution for many of our Country-men especially the Clergy were by the fury of it forced to flee into Germany where some of them settled at Geneva Zurick and other Places which had imbraced Calvin's Method of Discipline and so became in Love with the Novelty of it others stuck to that which had been setled here in England in the Reign of Edward the 6th and this Caused a sharp Bickering betwixt them at Franckford in the Year 1554 in which they that stood for the English Liturgy at last prevailed Queen Mary dying soon after these too got the start of the Genevists in their return and the Queen who understood her own Interest very well Settled the Religion as now it stands Knowing that Presbytery was Calculated for Common-Wealths and destructive of the Rights of Soveraignity and Monarchy Yet She Advanced many of these men to Deanaries and inferior Dignities in the Church and they again so far Complyed with the Religion Established as not to make any open separation from it tho they were ever and anon Complaining of Ceremonies and humane Impositions The reason of their Compliance was because they had no great Party in England to back them and the Reasons why the Queen bore with them were the Want of Learned men to supply those Places their Zealous Preaching against Popery which was then the only Faction that was feared and the hopes many men had that in time they might become wiser In the first 9. Years of the Queens Reign the Papists as well as the Dissenters frequented our Churches and Liturgy and they began the Separation both at once and it is now apparent that Hallingham Coleman and Benson three of the first Puritan Separatists were Roman Priests in disguise As is undeniably proved by Dr. Stillingfleet in his Preface to the Vnreasonableness of Separation c. from that Pamphlet I lately mentioned called Foxes and Firebrands which was Published by Dr. Nalson and is in his First Voll of Historical Collections reprinted so that it is probable if these Romish Priests had not pushed things forward of Purpose to ruine us by Divisions this Faction might have expired with those men that brought it out of Germany But however there were two things recommended it The design of Extirpating Episcopacy made all those men favour it who had a mind to the Bishops Lands and had any hopes to possess themselves of them which were then Courtiers under the Queen and some Country Gentlemen Secondly The inferior Clergy who were ambitious and well conceited of their own ability were highly pleased to be infranchised from the Jurisdiction of the Bishops and with the Assistance of two Lay Brothers to govern all at their discretion and many of the Laity had a mighty conceit to be tampering with Church Discipline which the less they understood the better they thought they could manage it And Scotland Reforming at the same time the Queen who preferred any Religion before Popery suffered Presbytery to be settled there tho she might perhaps have prevented it at first And the intercourse that from thenceforward was betwixt the Scots and Us increased very much the Number of Our English Dissenters Having thus won Over in time a Considerable Number of the English to joyn with them and finding there was no probability to perswade that Queen to unsettle the Church again to introduce their Discipline and Perceiving they got small Advantages by Preaching they fell a Printing Libels against the Bishops and Church-Government and Ceremonies insolent Petitions to the Parliament and in Clandestine manner held great Meetings of their Party and in them resolved to set up their Discipline without Law and against the Queens Will and some of them attempted to raise Insurrections in London and were hanged for it and the rest prosecuted in the High Commission and other Ecclesiastical Courts So they got small Advantage during the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and not much more in King James his time his Majesty being perfectly well instructed in their Principles Practises and Tempers in Scotland by the Experience of what he and his Mother had suffered by them so dispairing of Prevailing by Art upon the Crown they Moulded themselves into a State Faction and by recommending their disciples and favorers to the People for Good-Commonwealth-men hoped in time to Force the Crown to vail to the Scepter of Jesus Christ as they Blasphemously call'd their Discipline by getting them into the House of Commons by which means they plagued King James and at last ruined his Son But these Good-Common-wealth-men when they had got what they aimed at had no more mind to submit to Presbytery than the King before them and there were such a powerful Quantity of Under-Suckers sprung up that it was not safe in the Uncertainty they were then in to disgust them so Presbytery was laid aside first and then persecuted in England and totally ruined in Scotland and Independency reaped the Crop of Advantage which Presbytery had sown in blood and by the Help of a general Toleration there was as great a Swarm of several Religions in England as there was of Lice and Frogs in Egypt till at last
it self cannot stand Math. 12. 25. then are we such men as deserve no pity from God or Men whatever follow But on the other side if we would buckle to the Work and with Zeal and Industry and Patience pursue it by God's Gracious Assistance we might soon bring under these two Factions and in time Extirpate all the three not by a destruction of their Persons but of their Pernicious and Disloyal Principles and whoever hath but the least share in this great work shall be blessed in this and all succeeding Generations SECTION VI. I Come in the next place to speak of a sort of Qualifications so necessary in a Magistrate that without them he would never be able to discharge his Duty as he ought which I shall reduce under these three heads 1. A great Love to Justice 2. Impartiality in executing it 3. Aversion for those things that may hinder it Solomon saith It is a joy to the just to do Judgment Prov. 21. 15. And except men take a joy in it Judgment will certainly be ill done if at all especially by those men who have no other reward for it then the satisfaction of their own minds and the sense of having served God and their King and Country in a Station that brings them no personal Advantage We may say truly of the Justice of Peace his Calling that there is much Noise and no Wool and as for honour the better he is the less he must expect it in this perverse Generation Envy and Ill will he may be sure to reap but for any sollid satisfaction unless what results from the Peace of his own Mind and the blessed hopes of a Future Reward from God the Righteous Judge of Men and Angels he will find himself miserably deceived in the Event if he at all expects it And this is not the worst of it neither difficulties he will meet that will require the utmost degree of Patience Prudence Industry and Attention to dispel them and without Gods particular Assistance it will not be done at last but instead of doing Justice he will do Injury and Injustice and he will have cause to complain Dum falsum nefas exequor vindex scelestus incidi in verum nefas Whil'st I pursued and punished an imaginary and supposed Crime in another I have committed a real one my self and this will be a great misfortune even then when it is no fault and much more when it is When these and a thousand other difficulties which no man can foresee are considered it will I suppose be easily granted that he that is to encounter overcome them had need have a strong and almost invincible Love to Justice to enable him and support him in his undertaking And perhaps if it were well considered there is not a greater instance of the Divine Providence in the Government of the World then that so many friends to Justice can be found as there is Men that Court and Espouse her purely for her own sake without any other Dower then that of Sorrow and Vexation of Spirit whose Business Pleasures Recreations nay their very Prayers and Meals are interrupted by their thankless unprofitable uneasie employment and yet God for the good of others sweetens all this and tyes them as close to it by the Cords of Love as a Hen to her Eggs and Chickens from which she can never reap any advantage But then those that are not so qualified should in Prudence never attempt to meet these Rampant Lyons which they may be sure are in the way and if any of them will not consider it before-hand his own experience will soon inform him of the truth of what I say I speak not this to discourage any man but to forewarn him that he may be provided with a resolution equal to the opposition which only Love can inspire fear it is true hath sometimes made Men Valiant but then that is a forced Courage which will not last lay the man a golden Bridge open him a way and you may be sure never to be troubled more with his Valour or his Justice But he that loves any thing pursues it through Fire and Water and Death it self cannot extinguish the desire Tell him of dangers and he replyes At contra Audentior ibo but I am resolved to master them These and these only are the fit Men to serve in this Honourable Employment and may God Almighty bless and reward those we have and send more such Heroick Souls into the Field to discountenance Faction and Vice and to protect Innocency Religion and Virtue And to the rest I shall offer two or three things to be thought of at their leisure Will any man in his right Wits expect Peace without Justice What were the World but a Hell of Misery and a Chaos of Confusion if every man might say and do what he list Were it not for the publick Justice to terrify some and cut off other Malefactors your House would be a Castle to you indeed but surrounded with such dangers that you should neither eat nor drink nor sleep in Peace and Security and the more Opulent your Fortunes were the greater would be the temptation to destroy and impoverish you go into the fruitful Countries of the Mogull in the East-Indies and you shall find vast Spaces of Rich Soyl desolate and unhabited only for want of Country Magistrates to protect the good and punish the disorderly for that Prince sends but few Governors into his vast Provinces and they reside in the great Cities so that the Poor and Remote have small advantage by them and so would it be in England if all men were of your minds But you will say there is no fear of that but then you shall be as accountable to God and your Country has if it had really happened for tho man cannot punish these Sins of Omission God can and will But you must gain Portions for your Children and encrease your Estates yes and your Sorrows too to see all your Labours end in Smoak a Civil War destroy that in an hour you have been carking for many years and your Beloved Daughter become the Prey of a Lieutenant or a Captain at the best who has nothing to Joynture her in and takes her and all the Thousands you have scraped together for her in part of payment for the publick service or dis-service as it happens and it may be your Grand-children may after all this have the honour and happiness to be Tapsters or Ostlers in some great place When if the Publick had been better minded your Daughter and her Descendants might have been happy These are no vain speculations so that if men would consider seriously of it they would love Justice if not for it self yet for the Consequences of it 2. Next to the love of Justice impartiality in doing it is to be considered for it is possible to turn Justice into Worm-wood and Gaul the best and sweetest of things into the bitterestâ— and
which hath not been said before on this Account Instead of which I am rather inclined to deplore the Miseries of the Age and Nation in which we live for it may be that since the Creation of the World there is not one to be found in which Perjury and Disregard of the Obligation of all Oaths have taken such Deep rooting and become so Epidemical and General If we inquire into the Reasons of it we shall find two which have contributed especially to it Factions and Irreligion The Popish Faction led the Way and long since by Papal Dispensations taught Christians to play fast and loose with those dreadful ties which honest Heathens revered and trembled at and to Uphold their tottering Greatness Decreed at last That Faith was not to be kept with Hereticks a Doctrine which they have since most religiously observed when it hath been safe as they thought whether to their greater Infamy or Dammage I shall not now inquire The Dissenters at length imbraced in the beginning of our late Confusions the same Opinion and being to undertake a War against their King were Necessitated to absolve themselves from the Oath of Allegiance they had made to him and afterwards the same Necessity brought them to take the Covenant which was contrary to that Oath the Engagement which was contrary to both and so on they went Swearing Contradictions and imposing them upon the People till no body did any longer regard what they Swear to and they became so Persidious too and distrustful of each other that this Persidy and Perjury in which they had put their greatest trust by a just Judgment of God upon them ruined all their Designs and brought their Affairs into such Confusion that they were forced to Submit to His Majesty and accept a Pardon from him whom they had abjured but a few Months before But the Nation being once infected with this Leprosie of Perjury thô one cause was gone the War yet the Factions kept up the Distemper partly to secure themselves against the Laws made against them and partly in hopes to make great use of it in another Revolution which they have lived in Expectation of ever since So they Minted new Doctrines That it is better to Trust God i. e. to try whether he will be as good as his Word and Punish them for false Swearing than Man That it was a less Sin if it were any for a Man to forswear himself than to betray a Godly Brother to the Wicked or to inform against him to his loss And as they taught so they practised they took all Oaths and kept none And if any body was scrupulous and fearful they tried what Perswasion would do if that failed they fell to close Revenges Defamations Suits at Law on other Pretences and all the Ways they could till at last partly for Love partly for Fear they brought incredible Numbers of Men to Perjure themselves for them Thus our Ignoramus Juries our Perjured Constables our Conforming-Nonconforming Ministers our Sacramentary distinctions into Legal and Spiritual Sacraments our Moderate Magistrates so call'd and our Journeyman Freemen were produced So that by degrees things are now come to that pass that no man can tell how to trust his Life his Honour his Fortunes to the truth of a Witness or Jury for Men have learned to serve themselves in their private Concerns of the same Engine that have wrought such wonderful Effects in the Publick and the Contagion hath spread it self so vastly that there is hardly any security left Nor have the Dreadful Judgments of God upon the first Inventers the learned Writings and Sermons of the conformable Clergy nor any thing else that could yet be thought of been able to put a stop to it Nay the Atheism and Irreligion which the Observation of all this impious Villany hath produced joyned with the Debauchery of the Times have given a great increase to it so that now not only the demure Hypocrite forswears himself for the Glory of God and the Good of his Children but the Atheist when there is occasion doth it by their Example for his Own sweet sake and his Friends But what will be the Effect of all this Without Oaths there can be no Administration of Justice no Determination of Controversies and without Truth and Honesty in those Oaths there can be as little Justice in the Event That Perjury that did a man a Kindness to day may ruin him to morrow and in probability will do so Besides no man almost can mannage a Perjury so cunningly but that it will be known not only to God but to some Men who will afterwards distrust and hate that Man to the day of his Death even the Party for whom he did it will be forever after jealous of him So that a Man that is once guilty of this Sin if he be not prosecuted for it by Publick Justice will yet be infamous and suspected by all his Neighbours so that if Men were Wise thô they did not fear God yet to avoid the Hatred and distrust of Men they would avoid this detestable Sin of Perjury But if they could conceal it from the Knowledge of all Mankind can they deceive their own Consciences too no sure and if they did but mind it they should find many who have afterwards had so deep and grievous a sense of this Sin that they have put an end to their own Lives to escape the fury of it others have died Distracted and Dispairing and those that have recovered by the Mercy of God have yet many of them lived miserable unfortunate uncomfortable lives ever after And after all this the Judgments of God Almighty come up in the Reer with a Vengeance so much more heavy as it is the flower It is observed by the Author of the Wisdom of Solomon Chap. 14. v. 30 31. that those Heathens who swore falsly by their Idols were yet for those Perjuries punished by the true God For it is not saith he the Power of them by whom they swear but it is the just Vengeance of Sinners that punisheth always the offence of Sinners If the true God seemed thus careful to preserve Religion amongst Men by avenging the Injuries that were done to false Gods by those that worshipped them as true which he often did in pity to the deceived World because without Religion Communities would degenerate into Bands of Thieves and Herds of Beasts each one preying upon another and keeping no more Faith than Necessity could enforce as is well observed by the Author of The Life of Agathocles than by a necessary Consequence he is much more obliged to assert his own honour basely abused by Pretended Christians and we may be sure he will for he hath never yet failed to do it How many Princes trusting to the Papal Absolutions have been destroyed by their own Perjuries what did the Emperor gain by the breach of his Faith at the Council of Constance or any other Prince since what did