was sure to be branded with Popery or at best with being Popishly affected To lay more stress upon the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy than the solemn League and Covenant to advance the King above the two Houses to deny the Soveraignty of People to speak reverently of the Bishops and Orthodox Clergy the Ministers of State and Justice the Service-book the Rites and Appointments of the Church in opposition to the Assemblies Directory with the practice of their slovenly Conventicles All this is to be Popishly affected A cursed Invention to suppress the hellish Popish Plot and ruine the Church of England And thus the Faction by a Metamorphosis of the late Popish Plot from the Papists into a Popishly affected Plot against the Friends of our Government have endeavoured to insinuate on the one hand that the Bishops and English Clergy are leaning towards Popery and have a strong designe to bring it in and that Arbitrary Power must necessarily follow to support and maintain it Nevertheless we may possibly discover the jugling of these Religious Cheats or Pious Frauds and preserve our selves from the venome of their Doctrines if we rightly observe these following Directions and Cautions First We ought to distinguish betwixt Divinity and humane Policy I should suspect a Clerical Statist I mean such an one as in the dispensation of sacred Oracles tampers with Secular Affairs unless it be in case of high concernment to his Auditors Souls and that in preaching down rather than exciting a Rebellion by rendering Tribute to whom Tribute Honour to whom Honour c. Secondly I should believe him a Juggler that sprinkles his Sermons with Murmurs against the lawful Magistrate whether Ecclesiastical or Civil unless he hath some better grounds for his dislike than barely a thwarting his opinion or humour in things meerly controversial and adiaphorous Thirdly I should more than doubt his knavery that should wrest or suborn the holy Scriptures to attest or incite to illegal actions as standing neerest in relation to that which Salvian calls Religiosum Scelus Fourthly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I may safely conclude that all news in Religion whether in Doctrine or Discipline is the common Skreen of private designe Apud Dion Cass Let Maecenas tell it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is noted by the great Causabon in his Epistle before his Baronian Exercitations thus Cupiditas novandi haec secum mala semper trahit Christi inconsutilem tunicam lacerat Sectas novas parit statim multiplicat Ecclesiam Populum concutit c. Lastly We ought to distinguish betwixt Reason and Clamour Truth and Calumny betwixt the Acts of Authority and the License of Tumults betwixt the just and temperate Deliberatioâ—s and Resolutions of Government and the violent Heats and Partialities of the Common People Nor is it any lessening of this Execrable Popish Plot but much rather a ready way to a full discovery to say That Subjects ought dutifully to acquiesce in the Resolutions of their Superiours And that all clamorous Appeass from the Magistrate to the Multitude for those are the Tribunal of the Faction are onely so far pardonable as the abundance of good will may help to excuse the want of Moderation and Discretion PRINCIPLE V. Our Polititian must urge every prosperous Event as sufficient to prove the Justice of his Cause THis is the Doctrine of all Impostors by which they must charm the common people into a credulous belief of all they say and a sure approvement of every thing they do So cunningly were the projects of our late Usurpers carried on from time to time and with that success as it became a matter extreamly difficult to distinguish the iniquity from the prosperity of all their actions especially for such who either affect novelty or change And as the surest means of rendering their delusions palliable the Faction were well aware of that excellent use of hallowing their Designes The use of publick Fasts by the Faction by appointing days of Humiliation and Fasts immediately to precede the birth of any notable Enterprize as likewise publick Thanksgivings for every Event whether luckie or unfortunate for such was their Cunning that the people should be sure to hear nothing of ill neither understand or perceive any thing but by reflection from the imaginary Brightness of the Cause There is no Argument more popular than to urge and perswade the Justice of the Attempt as a most certain conclusion from the goodness of the Event for the Bulk of Mankind is not able to distinguish the Permission of the divine Goodness from his Approbation And yet notwithstanding the pernicious subtilty of this Argument is both perceived and understood by some yet the insupportable miseries of the Conquered deny them the opportunity to dispute the Justice of their Sufferings and that which they might possibly have prevented by a prudent foresight serves onely now to strengthen and increase the Fetters of their woful Captivity and the most sacred and usual pleas of Liberty or Magna Charta can now neither resist or one jot allay the rigours of their greatest slavery They shall now learn to know that Inter arma silent leges they must now look upon the Conqueror with the greatest reverence and behold him in glory they must yield themselves Vassals to his usurped Arbritary Power who but of late courted them with the most servile compliances and seemed to be a slave to their interest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo. The Souldiers in Plutarch wondered any man would be so impertinent as to preach Laws and Moral Reasons to men with Swords by their sides In Pomp. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if Arms knew how to descend to rational Enquiries and are not enough junified by an odde kind of necessity of their own creation like those in Livy In armis jus ferre omnia fortium virorum esse Such are now the proceedings of France and I fear whenever time serves to give them opportunity to play their pranks French proceedings and us occasion to examine the justice of their Doings they will give us onely pretensions for the just necessity thereof and convince us of the rest as our Neighbours have felt by sad experience with knocking Arguments Numberless Examples likewise of this kind our Polititian may meet with from the History of our late Rebellion sufficient to direct him in the most desperate Exploits without further search into forreign Presidents Why Tyrants pretend to publick Justifications I have often considered with my self what should move Traytors and Tyrants to offer publick Justifications of themselves even in the most barbarous Acts and Cruelties which I conceive never made any understanding man a Convert or ever met with a cordial reception in any unless the abuse of some few ignorant and shallow Believers be esteemed a triumph worth their pains I have sometimes thought they do by such Manifesto's please themselves in their abilities to delude
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
can nevertheless never heeding Blasphemy perswade the Rabble that his Whining Cant and Babbling is truely Spiritual and Holy as proceeding immediately by Inspiration from the Holy Ghost If Cunctation prevails he acts Fabius if the Buckler must be changed for a Sword he personates Marcellus if Lenity and Meekness be useful Soderini of Venice was not more a Lamb than he if Severities are requisite the Butcheries of Oliver and Nero are acts of Grace and Mercy if compared with his What the Orator esteems his Master-pieces in Rhetorical Harangues happily to apply to the various humours and genius of all sorts of men qualifying his Address with what he knows will most charn the person he treats that our Polititian doth not onely perform most exactly with his Lip and Tongue but also most artificially with his Life and Actions And like the English Marquiss Nanton 's Regalia being asked by what means he preserved his Fortunes amidst the various difficulties of so many Changes he had run through having successfully served four Princes and still in the same station of favour he replied That he was made ex Salice non ex Quercu of the pliant Willow not sturdy Oak that he was always of the prevailing Religion and a zealous Professor This is notable for our Polititian and such an easiness of Flexibility is indispensibly requisite in the prudent conduct of his Affairs for those violent methods which are necessary either to resist or abate the force of opposing Interests are improperly applied to a composed and quiet Government and so on the contrary Even as Alcibiades in Plutarch shifted his disposition as he altered place being jovial and voluptuous in Ionâ—a frugal and retired in Lacedaemon so must our subtle Polititian proportion and â—pply himself to Times and Seasons Places Persons and Religions with suitable addresses to the humours of that Faction or Opinion which most prevails as if he had been born to no other ends but for the service of that alone He may so court the Rising Party as to enamour them with his Zeal and Abilities and though he seem to espouse their Cause he must not so throughly engage but that the departure of their strength and power which is the life of every Faction may justifie the separation of his interest yet because the greatest power will somewhere reside he must be sure to follow her and both cry up and applaud the Pretensions of that Party where he meets it next as he once used to extol the former Thus like a subtle Proteus he assumes that shape which is most in grace and favour which by consequence is of most profitable conducement to his ends and purposes In eo stant Consilia quod sibi conducere putat Sometimes our Polititian must dive into the very gulph of Hell and both favour and maintain any Opinion be it never so prodigious bloudy or extravagant as a late Author has it I have read says he C. M. 34. of a Sect called Cainites because they praised Cain in murdering his brother Abel others that have commended Corah Dathan and Abiram as stout Independants and Libertines that would not be comptrouled by never a Moses or Aaron of them all Nay I have read of one Bruno that writ an Oration in applause of the Devil and his Luciferian pride Nor will it be impertinent for our Polititian to observe what the same Author says speaking of the Spirit of Antichrist's continually shifting up and down sometimes working in the Spirit of Popery and at other times in the Spirit of Fanaticism but still with the same mischievous designe The hellish Popish Plot was swom by Dr. Oates and others to be a designe carried on by the Papists for the destruction of our Lives Religion and Government but that project at this day seems in a great measure quashed The principal Contrivers of that Machination are now removed the Jesuits hanged the Lords in the Tower and the Great men secured from action Yet nevertheless the same bloudy Tragedy is still acting The Popish Plot carried on by the Schismatick or rather by the Jesuit in Masquerade and the cursed Designe carried on by the Popes other Engines and the Spirit of Antichrist is shisted from the Conclave to the Conventicle The grand Designe at first was carried on by the Jesuits for the destruction of the Church of England to introduce Popery and as matters are now managed by the Schismatick the same Church must be traduced as Popishly affected and strongly charged as * A strange Paradox Parties to the Popish Conspiracy against it self for bringing about the same ends This they know is the readiest way to rid the Church of England and this follows That what before was a designe in the Papists for the ruine of that Church is now a project amongst the Fanaticks to the same purpose but to different ends for as one endeavours to bring in Popery so the other strives to make way for the Schism Our Polititian must practise in these Disorders and be sure to cast his Baits when the People swallow any thing and when he has wrought them into a Disorder he may from thence date the rise of his Power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Ethick l. 8. c. 12. Regni quidem defectio tyrannis est And that Power once acquired being obtained by fraud must be imposed with the strongest violence that so the people may not be able to rise up under the weight of their oppressions He must court some and correct others he must always remember to practise his part of the Philosophers distinction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibidem Tyrannus quidem suam utilitatem spectat Rex subditorum The ALLAY So detestable were the thoughts of 0233 0844 V 2 change Change in Religion especially in Religion amongst the Heathens themselves that Cicero condemns him for an Heretick who shall either differ or dissent from the Religion of his Country And the King of Morocco answered the Embassadours of King John of England with a protestation requesting to know how his Majesty liked St. Paul's Epistles which he had lately read That were he to chuse a Religion he would be a Christian but he held it abominable not to live and die in that Religion which he had received from his Forefathers and his Country These Heathens make Religion their Interests and not their Interests Religion these cannot seem one thing and act another they are really what they pretend and will not shift their religious Principles to wrong purposes A Parallel betwixt the Pope and Presbyter The Jesuit under the pretence of Religion exalts the Mitre above the Crown and the Crosier above the Scepter The Fanatick plumes himself in his Almighty Pulpit whilst the Magistrate truckles under him upon the Stool of Repentance Both of them oppose and exalt themselves above all that is called God Both of them will without scruple do Evil that Good may come thereof equivocate
with his Enemy or wilfully go about to murder himself but too many have been so nonsensically wicked as to confederate with the Devil in their own destruction and have yielded those points which otherwise he câ—uld never have gained upon them Some there are who hate down-right Honesty and true Religion who by being Disciples of the Prince of the Air and inspired with his Spirit of Darkness have at length gained of the Devil himself and out-done their hâ—llish Master in the mystery of Deceitfulness Such are the Devil 's choicest Engines and are able to do him the greatest service in the accursed methods of gâ—lling their fâ—llow-creature by how many degrees they stand neerer in relation to Maâ—kind PRINCIPLE II. The deformity of all his Actions he must cover and that in pretence for Liberty Religion c. and otherwise endear himself to the People by Adulation and the most slye Insinuations imaginable THe Multitude must be cultivated with perpetual Soothings and Encouragements â—ntil they grow immeasurably luxuriant in our Polititians gilded Delusions and as absolutely believe he designes their good as be most certainly does his own He must transport them so far even to the credulous faith of all he says and does to be as sacred towards them as their Persons and Estates Religion and Laws are to themselves or rather as much esteemed by him as they are useful to the furtherance of his designes He must always accommodate himself to the matter he has to work upon he must have his Râ—medium in omne morbum The simpler sort of people he must busie with his horrid Plots and false Alarms amuse the timerous with Tumults and forreign Invasions and deceive the factious by Covenants and Associations In fine his Party must be the Refuge and Receptacle for all sorts of Libertines and Malecontents Thus qualified let him first possess the Rabble that the Government is become a Monster and hath already devoured a great part of their Liberties and make the hideous Out-cry throughout the Kingdom of Breach of Priviledge Priviledge of Parliament Magna Charta c. for our Polititian well knows that Corruptio optimi est perniciocissima Pestiâ— Then secondly strike at Religion worry her with the name of Heresie re-establish and issue forth Writs De Haeretico comburendo build Piles in Smithfield commit Massacres murder a King at his own door And it you cannot abolish the Principles be sure to sacrifice the persons of such as stand most eminently engaged in opinion opposite to those of the Faction Serve up a John Baptist's or a Bishops head in bloud that certainly will be grateful to the longing appetite of a Godly Sister when perhaps her sqâ—eamish stomach being lately surfeited cannot so easily digest the coarser Diet of the common Shambles Cry out against Popery with the thundering voice of Forty One 'T is the best way to destroy the Church of England if your can handsomely insinuate her to be leaning that way under the notion of Arminianism And let all this and ten times more be done our Polititian knows he may warrant his Actions from * The late Times approved Presidents especially if he act by the specious pretext of a tender Conscience and get the Undertaking once to be christened God's Cause His Coat must be of divers colours and his Shape as alterable as that of Proteus he must look through the eyes of Argus miss no opportunity fit all seasons and neglect no means for 't is most certain that the prosperity of Innovation depends upon the right knack of kindling and fomenting Jealousies and Dislikes in the people and craftily wielding those Grudges to the favour and advantage of private ends for the various humours of the Rabble are like the different Tools of the Mechanick necessary to produce one and the same effect And if our Polititian aims either to alter the Government or to ingross the Supremacy he must first assault the people with false Alarms of imminent dangers invent horrid News and ply them with such fictitious perils as may make them believe Religion and Liberty and all are at stake and that they are the Geese which must save the Capitol And when by these methods he has cajoled them into Fears and Jealousies they begin then to be â—it Instruments for the boldest and most unwarrantable Undertakings and so soon as they are once toucht in the Noddle with these Conceits 't is but sadling their Noses with a pair of State-spectacles and you may perswade them upon Newmarket-heath that they are tumbling down Dover-cliff After all this it will not be difficult for our Polititian to conjure them into Petitions Tumults Associations Oaths and Covenants for the common Safety and when by such means he has made them stark mad he need not doubt of being chosen Governour of the Bedlam Secondly he must compose his very garb and gesture 'T is an excellent gift to tell a lye with a boon grace And if Religion be in vogue he must pretend mightily to the gift of the Spirit and call his Followers the people of God He must be well skilled in the impressing art of Canting and Whining and must deliver his Tales and Stories with Ardour and strong Affection and zealously knock his breast call Heaven to witness and invoke all manner of Imprecations on himself it he fails to do that which he never intends or so much as thinks on with the least inclination to performance Thirdly he gives them good words and bad actions he ravishes them with the apprehensions of Liberty into the strongest chains of Oppression and Slavery Nomina rerum perdidimus licentia militaris Libertas vocatur saith the Roman Orator And Plautus in Truculento sings excellently well to the same purpose In melle sunt linguae sitae veâ—rae atque orationes Lacteque corda felle sunt sua atque acerbo aceto E Linguis dicta dulcia datis at corde amarè facitis Fourthly he observes that they swallow Probabilities wisely offered with greater greediness than naked Truths Our subtle Crafts-master is therefore very curious in gilding his Impostures and never reveals his designes but at fit seasons and convenient opportunities and that by piece-meal too for the prodigious view of his monstrous Projects intirely delivered would greatly amaze and look big even beyond all hope or possibility of digestion whereas the same thing delivered by parcess and at proper seasons is swallowed with greater ease and will produce the same effects But further S. M. p. 12. to give you a more concise touch of our Polititian's principles we cannot better do it than by setting forth the admirable harmony and consort that appear'd in the Rebellion of our late Times betwixt the Lay-Cabal and the Ecclesiastick both agreeing in the same method in the same steps in the same cause and in the same opinion Onely that which was matter of Policy in private was made matter of Conscience and Religion in publick First They finde out
had certainly met with some notable Reward either one way or other if his Majestie had ever seen him But whereas he calls his Libel The Nations Agrievance I verily believe he had spoken more truth if he had named it a Whelp of the Good Old Cause or a Spawn of out late Green-Ribbon-Club Râ—bellion in expross terms Another puts a Quere Whether it be not high time for all the Protestants in England to resolve as One man that they will stand by and maintain the Power and Priviledges of Parliament 'T would be endless to tell you how many Monsters of this hue like those of Forty One dayly creep abroad even in these times And these seem to be like Night-Ravens to the health of the Government whose ugly Screetchings always foreboad approaching death and destruction And as to the charging the faults of a Governour upon the Government 't is certainly a grand Delusion nor can there be a more gross abuse than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Grotius Isocrates in his Book de Jure Belli Pacis saith That the faults of the Minister must not be cast in the face of Majesty Omnis facultas gubernandi quae est in Magistratibus summae Potestati ita subjicitur ut quicquid contra voluntatem summi Imperantis faciant id defectam sit ea facultate ac proinde pro actu privato habendum Which will be the more pat to our purpose if we compare it with that of Bracton Rex Angliae hic solum non potest facere quòd non potest injuste agere However this I presume That the most exact Puritan can in no wise boast of such an absolute Saintship Was heretofore an exact Rebel but that there will now and then some actions fall from him which must confess Humanum est errare and require Candour There are some Leaves in the volume of the fairest Life that are legenda cum venia Princes Frailties If this be a common frailty why do we fix such rigid Censures upon the Miscarriages of Princes Or rather why do we deny to give them the same grains of allowance which we use when we commiserate the Infirmities of other men 'T is yet much more dis-ingenuous to revive and pore upon a few bad actions which it's possible have been long ago attoned and recompenced with many good Take this from no mean Statist Iniqua in omni re occusandâ praetermissis bonis malorum enumeratio vit iorúmque Selectio nam ne villus quidem isto modo Magistratus vituperabilis non crit As Greatness gives a lustre to the Vertues of a Prince so it ought to mitigate his Vices for if we look upon him as circled with Honour and all outward Enjoyments and consider that men are most easily corrupted in the supreamest fortunes where Lusts may have the advantage of being armed with Power we may easily believe the violence of his temptations to be so much the stronger by how much he is greater than Subjects having no other shield or weapon to resist their force than his meer Vertue We are sometimes defended from a sin by our very Impotency Impotency a defence from sin or else I fear our streets had long e're this been filled with Mourning and Lamentations by the bloudy Swords of the Spirits of Popery and Fanaticism it may be above our sphere or out of our reach we do not because we cannot How frequently do we transgress even to the most horrid guilt in our Wills and Affections when our hands remain innocent We are checked from without and rendered good by the bonds of Necessity because unable to be otherwise but Princes have no other means to oppose their immoderate desires but what proceeds purely from themselves for who can say to his Soveveraign * Eccles 8.2 3 4 5. What doest thou This is that which enhances the goodness of a Prince and sets an extraordinary lustre upon his person according to the eminence of his extraordinary Vertues It has been the constant practice of Usurpers to delude the people by the false lustre of their subtle Impostures even into a concatenation for the drawing on of their wicked ends Such an one even loads the people with the bare notion of imaginary Liberty till he breaks their backs with the most intolerable tyranny and slavery and when Success atttends the Tyrant's Enterprizes it is not the indulgence of Heaven to the Usurper but much rather the indignation thereof on the people for their folly It is no lessening of this execrable Popish Plot to say L'Estrang Narrative fol. 11 12. That subjects ought dutifully to acquiesce in the Resolutions of their Superiours and that all clamorous Appeals from the Magistrate to the Multitude are onely so far pardonable as the abundance of Good will may help to excuse the want of Moderation and Discretion So that a great part of those fierce and unmannerly Transports that have been employed upon this unhappy Occasion and without any regard either to Quality or Sex or in truth to the very foundations of Christian Charity might have been much better let alone since they serve onely to inflame the Vulgar without any sort of avail to the Cause in question It is no better than either a translating of the Judicature from the King and his Courts of Justice to the Rabble or else a Complaint to the people brought in with a Side-winde against the Government which are two dangerous points striking at his Majesties Soveraignty the one way and at his Reputation the other And yet all this is tolerable if it goes off so and without blowing up a Passion into a Designe But alas 't is the practice of wicked and ambitious men to translate a Popular Odium from the Papists to the Government and so they mount by degrees from a Zeal against Popery to a Sedition against the State And whither all this tends we may well conclude if we do but consider the miserable consequences that inevitably followed the prodigious Impostures and Delusions imposed on the people of our late Times Poor England was then frighted out of a dream of Dangers into Cutting of Throats in earnest out of a fear of Popery into a prostitution even of Christianity and out of an apprehension of Tyranny into a most despicable state of Slavery PRINCIPLE IV. To render the Contagion epidemical our Politian must always have some dissenting Pastors or mercenary Jesuits to justifie and appland his Designes and Actions in the Separate Congregations NOthing more abundant in Examples nothing more notorious in History than this That there has been no Innovation so gross no Rebellion so hideous but hath had some Ecclesrastical Fomenters for such as want Worth enough of their own to reach Preferment in a regular way are most apt to envie the just Honours and Promotions of other men and despairing to obtain their ends by Learning and Piety they aspire to it by the crooked means of Faction
lye plunder sequester and behead for God's sake and the Cause's sake Both of them agree in that Jesuitical Tenet That Dominion is founded in Grace Both of them plot and contrive mischief where and when they have sway but always mischief as much as in them lies Both of them have for many years been the great Disturbers of the Peace of all Christendom as well as of the Peace of England And tell me but of any Massacre or bloudy Wars and Stratagems against the Magistrate any Treasons and Rebellions but what was carried on either by Papists and Jesuits or by Presbyterians and Fanaticks in the memory of man and I 'll be content to abide the bloudy Inquisition of the one and undergo the same fate of the Archbishops and Metropolitans of Canterbury and St. Andrews murdered by the other That Alterations and Revolutions in Kingdoms are the Rods with which God scourgeth miscarrying Princes is resolved by my Lord of Argenton Comines 170. To which may be added out of Aristotle in the fifth book of his Politicks Per frandem dolum reguâ— evertuntur But let these Instruments of Darkness work as they please 't is nevertheless the part of a righteous States-man A good States-man to remain and be inviolably constant to his principles of Virtue and religious Prudence his ends are noble and the means he useth innocent he hath a single eye on the publick good and if the Ship of the Commonwealth miscarry he had rather perish in the wreck than preserve himself upon the plank of an inglorious Subterfuge His Worth hath led him to the Helm the Rudder he useth is an honest and vigorous Wisdom The Star he looks to for direction is in Heaven and the Port he aims at is the joynt Welfare of Prince and People This firm Constancy is that solid Rock upon which the wise Venetian hath built its long-liv'd Republick so that it is not improbable the Maiden Queen hath borrowed her Motto of Semper eadem from this Maiden Commonwealth 'T is nevertheless true that something is to be allowed and conceded to the Place and Time and Person and I grant that there are many innocent Compliances Virgil's Obliquare sinus is observable There may be a Bending without a Crookedness we may circumire and yet non aberrare Paul became a Jew that he might gain the Jew but he did not become a sinner that he might gain sinners He was made all things to all men but he was not made sin to any that is his condescentions were such as did well consist with his Christian Integrity Hence we may see the detestable wickedness of our Chronopantists the monstrous Impieties and horrid Blasphemies of those Beasts of Prey hence as in a Mirrour we may view the Cruelties and Impostures of our late Usurpers and perceive their Snares though never so cunningly laid Now we may return Religion it s stollen Cloak and having thus disrobed our State-Sycophant we may at once both view and abhor all his loathsome tricks and devices Greatness and Honour and Riches and Scepters those glorious temptations that so much inamour the doting world are too poor Shrines for such a Sacrifice as Conscience which our Polititian hath so much abused by an inveterate neglect that it is become menstruous and ephemeral Such was the miserable condition of the Church heretofore that to use the words of Bishop Gauden in his Sighs of the Church p. 202. the Dilemma and distressed choice of Religion was then God preserve the Church of England now established from such a damn'd Dilemma says he reduced to this That peaceable and well-minded Christians wise c. so long harrassed and wearied with novel Factions and pretended Reformations would rather chuse their Posterity should return to the Roman Party which have something among them setled orderly and uniform becoming Religion than to have them ever turning and towring upon Ixion's Wheel catching in vain at fanciful Reformations as Tantalus at the deceitful waters rowling the Reformed Religion like Sysiphus his Stone sometimes asserting it by Law and Power otherwise exposing it to popular Liberty and Looseness than to have them tossed to and fro with every wind of Doctrine with the Foedities Blasphemies Animosities Anarchies Dangers and Confusions attending Fanatick Fancies and Quotidian Reformations which like Botches and Boyls from surfeited and unwholsome Bodies so dayly break out among those Christians who have made none other rule of Religion but their own Humour and no bounds of Reformation but their own Interest The first makes them ridiculous the second pernitious to all sober Christians Rather than to be everlastingly exposed to the profane Bablings endless Janglings miserable Wranglings childish Confusions atheistical Indifferencies and sacrilegious Furies of some latter Spirits which are equally greedy and giddy making both a Play and a Prey of Religion And Calvin himself on the first of Hosea and the ninth of Amos saith Quam multi sunt in Papatu qui Regibus accumulant quicquid possint Juris Potestatis Whence King James in his Basilicon Doron Epistle to the Reader saith Puritans had put out many Libels against all Christian Princes and that no body answered them but the Papists And our late Protestant Martyr King Charles the first in his excellent book of Meditations saith I am sorry Papists should have a greater sence of their Allegiance than many Protestants And I dare say that all good Christians grieve at this very day for and Posterity will read with detestation horrour and amazement to the worlds end the barbarous Villanies inhumane Cruelties and impious Actions of those Protestants the good King intends yet if those Princes had lived in these times they must as all the world now do have cried out with horrour and amazement at the horrible hellish Plots and Contrivances of the Papists Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum PRINCIPLE VII If Oaths are requisite in the conduct of Affairs let them be of such ambiguity as may furnish with a sence obliging to the Design and yet so soft as the People may not perceive the Snare TO compose the wavering minds of the Multitude and to oblige them to the service of our Polititian's most impious ends there is nothing so binding as Oaths of all sorts and sizes according to the necessity of Affairs as solemn Leagues Covenants c. And though the practices leading to the end propounded be never so barbarous and bloudy yet the strength of a solemn Oath does so firmly binde them to the seeming Justice of their undertaken Cause that no Divinity or Precepts though never so just and holy shall ever interpose betwixt them and their propounded ends but what is urged against the Cause shall be taken to proceed from the wicked and be deemed as Malice and Imposture Finge Deum Belial quoties vis fallere Plebem Did ever man read of more bloudy Massacres A pretty Couple than under the conduct of the Papists covenanted