the generality of the People discharging Counsellors and Iudges of their Allegiance and threatning them with Excommunication in case they disobeyed the Assembly All this they did according to the Covenant and whether This was Religion or Ambition let the World judge These Affronts drew the King down with an Army to the Borders and with two miles of Barwick the two Bodies had an Enterview March 28. 1639. But the Scots craving a Treaty his Majesty most graciously accorded it Commissioners were appointed Articles agreed upon and a Pacification Concluded Iune 17. Not one Article of this Agreement was observ'd on the Covenanters part but immediately upon the Discharge of his Majesties Forces the Scots brake forth into fresh Insolencies and Encroachments upon the Prerogative addressing to the French King for assistance against their Native Soveraign And yet the Quarrel was as they pretended for the Protestant Religion and against Popery In August 1640. they entred England and upon a Treaty at Rippon soon after a cessation is agreed upon referring the decision of all differences to a more General Treaty at London In November began the Long Parliament and now the Scene is London Where with great License and Security Parties are made and Insolences against the Government committed and Authorised under protection of the Scotch Army and the City-Tumults By degrees matters being prepar'd and ripened they found it opportune soon after to make something a more direct attempt upon the Soveraignty but by request first and resolving if that way fail to try to force it In Ian they Petition for the Militia In February they secure the Tower and in March Petition again for 't but so that they Protest if his Majesty persist to deny it they are Resolv'd to take it And the next day it is Resolv'd upon the Question That the Kingdom be forthwith put into a Posture of defence by Authority of both Houses of Parliament In April 1642. the Earl of Warwick seizes the Navy and Sir Iohn Hotham Hull Refusing the King entrance which was Iustified by an Ensuing Vote and his Majesties Proclayming him Traytor for it was Voted a Breach of Privilege In May the pretended Governour of Hull sends out Warrants to raise the Trayned Bands and the King then at York forbids them moving the Country for a Regiment of the Trayned Foot and a Troop of Horse for the Guard of his Royal Person whereupon it was Voted That the King seduced by wicked Counsell intended to make a Warr against his Parliament and that whosoever should assist him were Traytors They proceed then to corrupt and displace divers of his Servants forbidding others to go to him They stop and seize his Majesties Revenue and declare that whatsoever they should Vote is not by Law to be Questioned either by the King or Subjects No Precedent can limit or bound their proceedings A Parliament may dispose of any thing wherein the King or People have any right The Sovereign Power resides in Both Houses of Parliament The King hath no Negative Voyce The levying of Warr against the Personal commands of the King though accompanied with his presence is not a levying of Warr against the King but a levying Warr against his Laws and Authority which they have power to declare is levying Warr against the King Treason cannot be committed against his Person otherwise then as he was Intrusted They have Power to judge whether he discharge his Trust or not that if they should follow the highest precedents of other Parliaments Patterns there would be no cause to complain of want of Modesty or Duty in them and that it belonged only to them to Judge of the Law Having stated and extended their Powers by an Absurd Illegal and Impious severing of the Kings Person from his Office their next work is to put Those Powers in Execution And to subject the sacred Authority of a Lawfull Monarch to the Ridiculous and Monstrous Pageantry of a Headlesse Parliament and That 's the Business of the 19. Propositions demanding That the great affairs of the Kingdom and Militia may be menaged by consent and Apprebation of Parliament all the great affairs of State Privy Councell Ambassadours and Ministers of State and Judges be chosen by Them that the Government Education and Marriage of the Kings Children be by Their consent and approbation and all the Forts and Castles of the Kingdom put under the Command and Custody of such as They should approve of and that no Peers to be made hereafter should sit and Vote in Parliament They desire further that his Majesty would discharge his Guards Eject the Popish Lords out of the House of Peers and put the Penal Lawes against them strictly in Execution and finally that the Nation may be govern'd either by the Major part of the Two Houses or in the Intervals of Parliament by the Major part of the Councell and that no Act of State may be esteemed of any validity as proceeding from the Royal Authority without Them Upon These terms they insisted and Rais'd a Warr to Extort them So that 't is clear they both design'd and fought to Dethrone his Majesty and exercise the Soveraign Power Themselves which was to suit their Liberty of Acting to That of Sitting and to make themselves an Almighty as well as an Everlasting Parliament CAP. IV. The Instruments and Means which the Conspirators imployed to make a Party THat Their Design was to Usurp the Government is Manifest Now to the Instruments and Sleights they us'd to compass it The Grand Projectors knew very well that the strength of their Cause depended upon the favour of the Ignorant and Licencius Multitude which made them court all people of That Mixture to their Party for men of Brain and Conscience would never have agreed to a Conspiracy against so clear a Light so just an Interest and Those they found their fast Friends whom neither the Horrour of Sin nor the brightest evidence of Reason was able to work upon To fit and dispose Both Humours to their purpose the first scruple they Started was Religion which taken as they used it in the external form and jâ—ngle of it is beyond doubt the best Cloke for a Knave and the best Rattle for a Fool in Nature Under This Countenance the Murther of the King pass'd for a Sacrifice of Expiation and those Brute-Animals that scarce knew the Bible from the Alcoran were made the Arbitratours of the Difference The fear of Popery was the Leading Iealousie which Fear was much promoted by Pamphlets Lectures and Conventicles Still coupling Popery and Prelacy Ceremonies and the Abominations of the Whore by these resemblances of the Church of England to That of Rome tacitly instilling and bespeaking the same Disaffection to the one which the people had to the other Their Zeal was first employ'd upon the Names of Priests and Altar the Service-book Church-habits and Ceremonies From Thence
comes into my mind of Mark 15. 18. Haile King of the Iews and they smote him on the head with a Reed and spat upon him and bowed the Head and did him Reverence This Impious Libell was seconded with an Audacious Tumult even at the Gates of the Kings Palace and it was now high time for his Majesty to enquire into the Contrivers and Abettours of these and other the like Indignities and Proclamation was accordingly made for the Apprehending of them which very Proclamation was Declared to be a Paper False Scandalous and Illegal After This Language what had they more to do but by Armed Violence to invade the Sovereignty and to emprove a loose and Popular Sedition into a Regular Rebellion Which was a little hastened too even beside the Termes of Ordinary Prudence to emplunge their Complices beyond Retreat before they should discern that hideous Gulfe into which their Sin and Folly was about to lead them To keep their Zeal and Fury waking the Faction had a singular Faculty at Inventing of Plots Counterfeiting Letters Intercepting Messages over-hearing Conspiracies which Artificial Delusions especially asserted by the pretended Authority of a Parliament and a Pulpit could not but work strong Effects of Scruple and Iealousie upon a prejudging and distemper'd People These were the means and steps by which they gain'd That Power which afterward they Employ'd in Opposition to those very Ends for which they sware they Rays'd it leaving us neither Church nor King nor Law nor Parliaments nor Properties nor Freedoms Behold the Blessed Reformation Wee 'll slipp the Warr and see in the next place what Government they Gave us in Exchange for That they had Subverted CAP. V. A short View of the Breaches and Confusions betwixt the Two Factions from 1648. to 1654. IT cannot be expected that a Power acquir'd by Bloud and Treason maintain'd by Tyranny the Object of a General Curse and Horrour both of God and Nature only United against Iustice and at Perpetual Variance with it self I say it cannot be expected that such a Power as This should be Immortal Yet is it not enough barely to argue the Fatality of Wickedness from the Certainty of Divine Vengeance and There to stopp Usurpers are not Rays'd by Miracle nor cast down by Thunder but by our Crimes or Follyes they are Exalted and Then by the Fatuâ—ty of their own Counsels down they Tumble Wherefore let us Enquire into the Springs and Reasons of their Fortunes and Falls as well as Gaze upon the Issues of them A timely search into the Grounds of one Rebellion may prevent another How the Religious Opposers of the late King advanced themselves against his Sacred Authority we have already shew'd be it our business here to Observe their workings one upon the other To begin with Them that began with Us The Presbyterians having first asserted the Peoples Cause against the Prerogative and attempting afterward to Establish Themselves by using Prerogative-Arguments against the People found it a harder matter to Erect on Aristocracy upon a Popular Foundation then to subvert a Monarchy upon a Popular Pretense or to dispose the Multitude whom they themselves had Declar'd to be the Supreme Power to lay down their Authority at the Feet of their Servants In fine they had great Difficulties to struggle with and more then they could overcome I mean great Difficulties in point of Interest and Conduct for those of Honour and Conscience they had subdu'd long since They strove however till opprest by a General Hatred and the Rebouud of their own Reasonings they Quitted to the Independents Thus departed the Formal Bauble Presbytery succeeded for the next Four years by the Phanaticisme of a Free-State The better half of which time being successfully Employ'd in the subjecting of Scotland and Ireland to their Power and Model and to complete their Tyranny over the Kings Best Subjects and their Usurpations over his Royal Dominions their next work was to make themselves Considerable Abroad and 't was the Fortune of the Dutch to feel the First proof of That Resolution Betwivt these Rivall States pass'd Six Encounters in 1652. most of them Fierce and Bloudy the Last especially a Tearing one Upon the whole the Dutch Lost more but the English got little beside the Honour of the Victory in which particular the Kingdom pay'd dear for the Reputation of the Common-wealth This Success rays'd the Pride and Vanity of the English so that at next Bout nothing less would serve them than an Absolute Conquest But while they are Providing for it and in the Huff of all their Glory behold the Dissolution of the Long-Parliament which whether it Began or Ended more to the Satisfaction of the People is a Point not yet decided Dissolved however it is and Rebuk'd for Corruptions and Delayes by Cromwell who with his Officers a while after Summon a new Representative and Constitute a new Counsell of State compos'd of Persons entirely disaffected to the Common-wealth This Little Ridiculous Convention thought to have done mighty Matters but the Plot Vented and Vanish'd Some of their Memorable Fopperies are These The Famous Act concerning Mariages was Theirs they pass'd likewise an Act for an Assessement of 120000 l. per Mensem they Voted down the Chancery and Tythes they Voted also a total Alteration of the Laws All of a mind they were not and for Distinction sake the company was divided into the Honest Party and the Godly Party Of the Former were Cromwell's Creatures and of the Other Barebones or rather Harrisons the Person they had design'd for General if they could perswade Cromwell to quit his Security for some additional Title of Dignity These Zealous Patriots Commonly brought their Bibles into the House with them and as I am Enform'd diverse of them were seeking the Lord with Vavasor Powell when This following trick was put upon them An Hour or two sooner in the morning then usuall Decemb. 12. he that they call'd their Speaker took the Chayre and it was presently Mov'd and Carry'd for several Reasons to re-assign their Power to him from whom they had it which was immediately persu'd and so they made Cromwell a Prince for making Them a Parliament This gratious Resignation produc'd that blessed Instrument of Government by which the Hypocrite was made Protector and now forsooth the style is chang'd from The Keepers of the Liberry of England by Authority of Parliament into Oliver Lord Protector of the Common-wealth of England Scotland and Ireland c. who was Installed and Sworn Decemb. 16. 1653. To his Assistance was Appointed a Counsell of 21. the Quorum 13. By whom immediately upon the Death of the Present Protector should be chosen one to succeed him alwayes excepted the Right Line from the choice 'T is suppos'd that Lambert had an eye upon himself in the reach of That Article and a Particular influence upon the drawing of it being at
A MEMENTO DIRECTED To all Those that Truly Reverence the Memory of KING CHARLES the MARTYR And as Passionately wish the Honour Safety and Happinesse of his Royall Successour Our most Gratious Sovereign Charles the II. THE FIRST PART By ROGER L'ESTRANGE Sic Canibus Catulos similes Virg. LONDON Printed for Henry Brome at the Gun in Ivy-lane Aprill the 11. 1662. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE The EARL of CLARENDEN Lord High CHANCELLOR OF ENGLAND My LORD HE that Owes more then he is Worth and Payes as far as he is Able is an Honest Man and That 's My Case more wayes then One. Nor is it possible for Mee to Think of my Debts and not of your Lordships Bounties at the same time Under whose Roofe I have formerly receiv'd so many many Benefits In the Establishment of That Felicity I reckon'd my self as sure as in the Possession of it I did my Lord and I must do so still or do a harder and a worse Thing in Thinking Otherwise For I am the same I was and to suppose your Lordships good opinion either Begun or Ended without Reason were to subject your Wisdome or Stability to a Question Since so it is My Lord that I cannot suspect your Kindnesse without an injury to your Honour nor let your Obligations sleep without some Testimony of my Thankfulnesse Vouchsafe to know my Lord that after more then Twenty Years spent in serving the Royall Interest Near Six of them in Gaoles and almost Four under a Sentence of Death in Newgate Fortune has been so kind as to leave me yet a Bottle of Inke and a Heap of Paper out of which pittiful Remain I make your Lordship a Present of a Book This Book I humbly offer not to your Reading or Thought but barely to your Countenance Let it my Lord but wear the Credit of Your Patronage Which I the rather wish because of a Late Pamphlet that I find Dedicated to your Lordship by a Mournevall of Presbyterians wherein my Name is not well us'd and truly if I am not Mistaken his Majesties Justice and Authority much worse about the Imprisonment of Mr. Crofton I must Proceed now to acquaint your Lordship that beside the Honour of your Protection I have great need of your Interest and Favour which yet I dare not Beg for fear of Offending your Readinesse to do me all reasonable Justice without it In Truth it is not for a man either of my Nature or Condition to Thrive by Begging for he that is both Poor and Honest carries a Double Clogg Especially in This Age my Lord when Heaven and Hell apart 't is a greater Scandal and Misfortune to be Indigent then Treacherous But there are my Lord that do not stick to say I 'm Both and I forgive with all my Soul the Worst that ever was said of Mee with good Intention to the King It is not long since I troubled your Lordship with a Paper upon This Subject to which with Leave I shall add a word or two Some will needs have it that I do not sufficiently Deny the Six hundred Pound My Lord I do so far deny it that I wish That Peny or Penyes-worth which to the best of my Knowledge I ever receiv'd from any Creature of the Rebels Party or by any Order from Them or any of Them may rise against Me at the Day of Judgment There is a further Rumour as if Captain Whitlock should have sent me word that he would justifie it whereas I never heard a Syllable from him to That Purpose nor can the World shew the least Colour for the Truth of That Report Let me be Pardon'd my Lord if I conoeive This Addresse not altogether Impertinent for if it did belong to you to Condemne me while you but Thought me Guilty your Lordship is certainly Oblig'd in Honour to Acquit me when you Know me Innocent In This Particular my Lord I think you are Bound to do me Right but in what Follows I totally Depend upon your Favour There is a Pitifull creature One Bagshaw a Chaplain to the Earl of Anglesie and the Authour of the Animadversions upon the Bishop of Worsters Letter This Fellow when his hand was In against the Bishop lends Mee a Lash too for my Practices with Cromwell Your Lordship would do me a Peculiar Honour to Procure that he might be called before the Counsell to make good his Charge where if I prove not Him That Villein which he Pretends I am let Mee suffer for it My LORD I am Your Lordships Most Obedient Servant Roger L'estrange April 11. 1662. The Preface THE Subject I have here undertaken leads mee into several unlucky Characters which if they were like no-body would be good for Nothing as holding no Proportion with Nature and Truth If any man Imagine that he sees himself Here let him keep his own Counsel and Consider that a Coat may be fit for him that was never made for him His Answer was not amisse that being Compleyn'd of to the Late Eminent Earl of Strafford for having written a Libel My Lord sayes he The Case is but This I throw down a Fools Cap This Gentleman takes it up and has a Phansie that it fits Him In short Let not an Ill man find fault with a Vitious Character For 't is much worse to Practice Wickednesse than to Peint it The scope of This First Part which I here expose is by Laying open the Workings and Series of the Last Rebellion to disappoint the Purposes of another The Second Part I reserve for more Particular Duties both Christian and Political which shall follow sooner or Later according to the Enterteynment which the World affords to This. The Author's Faults are enow without the Printers Of Each sort there are Many and I leave it to the Judicious Reader to Distinguish them A MEMENTO PART I. CAP. I. The Matter and Causes of Seditions THE Matter of Seditions according to Sir Francis Bacon whose words and Authority I shall often make use of in this little Treatise is of two kinds Much Poverty and much Discontentment The Causes and Motives of Seditions he reckons to be These Innovation in Religion Taxes Alteration of Lawes and Customs Breaking of Privileges General Oppression Advancement of unworthy Persons Strangers Dearths Disbanded Souldiers Factions grown desperate And whatsoever in offending People joyneth and knitteth them in a common Cause These Inconveniences either seasonably discover'd colourably pretended or secretly promoted are sufficient to the foundation of a Civil Warr. In which Negative and dividing Politiques none better understood themselves than the Contrivers of our late Troubles not only improving and fomenting Discontentments where they found them and creating violent Iealousies where there was but any place to imagine them but They Themselves were the greatest gainers even by those Grievances against which they complained Reaping a double Benefit first from the Occasion of the Difference and then from the Issue of it When a seditious bumor is
with lâ—mitations consistent with the Rights of Parliament and People and that for quiet sake they would transact with the Persons then sitting in the Other House as an House of Parliament during that Session The House proceeded by Degrees to make dangerous Inspections into the Militia the Revenue to look into the Exorbicances of Major Generals to threaten the Excise and finally by all Popular pretenses to engage the Multitude Effectually against both Protector and Army enduring the Government neither of the One nor of the Other Whereupon the Officers set up a Counsel at Wallingford-House the Protector advises at White-hall and Aprill 6. 1659. comes a Paper to Richard from the Generall Counsell of Officers Entituled A Representation and Petition c. importing the great danger of Good Old Cause is in from Enemies of all sorts the Poverty of the Souldiery the Persecution of Tender consciences c. which Particulars they Petition his Highnesse to represent to the Parliament with their Desire of Speedy Supply and Certainty of Pay for the future Declaring likewise their Resolution with their Lives and Fortunes to stand by and assist his Highness and Parliament in the plucking the Wicked out of their places wheresoever they may be discovered c. The Paper boded a Purge at least Sign'd it was by 230 Officers presented by Fleetwood Publish'd throughout the Army and followed soon after with a Day of Humiliation the never-failing Sign of Mischief at hand In this Juncture Each of the Three Parties was Enemy to the Other Two saving where Either Two were united to Maintein themselves against the Third and All Three of Them Enemies to the Good of the Nation The House being Biass'd for a Common-wealth and not yet enabled to go Through with it Dreaded the Army on the one hand and Hated the Single-Person on the Other Richard finding his Power limited by the Members and Envy'd by the Officers willing to please Both and Resolv'd to Hazzard nothing becomes a Common Property to the House and Army a Friend to Both by Turns Theirs to day T' others to Morrow and in all Tryals Meekly submitting to the Dispensation The Army on the other side had their Protector 's Measure to a Hair and behind him they Stalk'd to Ruffle That Faction in the House that was now grown so Bold with the Military Interest and it behov'd them to be quick with as the Case stood Then so Popular an Enemy The Members kept their Ground and April 18. pass'd These following Votes First That during the sitting of the Parliament there should be no General Counsell or meeting of the Officers of the Army without Direction Leave and Authority of his Highnesse the Lord Protector and Both Houses of Parliament Secondly That no Person shall Have and Continue any Command or Trust in any of the Armies or Navies of England Scotland or Ireland or any of the Dominions and Territories thereto belonging who shall refuse to Subscribe That he will not disturb or interrupt the free meeting in Parliament of any the Members of either House of Parliament or their freedom in their Debates and Counsels Upon These Peremptory Votes Richard Faces about joyning his small Authority to forbid their Meetings and great Assurances are Enterchang'd to stand the Shock of any Opposition Two or three dayes they stood upon their Guards continuing in that sharling Posture till April 22. when Richard at the suit or rather menace of Disborough and his Fellows signes a Commission to Dissolve his Parliament which to prevent the Members Adjourn for Three dayes and to avoid the shame of falling by an Enemy thâ— Catoe's kill themselves For at the Three dayes end they finde the Dore shut and a Guard upon the Passage to tell them They must Sit no more Their Dissolution being also Published by Proclamation His Highness steps aside next and now the Army undertakes the Government They Modell Cast about Contrive and after some Ten Dayes fooling with the Politiques they found it was much a harder matter to Compose a Government than to Disorder it and at This Plunge besought the Lord after their Wandrings and Back slidings to shew them where they turned out of the Way and where the Good Spirit left the Good Old Cause that through Mercy they might Return and give the Lord the Glory At last they call to mind that the Long Parliament sitting from 1648. to 1653. were eminent Assertâ—urs of that Cause and had a Speciall Presence of God with them Wherefore they Earnestly desire Those Members to Return to the Exercise of their Trust c. This is the Tenor of that Canting Declaration which the Army-Officers presented Lenthall the Good-Old-Speaker with at the Rolls May 6. in the Evening where a Resolve was taken by several of the Members to meet next morning in the Painted Chamber and There to advise about their Sitting They met accordingly and made a shift by Raking of Goals to get together a Quorum and so they sneak'd into the House of Commons and There Declar'd for a Common-wealth passing a Vote expresly against the Admission of the Members Secluded in 1648. This Device was far-fetch'd and not long-liv'd but These were Old Stagers and no ill Menagers of their Time To make short they Erect a Counsel of State Place and Displace mould their Faction settle the Godly appoint their Committees and so soon as ever they are Warm in their Gears begin where they left in 1653 Fleecing the Nation and Flaying the Cavaliers as briskly as if 't were but the Good-Morrow to a Six-Years Nap. But the sad Wretches were filthily mistaken to think Themselves brought in again to do their own Business for the Army makes bold to Cut them out their work in a Petition of May 12. containing 15. Proposals desiring First a Free-state 2. Râ—gulation of Law and Courts 3. An Act of Oblivion since April 19. 1653. 4. All Lawes c. since 1653. to stand good untill particularly Repeal'd 5. Publique Debts since 1653. to be Paid 6. Liberty of Worship c. not extending to Popery or Prelacy 7. A Preaching Ministry 8. The Reformation of Schools and Universities 9. the Exclusion of Cavaliers and loose Persons from Places of Power or Trust. 10. The Employment of the Godly in such Places 11. To provide for a Succession of the Legislative Authority 12. That Charles Fleetwood be Commander in Chief at Land 13. That the Legislative Power be in a Representative of the People and of a Select Senate Coordinate in Power 14. That the Executive-Power be in a Counsell of State 15. That the Debts of his Late Highness and his Father contracted since Decemb. 15. 1653. may be satisfi'd and Twenty Thousand Pounds per Annum setled upon him half for Life and half to him and his Heirs for ever The Principal point was Fleetwoods Command which they agreed to only reserving the Supreme Power to Themselves and constituting the Speaker
but He to Ease the People in Publique of the Grievances which himself had Procured in Private and in fine no man so fit to be made a Iudge in Israel To All This he must be Daring in his Person Close in his Purpose Firm to his Dependencies and rather stooping to the Ordinary People then mixing with them hee 'll do no good on 't else To Proceed let him be Watch'd how he Employes his Power and Favour whether with Machiavel more to the Advantage of his Master Or to his own particular Benefit and Then whether according to the Lord St. Albans he applies himself more to his Master's Business or to his Nature and rather to Advise him then to feed his Humour If he be found to study his Masters Passions more then his Honour and to Preferr his Private Interest to his Duty 't is an Ill sign And 't is no good one if the Favourite grows Rich and the Prince Poor especially if the Former be the Cause of the Latter but it is much a worse if he Presume to graspe Authority as well as Treasure It looks as if the Suppos'd Equality of Friendship had Drown'd the Order of Subjection Take Notice next of the Proportion betwixt the means he uses and his suspected ends Does he Engross the Disposition of all Charges and Preferments See in what hands he Places Them Does he endeavour to Obstruct all Grants of Grace and Benefit that passe not through his own fingers That 's Dangerous for says Sir Francis Bacon When the Authority of Princes is made but an Accessary to a Cause and that there be other Bands that Tie faster then the Band of Sovereignty Kings begin to be put almost out of Possession Marque then again what Kind of Persons he Promotes and for what likely Reasons whether for Mony or Merit Honesty or Faction Observe likewise the Temper and Quality of his Complicates and Creatures and whether his Favours be Bounties or Purchases If the Former Judge of his Design by his Choyce If the Latter 't is but a Mony-Businesse which Avarice meeting with an overweening vanity of mind is many times mistaken for Ambition In fine what Ambition does at hand Corruption does at Length nor is the Power of the One more Dangerous then the Consequence of the Other Subsection II. The Combination of Divers Counsellours PRoceed we now from the Greatness of One Counsellour to the Combination of Divers which to vary the Phrase is no other then a form'd Confederacy in the Counsel against the Monarch Wherein we shall Briefly lay down first the Advantages of the Faction the Methode next and lastly the marques of it Their Advantages are great and many in Regard both of their Privileges exempting them from Question of their Power to Offend their Enemies and Protect their Friends and in Consideration of their Opportunities to look into Both hands and play their Cards accordingly In their Methode of proceeding This is their Master-piece not only to do all the hurt they can under a colour of Good but to Engage Persons of more Honesty then Understanding in Offices seemingly Serviceable but Effectually Pernicious to the Publique by which Artifice those that are Friends to the Government do unwarily serve the Crafty Enemies of it secretly undermining the Honour of the Prince under Pretext of advancing his Profit Lessening his Power at Home under the Disguise of making him more formidable Abroad and where they cannot persuade an Interest if it be Considerable they will not stick to Purchase it As to the Rest the Methode is rather tacitly to Invite and Countenance a Sedition then openly to Head it and to Engage rather for it then with it till the hazzard of the first onset be over In Truth the first Essay of a Tumult is but a Tryall how the Ice will bear and the Popular Faction in the Counsell is more concern'd in case of a Disaster how to bring their Friends off then to Venture the leading them On for Fear of One. Whence it comes to passe that by the Obligation of Encouraging and Preserving their Party they are Cast upon a Scurvy Necessity of Discovering Themselves Their Marques are many for They are known by their Haunts by their Cabales by their Debates by their Domestiques by their Favorites and by their maner of Conversation and Behaviour If there be any Schismatical Teacher that 's Craftier and Slyer then the Rest you may be sure of my Lord's Coach at His Preachment It gives a Reputation to the Conventicle besides the Gracious Looks at Parting that passe betwixt his Honour and the Brethren which Enterchange is but a secret way of Sealing and Delivering a Conspiracy Look into their Cabales and ye shall find them all of a Tribe and Leaven Close Sedulous and United Their Dayly Meetings relishing of a Design as being Compos'd rather for Counsel then Enterteinment In their Debates you 'll know them by their Pleas Shiftings Delayes Extenuations Distinctions their Frequent and Industrious Obstructions of Dispatch in favour of the Faction By their Zealous Intercessions for the Enemies of the Prince and their Coldnesse for his Friends by their watchfulnesse to Seize all Opportunities of helping the Guilty and of Surprizing the Innocent by their Injecting of Snares and Scruples to Amuse and Distract those that are for the Government in Order to the Benefit of such as are against it wherein it is worth a Note that they all Vote the same way and without Question to the same Purpose for they shall sooner destroy a Loyal Subject upon a Calumny then punish a Traytour Convict and prosecute one man for Writing or Saying that it is possible for a Prince to have a Judas in his Counsel when another shall scape unquestion'd or perhaps be justify'd that calls his Sovereign a Tyrant and defends the Murther of Kings They may be guess'd at likewise in some measure by their Domestiques Especially by those of near Relation to Trust Privacy and Businesse as Chaplains Secretaries c. Nor is it enough to have it like Master like man unless it be like Lady like woman too for the pure strein must run quite Thorough for fear of Tales out of Schole and Discovering the Secrets of the Family But This Rule is not Universal From their Favorites much may be gather'd first from their Principles and Abilities And Then from the Frequency Privacy and Particularity of their Enterteining them The True Composition of a Confident fit for such a Statesman as we here speak of is This. He must be One that knows the Right and Opposes it for there is then lesse Danger of his Conversion and Consequently of Discovering his Patron Let him be likewise a man of Sobriety in his outward appearances of Reputation with his Party and well-grounded in the Niceties of the Controversie he must be also a Master of his Passions Peremptory in his mistakes and