They sate down in November and now it was May in this space of time which is but half a year they won from the King the adherence which was due to him from his People they drave his faithfulest Servants from him beheaded the Earl of Strafford imprison'd the Arch-bishop of Canterbury obtain'd a Triennial Parliament after their own Dissolution and a continuance of their own sitting as long as they listed which last amounted to a total Extinction of the King 's Right in case that such a Grant were valid which I think it is not unless the Sovereignty it self be in plain terms renounced which it was not But what Money by way of Subsidy or otherwise did they grant the King in recompence of all these his large Concessions A. None at all but often promised they would make him the most glorious King that ever was in England which were words that passed well enough for well meaning with the Common People B. But the Parliament was contented now for I cannot imagine what they should desire more from the King than he had now granted them A. Yes they desir'd the whole and absolute Sovereignty and to change the Monarchical Government into an Oligarchie that is to say to make the Parliament consisting of a few Lords and about 400 Commoners absolute in the Sovereignty for the present and shortly after to lay the House of Lords aside for this was the Design of the Presbyterian Ministers who taking themselves to be by Divine Right the only lawful Governors of the Church endeavoured to bring the same form of Government into the Civil State And as the Spiritual Laws were to be made by their Synods so the Civil Laws should be made by the House of Commons who as they thought would no less be ruled by them afterwards than they formerly had been wherein they were deceived and found themselves out-gone by their own Disciples though not in Malice yet in Wit B. What followed after this A. In August following the King supposing he had now sufficiently obliged the Parliament to proceed no farther against him took a Journey into Scotland to satisfie his Subjects there as he had done here intending perhaps so to gain their good Wills that in case the Parliament here should Levy Arms against him they should not be aided by the Scots wherein he also was deceiv'd for though they seemed satisfied with what he did whereof one thing was his giving way to the abolition of Episcopacy yet afterwards they made a League with the Parliament and for Money when the King began to have the better of the Parliament invaded England in the Parliaments quarrel but this was a year or two after B. Before you go any farther I desire to know the Ground and Original of that Right which either the House of Lords or House of Commons or both together now pretend to A. It is a Question of things so long past that they are now forgotten Nor have we any thing to conjecture by but the Records of our own Nation and some small and obscure fragments of Roman Histories And for the Records seeing they are of things done only sometimes justly sometimes unjustly you can never by them know what Right they had but only what Right they pretended B. Howsoever let me know what light we have in this matter from the Roman Histories A. It would be too long and an useless digression to cite all the Ancient Authors that speak of the forms of those Common-wealths which were amongst our first Ancestors the Saxons and other Germans and of other Nations from whom we derive the Titles of Honour now in use in England nor will it be possible to derive from them any Argument of Right but only Examples of Fact which by the Ambition of potent Subjects have been oftner unjust than otherwise And for those Saxons or Angles that in Ancient times by several Invasions made themselves Masters of this Nation they were not in themselves one Body of a Common-wealth but only a League of divers petty German Lords and States such as was the Grecian Army in the Trojan War without other obligation than that which proceeded from their own fear and weakness Nor were those Lords for the most part the Sovereigns at home in their own Country but chosen by the People for the Captains of the Forces they brought with them And therefore it was not without Equity when they had conquered any part of the Land and made some one of them King thereof that the rest should have greater priviledges than the Common People and Soldiers amongst which priviledges a man may easily conjecture this to be one That they should be made acquainted and be of Councel with him that hath the Sovereignty in matter of Government and have the greatest and most honourable Offices both in Peace and War But because there can be no Government where there is more than one Sovereign it cannot be inferr'd that they had a Right to oppose the King's Resolutions by force nor to enjoy those Honours and Places longer than they should continue good Subjects And we find that the Kings of England did upon every great occasion call them together by the name of discreet and wise Men of the Kingdom and hear their Counsel and make them Judges of all Causes that during their sitting were brought before them But as he summon'd them at his own pleasure so had he also ever the power at his pleasure to dissolve them The Normans also that descended from the Germans as we did had the same Customs in this particular and by this means this priviledge of the Lords to be of the King 's Great Councel and when they were assembled to be the Highest of the King's Courts of Justice continued still after the Conquest to this day But though there be amongst the Lords divers Names or Titles of Honour yet they have their Priviledge by the only Name of Baron a Name receiv'd from the Ancient Gaules amongst whom that Name signified the King's Man or rather one of his Great Men By which it seems to me that though they gave him Counsel when he requir'd it yet they had no Right to make War upon him if he did not follow it B. When began first the House of Commons to be part of the King 's Great Councel A. I do not doubt but that before the Conquest some discreet Men and known to be so by the King were called by special Writ to be of the same Councel though they were not Lords but that is nothing to the House of Commons The Knights of Shires and Burgesses were never called to Parliament for ought that I know till the beginning of the Reign of Edward the first or the latter end of the Reign of Henry the third immediately after the misbehaviour of the Barons and for ought any man knows were called on purpose to weaken that Power of the Lords which they had so freshly abused Before the time
the House nevertheless hearing of it from some of his Fellow-Members may certainly not only take notice of it but also speak to it in the House of Commons but to make the King give up his Friends and Councellors to them to be put to death banishment or imprisonment for their good will to him was such a Tyranny over a King no King ever exercised over any Subject but in Cases of Treason or Murder and seldom then A. Presently hereupon began a kind of War between the Pens of the Parliament and those of the Secretaries and other able men that were with the King For upon the 15 th of December they sent to the King a Paper called A Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom and with it a Petition both which they caused to be published In the Remonstrance they complained of certain mischievous Designs of a Malignant Party then before the beginning of the Parliament grown ripe and did set forth what means had been used for the preventing of it by the wisdom of the Parliament what rubs they had found therein what course was fit to be taken for restoring and establishing the Ancient Honour Greatness and Safety of the Crown and Nation 1 st And of these Designs the Promoters and Actors were they said Jesuited Papists 2 ly The Bishops and that part of the Clergy that cherish formality as a support of their own Ecclesiastical Tyranny and Usurpation 3 ly Councellors and Courtiers that for private ends they said had engaged themselves to farther the Interests of some Forreign Princes B. It may very well be that some of the Bishops and also some of the Court may have in pursuit of their private Interest done something indiscreetly and perhaps wickedly therefore I pray you tell me in particular what their crimes were for methinks the King should not have conniv'd at any thing against his own Supream Authority A. The Parliament were not very keen against them that were against the King they made no doubt but all they did was by the King's Command but accus'd thereof the Bishops Councellors and Courtiers as being a more mannerly way of accusing the King himself and defaming him to his Subjects For the truth is the Charge they brought against them was so general as not to be called an Accusation but Railing As first they said they nourished Questions of Prerogative and Liberty between the King and his People to the end that seeming much addicted to his Majesties Service they might get themselves into Places of greatest Trust and Power in the Kingdom B. How could this be called an Accusation in which there is no Fact for any Accusers to apply their Proofs to or their Witnesses for granting that these Questions of Prerogative had been moved by them who can prove that their end was to gain to themselves and Friends the Places of Trust and Power in the Kingdom A. A second Accusation was That they endeavoured to suppress the purity and power of Religion B. That 's Canting it is not in man's power to suppress the power of Religion A. They meant that they suppress the Doctrine of the Presbyterians that is to say the very foundation of the then Parliaments treacherous pretensions A third That they cherished Arminians Papists and Libertines by which they meant the common Protestants which meddle not with Disputes to the end they might compose a Body fit to act according to their Counsels and Resolutions A Fourth That they endeavoured to put the King upon other courses of raising Money than by the ordinary way of Parliaments Judge whether these may be properly called Accusations or not rather spiteful Reproaches of the King's Government B. Methinks this last was a very great fault for what good could there be in putting the King upon an odd course of getting Money when the Parliament was willing to supply him as far as to the security of the Kingdom or to the Honour of the King should be necessary A. But I told you before they would give him none but with a condition he should cut off the Heads of whom they pleas'd how faithfully soever they had serv'd him and if he would have sacrificed all his Friends to their Ambition yet they would have found other excuses for denying him Subsidies for they were resolv'd to take from him the Sovereign Power to themselves which they could never do without taking great care that he should have no Money at all In the next place they put into the Remonstrance as faults of them whose Counsel the King followed all those things which since the beginning of the King's Reign were by them misliked whether faults or not and whereof they were not able to judge for want of knowledge of the Causes and Motives that induced the King to do them and were known only to the King himself and such of his Privy-Council as he revealed them to B. But what were those particular pretended faults A. 1. The Dissolution of his first Parliament at Oxford 2. The Dissolution of his second Parliament being in the second year of his Reign 3. The Dissolution of his Parliament in the fourth year of his Reign 4. The fruitless Expedition against Cales 5. The Peace made with Spain whereby the Palatines Cause was deserted and left to chargeable and hopeless Treaties 6. The sending of Commissions to raise Money by way of Loan 7. Raising of Ship-Money 8. Enlargement of Forrests contrary to Magna Charta 9. The Design of engrossing all the Gunpowder into one hand and keeping it in the Tower of London 10. A Design to bring in the use of Brass Money 11. The Fines Imprisonments Stigmatizings Mutilations Whippings Pillories Gags Confinements and Banishments by Sentence in the Court of Star-Chamber 12. The displacing of Judges 13. Illegal Acts of the Council-Table 14. The Arbitrary and Illegal Power of the Earl Marshal's Court. 15. The abuses in Chancery Exchequer Chamber and Court of Wards 16. The selling of Titles of Honour of Judges and Serjeants Places and other Offices 17. The Insolence of Bishops and other Clerks in Suspensions Excommunications Deprivations and Degradations of divers painful and learned and pious Ministers B. Were there any such Ministers degraded deprived or excommunicated A. I cannot tell but I remember I have heard threatned divers painful unlearned and seditious Ministers 18. The Excess of severity of the High-Commission Court 19. The Preaching before the King against the Property of the Subject and for the Prerogative of the King above the Law and divers other petty quarrels they had to the Government which though they were laid upon this Faction yet they knew they would fall upon the King himself in the Judgment of the People to whom by printing it was communicated Again after the Dissolution of the Parliament May the 5 th 1640. they find other faults as the Dissolution it self The Imprisoning some Members of both Houses A forced Loan of Money attempted in London The Continuance of the Convocation
Cromwel after he had gotten into his own hands the absolute power of England Scotland and Ireland by the Name of Protector did never dare to take upon him the Title of King nor was ever able to settle it upon his Children His Officers would not suffer it as pretending after his death to succeed him nor would the Army consent to it because he had ever declared to them against the Government of a single person B. But to return to the King What Means had he to pay What Provision had he to Arm nay Means to Levy an Army able to resist the Army of the Parliament maintained by the great Purse of the City of London and Contributions of almost all the Towns Corporate in England and furnished with Arms as fully as they could require A. 'T is true the King had great disadvantages and yet by little and little he got a considerable Army with which he so prospered as to grow stronger every day and the Parliament weaker till they had gotten the Scotch with an Army of 21000 Men to come into England to their Assistance But to enter into the particular Narration of what was done in the War I have not now time B. Well then we will talk of that at next meeting Behemoth PART III. B. WE left at the Preparations on both sides for War which when I considered by my self I was mightily puzled to find out what possibility there was for the King to equal the Parliament in such a course and what hopes he had of Money Men Arms Fortified places Shipping Councel and Military Officers sufficient for such an Enterprize against the Parliament that had Men and Money as much at command as the City of London and other Corporation Towns were able to furnish which was more than they needed And for the Men they should set forth for Soldiers they were almost all of them spightfully bent against the King and his whole Party whom they took to be either Papists or Flatterers of the King or that had designed to raise their Fortunes by the plunder of the City and other Corporation Towns And though I believe not that they were more valiant than other Men nor that they had so much experience in the War as to be accounted good Soldiers yet they had that in them which in time of Battle is more conducing to Victory than Valor and Experience both together and that was spight And for Arms they had in their hands the Chief Magazines the Tower of London and the Town of Kingston upon Hull besides most of the Powder and Shot that lay in several Towns for the use of the Train'd Bands Fortified places there were not many then in England and most of them in the hands of the Parliament The King's Fleet was wholly in their Command under the Earl of Warwick Councellors they needed no more than such as were of their own Body so that the King was every way inferior to them except it were perhaps in Officers A. I cannot compare their Chief Officers for the Parliament the Earl of Essex after the Parliament had voted the War was made General of all their Forces both in England and Ireland from whom all other Commanders were to receive their Commissions B. What moved them to make General the Earl of Essex And for what cause was the Earl of Essex so displeased with the King as to accept that Office A. I do not certainly know what to answer to either of those Questions but the Earl of Essex had been in the Wars abroad and wanted neither Experience Judgment nor Courage to perform such an undertaking And besides that you have heard I believe how great a Darling of the People his Father had been before him and what Honour he had gotten by the Success of his Enterprize upon Cales and in some other Military Actions To which I may add that this Earl himself was not held by the people to be so great a Favorite at Court as that they might not trust him with their Army against the King And by this you may perhaps conjecture the Cause for which the Parliament made choice of him for General B. But why did they think him discontented with the Court A. I know not that nor indeed that he was so He came to the Court as other Noble-men did when occasion was to wait upon the King but had no Office till a little before this time to oblige him to be there continually but I believe verily that the unfortunateness of his Marriages had so discountenanced his Conversation with Ladies that the Court could not be his proper Element unless he had had some extraordinary favour there to ballance that Calamity but for particular discontent from the King or intention of revenge for any supposed disgrace I think he had none nor that he was any ways addicted to Presbyterian Doctrines or other Fanatick Tenets in Church or State saving only that he was carried away with the Stream in a manner of the whole Nation to think that England was not an absolute but a mixt Monarchy not considering that the Supream Power must always be absolute whether it be in the King or in the Parliament B. Who was General of the King's Army A. None yet but himself nor indeed had he yet any Army but there coming to him at that time his two Nephews the Princes Rupert and Maurice he put the Command of his Horse into the Hands of Prince Rupert a Man than whom no man living has a better Courage nor was more active and diligent in prosecuting his Commissions and though but a young man then was not without experience in the conducting of Soldiers as having been an Actor in part of his Fathers Wars in Germany B. But how could the King find Money to pay such an Army as was necessary for him against the Parliament A. Neither the King nor Parliament had much Money at that time in their own Hands but were fain to rely upon the Benevolence of those that took their parts Wherein I confess the Parliament had a mighty great advantage Those that helped the King in that kind were only Lords and Gentlemen which not approving the proceedings of the Parliament were willing to undertake the payment every one of a certain number of Horse which cannot be thought any very great assistance the persons that payed them being so few For other Moneys that the King then had I have not heard of any but what he borrowed upon Jewels in the Low Countries Whereas the Parliament had a very plentiful Contribution not only from London but generally from their Faction in all other places of England upon certain Propositions published by the Lords and Commons in June 1642. at what time they had newly voted that the King intended to make War upon them for bringing in of Money or Plate to maintain Horse and Horse-men and to buy Arms for the preservation of the publick Peace and for the defence of the
Commission from the present King hoping to do him as good Service as he had formerly done his Father but the Case was altered for the Scotch Forces were then in England in the Service of the Parliament whereas now they were in Scotland and many more for their intended Invasion newly raised Besides the Soldiers which the Marquess brought over were few and Forreigners nor did the Highlanders come in to him as he expected in so much as he was soon defeated and shortly after taken and with more spightful usage than revenge requir'd executed by the Covenanters at Edenburgh May 2. B. What good could the King expect from joyning with these men who during the Treaty discovered so much malice to him in one of his best Servants A. No doubt their Church-men being then prevalent they would have done as much to this King as the English Parliament had done to his Father if they could have gotten by it that which they foolishly aspir'd to the Government of the Nation I do not believe that the Independents were worse than the Presbyterians both the one and the other were resolv'd to destroy whatsoever should stand in the way to their Ambition but necessity made the King pass over both this and many other Indignities from them rather than suffer the pursuit of his Right in England to cool and be little better than extinguished B. Indeed I believe a Kingdom if suffered to become an old Debt will hardly ever be recover'd Besides the King was sure wheresoever the Victory lighted he could lose nothing in the War but Enemies A. About the time of Montrosse his death which was in May Cromwel was yet in Ireland and his work unfinished but finding or by his Friends advertised that his presence in the Expedition now preparing against the Scots would be necessary to his design sent to the Rump to know their pleasure concerning his return but for all that he knew or thought it was not necessary to stay for their Answer but came away and arriv'd at London the sixth of June following and was welcomed by the Rump Now had General Fairfax who was truly what he pretended to be a Presbyterian been so catechis'd by the Presbyterian Ministers here that he refus'd to fight against the Brethren in Scotland nor did the Rump nor Cromwel go about to rectifie his Conscience in that Point and thus Fairfax laying down his Commission Cromwel was now made General of all the Forces in England and Ireland which was another Step to the Sovereign Power B. Where was the King A. In Scotland newly come over He landed in the North and was honourably conducted to Edenburgh though all things were not yet well agreed on between the Scots and him for though he had yielded to as hard Conditions as the late King had yielded to in the Isle of Wight yet they had still somewhat to add till the King enduring no more departed from them towards the North again But they sent Messengers after him to pray him to return but they furnished these Messengers with strength enough to bring him back if he should have refused In fine they agreed but would not suffer either the King or any Royalist to have Command in the Army B. The sum of all is the King was there a Prisoner A. Cromwel from Barwick sends a Declaration to the Scots telling them he had no quarrel against the People of Scotland but against the Malignant Party that had brought in the King to the disturbance of the Peace between the two Nations and that he was willing either by Conference to give and receive satisfaction or to decide the Justice of the Cause by Battle To which the Scots answering declare That they will not prosecute the King's Interest before and without his acknowledgment of the sins of his House and his former ways and satisfaction given to God's People in both Kingdoms Judge by this whether the present King were not in as bad a condition here as his Father was in the hands of the Presbyterians of England B. Presbyterians are every where the same they would fain be absolute Governours of all they converse with and have nothing to plead for it but that where they Reign 't is God that Reigns and no where else but I observe one strange Demand that the King should acknowledge the sins of his House for I thought it had been certainly held by all Divines that no man was bound to acknowledge any man's sins but his own A. The King having yielded to all that the Church requir'd the Scots proceeded in their intended War Cromwel marched on to Edenburgh provoking them all he could to Battle which they declining and Provisions growing scarce in the English Army Cromwel retir'd to Dunbar despairing of success and intending by Sea or Land to get back into England And such was the Condition which this General Cromwel so much magnified for Conduct had brought his Army to that all his Glories had ended in Shame and Punishment if Fortune and the faults of his Enemies had not relieved him For as he retir'd the Scots followed him close all the way till within a Mile of Dunbar There is a ridge of Hills that from beyond Edenburgh goes winding to the Sea and crosses the High-way between Dunbar and Barwick at a Village called Copperspeith where the passage is so difficult that had the Scots sent timely thither a very few men to guard it the English could never have gotten home For the Scots kept the Hills and needed not have fought but upon great advantage and were almost two to one Cromwell's Army was at the foot of those Hills on the North side and there was a great Ditch or Channel of a Torrent between the Hills and it so that he could never have got home by Land nor without utter ruine of the Army attempted to Ship it nor have stayed where he was for want of Provisions Now Cromwel knowing the Pass was free and commanding a good Party of Horse and foot to possess it it was necessary for the Scots to let them go whom they bragged they had impounded or else to fight and therefore with the best of their Horse charged the English and made them at first to shrink a little but the English Foot coming on the Scots were put to flight and the flight of the Horse hindered the Foot from engaging who therefore fled as did also the rest of their Horse Thus the folly of the Scottish Commanders brought all their odds to an even Lay between two small and equal Parties wherein Fortune gave the Victory to the English who were not many more in number than those that were killed and taken Prisoners of the Scots and the Church lost their Canon Bag and Baggage with 10000 Arms and almost their whole Army The rest were got together by Lesly to Sterling B. This Victory happened well for the King for had the Scots been Victors the Presbyterians both here and there would
Silver whereof they thought there was great abundance in the Town of Santo Domingo but were well beaten by a few Spaniards and with the loss of near 1000 men went off to Jamaica and possessed it This year also the Royal Party made another attempt in the West and proclaimed there King Charles the Second but few joyning with them and some falling off they were soon suppressed and many of the principal Persons executed B. In these many Insurrections the Royalists though they meant well yet they did but disservice to the King by their Impatience What hope had they to prevail against so great an Army as the Protector had ready What cause was there to despair of seeing the King's business done better by the Dissention and Ambition of the great Commanders in that Army whereof many had the favour to be as well esteemed amongst them as Cromwel himself A. That was somewhat uncertain The Protector being frustrated of his hope of Money at Santo Domingo resolved to take from the Royalists the tenth part yearly of their Estates And to this end chiefly he divided England into eleven Major-Generalships with Commission to every Major-General to make a Roll of the Names of all suspected Persons of the King's Party and to receive the tenth part of their Estates within his Precinct as also to take Caution from them not to act against the State and to reveal all Plots that should come to their knowledge and to make them engage the like for their Servants They had Commission also to forbid Horse-races and Concourse of People and to receive and account for this Decimation B. By this the Usurper might easily inform himself of the value of all the Estates in England and of the behaviour and affection of every Person of Quality which has heretofore been taken for very great Tyranny A. The year 1656. was a Parliament year by the Instrument between the beginning of this year and the day of the Parliaments sitting which was September the 17 th these Major-Generals resided in several Provinces behaving themselves most tyrannically Amongst other of their Tyrannies was the awing of Elections and making themselves and whom they pleas'd to be return'd Members for the Parliament which was also thought a part of Cromwel's Design in their Constitution for he had need of a giving Parliament having lately upon a Peace made with the French drawn upon himself a War with Spain This year it was that Captain Stainer set upon the Spanish Plate-Fleet being eight in number near Cadiz whereof he funk two and took two there being in one of them two Millions of Pieces of Eight which amounts to 400000 l. Sterling This year also it was that James Naylor appeared at Bristol and would be taken for Jesus Christ. He wore his Beard forked and his Hair composed to the likeness of that in the Volto Santo and being question'd would sometimes answer Thou sayest it He had also his Disciples that would go by his Horse side to the mid-leg in dirt Being sent for by the Parliament he was sentenced to stand on the Pillory to have his Tongue bored through and to be marked in the Forehead with the Letter B. for Blasphemy and to remain in Bridewel Lambert a great Favorite of the Army endeavour'd to save him partly because he had been his Soldier and partly to curry favour with the Sectaries of the Army for he was now no more in the Protector 's favour but meditating how he might succeed him in his Power About two years before this there appeared in Cornwal a Prophetess much fam'd for her Dreams and Visions and hearkned to by many whereof some were eminent Officers but she and some of her Complices being imprison'd we heard no more of her B. I have heard of another one Lilly that prophecied all the time of the Long Parliament What did they to him A. His Prophecies were of another kind he was a writer of Almanacks and a pretender to a pretended Art of Judicial Astrology a meer Cozener to get maintenance from a multitude of ignorant People and no doubt had been called in question if his Prophecies had been any way disadvantageous to that Parliament B. I understand not how the Dreams and Prognostications of Mad-men for such I take to be all those that foretel future Contingencies can be of any great disadvantage to the Common-wealth A. Yes yes know there is nothing that renders Humane Counsels difficult but the incertainty of future time nor that so well directs men in their Deliberations as the fore-sight of the Sequels of their Actions Prophecie being many times the principal Cause of the Event foretold If upon some prediction the People should have been made confident that Oliver Cromwel and his Army should be upon a day to come utterly defeated would not every one have endeavoured to assist and to deserve well of the Party that should give him that Defeat Upon this account it was that Fortune tellers and Astrologers were so often banished out of Rome The last memorable thing of this year was a Motion made by a Member of the House an Alderman of London that the Protector might be petition'd and advis'd by the House to leave the Title of Protector and take upon him that of King B. That was indeed a bold Motion and which would if prosperous have put an end to many mens ambition and to the licentiousness of the whole Army I think the Motion was made on purpose to ruine both the Protector himself and his Ambitious Officers A. It may be so In the year 1657. the first thing the Parliament did was the drawing up of this Petition to the Protector to take upon him the Government of the three Nations with the Title of King As of other Parliaments so of this the greatest part had been either kept out of the House by force or else themselves had forborn to sit and became guilty of setting up this King Oliver But those few that sate presented their Petition to the Protector April the ninth in the Banqueting-house at White-hall where Sir Thomas Widdrington the Speaker used the first Arguments and the Protector desir'd some time to seek God the business being weighty The next day they sent a Committee to him to receive his Answer which Answer being not very clear they pressed him again for a Resolution to which he made answer in a long Speech that ended in a peremptory refusal and so retaining still the Title of Protector he took upon him the Government according to certain Articles contained in the said Petition B. What made him refuse the Title of King A. Because he durst not take it at that time the Army being addicted to their great Officers and amongst their great Officers many hoping to succeed him and the Succession having been promised to Major-General Lambert would have mutinied against him He was therefore forced to stay for a more propitious Conjuncture B. What were those Articles A. The most
when they sent unto him 19 Propositions whereof above a dozen were Demands of several Powers essential parts of the Power Sovereign But before that time they had demanded some of them in a Petition which they called a Petition of Right which nevertheless the King had granted them in a former Parliament though he deprived himself thereby not only of the Power to levy Money without their consent but also of his ordinary Revenue by Custom of Tonnage and Poundage and of the Liberty to put into Custody such Men as he thought likely to disturb the Peace and raise Sedition in the Kingdom As for the Men that did this 't is enough to say they were the Members of the last Parliament and of some other Parliaments in the beginning of King Charles and the end of King James his Reign to name them all is not necessary farther than the Story shall require Most of them were Members of the House of Commons some few also of the Lords but all such as had a great opinion of their sufficiency in Politicks which they thought was not sufficiently taken notice of by the King B. How could the Parliament when the King had a great Navy and a great number of Train'd Soldiers and all the Magazines of Ammunition in his power be able to begin the War A. The King had these things indeed in his right but that signifies little when they that had the Custody of the Navy and Magazines and with them all the Train'd Soldiers and in a manner all his Subjects were by the preaching of Presbyterian Ministers and the seditious whisperings of false and ignorant Politicians made his Enemies And when the King could have no Money but what the Parliament should give him which you may be sure should not be enough to maintain his Regal Power which they intended to take from him And yet I think they would never have adventured into the Field but for that unlucky business of imposing upon the Scots who were all Presbyterians our Book of Common-Prayer for I believe the English would never have taken well that the Parliament should make War upon the King upon any provocation unless it were in their own defence in case the King should first make War upon them and therefore it behooved them to provoke the King that he might do something that might look like Hostility It happened in the Year 1637. that the King by the Advice as it is thought of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury sent down a Book of Common-Prayer into Scotland not differing in substance from ours nor much in words besides the putting of the word Presbyter for that of Minister commanding it to be used for conformity to this Kingdom by the Ministers there for an ordinary Form of Divine Service This being read in the Church at Edenburgh caused such a Tumult there that he that read it had much ado to escape with his life and gave occasion to the greatest part of the Nobility and others to enter by their own Authority into a Covenant amongst themselves which impudently they called a Covenant with God to put down Episcopacy without consulting with the King which they presently did animated thereto by their own confidence or by assurance from some of the Democratical English-men that in former Parliaments had been the greatest opposers of the King's Interest that the King would not be able to raise an Army to chastise them without calling a Parliament which would be sure to favour them For the thing which those Domocraticals chiefly then aimed at was to force the King to call a Parliament which he had not done of ten years before as having found no help but hinderance to his Designs in the Parliaments he had formerly called Howsoever contrary to their expectation by the help of his better affected Subjects of the Nobility and Gentry he made a shift to raise a sufficient Army to have reduced the Scots to their former obedience if it had proceeded to battle and with this Army he marched himself into Scotland where the Scotch Army was also brought into the Field against him as if they meant to fight but then the Scoth sent to the King for leave to treat by Commissioners on both sides and the King willing to avoid the destruction of his own Subjects condescended to it The Issue was peace and the King thereupon went to Edenburgh and passed an Act of Parliament there to their satisfaction B. Did he not then confirm Episcopacy A. No but yielded to the abolishing of it but by this means the English were cross'd in their hope of a Parliament but the said Democraticals formerly opposers of the King's Interest ceased not to endeavour still to put the two Nations into a War to the end the King might buy the Parliaments help at no less a price than Sovereignty it self B. But what was the cause that the Gentry and Nobility of Scotland were so averse from the Episcopacy for I can hardly believe that their Consciences were extraordinarily tender nor that they were so very great Divines as to know what was the true Church-discipline established by our Saviour and his Apostles nor yet so much in love with their Ministers as to be over-rul'd by them in the Government either Ecclesiastical or Civil for in their lives they were just as other Men are pursuers of their own Interests and Preferments wherein they were not more opposed by the Bishops than by their Presbyterian Ministers A. Truly I do not know I cannot enter into other Mens thoughts farther than I am led by the consideration of Humane Nature in general But upon this consideration I see first that Men of ancient Wealth and Nobility are not apt to brook that poor Scholars should as they must when they are made Bishops be their fellows Secondly That from the Emulation of Glory between the Nations they might be willing to see this Nation afflicted by Civil War and might hope by aiding the Rebels here to acquire some power over the English at least so far as to establish here the Presbyterian Discipline which was also one of the Points they afterwards openly demanded Lastly They might hope for in the War some great Sum of Money as a reward of their assistance besides great booty which they afterwards obtained But whatsoever was the cause of their hatred to Bishops the pulling of them down was not all they aimed at If it had now that Episcopacy was abolished by Act of Parliament they would have rested satisfied which they did not for after the King was returned to London the English Presbyterians and Democraticals by whose favour they had put down Bishops in Scotland thought it reason to have the assistance of the Scotch for the pulling down of Bishops in England And in order thereunto they might perhaps deal with the Scots secretly to rest unsatisfied with that Pacification which they were before contented with Howsoever it was not long after the King was returned to London
but no knowledge of what they are nor any method of obtaining Vertue nor of avoiding Vice The end of Moral Philosophy is to teach men of all sorts their duty both to the Publick and to one another They estimate Vertue partly by a Mediocrity of the Passions of men and partly by that that they are praised whereas it is not the Much or Little Praise that makes an Action vertuous but the Cause nor much or little blame that makes an Action vitious but its being unconformable to the Laws in such men as are subject to the Law or its being unconformable to Equity or Charity in all men whatsoever B. It seems you make a difference between the Ethicks of Subjects and the Ethicks of Sovereigns A. So I do The Vertue of a Subject is comprehended wholly in obedience to the Laws of the Common-wealth To obey the Laws is Justice and Equity which is the Law of Nature and consequently is Civil Law in all Nations of the World and nothing is Injustice or Iniquity otherwise than it is against the Law Likewise to obey the Laws is the Prudence of a Subject for without such obedience the Common-wealth which is every Subject's safety and protection cannot subsist And though it be prudence also in private men justly and moderately to enrich themselves yet craftily to with-hold from the Publick or defraud it of such part of their wealth as is by Law requir'd is no sign of prudence but of want of knowledge of what is necessary for their own defence The Vertues of Sovereigns are such as tend to the maintenance of peace at home and to the resistance of Forreign Enemies Fortitude is a Royal Vertue and though it be necessary in such private men as shall be Soldiers yet for other men the less they dare the better it is both for the Common-wealth and for themselves Frugality though perhaps you will think it strange is also a Royal Vertue for it increases the Publick Stock which cannot be too great for the Publick Use nor any man too sparing of what he has in trust for the good of others Liberality also is a Royal Vertue for the Common-wealth cannot be well served without extraordinary diligence and service of Ministers and great fidelity to their Sovereigns who ought therefore to be encouraged and especially those that do him service in the Wars In sum all Actions and Habits are to be esteemed good or evil by their causes and usefulness in reference to the Common-wealth and not by their Mediocrity nor by their being commended for several men praise several Customs and that which is Vertue with one is blamed by others and contrarily what one calls Vice another calls Vertue as their present affections lead them B. Methinks you should have placed among the Vertues that which in my opinion is the greatest of all Vertues Religion A. So I have though it seems you did not observe it But whither do we digress from the way we were in B. I think you have not digressed at all for I suppose your purpose was to acquaint me with the History not so much of those Actions that pass'd in the time of the late Troubles as of their Causes and of the Councels and Artifice by which they were brought to pass There be divers men that have written the History out of whom I might have learned what they did and somewhat also of the Contrivance but I find little in them of what I would ask Therefore since you were pleas'd to enter into this discourse at my request be pleased also to inform me after my own method and for the danger of confusion that may arise from that I will take care to bring you back to the place from whence I drew you for I well remember where it was A. Well then To your question concerning Religion in as much as I told you that all Vertue is comprehended in Obedience to the Laws of the Common-wealth whereof Religion is one I have placed Religion amongst the Vertues B. Is Religion then the Law of a Common-wealth A. There is no Nation in the World whose Religion is not established and receives not its Authority from the Laws of that Nation It is true that the Law of God receives no evidence from the Laws of Men but because Men can never by their own wisdom come to the knowledge of what God hath spoken and commanded to be observ'd nor be obliged to obey the Laws whose Author they know not they are to acquiesce in some Humane Authority or other So that the Question will be whether a Man ought in matter of Religion that is to say when there is question of his duty to God and the King to rely upon the preaching of their Fellow-Subjects or of a Stranger or upon the Voice of the Law B. There is no great difficulty in that Point for there is none that preach here or any where else at least ought to preach but such as have Authority so to do from him or them that have the Sovereign Power so that if the King gives us leave you or I may as lawfully preach as them that do and I believe we should perform that Office a great deal better than they that preached us into the Rebellion A. The Church Morals are in many Points very different from these that I have here set down for the Doctrine of Vertue and Vice and yet without any conformity with that of Aristotle For in the Church of Rome the principal Vertues are to obey their Doctrine though it be Treason and that is to be Religious To be beneficial to the Clergy that is their Piety and Liberality and to believe upon their word that which a man knows in his Conscience to be false which is the Faith they require I could name a great many more such Points of their Morals but that I know you know them already being so well versed in the Cases of Conscience written by their School-men who measure the goodness and wickedness of all Actions by their congruity with the Doctrine of the Roman Clergy B. But what is the Moral Philosophy of the Protestant Clergy in England A. So much as they shew of it in their Life and Conversation is for the most part very good and of very good example much better than their Writings B. It happens many times that men live honestly for fear who if they had power would live according to their own Opinions that is if their Opinions be not right unrighteously A. Do the Clergy in England pretend as the Pope does or as the Presbyterians do to have a Right from God immediately to govern the King and his Subjects in all Points of Religion and Manners if they do you cannot doubt but that if they had number and strength which they are never like to have they would attempt to obtain that Power as the others have done B. I would be glad to see a Systeme of the present Morals written by
forth they were erecting that High Court of Justice which took away the Lives of Duke Hamilton the Earl of Holland and the Lord Capel Whatsoever they meant by a fundamental Law the erecting of this Court was a breach of it as being warranted by no former Law or Example in England At the same time also they Levied Taxes by Soldiers and to Soldiers permitted Free quarter and did many other Actions which if the King had done they would have said had been done against the Liberty and Propriety of the Subject B. What silly things are the common sort of people to be cozened as they were so grosly A. What sort of people as to this matter are not of the common sort The craftiest Knaves of all the Rump were no wiser than the rest whom they cozened for the most of them did believe that the same things which they imposed upon the generality were just and reasonable and especially the great Haranguers and such as pretended to Learning for who can be a good Subject in a Monarchy whose Principles are taken from the Enemies of Monarchy such as were Cicero Seneca Cato and other Politicians of Rome and Aristotle of Athens who seldom spake of Kings but as of Wolves and other ravenous Beasts You may perhaps think a man has need of nothing else to know the Duty he owes to his Governour and what Right he has to order him but a good Natural Wit but it is otherwise for it is a Science and built upon sure and clear Principles and to be learned by deep and careful study or from Masters that have deeply studied it and who was there in the Parliament or in the Nation that could find out those evident Principles and derive from them the necessary Rules of Justice and the necessary Connexion of Justice and Peace The People have one day in seven the leisure to hear Instruction and there are Ministers appointed to teach them their Duty but how have those Ministers performed their Office A great part of them namely the Presbyterian Ministers throughout the whole War instigated the People against the King so did also Independents and other Fanatick Ministers The rest contented with their Livings preached in their Parishes Points of Controversie to Religion impertinent but to the breach of Charity among them selves very effectual or else eloquent things which the People either understood not or thought themselves not concerned in But this sort of Preachers as they did little good so they did little hurt The mischief proceeded wholly from the Presbyterian Preachers who by a long practiced Histrionique faculty preached up the Rebellion powerfully B. To what end A. To the end that the State becoming popular the Church might be so too and governed by an Assembly and by consequence as they thought seeing Politicks are subservient to Religion they might govern and thereby satisfie not only their covetous humour with Riches but also their malice with power to undo all men that admir'd not their wisdom Your calling the People silly things obliged me by this Digression to shew you that it is not want of Wit but want of the Science of Justice that brought them into these troubles Perswade if you can that man that has made his fortune or made it greater or an Eloquent Orator or a Ravishing Poet or a subtil Lawyer or but a good Hunter or a cunning Gamester that he has not a good Wit and yet there were of all these a great many so silly as to be deceiv'd by the Rump and Members of the same Rump They wanted not Wit but the knowledge of the Causes and Grounds upon which one Person has a Right to govern and the rest an Obligation to obey which Grounds are necessary to be taught the People who without them cannot live long in peace amongst themselves B. Let us return if you please to the Proceedings of the Rump A. In the rest of this year they voted a new Stamp for the Coyn of this Nation They considered also of Agents to be sent to Forreign States and having lately receiv'd applause from the Army for their work done by the High Court of Justice and encouragement to extend the same farther they perfected the said High Court of Justice in which were tryed Duke Hamilton the Earl of Holland Lord Capel the Earl of Norwich and Sir John Owen whereof as I mentioned before the three first were beheaded This affrighted divers of the King's Party out of the Land for not only they but all that had born Arms for the King were at that time in very great danger of their Lives For it was put to the question by the Army at a Councel of War whether they should be all Massacred or no where the Noes carried it but by two Voices Lastly March the 24 th they put the Major of London out of his Office fined him 2000 l. disfranchised him and condemned him to two months Imprisonment in the Tower for refusing to proclaim the Act for abolishing the Kingly Power And thus ended the year 1648. and the Monthly Fast God having granted that which they fasted for the Death of the King and the Possession of his Inheritance By these their Proceedings they had already lost the Hearts of the generality of the People and had nothing to trust to but the Army which was not in their power but in Cromwel's who never failed when there was occasion to put them upon all Exploits that might make them odious to the people in order to his future dissolving them whensoever it should conduce to his ends In the beginning of 1649. the Scots discontented with the Proceedings of the Rump against the late King began to Levy Soldiers in order to a new Invasion of England The Irish Rebels for want of timely resistance from England were grown terrible and the English Army at home infected by the Adjutators were casting how to share the Land amongst the Godly meaning themselves and such others as they pleased who were therefore called Levellers Also the Rump for the present were not very well provided of Money and therefore the first thing they did was the laying of a Tax upon the People of 90000 l. a month for the maintenance of the Army B. Was it not one of their quarrels with the King That he had Levied Money without the consent of the People in Parliament A. You may see by this what reason the Rump had to call it self a Parliament for the Taxes imposed by Parliament were always understood to be by the Peoples consent and consequently Legal To appease the Scots they sent Messengers with flattering Letters to keep them from engaging for the present King but in vain for they would hear nothing from a House of Commons as they called it at Westminster without a King and Lords But they sent Commissioners to the King to let him know what they were doing for him for they were resolv'd to raise an Army of 17000 Foot and
that is Gods Vicegerent upon Earth and hath next under God the Authority of governing Christian Men and to observe for a Rule that Doctrine which in the Name of God he hath Commanded to be taught and thereby to examine and try out the truth of those Doctrines which pretended Prophets with miracle or without shall at any time advance c. And if he disavow them then no more to obey their Voice or if he Approve them then to obey them as Men to whom God hath given a part of the Spirit of their Soveraign Upon his Principles the case holdeth as well among Jews and Turks and Heathens as Christians Then he that Teacheth Transubstantiation in France is a true Prophet he that Teacheth it in England a false Prophet He that Blasphemeth Christ in Constantinople a true Prophet he that doth the same in Italy a false Prophet Then Samuel was a false Prophet to Contest with Saul a Soveraign Prophet So was the Man of God who submitted not to the more Divine and Prophetick Spirit of Jeroboam And Elijah for Reproving Ahab Then Michaiah had but his deserts to be clapt up in Prison and fed with Bread of Affliction and Water of Affliction for daring to Contradict God's Vice-gerent upon Earth And Jeremiah was justly thrown into a Dungeon for Prophecying against Zedekiah his Liege Lord. If his Principles were true it were strange indeed that none of all these Princes nor any other that ever was in the World should understand their own Priviledges And yet more strange that God Almighty should take the part of such Rebellious Prophets and justifie their Prophesies by the Event if it were true that none but the Soveraign in a Christian the Reason is the same for Jewish Commonwealth can take notice what is or what is not the Word of God T. H. To remove his Lordships doubt in the first place I confess there was true Prophesie and true Prophets in the Church of God from Abraham down to our Saviour the greatest Prophet of all and the last of the Old Testament and first of the New After our Saviour's time till the Death of St. John the Apostle there were true Prophets in the Church of Christ Prophets to whom God spake Supernaturally and Testified the truth of their Mission by Miracles Of those that in the Scripture are called Prophets without Miracles and for this cause only that they spake in the Name of God to Men and in the name of Men to God there are have been and shall be in the Church Innumerable Such a Prophet was his Lordship and such are all Pastors in the Christian Church But the Question here is of those Prophets that from the Mouth of God foretell things Future or do other Miracle Of this kind I deny there has been any since the Death of St. John the Evangelist If any Man find fault with this he ought to Name some Man or other whom we are bound to acknowledge that they have done a Miracle cast out a Devil or cured any Disease by the sole Invocation of the Divine Majesty We are not bound to trust to the Legend of the Roman Saints nor to the History written by Sulpitius of the Life of St. Martin or to any other Fables of the Roman Clergy nor to such things as were pretended to be done by some Divines here in the time of King James Secondly he says I make little difference between a Prophet and a Mad-man or Demoniack To which I say he accuses me falsly I say only thus much That I see nothing at all in the Scripture that requireth a belief that Demoniacks were any other thing than Madmen And this is also made very probable out of Scripture by a worthy Divine Mr. Meade But concerning Prophets I say only that the Jews both under the Old Testament and under the New took them to be all one with Mad-men and Demoniacks And prove it out of Scripture by many places both of the Old and New Testament Thirdly that the pretence or arrogating to ones self Divine Inspiration is argument enough to shew a Man is Mad is my opinion but his Lordship understands not Inspiration in the same sence that I do He understands it properly of God's breathing into a Man or pouring into him the Divine Substance or Divine Graces and in that sence he that arrogateth Inspiration into himself neither understands what he saith nor makes others to understand him which is properly Madness in some degree But I understand Inspiration in the Scripture Metaphorically for Gods guidance of our minds to Truth and Piety Fourthly whereas he says I make the pretence of Inspiration to be pernicious to Peace I answer that I think his Lordship was of my Opinion for he called those Men which in the late Civil War pretended the Spirit and New Light and to be the only faithful men Phanaticks for he called them in his Book and did call them in his Life time Phanaticks And what is a Phanatick but a Mad-man and what can be more pernicious to Peace than the Revelations that were by these Phanaticks pretended I do not say there were Doctrines of other Men not called Phanaticks as pernicious to Peace as theirs were and in great part a cause of those troubles Fifthly from that I make Prophetical Revelations subject to the examination of the Lawful Soveraign he inferreth that two Prophets prophecying the same thing at the same time in the Dominions of two different Princes the one shall be a true Prophet the other a false This consequence is not good for seeing they teach different Doctrines they cannot both of them confirm their Doctrine with Miracles But this I prove in the page 232 he citeth that whether either of their Doctrines shall be Taught Publickly or not 't is in the power of the Soveraign of the Place only to determine Nay I say now further if a Prophet come to any private Man in the Name of God that Man shall be Judge whether he be a true Prophet or not before he obey him See 1 John 4.1 Sixthly whereas he says that upon my grounds Christ was to be reputed a false Prophet every where because his Doctrine was received no where His Lordship had Read my Book more negligently than was fit for one that would confute it My ground is this that Christ in right of his Father was King of the Jews and consequently Supream Prophet and Judge of all Prophets What other Princes thought of his Prophesies is nothing to the purpose I never said that Princes can make Doctrines or Prophesies true or false but I say every Soveraign Prince has a right to prohibite the publick Teaching of them whether false or true But what an oversight is it in a Divine to say that Christ had the Approbation of no Soveraign Prince when he had the Approbation of God who was King of the Jews and Christ his Vice-Roy and the whole Scripture Written Joh. 20.31 to prove it
which is a Person indued with Authority universal to govern all Christian men on Earth no more than there is one Universal Soveraign Prince or State on Earth that hath right to govern all Mankind I deny also that the whole Clergy of a Christian Kingdom or State being assembled are the representative of that Church further than the Civil Laws permits or can lawfully assemble themselves unless by the command or by the leave of the Soveraign Civil Power I say further that the denyal of this point tendeth in England towards the taking away of the Kings Supremacy in causes Ecclesiastical But his Lordship has not here denyed any thing of mine because he has done no more but set down my words He says further that this Doctrine destroyes the Authority of all General Councils which I confess Nor hath any General Council at this day in this Kingdom the force of a Law nor ever had but by the Authority of the King J. D. Neither is he more Orthodox concerning the Holy Scriptures Hitherto that is for the Books of Moses the power of making the Scripture Canonical was in the Civil Soveraign The like he saith of the Old Testament made Canonical by Esdras And of the New Testament That it was not the Apostles which made their own Writings Canonical but every Convert made them so to himself Yet with this restriction That until the Soveraign Ruler had prescribed them they were but Counsel and Advice which whether good or bad he that was counselled might without injustice refuse to observe and being contrary to the Laws established could not without injustice observe He maketh the Primitive Christians to have been in a pretty condition Certainly the Gospel was contrary to the Laws then established But most plainly The word of the Interpreter of the Scripture is the word of God And the same is the Interpreter of the Scripture and the Soveraign Judge of all Doctrines that is the Soveraign Magistrate to whose Authority we must stand no less than to theirs who at first did commend the Scripture to us for the Canon of Faith Thus if Christian Soveraigns of different Communications do clash one with another in their interpretations or misinterpretation of Scripture as they do daily then the word of God is contradictory to it self or that is the word of God in one Common-wealth which is the word of the Devil in another Common-wealth And the same thing may be true and not true at the same time Which is the peculiar priviledge of T.H. to make Contradictories to be true together T. H. There is no doubt but by what Authority the Scripture or any other Writing is made a Law by the same Authority the Scriptures are to be interpreted or else they are made Law in vain But to obey is one thing to believe is another which distinction perhaps his Lordship never heard of To obey is to do or forbear as one is commanded and depends on the Will but to believe depends not on the Will but on the providence and guidance of our hearts that are in the hands of God Almighty Laws only required obedience Belief requires Teachers and Arguments drawn either from Reason or from some thing already believed Where there is no reason for our Belief there is no reason we should believe The reason why men believe is drawn from the Authority of those men whom we have no just cause to mistrust that is of such men to whom no profit accrues by their deceiving us and of such men as never used to lye or else from the Authority of such men whose Promises Threats and Affirmations we have seen confirmed by God with Miracles If it be not from the Kings Authority that the Scripture is Law what other Authority makes it Law Here some man being of his Lordships judgment will perhaps laugh and say 't is the Authority of God that makes them Law I grant that But my question is on what Authority they believe that God is the Author of them Here his Lordship would have been at a Nonplus and turning round would have said the Authority of the Scripture makes good that God is their Author If it be said we are to believe the Scripture upon the Authority of the Universal Church why are not the Books we call Apocrypha the Word of God as well as the rest If this Authority be in the Church of England then it is not any other than the Authority of the Head of the Church which is the King For without the Head the Church is mute the Authority therefore is in the King which is all that I contended for in this point As to the Laws of the Gentiles concerning Religion in the Primitive times of the Church I confess they were contrary to Christian Faith But none of their Laws nor Terrors nor a mans own Will are able to take away Faith though they can compel to an external obedience and though I may blame the Ethnick Princes for compelling men to speak what they thought not yet I absolve not all those that have had the Power in Christian Churches from the same fault For I believe since the time of the first four General Councels there have been more Christians burnt and killed in the Christian Church by Ecclesiastical Authority than by the Heathen Emperors Laws for Religion only without Sedition All that the Bishop does in this Argument is but a heaving at the Kings Supremacy Oh but says he if two Kings interpret a place of Scripture in contrary sences it will follow that both sences are true It does not follow For the interpretation though it be made by just Authority must not therefore always be true If the Doctrine in the one sence be necessary to Salvation then they that hold the other must dye in their sins and be Damned But if the Doctrine in neither sence be necessary to Salvation then all is well except perhaps that they will call one another Atheists and fight about it J. D. All the power vertue use and efficacy which he ascribeth to the Holy Sacraments is to be signs or commemorations As for any sealing or confirming or conferring of Grace he acknowledgeth nothing The same he saith particularly of Baptism Upon which grounds a Cardinals red Hat or a Serjeant at Arms his Mace may be called Sacraments as well as Baptism or the holy Eucharist if they be only signs and commemorations of a benefit If he except that Baptism and the Eucharist are of Divine institution But a Cardinals red Hat or a Serjeant at Arms his Mace are not He saith truly but nothing to his advantage or purpose seeing he deriveth all the Authority of the Word and Sacraments in respect of Subjects and all our obligation to them from the Authority of the Soveraign Magistrate without which these words repent and be Baptized in the name of Jesus are but Counsel no Command And so a Serjeant at Arms his Mace and Baptism proceed both from
men Or that any but the King had Authority to affix the Great Seal of England to any Writing And who did ever doubt to call our Laws though made in Parliament the King's Laws What was ever called a Law which the King did not assent to Because the King has granted in divers cases not to make a Law without the advice and assent of the Lords and Commons therefore when there is no Parliament in being shall the Great Seal of England stand for nothing What was more unjustly maintained during the long Parliament besides the resisting and Murdering of the King then this Doctrine of his Lordship's But the Bishop endeavoured here to make the Multitude believe I maintain That the King sinneth not though he bid hang a man for making his Apparel otherwise than he appointed or his Servant for negligent attendance And yet he knew I distinguished always between the King 's natural and politick capacity What name should I give to this wilful slander But here his Lordship enters into passion and exclaims Where are we in Europe or in Asia Gross palpable pernicious flattery poisoning of a Common-wealth poysoning the King's mind But where was his Lordship when he wrote this One would not think he was in France nor that this Doctrine was Written in the year 1658 but rather in the year 1648 in some Cabal of the King's enemies But what did put him into this fit of Choller Partly this very thing that he could not answer my reasons but chiefly that he had lost upon me so much School-learning in our controversie touching Liberty and Necessity wherein he was to blame himself for believing that the obscure and barbarous Language of School Divinity could satisfie an ingenuous Reader as well as plain and perspicuous English Do I flatter the King Why am I not rich I confess his Lordship has not flattered him here J. D. Something there is which he hath a confused glimmering of as the blind man sees men walking like Trees which he is not able to apprehend and express clearly We acknowledge that though the Laws or Commands of a Soveraign Prince be erroneous or unjust or injurious such as a Subject cannot approve for good in themselves yet he is bound to acquiesce and may not oppose or resist otherwise than by Prayers and Tears and at the most by flight We acknowledge that the Civil Laws have power to bind the Conscience of a Christian in themselves but not from themselves but from him who hath said Let every Soul be subject to the higher Powers Either they bind Christian Subjects to do their Soveraign's Commands or to suffer for the Testimony of a good Conscience We acknowledge that in doubtful Cases semper praesumitur pro Rege Lege the Soveraign and the Law are always presumed to be in the right But in plain evident cases which admit no doubt it is always better to obey God than man Blunderers whilst they think to mend one imaginary hole make two or three real ones They who derive the Authority of the Scriptures or God's Law from the Civil Laws of men are like those who seek to underprop the Heavens from falling with a Bullrush Nay they derive not only the Authority of the Scripture but even the Law of nature it self from the Civil Law The Laws of nature which need no promulgation in the condition of nature are not properly Laws but qualities which dispose men to peace and obedience When a Common-wealth is once setled then are they actually Laws and not before God help us into what times are we fallen when the immutable Laws of God and Nature are made to depend upon the mutable Laws of mortal men just as one should go about to controll the Sun by the Authority of the Clock T. H. Hitherto he never offered to mend any of the Doctrines he inveighs against but here he does He says I have a glimmering of something I was not able to apprehend and express clearly Let us see his Lordship's more clear expression We acknowledge saith he that though the Laws or Commands of a Soveraign Prince be erroneous or unjust or injurious such as a Subject cannot approve for good in themselves yet he is bound to acquiesce and may not oppose or resist otherwise than by Prayers and Tears and at the most by Flight Hence it follows clearly that when a Soveraign has made a Law though erroneous then if his Subject oppose it it is a sin Therefore I would fain know when a man has broken that Law by doing what it forbad or by refusing to do what it commanded whether he have opposed this Law or not If to break the Law be to oppose it he granteth it Therefore his Lordship has not here expressed himself so clearly as to make men understand the difference between breaking a Law and opposing it Though there be some difference between breaking of a Law and opposing those that are sent with force to see it executed yet between breaking and opposing the Law it self there is no difference Also though the Subject think the Law just as when a Thief is by Law Condemned to dye yet he may lawfully oppose the Execution not only by Prayers Tears and Flight but also as I think any way he can For though his fault were never so great yet his endeavour to save his own life is not a fault For the Law expects it and for that cause appointeth Felons to be carryed bound and encompassed with Armed men to Execution Nothing is opposite to Law but sin Nothing opposite to the Sheriff but force So that his Lordship's sight was not sharp enough to see the difference between the Law and the Officer Again We acknowledge says he that the Laws have power to bind the Conscience of a Christian in themselves but not from themselves Neither do the Scriptures bind the Conscience because they are Scriptures but because they were from God So also the Book of English Statutes bindeth our Consciences in it self but not from it self but from the Authority of the King who only in the right of God has the legislative Powers Again he saith We acknowledge that in doubtful cases the Soveraign and the Law are always presumed to be in the right If he presume they are in the right how dare he presume that the cases they determine are doubtful But saith he in evident cases which admit no doubt it is always better to obey God than man Yes and in doubtful cases also say I. But not always better to obey the inferior Pastors than the Supream Pastor which is the King But what are those cases that admit no doubt I know but very few and those are such as his Lordship was not much acquainted with J. D. But it is not worthy of my labour nor any part of my intention to pursue every shadow of a Question which he springeth It shall suffice to gather a Posie of Flowers or rather a bundle of Weeds
force to make him consider better of his own Doctrine and sometimes brought him to the acknowledgment of the Truth But other punishment they could inflict none that being a right appropriated to the Civil Power So that all the punishment the Church could inflict was only Ignominy and that among the Faithful consisting in this that his company was by all the Godly avoided and he himself branded with the name of Heretick in opposition to the whole Church that condemned his Doctrine So that Catholick and Heretick were terms relative and here it was that Heretick became to be a Name and a name of Disgrace both together The first and most troublesome Heresies in the Primitive Church were about the Trinity For according to the usual curiosity of Natural Philosophers they could not abstain from disputing the very first Principles of Christianity into which they were baptized In the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost Some there were that made them allegorical Others would make one Creator of Good and another of Evil which was in effect to set up two Gods one contrary to another supposing that causation of evil could not be attributed to God without Impiety From which Doctrine they are not far distant that now make the first cause of sinful actions to be every man as to his own sin Others there were that would have God to be a body with Parts organical as Face Hands Fore-parts and Back-parts Others that Christ had no real body but was a meer Phantasm For Phantasms were taken then and have been ever since by unlearned and superstitious men for things real and subsistent Others denyed the Divinity of Christ. Others that Christ being God and Man was two Persons Others confest he was one Person and withal that he had but one Nature And a great many other Heresies arose from the too much adherence to the Philosophy of those times whereof some were supprest for a time by St. John's publishing his Gospel and some by their own unreasonableness vanished and some lasted till the time of Constantine the Great and after When Constantine the Great made so by the assistance and valour of the Christian Souldiers had attained to be the only Roman Emperor he also himself became a Christian and caused the Temples of the Heathen Gods to be demolished and authorized Christian Religion only to be publick But towards the latter end of his time there arose a Dispute in the City of Alexandria between Alexander the Bishop and Arius a Presbyter of the same City wherein Arius maintained first That Christ was inferiour to his Father and afterwards That he was no God alleadging the words of Christ My Father is greater than I. The Bishop on the contrary alleadging the words of St. John And the Word was God and the words of St. Thomas My Lord and my God This Controversie presently amongst the Inhabitants and Souldiers of Alexandria became a Quarrel and was the cause of much Bloodshed in and about the City and was likely then to spread further as afterwards it did This so far concerned the Emperors Civil Government that he thought it necessary to call a General Council of all the Bishops and other eminent Divines throughout the Roman Empire to meet at the City of Nice When they were assembled they presented the Emperor with Libels of Accusation one against another When he had received these Libels into his hands he made an Oration to the Fathers assembled exhorting them to agree and to fall in hand with the settlement of the Articles of Faith for which cause he had assembled them saying Whatsoever they should decree therein he would cause to be observed This may perhaps seem a greater indifferency than would in these dayes be approved of But so it is in the History and the Articles of Faith necessary to Salvation were not thought then to be so many as afterwards they were defined to be by the Church of Rome When Constantine had ended his Oration he caused the aforesaid Libels to be cast into the fire as became a wise King and a charitable Christian. This done the Fathers fell in hand with their business and following the method of a former Creed now commonly called The Apostles Creed made a Confession of Faith viz. I believe in one God the Father Almighty maker of Heaven and Earth and of all things visible and invisible in which is condemned the Polytheism of the Gentiles And in one Lord Iesus Christ the only begotten Son of God against the many sons of the many Gods of the Heathen Begotten of his Father before all worlds God of God against the Arians Uery God of very God against the Valentinians and against the Heresie of Apelles and others who made Christ a meer Phantasm Light of Light This was put in for explication and used before to that purpose by Tertullian Begotten not made being of one Substance with the Father In this again they condemn the Doctrine of Arius for this word Of one substance in Latine Consubstantialis but in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Of one Essence was put as a Touchstone to discern an Arian from a Catholick And much ado there was about it Constantine himself at the passing of this Creed took notice of it for a hard word but yet approved of it saying That in a divine Mystery it was fit to use divina arcana Verba that is divine words and hidden from humane understanding calling that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 divine not because it was in the divine Scripture for it is not there but because it was to him Arcanum that is not sufficiently understood And in this again appeared the indifferency of the Emperor and that he had for his end in the calling of the Synod not so much the Truth as the Vniformity of the Doctrine and peace of his People that depended on it The cause of the obscurity of this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proceeded chiefly from the difference between the Greek and Roman Dialect in the Philosophy of the Peripateticks The first Principle of Religion in all Nations is That God is that is to say that God really is Something and not a meer fancy but that which is really something is considerable alone by it self as being somewhere In which sence a man is a thing real for I can consider him to be without considering any other thing to be besides him And for the same reason the Earth the Air the Stars Heaven and their Parts are all of them things real And because whatsoever is real here or there or in any place has Dimensions that is to say Magnitude and that which hath Magnitude whether it be visible or invisible finite or infinite is called by all the Learned a Body It followeth that all real things in that they are somewhere are Corporeal On the contrary Essence Deity Humanity and such-like names signifie nothing that can be considered without first considering
a little more slowly For you may have observed that when it snows in the South Parts the flakes of Snow are not so great as in the North which is a probable sign they fall in the South from a greater height and consequently disperse themselves more as water does that falls down from a high and steep Rock A. 'T is not improbable B. In natural causes all you are to expect is but probability which is better yet then making Gravity the cause when the cause of Gravity is that you desire to know and better then saying the Earth draws it when the Question is how it draws A. Why does the Earth cast off Air more easily than it does Water or any other heavy bodies B. It is indeed the Earth that casteth off that Air which is next unto it But it is that Air which casteth off the next Air and so continually Air moveth Air which it can more easily do then any other thing because like bodies are more susceptible of one anothers motions as you may see in two Lute-strings equally strained what motion one string being stricken communicates to the Air the same will the other receive from the Air but strained to a differing note will be less or not at all moved For there is no body but Air that hath not some internal though invisible motion of its parts And it is that internal motion which distinguisheth all natural bodies one from another A. What is the cause why certain Squibs though their substance be either Wood or other heavy matter made hollow and filled with Gunpowder which is also heavy do nevertheless when the Gunpowder is kindled fly upwards B. The same that keeps a man that swims from sinking though he be heavier then so much water He keeps himself up and goes forward by beating back the water with his Feet and so does a Squib by beating down the Air with the stream of the fired Gunpowder that proceeding from its Tail makes it recoil A. Why does any Brass or Iron Vessel if it be hollow flote upon the water being so very heavy B. Because the Vessel and the Air in it taken as one body is more easily cast off than a body of water equal to it A. How comes it to pass that a Fish especially such a broad Fish as a Turbut or a Plaice which are broad and thin in the bottom of the Sea perhaps a mile deep is not press'd to death with the weight of water that lies upon the back of it B. Because all heavy bodies descend towards one point which is the Center of the Earth and consequently the whole Sea descending at once does arch it self so as that the upper parts cannot press the parts next below them A. It is evident Nor can there be possibly any weight as some suppose there is of a Cylinder of Air or Water or of any other liquid thing while it remains in its own Element or is sustained and inclosed in a Vessel by which one part cannot press the other CHAP. II. Problems of Tides A. WHat makes the Flux and Reflux of the Sea twice in a natural day B. We must come again to our Basen of water wherein you have seen whilst it was moved how the water mounteth up by the sides and withal goes circling round about Now if you should fasten to the inside of the Basen some bar from the bottom to the top you would see the water instead of going on go back again from that bar ebbing and the water on the other side of the bar to do the same but in counter-time and consequently to be highest where the contrary streams meet together and then return again marking out four quarters of the Vessel two by their meeting which are the high waters and two by their retiring which are the low waters A. What bar is that you find in the Ocean that stops the current of the water like that you make in the Basen B. You know that the main Ocean lies East and West between India and the Coast of America and again on the other side between America and India If therefore the Earth have such a motion as I have supposed it must needs carry the current of the Sea East and West In which course the bar that stoppeth it is the South part of America which leaves no passage for the water but the narrow Streight of Magellan The Tide rises therefore upon the Coast of America And the rising of the same in this part of the world proceedeth from the swelling chiefly of the water there and partly also from the North Sea which lieth also East and West and has a passage out of the South Sea by the Streight of Anian between America and Asia A. Does not the Mediterranean Sea lie also East and West why are there not the like Tides there B. So there are proportionable to their lengths and quantity of water A. At Genoa at Ancona there are none at all or not sensible B. At Venice there are and in the bottom of the Streights and a current all along both the Mediterranean-Sea and the Gulf of Venice And it is the current that makes the Tides unsensible at the sides but the check makes them visible at the bottom A. How comes it about that the Moon hath such a stroke in the business as so sensibly to encrease the Tides at Full and Change B. The motion I have hitherto supposed but in the Earth I suppose also in the Moon and in all those great Bodies that hang in the Air constantly I mean the Stars both fixed and errant And for the Sun and Moon I suppose the Poles of their motion to be the Poles of the Aequinoctial which supposed it will follow because the Sun the Earth and the Moon at every Full and Change are almost in one streight line that this motion of the Earth will be made swifter than in the Quarters For this motion of the Sun and Moon being communicated to the Earth that hath already the like motion maketh the same greater and much greater when they are all three in one streight line which is only at the Full and Change whose Tides are therefore called Spring Tides A. But what then is the cause that the Spring-Tides themselves are twice a year namely when the Sun is in the Equinoctial greater than at any other times B. At other times of the year the Earth being out of the Aequinoctial the motion thereof by which the Tides are made will be less augmented by so much as a motion in the obliquity of 23 degrees or thereabout which is the distance between the Aequinoctial and Ecliptick Circles is weaker then the motion which is without obliquity A. All this is reasonable enough if it be possible that such motions as you suppose in these bodies be really there But that is a thing I have some reason to doubt of For the throwing off of Air consequent to these motions is the cause
you say that other things come to the Earth And therefore the like motions in the Sun and Moon and Stars casting off the Air should also cause all other things to come to every one of them From whence it will follow that the Sun Moon and Earth and all other bodies but Air should presently come together into one heap B. That does not follow For if two bodies cast off the Air the motion of that Air will be repress'd both ways and diverted into a course towards the Poles on both sides and then the two bodies cannot possibly come together A. 'T is true And besides this driving off the Air on both sides North and South makes the like motion of Air there also And this may answer to the Question How a stone could fall to the Earth under the Poles of the Ecliptick by the only casting off of Air B. It follows from hence that there is a certain and determinate distance of one of these bodies the Stars from another without any very sensible variation A. All this is probable enough if it be true that there is no Vacuum no place empty in all the World And supposing this motion of the Sun and Moon to be in the plain of the Aequinoctial methinks that this should be the cause of the Diurnal motion of the Earth And because this motion of the Earth is you say in the plain of the Aequinoctial the same should cause also a motion in the Moon on her own Center answerable to the Diurnal motion of the Earth B. Why not what else can you think makes the Diurnal motion of the Earth but the Sun And for the Moon if it did not turn upon its own Center we should see sometimes one sometimes another face of the Moon which we do not CHAP. III. Problems of Vacuum WHat convincing Argument is there to prove that in all the world there is no empty place B. Many but I will name but one and that is the difficulty of separating two bodies hard and flat laid one upon another I say the difficulty not the impossibility It is possible without introducing Vacuum to pull assunder any two bodies how hard and flat soever they be if the force used be greater than the resistance of the hardness And in case there be any greater difficulty to part them besides what proceeds from their hardness then there is to pull them further assunder when they are parted that difficulty is Argument enough to prove there is no Vacuum A. These Assertions need demonstration And first how does the difficulty of separation argue the Plenitude of all the rest of the world B. If two flat polish'd Marbles lie one upon another you see they are hardly separated in all points at one and the same instant and yet the weight of either of them it is enough to make them slide off one from the other Is not the cause of this that the Air succeeds the Marble that so slides and fills up the place it leaves A. Yes certainly What then B. But when you pull the whole Superficies assunder not without great difficulty what is the cause of that difficulty A. I think as most men do that the Air cannot fill up the space between in an instant For the parting is in an instant B. Suppose there be Vacuum in that Air into which the Marble you pull off is to succeed shall there be no Vacuum in the Air that was round about the two Marbles when they touched Why cannot that Vacuum come into the place between Air cannot succeed in an instant because a body and consequently cannot be moved through the least space in an instant But emptiness is not a body nor is moved but made by the act it self of separation There is therefore if you admit Vacuum no necessity at all for the Air to fill the space left in an instant And therefore with what ease the Marble coming off presseth out the Vacuum of the Air behind it with the same ease will the Marbles be pulled assunder Seeing then if there were Vacuum there would be no difficulty of Separation it follows because there is difficulty of separation that there is no Vacuum A. Well now supposing the world full how do you prove it possible to pull those Marbles assunder B. Take a piece of soft wax Do not you think the one half touches the other half as close as the smoothest Marbles yet you can pull them assunder But how still as you pull the wax grows continually more and more slender there being a perpetual parting or discession of the outermost part of the wax one from another which the Air presently fills and so there is a continual lessening of the wax till it be no bigger than a hair and at last separation If you can do the same to a Pillar of Marble till the outside give way the effect will be the same but much quicker after it once begins to break in the Superficies because the force that can master the first resistance of the hardness will quickly dispatch the rest A. It seems so by the brittleness of some hard bodies But I shall afterward put some Questions to you touching the nature of hardness But now to return to our subject What reason can you render without supposing Vacuum of the effects produced in the Engine they use at Gresham Colledge B. That Engine produceth the same effects that a strong wind would produce in a narrow room A. How comes the wind in You know the Engine is a hollow round pipe of brass into which is thrust a Cylinder of wood covered with Leather and fitted to the Cylinder so exactly as no Air can possibly pass between the leather and the brass B. I know it and that they may thrust it up there is a hole left in the Cylinder to let the Air out before it which they can stop when they please There is also in the bottom of the Cylinder a passage into a hollow Globe of Glass which passage they can also open and shut at pleasure And at the top of that Globe there is a wide mouth to put in what they please to try conclusions on and that also to be opened and shut as shall be needful 'T is of the nature of a Pop-gun which Children use but great costly and more ingenious They thrust forward and pull back the wooden Cylinder because it requires much strength with an Iron screw What is there in all this to prove the possibility of Vacuum A. When this wooden Cylinder covered with leather fit and close is thrust home to the bottom and the holes in the hollow Cylinder of Brass close stopped how can it be drawn back as with the screw they draw it but that the space it leaves must needs be empty For it is impossible that any Air can pass into the place to fill it B. Truly I think it close enough to keep out Straw and Feathers but not to keep out Air nor
a year to the Aequinoctial B. From the Autumnal Aequinox the Sun goeth on toward the Southern Tropique And therefore cannot dissolve the Snow on that side of the Hills that look towards Egypt A. But then there ought to be such another Innundation Southward B. No doubt but there is a greater descent of water there in their Summer then at other times as there must be wheresoever there is much Snow melted But what should that innundate unless it should overflow the Sea that comes close to the foot of those Mountains And for the cause why it seldom Rains in Egypt it may be this That there are no very high Hills near it to collect the Clouds The Mountains whence Nile riseth being near 2000 Miles off The nearest on one side are the Mountains of Nubia and on the other side Sina and the Mountains of Arrabia A. Whence think you proceed the Winds B. From the Motion I think especially of the Clouds partly also from whatsoever is moved in the Air. A. It is manifest that the Clouds are moved by the Winds so that there were Winds before any clouds could be moved Therefore I think you make the Effect before the Cause B. If nothing could move a Cloud but Wind your objection were good But you allow a Cloud to descend by it's own weight But when it so descends it must needs move the Air before it even to the Earth and the Earth again repel it and so make lateral Winds every way Which will carry forwards other Clouds if there be any in their way but not the Cloud that made them The Vapour of the water rising into Clouds must needs also as they rise raise a Wind A. I grant it But how can the slow motion of a Cloud make so swift a Wind as it does B. It is not one or two little Clouds but many and great ones that do it Besides when the Air is driven into places already covered it cannot but be much the swifter for the narrowness of the passage A. Why does the South Wind more often then any other bring Rain with it B. Where the Sun hath most power and where the Seas are greatest that is in the South there is most water in the Air which a South wind can only bring to us But I have seen great showers of Rain sometimes also when the wind hath been North but it was in Summer and came first I think from the South or West and was but brought back from the North. A. I have seen at Sea very great Waves when there was no Wind at all What was it then that troubled the Water B. But had you not Wind enough presently after A. We had a Storm within a little more then a quarter of an hour after B. That Storm was then coming and had moved the Water before it But the Wind you could not perceive for it came downwards with the descending of the Clouds and pressing the Water bounded above your Sail till it came very near And that was it that made you think there was no Wind at all A. How comes it to pass that a Ship should go against the Wind which moves it even almost point blank as if it were not driven but drawn B. You are to know first that what Body soever is carryed against another Body whether perpendicularly or obliquely it drives it in a perpendicular to the superficies it lighteth on As for Example a Bullet shot against a flat wall maketh the Stone or other matter it hits to retire in a perpendicular to that flat or if the Wall be round towards the center that is to say perpendicularly For if the way of the motion be oblique to the Wall the motion is compounded of two motions one parrallel to the Wall and the other perpendicular By the former whereof the Bullet is carried along the Wall side by the other it approacheth to it Now the former of these motions can have no effect upon it all the battery is from the motion perpendicular in which it approacheth And therefore the part it hits must also retire perpendicularly If it were not so a Bullet with the same swiftness would execute as much obliquely shot as perpendicularly which you know it does not A. How do you apply this to a Ship B. Let A. B. be the Ship the head of it A. If the Wind blow just from A. towards B. 't is true the Ship cannot go forward howsoever the sail be set Let C. D. be perpendicular to the Ship and let the Sail E. C. be never so little oblique to it and F. C. perpendicular to E. C. and then you see the Ship will gain the space D. F. to the headward A. It will so but when it is very near to the Wind it will go forward very slowly and make more way with her side to the Leeward A. It will indeed go slower in the proportion of the Line A E. to the Line C. E. But the Ship will not go so fast as you think sideward One is the force of that Wind which lights on the side of the Ship it self the other is the bellying of the Sail for the former it is not much because the Ship does not easily put from her the Water with her side and bellying of the Sail gives some little hold for the Wind to drive the Ship a stern A. For the motion sideward I agree with you but I had thought the bellying of the Sail had made the Ship go faster B. But it does not only in a fore-wind it hinders least A. By this reason a broad thin Board should make the best Sail. B. You may easily foresee the great incommodities of such a Sail. But I have seen tryed in little what such a Wind can do in such a case For I have seen a Board set upon four truckles with a staff set up in the midst of it for a Mast and another very thin and broad Board fastned to that staff in the stead of a Sail and so set as to receive the Wind very obliquely I mean so as to be within a point of the Compass directly opposite to it and so placed upon a reasonable smooth pavement where the Wind blew somewhat strongly The event was first that it stood doubting whether it should stir at all or no but that was not long and then it ran a head extream swiftly till it was overthrown by a Rub. A. Before you leave the Ship tell me how it comes about that so small a thing as a Rudder can so easily turn the greatest Ship B. 'T is not the Rudder only there must also be a stream to do it you shall never turn a Ship with a Rudder in a standing pooll nor in a natural current You must make a stream from head to stern either with Oares or with Sails when you have made such a stream the turning of the Rudder obliquely holds the Water from passing freely and the Ship or Boat cannot go on
For Example let the wall be AB a point given E a Gun CE that carries the Bullet Perpendicularly to F and another Gun DE that carries the like Bullet with the same swiftness Oblique to G In what proportion will their Forces be upon the Wall B. The force of the stroke Perpendicular from E to F will be greater then the Oblique force from E to G in the proportion of the line EG to the line EF. A. How can the difference be so much Can the Bullet lose so much of its force in the way from E to G B. No we will suppose it loseth nothing of its swiftness But the cause is That their swiftness being equal the one is longer in coming to the wall then the other in Proportion of Time as EG to EF. For though their swiftness be the same considered in themselves yet the swiftness of their approach to the wall is greater in EF then in EG in proportion of the lines themselves A. When a Bullet enters not but rebounds from the wall does it make the same Angle going off which it did falling on as the Sun-beams do B. If you measure the Angles close by the wall there difference will not be ensible otherwise it will be great enough For the Motion of the Bullet grows continually weaker But it is not so with the Sun-beams which press continually and equally A. What is the cause of Reflection When a body can go no further on it has lost its Motion Whence then comes the Motion by which it reboundeth B. This Motion of rebounding or reflecting proceedeth from the resistance There is a difference to be considered between the Reflection of Light and of a Bullet answerable to their different Motions pressing and striking For the action which makes Reflection of Light is the Pressure of the Air upon the Reflecting Body caused by the Sun or other shining body and is but a contrary endeavour as if two men should press with their breasts upon the two ends of a Staff though they did not remove one another yet they would find in themselves a great disposition to press backward upon whatsoever is behind them though not a total going out of their places Such is the way of Reflecting Light Now when the falling on of the Sun-beams is Oblique the action of them is nevertheless Perpendicular to the Superficies it falls on And therefore the Reflecting Body by resisting turneth back that Motion Perpendicularly as from F to E but taketh nothing from the force that goes on parallel in the line of EH because the Motion never presses And thus of the two Motions from F to E and from E to H is a compounded Motion in the line FH which maketh an Angle in BG equal to the Angle FGE But in Percussion which is the Motion of the Bullet against a wall the Bullet no sooner goeth off then it loseth of its swiftness and inclineth to the Earth by its weight So that the Angles made in falling on and going off cannot be equal unless they be measured close to the point where the stroke is made A. If a man set a Board upright upon its edge though it may very easily be cast down with a little Pressure of ones finger yet a Bullet from a Musquet shall not throw it down but go through it What is the cause of that B. In pressing with your finger you spend time to throw it down For the Motion you give to the part you touch is communicated to every other part before it fall For the whole cannot fall till every part be moved But the stroke of a Bullet is so swift as it breaks through before the Motion of the part it hits can be communicated to all the other parts that must fall with it A. The stroke of a Hammer will drive a Nail a great way into a piece of Wood on a sudden What weight laid upon the head of a Nail and in how much time will do the same It is a question I have heard propounded amonst Naturalists B. The different manner of the operation of weight from the operation of a stroke makes it uncalculable The suddenness of the stroke upon one point of the wood takes away the time of resistance from the rest Therefore the Nail enters so far as it does But the weight not only gives them time but also augments the resistance but how much and in how much time is I think impossible to determine A. What is the difference between Reflection and Recoiling B. Any Reflection may and not unproperly be called recoiling but not contrariwise every Recoiling Reflection Reflection is always made by the Re-action of a Body prest or stricken but Recoiling not always The Recoiling of a Gun is not caused by its own pressing upon the Gun-powder but by the force of the Powder it self inflamed and moved every way alike A. I had thought it had been by the sudden re-entring of the Air after the flame and Bullet were gone out For it is impossible that so much room as is left empty by the discharging of the Gun should be so suddenly filled with the Air that entereth at the Touch-hole B. The flame is nothing but the Powder it self which scattered into its smallest parts seems of greater bulk by much then in truth it is because they shine And as the parts scatter more and more so still more Air gets between them entring not only at the Touch-hole but also at the mouh of the Gun which two ways being opposite it will be much too weak to make the Gun Recoil A. I have heard that a great Gun charged too much or too little will Shoot not above nor below but besides the mark and charged with one certain charge between both will hit it B. How that should be I cannot imagine For when all things in the cause are equal the effects cannot be unnequal As soon as Fire is given and before the Bullet be out the Gun begins to Recoil If then there be any unevenness or rub in the ground more on one side then on the other it shall shoot besides the mark whether too much or too little or justly charged because if the line wherein the Gun Recoileth decline the way of the Bullet will also decline to the contrary side of the mark Therefore I can imagine no cause of this event but either in the ground it Recoils on or in the unequal weight of the parts of the Breech A. How comes Refractin B. When the action is in a line Perpendicular to the superficies of the Body wrought upon there will be no Refraction at all The action will proceed still in the same straight Line whether it be Pression as in Light or in Percussion as in the shooting of a Bullet But when the Pression is Oblique then will the Refraction be that way which the Nature of the Bodies through which the Action proceeds shall determin H. How is light Refracted B. If it