true or false so it be but Popular and if the people I mean to juggle with erre fundamentally or prove obstinate Schismaticks I can by no better means wed them to my interest than by suitable compliances with their obstinacy and delusions and when I have drawn them by slye insinuations into a credulous faith of my worth and abilities to maintain their Cause there remains then nothing to further my projections but to convince them of the necessity to arm in the defence of themselves and their righteous Cause which is done in a trice for men are ever ready to support that which they would be glad to set uppermost and therefore I commonly lead the Van and appear in the head of the Faction I sanctifie their proceedings with the old charm of Jure Divino though I never found them registred but amongst Hells blackest Canons signed with the dismal paw of Legend He that can privately act his Villanies and neatly hocus his worst Impostures is a man of parts by which means he shall appear as pure and innocent as the most exact Christian It is of excellent use for our Polititian to hallow his designes by saying Grace before his impious actions and to thank heaven for the Event be it never so foul and bloudy How comfortably the Pope and Cardinal conferred notes Quantum nobis lucri peperit illa Faâ—ula de Chrâ—sto O the rich Income and glorious Results of a well-managed Hypocrisie This this our subtle Pharisce must with all diligence study and throughly practice Horace Da justum sarctum â—ue videri Noctem peceatis fraudibus objâ—â—ce rathem There is no greater hinderance to generous Actions than a coy and squeamish Conscience which as some tell as vents its greatest force surdo verbere which can never be heard amidst the noise and bustle of a clamorous world The Judgments of the Almighty threatned in Holy Writ and what else may seem to terrifie the exact Christian must not at all affright our politick Heree nor ought he to distinguish betwixt good and evil but by the balaâ—â—â— of Self-interest Had Alexander boggled at invading other Princes Dominions he had never wept for the scarcity of worlds Had your mighty Conquerors listened to and guided their Actions by the Rules of a righteous Conscience their Faine had never been so felly great and they had died and been forgot like other men But I 'll live and be great by any means Flectere si nequeâ— Superes Acheronta mâ—â—â—â—â— The ALLAY Beware beware fond Man methinks I hear a Vae vobis pronounced against thy Hypocrisie Remember that although thou mayst deceive thy fellow-creature by thy crafty and subtle dissimulations thou canst never be able to juggle with thy Omniscient Creator 'T is but in vain to put Ironies on the Almighty for his terrible vengeance will certainly meet with thee in the end of thy projects Be not deceived God is not mocked Put away this cloak of Religion and clothe thee in Sackcloth and Ashes these Garments of Humility will better become thee in the sight of Heaven and good men than all the pompous Vanities this world can afford thee Thou mayst possibly feast thy exorbitant Lust and Ambition here but thou wilt never be able to satisfie or quench the least draught thereof hereafter Though thy Hypocrifie may help thee to walk in masquerade and contribute much to the service of thy impious designes yet there is nothing that God's pure and undeluded Eye looks on with greater hatred and abhorrency and a counterfeit Religion shall be sure to finde a real Hell Over and besides the horrid wickedness of the Impostor how grievous is it in the sight of Heaven and all good men to behold the most divine Oracles and sacred Ordinances enforced even to obstetricate to the most impious and irregular designes Cur tu non desinis virtutis stragula pudefacere quoth the Cynick to the coward in Arms which may be as aptly applied to thee who dost at the same time both use and abuse the whole Armour of a Christian to contrary and wicked ends Base wretch thou truckleâ—t under the servility of every Sin and wadest through the filthy mire of the most loathsome Jakes to gratifie thy lustful Appetite with that which after all thy pains and travel may prove but gilded Poyson or at best but silly Trash God created thee for other ends and made thee a Creature after this own Image He design'd thee for glory greater than that of Angels but thou hast rendred thy self fit for shame and confusion beyond that of Devils He made thee capable of eternal Happiness but thou hast chosen everlasting Misery Yet know cursed Caitiff Heaven shall be glorified though in thy damnation for the most desperate sinners by their greatest crimes can but change the attribute they should bring honour to and but oppose the glorifying of the Almighty's goodness to occasion that of his Justice See to what a pass Religion was brought by our Pretended Reformers of the late times as it was delivered in a Speech in the House of Commons by a worthy Lawyer Mr. Speaker I would not be mistaken June 23. 1647. I say not my own words but I speck what the Malignants say of us and my Lord Say A thorough Reformation They say that we have in our Religion an outward Garment or Cloak of any colour which none do wear amongst us but Secrataries Fools Knaves and Rebels the said Cloak being with often turning worn as threadbare as our publick Faith full of Wrinkles Spots and Stains neither brushed spunged nor made clean with as many Patches as Beggars coats And they also say that our Preaching or Pratling is kept by Coblers Tinkers Taylors Weavers Wyredrawers and Hostlers so that all Order and Decency is thrust out of the Church all laudible Ornaments and indifferent besâ—eming Ceremonies are cryed down trampled under foot and banished under the false and scandalous terms of Popery and in the place thereof is most nasty filthy loathsome and sloâ—enly Beastliness or Doctrine being vented in long and tedious Sermons to move and stir up the people to Rebellion and traiterous Contributions to exhort them to Murder Rapine Robbery Disloyalty and all manner of Mischief to the confusion of their Souls and Bodies All these damnable Villanies our Adversaries say are the accursed fruits which our new-mâ—ulded Linsey-woâ—lsey Religion hath produced for they say our Doctrine is neither derived from the Old or New Testament that all the Fathers and Testant Doctors and Martyrs never heard of it that Christ and his Apostles never knew it He that hath by an inveterate wickedness subdued the aversation which the Almighty did once seat in his heart against the ugliness of sin may possibly be said to consult well for his present advantage and greatness but to have utterly supprest the thoughts as well as hopâ—s of any future comfort No man in his right senses did ever yet combine
of this nature if they once come to be admitted and owned by Christians and I will then receive his Alcoran for Gospel When to receive the Alchoran for Gospel when I shall be convinced that temporal Happiness and Triumph are a true Index of divine Favour I am sure our Religion hath something more to invite our closure with it it proposeth a conveniency on Earth but the Garlands and Crowns are reserved for Heaven And yet how strangely opposite to the truth and purity of this excellent Doctrine of our blessed Saviour even to the scandal of the Gospel of Christ and to the glory of Mahomet and his Alcoran did our divine Rebels of the Late Times thunder out from their Pulpits with greater horrour to all good men than the roaring of their Parties Canon this damnable Doctrine of proving the Divinity of their Cause from the imaginary glory of their constant Success So strange and prodigious was the daring impudence of our late Usurpers The Motto of the Rebels Coy◠that at the Close of their many dreadful and bloudy Tragedics they usually cried out God with us And after their many Villanies repeated to accomplish the horrid Murder of the best of Kings here on Earth they raise their Gigantick sins to the very Throne of Heaven and there openly affront the Majesty of the King of kings by wresting the attribute of his Goodness to favour their hellish actions and so in abuse to the most holy and sacred Trinity as the Motto of their Coyn they stamp these three words God with us But Heaven knows 't was the justice of his Cause which so severely scourged us for our sins the Almighty did onely permit those Rebels to plague us as the Executioners of his provoked Vengeance It was not the Indulgence of Heaven to the Cause of our Usurpers that gave them success but it was our Rebellions against his divine Goodness that produced those heavy Judgments as the effects of his just indignation upon us The Cause of these Rebels was indeed no Cause but much rather an effect of punishment on us for our Iniquities they had no just power to warrant their pretended Reformation of the established Religion God used them onely for the reformation of mens manners by bringing his people to Repentance And I wish the miseries of those men to be no greater than their folly Wilful Slaves who look beyond their own freedom and liberties and shall make it their endeavours to bring themselves into the severest bondage and slavery that they may feel I say as well as their fellow-creatures the insupportable burthen of the Spanish Inquisition the Fanatick Sequestration Imprisonments and the like-dismal effects of an usurped licentious arbitrary Power that such and such onely may be convined of their Errours by fatal experience who will not so remember as to resist and avoid the miscrable Desolations Bondage Tyranny and Oppressions of our Late Times under which these Nations groaned for so many years together And that we may know from whence those monstrous Deviations came observe the Comparison which a late reverend Divine makes betwixt the Spirit of Popery and the Spirit of Foppery C. Meroz fol. 29. I know not says our Author which is worst they are both bloudy and dangerous the former by plotting but blessed be God their Plots come to nothing the latter by plotting and acting too God knows though the Papists might plot Rebellion and Treason yet the Fanaticks have not onely plotted but twice been up in Arms which the Papists never were twice I say in Arms and open Field-fights in Scotland where our miseries were first brooded and begun their rise but blessed be God as soon defeated which was God's goodness more than our deserts no thanks though to the Conventiclers and Field-meeters they shewed their good Will and their good Religion and their tender Consciences in the interim O true Church-Militant here upon Earth The Money-god in Aristophanes pretends a command from Jupiter to distribute as great a largess to the Wicked as to the Good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because if Virtue should once appropriate Riches that fair Goddess would be more wooed for her Dowry than for her native Excellence and Beauty Even so if Religion were accompanied and attended with those outward Allurements which most please the Senses we should be apt to follow Christ for the Loaves and overlook the spiritual Charms and more noble ends of Christianity There are many Vices which have their operation common with Virtue being distinguished onely by the intent which because it cannot be seen is very difficult to be judged and Opinions of men are not always without Passion it seldom happens that they judge without Errour The Heathen could say Faelix praedo mundo exemplum inutile Happy Pyracy is a thing of unhappy presidency fortunate sins may prove dangerous temptations But to say that the Almighty doth signally own and attest the actions of such a Person or the justice of such a Cause by suffering it to thrive and prosper in the world is such a deceitful falshood as deserves our serious abhorrency I leave it with Ovid's Wish Careat Successibus opto Quisquis ab eventu facta notanda putat PRINCIPLE VI. Our Polititian must be sure to turn with the Tyde and change with the Times 'T Is the boast of a Dutch-man That he can sail with all manner of winds Our Polititian must never sing Tempora mutantur without a Nos mutamur in illis he must never fail to observe that quarter of the Compass whence the fairest and most propitious Gales of his interest and preferment blow and be sure to entertain them in the spreading Sails of his endless Ambition Nor indeed can the Compass breathe more variety of changes than the dexterous soul of our Polititian hath correspondent and suitable compliances He is most excellently well skilled even to perfection in those methods which Varro calls Versatile Ingenium a voluble Wit like the Changeling derided by Plautus as more turning than a Potters Wheel Rotâ figulari versatilier He is as the Heliotrope to the radiant beams of the glorious Sun of Honour and can endure no Shades He hath long since abjured his God Religion Conscience and all that should either interpose or skreen him from those beams that may ripen his Wishes and Aims into fruition And Satan-like if his projects be discovered under the bright appearance of an Angel of Light he can presently transform himself and appear in another shape and yet retain the same black hellish and devilish designe seeking whom he may devour And again he can assume whiteness for I often finde him wearing the Vail of Innocence to cover the horrid deformity and blackness of all his actions If Religion be in vogue you can scarce distinguish him from a Saint he doth not onely respect and reverence the holy Ministers but if occasion serve he can preach himself and if he fail in Method he
business is to contrive their ruine and bring upon them everlasting Slavery And if you can by any means though never so wicked dress up a King and represent him in the odious habit of a cruel Tyrant and transport the people into passionate desires of Liberty and Self-preservation it will become a matter then very easie to dispose them either to murder or depose him Which sort of practice is both warranted and commended by the excellent Orator Graecos Deorum bonâ—res tribuisse iis Pro Mil. qui Tyrannos necaverunt And by the Tragedian Hercules furiens Victima haud ulla amplior potest Magisve optima mactari Joci Quam Rex iniquus And Buchanan complains that there are not some glorious rewards appointed for Tyrannicides And the better to render these plagues of Government epidemical our subtle Polititian must be sure not to suffer his Doctrines to be immured within the single compass of the Metropolis whose bowels were onely fit for its first conception but to transmit them into the Country where the innocent and unwary Rustick who because he contrives expects no harm being bewitched by the beauty of its outward figure and partly for the sake of its novelty will be dotingly fond and cherish this Viper till he be throughly infected with its venome And thus like the Bear in the Fable which for the sake of imaginary Honey was seduced by the crafty Fox to his own destruction are the credulous Rabble by the delicious baits of our State-Impostor sweetened into their own Ruine and hurried by the stimulations of groundless jealousies in the â—ager pursuit of an imaginary Liberty until like the Dog in the Fable they catch at the shadow and lose the substance And notwithstanding our Polititian aims at Soveraignty he must not think to perswade the people to put that Crown on his head which they were sick to see upon anothers but must compass his ends some other way And to draw them the better to his Lure he must be sure to cry out against the sinking State and pot stick to devolve the personal faults of each Minister upon the Monarchy it self He must strongly urge with Machiavil Vpon Livy p. 22. That they are the most suitable Guardians of any thing who are least desirous to usurp it and must seem himself to be that modest man He must now play the Hypocrite dissemble Piety and cover his Ambition with the greatest Humility that so the Rabble whilst he is the most scrupulous and careful in finding out a fit person may pitch upon him to be their Protector The ALLAY It is a general conclusion that no man loves to be deceived and I think if possible fewer to be undeceived It has been a Task extreamly difficult even next to an impossibility to convince some men of the iniquity of our Late Times insomuch that when I have urged the horrid impiety of murdering the late King and the wickedness of those that usurped the Government after him expressed in the most arbitrary Cruelties on the persons and estates of his Majesties Friends and Adherents they have so far allowed that cursed Fact and concluded with the Regicides as to charge the Royal Martyr with being guilty of some faults or else have past those matters over wholly in silence and such memoirs have served them onely to revive their ancient malice against the present Government and instead of a sincere Repentance to avert the heavie Judgments of the Almighty for those crying sins they have usually replied That truly they do not know whether Oliver were a Rogue or not but this they were sure of that they had much better times then than now Drunkenness was not so much encouraged and Whoredom was out of fashion Trading was much better and they did not pay so many Taxes c. And if all this were true which we cannot allow because we know the contrary will it one jot extenuate the guilt of such who shall go about either directly or indirectly to approve and justifie the prodigious Villanies of those cruel Usurpers No let such men know that an Act of Mercy and prudent Oblivion in the State will rather aggravate than obliterate their monstrous Crimes in the Court of Heaven I have urged this so plain because the dangers are now so great when the smallest Errours of the Minister are cast as the greatest Crimes in the very face of Majesty and people seem to tread in the very same foot-steps now as then What admirable methods the restless spirits of some men finde out to delude the people I wonder who gave him authority to print that Address which wâ—â— never preseâ—ted to the King but I know whither 〈◊〉 tends even to Sedition â—â—d Rebellion how they come with Honey in their mouths and never miss of having Stings in their tails See a late Libel entituled The Nations Aggrievance which begins with a God be praised for his Majesties deliverance from the late horrid Popish Plot And yet I dare be bold to say the principles of that Libeller are as dangerous to the Government as those of the rankest Jesuit That as a Free People says he we request in all duty and submission to your Majesties Royal Command we may have our free Votes in the Election and Choice of a free Parliament for our Representatives * What â—t thâ—â— but to charge 〈◊〉 Majesty with over-awing loyal Subjects to please 〈◊〉 enemies and that be has not seâ—ce â—nough to know the out from the other and that those your most Loyal Subjects shall be no ways over-awed threatned or bribed to pleasure the wills and humours of such whose interest though it be to complement and flatter your Majesty runs counter to all true service to their King and Country and it being contrary to the constitution of the Government under which we live and the Priviledges that a Free People may expect to enjoy under so noble a Prince to have any thing uâ—equal or unjust â—â—d violently imposed or forced on them c. What is this but to infect the people with a belief of his Majesties Misgovernment and to stander his Actions and Counsels to render the best of Princes mean and contemptible and so under the pretence of Reformation to work his and his Kingdoms ruine But the best on 't is we know whence he is the Devil was a Lyar from the beginning and so is our Author He calls his Libel The Nations Agrievance by way of Address to the King It was none of my * The whole matter of it is a demnable Lye tiâ—ding to crate Distrust and to set 〈◊〉 to either by the ters Agrievance nor did he ever confer with me and many thousands more about any such matters So that which was but just now The Nations Agrievance is now become an impudent Lye and I dare say the Address too is another for 't is a Rule in Law That the King cannot be unjust And our Friend
and so gratifie their Tyranny over the noblest part of man by surprizing the liberty of the Thought and subduing the powers of the Soul to an implicit coherence with their own Magisterial opinions These were the methods that were dayly practised throughout the continuance of our late unnatural Broils Remonstrance and Declaration and Declaration and Remonstrance continually followed one another at the heels till at length by the prosperous success of all their projects they have gained the advantage of Power to enforce the compliance of such who wanted faith enough to digest their impostures Men of Parts deluded by the Doctrine of Success Yet notwithstandding these Baits have sometimes proved so successful that many even of Parts and Prudence have been deluded and surprized by them Some question whether Diagoras merited the brand of Atheism considering the wilde conceits they then had of their Gods or differed from the common Creed crying out O how the Gods favour Sacriledge when he had a merry gale after a sacrilegious attempt The best of the Roman Historians calls the Victory the Impartial Arbitress of the Justice of the Cause Eventus Belli velut aequus Judex unde jus stat ei victoriam dabit So hard it is to detect this falshood and convince meer Reason that the most accursed Vice being too frequently clad in the glistering Robes of a prosperous success hath set her self upon the Throne of Vertue and been adored for a Deity He was no small Poet that argued himself out of his Gods by seeing Wickedness honoured and Worth sleighted which he thus expresseth Marmoreo Licinus tumulo jacet at Cato parvo Pompeius nullo quis putet esse Deos In English thus Licinus doth in Marble sleep A common Vrn doth Cato keep Pompey 's Ashes may catch cold That there are Gods let Dotards hold There may be some use made of that in Seneca Honesta quaedâ—m Scelera successus facit Hipp. prosperous Mischiefs are cardinal Vertues in the worlds Ethicks and therefore the Tragedian repeats it Herc. fur Prosperum ac foelix scelus virtus vocatur the prosperity and glory of the Event is an excellent subterfuge for the unwarrantableness of the Action We often praise the Macedonian Conquest but never regard or mention their unlimited and endless Ambition The proceedings and period of a factious People When by any means a People are drawn in to abet a Faction they seldom square their actions by what is just or equal and never so much as once consider the dangerous effects that must naturally flow from their headstrong proceedings they become immediately conjured into a Circle for the service of By-ends and what they seem to pursue their Liberty is always furthest off when popular Fury is seen to follow it But that 's the Jewel which they prize that 's the Game they aim at he that once names that to hit their humour may work them as he please the basest Villanies shall then pass for Acts of Grace and the most unspotted and firm basis of Government can never stand up in defiance of the peoples hatred In fine they matter not what they undertake if Success attends their doings they then believe Heaven allows that Blessing to the justice of their Cause When our Polititian has brought them to this pass he need not much doubt by so strong an interest to remove the greatest difficulties to finish his designes in the complement of his Grandeur which is nevertheless so strangely brought about that his interest which stood at first upon the same bottom with that of the people and could never be wrought without their help must now subsist in their defeat and destruction And thus that licentious freedom which they have used in all their actions to the plague of their fellow-subjects is now justly retorted on themselves in the greatest Servitude and Oppression This follows too upon that Doctrine of Success as the strongest Argument to support our Polititian's power This was urged to keep the King out and to reconcile the Royalist to the Rump And may serve now to secure this Government if that Party will duâ—ly observe this Doctrine That if a Government be altered and another Power in possession of it all are bound as private men to submit to the present Powers because ordained of God for such the Apostle hath declared all Powers in being whatsoever to be and that the former Government ceasing which was the Object of Obedience the Obligation thereunto must of necessity cease likewise for no man can be concerned in any respect or relation to that which is not and so when a thing cannot be done the Obligation to it***** must needs be void ex impossibilitate facti And may we not infer from hence that the prosperity of the Success denominates every action either good or evil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Did. The ALLAY Hearken what the wise man says Eccles 9.1 2 3. All things are come alike to all there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked c. And it is written in the Prophet Malachi They that work wickedness are set up Mal. 3.13 14 15 to the end And cap. 4.1 2 3. yea they that tempt God are even delivered But those that fear me shall be mine saith the Lord of hosts in that day when I make up my jewels I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that served him Then shall ye discern between the righteous and the wicked between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not Hence we may know that the Wicked have as little reason to exult and glory in a present prosperity as the Righteous have to despair because they suffer in the nonfruition of the same things We are nevertheless so short sighted that we cannot see beyond Time we value things and men by their temporal felicities whereas if we put Eternity into the other Scale it will much out-poise that worldly lustie that so much cheats our Eyes and abuseth our Understandings The smoothest Waters are for the most part deep and dangerous and the goodliest Blossoms nipt by an unkindly Frost either perish or produce their Fruit sowre or unwholsome which may properly imply That the visible Kalendar is not always the true character of inward perfection I nowhere finde in Holy Writ that God hath inseparably annext Goodness and Greatness Justice and Victory The divine Goodness hath secured his servants of the felicities of a better life but doth not always defend them from the calamities of this Christ's Kingdom was not our Happiness is not of this world And St. Paul says he were of all men most miserable if his expectations were in this life Nor indeed doth my Bible shew me any warrant for appeal to Heaven for the decision of this or that intricacy by bestowing Success upon this Party or that Cause according to its righteousness The grand Seignior may justly exult and magnifie himself in discourses
Liberty They run a gadding after Religion regardless either of moral Honesty or Christianity In fine when men are thus bewitched they become brute and barbarous they then act the most inhumane Villanies and run into all manner of mischief and misery they then neither think of Heaven or Hell God forsakes them and the Devil takes them Though we are now sufficiently aware of the drift of out late Usurpers in imposing Oaths contrary to Law yet we may look back and view their Impostures that we may the more detest and shun them for the future 'T is their own opinion of the Covenant The Walls of Jerico have fallen flat before it Case on the Covenant p. 65. the Dâ—gon of the Bishops Service-book brake its neck before this Ark of the Covenant Prelacy and Prerogative have bowed down and given up the ghost at its feet And again Caryl's Sermon at the taking of the Covenant Octob. 6. 1643. Take the Covenant and you take Babylon and her seven hills shall move It is the Shiboleth to distinguish Ephraimites from Gileadites page 27. Not onely is that Covenant which God hath made with us founded upon the blood of Christ but that also which we make with God page 33. We may now see with horrour and amazement to what a fine purpose they imposed their Oaths Prelacy and Prerogative that is to say Church and State have bowed down and given up the ghost at its feet The miserable effects of the Cov. By this Covenant these Kingdoms were made an universal Golgotha a Purple-gore an Aceldema a bloudy Field a Gehenna a den of Devils or infernal Furies and finally an Hell upon Earth were it not for these differences That here the best men are punished and in Hell the worst onely are plagued here no good man escapes torment nor any wicked man is troubled How the Heathens punish Perjury The Heathens had their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Perjury-revenging Gods to whose vindictive powers they referred their Offenders They punished such as swore falsly by their Prince with Fustigation but such as abused their Gods they left to the dispose of their injur'd Deities as if they were at a loss how to finde a punishment equal to the sin Hear how soberly Plato mentions it out of the noble Commentator upon Philostratus En tantes manieres sà esté un fort belle ordinance institution de n' user point du noâ—â— des Dieux Legerement de peur de Les contaminer car le Majesté des Dieux ne se doit imployer qu' en un sancte venerable pureté See what real honour they gave to their counterfeit Gods Let us have a care that we ascribe not counterfeit honour to the true God Câ—â—â—â—bon ' s Exercitat fol. â—02 Our God hates every false Oath It appears in his severity to Zedekiah for breaking Covenant with the Babylonian Monarch though a Tyrant of the first magnitude And were all Christian Subjects duely sollicitous about the weight of this Bond we should be less prone to take and more studious to observe every Oath I remember the Scholiast upon Aristophanes Pag. 848. derives 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It hedges in and shuts up a man and tyes his hands behinde him I know not how some Conquerors may abscind this Knot with the Sword or how some Sampsons may shake off these Cords or what gaps the Licentious may make in this Hedge but such as value God or Heaven or Prince or Peace can discover it no way better than in a sincere use of so divine an Ordinance There can be no certain rule given when to believe and when not what such as are or would be great please to inculcate to us and it is no Heresie to affirm That many have been saved by their Infidelity since so many Wrecks are dayly cast ashore that have been split upon the Rock of Credulity commanding at once both our pity and admiration I commend that of Epicharmas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 PRINCIPLE VIII Necessity of State is a very competent Apologie for the worst of Actions OUr late Usurpers never wanted a pretence to justifie their most hellish Enterprizes and it has been observed that in all Innovations and Rebellions which ordinarily have their rise from pretences of Religion or Reformation or both the breach and neglect of Laws hath been constantly allowed and authorized by that great patroness of illegal actions Necessity Hence those of the Late Times metamorphosed the Common Law of the Land into the Lands common Calamity that instead of the common benefit which the Laws in community should yield to all we have now perverted the same to the private interest of some few Our Polititian is never without his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sava Necessitas either to insinuate or enforce his ends and designes He cares not to determine whether the necessity be of his own creating or from whence it grows but for the most part it proceeds from himself being indeed nothing else but an Appendix to the wrong he undertakes and signifies no more than that by the necessity of such mediums to compass his ends he is compelled to heap Injury on Injury and so to cover his past wrongs with renewed acts of Injustice and Oppression as if the committing a second sin were enough to warrant or justifie the iniquity of the former Thus a worthy Patriot speaking under an Allegorie urging the doleful miseries of our late martyr'd Soveraign as they were by degrees both impiously and severely laid upon him Mr. Speaker says he Our Adversaries do alleadge Speech in the Commons House 1647. That our obedience to his Majesty is apparently manifest many strange ways We have disburthened him of his large Revennes we have eased him of the charge of Royal House-keeping we have cleared him from repairing of or repairing to his stately Palaces magnificent Mansions and defensive Castles and Garrisons and we have put him out of care of repairing his Armouries Arms Ammunition and Artillery we have been at the charge of keeping his Children and most trusty Servants for or from him we have taken order and given Ordinances that he shall not be troubled either with much Money or Meat and that his Queen and lawful Wife shall not so much as darken his Doors and we have striven by open Rebellion to release him of troublesome life and reign by hunting him like a Partridge over the Mountains and by shooting Bullets at his Person for his Majesties preservation on purpose to make him glorious in another world we have also eased him of a great number of his Friends Subjects and Servants by either charitable Famishing brotherly Banishing liberal and free Imprisoning Parliamental Plundering friendly Throat-cutting and unlawful Beheading and Hanging or utterly ruinating as many as we could lay hold of that either loved served or honoured him All this was necessary to be done for the sake of their Thorough Reformation and in
* The Rebellion matter of fact As concerning that for which I am condemned says he page 18. I magnifie his Grace that I never had the least challenge for it but on the contrary I judge it my honour that ever I was counted worthy to come upon the Stage upon such a consideration But because he 's dead I 'll rake no further into his Ashes but leave his Disciples and Fellow-labourers to exult and glory in his Martyrdom as he himself did in his Treasons and Rebellion Another of the same Cabal without doubt he is and did time serve would prove an excellent Example in our Polititian's present case of bloud but however he helps forward and preaches good Doctrine in the interim which will in the end do the work unless Heaven prevent and make our streets serve but as so many channels to convey that bloud which he thinks fit to shed for the satisfaction of that execrable gust which still lives in the prodigious womb of their accursed Covenant Observe his Doctrine When Rehoboam says he had prepared a great Army to reduce the Israelites he was forbidden by the Prophet Thus saith the Lord Ye shall not go up nor fight against your brethren for they are from me Mark says the Libel he calls them Brethren not Rebels And farther adds That passive obedience is therefore simple and fit for such that know no better Such as study to be great by any means must by all means forget to be good In Apolog. Ambition knows neither Law nor Limits nothing so sacred but it violates the Gods themselves must bow and yield to it as Tertullian Id negotium sine injuria Deorum non est eadem strages moenium Templorum tot Sacrilegia Romanorum quot de Diis quot de Gentibus Triumphi And again Crescit interea Roma albae ruinis begins one of the Decads That the Walls of Rome were cemented with bloud is both known and commended by Machiavil although the superstructure was brave Vpon Livy l. 2. c. 3. Thebe maritum Timoleâ—m fratrem Cassius filitum hoc jure interficere yet if we search the foundation we shall finde it laid in the red ruines of her wasted Neighbours That the first Founder became a Fratricide upon reason of State to guard his new Conquest by freedom from a Competitor is not onely vindicated from cruelty but otherwise applauded and maintained for a piece of meritorious policy Nor did this happen to that City alone in its Structure but after in its Reparation when the Sons of Brutus were sacrificed to the designes of their Father So that Rome did not onely suck and thrive upon bloud in her Infancy but likewise at her full growth and maturity she supported her self and lived upon Magna Sanguinolenta Latrocinia So that from this City and from the Barbarisms of our Late Times our Polititian cannot be without most effective Instances and Examples both to commend and warrant the most bloudy Tragedies that Ambition can invent He must not so much as wink or startle where horrour may justly terrifie and amaze a tender Conscience but must perpetrate all manner of Villanies and behold the miseries of such as dayly languish under his severest cruelty as the common objects of his sport and derision He both admires and applauds the generosity of Nero's Mother who is reported to have said of her Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let my Son be my murderer so he may thereby become a Monarch According to the advice of an high-spirited Fury Pro Regno velim Patriam Penates Conjugem flammis dare Imperia pretio quoâ— bet constant bene An Empire cannot be purchased too dear though it cost the bloud of millions This Lesson was well learnt and put in practice by some yet such was our misery that we may boldly challenge the world to produce but one instance of any Tyrant that ever ruined and wasted his People at that bloudy rate as we butcher'd and destroyed one another The imminent dangers of these times And again it is now high-time for our Polititian to look about him he hath gotten his Tools at work and the Sword of the Spirit of Fanaticism is half out looking onely for his help to quit the Scabbard People now again speak evil of Dignities both talk and justifie themselves in acts of Treason and Rebellion and in down-right terms disown and disavow the present Government The most contemptible Member of the Rabble doth now-a-days act the part of a Privy-Counsellor and the most discreet and sober determinations of Law and State are dayly censured and traduced by the Vote of the Multitude No Power owned but that of the People and their force seems wholly bent against the safety both of Church and State A new Covenant Witness to all this the draught of the new Covenant which we have very lately heard of from Scotland surprized in the possession of Mr. Donald Cargile a Preacher in the Field-Conventicles and Mr. Hall who were both actually in the late Rebellion there by which they swear to advance the Kingdom of Christ and the true reformed Religion to extirpate Kingly Government and Prelacy c. This a man would think had been sufficient to express their meaning yet they proceed more plainly to remove all doubts of what they pretend After a solemn procession and singing of Psalms they published and affixed on the Cross at Sanchaer a certain Paper wherein they declare That for themselves Presbyterian Declaration June 22. 1680. and all that will adhere to them as Representatives of the true Presbyterian Church and Covenanted Nation of Scotland They do disown Charles Stuart who hath been reigning or rather tyrannizing on the Throne of Britain these twenty years past as having any right or title to or interest in the Crown of Scotland or Government as forfeited several years since by his Perjury and breach of Covenant with God and his Church and usurpation of his Crown and Royal Prerogatives therein c. This is but like Thunder afar off which ere long riseth up against the orderly course of the Wind till it break out with its terrour over our heads The confounded methods of Fanaticism This fiery Exhalation is from the over-warm Zeal of Fanaticism the same here as in Scotland and the Government is that Cloud which would contain it within the happy bounds of Peace and Tranquillity but the connatural fury of that Zeal being hot and violent beyond all moderation cannot be contained by a well-tempered mediocrity but is still bustling from place to place and hurries about until it break out of all order into horrour and confusion A mischievous Comet to the heaith of the Government But hold the Clouds gather and the Storm is already rising and we may now guess since we perceive the disposition of the true Presbyterian-Church of Scotland from whence proceeds those terrible Thunder-claps against the Kings most sacred Majesty
expressed in that Libel which is entituled An Answer to the Kings Declaration concerning his Marriage c. Which in a most horrendous impudent manner giveth his Majesty the Lye and urgeth the same and such matters with the Scotch Declaration in reproach and scandal of his most sacred Person and Government Presbyterian Zeal These are terrible hideous execrable prodigious lamentable and malicious Belchings or Evulsions from the burning Aetna of Presbyterian Zeal These being incessantly supplied with fuel from the Good old Cause constant Libels and false News will in the end involve us all in bloud and bring us to ruine and destruction unless the wisdom of Heaven so direct our Councils to prevent their designes by anticipation from the Sword of Justice The great Turk rivets himself to the Imperial Chair with the bones of his murder'd Brethren Aspiring desires are not onely insatiate but admit of the foulest sins See Basianus murdering his brother Geta in his mothers arms Andronicus strangling his Kinsman Alexins lest he should have a part in the Empire which had a right to all See Caesar slighting the Oaths by which he had obliged his obedience to the Roman Senate But to come nearer home see how the Tragedians of our Late Times laid their very first Scene in the * The King signed tâ—at Bill to 〈◊〉 please the people bloud of my Lord of Strafford and so they proceeded by degrees till they had enveloped three Kingdoms all in purple Gore On this crimson Torrent did our late * Oliver Usurper waft his Ambition and seat himself on the Throne of our Murder'd Soveraign The ALLAY Religion True Religion says our blessed Saviour like a Tree is known by its Fruit. Consult all Histories both ancient and modern view the present posture of Affairs and you will finde that for these last hundred years there has been no Rebellion Massacre Tumults or Treasons Bloud Rapine and Murder but either Papist or Fanatick or both had the great hand in it C.M. f. 22. To look no further back says the Author of Curse ye Meroz than the reign of King James Who dethroned his Mother and made a slave and property of him in his Infancy but that bloudy Knox Buchanan and the rest of that Paritan Presbyterian Brood By woful experience he tells his Son our Royal Martyr in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That under the pretence of Religion he should finde alas alas he did finde it by sad experience no such barbarous and bloudy Villains in the world And had his Majestie taken this course perhaps he had missed their fatal Block Quod non praevalet Sacerdos efficere per Doctrinae Sermonem Isid Sent. l 3. c. 15. Potestas hoc imperet per Disciplinae terrorem or done as Constantine the first Christian Emperour did with the factious Conventicles of his time he prohibited them by Edict he burnt their Books and proscribed the Authors Pâ—stium illarum andacia Ministri Dei hoc est nua executione câ—ercebitur Those bold pestilent fellows which dare offend in defiance of all Law I 'll make bold to punish their Insolence by my Authority The Popes Discrimimination from Jâ—â—k Presâ—yter These are the men that have most exactly performed their parts in the bloudiest Tragedies Nor will it be wholly impertinent if we observe by the way how the Pope himself discriminates his honesty in comparison with Jack Presbyter Was it from any of the Papists books says a late Author of theirs you have drawn these vile Maximes Advocate of Conscience-liberty p. 124. viz. That the Authority of the Soveraign Magistrate is of huâ—ane right That the People are above the King That the People can give power to the Prince and take it away That Kings are not anointed of the Lord That if a King fail in performance of his Coronation-Oath the Subjects are absolved from their Allegiance That if Princes fall from the grace of God the People are loosed from their Subjection And again fol. 128. See the disposition of the French Clergie in Heylyn's Cosnâ—grap 176 177. During the time of the late King of France there was proposed by an Assembly of Catholick Divines and Bishops this Question If it were supposed the King of France became a Mahometan and by his Power endeavoured to force his Subjects to that Infidelity whether they might lawfully according to the principles of * There is a great difference betwixt Popery and Christiâ—nity This might be true if the Jesuit would leave off plotting renounce the Popes Supremacy Christianity by Arms resist him To which says our Author the unanimous consent of the Assembly was That such a resistance would be unlawful since Christian Religion allowed no other way of maintaining Faith against lawful Soveraigns but by Prayers Tears and Sufferings And fol. 129. When shall we finde such a Result from a Synod of Presbyterians Compare these Primitive Doctrines says he with the Evangelists and we shall finde them quite contrary to the Rules of Wicliffians Waldenses Paraeus Knox Buchanan the Jesuits c. who teach that Subjects may not onely defend by Arms their Religion but offend also And lately Baxter in Lib. of Rest p. 258. saith We may fight against Kings if it were for cause of Religion to purge the Church from Idolatry and Superstition The Geneva Notes on the Bible 2 Chron. 5. allow the deposing of Queen Macha The Italian Polititian seems to intimate a scruple when he says Si jus violandum est regnandi causâ violandum est His if dictates an uncertainty and if we appeal to the bar of nature or Divinity though possibly the intire assertion may have something of truth yet we shall finde that wicked if absolutely banished 'T is true we may more justly pity him that swallows a Bait fair and beautiful than such an one who even tempts Temptations to deceive him because in the first case a greater reluctancy is required and the Dart may possibly be so sharp as to pierce through the Armour of a sober Resolution But all this will stand him in little stead who knows it to be a Bait and hath before-hand design'd its external lustre to apologize for the foulness of the sin for in this case the bulk of the Temptation will not at all extenuate the grossness of the Crime no more than he mitigates the guilt of his Robbery who shall plead that he stole nothing but Gold and Jewels 'T will now stand our Polititian in no small avail to look about him and remember that however some false and flattering Sycophants may seen to indulge his Ambition and urge the justice of his pretensions from unheard-of false and obscure Testimonies that he knows not but the Imposture may be retorted upon himself The world is much mistaken in the value of a Scepter or Crown we gaze upon its brightness and forget its brittleness we look upon its lustre and glory and neglect its frailty we respect
its colour and take no notice of its weight But if all those gay things which we fondly fancy to our selves were really to be found in Greatness yet still he pays too dear that pawns his Heaven for them He that thus buys a short Bliss or temporal Felicity gives not twenty or one hundred years purchase but if Mercy prevents not Eternity it self and will be forced at last to cry out Omnia vanitas The Example of a Roman Turk or Christian will be of little advantage to warrant the unlawfulness of any action such presidents may perchance baffle the easie Vulgar in whose Creed you may insert what you please but will prove very cold and insignificant Answers when we appear before an Omniscient Just and Omnipotent Judge It will now much rather concern us to observe how Ambition claims kinred with every other Vice stoops and takes up every sin that lies in its way and if upon enquiry we finde it to be such a complicated mischief as herein before is represented it will then certainly become us as men and Christians studiously to shun it our selves and seriously to detest it in others Let us never forget the tottering and feeble state of such who when they have arrived to the very summit of Grandeur have from thence tumbled into the dismal Abyss of Miseries and Misfortunes Altius evexit quam te Fortuna Ruinam Majorem timeas Juven And now give me leave The Dangers of Change in Government Faulkland as a caution against changes in Government to repeat what was long since told us by an ingenious Lord That all great mutations are dangerous even where what is introduced by that Mutation is such as would have been very commodious and profitable upon a primary foundation And it is none of the least dangers of change that all the perils and inconveniencies which it brings cannot be foreseen and therefore no wise man will undergo great Dangers but for great necessities And again my Lord Bacon says Bacon's Essays Tit. Innovations It is good not to try Experiments in States except the necessity be urgent or the utility be evident and to be well aware that it be the Reformation that draweth on the Change and not the desire of Change that pretendeth the Reformation and that the Novelty though it be not rejected yet be held for a Suspect And as the Scripture saith That we make a stand upon the ancient way and then look about us and discover what is the strait and right way and so to walk in it How to redress Grievances And if it so fall out that there be some Grievances in the State which are proper for Redress let it be attempted in a fair and legal manner and not so much as once offered at by the Sword of Violence for I never read that Illegal or Tumultuous or Rebellious were suitable and proper Epithets for Reformation And now Reader let us mix our Prayers That God would for ever banish this cursed Policy out of Europe and the whole Christian world and damn it down to Hell from whence originally it came and let such as delight to abuse others think of that self-cousenage with which in the interim they abuse themselves Let us also consider whilst we are busie with politick Stratagems and tortious Arms to invade the Rights of others that this is not that violence by which we may expect to fight our way to Heaven Let it be a piece of our dayly Oraisons That the Almighty would guard our Pulpits from such Boutefeus as like Aetna and Vesuvius dayly vomit out nothing but flames and fiery-discourses using the holy Scriptures as preposterously and impertinently as some Pontificians who transported with the vehemence of Hildâ—brandian Zeal think the temporal Monarchy of Popes sufficiently Scriptural from the saying of our blessed Saviour to St. Peter Pasce Oves Far be it from us to entitle the Spirit of God to exorbitant Doctrines it is easie to distinguish the Vulture from the Dove The miscarriage of the Clergy have a deeper stain from the Sacredness of their Function as probably he that envenomed the Eucharist â—as the more to answer for his Triple Crown Let Heaven now bless the King with able and faithful Counsels and bless these Kingdoms with an happy and lasting Union betwixt him and his People without which the dangers seem now to be so great as beyond removal Let the horrid Conspiracies and Machinations of wicked men be brought to nothing let their Secrets be discovered and their Counsels laid open that so the Subtle may be caught in their own Snares And let all true Protestants pray for a full discovery of the late horrid Popish Plot and a sure prevention of the Devices of Forty One And with the Psalmist Psal 61.6 That the Almighty will prolong thè Kings life and his years as many generations For the King trusteth in the Lord Psal 21.7 8 and that through the mercies of the most high he may not be removed But that his hands may finde out all his enemies and his right hand those that hate him FINIS THE CONTENTS PRINCIPLE I. REligion is the best Cloak for our Polititian he must have it in shew and pretence but not in Conscience and Practice page 1 PRINCIP II. The deformity of all his Actions he must cover and that in pretence for Liberty Religion c. and otherwise endear himself to the People by Adulation and the most slye Insinuations imaginable page 11 PRINCIP III. He that aims at Soveraignty must be sure to beat down the Bulwark of Government the Prince's Credit by the powerful force of irresistible Calumny page 23 PRINCIP IV. To render the Contagion epidemical our Polititian must always have some dissenting Pastors or mercenary Jesuits to justifie and applaud his Designes and Actions in the Separate Congregations page 37 PRINCIP V. Our Polititian must urge every prosperous Event as sufficient to prove the Justice of his Cause page 51 PRINCIP VI. Our Polititian must be sure to turn with the Tyde and change with tâ—â— Times page 6â— PRINCIP VII If Oaths are requisite in the conduâ—â— of Affairs let them be of sucâ— ambiguity as may furnish with 〈◊〉 sence obliging to the Designe anâ— yet so soft as the People may noâ— perceive the Snare page 76 PRINCIP VIII Necessity of State is a very competent Apologic for the worst of Actions page 90 PRINCIP IX Because our Polititian's Designe lies deep he must plunge to the bottom though in an Ocean of Bloud for buoying it up page 102 FINIS