together in France by the name of the Holy League Did ever any thing parallel it except those hellish Contrivances and bloudy Butcheries in this Island under the favour and influence of the Solemn League and Covenant 1 Tim. 4.1 2. These are your men of seared Consciences and none but such as these are fit for our Polititian's purpose that can swallow Oath upon Oath kill and rob plunder and steal sequester and behead and still their Consciences blunt no more than a piece of brass Hear what a noble Lord said in the House of Peers December 19. 1642. A Dispersation for Perjury They says he who think that humane Laws can binde the Conscience and will examine the Oaths they have taken according to the interpretations of men will in time fall from us but such who religiously consider that such moral Precepts are fitter for Heathens than Christians will never faint in their Duty And in another place of the same Speech he says They cheerfully undertook to serve against that Army wherein they knew their own Fathers were Dutiful Sons and on my conscience I speak it to their honour had they met them alone they would have sacrificed them to the Commands of both Houses And that our Polititian may see how some even of the Tribe of Levi have stood up for and maintained these delusions let him but read the two Speeches of John King and John Kid Ministers lately executed at Edenburg for the trifling sin of Rebellion Aug. 14. 1679. and he may there see how in the very hour of death they both bear witness to the solemn League and Covenant And the words of Mr. Kid are very remarkable says he That if ever Christ had a People or Party wherein his soul took pleasure His Speech p. 27. I am bold to say these Meetings blasphemously nick-named Conventicles were a great part of them Oh that Scotland were a mourning Land and that Reformation were our practice according as we are sworn in the Covenant The advantage is great which that man hath in a credulous world that can casily say and swear to any thing and yet withal so subtly palliate his falshoods and perjuries as to conceal them from the conusance of most Our Polititian must never want an handsome Subterfuge to cover the natural deformity of his otherwise-ugly actions and must be able on all occasions to cure all Miscarriages Mankind are too prone even in affairs of the greatest importance to advise rather with corrupt and pemicious Ingenuity than with soundness of Judgment or Conscience Hence it is upon that cursed Doctrine of mental Reservation that the prosperity of flourishing Kingdoms hath often been transposed into most lamentable Scenes perspicuous in the various calamities of every Individual but more terrible and notorious in the accumulative Miseries and Disasters of the whole Our Polititian is never without such means he has still new Inventions and amongst all his pack of Delusions Salvo's to avoid Perjury he will be sure to apply Salvo's to the tender Conscience First We are ready to interpret the words of an Oath and all other sacred Tyes too kindly especially if they be ambiguous and it is hard to finde Terms or Expressions so clear and positive in themselves but that they may be cluded indeed or at least seem to us to be so if we be disposed Secondly There are some who being frighted into these Bonds by threats or losses or other temporal concernments please themselves that they swear by Duress and so conceive and fancy that they are ipso facto disengaged Thirdly There are some who have learned from the Civilians Grâ—t de Jure Bellâ— 245. that though we swear to a thing not materially unlawful yet if it impede a greater moral Good it thereby becomes void Fourthly Some take the liberty to swear because they judge the person to whom they swear incapable of imposing an Oath So Cicero defends the breach of an Oath to a Thief from the imputation of Perjury And Brutus to a Tyrant as it is in Appian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The first sort of these is most fit for our Polititians purposes though he may make use of the others as occasion serves and being throughly skilled in this sort of Metaphysicks it will not be difficult for him to model his Proposals into such soft and glib Expressions as will easily down with most yea with many that would otherwise condemn and disavow the same thing in a rougher Language Let him but observe the Protestation of May 1641. the world knows what success that met with by woful Experience I A. B. do in the presence of Almighty God The Protestation of May 1641. promise vow and protest to maintain and defend as far as lawfully I may with my Life Power and Estate the true Reformed Protestant Religion expressed in the Doctrine of the Church of England against all Popery and Popish Innovations within this Realm contrary to the same Doctrine and according to the duty of my Allegiance to his Majesties Royal Person Honour and Estate as also the Power and Priviledges of Parliament the lawful Rights and Liberties of the Subject c. Now says a late Author As the whole Pretext was plausible L'Estrang so the Saving Clause in it as far as lawfully I may made it go down without much scruple Which Oath was of subtle policy contrived for the service of by-ends for take it as it runs with the aforesaid qualifying Clause and there is nothing more in it than what every man is obliged to do without it so that without some mystery in the bottom the thing appears in it self to be wholly idle and impertinent and not answerable to the solemnity of making it a National Duty Was ever any thing in appearance more harmless loyal or conscientious than this Protestation And if the fellow of it were now in agitation how would the Town ring of any Church of England-man for a disguised Papist that would refuse to take it And yet what ensued upon the peoples joyning in this officious piece of misguided Zeal when they were once in there was no longer any regard had to the Grammar or literal construction thereof but to the List of those that took it as the discriminating Test of the Party and every man was bound upon the forfeiture of his Life Liberty and Estate to observe it in their sence But let us see what became of this so solemn a Protestation after it had been swallowed by the Multitude Why it made way for an Oath of a larger size the Solemn League and Covenant The Covenant An. 1643. which had the same Salvo with the Protestation and the very same specious pretences for the Protestant Religion the Honour of the King the Priviledges of Parliament and the Liberty of the Subject onely enlarged to the setting up of the Scotish Discipline and Government the extirpation of Episcopacy and Popery and the
your Actions must conclude that Nobilitas est sola atque unica virtus Your Family hath stood against the Waves and Weathers of Time immovable fixt and always loyal Je feray mon devoir is the Motto of your Lordships Coat which I cannot better understand than in allusion to that excellent Axiome of the Roman Orator Omnis laus virtutis in actione consistit And now my Lord I humbly beg that your Lordship will be pleased to own me for such as I am obliged in all Gratitude to render my self Oct. 5. 1680. Your Lordships most devoted humble Servant J. Yalden THE PREFACE HOw horrendous are the Times And how monstrom and to be bewailed and hated are the Principles of sâ—â—e men whose greatest aims and constant practices seem to endeavour at the very roots of Piety and Christianity and to turn moral Honesty topsie-turvis taking the antipodes of every Virtue for their Paths as the nearest abode to the bottom of their endless Ambition 'T is that alone is the abyst of mans perpetual tortures The dismal effect of ambition the wrack of his mind and the wings of his restless desires Sometimes 't is dark and envious and cannot endare the luminous irradiations of anothers peace and happiness and is always ready for destruction In fine it is that door of Hell which opens to all the disastrous miseries of mankind it is that hand which directed and plunged the Knife of Cain into the throat of his Brother Abel it nearly resembles those Birds of blood and prey which live in the unfortunate Islands near the North-Pole and devour one another even in their Nests Ambition carries continually in its hand Glasses of a thousand Faces and coloured with as many Passions which causeth Fire frequently to be taken for Smoak Black for White and all Beauties for Deformities or Deceits Let us look about us and see it aptly decypher'd in the present State of Europe which has sufficiently felt the dismal consequences thereof in the miserable effects of unnatural and bloody Wars Which most influencing and malignant Planâ—â— of the Passions will be always Regent until Kingdoms and Commonwealths are steered by honest and good Councils until Princes make Justice the Herauld of their Demands and make no other use of Wars The true use of Wars than as the last Appeals to Heaven when Wrongs cannot be removed on Earth There is certainly now no Heaven upon Earth the Devil is broke loose and that Master of Mis-rule has set the World together by the ears his Engines are now abroad his Politicks onely practised his Machiavil is now become Redivivus and his Disciples preach the ensuing Doctrines Nothing that 's Sacred can binde Mankinde to its good behaviour the Decalogue and all sacred Ordinances ar e but weak Restrictions where Ambition holds the Plow and Faction or Self-interest drives it Hence spring the general Calamities of all Nations and the two great Enemies that now seem principally to threaten Europe are either Ambition abroad or Faction at home Forreign Ambition and domestick Faction As for the first Do we not see how frivolous are the Pretensions of France With what violence he has carried on a War and with what injustice how all Europe burns and consumes by the Flames he kindled and begun Can we not see that his Ambition has out-stretcht a greater distance than betwixt Dover and Calice Or do we imagine our Strength and * See the Character of the French in Heylyn's description of Italy parag 38. sol 57. Courage to be greater and more formidable than the Emperour and Confederate Princes Or have we so mean thoughts as to think his Majesties Dominions not worth his pains Or is the French King's love so great and that entailed on the Crown he wears that he will not hurt us Can we be secure in Fools Paradise Safety lies not in Imagination but in Judgment And the tyranny of that Prince is such prompted by his Ambition as will admit of no Counsels that shall be safe either for us or others His Ambition is that Soil on which nothing can grow to advance the interest of another He hates all Superiours or Equals and with restless pains and Labour covets and pursues universal Monarchy Then secondly Faction Let the State beware of that Bufie-body Faction at home an enemy of a more horrendous shape than Ambition the intter being but as the Stirrup by which the former mounts into the Saddle of Rebellion Virgil 1. Aenâ—id Ac veluti in populo cum saepe coörta est Seditio saevitque animis ignobile vulgus Jamque faces arma volant furor arma ministrat 'T is that Vulture which gnaws out the very howels of Government it begins with Order the more immediate Tye of smaller but the firâ—â—st obligation of greater Communities by setting Particulars together by the cars and afterwards proceeds to greater mischiefs by engaging Parties and dangerous Cabals and rarely ends but in the ruine of the Common-wealth Ambition is its Fathe Policy its Mother Ignorance is its Nurse and Rebellion is its Brother What cursed Fiend engendred so foul a Monster What Bowels of Hell enwombed thee What Darkness gave consent to thy fiâ—â—t conception O more than Spider-like Malignity Dire Serpents Veneme that turns all Honey into Poyson It pretends Religion but shuns the Practice It is a Devils in an Angels plight most artificially it insinuates the evil of all its actions in shew for the publick Good It exclaims against Popery as the Whore of Babylon when it aims only to suppress Episcopacy and if Monarchy stands in the way the Diadem shall be destroyed with the Mitre In fine it makes the deepest impressions on popular easiness and by sounding in the ears of the unwary people the pleasing clangors of Liberty Liberty hurries them into at state of the most abject Slavery But alas when I have been told that the * The Jesuit and Fanatick Clergie have been in the highest degrees accessory to the Civil Distempers Animosities and Contentions that have every where shaked the foundations of Church and State I grieved I then searched Evangelical Records whâ—re I found nothing but milde and soft Doctrines I enquired into the breathings of the Spirit and they were pacificatory I wondered from what Presidents and Scripture-encouragements these men deduced their practices and at last was forced to conclude that they were onely pretended Chaplains to the Prince of Peace Those Torâ—bes that should have been for saving Light were degenerated into Firebrands those Trumpets that should have sounded Retreats to popular Furies knew no other Musick but Martial All-arms My designe in this is onely to detect the Politicks of wicked men to expose their Principles to every mans view This is that Key that must open and at once expose the cancered breasts of evil Ministers 'T is this that will dilate the close designs of Tyrants and if duely observed both opens to the view of all
true or false so it be but Popular and if the people I mean to juggle with erre fundamentally or prove obstinate Schismaticks I can by no better means wed them to my interest than by suitable compliances with their obstinacy and delusions and when I have drawn them by slye insinuations into a credulous faith of my worth and abilities to maintain their Cause there remains then nothing to further my projections but to convince them of the necessity to arm in the defence of themselves and their righteous Cause which is done in a trice for men are ever ready to support that which they would be glad to set uppermost and therefore I commonly lead the Van and appear in the head of the Faction I sanctifie their proceedings with the old charm of Jure Divino though I never found them registred but amongst Hells blackest Canons signed with the dismal paw of Legend He that can privately act his Villanies and neatly hocus his worst Impostures is a man of parts by which means he shall appear as pure and innocent as the most exact Christian It is of excellent use for our Polititian to hallow his designes by saying Grace before his impious actions and to thank heaven for the Event be it never so foul and bloudy How comfortably the Pope and Cardinal conferred notes Quantum nobis lucri peperit illa Faâ—ula de Chrâ—sto O the rich Income and glorious Results of a well-managed Hypocrisie This this our subtle Pharisce must with all diligence study and throughly practice Horace Da justum sarctum â—ue videri Noctem peceatis fraudibus objâ—â—ce rathem There is no greater hinderance to generous Actions than a coy and squeamish Conscience which as some tell as vents its greatest force surdo verbere which can never be heard amidst the noise and bustle of a clamorous world The Judgments of the Almighty threatned in Holy Writ and what else may seem to terrifie the exact Christian must not at all affright our politick Heree nor ought he to distinguish betwixt good and evil but by the balaâ—â—â— of Self-interest Had Alexander boggled at invading other Princes Dominions he had never wept for the scarcity of worlds Had your mighty Conquerors listened to and guided their Actions by the Rules of a righteous Conscience their Faine had never been so felly great and they had died and been forgot like other men But I 'll live and be great by any means Flectere si nequeâ— Superes Acheronta mâ—â—â—â—â— The ALLAY Beware beware fond Man methinks I hear a Vae vobis pronounced against thy Hypocrisie Remember that although thou mayst deceive thy fellow-creature by thy crafty and subtle dissimulations thou canst never be able to juggle with thy Omniscient Creator 'T is but in vain to put Ironies on the Almighty for his terrible vengeance will certainly meet with thee in the end of thy projects Be not deceived God is not mocked Put away this cloak of Religion and clothe thee in Sackcloth and Ashes these Garments of Humility will better become thee in the sight of Heaven and good men than all the pompous Vanities this world can afford thee Thou mayst possibly feast thy exorbitant Lust and Ambition here but thou wilt never be able to satisfie or quench the least draught thereof hereafter Though thy Hypocrifie may help thee to walk in masquerade and contribute much to the service of thy impious designes yet there is nothing that God's pure and undeluded Eye looks on with greater hatred and abhorrency and a counterfeit Religion shall be sure to finde a real Hell Over and besides the horrid wickedness of the Impostor how grievous is it in the sight of Heaven and all good men to behold the most divine Oracles and sacred Ordinances enforced even to obstetricate to the most impious and irregular designes Cur tu non desinis virtutis stragula pudefacere quoth the Cynick to the coward in Arms which may be as aptly applied to thee who dost at the same time both use and abuse the whole Armour of a Christian to contrary and wicked ends Base wretch thou truckleâ—t under the servility of every Sin and wadest through the filthy mire of the most loathsome Jakes to gratifie thy lustful Appetite with that which after all thy pains and travel may prove but gilded Poyson or at best but silly Trash God created thee for other ends and made thee a Creature after this own Image He design'd thee for glory greater than that of Angels but thou hast rendred thy self fit for shame and confusion beyond that of Devils He made thee capable of eternal Happiness but thou hast chosen everlasting Misery Yet know cursed Caitiff Heaven shall be glorified though in thy damnation for the most desperate sinners by their greatest crimes can but change the attribute they should bring honour to and but oppose the glorifying of the Almighty's goodness to occasion that of his Justice See to what a pass Religion was brought by our Pretended Reformers of the late times as it was delivered in a Speech in the House of Commons by a worthy Lawyer Mr. Speaker I would not be mistaken June 23. 1647. I say not my own words but I speck what the Malignants say of us and my Lord Say A thorough Reformation They say that we have in our Religion an outward Garment or Cloak of any colour which none do wear amongst us but Secrataries Fools Knaves and Rebels the said Cloak being with often turning worn as threadbare as our publick Faith full of Wrinkles Spots and Stains neither brushed spunged nor made clean with as many Patches as Beggars coats And they also say that our Preaching or Pratling is kept by Coblers Tinkers Taylors Weavers Wyredrawers and Hostlers so that all Order and Decency is thrust out of the Church all laudible Ornaments and indifferent besâ—eming Ceremonies are cryed down trampled under foot and banished under the false and scandalous terms of Popery and in the place thereof is most nasty filthy loathsome and sloâ—enly Beastliness or Doctrine being vented in long and tedious Sermons to move and stir up the people to Rebellion and traiterous Contributions to exhort them to Murder Rapine Robbery Disloyalty and all manner of Mischief to the confusion of their Souls and Bodies All these damnable Villanies our Adversaries say are the accursed fruits which our new-mâ—ulded Linsey-woâ—lsey Religion hath produced for they say our Doctrine is neither derived from the Old or New Testament that all the Fathers and Testant Doctors and Martyrs never heard of it that Christ and his Apostles never knew it He that hath by an inveterate wickedness subdued the aversation which the Almighty did once seat in his heart against the ugliness of sin may possibly be said to consult well for his present advantage and greatness but to have utterly supprest the thoughts as well as hopâ—s of any future comfort No man in his right senses did ever yet combine
Dreams to be as canonical and infallibly sacred as the Revelations like those Melancthton speaks of Quicquid somniant volunt esse Spiritum Sanctum or those that the Father chides when he tells them that every Whimsey is not Prophesie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thirdly He ought to be of some abilities in Dispute and what he wants in Logick he must supply with Impudence and Garrulity for whatsoever he affirms the interest he hath in his seduced Hearers improves into a Syllogism If you ask after his Topicks S. Hierom. Ex officina Carnificium argumenta petit if after his weapons Strada Armat se ad latrocinium per Christi nomen and the Wound he makes is Faction Which is so putrified with occurring variety of malignant Qualities that Nature her self cannot afford a Cataplasm to work its Cure and in spight of the most skilful Artists it will fester into Rebellion which admits no other Remedy but what is extracted from it self by the dismal effects of a fatal and long Experience The ALLAY How lamentable it is to see Vrania divine Vrania inrolled in Blood The Stars and Luminaries of the Church to shed nothing but black and malignant Influences in lieu of pious Documents And instead of the Gospel of Peace and Doctrine of Charity to hear none but furious Incentives Papirius Ite alacres tantaeq precor confidite Causae The Cause they serve is the Doctrine and the Use the Egg the Apple the Head and Foot of all their Discourses See a piece of their Sermon in Barclay to this effect Cont. Monarch p. 23 Se Evangelii libertatem praedicare nullam Christianis animis vim inferre suam cuique conscientiam liberam relinquere verbo ducere non vi quenquam adigere Eam esse Evangelii Doctrinam ut omnes Conscientiae fruantur libertate sibique ut id liceat votis omnibus postulare Christ the Son of God our blessed Redeemer reproved St. Peter for drawing his Sword though in the defence of his Lord and Master And we nowhere read that we should offend even our most malicious Enemies but on the contrary we are injoyned to forgive and pray for them by which blessed means we shall be able to heap coals of fire on their heads not to burn and consume them but much rather to thaw and disperse those frozen qualities which both damp and benum their Brotherly Love and Charity to enkindle their affection We are not to arm our selves Cap-a-pe and preach Rebellion to assail a lawful Magistrate but much rather to put on the whole Armour of God that we may be able to resist such fiery assaults of the Devil We are to struggle and fight with all sorts of Temptations but not to plunder sequester or murder our Neighbour We are commanded to be obedient to our Superiours for the Lords sake and yet under the Mask of Religion we have murdered a Prince for God's sake We are commanded to preach Peace in the Name of Jesus to all Nations and in the same Name we have raised and fomented Rebellions Massacres and Murders in our own native Country Aug. And thus Ecclesiae nomine armamini contra Ecclesiam dimicatis Thus under the pretence of a Tender Conscience we cannot bow towards the Altar but for the sake of God's Cause we will cut the throats of the Bishops to root out Antichristian Prelacy Diagoras first set up for an Atheist because the Gods did not immediately strike a perjured person dead as he desired And Cato when he saw the Roman State decay under Pompey whom he esteemed a Patriot of his Country and beheld Caesar prospering in his Tyranny he professed that he saw a fallacious Instability in the Government of the Gods And what shall we think shall not the ignorance of these Heathens who erred barely in opinion for the sake of Virtue and yet nevertheless lived up to the Rules of Morality arise up in judgment to condemn these Dregs of Humanity these mouths of Hell Yes the very innocence of a Devil shall rise in judgment against these Wretches for in all that he does he acts but his Devilship's part but these do more He can but tempt not compel these do both and the former with more subtilty The Voice of God can make the Devils believe and tremble but the Word of God has not power enough to convince these Apostates yet they have impudence sufficient to give the Lye to the Almighty by wresting the sence of his Holy Word to obstetricate to the service of their impious ends Good God! bless us good God! What is Religion if this be Religion and what is Religion good for if these be the fruits If these be the Mysteries of their Religion let every good man say as Jacob of his bloudy sons Oh my soul come not thâ—â— into their secrets unto their assembly mine honour Gen. 49.6 7. be not thou united Instruments of Cruelty are in their habitations Cursed be their anger for it was fierce and their wrath for it was cruel These are the men that invert the designe of our blessed Saviour and abuse his holy Gospel by pretending his favour to unwarrantable and impious actions And thus is the Prince abused by alienating the affections and allegiance of his Subjects the Church abused by shattering it into Rents and Schisms wounding it with a feather from its own wing and snatching a coal from the Altar to fire both Church and State But alas that which justly heightens our grief is the sence of our own folly which wholly brought these Calamities on us for such is the easmess and credulity of the Vulgar such the subtilty and dissembled Sanctity of the Impostor that he commonly meets with as great a proness in the people to be cousened as he brings willingness and abilities to deceive them How they deal with the Devil and conjure I cannot tell but I am sure they had very lately poysoned a great many of his Majestics good Subjects and by their tricks and devices had wrought them into Suspitions and Jealousies 'T is true there has been of late an horrid hellish Popish Plot discovered The Popish Plot. and I hope by the hand of Providence and wisdom of the Government the same is now in a great measure prevented and will ere long be fully discovered and the wicked Confederates brought to condign punishment Yet at first by the affrighting terrours of which subtilly managed by some ill-affected Brethren people were so strangely amazed and stupified into the old Spirit of Faction that the whole frame of Government in the judgment of many sober men stood in very great if not in equal jeopardy from the mischiefs likely to arise from the hatred of Fanaticism as from the malice of Popery it self And it was come to this pass that no man could undertake to defend the Government from Reproach and Calumny nay every man that would not side with the Faction and do as they did