unexpectedly summoned to appear there was but being told that it was the highest Court of Politicks and that he was to give an account of his Writings he began to tremble exceedingly and seeing so grave and venerable an Assembly imagined they had been all Saints and verily thought Lucifer had been one of the Apostles or Primitive Patriarchs therefore addressing himself with all submission I hope said he Reverend Fathers that at this Time and in this Place I shall vindicate my self from those unjust aspersions which the subtlety and malice of some men have cast upon my Name and Memory for this whole Age last past charging me with three things First That I should vilifie Monarchy and preser Democracy before it To which I answer * In a Letter to Zenobius Buon-delmontius That if I speak largely in Commendation of the latter it ought to be considered that I was born bred and employed in a Free City which was then under that form of Government and if you read my History of Florence you will find that it did owe all its wealth greatness and prosperity to it what I said of the glorious Atchievements of the Commonwealth of Rome was to shew the perfection of that Government in its kind but not to propose it by way of Imitation for all other people for how can any man pretend to write upon Policy who destroyes the most essential part of it which is obedience to all Government therefore I protest that the animating of private men either directly or indirectly to disobey much less to shake off any Government how Despotical so ever was never in my Thoughts or Writings and I alwayes did and ever will declare that in every Monarchy the interests of the King and People are the same At this there was a murmuring all over the Court and Lucifer seem'd somewhat displeas'd upon which some that stood by me said as we have cheated the world above fourscore years about this man and made his memory stink among the True Protestants who have at the same time an esteem for Politicians vastly more Diabolical so for diversion we will ee'n sham the Devil himself for once and away Silence being made Machiavel went on The second thing objected against me is That I should encourage Princes to Perjury and Breach of Oaths and Promises To which I answer That any man that reads my Book entituled The Prince with ordinary charity may perceive that 't is not my intention therein to recommend the Government of those men there described to the world much less to teach them to trample upon good men and all that is sacred and venerable upon earth If I have been too punctual in describing those Monsters and drawn them to the life in all their Lineaments and Colours I hope mankind will know them the better to avoid them my Treatise being both a Satyr against and a true Character of them I speak not of Great and Honourable Princes such as the Kings of France and England and others who have the States and Orders of their Kingdoms with excellent Laws and Constitutions to frame and maintain their Government and who reign over the Hearts as well as the Persons of their Subjects I speak only of those Vermin bred out of the Corruption of our own small Commonwealths and Cities or engendred by the ill blasts that come from Rome as Olivaretto da Termo Borgia the Baglioni and the Bentivoglii At this Lucifer grew so impatient that he had certainly broke loose if some of his Counsellors had not advised him to Moderation and Hypocrisie for a little while and then Machiavel went on The third thing said he laid to my charge is that I have vilified the Clergy and abused the sacred Orders of the Church of Rome To this I answer That 't is they have vilified and abused themselves insomuch that if the Apostles of Christ should be sent again into the World they would take more pains to confute the Gallimaufry of Opinions and Innovations in that Church than they did to preach down the Traditions of the Pharisees and the Fables and Idolatry of the Gentiles and would in all probability suffer a new Martyrdom in that City under the Vicar of Christ for the same Doctrine which once animated the Tyrants against them As for Government this I must say That whereas all other false worships even of Heathens have been set up by some Politick Legislators for the support and preservation of Government This false this spurious Religion brought in upon the ruines of Christianity by the Popes hath deform'd the face of Government in Europe destroying all the good Principles and Morality left us by the Heathens themselves and introduc'd instead thereof Sordid Cowardly and Vnpolitick Notions whereby they have subjected mankind and even great Princes and States to their Empire and never suffered any Orders or Maxims to take place where they have power that might make a Nation Wise Honest Great or Wealthy Lucifer burst out into such a fury that the fire flew out of his eyes for very wrath crying How aborninably am I cheated and abused by these Politicians I thought that I had been sure of as good a Secretary as ever managed the affairs of the Kingdom of Darkness and on the contrary he is for bringing our whole Mysterie of Iniquity to light For my part I do not know whom to trust or which way to turn my self Are you my friends And is this your Politician that has made such a noise in the world How comes this to pass May it please your Mighty Darkness replyed one of the Jesuits it was necessary that we should reproach this man to all the world who had been so severe upon the Church and Court of Rome and besides from his character of Tyrants and Usurpers we took occasion to render Just Princes odious to their People as if they observed those Maxims of Breach of Oaths and Promises and in the mean time have taught the people to practise them in good earnest So that in lieu of this one Politician we can pleasure you with hundreds much more serviceable to your Mighty Darkness In the mean while we will strip him of all his Infernal Honours and Titles he has so long enjoyed so that he shall no longer be called Old Nick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor shall his Disciples be quibbled again into the highest form of Politicians with the Honourable and Redoubted Pun of Match-less Villains Take him away therefore Guards let him make room for persons vastly more deserving of this High Court. The next that came was Hobbs who seem'd infinitely vex'd that Machiavel had had so long an Audience and therefore with a kind of snarling scream he told them That he thought truly that he did not only deserve to be heard most of all but first of all too considering the great service he had done for the President of that Honourable Court For have not I Sir said he to
THE VISIONS OF Government WHEREIN The Antimonarchical Principles and Practices of all Fanatical Commonwealths-men and Jesuitical Politicians are discovered confuted and exposed By EDWARD PETTIT M. A. and Author of the Visions of Purgatory and Thorough Reformations Morosophi Moriones pessimi LONDON Printed by B. W. for Edward Vize at the Sign of the Bishop's Head over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill M DC LXXXIV TO THE High Potent and Noble PRINCE JAMES Duke Marquess and Earl of ORMOND in ENGLAND and IRELAND Earl of Ossery and Brecknock Viscount Thurles Baron of Arclo and Lanthony Lord Licutenant General and General Governour of His Majesties Kingdom of Ireland Lord of the Regalities and Liberties of the County of Tipperary Lord Chancellour of the famous Vniversities of Oxford and Dublin Lord High Steward of His Majesties Houshold One of His Majesties most Honourable Privy Council in England Scotland and Ireland and Knight of the Most Noble Order of the GARTER May it it please Your Grace I Humbly presume to take this opportunity of congratulating the late Deliverance of your Grace's Noble Son his Excellency the Earl of Arran under whose Care and Conduct the flourishing Kingdom of Ireland injoyces both Peace and Plenty at this day and I hope Your Grace will be pleas'd to accept of these honest labours of my Pen in defence of that Monarchy which you have so long assisted with your Counsels so often vindicated with Your Sword My Lord There never was a wiser Government never a more Gracious Sovereign never a more faithful Subject than Your self All your Princely Vertues will make Your Grace an Illustrious Pattern to the Ages to come who cannot be parallel'd by any that are past He that compar'd Your Grace to Barzillai did it because among all David's Worthies there was none that for Greatness Fidelity and long Experience might compare with You and yet You as far exceed his recorded Merits as the Irish Seas do the little River of Jordan May the ever-living God make Your Grace as far excel him in length of daies by adding to Your Illustrious Life those which in his Divine Wisdom he has been pleas'd to take from Your Right Honourable Father and from Your Noble Son the late Earl of Ossery and thus make up to us our loss here upon Earth and Yours with a late but glorious Immortality with them in Heaven This is the hearty Prayer of all that Fear God and Honour the King and in particular of Your Grace's most humble and obedient Servant EDWARD PETTIT THE CONTENTS VISION I. THe Introduction The Ghost of S. Jerom a Native of Hungary after a relation of the present State of that Kingdom condemns their Rebellion from the Doctrine and practice of the Christians of his time The Grand Confederacy against Christian Religion and Government discovered in a Dialogue betwixt the Ghosts of the late Vizier Cuperlee a General of the Jesuits and the Earl of Shaftsbury The reason why the Fanaticks of England lament the defeat of the Turks A parallel in some new Remarques betwixt them Whether was the more Unchristian to wish the success of the Turkish Arms before Vienna or of the Moors before Tangier The impious and foolish conceit of preventing Arbitrary Government under the Protection of the Grand Seignior p. 1 VISION II. THe miserable state of the Christians under the Turks the happy condition of the people of England Good Government the reason of it The Malecontens described and exposed The Argument that converted and confirmed a Jew in the Christian Faith He confutes and condemns the Fanaticks for their Rebellious Murmurings and Practices He proves Monarchy to be of Divine Institution and the best of Governments The Monarchy of England the best in the World The design of Hobbs's Leviathan and of Nevil's Plato Redivivus they are both in the extremes and both exploded The Ghosts of Hobbs Machiavel and some other modern Politicians quarrel about Preheminence Lucifer not able to decide the Controversie referrs it to Bradshaw He determines for Richard Baxter upon the account of that Maxim that Dominion is founded in Grace The Folly of it discovered in his Book intituled A Holy Commonwealth and the Villany of it in the Practices of the late Commonwealth of England p. 45 VISION III. THe monstrous Loyalty of the Fanaticks Their several Ridiculous Policies the growth and design of the late Hellish Conspiracy The two fundamental Principles of the Good Old Cause First That All Civil Authority is deriv'd Originally from the People The extreme villany and folly of this Proposition throughly examined and by a Civiliz'd Cannibal condemn'd The Second 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 great impiety and folly of this Proposition fully discovered and condemned by an Indian of New England The Authors and Abetters of them both exposed The great Wisdom and Goodness of our present Gracious Sovereign in securing to this Monarchy the right and lineal descent of the Crown p. 147 VISION IV. THe wicked Policy of raising a mean or evil opinion of the Sovereign in the minds of the Subjects The trivial and unreasonable occasions of such an opinion a pleasant instance thereof in the Case of the Salique Law it is condemned by an Hermaphrodite Better that the Sovereignty should be in one Woman than in five hundred men The Sovereignty of England in a single Person The Heresie of the Whiggish Lawyers Those that 〈◊〉 of the Antiquity of Parliamentes and those that vilifie them are Commonwealths men and enemies both of King and Parliament The Characters of several Commonwealths-men good advice to them A Panegyrick upon the King the Duke the Royal Family and all the True-hearted Nobility Gentry Clergy and Commonalty of this Realm an hearty Prayer for them p. 217 Books Printed for and are to be sold by Edward Vize at the Bishop's Head over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill A Discourse of Prayer Wherein this great Duty is stated so as to oppose some Principles and Practices of Papists and Fanaticks as they are contrary to the Publick Forms of the Church of England established by her Ecclesiastical Canons and confirmed by Acts of Parliament A Discourse concerning the Tryal of Spirits Wherein Inquity is made into Mens Pretences to Inspiration for publishing Doctrines in the Name of God beyond the Rules of the Sacred Scriptures In opposition to some Principles and Practices of Papists and Fanaticks as they contradict the Doctrines of the Church of England defined in her Articles of Religion established by her Ecclesiastical Canons and confirmed by Acts of Parliament A Spittle Sermon Preach'd In Saint Brides Parish Church on Wednesday in Easter Week being the Second Day of April 1684. Before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor the Court of Aldermen and the Sheriffs of the now Protestant and Loyal City of London These three
those Patriots aforesaid who are gone in Pilgrimage for the sake of the good old Cause to the Kings Bench in Southwark instead of going over the Thames were to cross the Seas and had as many men as that Town would hold with nothing but a single Wall for their defence and that Charity of theirs aforesaid they would soon know what it is to nuzzle with the Monsters of Africa and the Serpents of the Desarts would hiss at them for a Generation of Vipers Pious Patriots truly said I but pray tell me in short what are the pretended Reasons for such exorbitant Wishes and Resolutions To prevent replied He Popery and Arbitrary Government and that they might obtain Liberty of Conscience It seems Sir said I that they are mightily taken with that Liberty of Conscience which they hear is granted to Christians of all sorts over all the Turkish Dominions and since you have been a witness of it 'Pray give me an account of it Mr. Paul Ricaut replied he tells you Page 188. Histor of the Present State of the Ottoman Empire That Mahomet granted Toleration but it was before his Religion was fully established by the Sword and to comply with the Heretical Christians of his Time who favoured any Innovations against the Catholick Faith But in some places of his Alcoran he is of another mind and gives his Musselmen Instructions to destroy them utterly hip and thigh root and branch So that his Toleration is just like the late Presbyterians and only giving quarter to a man in the heat of the Battel with an intent to cut his Throat in cold Blood and the Mahometans now tolerate Christian Churches but if they happen to be ruin'd by fire or any other accident they dare not rebuild them as in the fire at Constantinople 1660. wherein many Christian Churches and Chappels were ruin'd and when almost rebuilt by the piety of the Christians were commanded to be thrown down by the Turks as contrary to their Law Now since they dare not meet in any other places Christianity must necessarily wear out with the Walls of their Churches which they dare not so much as repair and indeed considering the ignorance of the Greeks and Arabians the conservation of the Christian Faith is to be attributed to the strict observation of Fasts and Feasts If Sir said I our true Protestants who in the late times abolisht them were but to put in their helping hand I perceive by what you last said That they with the Turks would blot out the very memory of Christianity from off the face of the Earth if it were possible for men or Devils to do it but after all methinks 't is very strange that they should wish themselves under the protection of the Grand Seignior for fear of Arbitrary Government You will think so said he if you will take a small Journey with me With all my Heart Sir said I and with that methoughts I followed him a great way through many subterranean windings and turnings until at last I espied the light of the day through a hole at a great distance and as soon as we were got into open Air I have brought you said He this way to avoid the Confines of Hungary which are neither pleasant nor safe by reason of the present Wars But now you are in Turky come mount with me this winged Steed he 'll out-do either Pegasus or Pacolet and carry you swift as thought can flie and we shall survey the present State of it in a small time We went indeed very swiftly yet I was amaz'd considering the noise of their vast Armies to see such desolate Wildernesses to see those rich Countries so famous of old for their strength and glory now nothing but vast Desarts to see almost all Judea a barren Rock excepting some little shaded Valleys that were green and so much of those Countries of Greece so famous for Husbandry and Pastorals under the Heathens lye overgrown and untill'd Religion quite banisht from the one and Learning from the other the High-waies indeed had some numbers of People upon them and their Caravansera's or Publick Inns but their room was better than their Company the Cities some of them large and populous but withal old and ruinous and the Inhabitants rude and barbarous the Janizaries insulting over the natural Turks and all over the miserable Christians You see now said He what a Curse a Tyrannical Government is to mankind and what a vast Part of the best Habitable World it has blasted The Grand Seignior is the most absolute Monarch that is or ever was in any Age and has one thing peculiar to his Government which never was known before in the World which makes him so prodigal of the Lives of his Soldiers and that is this He is absolute Lord of all the Lands of his Empire and all his Timariots hold of him in Capite for which they serve in the Wars if he loses his men in Battel Sieges or any other chances of War He gets by their death all New-comers being obliged to renew their Leases with a considerable summ of money and the oftener they fall the more he gets whatever in the frame of his Government seems commendable as the speedy execution of Justice c. is by chance out of necessity and depending upon the various Humours of his Tyrannising Slaves their Common Law if I may call it so signifying little or nothing and they all at his will the Policie of his Government still argues the Misery of his Subjects and infamous Lusts of the Great Ones the extreme wants of the Poor and the perpetual dangers of them all make up their whole lives and 't is under this unlimited Tyrants Banners the Teckelites of Hungary sight and the true Protestants of England wish success to his Arms whose Lust twenty Nations cannot satisfie nor twenty Kingdoms his Gluttony who ravishes and deflowrs from the Danube to Tigris and from the Desarts of Libya to the Forests of Russia They take the same course Sir said I to be free from Arbitrary Government by Turcism as from Popery by Jesuitism But pray let us away for England for I have had enough of Turky With all my Heart replied He but by the way You see what are the consequences of Schism and Separation you see how under the pretence of avoiding those Ceremonies which they themselves count indifferent in the Church of England they would take Sanctuary in a Turkish Mosque and be contented to mingle with the impurest Vnbelievers rather than join in Communion with us and when they have done stand it out and justifie it in the face of Heaven and Earth I protest it quite confounds me but that Epiphanius tells us of Hereticks Haer. 18. that boasted of their Kindred with Cain and the Sodomites and Judas and said That they only were indued with wisdom from on high And I have read of the Beguardi a sort of scrupulous Buffoons in the XIV Century that held
disconsolate but as soon as they saw him they cry'd Welcome thou Man of God! Yea very welcome art thou unto us How hast thou been preserved in these dayes of tribulation Indeed said he the persecution waxeth hot against the people of the Lord the great Dragon is broken loose with his long tail and vomits out whole floods of Popish Holy-water after the Woman in travail the hunting Nimrods pursue us the Folds are broken down and the Sheep are scattered I am come therefore to refresh ye O ye scattered Flocks and since ye cannot hear the Gospel pray read it in these godly Bukes Here likewise take these holy things here is S. Russel ' s Picture and a Sliver of the Deal Board spotted with his Blood shed for the Good Old Cause Here is likewise the Picture of S. Sydney with an Inch of his Cane and here are the works of Mr. Baxter and Mr. Doolittle with their Effigies These are excellent Antidotes against the Powers of Popery and the Charms of Antichrist Oh ye pretty little Lambs that cry Meigh Meigh with earnest longings and groanings Here is Milk for Babes and Meats for Strong Men in four and twenty Sermons when ye have digested these the Man of Sin will never be able to prevail over the Babe of Grace In exchange for this Trash they privately crowded three or four Guinea's into his hand which he meekly took with his leave at the same time But one of them was so overwhelmed with grief and trouble for his going away that her sighs interrupted her speech for a long time at last a few broken sentences burst out and she cryed Oh how the Vision ceaseth and the Prophets prophesie not In the midst of this great Agony a Bramble-Bush chanc'd to catch hold on a deep Lace on her Petticoat and made a great Rent in it Good God! what an alteration was there in a moment She fell a scolding and railing at her Maid that followed waiting upon her as if she had been bewitch'd calling her all the ugly Names her fury could suggest as if by her carelesness she had been the cause of it when again spying us and fearing that we over-heard her she as artificially chang'd her Note Thou simple Wench thou dundernoles quoth she somewhat more softly and with a smile Canst thou not find the Chapter Fie Mary fie here take the Bible again look the Eleventh Chapter to the Hebrews and at the Thirty Seventh Verse there thou shalt find an account of our sufferings At this a little Old Man that stood behind her burst out a laughing and looking on me Don't this place of Scripture said he daintily suit their present Garb and Conditions Don't these look as if they wandered about in Sheep-skins and Goat-skins You may soon imagine how much they are destitute afflicted or tormented These are the genteelest mourners in Zion that ever I met with all of them in the newest fashion I believe truly these Martyrs are more troubled about their Taylors than about their Executioners Well I little thought to find the women of England dissatisfied of all others in the world I am sure their freedoms and priviledges are so extraordinarily great that were there a Bridge from Calais to Dover we should have them scamper hither in throngs from all parts of Europe and had the last great Frost but lasted so long and sharp as to have laid all the Waters betwixt those two places they would have scrambled over in shoals though they had sopt their Constitutions to some purpose Sir said I to him if you fully understood the Humours of some of the people of this Nation and the happiness they enjoy you would say that the men have as little reason to be turbulent and mutinous as the women to be Peevish and Discontented They have less reason to be so said he than any people under the Heavens I think I have seen most of the Nations of Europe and when I consider the singular advantages of peace and plenty which you here enjoy it infinitely aggravates the base Ingratitude of a stubborn and factious Generation of men among you that endeavour to subvert so excellent a Government and to disturb the peace of so noble ond flourishing a Kingdom To deal freely with you I am a Jew by Birth I was born at Lublin in Poland but by the grace of God I am now a Christian and I confess to you that the happy condition of the Christians of the Reformed Church of England is a sufficient Argument fully to confirm me in my Conversion For besides the removal of those prejudices which the Church of Rome gives us by their Pictures and Images I find the People of England far to exceed the Ancient Israelites in all Temporal Blessings even in the most prosperous Times wherein they possest the Land of Canaan First In the Situation For besides the old Inhabitants of the Land that were left to be * Judg. 2. v. 3. thorns in their sides they were encompassed with Enemies round about besides the Philistines they had the Assyrians the Aegyptians the Aromites the Edomites the Moabites and Amorites nay the Tribe of Asher that bordered along the Sea Coasts were never Masters of Sidon But they were governed by their own Magistrates as was Tyre till taken by Alexander or rifled by Nebuchadnezzar to no purpose sometimes before But you have the Seas not only open unto you for traffick but around about you for a Guard and Defence and I look that the Union of the Kingdom of Scotland to England might prove as great a Blessing to Great Britain as the separation and revolt of the Ten Tribes was a Curse and Calamity to the whole Body of the Israelites in General 'T is true Boccalin tells us That in his Time when England was in the Scales that it weighed some hundreds of thousands of grains less after Scotland was added to it than it did before But you know what Devil it was that plaied that paradoxical Gambol it was the frothy Spirit of Light headed Fanaticism which is in such a fair way to be Conjur'd down or Blow'n off that it will prove heavy enough to some body over the Water one of these daies If I be not mistaken In the mean time well might one speaking of the Bloody designs of the Jesuits Nov. 5th say of Great Britain * Barclai de Conj Ang. Non videbatur posse Tentari fundamentum tam bene vallati Imperii That it did not seem possible that the foundation of an Empire so well intrencht could ever be shaken But England exceeds the Land of Canaan Secondly In all manner of plenty though it does not feed such vast numbers of people for the small Circuit of Ground yet her Valleys are like Eden her Hills like Lebanon her Springs like Pisgah a Land which not only injoys those Blessings in the fullest extent which God promised to the most exact Obedience of the Israelites But by its successful
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
Attempt do it for us Pray Sir said he What did you expect would be the consequence of that Bills passing Why said the Jesuit we in a short time would have made the Kingdom of England Elective and this would have dissolv'd the Hereditary lineal Descent for ever for by that Precedent we had never wanted some excuse or other for a Bill of Exclusion which would have been of greater Authority than all the Antiquated and disparate instances which Doleman hath gathered from all History And then we should have removed the greatest Obstacle in the world to our affairs by setting up Kings of another Family in opposition to the true Hereditary Line which was the advice of Campanella a great many years ago and it was wise Counsel then and wiser now For First That Family is so mortally and justly incens'd against us that we can never expect that they will ever trust or be reconcil'd unto us Secondly The Profits Honours and security which that Royal Family according to the Laws of the present Establisht Government injoys and to which it has a fundamental Right are greater than any Prince that is a Roman Catholick can have were it not for the disturbances we give them by making Factions and Divisions among the People And Thirdly The People of England under the Rules of that Government and the protection of that Royal Family enjoy such advantages not only of Riches but of Knowledge and good Conversation that all the little Monastical Arts and Devices of Monks and Friars can never over-reach or impose upon them but if we could ruine that Family their Government would soon fall and nothing would more effectually have done it than the Bill of Exclusion had it passed Well! and What then reply'd the Gentleman looking a little sternly upon him Why then said he England should have been an Island of Jesuits An Island of Devils said the Gentleman frowning You will never have done until you have ruin'd us our condition was pretty tolerable before such perfidious Traytors as you are justly provok't the Government to which you have been so injurious to Enact severe Laws and Statutes against us 'T is you that have imbroil'd all the rest of Christendom and now you envy that so small a spot of ground should injoy the blessings of Peace For by this infernal stratagem you would again involve us in the miserable Confusions of Civil Wars that so no part of the Earth may be free from your wickedness and no place in Hell too hot for your reward What do you mean Sir said the Jesuit What! are you turn'd Heretick No Sir replyed he I acknowledge that I am a Roman Catholick yet I detest such barbarous and unnatural Doctrines and Practices the very Venemous Conceptions of Father Parsons who was not only the worst of Jesuits but a Bastard to boot and I have here with me a poor Indian Savage that can indeed speak English but has scarceshak't of his Soot and Grease and is just polisht enough for the common Civilities of life and I dare venture my reputation that as soon as you shall acquaint him with and make him understand such a Proposition that he will naturally abhor and condemn it All this while there stood waiting behind him a tall man of a true Philomot complexion but a very lusty Fellow Coâ—â—â— Come hither said the Gentleman his Master come hither to this man At this he fell a shuddering and went backwards so that his Master stept to him and took him by the Arm but then he drew back until his breech almost toucht the ground spreading out his hands and staring like a wild Bull. I pray Master said he I am afraid indeed I am not Christian enough yet What do you mean Sirrah said his Master Is not this Sir said he Tanto Tanto said the Jesuit What is that That is replyed the Gentleman the Devil or the Tempter but Coâ—â—â— Why do you fancy this man to be Tanto Why then he is a Presbyterian Christian as you call 'um and I tell you why I am afraid of him My Father knowing that I was tamper'd with one of them like this man at Boston in New England beat me almost to death for it telling me that he would learn me to kill my Father and to kill my King Well Corëe said his Master tell me one thing do you Indians love your King And do you love his Son for his sake And when your King dies and goes to the Green Fields behind the Hills has his Son his Matts his Skins his Canoes his Feathers his Bracelets and all his fine things Yes yes said he All All. And if the King said his Master has no Sons do you Indians love his Brother if he has one O yes said he and his Brother has all his Whigwhams his Womans all all and then we go lay our hands on our knees and he laies his head on his shoulders and then we sing and dance and go out to sight for him and to hunt for him and indeed if it were not for our Kings we should utterly destroy one another Now although the Massachusetes are several Nations yet every one takes their Kings part and do what he commands and honour him as much as he can and so keep together and defend one another Nor is it only the Custome of the Massachusetes in New England but the Paroisti ' s in Florida are honoured so too When English men came first to New England our people used to say that King James was a good King and his God a good God but our Tanto naught But when they heard that they killed that Kings Son when he came to be King they said that they were all Tanto's and could not endure them but said that you sent thither the worst Christians you had for in all places the Indians love their Kings and his Brothers and his Sons and do but ask those that have a Plantation call'd New York and they will give you a better account than I can for I was very young when I came first among the English That place replyed the Gentleman is so called from his Royal Highness the chief Proprietor and then turning to his Indian hark you Corëe thou art Christian enough to incounter that Tanto Devil therefore beat him soundly and tell him I bid you do so The Jesuit seeing the Indian coming up to him in good earnest began to run for it however he soon overtook him and gave him half a dozen American Complements with his Indian Bill in exchange for his Bill of Exclusion As soon as they were gone I am very glad Sir said I to see this Jesuit so disappointed I do not question Sir said he but you may find a great many called Roman Catholicks of my mind as to the Doctrine of Submission and Obedience to the Civil Magistrate And I do declare that I from the bottom of my heart do abhor all Traiterous Positions and Practices tending to
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