Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	king_n	law_n	parliament_n	7,328	5	6.6868	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91275	A short demurrer to the Jewes long discontinued remitter into England. Comprising an exact chronological relation of their first admission into, their ill deportment, misdemeanors, condition, sufferings, oppressions, slaughters, plunders, by popular insurrections, and regal exactions in; and their total, final banishment by judgment and edict of Parliament, out of England, never to return again: collected out of the best historians. With a brief collection of such English laws, Scriptures, as seem strongly to plead, and conclude against their readmission into England, especially at this season, and against the general calling of the Jewish nation. With an answer to the chief allegations for their introduction. / By William Prynne Esq; a bencher of Lincolnes-Inne.; Short demurrer to the Jewes long discontinued remitter into England. Part 1.	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1656 (1656)	Wing P4078; Thomason E483_1; ESTC R203287	90,701	118

Officers and Judges as heretofore 3ly To purchase Houses Habitations Rents Lands Exercise of all sorts of Trades and Manufactures amongst us as free Denizens or Merchants upon such terms and qualifications as shall be indulged to them 1. For our Laws and Statutes these following make directly or obliquely by way of necessary consequence against their re-admission 1. For their Jewish Synagogues worship Sacraments Religion these ancient pious Laws of our Saxon and Danish Kings made in their great Parliaments and Councils before the Jews first coming into England strongly oppose their admission now As namely the Laws of King Alfred and Guthern Lex 1. 2. of King Ethelred in the Council of Aenham c. 1. 3. 27 29 30. of Habam c. 1. with the Laws of King Cnute the Dane Lex 1. 27 28 All which enact That the only true God and our Lord be loved worshipped in all ages by all the people with all their might the one Christian holy Catholick faith orthodoxly kept and the Churches of God to be diligently frequented throughout the Realm That all Paganisme and false Religions be renounced both in words and deeds That who ever wickedly resisteth the Laws of Christ shall be grievously fined and put to death and that all men should diligently seek out by all means Ut recta Christi religio maxime provehatur That the right Religion of Christ might be most of all advanced obtesting all Ecclesiiastical and secular persons again and again most earnestly to keep the sincere faith unanimously in the true God and the right Christian faith in a right manner diligently to hear the Teachers of Gods word studiously to follow their Doctrine and Precepts to maintain peace and tranquility in the Church of God and there diligently to pour forth their prayers All which particulars exclude all Jewish Synagogues and Judaisme and are of perpetual force being grounded on the very Law of God Moreover King Cnute his Ecclesiastical Laws made by the advise of his wise men to be observed throughout all England prohibited That no Christian should be sold or sent out of the Realm or banished amongst those who had not as yet embraced the faith in Christ lest per adventure those Souls should perish at anytime which our Lord Iesus Christ had redeemed with his own blood and life If Christians for this cause ought not to be sent sold or banished amongst Jews and Infidels much more then ought not Infidel Jews with their Jewish Synagogues Religion Ceremonies to be now introduced amongst us Christians to the hazard of many Christian Souls redeemed by Christs blood 2. All the Statutes concerning Uniformity of Common Servicc administration of the Sacraments as 1 Ed. 6. c. 1 2. 2 Ed. 6. c 1. 6 Ed. 6. c. 1. 1 Eliz. c. 2. 23 Eliz. c. 1. 35 Eliz. c. 1. 2. most of them still in force being never legally repealed do fully and directly oppugne the introduction of any Jewish Synagogues Service Sacraments Worship Ceremonies with the use of them in any place within our Realm 3. The Statutes of 3 E. 6. c. 10. 13 Eliz. c. 2. 23 El. c. 1. 28 Eliz. c. 2. 6. 35 Eliz. c. 1. 3 Iac. c. 4. against Popish Recusants Seminary Priests Iesuites Friers Masse-Books Agnus Dei's Popish Books Superstitions for preventing the withdrawing of the Subjects of this Realm from the publique Ordinances Sacraments and Religion here established and for speedy banishing all Seminary Priests and Jesuites and keeping them perpetually out of the Realm upon this account amongst others though professing Christ Christian Religion and agreeing with us in all Articles of the Creed and most fundamental points of Christianity Must in Substance Law Reason in this regard much more perpetually exclude abolish all Jews Jewish Priests Rabbies Synagogues worship Ceremonies Superstitions out of our Dominions being farre more dishonourable to Christ opposite to our Christian Religion and destructive to the peoples souls if once admitted then any Jesuits Seminary Priests Friers Popish Recusants or any Romish Masses Superstitions whatsoever And if the Jewish Priests Judaism and Jewish Ceremonies may be now set up and practised publiquely amongst us notwithstanding all these Statutes then much more Masse-Priests Masses Popery and Prelacy by the self same reason justice equity To these I might annex all the late Ordinances for the Directory The solemn League and Covenant and for Suppressing punishing of Heresy and Blasphemy therefore of Iudaism which is both Heresy and Blasphemy and Jewish assemblies the very Synagogues of Satan and Iews great blasphemers by Christs own resolution Rev. 2. 9. c. 3. 9. Acts 18. 6. Rom. 2. 21. With the late printed Instrument of Government which though it allows not only toleration but protection to all Sects and Religions professing faith in God through Iesus Christ though differing from the Doctrine and Discipline publtkely held forth in the Nation except only to Popery and Prelacy yet certainly it can no ways extend to the toleration or protection of Jews and their Antichristian blasphemies against Christ himself and the Gospel seeing they are so far from professing faith in Jesus Christ that they utterly renounce and professedly decry him to be the true Saviour and Messiah of the world rejecting the whole New Testament and Doctrin of the Gospel and so by consequence are necessarily secluded by this Instrument and Oath for its observation from practising their Jewish worship Ceremonies or erecting any Synagogues in our Nation for that purpose 2ly Though the Kings of England by the Law and their Prerogative may in sundry cases erect New Corporations of their Subjects by their Charters only yet notwithstanding no Corporation or Fraternity of Iews being meer Aliens may can or ought to be erected in England by the Fundamental Lawes and Constitutions of the Realm but only by full consent of the Nation in Parliament by special Acts of Parliament it being one of the greatest Intrenchments that can be upon the English Nations Rights Liberties Customs Priviledges Profit and a violation of all the ancient Charters Priviledges Rights Franchises confirmed to them by the Great Charter of England forty times since ratified by new Acts of Parliament This is evident by the Statutes of Magna Charta c. 9. 37. 34 E. 1. c. 4. 1. E. 3. c. 9. 14. E. 3. c. 1. 1. H. 4. c. 1. 2. H. 4. c. 1. 7. H. 4. c. 1. 9. H. 4. c. 1. 13. H. 4. c. 1. 3. H. 5. c. 1. 2. H. 6. c. 1. compared with 2 E. 3. c. 9. 27. E. 3. c. 1. to 29. 28 E. 3. 13. 15 36. E. 3. c. 7 19 H. 7. c. 12 and all other Acts for the Staple and Styliard and with 3. E. 4. c. 6. 1. R. 3. c. 9. 14 H. 8. c. 2. 21 H. 8. c. 16. 22 H. 8. c. 8. 32 H. 8. c. 16. touching Artificers Merchants and Aliens 3ly The preambles of the Statute of Merton 20 H. 3. 3 E. 1. with c. 17. 48. 6 E. 1.

and subversion of our only Lord Saviour Redeemer Mediator Jesus Christ his Person Offices Kingdom Gospel and Christianity it self without any thoughts of turning Christians themselves In which case not to be passionately zealous not to contend earnestly for the Faith against these ungodly men turning the Grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ is in a great measure to deny and betray him together with our Church Nation at once unto these their inveterate enemies For whose Conversion not National but of the Elect Remnant of them as I shall pray so I cannot but pray and write against their Re-admission amongst us on these or any other terms for the Reasons here humbly presented to thy view and Christian Consideration by Thy Christian Brother and Companion in tribulation and in the Kindom Patience of Jesus Christ William Prynne Lincolnes-Inne 14 December 1655. ERRATA Title p. for quandam read quorundam p. 9. l. 12. est r. et p. 12. l. 7. homes r. houses p. 22. l. 21. p. 23. l. 26 r. Iuvel p. 37. six r. ten p. 48. l. 3. quod l. 8. co●um p. 51. l 16. ex●aecati p. 70. l. 2. dele record p. 88. l. 1. receive revive A short Demurrer to the Jews long discontinued Remitter into ENGLAND HOw the Nation of the Jewes once Gods own beloved speciall chosen People after their malitious crucifying of our Saviour Jesus Christ and imprecation That his Bloud might be on them and their children were for this their crying sinne especially made the saddest Spectacles of divine Justice and humane Misery of all other Nations in the World being quite extirpated out of their own Land almost totally deleted by the sword pestilence famine carried away Captives and dispersed like so many Vagabonds over the face of the whole Earth as the very off-scowring of the world and execration derision of all other people having no place City Form of Government or Republike of their own in any corner of the Universe according to Gods Comminations against them Levit. 26. 14. to 46. Deut. 28. 15. to 68. Jer. 9. 10. c. 13. 24. Ezech. 5. 2. to the mid c. 12. 15. c. 22. 15. Mich. 1. 21. Mat. 24. Or what banishments punishments oppositions restraints by penal Laws suppressions of their Synagogues Ceremonies they have received in all ages from Christian Kings Princes Republikes in Forreign parts for their implacable malice blasphemie against our Saviour Jesus Christ Christians Christian Religion and other Crimes and Misdemeanors to which they are most addicted is not the subject of my intended Brief Discourse and so fully related by Josephus Egesippus Eusebius Nicephorus Zonaras Paulus Diaconus the Magdeburgian Centuriators out of them and other Historians in their 2. to their 13 Centuries chap. 14 and 15. in Baronius his Annals and H●yl●●s Microcosm p. 568 569 570. where all may peruse them that I shall not spend time to recite them but wholly confine my self to a Brief Relation of their first admission into their ill deportment misdemeanors sufferings popular insurrections against them in and their final banishment by Judgement and Edict of Parliament out of England never to return again collected out of the best Historians to which I shall subjoyn a taste only of such Laws Scriptures and Reasons as seem strongly to plead against their re-admission into our Island especially at this season When the Jews came first into England appears not certainly by any Historians there being no mention of their being here in any of our British or Saxon Kings reigns to my remembrance Antoninus in his Chronicles Tit. 16. ca. 5. records That William the Conqueror King of England translated the Jews from Rhoan to London and the Magdeburg Centuries out of him Centur. xi cap. 14. Col. 686. adds thereto that it was OB NUMERATUM PRECIUM for a summ of money given to him by them which I find not in Antoninus Both these Authors intimate That this was their first arival in England yet in what year of this King they are silent With them concurs Raphael Holinshed Vol. 3. p. 15. where thus he writes Among other grievances which the English sustained by the hard dealings of the Conqueror this is to be remembred That he brought Jews into the Land from Rouen and appointed them a place to inhabit and occupy reputing their very first introduction a Grievance to the English and hard dealing Which John Stow in his Annals of England p. 103. thus seconds King William brought the Jews from Rhoan here to inhabit in England But this Law concerning the Jews inserted amongst the Laws in the Confessors time seems to prove their arrival and settlement in England to be before this Normans reign unlesse mis-placed in point of time amongst his Lawes by Hoveden being rather in my opinion a Declaration of the Jews servile condition under King William and Richard the first when Hoveden writ then any Law in King Edwards reign or before as the words import De Judaeis in Regno constitutis SCiendum est quoque quod omnes Judaei ubicunque in Regno sunt sub tutela defensione Domim Regis sunt nec quilibet eorum alicui diviti se potest subdere sine Regis licentia Judaei omnia sua Regis sunt Quod si quispiam detinuerit eis pecuniam suam perquirat Rex tanquam suum proprium or detmuerit eos vel pecuniam corum perquirat Rex si vult tanquam suum proprium as Sir Henry Spelman renders it This Law or Declaration being the first record making mention of their being and condition in England proves That as all the Jews when they came first into England were under the Kings protection and patronage where ever they resided that they were under him only as his meer Vassals their persons and goods being his alone that they could dispose of neither of them without his License Into which slavish condition they doubtlesse then put themselves being banished out of other Nations for their Villanies only to avoid the fury of the common people to whom they were most detestable who else would have quickly murdered or ston'd them to death and stript them of all their wealth as the sequell will declare The next Passage in Historians concerning the Jews being and condition in England is that of William of Malmsbury in William Rufus his reign The Jews writes he in his time gave a testimony of their insolency Once at Rhoan endeavouring by gifts to perswade and revoke certain men to Judaism who had deserted their error Another time at London being animated to enter into a combate or dispute against our Bishops because the King in merriment as I believe had said That if they should overcome the Christians and confute them by open arguments he would then revolt to them and become one of their Sect Whereupon it was managed with great fear of the Bishops and Clergy and

with pious solicitude of such who were afraid of the Christian Faiths miscarriage And from this combate the Jews only brought away nothing besides confusion although they would many times boast that they were overcome not by argument but by a faction Antoninus relating the story in the same words addes only this That the Jews comming to this King on a certain Solemnity and offering him gifts after their removal from Rhoan to London he thereupon animated them to a conflict against the Christians swearing by St. Lukes face that if they overcame them he would revolt to their Sect as if he spake it in good earnest with whom the Magdeburge Centuries accord By which we may observe That the Jews were no sooner transported and setled in Rhoan and London but they presently began to grow very insolent against the Christians 1. Endeavouring to pervert some of them by monies to Judaism 2ly Attempting to corrupt the King himself by gifts to side with them against the Bishops and Clergy and to become one of their Sect. 3ly By entring into open Disputations with the Bishops and Clergy against the Christian Faith to the great fear of the Professors and hazard of the Christian Religion 4ly By boasting frequently when they were overcome That it was only by power and faction not truth or disputation And will not this be their very practise now if re-admitted to the hazard of our Christian Religion and seduction of many simple unstable souls in this unsetled apostatizing age when not only the ignorant People but many great Professors turn Atheists Hereticks Seekers Apostates Blasphemers Ranters Quakers Antiscripturists and what not but real Christians This History of William Rufus causing a disputation between the Christians and the Jews is related by Raphael Holinshed in his Chronicle Vol. 3. p. 27. who likewise records of him That he being at Rhoan on a time there came to him diverse Jews who inhabited that City complaining to him that divers of that Nation had renounced their Jewish Religion and were become Christians wherefore they besought him that for a certain summe of money which they offered to give it might please him to constrain them to abjure Christianity and turn to the Jewish Law again He was content to satisfie their desires and so receiving the money called them before him and what with threats and putting them otherwise in fear he compelled divers of them to forsake Christ and to turn to their old errors Hereupon the Father of one Stephen a Jew converted to the Christian Faith being sore troubled for that his Son was turned a Christian and hearing what the King had done in such like matters presented to him 60 Marks of Silver conditionally That he should enforce his Son to return to his Jewish Religion whereupon the young man was brought before the King unto whom he said Sirra thy Father here complaineth that without his license thou art become a Christian If this be true I command thee to return again to the Religion of thy Nation without any more adoe To whom the Young man answered Your Grace as I guess doth but jest Wherewith the King being moved said VVhat thou dounghil knave should I jest with thee Get thee hence quickly and fulfill my commandement or by St. Lukes face I shall cause thine eyes to be plucked out of thine head The Young man nothing abashed thereat with a constant voice answered Truly I will not do it but know for certain that if you were a good Christian you would never have uttered any such words for it is the part of a Christian to reduce them again to Christ which are departed from him and not to separate them from him which are joyned to him by Faith The King herewith confounded commanded the Jew to avant and get him out of his sight But his Father perceiving that the King could not perswade his Son to forsake the Christian Faith required to have his money again To whom the King said He had done so much as he promised to doe that was to perswade him so far as he might At length when he would have had the King to have dealt further in the matter the King to stop his mouth tendred back to him the one half of his money and received the other to himself All which increased the suspition men had of his Infidelity By this History we may perceive what a prevailing Engin the Jews money is both to scrue them into Christian Kingdoms though the most bitter inveterate professed Enemies of Christ himself Christians and Christianity and how their money can induce even Christian Princes to perpetrate most unchristian and antichristian actions and enforce by threats and violence even converted Christian Jews to renounce their Christianity and apostatise to their former Jewish Errors which they had quite renounced And do not they still work even by the self-same Money-Engin preferred by too many Christians even before Christ himself and Christianity In the year of our Lord 1145. during the reign of King Stephen the Jews grew so presumptuous in England that they crucified a child called VVilliam in the City of Norwich in derision of Christian Religion as Matthew VVestminster Flores Historiarum Ann. 1145. p. 39. Chronicon Johannis Bromton Col. 1048. Hygden in his Polychronicon Antoninus Centuriae Magdeburgenses Cent. 12. c. 14. Mr. John Fox in his Acts and Monuments 1640. Vol. 1. p. 302. Richard Grafton in his Chronicle p. 46. Raphael Holinshed in his Chronicle Vol. 3. p. 56. and others joyntly attest Not long after this Anno 1160. the 6. year of Henry the II. they cracifyed another child at Gloucester in contempt of Christ and his Passion as John Bromtons Chronicon col 1050. Henry de Knyghton de Eventibus Angliae l. 2. col 2394 Polychronicon Fox Acts and Monuments Vol. 1. p. 302. Grafton in his Chronicle p. 46. and others record And in the same Kings reign Anno 1181. upon the same account the Jews on the Feast of Easter martyred and crucified another child at St. Edmonds-bury called Robert who was honourably interred soon after in the Church of St. Edmunds and grew famous by miracles there wrought as Gervasius Dorobernensis in his Chronica col 1458. relates What punishments were then inflicted on them for these Murders and Insolencies I find not recorded perchance they purchased their Peace with monies For I read That in the year 1168. King Henry the 2. wanting monies banished the wealthiest of the Jews out of England and fined the rest of them in 5000 Marks most likely for these their Misdemeanors The Jews though there were a great multitude of them in England in every quarter of the Realm had only one Church-yard alotted them and that at London in which they were enforced to bury all-their dead corps wheresoever they died which being a great trouble and annoyance to them thereupon in the year 1178. they petitioned King Henry the 2. being at Stanstede for a License

like chaff before the wind without any fixed habitation according to the ancient comminations and curses long since denounced against and now fully executed upon them Deutr. 28. 63 64 65 c. Levit. 26. 33. 36 37 38 39. Deutr. 4. 27. c. 32. 26. 1 Kings 14 15. Neh. 1. 8. Ps 106. 27. Jer. 9. 16. 17. 24. c. 18. 17 c. 49. 32 36. Ezech. 5. 2. to 13. c. 12 14. 15 c. 20 23. c. 22. 15. Daniel 12. 7. Zach 1. 21. Ezech. 11. 16 17. c. 6. 8. c. 17. 21. which scattering is principally intended only amongst Heathen Nations where they should be totally deprived of all Gods Ordinances and means of salvation where they shall serve other Gods which neither they nor their Fathers have known even wood and stone as these texts expresly resolve and import Therfore to receive them into and settle them in our Christian Kingdom and Island whereunto they have no title nor colour of inheritance which God hath appointed to the English alone for their portion and therefore these Aliens may not invade or intrude themselves into it without the whole Nations general consent is in some sense to crosse these sacred Texts and neither convenient for us to grant nor for them to request being already over-stored with Native Englishmen 6. Since the Jews crucifixion of our Saviour Jesus Christ himself and their extirpation and dissipation for it they have oft-times in sundry places ages in high contempt and despite of his person and passion maliciously acted it over and over again in representation not only by piercing his Images with swords and spears and in stabbing piercing boyling burning braying in a mortar and otherwise despiting the consecrated Sacramental bread representing his crucified body as the Historians in the Margin at large relate and likewise by crucifying a Ram at Easter as they did at Syracusa in the year 1113 but likewise by crucifying sundry Christian children on Good Friday o● near Easter on a Crosse in a most barbarous manner in derision of our Saviors death and passion To pretermit those 7. or 8. forecited instances in England alone I shall instance in some forreign ones recorded by Historians About the year of our Lord 430. the Jews in their publike Enterludes and Dances held on their Sabboth openly crucisied a Christian child in contempt and derision of Christs death and passion at Inmestar in Syria first nailing him to a tree and lifting him up on high then deriding and laughing at him after that like mad men scourging him as long as any breath remained in his body whereupon there arose great contention between them and the Christians and by the Emperors command the Jews who had done this in jest were punished in earnest Anno 1172. they crucified in like manner another Christian Child at Bloyes in France And near the same time the Jews at Bray in France crowned a Christian man whom they accused for a Malefactor with thornes then led him publickly about the Town scourged him with many stripes and at last crucified him in contempt of Christ Not long after the Jews at Paris in France in like manner crucified a Christian child called Richard sundry others yearly Anno 1236. the Jews at the Monastery of Fulda killed many Christian Children in a Mill piercing them with ponyards and squeezing out their blood to mix and knead it with their vnleavened bread in their Passeover as was generally reported which being discovered many of them were burnt to death for it the rest grievously persecuted At Prague in Bohemia the Jews on Good-Friday in the year 1283. shutting their gates crucified a Christian man having first of all done unto him in contempt what ever they had learned was done to Christ by their Ancestors which when the people had discovered running to their arms they raged cruelly against and slew many of these impious Murtherers The Jews Anno 1286 stole away cruelly tormented pricked with ponyards drew the blood impiously crucified a Christian Child called VVernerus not far from the Rhene in Germany barbarously murthering him after sundry torments Anno 1287. they tormented and crucified another Christian Child at Bern called Rodolphus for which they were massacred and cruelly handled by the furious vulgar The Jews at Trent on Good-Friday in the year 1475. tortured whipped pierced crucified to dearh a Christian child about 13 years old called Simeon in contempt of Christs passion and Christians kneding their Paschal unleavened bread with his blood which History is as large related by the Marginal Historians And to instance in no more particulars Vincentius Beluacensis Speculum Hist. l. 29. c. 25. Gaguinus l. 6. de Francis Centur. Magd. 12. and 13. c. 14 record That the Jews in Paris did every year steal some Christian child or other brought up in the Kings Court carrying him to a secret house or vault did on Good-Friday or Easter-day in contempt and derision of Christ and Christian Religion crucify him on a Crosse as Christ was crucified and that they had been frequently appprehended per severing in this wickednesse for which upon Detection they were usually murthered stoned burned destroyed hanged by the furious multitudes violence or executed imprisoned banished by Christian Kings and Magistrates yet such was their mal●ce to Christ that they would st●ll persevere there●n and act it over again upon every opportunity How can or dare we then receive into our Christian Island such barbarous bloody obstinate murderers and inveterate incorrigible malicious enemies to and deriders despisers of our blessed Saviours death and passion formerly cast out by our Ancestors amongst other things for their bloody impieties and unchristian blasphemies of this nature unlesse we first renounce both our Christianity and Humanity at once and become as bad as the very worst of Jews 7. The Jews ever since their dispersion in all ages places to their power have been more bitter enemies to the Christians than the worst of Pagans bending all their studies forces wits endeavours to hinder oppugne blaspheme extirstate the Christian Religion and all professors of it out of the world stirred up many bloody persecutions against them upon all advantages confederating both with Julian the Apostate the Pagan Persians the Tartars Sarazens Turks to murder and delete them having a great hand in raising the 4th persecution and murdering stoning to death burning destroying even those of their own Nation yea poysoning their own VVives Children for imbracing Christianity Moreover they have raised up many seditions rebellions against Christian Princes poysoned destroyed some of them and their Nobles yea raised occasioned many great popular Tumults Commotions Seditions against them in all ages places as well as formerly here in England as you may read at large in Socrates Scholasticus Eccl. Hist l. 7. c. 13. Zonaras Tom. 3 Paulus Diaconus l. 16 17 18. Nicepkorus Eccles Hist l. 14 c. 14. l.

necessarie subsistance now in their Native country and must neither teach nor preach Christ Jesus to any in publique or private though Gods word and their function condition enjoyn necessitate them to do both when as these admitted Jews may both teach and preach against him too in publique private Which restraints on these English Royalists on the one hand indulged liberty to the alien Jew Antichrists on the other if now put in execution I humbly referre it to the saddest considerations conscientious meditations of all in power to resolv themselvs how scandalous odious it will prove both to God and all good men how much it will resemble the proceedings not only of the malicious Jews themselves against the Apostles and Ministers of Christ recorded Acts 4. 1. to 24. c. 5. 24. to 32. 1 Thes 2. 14 15 16. of beheaded Canterbury against Mr. Workman of Glocester But likewise of that detestable Apostate Emperour Iulian who out of his desperate malice to Christ to undermine and extirpate Christian Religion without shedding the blood of Christians first shewed himself a most zealous Christian professor reducing the Orthodox Bishops Ministers christians whom the persecuting Arian Emperor Constantius had exiled restoring them to their confiscated Bishopricks to ingratiate himself with the people but not long after turning Apostat he took away all the Privileges honours revenues of the Clergy setled on them by Constantine with the Laws for their establishment shut up the Churches Schools of the Christians prohibiting them to teach in publike or private or set their children to School unless they would renounce their former Religion and turn Pagans impoverished oppressed the Christians with extraordinary doubled Taxes from which the Pagans were exempted and castmany of them into prison But on the contrary at the same time he shewed extraordinary favour and affection towards the Jews sent for the chiefest of them to his court where he discoursed with them writing a special Letter to them wherein he desired their prayers for him granted them free exercise of their Jewish ceremonies and sacrifices long discontinued encouraged and assisted them with monies out of his publike Treasury to re-edifie the Temple at Jerusalem to receive set up all their Jewish Sacrifices and customes there formerly used whereupon they began to build it till-miraculously interrupted therein● and all to vex and undermine the Christians By which indulged Liberty the Jews then grew so insolent against the Christians that they greivously persecuted divers of them destroyed and burnt down some of their Churches and threatned to persecute them worse than the Pagan Romans had done as the Marginall Historians record more at large The imitation of whose proceedings now in any degree in these particulars what harsh constructions and sad events they may produce I refer to all wise Christian States-men seriously to ponder for their own and our Religions honor and Security My 4. argument is this The Orders for securing the peace of the Nation which the Declaration relates to contrary to all the Statutes Acts Resolutions of our Parliaments and Law-books forecited upon another occasion authorize the Major Generals and Commissioners named in them To banish and send into Foraign parts and Plantations all persons of the royal party formerly in arms of no estate and living loosly and all persons whatsoever that shall appear by their words or actions to adhere to the party of the late King or his Son to be dangerous Enemies to the peace of the Commonwealth even without and before any Legal indictment tryal conviction of any particular crime for which a Sentence of Banishment is prescribed by our Laws or any Judgement or Act of Parliament inflicting this heavy Punishment upon them far worse to many than death it self Now I shall earnestly intreat in the name and fear of God all those whom it most concernes to consider in their own retired thoughts how unjust unrighteous unreasonable unchristian it will seem to all Free-born English men and conscientious Christians both at home and abroad and what great scandals it may bring both upon our Nation Government and Religion it self in this manner and on this old account alone to banish these Christian English freemen one of their Native Country both from their Wives Children Kinred and Gods own publike Ordinances and at the self-same time to call in foraign Infidel Jews greatest Enemies to Christ himself and Christians and in that respect more dangerous to the peace and welfare of the Nation than tho●e thus to be banished to supply their places even against an express old Judgement and Edict of the whole Kingdom in Parliament for their perpetual exile What a sad p●rnicious president it may prove in future ages upon every new revolution to banish all English freemen of a contrary party and call in Forraigners in their rooms Whether it will not revive that ancient complaint of Petrus Cluntacensis Lex nam vetusta sed verè diabolica ab ipsis Christianis Principibus processit c. Manet inultum scelus detestabile in Judaeo quod exilio vel horrenda morte suspendi● punitur in Christiano Pingrescit inde deliciis affluit Iudaeus unde laqueo suspenditur Christianus And whether upon consideration of this and the precedent reasons deduced from these Declarations and all the premises they ought not peremptorily to conclude against the Jews present and future re-admission into England most seriously to determine I shall close up all with an Answer to the two principal Allegations for their reception into our Realm 1. The main and only consciencious Argument for their introduction is this That it may be a very probable hopefull means of the general calling and conversion of the Iewish Nation to the Christian Faith which hath been so long prayed for and expected by Christians and seems now approaching which their seclusion from us may much obstruct Not to enter into any large debate of this conversion of the Iews wherein learned Orthodox Divines and Writers are much divided I say 1. That I could never yet be satisfied that there shall be such a general call and conversion of the whole or major part of the Nation of the Jews as some expect but only of an elect remnant of them The foreciced Texts with I say 30. 8 9 10 11. Now go write it before them in a Table and note it in a book that it may be for the time to come FOR EVER and EVER That this is a rebellious people children that will not hear the Law of the Lord which say to the Seers see not and to the Prophets prophesie not unto us right things c. cause the holy one of Israel to depart from before us Luk. 20. 16 17 18. Mat. 21. 41 42 43 44 45 John 1. 11. 12. Rom. 9. 27. 26. 33. c. 11. 2 5 7 8. contradicting such a general conversion of them that of