was a stranger who told them That he should make bold for that little he had to say with some ends and scraps of what they had all written so that they should teach the people by Proxy and He would do it in disguise He had now fixt himself in the Chair and after three or four lamentable sighs and groans My Brethren said he never was Popery in this world so near breaking in upon us never was the Nation so much in danger of Tyranny and Arbitrary Government and can ye indure Tyranny and Persecution Can you who are Free-born Subjects indure to be bound in Chains To be burnt in Flames To be mangled and cut in pieces Can ye indure to have your Eye-balls hang down like ropes of Onions And to have your Gutts dangle about your Shanks like Knee-strings To be torn asunder by Trees and Wild Horses And which is worst of all can ye avoid it if Popery Hellish Damnable Diabolical Devilish Infernal Idolatrous Cruel Perfidious silly sneaking Popery comes in And can ye avoid Popery coming in if ye have a Popish King And can ye avoid a Popish King if ye have a Popish Successor And can ye hinder a Popish Successor unless by a Bill of Exclusion ye drive him out like a midnight Thief and a Robber Oh my Brethren when ye have such fundamental Priviledges when Parliaments have such uncontrollable Power will ye be such Turkish Bowstringish slavish fools to indure it Do ye not know that all Power is Originally in the People In the People I say I suppose ye are acquainted with Them Do ye not know That all Monarchies are de jure Elective That the disposal and descent of the Crown depends wholly upon your pleasure and that You have an unlimited Power to determine this or that Government That Succession to Government by nearness of blood is by no Law of Nature or Divine that an Heir Apparent before his Coronation and Admission by the Realm hath the same and no more Interest to the Kingdom than the King of the Romans or Caesar hath to the German Empire And consequently that Birthright and Proximity of Blood give no Title to Rule or Government and that it is Lawful to preclude the next Heir from his Right of Succession to the Crown The People seem'd strangely tickled and pleas'd with these Cokesing Doctrines But Seignior Christiano was so extremely incens'd that he had much ado to refrain himself but with a contemptible smile I desire Sir said he according to the priviledges of this place that you and I before we part may freely and seriously debate these Points of Doctrine which you have so Dogmatically taught the People for I must tell you that they are so far from being either true or good that they are the very belchings of the Father of Lies and more destructive of Mankind than the most Pestilential foists that were ever squeez'd from the Bottomless Pit These your Propositions like the chains of Darkness are linkt together to bind and fetter both Kings and People The Original say you of Civil Power is in the People and that drags on this consequence that as they first conferr'd so that they may afterwards transfer the Power to whom they please Now this is contrary to all Law Natural and Divine For as I have prov'd that Moses receiv'd not any of his Power from the People so neither did Joshua that was his Successor for Numb 27. v. 18. we find that God did in particular order Moses to take Joshua the Son of Nun to lay his hands upon him at the 20. Vers to put some of his honour upon him that all the Congregation of Israel might be obedient This was that Joshua whom the People were so far from chusing to be their Chief Magistrate that Numb 14. v. 10. They bad stone him with stones even for that very obedience for which God afterwards conferr'd that Honour upon him If therefore neither the Original of Power nor yet the Succession of it was in those Ancient People because Israelites so much less is it in the People of England not only because Christians but also because under an immemorial Hereditary Monarchy This reply'd he is not a like case 't is an inconclusive way of arguing from the Jewish Theocracy In this said I it is not for though the occasion was extraordinary yet it shews that God did vindicate his own Ordinance of Government in an extraordinary manner too and as the Moral Law was only that Law written on Tables which was first ingraven in the Heart so the Duties of Obedience and the Original of Authority were naturally the same among the Clans of Barbarous People that they were in the Tribes and the Original of both was Patriarchical derived from and accountable to none but God so that although I grant that many Examples in the Jewish Theocracy cannot be for our Imitation because Typical yet those things which happened unto them upon the account of their Rebellions murmurings and disobedience * 1 Cor. 10. 11. hapned unto them for Ensamples and are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come that we should not murmure as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer But Sir reply'd the Jesuit to come home to our last Proposition let us come to those times wherein the Theocratical Government had an end in being setled in the Tribe of Judah and Family of David What think you of the case of Adonijah He was Solomon's own natural and Elder Brother yet upon bare suspicion he put him to death by a Messenger without any form of Law and succeeded his Father David in his Kingdom You should first have said He succeeded his Father then put his Brother to Death reply'd Seignior Christiano But what is this to the People It is enough to show said he That Birthright and Proximity of Blood give no Title to Rule or Government It gives no Authority to the scope and design of your Proposition reply'd Seignior Christiano Shew me such an Instance as this That Nathan the Prophet that very Nathan who by command from God in a miraculous manner discovered to David his secret Murder of * 1 King 1. 13. Vriah and his Adultery with Bathsheba should advise that Bathsheba to go to David and put him in mind of the Oath he sware unto her that her Son Solomon should reign after him Show me such an Instance now and I will conclude it to be as extraordinary as any thing under the Jewish Theocracy But there is so much to be said upon that account that nothing but a Jesuitical Commentator would urge it for a Rule and Example to an Hereditary Monarchy in this Age of the World However Sir you have given me an opportunity of taking off one Objection you pious Politicians sometimes make against the Government of wicked Kings You say That evil Kings ought to be Depos'd and that evil Princes ought to
whole Nations too I will not either name or number the great follies and impieties that you upon this score have committed the greatest of all is that you will not acknowledge them to be what they really are very evil but have a care of the wo that is threatned to them that call evil good and good evil Let me advise you no longer to believe that to be Faith which is Faction let me advise you not to think that to be Religion which is Rebellion let not your Gain be any longer your Godliness and do not imagine Covetousness to be a saving Grace or that labouring for War is the way to Peace change either your Country or your Conditions if you stay at home study to be quiet learn to live in peace in peace A blessing so so much the greater to you by how much the less of it all other Nations under the Heavens do now injoy This little world alone like another Goshen sees and feels the brightest influences of the Sun when as all the habitable World besides is a Land of Darkness of Darkness that may be felt loud Thunders killing Lightnings and deadly Hail are one continued storm from the East to the West from the North to the South the Sword of God and man is drawn to scourge the sinful Age Rivers are stain'd with Blood and devouring Locusts cover and infect the Earth but none of these Plagues come nigh your dwelling You have no hardned or Tyrant Pharoah to deserve them and therefore do not ye your selves bring them Let no croaking Froggs come with noisome Petitions in your Kings Chambers but above all do not Kill the first-born of all the Land lest at last you bring a deluge of Miseries upon you a Sea a red Sea a Sea of Blood to overwhelm you By this time on large Plains upon our right hand methoughts I saw mighty and vast numbers of the Loyal and true hearted Nobility Gentry Clergy and Commonalty of this and other his Majesties Kingdoms and Dominions making their several Addresses to his Sacred Majesty congratulating his Majesty's his Royal Brother's Kingdoms safe deliverance from the late Barbarous Conspiracy I was so extremely pleased with so noble a sight that I almost wept for joy and could not forbear breaking into these expressions I envy not those who either saw Solomon in his Glory Caesar in his Victories or Augustus on his Throne since I this day see our Gracious Sovereign King Charles the Second triumphing in the hearts of his People a Prince who to their vertues has his great Fathers and his Own too shining in the most Illustrious instances of his Valour Conduct and Wisdom But why do I attempt to speak his praises the rising and setting Sun must do it which sees those far distant Countries that are happy under his Government and therefore strives to inrich them with plenty which he influences with peace however we see here before our eyes those in whom both himself and we all are happy his Royal and illustrious Brother James D. of York a Prince of rare and singular virtues who has fill'd the Earth and Seas with his Victories and the whole World with his fame we see the rest of the Royal Family which we hope will be as numerous as 't is truly great being inricht with the vertues and Blood Royal of all the Princes in Christendom and springing from the most ancient Royal Lineage in the World we see the great wisdom of our Royal Sovereign in his choice of all his chief Ministers both in Church and State who every one deserve a Panegyrick but that their good deeds proclaim them better than our best words we see our Monarchs glory and the Kingdoms honour in the loyal liberal and valiant Nobility in the true hearted numerous and charitable Gentry in the loving honest and obedient Commonalty We see the publick glory honour justice and piety of the King and all his loyal Subjects in the many magnificent and pious works of Charity and we hope that all the people of the Land seeing these many these great and good examples will for the future become loyal and obedient under so gracious a Sovereign peaceable and quiet under so good a Government holy and just under such righteous Laws At this Seignior Chr. kneeled down and that said he these things may come to pass we will use better means than the Politicians of a wicked World and therefore as good Christians with the Church let us Pray ALmighty God whose Kingdom is everlasting and power infinite have mercy upon the whole Church and so rule the heart of thy chosen Servant Charles our King and Governour that he knowing whose Minister he is may above all things seek thy honour and glory and that we and all his Subjects duly considering whose Authority he hath may faithfully serve honour and humbly obey him in thee and for thee according to thy blessed word and Ordinance through Jesus Christ our Lord who with thee and the Holy Ghost liveth and reigneth ever one God World without End At this such infinite multitudes cry'd aloud Amen Amen that it was like the noise of many Waters or the sound of those loud Thunders at the delivery of the Law at which magnificent and glorious noise all the Vision fled away and I awakt FINIS AN ADVERTISEMENT Of Six very useful and necessary Books lately Published and sold by Obadiah Blagrave at the Bear in St. Pauls Church-Yard viz. 1. BLagrave's Introduction to Astrology shewing the use of an Ephemeris and how to erect a Figure of Heaven to any time proposed also the Signification of the Houses Planets Signs and Aspects with plain Instructions for the Resolution of all manner of Questions in Astrology 2. The works of Sr. George Wharton Knight the most excellent Philosopher and Astronomer Collected in one Volumn 3. The Sea-man's Tutor explaining Geomety Cosmography and Trigonometry with divers Requisite Tables of Longitude and Latitude of Sea-ports Traverse Tables of Easting and Westing Meridian miles Declinations Amplitudes Refractions Use of the Compass Kalender Measure of the Earth Globe Use of Instruments and Charts compiled for the use of the Mathematical School in Christ's Hospital London his Majesty Ch. 2d his Royal Foundation 4. A General Treatise of Artillery or great Ordnance containing a Definition of Geometry the Names and Description of great Guns and of their Parts of the mixture of Mettals for Ordnance of Powder of Shot and its Vent of the Measures of Artillery or Guns of the several Natures of Artillery with a Description of a Stupendious Bridge made by the Prince of Parma of the General proportion of the Bores of Guns of the Culvering of Field-Pieces of Cannons of Battery c. Writ in Italian by Tomaso Morety Ingineer to the Republick of Venice Translated into English by Sr. Jonas Moore Knight with an Appendix for making Artificial Fire-works Illustrated with divers Cutts 5. The Practical Gauger being a plain and easie Method of Guaging all sorts of brewing Vessels whereunto is added a short Synopsis of the Laws of Excise by John Mayne 6. The Countryman's Treasures shewing the Nature Cause and Cure of all Diseases incident to Cattle viz. Oxen Cows and Calves Sheep Hogs and Dogs With proper Means to prevent their common Diseases and Distempers Being very useful Receipts as they have been practised by the long Experience of Forty years and all approved of Fitted for the Use of all Farmers and others that deal in Cattle by James Lambart With Tables of the several Diseases therein contained
yours before Vienna Did not We divide the Christian Princes it were in vain for all the forces of the East to attacque the united Powers of Christendom 't is we have weakened the house of Austria 't is we have brought your mortal enemy the Spaniard so low and although you will not acknowledge Christ yet I know not what reasons you have to object against Ignatius Loyola who was as good a Souldier as Mahomet and We have since been as great Merchants I do not forget replyed the Vizier how much the Divan is beholding to your Conclave and therefore let this be the agreement betwixt us We will carry on the War in the Empire untill you have gained the Popedom and when Vienna is Ours and Rome Yours you shall help us to destroy all the Hereticks of our Religion especially the Persians and We will assist you to destroy all those of Yours particularly the English The Bargain was concluded by their friendly parting but the Jesuit was not long gone ere there was a cry Make room for the King of Poland At this very name the Vizier quaked for fear but when he saw only a lean fallow Carrion of a fellow coming towards him Had the Pox said He but sprung such a Mine in the sides of Sobietski Our forces had taken Vienna long ago But it was a fatal * Septem 9. day to us when he with his Young * Alexander Scanderbeg came upon us a day wherein the Gaurs have reason to rejoyce and a day wherein the Tories replyed the Earl of S. had as much reason to give Thanks Who are they said the Vizier I never heard of them before The most irreconcileable enemies that you have in the World replied the Earl and whom we had utterly destroyed had not our designs been unfortunately discovered by a short relation of which you will know how much I deserv'd the Kingdom of Poland at your hands You must know that the King of England is Guarrantee of the Peace of Christendom and by that high Honour conferr'd upon him by the Christian Princes He was in a capacity to turn all the strength of the West upon you and not only to free the Empire of Germany from the Arms of France but to put both the Dutch and Spaniard also into a condition of sending Supplies both of Men and Monies besides what he might have afforded of his own But we the true Protestants of Great Britain being opprest with Popish and Idolatrous Abominations stirred up the minds of the people to contend against the encroachments of the Man of sin By which means we raised so many Tumults and Seditions that he had not only enough to do to keep his own Subjects in Peace but indeed it was a wonder that he preserv'd his own life However We made it uncomfortable enough to him For though the Occasions were never so pressing and urgent Though the Honour and safety of the Nation depended never so much upon it we would not grant him a Penny nay we would not let him borrow an Asper of any of his Subjects How Cry'd the Vizier smiling Would you not grant him any Would you not let him borrow any by Mahomet ' t was bravely done thou shalt have all the Goggle-ey'd wenches in Paradise by that very means we gain'd the Imperial City of Constantinople For when Mahomet the Great besieged that City the miserable Emperour Constantinus Palaeologus went in vain from door to door to borrow money to pay his Souldiers but when it was taken to the eternal shame of the Citizens there was enough found not only to supply the Luxury but the Covetousness of the Turks I see now you are our friends and therefore let us make a League an Association be pleas'd to call it said the Earl and let it be to destroy Popery and Popish Successors Withall my heart replyed the Vizier I 'le down with their Images I 'le burn their Wooden gods untill the sap runs out at their Heels we 'll persecute their Crucified God from City to City Oh! ay ay cry'd the Earl Now you have hit upon 't be sure utterly to abolish the Sign of the Cross and you will gain the Hearts of all true Protestants for ever Well! said the Vizier now our hands are in we 'll take care to establish the Protestant Religion so that no time shall wear it out How so replyed the Earl Why said the Vizier you know that one Pope Gregory hath polluted your Christian account or Kalendar by the alteration of ten days for the future therefore let all true Protestants date all affairs from the Year of Hegira All the reason in the world said the Earl for I 'll tell you what a Sorcerous trick a damn'd Popish Almanack maker served you What was that said the Vizier You know replyed the Earl that the ninth day of September the Christian Army came to the Relief of Vienna that on the tenth they were clearly Masters of your Camp and routed your forces Too true said the Vizier What then why in an Almanack which a Gentleman bought at Florence in Italy printed for the year 1683 for the 20th day of September which with us is the 10th was this prediction il gladio di Dio in viscera di Imperio Ottomanno principi Christiani molto felici c. No more of the Language of the beast In English thus That the Sword of God should be in the bowels of the Ottoman Empire that the Christians should be very happy c. How wonderfully replied the Vizier did all your Protestant Prognosticators fib that year when they so confidently affirm'd that we should pull down the Pope and overturn the Triple Crown Don't despair said the Earl you have the prayers of the Brethren Do but once again clap your Horse-tail to the Beast in the Revelation and I 'll warrant you she will run away with the Whore of Babylon and give her such a damnable fall as she never yet had I perceive replyed the Vizier you are not very faithful to any body you do but make sport with our affliction but I am sure we have reason to be sorrowful in good earnest Oh! that Fatal day that Black and Gloomy day The Earl seeing him in a great fit of grief turn'd to his Chaplain a little diminutive Puritan that stood at his back in Querpo Comfort him up thou man of God Comfort him up said He with some portion of Scripture lest he faint away At this Mr. Prick Ears opened his mouth and began to utter How are the Mighty fallen Hold cryed the Earl have a care of stumbling upon the Mountains of Gilboa you know 't is about Vienna apply 'um right and now go on How are the mighty fallen and the weapons of war perished Tell it not in London publish it not in Rome least the Daughters of the Tories rejoyc least the daughters of the Vncircumcised triumph An excellent Preacher reply'd the Vizier he cuts out all our
Traffick to all the parts of the Terrestrial Globe possesses several Delights and Treasures which all the Four great Monarchies of old never heard or dream't of And Thirdly In the improvement of all Arts and Sciences if Solomon had more Knowledge in natural Causes than any man living 't was his Prerogative as King for none of the Ancient Vertuosi neither Heman nor Chalcal nor Elcan nor Darda have left any Philosophical Transactions behind them If He understood the nature of the Loadstone and taught the Tyrians and Phoenicians the use of it as * Fuller one of this Nation affirms 'T is a strange thing that the Graecians a people so Curious and Inquisitive so near Neighbours to them so famous for Shipping and among whom it was first found and had a name should be utterly ignorant of so noble a Mystery If He understood the Circulation of the Blood and knew all Trees and Plants from the Cedar of Lebanon to the Hyssop on the wall his Philosophy vanish't with his Religion For He little considered the nature of that wood or of those Minerals whereof those gods He afterwards worshipt were made But you have a numerous Society of excellent Philosophers of whose knowledge there is more certainty and greater variety and that a Royal Society too incouraged by a King wise as Solomon in his Government and more Knowing both in Philosophy and Navigation Who need not to send to foreign Nations for Mariners for his Shipping as †2 Chron. c ◠◠18. Solomon did or for Workmen to build his Temple And were his Government so absolute and despotical or his Tribute and Taxes so * 2 Chron. 10. v. 11. heavy upon his People would be as rich himself Therefore when with these things I consider the admirable frame of your Government the wonders that have been wrought for its preservation and Continuance I conclude that the Doctrine of Jesus is the last Will of Heaven and that those that profess it are in the favour of God by the blessings they receive on Earth And although my own condition be mean yet to the clear understanding of Types and Prophecies having by the same Doctrine learnt the admirable Lessons of Patience and Obedience I wonder that men should not become better Subjects for the same reasons for which I am become the better Christian That very Plenty Sir said I that is an Argument to make you become an humble Christian makes them proud Traytors Nay their very Plea for Rebellion is the very same which the Apostle uses for Obedience viz. for Conscience sake Though the Government be never so good yet a Kingly Government they say is against their Consciences that 't is not according to the will of God They will rip you up a great number of Kings that did evil in the sight of the Lord and are often buzzing in your ears the sentence of the unjust King they tell you that the Apostles and Martyrs were brought before Kings c. and positively affirm that the Israelites sinned very grievously in asking a King They did so replied He very hastily and what then Do they know wherein the nature of their sin consisted that they apply it as a Rule to themselves all their other Objections are ridiculously frivolous but I will clear this by proving that though the Israelites sinned in asking a King yet it was the will of God that they should be governed by Kings His Promise and his Blessing too And this I 'll do by considering wherein the sin of the Israelites consisted First Then it consisted in this that they preferred the Government of an Earthly King before * 1 Sam. c. 8. v. 7. having God for their King for their Government under Judges was Theocratical They were confirm'd by Miracles and rais'd immediately for their deliverance by God himself Secondly Their sin consisted in that they who were Gods chosen and peculiar people should ask to be govern'd by a King like all the Nations I do not speak Here of the Prohibition * Deut. 17. v. 15. Thou maist not set a Stranger over thee to be King For that and Marriages and all other Communion with the Nations was forbidden them for fear of Idolatry But they were not to be like all the Nations as to the Manner of their Kingly Government 1. Because God had given a particular Rule for the King He should set over his own people Deut. 17. v. 18. 19. And 2. We read 1 Sam. chap. 10. v. 24. that Samuel told the people the Manner of the Kingdom and wrote it in a Book and laid it up before the Lord. Thirdly The sin of the Israelites consisted in that They the People askt a King In that they would be their own Carvers and Chusers That they that were redeem'd from being slaves in Aegypt should not depend upon the same Providence for their station and Condition in Canaan By thus asking they seem'd to chuse before God had chosen and moreover they who were prohibited to say that they possessed the Land through their own Righteousness might be presum'd to say they injoyed that Government by their own Wisdom And Fourthly Their sin consisted in that they Then askt a King in that they would not wait Gods appointed time Therefore because they preposterously askt a King He gave them one in his wrath one that was not qualified according to the Prophecy nor did He answer their expectation But in his Anointed Servant David He fully confirm'd it to be his Time his Will his own Ordinance and that Government which He foretold and provided in his Law for his own People And as the Condition of the Israelites both in Church and State was the most flourishing and splendid under the Reign of his Successor King Solomon that ever it was before or after So the Taking away their King was the greatest Judgment that was threatened Deut. 28. v. 36. the Lord shall bring thee and thy King which thou shalt set over thee unto a Nation which neither thou nor thy Fathers have known and there shalt thou serve other Gods Wood and Stone And it was the greatest Judgment that ever was executed Lament 2. v. 9. Her King and her Princes are among the Gentiles The Law is no more the Prophets also find no Vision from the Lord. So that you see that as the King was appointed by God in the Law so with their King they lost that Law But the severest Judgment of all was that with the loss of their King They lost the surest and directest rule of finding out the Messias given to them in Jacobs Prophecy Gen. 49. v. 10. The Scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a Law giver from between his feet until Shiloh come For as by the Alterations Change and loss of the Law they were deprived of the right understanding those Types which foreshew the Manner of his Coming So though the Prophecy held good by the loss of their King in their
of the Scales all the Commonwealths that have been under the Sun let them clap in the Ephori of Sparta the Demarchi of Athens the Tribunes and Consuls of Rome the Gentlemen and Senators of Venice the Hoghen Moghen States of Holland the Cantons of Switzerland the Leagues of the Grisons the Elders of Geneva with whole Bundles of Hans Towns and all the late Holy Brethren that are fled to them and I will put but one single Monarchy into the other and it shall as certainly weigh them all down as the Bible does the Pope and his Trinkets the Devil and all his works in the Book of Martyrs What Monarchy is that said he The Ancient and Flourishing Monarchy of England said I a Monarchy which has the singular advantages of all the three known Forms of Government without the Inconveniencies of any one of them a Monarchy so divinely good as neither Jew or Gentile knew of Old and such an one as none other Christians besides enjoy at this day Pray Sir said he give me a short account of it As well as I can said I with all my heart You must know that this Monarchy of England is a Paternal Hereditary Monarchy the Kings thereof not using that absolute Despotical Power which the Kings of Judah sometimes did No mans Life is taken away from him by any of the Kings Messengers but he may clear himself if Innocent or give better satisfaction to the world if guilty by being tryed according to Law And where the Chronicles of England seem to speak the contrary those persons as Tho. Becket c. are to be considered as Traytors in the very act of open Hostility and Rebellion or protected from the proceedings of the Law by the Pope or the People But our present Gracious Soveraign hath given such admirable instances of his great Justice Clemency and Patience as no History can parallel even the very Murderers of his Father who would scarce allow him to speak before their impious Tribunal were permitted to say what they could in their own defence And those very Barbarous Villains that did not design to * at the Ryeâ— allow him time to say his Prayers were not only legally try'd convicted and justly condemned with all manner of regular proceedings but had afterwards the charitable assistance of his own Chaplains And although upon the relation of such an horrid design against his Royal Person if He had cut them all to pieces without any more ado no mortal man could have question'd or have call'd him to an account for it yet such is the malice of that implacable Party that for his great Clemency they insinuate that he wants Courage and for his Justice they do as much as say he is a Tyrant But as the King so are his Laws so good for the People that King James did as truly as solemnly declare That the Common Law of England was as proper for this Nation as the Law of Moses was for the Jews But still to supply the defects of the Common Law we have our Statute Laws which were made at sundry times and upon divers occasions in Parliament and these Laws receive matter from the Lords and Commons but form and life from the King and then our Ecclesiastical and Maritine Courts are governed by the Civil Laws which are the result of the Wisdom and Prudence of the best Law-givers that have been in all Ages and for the Good of others as well as of our own Nation If your Laws said he be so very good how comes it to pass that there are so many Controversies long and vexatious Suits such endless Differences and Quarrels among the Subjects What is the reason that those who have been Factious Turbulent and Seditious should go so long unpunished The Reason Sir said I is because the King will govern by Law but they will not be ruled by it But have a little patience Hemp is not ripe in a day 'T is no Magical plant rais'd by the sin of Witchcraft and yet 't will conjure down the Devil in Time Easter Term is coming on a pace and as some of their mouths have been pretty cool the last great Frost So if others be not more quiet for the Future they will not have so much money to burn in their pockets against the next To your first Question I might Answer by asking you the reason of so many Disputes and Janglings in Religion I am sure you confess that you are satisfied as to the excellency of the Christian Faith and yet you might as well object against the Truth of it because there have been so many Heresies in the Church as against the goodness of our Laws Because there are so many peevish subtil and factious persons in the State There are likewise Hereticks among the Lawyers as well as among the Divines For if the Laws of God are not free from the false Glosses and Expositions of ambitious or covetous Casuists how shall any Law of man escape them To conclude after all our Government is a Miracle of a thousand years working And although some will tell you the Times and Occasions of Enacting or Repealing any Statute Law and the Originals of all our Courts of Judicature Yet considering the many and strange revolutions that attend all sublunary Principalities and Powers 't is a work beyond the reach of the most exquisite Judgment to unravel the whole Series of Affairs that have brought this admirable frame of Government to perfection Truly Sir said he I do not perceive that the People of England have any reason to fear Arbitrary Government under so gracious a Prince or to he weary of a Monarchy so vastly differing from those four which were so formidably represented in the Ancient Vision of the Prophet Daniel I am sure said I there is none in being that may at this day compare with it all the Eastern Empires and Monarchies are absolutely Tyrannical and of the West the people of France have lost their Liberties the Kingdom of Spain suffers extremely by the clashing Interests of the Jesuits with other Orders and their treachery to the House of Austria and so does the Empire of Germany the Kingdoms of Denmark and Bohemia have not been so long Hereditary and the Kingdom of Poland is Elective to this day Now said he you are come to my Native Country I can assure you that there are great Inconveniencies attending the Time of the Interregnum and Election too And however our present Magnanimous and truly Illustrious King has by his Conduct and Valour gain'd himself immortal renown Yet 't is better for the people to have Peace than a prosperous War And the King of England has had as hard a Task and which has required as much Courage and Prudence to subdue and quell his Turkish Protestants at home as the King of Poland had to conquer the Protestant Turks abroad Against which sort of true Protestants the true Turks shall arise in the Judgment
Davenant in his twelfth determin'd Question sayes Induant quam velint isti Magistratuum Reformatores c. Let those Reformers of Magistrates mask under what vizor they please Religion may be their Plea but Rebellion is their Practice And this is so true of Mr. Baxter that as far as I can perceive he will confirm it with his last breath But the Mask he has on will appear to be that of the Fool as well as of the Knave for whatever he in one place denyes he most strictly and rigidly maintains in another and there is not a more ridiculous Book of Polity in the world He confesses indeed that he did not design an Accurate Tract of Politicks not a discovery of an Utopia or City of the Sun And indeed I am apt to believe him for it rather dropt from the concavities of the Midsummer Moon Had he spent his Itch of Scribling in writing his Wifes Life the History of Stew'd Prunes or the Pedigree of his Gib-Cat he had done much better than to have defiled so much good Paper with the indigested Excrements of his Brain upon such a subject For Mr. Baxter did not either honestly or seriously enough consider that his whole Pile of Politicks stands tottering upon a false and rotten foundation For he holds that the Soveraignty of England is in the three Estates viz. King Lords and Commons that the King has but a Co-ordinate Power and may be over-ruled by the other two This is the fundamental Maxim of all his Politicks without which he never could have pretended to the framing his Theocratical Government as he calls it or have made such a Bustle for his peculiar godly Friends and Associates but if this were true which is utterly false why may it not as well happen that the King and Lords should over-rule and consequently exciude the Commons And then what thanks is that House bound to give such a notable Aphorismmonger The Counsellors in that August Assembly are of three sorts by the Fundamental Laws of this Kingdom Some are by Birth as the Barons some Lambards Archion p. 118. by Succession as Bishops and some by Election as Knights and Burgesses and these be all for the time the Kings Council Did ever any King call a Council to depose him But suppose according to Mr. Baxter they might or should do so who should then hinder the two that are by Birth and Succession from over-ruling and excluding the third that are by Election But the Bishops it seems must troop out after the King for fear Mr. Baxter should stumble upon such an horrid piece of non-sense as the making two Estates become three by the taking away of one No less ridiculous is Mr. Baxter in this deposing humour of his for he does like the Abbess who chid the Nun for Fornication when she her self had the Monks Breeches on her head instead of her Veil at the same time He pronounces very terribly Thes 327. That it is a most impious thing for Popes to pretend to disoblige Christians from their Oaths and Fidelity to their Sovereigns and to encourage their Subjects to rebel and murder them But as if it were a most pious thing in a Jack Presbyter he breathes nothing but perfidious Covenants Engagements Associations Seditions and murdering Treasons for several Pages together immediately after Like a Fool as he is to his own Good Old Cause he confesses pag. 461. that God has no where in Scripture told us whether England should be governed by one or two or an hundred but that where the King is Supreme it is the will of God that the people should obey him A strange things that the Politick Saint should want Scripture upon so material an account who is used to squander it away so plentifully upon every trivial occasion Well! since Scripture as he sayes cannot nothing more or better can declare the King of England to be Supreme unaccountable to none but God than the fundamental Laws of this Ancient and Just Monarchy But because Mr. Baxter who would never be govern'd has little or no knowledge of the Laws he sends his Reader in p. 458. to Bacon and Prynn who were as great Hereticks for Lawyers as he is for a Divine I wish that Mr. Baxter who has deserv'd to lose his Tongue as much as Prynn did his Ears would take example by him and lay things seriously and impartially to his heart that by better Aphorisms of Humility and Obedience he would grow so good a Politician indeed as at last to cheat the Devil For 't is a strange thing that a man who has taken so much pains for the salvation of other mens souls should so carelesly run on tick for the damnation of his own If it be true that the King is Supream and that they who resist him as Mr. Baxter has done shall receive damnation to themselves and as Mr. Prynn himself Prynn's Repub. or spurious Good Old Cause sayes they shall But I fear he will never be of so good a mind For like a Knave as he is by his Politicks in this Book and by his Schism and Separation to this day he practises those very Rules which in the beginning of this Book he discovers and declares to be the Jesuits Directions for preserving Popery and changing Religion in this Nation I do not wonder that the late Colonel Sidney who was so great a Crony of Father Oliva ' s the General of the Jesuits at Rome for several years together should borrow part of his Speech he left behind him out of Baxter ' s Holy Commonwealth for sayes he pag. 377. No Man or Family hath originally more right to govern a Nation than the rest till Providence and Consent allow it them Few Princes will plead a Successive Right of Primogeniture from Noah And this without doubt was the Original of that politick strain in Colonel Sidney ' s Speech as the directions of the Jesuits are of Mr. Baxter's Politicks and practices For sayes he himself the summ of Campanella ' s Counsel for promoting the Spanish Interests in England was in Queen Elizabeths daies 1. Above all to breed dissentions and discords among our selves To exasperate the minds of the Bishops against King James by perswading them that he was in heart a Papist and would bring in Popery To make the Kingdom Elective And lastly To perswade the chief Parliament men to turn England into the form of a Common-wealth Pray Sir said I do but hear what Mr. Baxter sayes for himself at the latter end of his Book p. 489. If any one saies he can prove that I was guilty of hurt to the Person or destruction of the Power of the King or of changing the Fundamental Constitutions of the Commonwealth c. I will never gainsay him if he calls me a most perfidious Rebel and tell me that I am guilty of far greater sin than Murder Whoredome Drunkenness or such like or if they can solidly confute my Grounds
their fear towards me is taught by the precepts of men therefore behold I will proceed to do a marvellous Work amongst this People even a marvellous work and a Wonder for the Wisdom of their Wisemen shall Perish and the Understanding of their Prudent shall be hid This Sir said I would have been a good Text to have Preacht upon before the Wittena Gemot or meeting of the Wisemen at S. Margarets in Westminster about the Year 1641. Oh! replyed Seignior Christiano it had been a Malignant Text and the Preacher would have been committed to the Custody of the Black Rod. For they were then scrambling for the Sovereignty to share it amongst themselves however they soon lost it by the same Principles by which they Usurpt it and whilst they kept it they made so ill use of it that had the Protestants in Queen Maries Reign been then alive they would have commended her as much as the Fanaticks have done Queen Elizabeth So dreadful was that Judgement when inflicted upon England which was anciently threatned to the Israelites for their rebellion against their Sovereign * Hos 3. 4. the Children of Israel shall abide many daies without a King and without a Prince c. Lord Sir said I if it was dangerous to preach then upon such a Subject before the Wise Men at Westminster 't is in vain to preach it now to some people for they very learned in the Law will tell you that they did not set up another King a Jeroboam to which that Text relates but that they more prudently transferr'd or at least fixt the Sovereign Power in a Parliament and therefore will say What signifies your old fashioned Divinity to the Learned in the Law Those Lawyers reply'd Seignior Christiano learnt their Seditious Principles in the State from Schismatical and Heretical ones in the Church And they that maintain that the Sovereignty of England is not in one single Person are as great Hereticks for Lawyers as the Archontici the Marcionites the Heracleonites the Colarbasians or Valentinians were for Divines and they were Hereticks who were condemn'd for holding several Beginnings Truly Sir said I I think here comes one of these antient sort of Gentlemen you talk of For we now overtook a Comical old Fellow in such a Garb as I never before had seen he had a great Ruff-band on which needed no imbroidery for it was made up of old Saxon Manuscripts and the Trimming to his Cloaths was old Parchment tassels tagg'd with Wax upon which was the Impression of King Arthurs Tooth and of the Fangs of all his Knights This is a pleasant Antiquarian said Seignior Christiano let 's brush the Cobwebs off him a little and make our selves merry with him We needed not to seek long for an opportunity for he immediately came up to us saying Gentlemen my Business in this World is to vindicate the honour of our English Parliaments from the Calumnies of those who say That the Commons of England were introduced and begun An. 49 H. 3. Therefore pray come along with me into yonder Castle and there I will shew you all the ancient and undeniable Records under the British Saxon and Norman Governments We willingly followed him until he brought us into a very large Room where there was Provender enough for the Rats and Mice of twenty Generations He had now pull'd his Hat off and made a low obeysance to an heap of musty Parchments when a bold Fellow came up and with a great deal of scorn kickt them all about the room You old fop said he look you here I have in this Cabinet of mine a sett of Antiquities worth a thousand loads of your mouldy Parliament Rolls Here is said he the Tongue of that Parrot that was first Speaker to the House of Commons in the Parliament of Birds and here are two of his Speeches Here is the Ancient Charter of the City Mouse which he forfeited for eating too far into an Holland Cheese Here is a Tobacco stopper made of Log the first King of the Froggs What do you talk of your Records and Parliament Rolls and House of Commons a fart for your House of Office We did certainly expect that the Antiquarian would have blead him alive to have made new Vellum of his skin for the affronts he put upon his old Parchments But what was extraordinary strange we could not discover that he was in the least angry with him at which we much wondred and therefore I examined those Parchments and found them to be the same which Mr. Petyt of the Inner Temple had made use of for Asserting the Ancient Rights of the Commons of England Printed in the Year Eighty And therefore said I to Seigntor Christiano the writing that Book at a Time when the just Priviledges of Parliament were not in the least call'd in Question but on the contrary when not only the Kings Prerogative but his life also was in Danger by a Conspiracy formed among several that were Members of that House was just as if one should have written of the Antiquity of the See of Rome and of the Grants of our English Kings to several Popes at that very Time when the Popish Plot was first discovered Why truly reply'd Seignior Christiano 't is pitty but that Mr. Petyt should have the same reward the next Parliament which that last Parliament would have bestowed upon such an Authour and that he may not want company some hope that the next Parliament will take the Ignoramus Jury into consideration it being a case according to Mr. Lambard his own Antiquarian not within the reach Archion f. 105. of any standing Law or Statute and in which the Parliament hath Jurisdiction But Sir said I I further remarque upon that Book that whilst he pretends to assert the rights of the Commons he hinders the main Ends of Parliaments What a noise does he make of Baronagium Generale placitum and Communitas Regni and several other denominations by which the Common Council or Parliaments were expressed But not with any design to the right ends for which they were called One great end according to his own Quotation out of †Preface f. 43. Knighton de Event Angl. is ut Inimici Regis Regni Intrinseci hostes extrinseci destruantur repellantur that the Domestick and foreign Enemies of the King and Kingdom may be destroyed and repelled And in order to this it is very requisite that the King should have those that are all Loyal Subjects in that Great Council that He should be supplied with moneys to defray the Publick Charges and therefore what signifies a great many of the Records he has quoted and that in particular of the 34 E. 1. unless he had design'd that the last Westminster and Oxford Parliament should have considered Onera Domino Regi incumbentia as that Parliament did by which dutiful Considerations of his Parliament King Edward I. became a Victorious Prince for he awed France