AN EPISTLE DIRECTED TO ALL justices of Peace IN ENGLAND AND WALES.   printer's or publisher's device 
London, Printed for M. S. 1642.   

TO THE WATCHFUL Eyes in this our state, the worthy Justices, Imprisoners of Malefactors, and Preservers of peace; that peace is wished which passeth all understanding, with the zeal of God, in due execution of justice against the enemies of Christ, and our Country.  
WHat furtherance your places of justice be to judges, sitting in the seat of judgement, is better known unto your wisdom, and learned selves, than I can any way imagine or think. Yet I, by my light observation, perceive thus much, what without your vigelancy and faithfulness; the judges cannot do, what either their places require, or themselves desire to do, for the good of our country. As therefore I have been bold, in the zeal of God, and cause of Religion, humbly to petition them: so in like manner, I beseech you, in your places, to do this good for God's Church, to search out these walking spirits of Antichrist; I mean the Priests and jesuites, that they may be conjured down by the power of the law and sword, which do so audaciously rise up, with contempt of the word and spiritual power of Christ. Likewise that the statutes be executed upon open Recusants, who too boldly dare to profess themselves of the Popish Church. And withal, that a circumspect eye be had of our Church-Papists: such, as for all their open coming to our assemblies, do sufficiently in many particulars, declare themselves to be in their coming to Church, the very mere servants of Men; their course at home, and abroad, being duly examined. And that you may see, what may truly, and without breach of charity, be thought of these, I will be bold with a godly learned friend of mine, 
Mr. R.B.  to set down unto you, what he concerning these Church-Papist, openly delivered, as a preface before his Sermon once, at Paul's Cross, word for word, as near as may be. His affirmation was this:  
Conformity to the Oath of allegiance, and other outward formal satisfactions of the State, concurring with a resolution to continue in Popery, is fare more pernicious to the State, then open and professed recusancy.  
I say it again (saith he), A fellow which hath taken the oath of allegiance; first, either by power of some Popish dispensation, which great men especially may easily procure, because by their wit, or worth, or high room, they may be more notoriously serviceable to the Church of Rome; or secondly, by proportionable deduction of some warrant to their consciences in that case, from that brief of Pius Quintus in the Queen's time, mentioned before, which any understanding Papist will easily apprehend: or thirdly, by the cozening art of mental reservation, of which (perhaps) some of their Priests & cunninger sort, especially of the equivocalting generation, will be ready to make advantage of; or fourthly, by reason of wideness of conscience, even directly and grossly against the corrupt notious and instructions thereof; which is much incident to the more ignorant and inferior rank of Papists, who through baseness and lowness of state, are exempted from intelligence with the Consistory of Rome, and acquaintance with the liberty of many popish resolutions in such cases, and having no grounded and real assurance of salvation in that profession (which is an inseparable misery to popish heresy), dare not hazard their temporal happiness, for any hope of future comfort they are ever like to have, or reap by such a miserable religion: I say, a fellow having thus taken the oath of allegiance either by popish dispensation, mental reservation, or directly and grossly against the check and contradiction of his popi●● conscience, is by accident, and by consequent, far more Pestilential to the State than he was before, for such reasons as these:  
By this formal outward false hearted-conformitie.  
First, he diverts and declines the watchful eye of state-realosie, from ordinary excubation and vigilancy over his popish villainies and machinations, from a more narrow particular insinuation into his underground vaults, and timely observation of his engrossing too much gun-power; and so works a great deal of mischief unobservedly, fearfully undermines, without any countermine of policy; and concurrers most danderously with the outraged malice of that man of sin, for the wasting of our Church, and dis-strengthening the State, without sense or suspicion.  
Secondly, he is unworthily armed with the respect and reputation of a good subject; and so may more boisterously and with greater bravery, wound and weaken the better side; vex goodness, and good men, more boldly without controlment, and secretly promote Popery, and hinder proceed against Papists, even with authority, and some colourable ostentations of safer policy, and flourishing pretences of deeper reaches into the mysteries of State.  
Thirdly, he may thereby give deeper wounds into the heart of the truth, through the sides of those they call Puritans; and over their heads do his worst to knock out the brains of the blessed Gospel of the son of God. It is incredible, what a world of wrong and mischief is wrought upon the truth which we profess, and true professors thereof, by politic conformable Papists, upon the woeful advantage of certain Ministers inconformity. If such a fellow spy out a consionable painful Minister, and find him obnoxious to the rigour of the law, but in the least point; and that (perhaps) out of a peaceful tenderness of conscience, while himself is in heart a rank traitor to the State. O then he plies the advantage with much malice and bitterness, by informations, aggrapations, exasperations fawning concurrence with Ecclesiastical Courts, until he have procured the putting out of that burning & shining lamp, (for he well knows, when such lights expire, the noisome snufe of Popery is like enough to infect that darksome place:) and God knows, all this is done, not for presurvation of peace, as he publicly pretends; but for promotion of Popery, which he secretly intends. I will to God, the reverend Bishops and Fathers of our Church, would wisely think of this point, before it be too late, I speak not here any thing to harden the Separatist, or any truly tumultuous; but to point out a dangerous depth of the mystery of iniquity, which worketh pestilently upon such advantages. I rather pray, that all the blessings of the God of peace, both in this world, and in the world to come, may be heaped upon his head, whosoever he be, which doth any way (with holiness and good conscience) labour to further the peace of our too much distracted Zion.  
Fourthly, he that conforms, in outward obedience, to the State, by warrant of Popish dispensation, must labour to recompense the Pope's liberality in that kind, with some more remarkable and notorious service to the See of Rome. He shall find himself, out of a sense of such extraordinary favour from that unholy Father, bound in conscience, and engaged in congruity, to be more ready and resolute upon occasion or advantage, upon any desperate adventure and high attempt, for the advancement of his triple infernal crown.  
Fifthly, he that with wilful enlargement of conscience, and secret sturdy resolution, takes the oath, will easily and naturally grow revengefully enraged against the righteous Torturers, and conformers of his corrupt and exorbitant conscience.  
The conscience receiving a sting, transfuseth the smart into the affections, Which when they feel, they are presently furiously enraged against the occasioners of that their bitter misery. And therefore I am persuaded, such a fellow, so taking the Oath, howsoever he may bear himself reservedly, is afterwards transported, with more violent and implacable spite, against the power of that truth, and patrons of that profession, (a sacred zeal whereof hath justly brought a rack and vexation upon his misguided conscience) than he was before. And assuredly, if the times should turn, (which God forbidden) we should find the Church-Papist, and the politic conformable Pseudo-Catholicke, more merciless & blood thirsty against us, than the Recusant, Though the best of them, no doubt, at that day, would be as a Brier, and sharper than a thorny hedge; nay even as a wolf in the evening. For there is no malice near unto the malice of Popery, save the malice of Hell.  
Upon these grounds also, I have thought, that as the state of a Church-Papist, obstinated in popery, is most damnable in itself, (even the popish Doctors themselves being witness) as I have proved elsewhere: (see my book of legal repentance, p. 59) so it is most dangerous to the State.  
I speak not this to drive or detain any Papist from the Church, for I pronounce unto him, out of the word of life and truth, he must fly out of Babylon, into Zion, if ever he will save his soul: but to let him know, that coming to our congregation, he ought with humility, reverence, and prayer, to submit his understanding to illumination with truth, and his heart to sanctification with grace, both for the procurement and comfort of his own salvation, and the contentment and safety of the State. Otherwise, as his dangerousness to the State is evident and extraordinary: so his own damnation sleepeth not. For, if popery were truth, as it is not, but the very doctrine of Devils; yet his State is damnable, because he should so, deny Christ before men: if it be false, as indeed it is, and most accursed from heaven, than he justly perisheth in his heresy.  
But, it may be, some will here reply; what can possibly be more required, and exacted from these men, than conformity in outward obedience to the State? what better security, or surer bond, can be thought upon, than an oath, the sacred and sovereign instrument of all justice and obedience amongst men? what further invention of State, shall be able to stay the fearful mischiefs, that hang hourly over our heads, from this malicious and murderous generation?  
I answer, none in the world, while they stay amongst us: not the most exquisite and quintessenticall policy of all the wisest States, that lie under the face of the Sun, can afford help in this case. I dolatry is ever attended with this inseparable curse, that it will plague the kingdom that nourisheth it, and pay it home at length with a witness, except some right round, and resolute course betaken in the mean time, for the rooting of it out. And indeed the depths of the mystery of iniquity are so unfathomable, that they cannot be sounded by the Plummet of any honest and Christian policy, without diving into the bottom of Hell.  
It is a right just and holy thing, to give them the oath, and to bring them to the Church. But their violations of oaths, dispensations, equivocations, mental evasions, corruptions of conscience, and execrable transgressions of all laws, both of God and man, of nations and nature, are so infinite and endless; and they so mingle their conclusions of State, with the very confusions of hell; that it is even in proportion as easy, to chain up those damned spirits, from tempting men upon earth; as to bridle those bloodthirsty monsters, from undermining and overturning those States; which profess the truth of Christ, if power and means were answerable to their malice and revengeful humours.  

K. james  It was a royal providence of our gracious Sovereign, in his first speech in the Parliament, to admonish the Papists, that they would not so fare presume upon his Lenity, as thereupon to think it lawful for them, daily to increase their number and strength in this Kingdom: whereby, if not in his time, yet lest in time of his posterity, they might be in hope to erect their religion again. But it is more than manifest, by daily and woeful experience, that their main end, all their plots, practices, strange insolences, & the whole sphere of a world of Papist, that swarm amongst us, hold a strong opposition and countermotion to that gracious counsel and first motion of his Majesty. A blessed and happy thing had it been, had his Princely pleasure been followed in that point. For assuredly, were we rid of the Papists; and were Idolatry banished out of the Kingdom, as in conscience, and policy, reason, and religion, it ought: the King and his posterity, by the mercies of God, might sit upon the throne of England, as fast as the strong and mighty mountains upon their sure foundations. Oh, then would the foreign mint and forge of popish mischief, discontinue and expire. jesuites, the devil's journeymen, would take breath, from hammering any more, their hellish powderplots in haste. That malicious and murdering generation would grow dishartened and unspirited, for matter of project, and conspiracy, against this noble State. The royal person of the King would have none about it, but Angels, and good subjects. The concurrent fury of the greatest enemies in the world, durst not entertain a thought of invasion, or stir a finger against the unconquerable glory of our peace. For certainly, the crown of this kingdom is encircled and surrounded with such infinite and endless variety of popish insidiations; and stands fare more liable to the furious thirst of foreign ambitions, upon this ground principally; because they hope, when time serves, to find amongst us, a side and faction of Papists, to serve their turn. Cut the thread of this hope; and cut the throat of all plots against the King's person; and crush the Pope's heart, for any probability, or possibility of ever re-establishing, and erecting his accursed tyranny, in this Island again.  
Now this blessed business of most important and highest consequence, for the pleasing of God, security of the State, and preservation of his Religion, and royal seed, that now fits with incomparable glory upon the Throne, would be happily furthered.  
First, if laws worthily provided in such cases, might have their course and current, without opposition, diversion, partiality, interception by false friends, or any cunning defraudations and delusions of the holy intentions thereof.  
Secondly, if on our side there were but half the care and conscience, for the maintenance of Christ's truth, and extirpation of the infectious heresies of the man of sin, which are incompatible, both with salvation of men's souls, and the safety of imperial Crowns: as there is curiousness, and cruelty, in Popish Kingdoms, for the continuance of Antichristianisme; and, by a bloody inquisition into the very thoughts of men, (the greatest slavery that ever the sun, or the world tasted) for the banishing and barring out, even of all possibility, (so far as in them lies) of reformation, plantation of primitive truth, and profession of grace.  
Thirdly, and above all, the plantation and protection of a conscionable learned ministry, must do the deed, when all is done, and strike the deadlyest and irrevocable blow into the heart of the Pope, if the never-erring Spirit of God have told us the truth, 2. Thes. 2.8. The Lord will consume the wicked man, with the spirit of his mouth. Policy, State, wisdom, confederations of Christian States, invention and execution of good laws, the disarming and disabling of the Pope's vassals, and the like are very notable and needful means, glorious attendants, and assistants unto this holy work. But the sword of the Spirit, managed by the hand of a powerful ministry, must strike off Holofernes head; and knock out the brains of the great Goliath of Rome, which with intolerable insolency doth revile the host of the living God, and trample upon the necks of the Lords anointed. The Champions of Christ, in the battle of the great day of God Almighty, at Armageddon, may bear themselves bravely, and triumphantly: but the spirit of the mouth of the Lord Jesus, shall carry away the chiefest glory of the day, in that conquest and confusion of Antichrist, and in laying his triple crown in the dust.  
But in the mean time (until the Lord put to his helping hand, for setting those means on foot, with resolution and constancy) it is a matter of prodigious amazement, to consider, how mightily impunity of popish idolatry provokes the wrath of God against us, and in what danger we stand; the State, the Gospel, the royal person of the King, the daily invaluable hope of the succession of his children, and particular welfare of every loyal subject in the land. For, if any man be so void of brain, to do himself and the State that wrong, as to think that there are not still new mischiefs on foot, and secret workings against us still, by powderplots, Parisian Massacres, or some proportionable villainies: let him think there is no devil in hell, no Pope at Rome, no malice in the heart of a jesuite.  
Me thinks, it is an astonishment beyond the comprehensions of nature, reason, religion, policies of State: that such an intolerable generation, so odious both to heaven and earth, with abominable Idolatry; so visibly infamous, both to this and the other world, with many capital characters of blood; so endless and implacable, in their rageful designments, against the crowned Majesty of the King's Throne; so prodigious in their plots, that they have cast an inexpiable and everlasting aspersion, upon the innocency of Christian Religion; such furious Assasins and Incendiaries, for murdering or Princes, butchery of people and e, firing of States; so enraged, even like Wolves in the evening, to swallow us up quick (if the time did serve;) I say, that such, in so orthodox a Church, and noble a State, should by allowance, toleration, connivency, or remissness, and paralytical distempet of the arm of justice, or some thing, be suffered to receive increasement, and multiplication, both in number, and insolency, to the great dishonour of God Almighty, the continual vexation of God's people and good Subjects, and the most certain hazard of the whole State, and the peaceful succession of the King's posterity. It would never be, but that the Lord in his just indignation, intends, & prepares us for some dreadful judgement. And I am afraid, Papists will be the men, to execute Gods heavy wrath upon us: because they are a principal matter in the mean time, of high offence against his Majesty.  
To let pass infinite more of very special, and material ponderations, to this purpose; consider, I pray you, but this one point, with feeling apprehendsions, which is able to inflame the heart of an ingenuous Heathen with extraordinary indignation. I am persuaded, there was not a Papist in this land, whatsoever may be pretended, or protested to the contrary, but did hearty rejoice, at the taking away of that thrice, nay thousand times noble and blessed Prince, 
P. H.  of sweetest memory, for which the heart of every true Subject, did shed most worthily, even tears of blood. Now, what a rueful case is this, that such vipers should bemourished in the bowels and bosom of this Kingdom; the breath, heart, and life whereof, they heartily wish, and would rejoice to have extinguished? To conclude the whole point for the present: it is the general joint consent, and current conclusion of all the Christian orthodox reformed Churches upon the face of Europe; and it is worthily, and unanswerably demonstrated by our gracious Sovereign, that the Pope is Antichrist; and Rome, mystical Babylon. 
K. I.  Some particular men, (out of curiosity and conceit of their own wit, affectation of singularity, doting addiction to popish writers, want of further illumination in the point, partial inclinations towards the divinity of Rome, or the like) may descent, without prejudice of a truth, so universally resolved upon, by Divines of best learning, and sincerest judgement. If so; then tell me the meaning of such places as these, and to whom the spirit of God directs the edge and execution thereof.  
Reward her even as she hath rewarded you, and give her double, according to her works: and in the cup that she hath filled you, fill her the double; Rev. 18.6.  
And the ten horns, which thou sawest upon the beast, are they that shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate, and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire, Revel. 17.16. This prediction by the judgement of the best divines, hath the power, and passeth into the nature of a precept, and therefore is charged as a commandment, upon those of whom it is spoken.  
These, and the like, do indeed strongly confirm, and make good those three propositions of that learned man, and excellent light of Heildelberge, in his book de iure regum, pag. 6. & sequ. The sum whereof may be contrived into this conclusion; Princes and Magistrates, with their swords and sceptres; Preachers, by the word and writings; private men, by Prayer, and all lawful opposition, aught to do their their best and utmost, to bring confusion upon that man of sin, and his accursed doctrine. And thus to follow the council of the blessed Spirit, in rooting out the limbs of Antichrist, and Antichristianisme, is so fare from being persecution, that it is a very glorious service unto the Majesty of the God of heaven. The neglect whereof, and impunity of Idolatry is able in short time, to shake the pillars, and distrengthen the sinews, to decrowne the head, and shorten the reign of the strongest State, and most potent Prince in the world Delays are dangerous; Policy to the contrary is pernicious; and counivency, cruelty; in such places where these say have place blessed shall he be, that taketh and dasheth her children against the stones, Psal. 137.9. All ye that bend the bow, shoot at her, spare no arrows: for she hath sinned against the Lord, jer. 50.14. In as much as she glorified herself, and lived in pleasure, so much give you to her, torment and sorrow, Revel. 18.7.  
In the mean time, until the holy Spirits counsel and commandment to this purpose, be taken to heart, and throughly put in execution, I pray the Lord to stay their rageful malice, and to turn their popish murderous hearts for whetting any more swords, to shed the blood of the Lords anointed: or else, to turn the sharpest swords from the point, with a cutting edge on both sides, even up to the very hilts, in their own hearts blood. And in despite of hell and Rome, good Lord, we pray thee, let King Charles flourish still, with a crown of glory on his head, and a sceptre of triumph in his hand, and still wash his Princely feet in the blood of his enemies.  
Thus much I thought good to Epistle at this time, for the discharge of my own conscience, and the needful refreshing your memories, with the apprehension of those dreadful dangers, which hourly hang over our heads, by reason of the impunity of Popish Idolatry, and the endless inevitable malice and machinations of the Papists. We have had provocations, and warnings enough; from this place, from the Parliament house: from heaven, by God's messengers; from hell by the powder-plot, from Ireland by their heathen Tyranny from Rome, by the roaring of their Bulls; from France, by their massacres, and butchery of their Kings: by more mediate, and politic; by immediate and miraculous revelations, discoveries, deliverances: by a black and bloody catalogue of most hateful and prodigious conspiracies, which run parallel with the golden fine of Queen Elizabeth's life; by the daily villainous libels of the swaggering runagates of our country; base and illiterate pamphlets, stuffed with ribaldry, and rail, and personal slanders, impudencies, out-facing, utterly without any passage or impressions of grace, or gracious spirit. A thousand times, a thousand ways; And yet what good have they done, sigh nothing will serve the turn? God's will must be done. For mine own part, I have delivered mine own soul. If any will not take warning, whom it concerns, his blood be upon his own head.  
But blessed is he, who forc-sees the storm, and hid himself in the mean time, under the wings of Christ, and shelter of a good conscience. With which Conclusion as he ended, I also conclude, commending this pithy speech of my so learned afreind, to your wisdom and godly consideration, yourselves to God's holy protection, and all your just proceed to his gracious blessing, that you may confidently look for a reward of your well doing in the end of your days.  
FJNIS.