Captivity the Changes of their Government it had as it were a veil drawn over it and became obscure to them as to the Time of his Coming In short the giving the Jews a King was the greatest Blessing and the taking him away the greatest Curse the one the Righteous Ordinance of God the other his just Judgment But Sir said I they will say What signifies the Jewish Government to us Protestants Protestants said he do they call themselves Mahomet has not more corrupted the History than they the scope and design of the Old Testament where and when it may serve their turn How many hundred Sermons have they preach'd against Monarchy from this instance of the Israelites asking a King the deluded people swallowing these impudent Falsifications with so much greediness that they would gobble down Goliah for one of the Minor Prophets if one of these lying ones did but bid them gape and thus much it signifies to those True Protestants that if it was a sin in the Israelites at that time to ask a King it is ten times more a sin in the people of England at this day to ask or seek after a Commonwealth for these three reasons First Because under the Gospel there are particular and especial Commands for our Obedience to The King as Supreme and consequently for our continuance in that Obedience but there was no prohibition under the Law positively forbidding the Jews to ask a King but there was a certain Promise that they should be governed by Kings Secondly Because after the full Revelation of Gods will the ordinary course of his Providence joyned with the foresaid Apostolical and Evangelical Precept is as obliging and binding as all the Miracles he wrought under the Theocracy of the ancient Israelites though I think the Preservation of the Kings of England of late dayes have been little less Miraculous Thirdly Because such disobedience of which deposing him and altering the frame of his Government is the highest is threatned with a greater Curse and Punishment than the Breach of all or any of the Laws of Moses even with Damnation in that sense wherein it is threatned to the Scribes and Pharisees the scrupulous observers of small things of that Law whilest they neglected the greater ones of Judgment c. But Sir said I they have as much abused the sense and meaning of the New Testament as they have the scope and design of the Old You may cloy them with Repetitions of Arguments and endless Quotations out of both of them and all to no purpose You may tell them that God shadows the rewards of Heaven with what he accounts most excellent upon Earth with Crowns Scepters Thrones and Robes of Glory That to fill us with an awful sense and veneration of the excellency of his Eternal Majesty He stiles himself King of kings and Lord of lords that Heaven is his Throne and Earth his footstool You may tell them that by him Kings reign and Princes decree Justice That they are stiled gods and are his Vicegerents who is the God of all gods That Treason is a very great sin and the breach of all the Commandments because the highest offence against him who is Custos utriusque Tabulae that beareth not the Sword in vain but is to execute wrath upon all them that do evil by the breach of any of them But it will be in vain they will be deaf as Adders and still Rebellious as the old Serpent You may urge them with the Laws of Nature and Nations you may tell them that there never was any Language spoken under Heaven that have not some word or other signifying the Supreme Power in a single Person That the very Heathens acknowledged this power to be derived from God and still 't is much more in vain when the Atheist cannot do the Business of the Rebel the Fanatick shall and when the Fanatick cannot the Atheist shall and when neither of them the Politician The Politician said he what kind of Politician do you mean The Politician said I I here speak of is a stranger Monster than any Beast of America He is a Composition of Fool and Knave of Hawk and Buzzard Atheist and Fanatick Beast and Devil in the shape of a Man His Father begat Him being at enmity with his Mother when the Bells rung backward for a great fire in a deep Snow One that never was long of one mind nor ever a friend to any one body He quarrel'd with his Milk Porrage the very first Breath he drew to cool it beat his elder Brother by surprize gave his Sisters black eyes pist in his Mothers mouth when she was fast asleep and oft-times pull'd the Chair from behind his Aged Father when he was going to sit down These were the Domestick stratagems of his Childhood But no sooner is He come to Years of Rebellion but you see him as rampant in Publick He finds fault with every Ordinance of God and man He is for knocking down of Monarchs pulling Lawn Sleeves over the ears of Bishops Altering and Changing the Government and all this while thinks himself wondrous wise and very Holy And now his Freak is come to full Maturity He lies cheats is perjur'd writes and fights ventures to be Hang'd and then Damn'd And now what do you think of him Is not such an heterogeneous Buffoon fit to make Laws for others who would never be govern'd himself Is he not a dainty projector to model the World and of full growth to become the Perpetual Dictator of all mankind the standing Oracle of the Times and in opposition to the wisdom and experience of twenty Ages to prescribe new forms of Government for three Nations and oblige them in all hast to become a Commonwealth who have been rul'd by Kings for above a thousand years Your very Character of him said he has already set my teeth on edge and so no more of him But I must tell you that there has been so much said and written in defence of Monarchy that a man might talk his Tongue to the stumps in the repetition of other mens Arguments And the Inconveniencies of Aristocracy and Democracy are so notorious that they were no News above two thousand years ago Old Aristotle hath so sufficiently described them in his Book of Politicks that we gather from thence that He sooner found out the Madness of the people than the Raging of the Sea But one would think that that Government for Christians should be the most Authentick which God for the Jews thought most convenient More than one would think said I that men should most of all desire to continue under that form of Government under which by all variety of experience they have been most happy And if Seignior Boccalini would be pleased to lend us his Ballance with which He weighed the Kingdoms and States of Europe I dare venture to confute all the Republicans upon Earth with this one Experiment Let them put into one
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
multitude when they shall be called to answer before Kings and Rulers for his sake Besides even wicked Kings are the just Judgements of God and shall we fight against his Judgements We may no more remove a wicked Prince by murder than seek to asswage the Pestilence by Idolatry but this wicked and ungodly Maxim is never more preach't and proclaim'd abroad than when there is the least reason for it even whilst we are under Religious Kings and Governours However 't is at all times most Diabolically impious because diametrically contrary to the plainest sense of the word of God in which we are taught that by him Kings Reign and Princes decree Justice By him Princes rule and Nobles even All the Judges of the Earth Secondly This Proposition is impious and false because the Kings of England do not derive either their power or form of Government from the People All the Objections about Contracts Covenants Coronation-Oaths c. come at last to this consequence that then God Almighty himself has a less right of Dominion over us because he condescends to incourage our Obedience to him by the Grants and Promises he makes in his Covenant with us For by him and for him do the Kings of this Realm rule over us and from him they receive all that power and goodness which they as his Ministers to us for good communicate unto the People and indeed they have been Ministers to us for good in reducing us from the Barbarism of Heathenish Picts to become the most civiliz'd Nation and best Christians in the world For let but any man without the squint-ey'd malice of Doleman and his Disciples peruse the Chronicles of England and he will find that the people thereof are under God beholding to their Kings for all the good they injoy at this day it may be truly said of the Ancient Britains Populus nullis Legibus tenebatur Arbitria principum pro Legibus erant 'T was Lucius the first Christian King in all the World that sent to Rome for the unvaluable Treasures of the Gospel which he set the higher price upon by his own pious and illustrious example 'T was he chang'd the Arch-Flamins and Flamins and all that mockery of Heathenisin wherein the Devil pretended to ape the Divine Institutions into Arch-Bishopricks and Bishopricks long before the name of a Rebellious Presbyter or of a persidious Jesuit was known upon the face of the Earth 'T was Alfred the Saxon but Christian King of England that divided this whole Realm into Shires those Shires into Lathes Rapes or Ridings those again into Wapentakes or Hundreds those again into Boroughs and then as Jethro advis'd Moses set over them c. 'T was Edward the Confessor that like Justinian collected the Laws that were dispersed into one Body But said the Politician again interrupting me Were they not Laws before he put them in order Without doubt said I they were not until allow'd of by his Predecessors although perhaps they were never inroll'd But hark you Sir I will thank you and so shall all my Neighbours if you can shew me a Copy of the Grant of the People to this King wherein they impowered him to cure them of that nauseous Disease the Struma and when you have done I will as easily prove that they gave the Levites of old power to heal the Leprosie and when I have done I will take care that it shall not be called the Kings Evil but the Peoples Evil for the future But don't so frivolously interrupt me How can the King derive his Power from the People when all Power is originally under God from him The People indeed sometimes chose their subordinate Magistrates as the May or of a City and this choice designs the Person but does not confer the Power which descends by virtue of the Kings Charter and therefore are said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as are sent by him and Lambard in his Archion or Commentary upon the High Courts of Justice in England learnedly derives all the Lay and mixed Courts of Records from the Crown their Original and saies moreover that whatever power is by him that is the King committed over unto other men the same nevertheless remaineth still in himself for as Bracton saith well Rex habet Ordinariam Jurisdictionem omnia jura in Manu sua quae nec ita delegari possunt quin ordinaria remaneant cum ipso Rege Though the Great Council of the Nation to which He gives life may by the same sacred Breath be dissolv'd yet the King never dies and all other inferiour Courts Civil or Ecclesiastical derive their Power from the King by which as well the Sovereign's goodness to the People as that he derives not his Power from them is very manifest Henry the Third granted unto his Subjects that great Charter wherein he Ordained thus * Communia 9 Hen. 3. Placita non sequantur Curiam nostram sed teneantur in aliquo certo Loco Yet the Kings Power is not diminished though Himself and his People thereby both eas'd I might confirm what I defend with innumerable Instances but once I say for all That the Liberties the Priviledges the Power the People have is from this that the King has not his power from them For Thirdly This Proposition is impious and false because the most ready way to Tyranny King Charles the First died a Martyr for the People for their Liberties and Properties and Our Gracious Sovereign King Charles the II. restored them but how long might they have whistled for them had Cromwell's or any other Family continued the Vsurpation About the Year 1410. John de Medicis stoutly maintaining the Liberties of the People of Florence against the Nobles first setled that Soveraignty over them that they pay excise for Herbs and Sallads and but that the Princes of Tuscany have generally prov'd mild and good there is not the least scrit of a Law or compact to limit them For the people who alwaies do such things in a heat and hurry never trouble their heads about such Contracts and Compacts as our santastical Politicians dream of But why is this Proposition so frequently started under so gracious a Prince and so good a Government Oh! without doubt to settle the Nation Why at this Time a-day do we puzzle our heads with prying into the remotest times of darkest Ignorance and Barbarism for an unnecessary uncertainty Oh! by all means to establish Christs Throne But must Christ's Throne be establish't by appealing to the People Was he ever so revil'd in his three Offices before To the People Who it seems need him not in his Prophets to instruct them they can preach to themselves who it seems need him not in his Priests to interceed for them because they can pray for themselves who it seems need him not in his Kings to rule them for they can govern themselves Was he ever so revil'd by people that call themselves Christians Such Doctrine is more suitable
But the Kings of England need not to trouble themselves about the knowledge of their Successors by seeking to Magicians since God by his ordinary Providence in the course of Nature and by the Fundamental Laws of this Hereditary Monarchy has indisputably determin'd and appointed them which is certainly the best Law both for Prince and People for if Tully said * de Legibus Nos Legem bonam à mala nullâ aliâ ratione nisi naturae norma dividere possumus We cannot distinguish a good Law from a bad one by any other Rule than that of Nature We may conclude that to be the Best of all Laws which to the Fundamental Law of Nature has the additional Authority of the grace of God It being thus much the right of the Princes of the English Blood Royal to succeed in the right Hereditary Line both according to the Law of God and Nature How great is the injustice as well as the inconvenience of excluding or debarring any one of them upon any pretence especially upon such an one as will not justifie any private man to disinherit his next Heir at Law Among the Romans there was no such thing as an Entail Yet in the Civil Law †Sir Rob. Wiseman's Law of Laws p. 141. if a Child were quite left out of his Fathers Will or were especially disinherited but without any Cause mention'd or upon such a Cause as the Law did not allow of Or if upon a Legal Cause yet not such as was true in fact the Will was void and null How then shall a Prince of the English Blood Royal who has his right from God and the Feudal Laws be precluded from that Right upon an illegal Cause contrary to the Fundamental Laws of this Realm contrary to the essential reasons and ends of Parliament contrary to that very Oath by which every member is inabled and qualified to sit in it contrary to the Oaths and Obligations of all the Subjects of this Monarchy of what quality or condition soever they be contrary to the last Words and Will of King Charles the First How can any Act or Ordinance be valid and not ipso facto void and null that should be made to preclude him I wonder that any English Gentleman that has the least veneration for the memory of that good King should go about to preclude his Second Son 'T is certain that they who cut off the Fathers Head will not scruple to cut off the Entail from the Son But I marvel much that men professing so great a Veneration for that glorious Prince should do it contrary to his last Will and words to his third Son the Duke of Glocester Mark what I say Child you must not be a King so long as your Brothers Charles and James do live But above all 't is very strange that such a motion should be made against a Prince that has signaliz'd his love and kindness in so many dangers to his Countrey his compassion to many people in distress his Charity to his Foes his Fidelity to his Friends insomuch that his Enemies lay his vertues to his charge instead of Crimes and like Owls quarrel with the Sun that dazzles them 'T is strange that such a Prince the Son of such a Father that has apparently such unquestionable right and who has given such assurance for the safety and prosperity of the Church of England should be debarr'd from that right by such an illegal Plea as that of Presumptive Popery Presumptive Popery said the Jesuit in Presbyterian disguise Well! Is it only presumptive Hark you Sir I pray said he to the Excluder I think the most part of Your Estate is in Abby Lands it is so indeed reply'd he and I have been told that at Rome they have the Terriers of every foot of ground that did formerly belong to their Monasteries and Nunneries So I have heard reply'd the Jesuit they are a pack of subtle Knaves and they do hope to recover them again or else they would not Plot and Contrive so damnably as they do Well! well reply'd he We shall defeat their designs and cut off all their hopes if we can but get the Bill of Exclusion to pass we need not fear them For 't is certain that if he comes to be King they expect that he should bring in Popery I think your Lands about your Seat did formerly belong to a sort of Monks they call'd Benedictines I will say that of the Jesuits to give the Devil his due that they have not those Secular ends in converting England to the Church of Rome which other Priests and Monks have for they have no Lands to recover as others have but if you follow your business you may keep your Lands long enough for all the Papists Come Sir be not troubled about it I thought you had been a man of a better Spirit What shall I give you for 1000. Acres when Popery comes in Prithee reply'd he What do you take me for do you think that I am afraid of them I do so little fear them that give me but one Guinea down and I will be bound to let you have every Acre of those Grounds for sixpence an Acre that day they come to demand them Done Done reply'd the Jesuit I 'le try what metal you are of so a Bargain was concluded and they merrily parted As soon as he was gone another that had been an Excluder came in very melancholy and walking about the Room in a pensive posture How now Sir said the Jesuit to him Pray what is it that troubles you Are you grieved that you cannot get the Bill to pass the House of Lords In truth Sir reply'd he I had rather have given half my Estate than that ever it was brought into the House of Commons I am sure a great many Gentlemen more are of my mind pox on 't that a man should be so damnably wheedled by a pack of Knaves and Fools I think I shall have a care of being heated again as long as I live I think there is some Magical Vapours and Damps that infatuate a man sometimes in that House You see now Sir said he what becomes of the Jesuits Plot it was a fair stalking-Horse for the Fanaticks to go a Blunderbuzzing with If the Devil had them all reply'd the Gentleman it were not a farthing matter we honest Gentlemen shall never be quiet until they are all hang'd No more you will not truly said the Jesuit turning from him with a smile and going to a Gentleman that was walking in the Garden we followed him At the first meeting pray what news Sir said the Gentleman Oh! Sir said he we are all utterly undone I just now understand that the Bill of Exclusion is thrown out by the House of Lords so that all the whole Scheme of our designs is broken and nothing now but silence and forgetfulness must do our business unless the Presbyterians and Independents by some extravagant
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
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
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
his people So sayes the Authour of Plato Redivivus said I but he does not think so Believe me in the Ballotting Vrns are buried all the Liberties of the common people of Venice they are there so far from chusing a Soveraign that they cannot chuse a Gentleman and never by any art merit or industry become one But the meanest Subjects of England have one advantage which no Democracy in the World much less the Aristocracy of Venice ever afforded That by their vertues they sometimes arrive from the lowest condition to an higher Sphere of Splendor Honour and Riches than any Commonwealth upon Earth affords I know some have argued for a Commonwealth from the great successes and long continuance of that Government but they who look into the Original of it will find better reasons from the place and Situation from the occasions of its being inhabited why it should fall into that Model than why any others especially the Monarchy of England should condescend and conform to it But the Authour of Plato Redivivus would have it so or else He loses his longing I wonder in this hatching Age that no Politick Fop ever yet stood up and demanded or propos'd that the Kings of England should be acknowledged by the same odd and fantastical Ceremonies with which the Arch-Duke of Austria is confirm'd in his Dukedom of Carinthia For there is nothing so ridiculous nothing so dangerous as our Modern Hereticks and Politicians do not now-adaies assert Therefore Sir let me as a Friend advise you to keep your Politicks to yourself You may frame and model in your Study as long as you please without breaking your shins but if you put them either in writing or practice you will indanger the breaking your Neck And suppose you escape that you may chance to meet with those if you have one Grain of honour or sense lest you that will break either your brains or your heart But if your head be so full of Politicks e'en petition Jupiter to pluck thee up an Island somewhere in the Atlantick Ocean as He is seign'd to have done Delos for the Birth of Apollo there thou maist be delivered of thy Politick Conceptions for I do not know any part of the Earth that hath long peep'd over the surface of the Waters that will be plagued with them I say e'en petition Jove for such a restless Varlet as thou art art not fit to pray to the God of the Christians whose Vicegerent thou hast debas'd and whose Ministers thou hast vilified What Religion you are of I cannot tell but by your recommending to us the Dmocratical Government of old Rome I am apt to believe that you would bring us under the Jesuitical Discipline of the new This was the advice of Parsons the Jesuit alias Doleman and of his Confederates in his High Court of Memorials for Reformation of England at Sevil in Spain Anno 1590. as Watson a Secular Priest relates in his Quodlibets p. 94 95. And of Tho. Campanella an Italian Friar who in his Book de Monarchia Hispanica c. 25. p. 204. informs the King of Spain That nothing will so much conduce to weaken the English as dissention and discord sown among them First by Instigating the swaying men in the Parliament House Vt Angliam in Formam Reipublicae reducant in Imitationem Hollandorum To reduce England into a form of a Commonwealth in Imitation of the Hollanders But they value not what sort of Commonwealth whether Dutch or Venetian they model us to so that at last they may but obtain their Ends of ruining our present establisht Government For my part Sir I wonder that any English man of common sense should be cajol'd to admire the Politicks of every whiffling Rascal who under the name of a true Protestant is managing the most malicious Designs of our inveterate Enemies the Jesuits I wonder that any man of the least reason and experience should not dread the desperate Hazzards that inseparably attend every change and revolution in Government the Restitution indeed of this Monarchy after the late Civil Wars was the greatest wonder that I meet with in all History since Dominion was founded on Earth considering that it was done without Violence or Bloodshed but it never was nor ever will be chang'd without numberless Deaths and Calamities and suppose it should be done what would the People of England get by being in the same Condition they were in twenty five Years ago Or which the common people of Holland are in at this day who pay Customs for Foggs and Damps and are Tax'd for Quartane Agues and who have nothing cheap among them but Heresie and Schism I confess you have a great deal of reason to admire the Fundamental Immunities and Priviledges of the Venetians because very rare in a Christian Commonwealth for they may whore and be clapt according to Law and go to the Conventicles of Venus without any great danger of persecution for Righteousness sake But how in the mean Time is this Liberty of the people consistent with the Purity of the Gospel for which you so strenuously stickle and make a noise Oh pray pardon me I forgot that you are a Politician a Politician that is for obliging mankind with vertues a-la-mode and Morality and Divinity of the newest fashion you Politicians hate the old dull phlegmatick grey-beard Apostolical Rules you are for spick and span new Riddles and Paradoxes and therefore Sir to oblige you I will tell you a piece of news What is that said he I am heartily sorry Sir said I for the great loss you particularly had four thousand years ago What an hard case was it that the Records of Sodom and Gomorrha should be so unluckily burnt Without doubt you would have gathered things of great Moment from them and might have gratified a great many of your true Protestant Friends with surprising relations of the great Liberties and Priviledges of those people of which we have a small hint by the memorable clutter they made about Lots door Gen. 19. vers 4. And such a rabble of Catamites would most properly have raised the Ghost of Plato from the dead who was so notorious a Sodomite when alive You are a railing prating Boy reply'd he who values your Judgment that have nothing of solid Learning or substantial Politicks in you You are a paltry quibbling insignificant Black Coat Before I could answer him Hobbs took courage and fell in with him pellmell calling me Pedantical Academick His Vniversity-Learning said he has quite spoil'd him and for want of my reasonings and conclusions he is no better than a dull pragmatical Ideot But yonder is a grave serious and Ancient learned man I will be judg'd by him Ay! and so will I too replyed Nevil For He is one of our Friends an Holy man and a good Commonwealths man a great Enemy to Tyranny Ay to Popery too said Hobbs I followed them and at some distance I espied Mr. Richard Baxter walking
I will thank them and confess my sin to all the world but Malicious railings I take for Rebellions themselves I shall not regard I will not rail on Mr. Baxter replyed Seignior Chr. for 't is a difficult thing to nickname Schism Sedition Murther and Treason but this I must say of his writings If they were made hangings to his House of Office as Olivers Porters Papers are to his Cell he might do himself the kindness of hiding the one side of them that contradict the other for certainly no man living ever gave himself the lie so often or complemented himself into so many titles of Infamy in one breath since the world began no man ever took so much pains to justifie himself as Baxter has to expose and condemn himself For would you know what sin he is most guilty of that is so ready to make his Confession 't is certainly that which he most declaims against how dangerous a thing in his most serious Meditations upon these his superfine Politicks saies he is pride of heart When once it grows to an enormous height it will make men swell with self conceit and think none so fit to govern Countries and Nations as they nor any so fit to teach the Church nor any so meet to judge what is good or evil to the Commonwealth This he saies at the end of that Book wherein he dogmatically prescribes rules of Polity for the State as since he has done for the Church in opposition to all the rules of Modesty and Obedience and contrary to all the Laws of God and man To conclude for all Mr. Baxter's pretences to Gods glory and the increase of Religion these his impracticable whimsies would be so far from procuring that good to this Nation which he promises to himself and pretends to us that they would certainly over-run us with Enthusiastick Knaves and Hypocrites and from Elihu in Job we may learn the fatal consequences of his ridiculous Politicks for we gather from Job 34. 30. that He maketh an hypocrite to reign when he is minded to scourge a sinful people We have learn't said I dear friend we have sufficiently learnt the truth of this by late and sad experience we have found the wicked and dismal Conclusions of this and other villanous Maxims of Fanatical and Hypocritical Policy for twenty years together wherein the Courts of Justice were fill'd with Violence and Oppression the Churches with Sacriledge and Blasphemy the Earth with the dead bodies and Hell with the souls of Rebells wherein there was more wickedness committed in this one Island than in all the world besides so that Foreigners said that the King of England was King of Devils and I will swear that there is none to compare with the white ones THE Third VISION OF GOVERNMENT The CONTENTS 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 Driginally from the People The extreme villany and folly of this Proposition throughly examined and by a Civiliz'd Cannibal condemn'd The Second That Birth-right 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 Soveraign in securing to this Monarchy the right and lineal descent of the Crown THE more haste the worse speed cry'd a blundering Fellow that stumbled upon me and had almost beaten me down Whither so fast friend what is your business said Seignior Christiano to him I am upon life and death Sir said he pray don't stop or stay me I am going for Cordials for a matter of forty or fifty people in the next room that are all ready to swoon and dye away This broke off our discourse and we hastened immediately to know what was the matter and who they were At our first entrance how wonderfully was I surpriz'd to see Hobbs and Boxter Knox and Buchanan Hunt and Gilby Milton and the Jesuits sitting all together like friends but in a very disconsolate posture Some complained of grievous pains in the Spleen others were sick at the Heart but all of them were most dismally tormented in their heads Whilst I stood looking on them I can tell you what they all ail said a Gentleman to me whom I took to be a Physician I can tell what they ail without feeling their pulses do but follow me He open'd a door which led us into a Court like that of the Scholes at Oxford in the midst of it there was a great Fire and an Officer very solemnly threw a great number of Books into it These are said the Gentleman the Books and Writings containing those infamous Heretical and Blasphemous Propositions which that famous Vniversity condemn'd and sentenc'd in their Convocation July 21. 1683. upon the discovery of the late Hellish Conspiracy And those men you just now past by are Fanatical Wizards who are in pain whilst their charms of Rebellion are burning but yonder Fellow is giving them a refreshing Cordial made of a composition of Impudence Contradiction and Obstinacy and you shall see them all recover themselves immediately What he said prov'd true for Hunt grew presently as brisk as a Body-Louse and smiling and turning himself round about It is very certain said he good people that these Protestant Subjects namely the Dissenters have cheerfully given their Assistance to the support of the Government It is well known that they are an Industrious Trading People that willingly pay whatsoever Taxes the Law requires And it is remarkable that no people ever exprest a greater zeal to oppose the various attacques of a Foreign Anti-spiritual Power than these Dissenters And could I know any one of them that would shrink from his Princes service when his Royal Person and Government are menaced I would esteem him not only a Fool but a Traytor to boot We are very much beholden to you indeed reply'd Seignior Christiano a smart fellow truly I think you wrote the Postscript not long before and what you now say is in a Book entitled Compulsion of Conscience condemn'd and that came out a little after the discovery of the late Conspiracy and would you call him a Traytor Surely Judas himself never look'd damnation in the fate with half that impudence with which the Author of the Postscript has done Hell it self within an inch of the Gallows and thus to justifie his or their pretended Innocency out-does him that hang'd himself and so confest his Treachery What Devil said he turning towards us can trace these Infernal Changlings who if their villany succeeds are Righteous if it miscarries are Innocent Indeed Sir said I they are no Changlings
with Propositions dress'd up with probable Notions and plausible Conveniencies I will carry you to their Scholes where you may have the Opportunity not only to know them but to discover the Roguery and Folly of them if you can With all my heart Sir said I as I see my opportunity I will do the best I can And with that following him through a Gate-house we came into a large Court and upon one of the doors on the left hand was cleav'd a Schedule on which was written The Proposition to be defended to day is All civil Authority is deriv'd originally from the People As soon as the door was opened we went in and a small number of people came after us to hear a mongrel kind of a Fellow read upon this Question from which he maintained That in the first Original of Nations Monarchy came by the Peoples Choice That the forms of Government and the Persons of Governours were of Mans Appointment That the King had his Authority by the consent of the People in the beginning of this Government and consequently that he held it by Compact and then concluded with a long Harangue about the safe Title from willing Nations challenging any person there present to make what Objections he could against what he had said I observ'd that no body oppos'd him of a long time and therefore being incouraged by Seignior Christiano I stood up and said Most profound Sir I suppose that you have read of the off-spring of the Serpents Teeth and how that crop of Levellers in the heat of their sap most cruelly destroyed one another and since it was so fatal to spring rank and sile out of the earth I fancy you believe that the more lucky part of Manking dropt in whole Shoals like showres of Froggs from the Clouds and so peopled the World If this was the first adventure of Human Race you might truly enough conclude that they most calmly after their fall laid their heads together and chose themselves a Governour and prescribed him a form of Government Nemine contradicente But if the Books of Moses be more Authentick and Rational than Ovids Metamorphosis we may without leading-strings learn of him that the Propagation and Government of Mankind were ordain'd by the Divine Wisdom at the same time and that Alam became a King and a Father the Adam day We may see and know the Original and Plastick form of all the great succeeding Monarchies in the Families of the Partriarchs and prove this your Proposition to be contrary to the Fundamental Law of Nature and the first practice of Mankind But to give Your politick Conception all the advantages it can possibly claim we will consider it in respect of a People so far separate from this Patriarchical O economy and under such peculiar Circumstances that your fancy could not have contrived much less can all History afford you an instance more to your purpose If you are in hast to know I tell you I mean the People of Israel in Egypt They were almost Four hundred Years remov'd from this Patriarchical Sovereignty all the Authority that they had over one another was confounded and swallowed up in that common slavery they were in under the Egyptians Now if the Original of their Civil Government for which they were so famous was not deriv'd from the People then that your Proposition is utterly false but 't is very true that it was not Originally deriv'd from the People Ergo That it was not is so true that nothing is more impious than this your Proposition because First It is contrary to Scripture For when God raised up Moses to be a Ruler Judge and Deliverer of his People that were scattered like the Straw they were to gather over all that Land wherein they were equally in Bondage we find Exodus 4. that Moses so long expostulated with God about it that at the 14th Verse we read that the Anger of the Lord was kindled against him for he pleaded at the first Verse That the people would not believe him nor hearken to his voice at the 10th Verse that he was not Eloquent as if not sufficient to discharge such a message at the 13th almost peremptorily refused to go and would have turn'd it upon some other So that 't is hence manifest that he never sought it of the people nor did they first chuse or call him before he was sent from God Pray now how was the person here of mans Appointment And still your Politicks will prove but false Divinity for afterward when he had signaliz'd his Divine Mission by Wonders and Miracles because Corah Dathan and Abiram rebelled against him saying * Numb 16. 13. Is it a small thing that thou hast brought us up out of a Land that floweth with Milk and Honey to kill us in the Wilderness except thou make thy self altogether a Prince over us Therefore †Numb 16. v. 32. the Lord made a new Thing and the Earth opened her mouth c. Because all the Congregation murmured against Moses and against Aaron there died of the Plague more then fourteen Thousand Because the People in the Absence of Moses caused Aaron to make a Calf they were so far from making a King that had not Moses interceded for them they had been * Exod. 32. v. 10. no longer a People Thus this Moses whom they refus'd saying Who made thee a Ruler and a Judge the same did God send to be a Ruler and a deliverer by the hands of the Angel that was in the Bush said the Proto martyr S. Stephen Act. 7. v. 35. Perhaps Sir said Seignior Christiano they that will allow of no Kings but those of their own making will allow likewise of no Saints I suppose reply'd I they will allow that the holy man here in his last speech reflects upon that stiff neck't and Rebellious People of the Jews who had been commanded †Exod. 32. ◠not to follow a multitude to do evil Not that multitude that murmured against Moses and Aaron not that whole multitude that led Jesus Christ before Pontius Pilate S. Luke 23. 1. from which multitude he had sometime before withdrawn himself because he perceived that they would come and take him by force to make him a King S. Joh. 6. v. 15. But Sir reply'd the Politician may they not depose wicked Kings No Sir reply'd I they may not because they cannot tell when they have a good one and even the Bad ones Pontius Pilate himself had no power at all but what was given him from above how then can they take away that which they have no Authority to give But if the holy and righteous Jesus when before an unjust Tribunal did not make use of those many Legions of Angels which he then could have commanded against his most malicious enemies but was contented patiently to suffer for our sakes Why should any that name his name presume to appeal to the rash and giddy
Christians is Jacomo Jacomo God knows Pray save me or I shall be devoured presently What is the matter What do you mean said Seignior Christiano to him Truly Sir said he when I was a Boy I was taken by the Spaniards from those People you call Canibals or Man-eaters and sold to the English Plantations under whom I have been brought up by degrees to the knowledge of Civil Government and of the Christian Religion an happy Captivity to me but passing through yonder Grove I saw a great many of my Country men in a kind of Pagode and if they get me they will certainly eat me up therefore pray good people save me from them Fear not said Seignior Christiano they shall not hurt you come along with us and shew us where they are so with much intreaty he carried us to them and as soon as we saw them we knew some of them by their faces They were a great number of Adamites at their execrable and impure Mysteries Which Seignior Christiano observing These are a sort of Enthusiasts said he that have a peculiar piece of good Husbandry for they would not put the Nation to much charges for Royal Robes Crowns or Scepters for they have abrogated the very Primitive Institution of Fig-leaves Yet a Tyrant in Armour is not half so destructive to mankind as one of these naked Devils Devils said Jacomo ready to run three quarters speed again Hold hold cry'd Seignior Chr. they are only Adamites Adamites said he What! where there is so many Christians 'T is no wonder to find nothing else among those you call Canibals for they poor creatures said he weeping have no knowledge of God or goodness God has not sent any one unto them nor has he rais'd up any among them nor has he impowered any with Wisdom and Authority over them to redeem them from that general Darkness dismal Ignorance and fatal Barbarity they lie under Being equally under the power of the Devil who makes them equally the Enemies to one another he being the common Enemy of them all But God has given you good Kings good Governours many wise men and good Laws by which you are instructed and commanded to Build to Plant to Cloath your selves to live justly peaceably plentifully and honourably in this World and he has sent you his good Ministers to conduct you safely to a better How is it O ye Christians that I see such Barbarous people among you How is it that I hear of others so wickedly Rebellious as would pull down these good Kings these good Magistrates these good Ministers and would bring themselves under the power of the Devil and of one another Are such people better than those you call Canibals Are they not much worse who under a pure and holy Religion are thus beastly and shameless who under an obedient and patient Religion are thus unquiet and rebellious who under a loving and peaceable Religion do thus worse than Canibals bite and devour one another What would They give to know that they are unclean What would they give to know how happy a thing 't is to obey what would they give could they know how to forgive one another O ye Christians I hope God will be more merciful to the Souls of my poor Father and Mother for they knew no better But what will become of such people I cannot tell for they can do no worse The Politician who heard all this was so extremely confounded and ashamed that with great wrath he went up to the Adamites and in the most bitter language reproved them for their shameless Bestiality But their zeal was as hot as his anger for without any more ado they laid hold on him crying out Priviledge Liberty Property Saying may not we go as we please and do what we please but you must rule and govern us We will teach you to invade the Property of the Subject and Liberty of Humane Nature And with that without any Redemption they hurried him away tearing him like so many wild Beasts and so that Power he plac't in the People at the Beginning soon made an end of him We were now returning back to the Scholes of the Politicians and having conveighed honest Jacomo out of all danger and delivered him from his fears he very thankfully took his leave And now Sir said I to Seignior Christiano you see what becomes of the Politician and of his Proposition too nothing can be more impious more dangerous more ridiculous For if every particular Faction have so many endless difficulties concerning Government not only in opposition to each other but even in it self what must needs be the Villanies the follies the freaks and frensies consequent of them when in full Combination against and when they shall have overthrown that which is by Law establisht For all these and many more are the People for whom this Proposition is ready cut and dried That therefore it was ever true in it self or can be good to mankind I will then be perswaded and never till then when that Golden Royal Age of the Politicians comes to pass wherein the People shall All become Kings wherein Scepters shall be as common as Hedge-stakes and Crowns as Blue Bonnets and instead of Chairs they shall cry ha' ye any Thrones to mend in the mean time laying aside these ridiculous Dreams is it not much better for men of all Orders to mind their own business and according to Gods Ordinance to live quiet and godly lives under their King than to be wheedled by the fantastical Notions of a few rascally Politicians into mutinies murders and Seditions until at last they scramble to the Devil upon all four in the blood of their fellow Subjects for this pretended Original of Civil Power from the People tends only to lead them into Civil Wars and Actual Rebellion against their Sovereign Prince from which Libera nos Domine We were again returned into the Court of the Politicians and at a door that stood open on the other side we saw several people of all sorts going in So Seignior Christiano and I followed them expecting rather Fanatical Conventicle than a learned Lecture in Politicks wondring that no body of a long time stept up into the Desk I thought I heard a kind of disputing and jangling behind me on the other side of the Wainscot and by the help of a little hole in the Boards I peep 't into the withdrawing Room and saw Rutherford the Author of Lex Rex Hunt Parsons and Johnson very earnest in forcing Complements and Civilities upon one another Parsons especially who was the Author of Doleman's c. drew back and peremptorily refus'd the Preheminence of sitting in the Chair that day pretending a great deal of modesty and telling them that they liv'd in an Age wherein Impudence was very modish and that they had the Confidence to stealout of that Book which he was ashamed to own at last by Vote it was fix't upon a Jesuit that
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
be debarr'd from the Crown if they Apostatize from the Faith To which I Answer That as David was the Anointed of the Lord according to Gods Ordinance so it was not lawful for the People to revolt from rebel against or preclude his Heirs and Successors from their Right to the Crown and Scepter until Shiloh should come according to Gods promise That their Kings should be taken away from them was their grievous punishment that they should rebel against them was their grievous sin And those Ten Tribes that did revolt under the Conduct of Jeroboam that striver for the People for so his name imports were utterly lost a little while after and never certainly heard of to this day Well then as it was not lawful for the Jews to rebel against their Kings or to put by the Royal Lineal Descent until Christs first Coming So neither is it Lawful for Christians who are under such an immemorial Hereditary Monarchy as that of England to rebel against their Sovereign Prince or put by the Royal Lineal Descent so long as they or the world remains even unto Christ's second Coming And this will ever hold good if we consider that the Feudal Laws join'd to Evangelical or Apostolical precept are as much if not more Authoritative than the Laws of Moses or the Predictions of the Patriarchs and Prophets But one thing I humbly offer in Answer to all the terrible Arguments of our Precluding and Deposing Politicians and that is this That as our Saviour Christ Jesus was lineally Descended according to the flesh from those Jewish Kings that did evil in the sight of the Lord that were themselves Idolaters Yet it was not Lawful to rebel against them because their Sovereign and that their Idolatry was no obstacle to our Saviours taking our Nature upon him because he was God So neither is any fault of any Hereditary Prince a just pretence of Hindrance to his Natural Right or of Resistance when in Possession because as much our Sovereign and because that Christ by the power of his Spirit in the hearts of true Believers can make use even of Persecutors for the Building up the Mystical Body of his Church God in his Judgements sometimes permits a Foreign Power to captivate or lead away the Prince of his People But he never allowed of a Power in the People to imprison or remove or preclude their Prince I have never met with any Rule or Command whereby the People are allow'd and injoin'd to disinherit a Prince though for Idolatry but I have read Numb 14. v. 12. that God threatned to disinherit the People for their Rebellion How said he can a People be disinherited You find in the same Verse replyed Seignior Christiano That it was to be done with a Witness as the Author of Julian saies in another case but however though we meet not with whole Nations consum'd in a moment and utterly extinct by a Pestilence Yet there are many people in the World at this day who for their Rebellions are disinherited to some purpose What think you of the Graecians Bohemians and Commons of France Nay the Waldenses who had the least blot in their Escutcheon of any Foreign Church did not go unpunished for their Murdering Trincanel their Viscount in Beziers nor did they escape a retaliating Vengeance for their Insolence by dashing out the Teeth of their Bishop in the Church of S. Mary Magdalen in that City for within forty years after they were given into the hands of the Croysadas under the French Kings and Sacrific'd in the self same Church Now as that Affliction made them better so those miseries the People of this Land felt in the late Revolutions might make them wiser for though they were not Massacred in cold blood yet they were so disfranchised of their Liberties and Priviledges that they might properly enough be said to have been disinherited But Sir What would you have the People do replyed the Jesuit in case of imminent and unavoidable Persecution had not they better hazard their Liberties than their Lives I suppose reply'd Seignior Christiano you do not consider that they have immortal Souls to hazard too But all the scruples which the Authour of Julian has out of the abundance of a reprobate fancy started in cases of Persecution are so fully Answered by the Reverend and Learned Dr Hicks that he may be glad of a Prison to hide his face or of a Dungeon to cover his shame At the name of a Prison the Jesuit sneak't down and betook himself again into the withdrawing-room Seignior Christiano and I followed him but before we could fix to any further discourse one that was a great stickler for the Bill of Exclusion and a Member of the House of Commons came in and looking with a stern Countenance upon Segnior Christiano How dare you said he affront a Clergy-man whom every body knows to be an honest man an ingenious man and a good Scholar I suppose Sir replyed Segnior Christiano you value him as little upon the account of his being a Clergy-man as I do upon the account either of his honesty or Scholarship And indeed I must presume to question either your knowledge or integrity that can esteem and value a man for writing a Book wherein he has so basely so wickedly falsified and corrupted the History of the Church in order to the ruining and undermining the Present State of this Kingdom You are now Convinc't by the Learned Author of Jovian that the Empire of Rome never was Hereditary and you cannot prove that the Monarchy of England was ever otherwise upon which account I tell you it is much a better Constitution of Government both in respect of Prince and People For upon a vacancy what differences did there often happen between the Senate and Praetorian Bands What divisions among the Soldiers themselves Then what Battels Wars and Desolations So that at the death of every Emporour the whole Body of the Empire was in a Convulsion Whilst they lived What trouble and perplexity had they about a Successor If they did not name one they were afraid of every Famous Commander in the Army and forced to stifle many illustrious vertues if they did name one they were alwaies jealous of his hasty Ambition and so never the more at rest How remarkable was that saying to Nero who put so many men to death upon bare Suspicion Omnes licet occideres Successorem tuum occidere non possis Though you kill all you cannot kill your Successor Nor less Famous is that fatal Story of the Emperor Caracalla who inquiring of his Magicians to know who should be his Successor was advertiz'd in a Pacquet that it was Macrinus but he delivering the Pacquet to Macrinus before he had read it himself Macrinus first reads it and to prevent his own death slew him by the hand of Martialis a Centurion as he retired to ease himself and by the Election of the Soldiers succeeded him in the Empire
piece of Policy very necessary to Rebellion reply'd Seignior Christiano it is forbidden by the Law of Moses by the Doctrine and example of our Saviour and his Apostles but our Politicians value no Laws of God or Man and knowing that if a Prince do not reign in the hearts of the People that they will be apt to forget those Laws too and lift up their hands against him have therefore spread about such swarms of Libels Invectives false reports unjust Aspersions and Reflections upon the King his Ministers his Councils his Affairs both by Sea and Land at home and abroad A man truly Sir said I should have a great care how he gives credit to some reports He had need as he tenders the Salvation of his Soul replyed Seignior Christiano have a care of hearing the least evil spoken of his Prince or of entertaining the least dishonourable thought concerning him lest he be insensibly wheedled into that disobedience which is the prevailing sin of this unnatural and perfidious Age. T is strange said I it should be the prevailing sin of this Age under so good a Prince ' T is so replyed he and it has too much prevail'd upon the pretences of doing honour to God But if they honour not the King whom they have seen how can they be said truly to honour God whom they have not seen they honour God by Rebellion just as they love their Brother by Sequestration But Sir so very prostigate are the loose fancies of some men that they suffer their Allegiance to flag by letting their thoughts sink into a mean opinion of their Sovereign because he is of the same Common Nature of the same Composition of flesh and blood with the rest of Mankind Not considering that though he be but a man by nature that He is as the Angel of God and a King by his grace By his grace I say who out of the Abundance of his Mercy is pleas'd to govern us by one who can have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way for that He himself also is compassed with infirmity Should the destroying Angel keep his residence amongst us with Armies of Locusts with the Nusances of Plagues and Pestilences and with whole troops of the Messingers of sudden death to execute the Sentence speedily upon the offenders should he awe us with flaming Lightnings and loud thunders we should say unto our King as the Israelites did to Moses Exod. 20. v. 19. speak thou with us and we will hear but let not God speak with us lest we die 'T is certain said I that the wickedness of a Prince can never justifie the rebellion of the People but 't is as certain that the most virtuous the most just the most Prudent Prince in the World can never utterly avoid the revilings of some or the murmurings of others But Honi soit qui mal y pense I am sure that what ever evil opinion any Subject has of his Sovereign ariseth from an heart much more evil from the complicated evils of discontent ambition pride false zeal or covetousness And what ever mean opinion others may at any time have arise from a wrong one Some are as Romantick in their Fancies as those Fables and Legends that speak of no Princes but what are born with Roses Crowns and Flowers on their Breasts Others again are as ridiculous in their relations of monstrous Excrescencies and deformities in the Bodies of those they account Tyrants the Jesuits reported that Queen Elizabeth had a great black Beard and others could not indure the thoughts of the Sovereignty being in a Woman Thus some Fantastical prejudices or other possess and corrupt the fancies of men that have not that due reverence and esteem for their Sovereign which they ought to have and upon as light occasions on the other hand are moved to the highest expressions even of extravagant Veneration and duty We now saw a tall young man walking all alone towards a thick and shady Grove but so discompos'd and so desperately melancholy he seem'd to be that we fear'd he had been going to lay violent hands on himself for he oft-times drew his Sword half way out of the Scabbard then putting it up again smote himself on the Breast then biting his lips and turning himself several times about we perceived that his eyes sparkled his visage was pale and being now near enough to him we could hear him say Perfidious dissembling treacherous and cruel Woman Woman did I say Viper Toad Serpent an Angels face but a Devils heart Syrens voice Crocodiles Tears Basilisks eyes I 'le rend her from my soul though I pluck my Heart-strings in pieces with her O Nature Why hast thou made such a Plague for us as Woman How came they by this fatal power over us Why should we love them Why should we obey them What! woman rule Damn'd tyrant Woman What! Harpies and Furies set on Thrones From this moment I wage eternal War with all the Sex and by this light with this hand will I pluck her down be she what she will that sets up her self above the most contemptible wretch of a man that has but half an Arm and but one Eye You are in the right indeed young man reply'd a Jesuit that was just by him It is not fit it is not natural for a Woman to rule and govern should they sway the Scepter that hold the Distaffe Should a Woman be Sovereign when a man is the head of the Church The young man answered him not a word but was on a sudden very strangely altered for pulling his Hat over his Eyes hanging down his head and almost in a swoon the Tears gusht in full streams from him and he said My dear but cruel Orinda unkind Orinda what have I done to deserve your scorn and hatred indeed I know not what I have done but that I may never offend you more adien for ever adieu from this Moment I go into everlasting Banishment in yonder dark Shades and solitary Rocks will I sit and mourn with the faithful Turtles and there Spend the remainder of my lingring Years 'Till I at last dissolve in Sighs and Tears What Psalms Psalms Cry'd the Non. Con. who dropt the Libel and was come so near as to hear these last lines What! Psalms quoth he A Godly Youth a Godly Youth I warrant him No Sir said Seignior Christiano He is not so merry poor Youth He is troubled in mind pray do you comfort him up if you can To comfort the Afflicted is not only my Business but delight said he and then applied himself in a long Harangue of incoherent and impertinent Cant. The Youth took no manner of notice of him but now and then sigh'd and said Orinda As soon as he perceiv'd his malady he chang'd his note Fie Fie said he What ruine your self for a Woman are there not others as good as she as Beautiful And if any of them prove kinder is it