THE VISIONS OF Government WHEREIN The Antimonarchical Principles and Practices of all Fanatical Commonwealths-men and Jesuitical Politicians are discovered confuted and exposed By EDWARD PETTIT M. A. and Author of the Visions of Purgatory and Thorough Reformations Morosophi Moriones pessimi LONDON Printed by B. W. for Edward Vize at the Sign of the Bishop's Head over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill M DC LXXXIV TO THE High Potent and Noble PRINCE JAMES Duke Marquess and Earl of ORMOND in ENGLAND and IRELAND Earl of Ossery and Brecknock Viscount Thurles Baron of Arclo and Lanthony Lord Licutenant General and General Governour of His Majesties Kingdom of Ireland Lord of the Regalities and Liberties of the County of Tipperary Lord Chancellour of the famous Vniversities of Oxford and Dublin Lord High Steward of His Majesties Houshold One of His Majesties most Honourable Privy Council in England Scotland and Ireland and Knight of the Most Noble Order of the GARTER May it it please Your Grace I Humbly presume to take this opportunity of congratulating the late Deliverance of your Grace's Noble Son his Excellency the Earl of Arran under whose Care and Conduct the flourishing Kingdom of Ireland injoyces both Peace and Plenty at this day and I hope Your Grace will be pleas'd to accept of these honest labours of my Pen in defence of that Monarchy which you have so long assisted with your Counsels so often vindicated with Your Sword My Lord There never was a wiser Government never a more Gracious Sovereign never a more faithful Subject than Your self All your Princely Vertues will make Your Grace an Illustrious Pattern to the Ages to come who cannot be parallel'd by any that are past He that compar'd Your Grace to Barzillai did it because among all David's Worthies there was none that for Greatness Fidelity and long Experience might compare with You and yet You as far exceed his recorded Merits as the Irish Seas do the little River of Jordan May the ever-living God make Your Grace as far excel him in length of daies by adding to Your Illustrious Life those which in his Divine Wisdom he has been pleas'd to take from Your Right Honourable Father and from Your Noble Son the late Earl of Ossery and thus make up to us our loss here upon Earth and Yours with a late but glorious Immortality with them in Heaven This is the hearty Prayer of all that Fear God and Honour the King and in particular of Your Grace's most humble and obedient Servant EDWARD PETTIT THE CONTENTS VISION I. THe Introduction The Ghost of S. Jerom a Native of Hungary after a relation of the present State of that Kingdom condemns their Rebellion from the Doctrine and practice of the Christians of his time The Grand Confederacy against Christian Religion and Government discovered in a Dialogue betwixt the Ghosts of the late Vizier Cuperlee a General of the Jesuits and the Earl of Shaftsbury The reason why the Fanaticks of England lament the defeat of the Turks A parallel in some new Remarques betwixt them Whether was the more Unchristian to wish the success of the Turkish Arms before Vienna or of the Moors before Tangier The impious and foolish conceit of preventing Arbitrary Government under the Protection of the Grand Seignior p. 1 VISION II. THe miserable state of the Christians under the Turks the happy condition of the people of England Good Government the reason of it The Malecontens described and exposed The Argument that converted and confirmed a Jew in the Christian Faith He confutes and condemns the Fanaticks for their Rebellious Murmurings and Practices He proves Monarchy to be of Divine Institution and the best of Governments The Monarchy of England the best in the World The design of Hobbs's Leviathan and of Nevil's Plato Redivivus they are both in the extremes and both exploded The Ghosts of Hobbs Machiavel and some other modern Politicians quarrel about Preheminence Lucifer not able to decide the Controversie referrs it to Bradshaw He determines for Richard Baxter upon the account of that Maxim that Dominion is founded in Grace The Folly of it discovered in his Book intituled A Holy Commonwealth and the Villany of it in the Practices of the late Commonwealth of England p. 45 VISION III. THe monstrous Loyalty of the Fanaticks Their several Ridiculous Policies the growth and design of the late Hellish Conspiracy The two fundamental Principles of the Good Old Cause First That All Civil Authority is deriv'd Originally from the People The extreme villany and folly of this Proposition throughly examined and by a Civiliz'd Cannibal condemn'd The Second That Birthright and Proximity of Blood give no Title to Rule or Government and that It is lawful to preclude the next Heir from his Right of Succession to the Crown The great impiety and folly of this Proposition fully discovered and condemned by an Indian of New England The Authors and Abetters of them both exposed The great Wisdom and Goodness of our present Gracious Sovereign in securing to this Monarchy the right and lineal descent of the Crown p. 147 VISION IV. THe wicked Policy of raising a mean or evil opinion of the Sovereign in the minds of the Subjects The trivial and unreasonable occasions of such an opinion a pleasant instance thereof in the Case of the Salique Law it is condemned by an Hermaphrodite Better that the Sovereignty should be in one Woman than in five hundred men The Sovereignty of England in a single Person The Heresie of the Whiggish Lawyers Those that 〈◊〉 of the Antiquity of Parliamentes and those that vilifie them are Commonwealths men and enemies both of King and Parliament The Characters of several Commonwealths-men good advice to them A Panegyrick upon the King the Duke the Royal Family and all the True-hearted Nobility Gentry Clergy and Commonalty of this Realm an hearty Prayer for them p. 217 Books Printed for and are to be sold by Edward Vize at the Bishop's Head over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill A Discourse of Prayer Wherein this great Duty is stated so as to oppose some Principles and Practices of Papists and Fanaticks as they are contrary to the Publick Forms of the Church of England established by her Ecclesiastical Canons and confirmed by Acts of Parliament A Discourse concerning the Tryal of Spirits Wherein Inquity is made into Mens Pretences to Inspiration for publishing Doctrines in the Name of God beyond the Rules of the Sacred Scriptures In opposition to some Principles and Practices of Papists and Fanaticks as they contradict the Doctrines of the Church of England defined in her Articles of Religion established by her Ecclesiastical Canons and confirmed by Acts of Parliament A Spittle Sermon Preach'd In Saint Brides Parish Church on Wednesday in Easter Week being the Second Day of April 1684. Before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor the Court of Aldermen and the Sheriffs of the now Protestant and Loyal City of London These three
my shoulder because they are persecuted by the Counsels of the Jesuits will they be damn'd by their Doctrines Was there ever such a Mysterie of Iniquity since the subtle Serpent twin'd about the Tree with the forbidden fruit in his mouth Was there ever such an Age as this Surely these are the last and norst of dayes and I am certain it was not so in those wherein I lived and were I now amongst them I should tell them that the Christians did not revolt from Constantius though an Arian nor rebel against Julian though an Apostate and both Persecutors They did not call in the Goths to refine the Gospel nor the Persians to reform them from Idolatry They took up the Cross to suffer with their Saviour but they did not take up Arms to rebel against his Vicegerent They wrote against Heresies but durst not so much as speak evil of Dignities So that as the Practices of these dayes are much differing from the Piety of the former so let them pretend to what they will of the latter 't is Ambition makes great Traytors and Covetousness little Rebells for the first pray observe my Commentary upon that Text Put them in mind to be subject to Principalities and Powers and to be ready to every good work Quod quidem Comment S. Hier. in cap. 3. Epist ad Titum praeceptum c. which precept in this and that other place viz. Rom. 13. I think to be therefore given because at that time the opinion of Judas of Galilee was yet fresh and had many followers and of which there is mention made in the Acts of the Holy Apostles for before those Acts 5. 36. dayes rose up Theudas boasting himself to be some body Now for the second And in the dayes of Taxing arose Judas of Galilee who propos'd it as probable from the Law that none but God should be called Lord and that those who payed their Tenths to the Temple should not pay Tribute to Caesar Ay but Holy Father said I I told you that they were persecuted for the sake of their Religion and therefore cannot be said to rebel out of Covetousness I confess reply'd he that a blind zeal may carry them a great way but such sight not so much against the Idol as for the Gold that is about it 'T is for this gay dross pointing to the Silver Ore that they drag the glittering Steel from the bowels of their Mother Earth to sheath it by an unnatural War in one anothers They quarrel not for Heavenly Graces but for Earthly Plunder they sight not to refine their Religion but their Gold 't is for this the Turk who hates an Image becomes an Idolater by his Covetousness and the True Protestant turns Jesuit to worship this Mass and since the Banners of Mahomet are the Ensigns of Mammon 't is no wonder that so many crowd under them At this I heard a mighty clashing of Armor and a great confused noise of people howling and groaning upon which the Candle before S. Jerome burnt blue and by the last light of it he dissolv'd into a shower of Tears and so in a Mist vanish't away I was now left in the dark not knowing which way I came in or how to get out again and therefore I stood my ground expecting to see what would be the event of that great Hurly Burly I heard at last a pair of great Gates opened and there crowded in a vast number of Turks all bloody and wounded stript stark naked shivering and groaning and crying How has the Mufti deceived us What a prodigious Impostor does our great Prophet Mahomet at last prove to us the first promising us victory if we fight and the second a Paradise if we die But what did they promise you for running away cry'd a great number of ugly she Devils with nasty duggs pushing them forward with flaming Torches Had ye not superfine notions of the state after death think you Are you not pretty Companions for rolling black-ey'd women when your carcasses are nothing but dust or putrefaction assure your selves we are all the Company you are like to keep and if this be your Paradise you shall injoy it for evermore These were no sooner dispos'd of where those implacable Furies thought fit but I saw a great number as I thought under a more cruel discipline for they were driven along by an huge and terrible tall Fiend branding them on the backs with red hot half Moons and their faces were all oversmear'd with blood asking who they were I was told that they were the Teckelites and that Lucifer had taken particular care of them by separating them from the honester Turks by cutting off their foreskins and had bedaubed their faces with the blood of their Circumcision in token of their renouncing their Christian Baptism and to mark them out for the greater Damnation I was no sooner got clear of those numerous wretches but I espied a Gentleman whom I formerly knew and who was acquainted with most of the affairs of Christendom and had travailed through most parts of Turky but before I could accost him there came between us the renowned Vizier Cuperlee raging and fretting with so much wrath and fury in his face that he made all tremble before him However as soon as he was past Signior Christiano for that was my friends name came to me and inviting me to follow after him told me that I should both hear and see things worth my Observation and indeed we had not gone a Furlong before the haughty Vizier fell on his knees and laying his hand on his breast and bowing his head O Mahomet cry'd He our holy and great Prophet why hast thou suffered so much shame and dishonour to hefall the Ottoman Forces that were raised to propagate thy Faith and holy Religion to the ends of the Earth Whilst I govern'd the Divan all things we undertook prospered both at home and abroad but now I understand that the Banner that bears thy Sacred name is carried in Triumph to the Idolatrous City And the Musselmen Rome thy true disciples flee before the face of Gaurs and Vnbelievers see here the Carcasses of thy proselytes that come from the burning sands of Libya lye here unburied in this cold Climate where Rocks of Ice blunt the Sun-beams Grant we may revenge this loss this dishonour upon these unwashed Christians that we may flea their Magistrates alive That we may rip up their teeming Matrons and give their Breasts to Wolves and Dogs That we may send all their Sacred Priests to the Plough Not all of them cryed a Jesuite who had like to have stumbled over him I know not what wrong we of our Society have done you You are beholding to us for that posture of affairs that gave an advantage of beginning a War which in all probability might have prov'd very honourable and profitable to the Sultan had our designs taken effect in Poland that King had never hindred
yours before Vienna Did not We divide the Christian Princes it were in vain for all the forces of the East to attacque the united Powers of Christendom 't is we have weakened the house of Austria 't is we have brought your mortal enemy the Spaniard so low and although you will not acknowledge Christ yet I know not what reasons you have to object against Ignatius Loyola who was as good a Souldier as Mahomet and We have since been as great Merchants I do not forget replyed the Vizier how much the Divan is beholding to your Conclave and therefore let this be the agreement betwixt us We will carry on the War in the Empire untill you have gained the Popedom and when Vienna is Ours and Rome Yours you shall help us to destroy all the Hereticks of our Religion especially the Persians and We will assist you to destroy all those of Yours particularly the English The Bargain was concluded by their friendly parting but the Jesuit was not long gone ere there was a cry Make room for the King of Poland At this very name the Vizier quaked for fear but when he saw only a lean fallow Carrion of a fellow coming towards him Had the Pox said He but sprung such a Mine in the sides of Sobietski Our forces had taken Vienna long ago But it was a fatal * Septem 9. day to us when he with his Young * Alexander Scanderbeg came upon us a day wherein the Gaurs have reason to rejoyce and a day wherein the Tories replyed the Earl of S. had as much reason to give Thanks Who are they said the Vizier I never heard of them before The most irreconcileable enemies that you have in the World replied the Earl and whom we had utterly destroyed had not our designs been unfortunately discovered by a short relation of which you will know how much I deserv'd the Kingdom of Poland at your hands You must know that the King of England is Guarrantee of the Peace of Christendom and by that high Honour conferr'd upon him by the Christian Princes He was in a capacity to turn all the strength of the West upon you and not only to free the Empire of Germany from the Arms of France but to put both the Dutch and Spaniard also into a condition of sending Supplies both of Men and Monies besides what he might have afforded of his own But we the true Protestants of Great Britain being opprest with Popish and Idolatrous Abominations stirred up the minds of the people to contend against the encroachments of the Man of sin By which means we raised so many Tumults and Seditions that he had not only enough to do to keep his own Subjects in Peace but indeed it was a wonder that he preserv'd his own life However We made it uncomfortable enough to him For though the Occasions were never so pressing and urgent Though the Honour and safety of the Nation depended never so much upon it we would not grant him a Penny nay we would not let him borrow an Asper of any of his Subjects How Cry'd the Vizier smiling Would you not grant him any Would you not let him borrow any by Mahomet ' t was bravely done thou shalt have all the Goggle-ey'd wenches in Paradise by that very means we gain'd the Imperial City of Constantinople For when Mahomet the Great besieged that City the miserable Emperour Constantinus Palaeologus went in vain from door to door to borrow money to pay his Souldiers but when it was taken to the eternal shame of the Citizens there was enough found not only to supply the Luxury but the Covetousness of the Turks I see now you are our friends and therefore let us make a League an Association be pleas'd to call it said the Earl and let it be to destroy Popery and Popish Successors Withall my heart replyed the Vizier I 'le down with their Images I 'le burn their Wooden gods untill the sap runs out at their Heels we 'll persecute their Crucified God from City to City Oh! ay ay cry'd the Earl Now you have hit upon 't be sure utterly to abolish the Sign of the Cross and you will gain the Hearts of all true Protestants for ever Well! said the Vizier now our hands are in we 'll take care to establish the Protestant Religion so that no time shall wear it out How so replyed the Earl Why said the Vizier you know that one Pope Gregory hath polluted your Christian account or Kalendar by the alteration of ten days for the future therefore let all true Protestants date all affairs from the Year of Hegira All the reason in the world said the Earl for I 'll tell you what a Sorcerous trick a damn'd Popish Almanack maker served you What was that said the Vizier You know replyed the Earl that the ninth day of September the Christian Army came to the Relief of Vienna that on the tenth they were clearly Masters of your Camp and routed your forces Too true said the Vizier What then why in an Almanack which a Gentleman bought at Florence in Italy printed for the year 1683 for the 20th day of September which with us is the 10th was this prediction il gladio di Dio in viscera di Imperio Ottomanno principi Christiani molto felici c. No more of the Language of the beast In English thus That the Sword of God should be in the bowels of the Ottoman Empire that the Christians should be very happy c. How wonderfully replied the Vizier did all your Protestant Prognosticators fib that year when they so confidently affirm'd that we should pull down the Pope and overturn the Triple Crown Don't despair said the Earl you have the prayers of the Brethren Do but once again clap your Horse-tail to the Beast in the Revelation and I 'll warrant you she will run away with the Whore of Babylon and give her such a damnable fall as she never yet had I perceive replyed the Vizier you are not very faithful to any body you do but make sport with our affliction but I am sure we have reason to be sorrowful in good earnest Oh! that Fatal day that Black and Gloomy day The Earl seeing him in a great fit of grief turn'd to his Chaplain a little diminutive Puritan that stood at his back in Querpo Comfort him up thou man of God Comfort him up said He with some portion of Scripture lest he faint away At this Mr. Prick Ears opened his mouth and began to utter How are the Mighty fallen Hold cryed the Earl have a care of stumbling upon the Mountains of Gilboa you know 't is about Vienna apply 'um right and now go on How are the mighty fallen and the weapons of war perished Tell it not in London publish it not in Rome least the Daughters of the Tories rejoyc least the daughters of the Vncircumcised triumph An excellent Preacher reply'd the Vizier he cuts out all our
quality to reduce this Ancient Monarchy into a Democracy in order to which He imploys the whole stock of his malice to scoff and burlesque all the Sacred Orders of the Church as the ready way to ruine the State The truth is says he page 98. I could wish there had never been any Clergy the purity of Christian Religion as also the good and Orderly Government of the World had been much better provided for And so says Mr. Harrington An ounce of wisdom is worth a pound of Clergy Ocean p. 223. And Ministers of all others least understand Political Principles And then having vilisied Monarchy as the worst of Governments and the Corruption of all others He very Dogmatically proclaims the State of Venice to be the Perfectest pattern of Government now existent And so did Mr. Harrington in his Venetian Ballott To gain Authority and success to his Politick frame He recommended to this Nation he Caresses the People with the same unlimited and transcendent power which Doleman is most graciously pleas'd to bestow upon them by which they are inabled to change and depose their Princes at their Leisure and alter and model the Government at their pleasure to prompt them to this with his Father the Devil and Doleman He slights the Plea of Monarchs Divine right makes the King a sharer with and Trustee of the People and looks upon it as a pretence that they have their power from God And after all with an impudence only proper to himself He would cully the King out of his Prerogatives with the rusty Complement of giving him more Ease and of making him more Glorious These and other wicked and ridiculous Positions destructive both of King and People make up the Politicks of this filthy Dreamer who has more of Pythagoras his Ass than of Plato ' s Spirit in him If the Devil said I be in him I will make him come out of him if I can And with that I march't up to him You Sir said I that have so industriously laboured to change and new model our Government did like a Politician indeed to conjure up the Ghost of an Athenian a sort of sickle giddy headed people that felt more fatal Changes and Revolutions than any Nation under the Sun So like our present Fanaticks * Acts 17. â—1 That they spent their Time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing But Sir when you were scraping in the rubbish of their City for the Ghost of Plato you had done well if you had brought along with you the Statua of Jupiter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which they erected to deter men from being perjur'd Hence 't is that one of their Poets wondring that such persons escap't when the Oak is sometimes thunder-struck said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Oak is not for sworn Hence it was that they termed a righteous person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a perjurious signified a wicked man insomuch that I meet but one among them fit to make a Foreman of a true Protestant Ignoramus Jury and that was Lysander who was so infamous for that saying of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That we ought to cheat Children with Cock all 's but Enemies with Oaths Now since your Friends at home are grown so scandalous for breaking the Third and Ninth Commandments which were given by Moses who was a King among the righteous You cannot tell how far such a Statua might deter them because set up by a Religious Commonwealth But you have brought nothing with you from thence but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Brazen face And 't is with this Brazen face you have the confidence to appear in defence of your many-headed Democracy to vilisie the present Establisht Government in despight of the Fundamental Laws of this Kingdom and when you have done as I am told to appear in Westminster Hall at a time when one a very little worse than your self received Sentence of Death for High Treason And if the Platonick Year were true a man might easily guess your fate every Revolution of Saturn But to the purpose Greece is not able to contain your Politicks but you whip over into Italy and as the Painters of that Country use sometimes to summon the fairest Courtesans together and draw a Beautiful face for the Blessed Virgin Mary from the slagrancies of Harlots So from the Charming Constitutions of Rome in its Youth and Venice in its old Age would you model us a pure sound and glorious Government I would so replied Nevil For in the most turbulent Times of that Commonwealth and Factions between the Nobility and People Rome was much more full of vertuous and Heroick Citizens than ever it was under Aurelius or Anteninus p. 43. But said I are there not as many vertuous and Heroick Persons under King Charles the Second in England But now I think of it the late Shaftsbuty's Conspiracy would have left us as few had it taken effect as Catalines would in Rome And I believe that such a Protestant as you are who will allow of no Priests but those of Mars esteem a few Heathen Philosophers before all the Ministers of the Gospel He was a Conjurer like your self that was ravisht with the love of Tully for writing against Transubstantiation in his third Book de Natura deorum Cum Fruges Cererem vinum Liberum dicimus genere nos quidem sermonis utimur usit ato sed ecquemtam amentem esse put as qui illud quo vescatur Deum credat esse When we call Corn Ceres and Wine Bacchus we only use a customary way of Speech but whom do you think so mad as to believe that with which he is sed to be a God And just such a true Protestant Politick Antiquarian is the Authour of Plato Redivivus and just such a formidable enemy to Popery But Sir if Ancient Governments do not please you said he because out of Fashion What think you of the Venetian I declare it to be the best in the World at this day Indeed said I the Venetians I confess have not been altogether so Pope-ridden as some others have and their Dukes may marry the Adriatick Sea without a Licence from the Bishop of Rome but I hope you believe it cannot be done without the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of Rome And that the Pope has a great deal less Jurisdiction in England if ever you took the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy But you have lost your English Conscience and no body values your Protestant Policy For is not the King of England much better than a Duke of Venice Is not the Succession in the right Line as Authentick from Scripture as good by experience as Ballotting Is not the King of England by the Grace of God greater and better than a Duke of Venice by the vertue of Hocus Pocus He is greater said he but that greatness is not better either for himself or
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
I will thank them and confess my sin to all the world but Malicious railings I take for Rebellions themselves I shall not regard I will not rail on Mr. Baxter replyed Seignior Chr. for 't is a difficult thing to nickname Schism Sedition Murther and Treason but this I must say of his writings If they were made hangings to his House of Office as Olivers Porters Papers are to his Cell he might do himself the kindness of hiding the one side of them that contradict the other for certainly no man living ever gave himself the lie so often or complemented himself into so many titles of Infamy in one breath since the world began no man ever took so much pains to justifie himself as Baxter has to expose and condemn himself For would you know what sin he is most guilty of that is so ready to make his Confession 't is certainly that which he most declaims against how dangerous a thing in his most serious Meditations upon these his superfine Politicks saies he is pride of heart When once it grows to an enormous height it will make men swell with self conceit and think none so fit to govern Countries and Nations as they nor any so fit to teach the Church nor any so meet to judge what is good or evil to the Commonwealth This he saies at the end of that Book wherein he dogmatically prescribes rules of Polity for the State as since he has done for the Church in opposition to all the rules of Modesty and Obedience and contrary to all the Laws of God and man To conclude for all Mr. Baxter's pretences to Gods glory and the increase of Religion these his impracticable whimsies would be so far from procuring that good to this Nation which he promises to himself and pretends to us that they would certainly over-run us with Enthusiastick Knaves and Hypocrites and from Elihu in Job we may learn the fatal consequences of his ridiculous Politicks for we gather from Job 34. 30. that He maketh an hypocrite to reign when he is minded to scourge a sinful people We have learn't said I dear friend we have sufficiently learnt the truth of this by late and sad experience we have found the wicked and dismal Conclusions of this and other villanous Maxims of Fanatical and Hypocritical Policy for twenty years together wherein the Courts of Justice were fill'd with Violence and Oppression the Churches with Sacriledge and Blasphemy the Earth with the dead bodies and Hell with the souls of Rebells wherein there was more wickedness committed in this one Island than in all the world besides so that Foreigners said that the King of England was King of Devils and I will swear that there is none to compare with the white ones THE Third VISION OF GOVERNMENT The CONTENTS The monstrous Loyalty of the Fanaticks Their several Ridiculous Policies the growth and design of the late Hellish Conspiracy The two fundamental Principles of the Good Old Cause First That All Civil Authority is deriv'd Driginally from the People The extreme villany and folly of this Proposition throughly examined and by a Civiliz'd Cannibal condemn'd The Second That Birth-right and Proximity of Blood give no Title to Rule or Government and that It is lawful to preclude the next Heir from his Right of Succession to the Crown The great impiety and folly of this Proposition fully discovered and condemned by an Indian of New-England The Authors and Abetters of them both exposed The great Wisdom and Goodness of our present Gracious Soveraign in securing to this Monarchy the right and lineal descent of the Crown THE more haste the worse speed cry'd a blundering Fellow that stumbled upon me and had almost beaten me down Whither so fast friend what is your business said Seignior Christiano to him I am upon life and death Sir said he pray don't stop or stay me I am going for Cordials for a matter of forty or fifty people in the next room that are all ready to swoon and dye away This broke off our discourse and we hastened immediately to know what was the matter and who they were At our first entrance how wonderfully was I surpriz'd to see Hobbs and Boxter Knox and Buchanan Hunt and Gilby Milton and the Jesuits sitting all together like friends but in a very disconsolate posture Some complained of grievous pains in the Spleen others were sick at the Heart but all of them were most dismally tormented in their heads Whilst I stood looking on them I can tell you what they all ail said a Gentleman to me whom I took to be a Physician I can tell what they ail without feeling their pulses do but follow me He open'd a door which led us into a Court like that of the Scholes at Oxford in the midst of it there was a great Fire and an Officer very solemnly threw a great number of Books into it These are said the Gentleman the Books and Writings containing those infamous Heretical and Blasphemous Propositions which that famous Vniversity condemn'd and sentenc'd in their Convocation July 21. 1683. upon the discovery of the late Hellish Conspiracy And those men you just now past by are Fanatical Wizards who are in pain whilst their charms of Rebellion are burning but yonder Fellow is giving them a refreshing Cordial made of a composition of Impudence Contradiction and Obstinacy and you shall see them all recover themselves immediately What he said prov'd true for Hunt grew presently as brisk as a Body-Louse and smiling and turning himself round about It is very certain said he good people that these Protestant Subjects namely the Dissenters have cheerfully given their Assistance to the support of the Government It is well known that they are an Industrious Trading People that willingly pay whatsoever Taxes the Law requires And it is remarkable that no people ever exprest a greater zeal to oppose the various attacques of a Foreign Anti-spiritual Power than these Dissenters And could I know any one of them that would shrink from his Princes service when his Royal Person and Government are menaced I would esteem him not only a Fool but a Traytor to boot We are very much beholden to you indeed reply'd Seignior Christiano a smart fellow truly I think you wrote the Postscript not long before and what you now say is in a Book entitled Compulsion of Conscience condemn'd and that came out a little after the discovery of the late Conspiracy and would you call him a Traytor Surely Judas himself never look'd damnation in the fate with half that impudence with which the Author of the Postscript has done Hell it self within an inch of the Gallows and thus to justifie his or their pretended Innocency out-does him that hang'd himself and so confest his Treachery What Devil said he turning towards us can trace these Infernal Changlings who if their villany succeeds are Righteous if it miscarries are Innocent Indeed Sir said I they are no Changlings