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
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
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
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
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
e poi patienza Patience to the loss of our heads and patience after that Since the case is thus with us his other Subjects have little encouragement to build plant or sow any more than what will protect them from the immediate Injuries of Hunger and Cold or to provide for the next Generation who are so miserable in their own But pray Sir said he to me what is the reason that the people of England are so very Rich so very Happy as they seem to be They really are so replyed I if they knew their own happiness The people of England by the Providence of God and the Goodness of their Princes from the Times that were before your Empire had a Name or Being have enjoy'd many great Priviledges under the Name of Property and what may seem strange to you the Prerogative of the King is the very Property or Liberty of the Subject a Mysterie as unknown to you in our State as the Articles of the Christian Faith in our Church 'T is hard indeed I believe said he many of your own people do'nt understand it I wish they did said I for our Government is so divinely temper'd that the Honour of the King consists in the Happiness of his People and the Happiness of the People in the Honour of the King He by his good and wholsome Laws protects and encourages them and they all ought to honour and defend him By his Laws those Lands have those delightful limits and boundaries which you see and instead of Thorns and Briars are rich in what is good for food and pleasant to the taste By his Laws the Lusts Ambition and Covetousness of men are kept under every one being confin'd to his proper Business and Station to the encrease of Vertue Honour and Justice Hence 't is that you see the waters burden'd with the Fruits and Products of other Nations and the Land with our own Hence 't is that all Arts and Sciences flourish and even from our improv'd Arts of War for our defence you learn how to invade the effects of our peace Look but into that famous City of London and see how vastly the condition of mankind is altered from what you find it in Constantinople here you will see the Markets crowded with fatted Sheep and Oxen there with lean Slaves whose only hopes depend upon the being bought by a good Master here our greatest trouble is to get a good Servant and if they were but all good Subjects there is not a better King in the World Not good Subjects cry'd He then 't is too good a Land for so bad a People but methinks they seem to have little either of Business or Trouble for they walk to and fro as they please pray Sir let me be so happy as to partake with them of their great freedom At this we went down into the Walks and on a sudden fell upon two Persons that were talking together very earnestly we were unwilling to interrupt them yet kept at such a distance as to overhear them for they talk't very loud one of them saying well well I confess I have pretty well feathered my Nest but let the Kings affairs go how they will I will e'en secure my self I will e'en lie and Lowng as they call it let others stickle that have a great deal to get and little to lose for my part I am for Cokesing of Mammon I 'll not hazard my Fortunes truly not I. Indeed said the other things are carried very strangely at Court I wonder what becomes of all the money I think they did well to vote that no body should lend him any upon any Branch of his Revenue Of whom do they speak said the Turk Of the King said I And who made that Vote the Parliament said I And what is that replyed He The Great Council of the Nation into which some Seditious persons crept in of late years and promoted such a Vote And who are these persons that talk at this rate said He Why said I they have both of them very good Offices under the King how many Aspers a day have they said He again Aspers said I do you talk of Aspers they have at the rate of 4. or 5000. pieces of Eight of Yearly Revenues besides what they get by the bye At this the Turk fell into such a rage that he had like to have run over me and looking sternly upon them Ye ungrateful Dogs quoth He do Ye eat your Masters Bread to vomit it up in his face again were ye in the Grand Seigniors Dominions he would scorn to defile the meanest Slave he has by being your Executioner but would cram ye both into a hole until ye either devoured one another for Hunger or that those Mouths that spoke those words eat up those Hands that used to feed them And then turning to me Are these said he the fruits of Virtue Honour and Justice you lately talkt of You talkt Sir said I of Patience too lately pray have a little now I could rather said he indure to have my head cut off than my ears on to hear what such ungrateful men say But perhaps those other two Gentlemen that walk yonder are of a better mind they too are hot in discourse let us hear them As soon as we came near them What Justice Tom cry'd one of them can we expect from those Tory Lawyers now they are got upon the Bench the very name of Whigg is enough to cast a man in any Suit or Trial that comes before them That is an hard case said the Turk to me And what will become of the Protestant Religion Jack said the other for Dr. Oates tells us That most of the Bishops are Popishly inclin'd and you know Popery is Image-worship mere Idolatry Poor men said the Turk I protest I pity them But hark you Tom said he again pray lend me 50. l. for a Fortnight I vow Jack reply'd the other thou art a merry fellow but thou hast such slippery tricks with thee you know how you serv'd Mr. L. N. t'other day who was your good friend and besides if Fortune frown'd upon you or your Friends were unkind to you that you could not pay Your Debts t' were another case but you have got a trick of Borrowing Money when you have a great deal by you either for the sake of the use of it or with a design never to repay it However I have a Bottle of Wine or two and a Wench at your service but a pox on the pulling down these Conventicles a man cannot get a wholsom Wench half so conveniently now as formerly Prithee Tom don't stand fooling said he let me have so much Money I 'll be faithful to you At this the other began to Curse and Swear at such a desperate rate that the Turk jumpt as if he had been frighted out of his wits and rolling his eyes to and fro and looking upwards Are we said he poor Turks so careful of defiling that
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
and shall condemn them For they make Obedience to their Prince a point of their Religion but these make a Duty and a practice of Rebellion The very Indians shall arise in the Judgment with these Protestant Barbarians and shall condemn them For the Noble Inhabitants of Nicaragua made no Law for that person that should kill the King thinking like Solon in the Case of Parricide that none could be so wicked as to do it but these condemned their King from whom they have their Law and that contrary to all Law Nar the very Jews the Scribes and Pharisees shall arise in the Judgment with these Reformed Christians and shall condemn them for they offered Sacrifices for the prosperity of Caesar but these Sacrificed Caesar himself at his own Gate You have said enough to their immortal shame and confusion said I But thanks be to God who has restored the Son to the Throne of his Father to our great Comfort And may He in despight of all the Enemies of God and the King long continue to sit thereon to our lasting peace I am sure this Nation has under him injoyed three and twenty such years of plenty and prosperity as you cannot cull out and shew together since the Conquest enough to testifie that Monarchy is the best of Governments that ours is the best of Monarchies and King Charles II. is the best of Monarchs whose Service like his whose Minister He is is Perfect Freedom Neque enim Libertas Tutior ulla est Quà m Domino Servire bono The Sun was now down and it began to grow dusky so my little Polander took his leave and Seign Chr. who had been talking all this while with another man came smiling to me and said I know dear Friend that you are a person very Curious and Inquisitive into the Nature and Reasons of Human Affairs and I have now an Extraordinary Opportunity of pleasuring you at the highest rate That Gentleman I now came from is a Magician and He with two or three more it seems are to have an Action to night wherein they design to raise the Ghosts of all the late Politicians that are dead and to charm the Spirits of those now living from their bodies whilst asleep so that you may hear extraordinary Conferences about Polity and Government and may have occasion of ingaging your self in them as you shall think convenient The name of a Magician did a little startle me at first but the bent of my fancy prevail'd above any scruple of Conscience being in a Dream wherein honest men do those things sometimes which they would abhor when awake Indeed I had no time to determine with my self for methoughts Seign Chr. was very earnest with me saying See Yonder the Gentleman calls us let us go to him I know you will be very welcome for my sake as soon as we came to him I am apt to think said he to me that you Sir are somewhat afraid of Spirits I never see him tremble but once in all my life replied Seignior Chr. and that was at the sight of a very pretty Woman and then indeed He could neither sing nor say But They who in Combate dare the Devil desie Are sometimes vanquisht by a Ladies eye I do assure you He neither sears your Spirits nor yet your Politicians for He is an Honest Fellow and though I have known him mistaken yet that Honesty of His is better than the strength of Goliah than the valour of Cromwell than the wit and learning of Hobbs or Milton than the Policy of Shaftsbury or the piety of Baxter And therefore I will venture to set him upon whole Troops of Rascally Knavish Apparitions and you will be satisfied that he does not fear such Spirits Then turning to me What in the dumps Friend Chear up I shall now give you an opportunity of seeing to what extravagant excesses the late Politicians have run on both Hands some swelling the Soveraign Magistrate into such a monstrous Bulkiness that He bursts asunder with the shining venome they infuse into him others scattering the Supreme Power into whole Herds of Pharaoh's ravenous lean Kine Some are for Absolute Tyranny others for Dissolute Anarchy Thus leaving us the dismal choice of the Fire from the Bramble to devour us or of the more scorching flames from whole Bundles of Jack Straws to consume us We were now come to Fox-Hall that renowned Magazin of Narratives and Gunpowder and this was the place of Randesvouze for these famous Politicians The Lord knows which way we gat into a Vault but methoughts as soon as we were there one of the Magicians speaking a sort of unintelligible gibberish burnt a composition of strange Gumms in a Censer which had such an odd smell that a trilling damp seiz'd my spirits and in that confusion the place was chang'd into a stately long Portico supported with several rows of Marble Pillars upon which their hung a great many Trophies and Spoils taken by surprize or stratagem and great numbers of Historical Pictures of Martial exploits that succeeded this led us into a Magnificent Dome almost as large as the Pantheon in Rome in the rotunda upon Pedestals of equal height stood the Statuas of Famous Persons who by the strength of their own Genius's from low beginnings arriv'd to marvellous grandeur and continued in it As of Marmurius Marius Dioclesian Justinus and Tamberlain and others Turning on the left hand we passed through a door into a ruinous Court in which there were several antick Statuas Crowned with Mushrooms as of Massianello Knipperdolling and several other excrescences of Fortune who in her freaks had taken them from Stalls and Bulks to set them on Thrones and then suddenly kickt them down again into their Graves In a corner of this Court we entred a narrow and winding passage which led us at last into a large Room hung with black and set around with dimm Tapers I was strangely surprized with this inchanted place But much more astonish't when at the upper end of it I saw Oliver Cromwell sitting in a Chair of State with two skeletons on each hand attending him which sometimes seem'd to move whilst I was looking on him there came out from behind the Hangings an old Fellow in Boots with a Book in his hand who made his obeisance to Oliver and as he presented it He said You Sir are that unlimited and absolute Soveraign that mighty Leviathan I have here endeavoured in this Book to recommend to all mankind suffer me therefore a poor Mackrel to come under the shadow of your Finns until this storm of Thunder be past Oliver took the Book and after he had read a little of it He returned him another Intituled Killing no Murder telling him that by that Book which had made him as fearful as himself he might see how much he had been beholding to him for his own For thou hast herein said he given me more power under thy hand than the Devil ever did
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
old Fellow sayes He is worn out in the Vineyard of the Lord when as he has been sowing the Tares of Sedition and Heresie for above forty Years in the Field of the Church He will certainly carry the Garland for both Hobbs and Nevil do despair and stand staring like two Scotch Runts that have all to bedighted the Fair but let us hear what the President is going to say At this Bradshaw stood up and with a Countenance very compos'd and grave said Gentlemen we do adjudge pronounce and declare this man whose very looks bespeak him what his words and actions aloud proclaim him to be the greatest of all Politicians for these following Reasons First Without the Help of his Politicks all ours had been insignificant and in Vain that good old Cause You value your self so much upon had never been brought to perfection had not he mightily assisted us You might as well have attempted to whistle the Moon under your Hats as to have laid the Head of the King upon the Block under the Axe of the Executioner had not he the Preacher first sentenc't him from the Pulpit 't was the Magick of his voice that raised whole Legions of Reforming Zealots and preacht them into Rank and File against their Sovereign 't was He snivel'd the Rabble to the Devil in such mighty Shoals as they crowded the High-wayes to Hell for several years together This you Jesuits do so well know that you venture drawing hanging and quartering for the sake of preaching in Seditious and Schismatical Conventicles in his shape and after his way and therefore what signifies any other mans Writings either Hobbs or Nevils when in competition with him who has out-preacht outwrit outdone out-reform'd you all Secondly He is most worthily to be accounted the chief Politician upon the account of that singular and unparallelled Spirit of Contradiction which is in him in a double portion and in a double sense And therefore when His Serene Darkness Lucifer askt me with what Confidence I could bring King Charles before his own Bar of Kings Bench when the very form of the Writ runs Coram nobis ubicunque in his own name and Authority My Answer was That I brought the King before himself by the same Rule that Richard is against Baxter Thirdly We must and do acknowledge him to be the most extraordinary Politician in the world for he has not only deceiv'd many thousands of people but he has cheated himself more than any body else For first He thinks himself very Humble when he is so very proud that he is Proud of his Humility a sort of pride which Lucifer never dreamt of Secondly He thinks himself very meek and merciful when as he is really more bloody and cruel than any Tyrant he can either fear or describe witness his many sanguinary and virulent Sermons he has preach't witness his behaviour to one Major Jenning in the late Wars in a Battle fought in the County of Salop between Lynsel and Longford where the Kings Party being unfortunately routed the poor Major was stript almost naked and left for dead but He with one Lieutenant Hurdman taking a walk among the wounded and dead Bodies and observing some life in the Major Hurdman run him through the Body in cold blood Baxter all the while looking on and taking off with his own hand the Kings Picture from about his neck telling him that He was a Popish Rogue and that was his Crucisix and kept it some years after Thirdly He thinks him very wise fit to direct rule and govern all mankind whenas he mistakes that to be the Spirit of wisdom in his heart which is nothing else but the whisperings of that Eating and Cancrous Wolf that has possest the nape of his neck Lastly If He whose Faith is Faction whose Religion is Rebellion whose Prayers are Spells whose Piety is Magick whose Purity is the gall of Bitterness who can cant and recant and cant again who can transform himself into as many shapes as Lucifer who is never more a Devil than when an Angel of Light and like him who proud of his perfections first rebell'd in Heaven Proud of his Imaginary graces pretend to rule and govern and consequently rebel on Earth be the greatest Politician Then make room for Mr. Baxter let him come in and be Crown'd with wreaths of Serpents and Chaplets of Adders let his Triumphant Chariot be a Pulpit drawn on the wheels of Cannon by a Brace of Wolves in Sheeps Cloathing Let the Ancient Fathers of the Church whom out of Ignorance he has vilified the Reverend and Learned Prelates whom out of Pride and Malice he has abused belyed and persecuted the most Righteous King whose Murder I speak my own and his sense contrary to the light of all Religion Laws Reason and Conscience He has justified then denied then again and again justified Let them all be bound in Chains to attend his Infernal Triumph to his Saints everlasting Rest Then make room Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites Atheists and Politicians for the greatest Rebel on Earth and next to him that fell from Heaven After this the Court arose every one even the two Antagonists going away very well satisfied Seignior Chr. and I were left alone and had a fair opportunity to reflect upon what we had heard The first thing that came into my head was the last part of Bradshaw's determination wherein he compar'd the Motives and Grounds of Baxter ' s Rebellious Politicks with Lucifers For my part said I in his Preface to his Holy Commonwealth He seems to deny that Position That Dominion is founded in Grace and proves that Godliness is not Authority And that the Saints are not the rightful Rulers of the World And many people that read that Book would think that he wrote it with a great deal of Zeal and Piety for the promotion of Gods glory and the improvement of all virtues He condemns both Trranny and Democracy shews a bloody Tyrant in his proper Colours peppers the Rabble with whole Vollies of stinging Epithetes is very earnest for the Reign of Christ the dignity of Saints and the Reformation of the World He seems not so much concern'd for any particular sort of Government as that we may be secured in the Main and yet judges a Mixt Monarchy the best He layes open the Contrivances of the Jesuits exposes the Papal Vsurpations over the Civil Magistrate has garnisht his Book all over with Quotations from good Authors and confirm'd his Propositions with numberless authorities from Scripture From Scripture reply'd Seignior Christiano smiling Did you never read that Satan is transform'd into an Angel 2 Cor. 11. 14 15. of Light and therefore 't is no marvel if his Ministers also be transform'd as the Ministers of Righteousness And Vincentius Lirinensis tells us Nullam esse ad fallendum faciliorem viam quam ut ubi nefarii erroris subinducitur fraudulentia ibi divinorum verborum praetendatur Autoritas And Bishop
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
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
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
the ruine of the King and his Government and look upon them as Hellish and Damnable Truly Sir said I it is a very wicked Age wherein men arrive to that height of disobedience that the lives of Princes should lie at the mercy of every discontented Russian and that their unquestionable Rights should depend upon the Wills and Fancies of every scribling crackt-brain Politician But these are the Ascarides the very excrementitious Vermin of the Body Politick and deserve no other Answer than what a Louse or a Flea receives for biting a man however because to the Infamy of Vermin they have added the Venome subtlety and malice of Serpents I think it not amiss to pluck them out of their holes and expose and show them But oh have a care you don't abuse an ingenious man and a good Scholar cryeth the meek hearted Well! there is no great fear of it For I think a Serpent is never a whit the more amiable for his poisonous gay speckles and I do declare that if a person that is incorrigibly seditious should at last write a Treasonable Book for the which by the Law he deserves to be hang'd and for the which he must be hang'd let him be never so good a Scholar I think that all the mercy he could expect in this world should be to have the many Seditious Volumes he has read hang'd at his heels to dispatch him the sooner But if these Politicians and Casuists escape hanging they do the more admire and applaud themselves not considering all the while the great wickedness a man commits that writes an ill Book by which he may be said to sin after he is dead nor the great mischiefs they do the living by poisoning the minds of the unwary people and disordering and disturbing the Affairs and Councils of Princes Surely said Seignior Christiano no Prince in the World ever had a greater trial of his patience wisdom and goodness than our present Gracious Sovereign has had about this Bill of Exclusion Nothing more inhumane could be propos'd than that He to satisfie their unjust Complaints should offer so unseasonable so unreasonable an injury to his Royal and only Brother whom the loss of his other Brother and Sisters the sufferings of his Father and his own merits had so much indeared him contrary to the Laws of natural Justice and Honesty and to the Fundamental Laws of this Hereditary Monarchy And although at the very first thought and suspicion of such thing his Majesty at the very first rejected it as we may gather from his speech on Saturday Novemb. 9th which was soon after a debate arose in the House of Commons for an Adress to be presented that his Royal Highness should withdraw himself from his Majesties Person and Counsels Yet we presume that in his Royal and serious Meditations He considered the Righteous Judgments of God in all Ages that have fallen upon them who thought themselves either the Richer or Safer in the Possessions of injur d Princes that therefore it would be an injury even to that person that should next succeed upon his removal That He considered the Fatal consequences of his Fathers compliance in the Case of the Earl of Strafford But that this was of much greater Consequence we presume that in his wisdom He foresaw the malicious designs of a restless Faction who indeavour'd to wound him through the sides of his dearest Brother That he foresaw the many dismal Calamities that would unavoidably fall upon the People and that of his goodness he was resolv'd to prevent them under which his Royal wisdom and goodness we now injoy all the comforts of this life and the best opportunities of obtaining a better For which this present Age is bound to love and honour him and for which those to come will certainly magnifie and extol him and suppose God should so order it in his Providence whose will must be done that none of his Loyns shall sit upon his Throne Yet we and all good Subjects do hope and pray that after a long and prosperous Reign here on Earth He that is the King of kings will infinitely recompense him with an immortal Crown of Glory in Heaven THE Fourth VISION OF GOVERNMENT The CONTENTS The wicked Policy of raising a mean or evil opinion of the Sovereign in the minds of the Subjects The trivial and unreasonable occasions of such an opinion a pleasant instance thereof in the Case of the Salique Law it is condemned by an Hermaphrodite Better that the Sovereignty should be in one Woman than in five hundred men The Sovereignty of England in a single Person The Heresie of the Whiggish Lawyers Those that write of the Antiquity of Parliaments and those that vilifie them are Commonwealths men and enemies both of King and Parliament The Characters of several Commonwealths-men good advice to them A Panegyrick upon the King the Duke the Royal Family and all the True-hearted Nobility Gentry Clergy and Commonalty of this Realm an hearty Prayer for them THe Garden Gate that was set open gave us a very pleasant Prospect into the most solitary and shady Walks fit for Owls and Politicians to hatch in at a small distance from us we observ'd a very Diminutive Non-con taking the fresco after the labour of the day and pulling his Handkerchief out of his pocket he drew out with it a Scroll of Paper which fell to the ground without his notice Seignior Christiano following softly took it up and as soon as I came to him Here are his Notes said he smiling without doubt here is a great deal of stickling stuff in them let us for Diversion peruse them We found a great deal of their war like Divinity such as raised the late Rebellion But in the midst of all the bundle we found a ticket rolled up very hard and at first opening thought it had been a blank but it prov'd to be the most virulent and lewd Libel against the King in a few lines that ever I read in my life Here said Seignior Christiano here 's the Peace and Purity of the Gospel wrapt up together the Devil certainly wrote them when he stunk of Brimstone don't put them in your pocket they will set your Breeches on fire I do assure you said I I have heard the Cub of a London Tub Preacher when he was a Schole Boy repeat these very Verses when I am sure you might as soon have perswaded him to be circumcis'd as to have said three lines of the Litany So early do these Wolves instruct their whelps to bark so early are they Catechiz'd in the Doctrine of Slander and Reproach That one would think they hold it to be Mans chief End to despise Dominion and speak evil of Dignities And so diligently do they afterwards practise it that it seems to be not only one of the Liberal Sciences of Fanaticism but you would conclude that they maintain Throwing of Stink Pots to be necessary to Salvation It is a wicked