I might add that many Stories there are of Subjects who have in all humility condescended to bear with the Infirmities of their Princes remembring your rule that Great Persons do out of Civility condescend to their Inferiâ—urs nay have been proud to imitate them even your Alexanders followers bore their heads sideling as their Master did and Dionysius his Courtiers would in his Presence run and justle one another and either stumble at or overthrow whatever stood before their feet to show that they were as pur-blind as he So much for his design against Monarchy There is a deal of Plot yet behind but now it begins to break Page 224. he says In the late Kings time some eminent Persons of our Clergy made an open defection to the Church of Rome And instances him that writ the Book of Seven Sacraments which had been pertinent indeed had he writ of Seven Sacraments all necessary to Salvation But how can this man imagine that we should believe that some eminent Persons of the Clergy in the late Kings time made an open defection to the Church of Rome when he does not believe himself for p. 297. he cannot think that they had a design to alter our Religion but rather to set up a new kind of Papacy of their own here in England Then this was the reason it seems why Archbishop Laud gain'd Hales from Socinus you great wit confess'd when bassled by that Prelate that he understood more then Ceremonies Arminianism and Manwaring and many besides of considerable Quality from the Church of Rome but none of greater note then Ch llingworth for this it was that he twice refus'd a Red-Hat and no wonder a Cardinal-ship could not tempt him when he design'd an English Popedome But to prove this Surmise of his groundless we need go no farther then the Reconciliation which the Arch-bishop labour'd betwixt us and Rome for the compassing of which amongst other Articles propos'd the Tope was to be allow'd a Priority This Accomodation notwith standing your Wisdom censures as a Design impossible to be effected was in so great a forwardness once that it was thought nothing but the Opposition of the Iesuites on the one side and the Puritans on the other could obstruct it as the Popes Nuncio affirm'd to be written by the Venetian Embassador expresses it And indeed the Pragmaticalness of these two had made the Breach much wider then at first else the more Moderate of each party by distinguishing betwixt the Doctrines of private Men and the Confessions of either Church might easily have adjusted those Differences and so have laid a lasting Foundation for the Peace of Christendome And as for all our Authors idle talk of Infallibility and Secular interest he shows he has clearly mistaken the whole matter for 't was not an Agreement with the Court but with the Church of Rome that was propos'd in this Mediation But the Gentleman is wonderful pleasant for who knows says he pag. 35. in such a Treaty with Rome if the Alps would not have come over to England No I would not they should for they have stood ever since the Flood at least and I am a great enemy to the removing of ancient Land-marks England might not have been oblig'd lying so commodious for Navigation to undertake a Voyage to Civita Vechia That need not neither Sir and though t is pity this Conceit should have been lost yet there is a better way then this for since our Island is so conveniently situate for Trading had there been a good Correspondence maintain'd betwixt the Catholick Merchants and ours they mght more easily have drove on the Traffick interchangeably exporting our Religion in Cabbages and importing the Roman in Oranges and Lemons So that there was not that necessity of Englands lying at Dover for a fair Wind to be Shipt for Civita Vechia For besides that Transportation of Kingdomes is somewhat more troublesome then Removing House such a little Spot of Ground as this Island would soon have been missing in the Map had it been mov'd out of its place and so have occasion'd many Disputes in Geography Who knows too if the English had once broke up House and pack'd up their Goods and their Lands to be gone but some of their Neighbours might have follow'd their Example and the Hollanders after they had given their old Landlord the King of Spain warning might have flung up their Leases and in time the Nethâ—rlands would have been to be Let. And though his Catholique Majesty might possibly be provided with better Tenants for these 't is said have not paid him a farthing since the Duke of Alvâ— distrain'd last for Rent yet if all these new Planters should not have had Elbow-room in St. Peters Patrimony his Holiness I fear would have been put to the trouble of building some Cottages upon the Wast or at least of making a Law against Ecclesiastical Inmates to have secur'd his Parish from an unnecessary Charge Certainly had Mr. Author been one of the Commissioners for draining of the Fennes he could not have argu'd more profoundly against the cutting of the Ecclesiastick Canal pag 30. he compares it with those Attempts in former ages of digging through the Separating Istmos of Peloponnesus and making Communication between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean But since he is so averse from any Commnnication with Rome he might have done well to forbid any correspondence between their Elements and ours Who can tell at how great a distance every Breath of moving Air may continue articulate Especially if vocaliz'd in Sir S. Moreland's Trumpet Nay why may not those Birds that sojourn with us half the year when they fly thither for Winter Quarters sing strange stories in the Italian Groves and those the learned in Ornithology understand How if those Winds that whistle near our Coasts should whisper Tales there and strange Secrets may be discover'd by the Roman Eaves-droppers if they lay their Ears to the ground What does he think of a Communication between Rivers for it may so happen that the Protestant Thames may at some time or other mix with the impurer streams of Papal Tyber and hold some kind of Intelligence in their pratling Murmurs when they both discharge into the Sea there may be another Communication too this way between the Roman Piss-pots and the Reform'd I am somewhat unwilling I must confess to venture too far into these Depth's for fear of being plung'd past recovery I leave them therefore to be fathom'd by this Gentlemans Plummet He has been over Shoes already ay and over Boots too He has waded through the Leman Lake and the River Rhosne and knows every Creek and Corner in each better then any of the Water-Rats or Natives p. 55. he tells you that the River ducks under ground such is its apprehension a very apprehensive River indeed least the Lake should overtake it that is to say the Lake stands still as fast as the Current can run So great
exprest some Contempt and not unjustly of the Army-Divines and of such as were admir'd by the Elue and White Apron'd Auditories but this will not amount to Scandalum Magnatum Nor can I conceive that every Cashierd Red-Coat once listed for a Levite or every broken Shop-keeper made free of the Preaching-Trade without serving a just Apprenticeship in it has a Title to a Profession so sacred as our Writers is and except only this unconsecrate Lay-Clergy these Reverend Divines of the Shop and the Camp I know of none that the Author of Ecclesiastical Policy quarrels with The next reason is because our Divine the Author manages his Contest with the same Prudence and Civility which the Poets and Players have practised of late in their several Divisions Here it is with the same Civility and yet in the very next page he tells us that Mr. Bayes is more Civil then to say Villain and Caitiff and yet these are not so tuant as Malapert Chaplain Buffoon-General and because it is an accomplishment to rail in more Languages then one Opprobrium Academiae and Pestis Ecclesiae The last is because both their Talents do peculiarly lie in exposing and personating the Nonconformists And who so fit to be brought upon the Stage as the Pulpit-Players and those Religious Mimicks that personated the Gravity of Divines without their Habits Whom can our Theatres more deservedly expose then those that turn'd the Church into one Eccleastiques of the Sock and Buskin To deny that they were Actors were to question Nature that gave them Vizors for Faces Certainly Lacys best Grimaces were never so Artificial as the Squints of a Humiliation Saint and Mr. Scruple in the Pulpit has mov'd more to Laughter then on the Stage Such has been the good fortune of your eminent Preachers that their Sermons have been Acted with the same applause at the Theatre which they have had in the Church and been at the same time diversion to the Court and edification to the Saints But yet what the Play-house gives us is but Repetition of their excellent Notes and we must confess Ananias and Tribulation are Copies short of their Originals The exploits of a Thanksgiving-Romance have far exceeded the boldest of our Heroick-Plays and no Farce yet was ever comparable to one with Doctrines and Vses We have been somewhat the larger in the examination of this Character because our Farce-Poet in imitation of the French no donbt has made but one Person considerable in his Play and the rest as it were but Attendants on him for besides Mr. Bayes his part we have only Thunder and Lightning Prince Volscius and Draw-Can-sir Transpros'd and what is most observable here is the fixing the Characters so that one man may Act any of these Parts nay one man may Act them altogether for the Writer of the Preface is to present Mr. Bayes Draw-Can-sir Prince Volscius and Thunder and Lightning all at one and the same time A notable and compendious peice of Wit indeed for by this means we have a whole Play Acted by one man and if our Clergy-man under the notion of Pluralist may present five several Persons why not ten twenty thirty and so on till he represent an Army in Disguise and by degrees at last the whole Church Militant that 's greater than a single Army now if Seculars be invested with the like power of representing Pluralities one man may go for the Representative not only of one Shire but of all England and by consequence a single Burgess may sit for the whole Parliament this you may call a Parliament Individuum to match it with your Synodical Individuum But this it seems is the new way of Acting First the Gentleman claps a pair of Boots on the Clergy-mans legs and so he personates Prince Volscius and is sent on a Journey to Knights-Bridge though perhaps you 'l hear by and by he is not gone neither anon he arms him with Sir Solomons sword and then he is the Ecclesiastical Draw-Can-sir you forget that wearing a Sword is against the Canons and after this had he planted a Ruffe upon his neck under that he might have quarter'd an Army Incognito unless that this Army might better lye encamp'd in his Collar of Fortifications Sheerness Innerness c. which he has hung about our Authors neck for a Collar of Nesses This I must confess is more Magnificent because it represents the Army and their Trenches too Thus it is but acting a different Dress and Equipage and the same man is a Riding Prince a Heroe and an Army in Masquerade in his booted capacity he is Prince Volscius in his Sworded Draw-Can-sir a pair of Buskins thus may personate a whole Tragedy and a single Sock a Comedy But this notable Art of Summing up an Army in one Man the Gentleman no doubt has learnt from the Schools which tell us That from a Muster of Peter and Paul and several Individuals we come to frame a Character of bulky Vniversals and if so that one man in different capacities may act severall Persons no question but in many more he may personate Mankind which in the Malmsbury Stile is but Artificial man for so great a Latitude is there in this way of Representation by Symbols and Hieroglyphical Signatures that not only every variation of Dress but every Change of Posture alters the property of the Actor better than a Pâ—rriwig or a false Beard Thus the Philosophers have wisely taught us to distinguish betwixt Peter standing and Peter Sitting and the Transposer of the Rehearsal without all controversie will allow us that the same man that sitting in a Chair and pulling on one Boot personates Prince Volscius may when he is prostrate on the ground present Prince Pretty-man intranc'd Now having had our Geneva Jigg let us advance to our more serious Councils First then after beating up of the Pulpit-Drums through the Ecclesiastical Camp Draw-Can-sir an Army in Himself enters the Lists against Hungaria Transylvania Bohemia Poland Savoy France the Netherlands Denmark Sweden and all Scotland for these besides many more he encounters in the disguise of Germany and Geneva and to avoid the dull prolixity of relations of Squadrons here and Squadrons there their Forces rang'd in Battalia their Cannon plac'd the Charge sounded and the Alarm given Advance from Lambeth with the Curiasiers At the very same instant these reply The Band you Boast of Lambeth Curiasiers Shall in Geneva Pikes now meet their Peers Draw down from Dort the Spiritual Mijn Heer 's To joyn with the Bohemian Musqueteers Let the left wing of Zurick Foot advance And line that Bramble Hedge Th' Hugonot Horse we rais'd in France Shall try their chance And scour the Meadows avergrown with Sedge While our Blue Brethren of the Tweed Shall guard the Lake if there he need Secure our Trouts and save their Breed This now is not improper I think because the Reader knows all these Towns and Territories and may easily conceive them
whole party if you could then perswade every particular person of them that you gave him no provocation I confess this were an excellent and a new way of your inventing to conquer single whole Armies To see the superfetatious Miracles of Art here in the Accumulative Vertues of a single Hero He ranges his multiply'd self Horse and Foot in battell array he places all his Cannon with fewer hands than Briareus by 98. and in the same breath sounds a Charge with as many Trumpets as mouths and gives the Signal to himself to fall on this you may boldly challenge for your non ultra it is as high as you can go So now come in Thunder and Lightning that is the Bishops Historian in those two shapes and this way of making one Person represent a Dialogue between two is very artificial indeed yet this is perform'd with a little alteration of the voyce for besides the diversity of dress and posture that of the Tone and Accent is no less considerable in an Actors Representation of many Persons at one and the same time 't is but ratling in a big and hoarse voyce I am the bold Thunder then squeaking in a shrill and tender the brisk Lightning I and the business is done this now if you mark it is extraordinary fine and very applicable to the Bishops Historian for he saith Some that pretend a great interest in the holy Brotherhood descry Popery in every common and usual chance a Chimney cannot take fire in the City or Suburbs but they are immediately crying Iesuits and Fire-balls Now what does our Transproser do but transverse this thus I strike Men down I fire the Town Where by the way it is a marvel our Author when he call'd his Book the REHEARSAL TRANSPROS'D forgot to add the PREFACE to Bishop Bramhall's Vindication TRANSVERS'D that double Elegancy would have been as pretty as two Flowers growing on one stalk And this I mention the rather because I sind he is a profest Critick in Titles for pag. 308 309. observing by chance the Title age of this Book A Rationale upon the Book of Common-Prayer of the Church of England by A. Sparrow D. D. Bishop of Exon. With the forme of Consecration of a Church or Chappel and of the place of Christian Burial by Lancelot Andrews late Lord Bishop of Winchester sold by Robert Pawlet at the sign of the Bible one would have thought that Sign might have atton'd for all in Chancery-Lane This he tells us was an Emblem how much some of them neglected the Scripture in respect to their darling Ceremonies So that the Animadverter cannot be better employed next than in writing another Book of Animadversions upon Title-Pages And because it is a Task so agreeable to his Genius I could wish if all other preferments fail the Gentleman might be advanced to the Office of Title-Licenser then Robert Pawlet and Iames Collins might shut up their Shops for any trading in Rationales or Ecclesiastical Policies and if he shall appear sufficiently qualified to discharge this trust I would have him removed next or if he please Translated to the greater Dignity of revising Prefaces if he be not averse from that because Prefaces as well as Epistles Dedicatory fell under the inspection of Arch-Bishop Laud. But seriously had not our Author Entituled his Pamphlet the REHEARSAL TRANSPROS'D we could have given it a more express Name unless there be some mystery more than ordinary couch'd in the word TRANSPROS'D which is the REHEARSAL TRANSSCRIB'D for in Transcribing more Verses of the REHEARSAL than he hath Transpros'd his Play-Observations seem rather to have answer'd the latter Title Besides his Verses before cited pag. 170. of his Animadversions I strike men down I fire the Town Pag. 62. He has hal'd in the two last Verses of the Song which the two Kings of Brainford sing descending in the clouds for a Couplet in a Song gives a better Ragoust to a Controversial Discourse then Bacon to an Olio or St. Auâ—tin to a Sermon Pag. 12. His Animadversion on these words of the Writer He knows not which way his mind will work it self and its thoughts amounts to no more than this that our Clergy-man was taken violently with a fit of Love and Honour and being sick of Prince Volscius his disease there was no other cure but this Charm Go on cries Honour tender Love says Nay Honour aloud commands pluck both Boots on But safer Love does whisper put on none And though the Writer protested He was neither Prophet nor Astrologer enough to foretell what he would do the Animadverter being both tells us it is precisely For as bright Day with black approach of Night Contending makes a doubtfull puzzling Light So does my Honour and my Love together Puzzle me so I am resolv'd on neither Though the Verses come in to no more purpose then one of Bayes his Similes Again for Bayes his Verses will serve for all occasions as well as his Prologue for all Plays pag. 202. he has borrowed these from the singing Battle Villain thou lyest Arm Arm Valerio Arm The lye no flesh can bear I trow If Mr. Bayes as you tell us pag. 17. was more civil then to say Villain he might have taught his Actors better manners All these besides the two last verses of the event of the Battle you have diligently Collected and for the most part faithfully transcribed unless in these last recited where for Gonsalvo in the Rehearsal you have put in Valerio and by the alteration of that one word have made it your own just so Mr. Bayes us'd to do with many a good notion in Montaign and Seneca's Tragedies yet though your Title promise us so fairly you have not Transpros'd three whole Verses in all your Book But be it the Rehearsal Transpros'd or transcrib'd or if you will Reprinted for your Pamphlet is little else but a Second Edition of that Play and Mr. Hales his Tract of Schism though methinks you might have so much studied the Readers diversion and your own as to have exercised your happy talent of Rhyming in Transversing the Treatise of Schism and for the Titles dear sake you might have made all the Verses rung Ism in their several changes I dare assure you Sir the work would have been more gratefully accepted than Donns Poems turn'd into Dutch but what talk I of that then Prynnes Mount Orguil or Milton's Paradise lost in blank Verse But as it is you give us quotations of whole Books like him who wrote Zabarella quite out from the beginning to the end professing it was so good he could leave none behind how like is this to our Transcriber yet whatsoever I omit I shall have left behind more material passages before his Edition of Hales p. 176. It is no absurdity now to say your Text is all Margent and not only all your Dishes but your Garnish too is Pork And thus much for your Regula Duplex changing Prose into Verse and Verse
the Painter is the Character given Abbot by one of our State-Historians none of Lauds greatest friends that his extraordinary remisness in not exacting strict Conformity to the prescribed Orders of the Church in point of Ceremony seem'd to resolve those legal Determinations to their first Principle of Indifferency and to lead in such a habit of Inconformity as the future reduction of those tender Conscienc'd men to long discontinued Obedience was interpreted an Innovation From hence any man may judge what construction is to be put upon the Arch-Bishops Accusation of Laud for informing against the honest Men that setled the Truth which he call'd Puritanism in their Auditors For which the good man represented Laud as a Papist to King Iames. So every stickler for the Church of England was term'd in the Language of those times But if his Marrying the Earl of D. to the Lady R. when she had another Husband was not the unpardonable Sin it may seem strange that neither the Arch-Bishop nor our Writer should absolve him when we cannot in charity conceive but God did upon that his Penitent and Submissive acknowledgment which we find recorded at large in the History of his Life p. 59. Sure I am the most inveterate Enemies of this gallant Prelate have not so blackt him as the Pens of the Arch-Bishop and our Animadverter for to report him to the World in the 1 Character Sir E. Deering tells us he had muzzled Fisher and would strike the Papists under the fiâ—t Rib when he was dead and gone And being dead that wheresoever his Grave should be Pauls would be his Perpetual Monument and his own Book his Epitaph Nay in that infamous Book call'd Canterburys Doom we are told that at his Tryal he made as Full as Gallant as Pithy a Defence and spake as much as was possible for the wit of man to invent and that with so much Art Vivacity and Confidence as he shewed not the least acknowledgment of Guilt in any of the Particulars which were charged upon him So eminently remarkable were his Accomplishments which the most Malicious could not dissemble nor the most Envious conceal His sharpest Adversaries were his boldest Encomiasts and when they intended Libels made Panegyâ—icks At the same Bar condemning themselves and acquitting this Great Man who after he had been an honour to the higest place in our Church which was higher yet in being his was Translated to a more Glorious Dignity in the Church Triumphant received therewith the joyful Aâ—thems of a Quire of Angels and instal'd in White Robes according to the usual solemnities of Saints sent thither as it were before to assist at the following Coronation of his Royal Master and to set the Crown of Martyrdom on the head of that Heroick Defender of the Faith Now methinks our Author had he any spark of Vertue unextinguish'd should upon considering these things retire into his Closet and there lament and pine away for his desperate folly for the disgrace he hath as far as in him is brought upon the Church of England And though the comfort is an ill man you may believe him when he speaks against himself cannot by reproaching fix an ignominy yet the same thanks are due to his honourable Intentions and his Endeavours are not the less commendable For to say the truth he has out pitcht the Executioner half a Barr so dextrous is he in severing the Head from the Body at one blow that were he Probationer for the Headmans Office I am confident he would carry it in a free Election on without the least Opposition and so he might become a more serviceable Member of the Commonwealth then he is at present Seriously 't is great pity a man of such Accomplishments should be lost when no body can deny but he is every way qualified to fill the Place and Quality of Squire Dun. Especially if they saw how passing well he lookt in the cast Robes of a Malefactor Woe be to the Bishops if ever he procures a Patent for that Honour they cannot in reason expect any greater favour then to have the Traytors Quarters removed from the City Gates and their own hung up in the room Axes are the most necessary because the most powerful Arguments against the Clergy they confuted him whom Fisher could not Well these Bishops are the men have ruin'd all they brought the late King to the Block and have contributed to all our miseries ever since How came Cromwell Ineton and Bradshaw trow to merit their â—yburn Pomps and second Funeral Solemnities Sure 't was through some mistake that those who were but Accessaries and under-Instruments of our late troubles should be thus highly honor'd above the Principals the Prelates No doubt but it was a great Affliction to this Gentleman poor soul to see the Heads of his Master and the other two well deserving Gentlemen rais'd to that ignominious Eminency on purpose to be pointed at by the Beholders and what is worse expos'd without their Hats to the rude violence of the Weather when for ought appears it was an Exaltation they never sought and they have been undeservedly advanc'd to that Pitch of Greatness which Bishop Laud and two or three of the Villanous Clergy had theâ— had their deserts should have climb'd But since they are there much good may it do 'um with their places For after all the fatal Consequences of their Rebellion they can only serve as fair Marks unto wise Subjects to avoid the Causes And now shall this sort of Men still vindicate themselves as the most zealous Assertors of the Rights of Princes At best they are no better Subjects then Jesuites or well-meaning Zealots betwixt whom as the best of Poets draws their Parallel there lyes no greater difference then this They dare kill Kings and 'twixt you here 's the strife That you dare shoot at Kings to save their Life This Doctrine of killing Kings in their own Defence you may safely vindicate as your own it was never broacht before And from such unquestionable Principles may we reduce your Account of the late War p. 303. Whether it were a War of Religion or of Liberty is not worth the labour to enquire Which-soever was at the top the other was at the bottome but upon considering all I think the cause was too good to have been fought for Which if I understand not amiss is nothing but Iconoclates drawn in Little and Defensio Populi Anglicania in Miniature Besides the War as most gave out at first was for the removal of Evil Councellors but because as we are told pag. 252 A new War must have like a Book that would sell a New Title our Author who has a singular knack in giving Titles to both has founded the late War upon the more specious and plausible names of Religion and Liberty These which he has assign'd for causes of our Rebellion being the same with those for which the Netherlanders took up Arms against their Lawful
breeding and drawn in to mention Kings and Princes and even our own whom as he thinks of with all duty and reverence which will appear by the sequel so he avoids speaking of either in jest or earnest least he should though most unwillingly trip in a word or fail in the mannerlyness of an expression Thus being conscious to himself that he should offend he thought it a point of discretion as well as good Manners to ask Pardon before hand For it is very hard for a Private man that has seen no Kings but those in the Rehearsal to frame any other address to Princes then such as might become King Phys and King Ush of Branford And accordingly so it happens for p. 310. speaking of the Laws against Fanaticks Hence is it that the Wisdom of his Majesty and the Parliament must be expos'd to after Ages for such a Superfaetation of Acts in his Raign about the same business This is so high a Complement that he has pass'd upon the King and Parliament that I cannot but admire how one of his Private Condition and Breeding could arrive to this Degree of Court-ship especially considering how well it agrees with what our Private Courtier saith pag. 242. where he tells us these Kings have shrew'd understandings and he is not a Competent Iudge of their Actions Fie fie that 's too modest Sir you wrong your self too much not a Competent Iudge O' my word Sir but you are a great Iudge This Humility does not become such great Wits as are Princes Companions 'T is too low a Condescention for any Gentleman of Archees Robe This Familiarity with great ones is a Priviledge entail'd upon your Place and was confer'd upon you with your Cap. Little better do I like his Animadversion pag. 320. in these words If the Fanaticks by their wanton and unreasonable opposition to the ingenious and moderate Discipline of the Church of England shall give their Governours too much reason to suspecâ— that they are never to be kept in order c. Whom does he mean by our Governors The King No for he is a Single Person A pretty Artifice to shut the King out of that Text Let every Soul be subject to the Higher Powers the Parliament or the Bishops Mark whether there be a King and Bishops sitting in this Exclusive Parliament of his This Quere methinks might better have become those Times of which Mr. Digges he who wrote a Book of the Unlawfulness of Subjects taking up Armes against their Soveraign excepting no Causes as too good If Forreigners says he shall inquire under what Form of Government we live the answer must be we live over a King And having taken this Liberty with Princes and Senates no wonder if the Gentleman presume to treat the Bishops Peers Privy-Councellers are his Fellows with a little more Freedom Though for what reason he treats the present Clergy with so little Respect may be hard to say yet as for Bishop Lauds particular and his course usage of him I think I could give a guess what mov'd him to it Not that I believe as some that his Quarrel might be the same with Archees who they say was exasperated against the Bishop because he was whipt at his procurement for taking too much Liberty a Crime much like what is charg'd upon this Gentleman or as others that he or some of his Family came sometime in danger of a Star-Chamber Censure and hazarded losing their Ears but rather upon better Consideration that there might be no greater occasion for this Picque then those several Cringes and Genuflexions which the Arch-Bishop as he thinks introduced in the Church or rather restor'd and this I must confess is sufficient ground for a Grudge for it is an unreasonable thing that the Church should expect that every man of how private a Condition and Breeding soever and however unpractis'd in the Graceful Motions and Inflections of his Body should be conformable to the Genuflexions and Cringes of the well-bred Ecclesiasticks Every man has not had the good Fortune to be train'd up at the Dancing-School nor so happily Educated as to pull off his Hatt and make a Leg with an Air. And would they have these men expose themselves by not Conforming to the Ceremonies of the rest of the Congregation or betray their Breeding by an aukard Bending of their Bodies or an unsightly Bow proclaming at every Rustick Scrape that they have not been initiated by a Dancing Master in the common Rudiments of Civility No I am confident that many of the English Protestants and especially those of a private Breeding are so averse from this that they would decline coming to their Churches at all first As I have known some People somewhat wanting in the little Decencies of Behaviour avoid Conversation and appearing in Publick These Persons naturally affect a plainness of Fashion and a Homeliness in Worship And such a Diversity of Motions such quick Interchanges of Gestures distract and confound them Besides that they are like the unquiet Variety of Postures of one in a sick Bed and and really they consult their ease and what is more their health which is not a little indanger'd by being too Ceremonious and many a violent Cold occasioned by a Citizens sitting bare-headed all Service-while without the Defence at least of a pair of Broad-fring'd Gloves laid a cross well knowing that their Betters rather then incommode them in such a Case will desire their Worships to be Cover'd Several other Occasions there are that for Conveniency sake may require a Dispensation as if a fat Burger lye under an inevitable necessity of breaking Wind in a Sister'tis not civil to call it any thing but venting a Sigh at the wrong end shall not this tender-conscienc'd Man be permitted to strain a point of Decorum because 't is in the Church rather then hazard a fit of the Colick Another thing is that one Man may have an Antipathy against Wine that comes out of a gilt Chalice and another against Bread deliver'd to him by the Hand of one in a Surplice and will the Priest be so uncivil as to cram it down the throat of that puling Christian The Clergy certainly cannot be so rude and in an affair of Conscience to exact this compliance Since great Persons out of Civility will condescend to their Inferiors and all Men out of common humanity will yield to the â—eak We may add to what we have said before should any more flexible then the rest and more inclinable to the Superstitious practises of the Primitive Christians be contented to bend their stubborn Knees or to bow their Bodies to the East as oft as is requir'd might not such Gentlemen as our Author be at a loss and he that was so far out in his Situation of Geneva through pure Devotion it may be to that Place direct his mistaken Reverence towards the West which though it were neither Vice nor Idolatry yet might perhaps occasion more sport
a Wader in Discoveries I am confident might be successfully employ'd in groping for the Head of Nile But to conclude his Discourse of Accommodation and with that his Plot. I have heard of a Hampshire Clown who being upon the Sea-shore and seeing nothing but Water beyond England would not be perswaded that there was any such Country as France but that all the Relations of it were Travellers Tales And this Gentleman belike having collected upon the best of his Capacity and what perswasions the mind has so collected it cannot correct that the clearest Day could not discover Rome to one standing at Dover imagin'd not absurdly that two Places remov'd at such a distance could never meet unless England made an Errand over the Water or the Catholick City were transported hither And good reason it is according to the Geography of Religions and assigning one Religion to Islands and another to the Continent that the same Sea which makes a Separation of Places should also make a Schism in Religions Well I see it now all along this can be no less a man then Sir Politique Would-bee himself his Reasonings his Debates and his Projects are the same both for Possibility and Use. And what does more abundantly confirm it his Diary proclaims him right Sir Pol. There is nothing so low or trivial that escapes a Place either in his Memory or Table-book Every Action of his Life is quoted He notes all Occurrences in Gaming-Ordinaries and all Arguments in the Strâ—et how the Boys agree in whipping Gigs in Lincolns Inne Fields and what luck the Lacqueys have at Charing-Cross in Playing at the Wheel of Fortune How often every man urines and whether he looks on a Preface that while or no. All these he books and many more of that Politicians Memorandum's he has in reserve as no question the Day and Year set down when the Rats gnaw'd his Spur-leathers and the very Hour when he burst a Pickâ—tooth in discoursing with a Dutch Merchant about Ragioni di Stato There is one Project more of that Politique Knights not much below this Gentlemans reflexion in relation to the Security of the City and that is concerning Tinder-boxes for since almost no Family here is without its Box and that is so portable a thing how easie is it for any Man ill affected to the State to go with one in his Pocket into a Powder-Shop or where any other Combustible Wares are lodg'd and come out again and none the wiser How sit were it therefore the State should be advertis'd that none but such as are known Patriots and Lovers of their Country should be trusted with such dangerous Furniture in their Houses and even those too seal'd at the Tinder-box Office and of such a bigness as might not lurk in Pockets Well though our Transproser makes no difference as to the Plot or Characters in his Heroick Plays yet his Rehearsal is as full of Drollery as ever it can hold 't is like an Orange stuck with Cloves as for Conceipt Pag. 6. he leads us into a Printing-house and describes it in the same style as the Man who shows Iohn Tradescants Rarities which is extraordinary fine for those who have never seen such a Sight the Letters are shown for Teeth of strange Animals sure Garagantua's hollow Tooth would have gone for a Capital Letter And what is more surprising for Serpents Teeth And those very Teeth which Cadmus sow'd from which it seems he had a large Crop of Printing-Letters The first Essay he has told us that was made towards this Art was in single Characters upon â—ron wherewith of old they stigmatized Slaves and remarkable Offenders He might have pursu'd the Subject further yet and told us of another use of these single Characters upon Iron God knows how ancient which is that of Proprietaries marking Cattle and from hence have learnedly concluded a Propriety in Letters as well as Beasts The Argument if improv'd might have been of force for the Peoples Propriety in Language a new Priviledge of Subject for which our Author contends for how justly may he plead that they give Names to their Dogs and Horses an original Flower of Adams Crown and fix distinguishing Characters on their Sheep nay mark their Piss-pots Bowls and Flagons they exercise a petty Royalty in pinfolding Cattle and pounding Beasts in making Wills and Testaments Leases made with no less Caution then Laws pass in the Imperial style under their Hand and Seal and why should not they be intrusted in wording Laws for the Publick for 't is unreasonable to fill the Princes Head with Proclamations And since Cattle-Blazoâ—ry as was said before is their due why might not they have the dispensing of Coats of Arms. And if their Pocket-Seals are Authoritative enough for setting their Lands and binding their Sons why not for disposing of Offices too as well as the Great Seal If any man shall say that some of them are unletter'd as some few of a private Condition and Breeding are and so incapacitated for Law-makers because they are not good Scribes the Answer is easie if they cannot write their Names they may set their Mark this I conceive was the first Essay towards the Art of Writing as that in single Characters upon Iron was towards that other of Printing and to authenticate this I remember Sir Politick Would-bee that worthy Predecessor of this Gentleman tells us of a Letter he receiv'd from a High and Mighty Cheesemonger one of the Lords of the States General who could not write his Name at least at length and with all his Titles and therefore had set his Mark to it Not but that he had Secretaries under him Latin or no I know not that could do it But this was for the greater Majesty But if the People will be so civil as to forego their uncontroulable Power in Language which they have by a Natural Right antecedent to Christ they may but our Author will not upon so easie tearms recede from his Prerogative For there are two Letters I. O. over which he claims an absolute Power to make them signify any thing or nothing as he pleases He had lookt in his Dictionary 't is one of his highest Authors and found that Io uses to go before Paean and then amongst the Proper Names he saw Io was the Daughter of Inacâ—us and so as he tells us pag. 83. that as Juno persecuted the Heifer this I. O. was an He-Cow that is to say a Bull to be baited by Mr. Bayes It seems then in his Accidence whether it be the same with Miltons Accidence commenc'd Grammer I know not it is Haeâ— Io a Cow both He and She. But though I. O. be the Letters which make up four pages of his Book as if his Printer could furnish him with no other yet is his Alphabet Wit further improvable for this I being the tallest slendrest Letter of the Alphabet and O the roundest he could not have pickt out two in all the