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nation_n	law_n	nature_n	positive_a	2,085	5	11.0131	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A69620	The Jesuite countermin'd. Or, An account of a new plot carrying on by the Jesuites: manifested by their present endeavours (under all shapes) to raise commotions in the land, by aspersing his Sacred Majesties counsels and actions. Also the reasonableness of modesty in subjects in judging the concerns of their prince.	Br., J.; Bradshaw, John, 1602-1659, attributed name.	1679 (1679)	Wing B4087; ESTC R19773	29,228	40

the very Basis and chief Prop of their treacherous Obstinacy like the Ground whereon stood Corah Dathan and Abiram the very entrance to their destruction This I mention that whom the Vitiosity and Turpitude of these Proceedings will not disswade from persisting in them their usual dangerous Consequence may deter And truly if men would but have the patience to search to the bottom of that common Aphorism That the depraved practises of a People precede their own destruction They would find it eminently true in that Crime which is the Subject of this Treatise and others of that nature Not that they need presently be put to it so as upon every occasion of such Sins in a Nation to invade the Sabbatism of the Deity and conclude the necessity and actual certainty of his Eruption into immediate personal execution of Justice on the offending people though sometime the outward Letter of the Scripture to comply with the Exigencies of laps'd humane Understandings seem to countenance such a Supposition but they might discern all these things carried on in a silent natural Concatenation of Causes and Events men by these as well as all other vicious courses not being more the meritorious then really and physically the instrumental Causes of their own Miseries in this Life they by their Follies laying such a Train as let but the natural course of the World alone will not fail in time often speedily to intangle them in inevitable punishment thus becoming by a hidden Fate their own Executioners So that though these kind of Vices seem to their blind Actors to have no Influence either on their own private Miseries or on the Calamities of the Publick yet the unprejudicate will soon grant that the contrary is true and that such Prevarications by a Divine Nemesis engage secret invisible Strings in Nature to draw those that are guilty of them into an undiscerned Labyrinth of Difficulties and Torments proportionately to the several degrees of their accumulated and repeated Immoralities and that this is not only certain in mens private troubles but also in the Calamities that befall the Publick there being as it were a Dormient Combination in Mankind or at least a latent Conspiracy in Nature that by an eminently reciprocal Cadency of Events each particular Vice of every individual person in inflicting punishment on himself should also conduce to the sufferings of others and in conducing to other mens Calamities should again retort a share on himself Every Member of a Body Politick containing some Arcana and secret Preparatives which once touched are presently spirited with a natural instinct of Affecting the whole So that none of these Vices though never so minute can be committed which will not in a proportionable measure by an exquisite Mechanism of Providence successively awaken certain occult aptitudes in humane Converse and through them impart its malign Influence to the Publick Though it must be confessed that some Crimes whose perpetration necessarily engages a more prompt assistance of those hidden Channels do more vigorously suddenly and with more apparent success of their dispersive noxiousness infest the Community Such are those Prevarications which are the various abuses and violations of that Contract which by the Law of Nature and the positive Obligations of Christianity is made and supposed to be actually in force for the common happiness of Mankind and which is particularized into diverse explicitely limited and peculiarly circumstantiated Leagues of this and that Society of Men between themselves according to the several distinct Exigencies of Nations and Commonwealths I say Crimes that receive their Specification from the Infringement of this Fundamental Law and Bond of Justice according to the proportion of the rupture do more manifestly damage the Publick then those which are of a more personal consideration that is such whose direct Aspect and essential Termination seems to be Confined to the persons that are guilty of them as Intemperance in its several Latitudes or the like though indeed most of them if not all do in some measure damage others but not with so apparent conduciveness to the publick wrong as those Actions which necessarily include a more plain and apert relation to another such are all those which have for their Object the Body Goods or good Name of another person For in such Transactions he that prevaricates does immediately and directly injure some body else and by a vibration of the stroke wherewith he hurt the other he vuln●rat●s himself also thus in thinking to jerk his Neighbour he has made a Rod for his own back too which the fore-mentioned Nemesis which is interwoven in the very Texture of the Universe will be sure to lay on in due season whose subtle Contrivance and unavoidable Lassies in these Instances may be somewhat faintly adumbrated in the usual pastime of School boys that they call Hitting their next Neighbour for one of them by smiting him that sits next snatches him into consent to the Play and the stroke is carried on to the next and so round till the whole School be engaged in a posture of Offence and sportive injuriousness and the first Striker receives his Blow again with the advantage that may perhaps arise from the attentive eagerness of his now alarm'd lascivient Companion besides the Overplus of Penance from his Master for being the Ringleader in that ominous vanity I need not stand to apply this Childish Comparison the matter being plain enough that transitive Vices acts of injustice among men do not only wound some one Member of a community but by reason of Emissions and Circulations of a peccent humour resulting from neglect to cure the first incision do most commonly corrupt and infect the whole Body and consequently the Perpetrators themselves are involved in the general Calamity especially those acts of Injustice which have Kings for their Object carry in their Aspect more eminent Menaces of ruine to the people guilty of them and such an one is the Crime I explode in this Discourse An imrenching on the Sacred Prerogative of Prindes robbing them of their Honour a kind of Civil Sacriledge There are a multitude of Aggravations might be reckoned up to display this Vice in its proper colours but I shall rather at present discover the danger of it And if we look back into the Records of former Ages we may easily be satisfied that murmuring against Governours censuring their proceedings speaking great swelling words of vanity was always punished with Signal Tokens of Heavens Displeasure Without question it was with no languid sentiments of their own wisdom and skill in Political Affairs that Corab and his Company ventured to check the supposed Efforts of Tyranny in Moses their Prince Ye take too much upon you said they seeing all the Congregation is holy Behold here the Insolence of these Rebels who would have Introduced a kind of Anarchy a thing odious to God and Man every man should have been allowed as great a share of that Sanctity

man 't is sufficient in the eye of the Vulgar who measure all Accomplishments by their own and think him a very valuable man who exceeds them in such ordinary trivial matters though they slight and contemn Persons of higher Endowments because they are above their narrow Apprehensions but the other they will esteem fit for any thing even to manage Kingdoms if need be and their estimation will be encreased if to their natural sagacity in some things there be added a Confident Deportment in reference to higher Concerns Thus Coblers by being sharp active Fellows and by a little Converse with History have gained sometimes on the Vulgar so as to be raised by such disorderly Rabbles to high preferment only on the account of their loud ratling out of hard Names of places and great men in foreign Countries such Pedantick Tricks have recommended many to the unskilful as very able men well versed in Political Affairs and he could not be thought less than a States-man who would embellish his Discourse with those lofty Strains wherein either some of the Polish Iskis Eskis Oskis or Vskis made up each Period Such sublime pedantry as this is often adopted by the amaz'd Vulgar for sublime wisdom whereas in the truth it is but the garish display of a volatile Fancy and because that effeminate faculty is for the most part predominant among the lower orders of Mankind they are snatched into a consent and sympathetical adherence to any thing that is tinctured with it Thus the slight and unsolid Rhetorications of an ordinary confident Critick dragg the supine Vulgar into the filth of Censoriousness and civil blasphemy of things they know not making them to set their Mouths against the Heavens and with a Train of their impudent Lyes like Lucifer the Father of Lyes to dethrone the Stars if it were possible And these are somewhat a kin to those whom in the Fifth Page of this Treatise I call by the Name of State-Fanaticks a whimsical race of people that the Jesuites seduce by infusing into them an inchanting Ferment a Hotch-potch of State-Heresies drawn from Casuists Civilians and corrupted Divines Not that I think every one that talks about these things to be vers'd in the whole System of such Jesuitical Doctrines for as I have above said many illiterate persons may gain the Credit of being Statesmen among the Vulgar by some Pedantick Tricks as voluble discourse confident deportment and the like who yet may be altogether devoid of any smattering in that other Learning but yet there are too too many whose Fancies being parturient verifie that in the Civil Law which my Lord Verulam observed of Philosophy a little of which will make a man an Atheist for these Semi-Civilians like those Philosophasters sit down contented with that small discovery the first Stage gives them in the Law of Nature and Nations and so make false conclusions couching the most copious Hypotheses and Questions within the narrow limits of their Inchoate knowledge especially being blinded by their seducing Guides the Jesuites and falsly perswaded that all Secular Science was contained in that Fragment they were acquainted with like the Rusticks who think the utmost limits of the World extend no farther then the Margin of the visible Horizon whereas if they had the patience to go on and their Understandings were not darkned they would find that each step enlarged their prospect till they had gone over the whole Sphere of Political Wisdom returning to the Point whence they set forth where they might recollect with themselves that as in all Orbs so in this Circle of Humane Learning there was a vicissitude of Superiority that is they who have compleated their Knowledge and finished their Disquisitions in the truth may yet remember how variously they have altered their opinions of things according to the strength or weakness of Arguments occurring in their way and therefore ought not to be dazled into a hasty implicite Assent to any thing by its vigour and flashy light without examining or making a Scrutiny whence the Ray proceeded whether from Heaven or Hell for that has its counterfeit Beams also To make my meaning more plain It is well known that many Mechanick persons of otherwise jejune Intellects will yet pretend to a smack in that spurious mixture of Democratical Policy that is pickt out of some Heathen Writers some Papists and not a few Protestants and all Incorporated into one Mass and Informed by that Soul of Atheism and Heresie Mr. Hobbs These Mechanicks I say will insist on the Notions of Natural Liberty and Supremacy in the people and such like stuff having Imbib'd these Principles either immediately from Books or from their Converse with men who have read those Books which though they have gone Incognito for good Orthodox Protestant Writings yet are oftentimes discovered or at least may very reasonably be suspected to bethe Product of a Jesuites Brain However it is certain such Books are written and entertain'd by many seeming intelligent persons and no question but the Jesuites have seconded them with their personal Insinuations among the Gentry so that these Heresies are grown almost Epidemical and therefore by consequence the whole Land must needs incur the Pestil ential Infection hence proceed all those heart-burnings and their evil effects such as bitter and unfavoury Expressions belch'd out against His Majesty and his Proceedings enough to make any other Prince Nauseate the unmannerly and ungrateful Vulgar but our Gracious Soveraign has from his first Inauguration to the Throne habituated himself to Clemency and unparallel'd benign Candour to his Subjects never revenging himself for all the barbarous cruelty his Father or Himself have undergon But I forget that it is an Essay I am writing and yet I have no reason to do so the very Immethodical Style might put me in mind of that And indeed were I not conscious of its being Commensurate to an Essay I would beg the Readers excuse for Publishing so confused a Collection of Thoughts However this I may say That though it be void of Symmetry yet that deficiency is made up in the multitude and validity of its Arguments which though scattered without Order in the Discourse may yet be reduced to it by the active and sagacious mind the disjoynted parcels being by that penetrating vertue setled and by Intellectual Ligaments united in their proper respects and uses to the design of the whole SCHEME POSTSCRIPT THat the seeming Extravagancies in the Style of this Essay may be the more readily excused by the Intelligent The Author thought himself concerned to add a word or two to what he had said in the Preface to the Reader for he is bold to profess his Hopes that this Short Discourse though in never so odd and exotick a Dress may find Acceptance with some as others concerning the same Subject only digested into a different form are entertained by their proper Genius for there are certain Occult Attractives in all Treatises which will captivate the Minds of those men who are prepared with a Correspondent Gust and all this results from the various Idiopathies in lapsed Mankind which are apt to Incurvate the Choice of Right Reason and to transport them in their Choice by Impulses from peculiar Springs in the inferlour partial Faculties of the Soul whether there fixed by Nature Education Providence or Chance And since this is so why should I be loth to venture this Piece abroad upon a misprision of it s being Impolite or whimsical and so unpalatable to the Nice Genius of this Age that loves to luxuriate in those delicious Graces of Speech which the French call La cadence des periodes I say why should the unsuitableness of my style by being reflected on hinder me from publishing this Essay since it is commonly experienced that the most ornate Treatises and those of the sweetest relish to some are found by Experience to be Nauseated by others And what matter is it for the Style provided there be truth at the bottom FINIS Maimon More Nev. Part. 2. cap. 41. Sci●o quod omnium eorum Prophetar qui Pro betiam sibi factam esse dicunt quidam eam Angelo alicui quidam vero Deo Opt. Max. ascribant attribuant licèt per Angeli ministerium quoque ipsis ob●igerit c. Vide Smiths Select Discourses See the Notes on Dr. More 's Poems

THE JESUITE Countermind OR An Account of a NEW PLOT Carrying on by the IESUITES Manifested by their present Endeavours under all SHAPES to raise COMMOTIONS in the LAND by Aspersing His SACRED MAJESTIES COUNSELS and ACTIONS ALSO The Reasonableness of Modesty in SUBJECTS in Judging the Concerns of their PRINCE 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 PLATO Odi profanum vulgus arceo HORAT LONDON Printed in the Year 1679. TO THE READER THe Jesuites by their undiscerned Insinuations have Bewitched the People into such a suspicious turbulent and disloyal vein that the Scenes of their Labouring Minds are nothing but the supposed Tyrannous Intrigues of His Majesty c. their Resolutions edg'd for a Reformation and all their Discourse represents to the life their Inward Thoughts for they will not speak a good word of His Majesty but talk altogether of his oblique and ugly Proceedings as they tearm his Royal Prosecution of the Publick Good condemning him in every thing that he does if the Action be not Commensurate to that narrow Scheme of Justice and Policy which they embrace as if forsooth the Vast Affairs of State must needs be couched in the Module of every Mechanick A Reflection on the unreasonableness of this Immodesty and Censoriousness in the Vulgar prompted me to write down in vacant Hours my Thoughts of it for my own private satisfaction So that that must excuse me for Publishing it in such a disorderly Method and Style the confusedness of the former and the tenuity of the latter resulting from my being Immerse in prosecution of my Arguments so that I could not take so much care of the Rules of Speech to please others but let it go at random in those words that seemed to be most expressive of my Thoughts whether within the Rules of Modern English or no 't was all one to me For my end in Publishing it was to excite Modesty in Subjects so that if any by perusing it shall learn to practice this Vertue I have my desire So farewel J. Br. THE JESUITE COVNTERMIND OR An Account of a New PLOT THe Romish Polititians in all the Efforts of that Zeal they discover in their Endeavours to Introduce the Catholick Religion into Protestant Nations never so wholly lean on any particular means they use as thereby to be either disabled or discouraged from betaking themselves upon a Defeat of the first Stratagem to another that promises equal likelihood of Success but are ever active in secret Ambuscade absconding themselves in the Dark Vmbrages of Cruel Subtilty And though their Conspiracies may seem to the Eyes of some to be Extinct or at least Dormient through a Languid Faintness and Supine Lassitude resulting from the Frustration of their Industrious Vigilancy Yet those that have made a more narrow Inspection into their Deportment and Designs do Inform us that no sooner is even one of their Capital and prime Plots unravell'd to the bottom and devested of its Closure with the event but Hydra like up springs another in the room A pretty Infant Contrivance which if carefully Fomented by the tender Fathers the good honest Jesuites is like to prove a hopeful and useful Instrument in time to promote the Interest of the Mother of Witchcrafts Nor is that Objection of any Validity which may be taken from the Disparity between the Circumstances of ours and other Nations Laws For say they Indeed they may never be weary of carrying on Designs in other Nations where there is no such care taken to root out the whole Race of Ignatius 's Followers though they find some of them tardy But in ours say they It is impossible for them to succeed any more since His Majesty has so prosecuted the Business home that no Papist can live in London unless he take the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy And all those that dwell in the Country are confined to an impossibility of meeting in Consultation about any such thing Whereas the late Plot was pursued with all Industry Policy and Secrecy by Potent Confederates for London abounded with Papists Incorporating almost whole Streets into Romish Societies And not only that City but all England swarmed with Jesuites and other Ecclesiastical and Secular Orders So that indeed they might have some probabilities of accomplishing their Aims But now the fore-mentioned Alterations of these things deprives them of any Means of bringing in their Religion here again This may seem at first sight to have some shew of Truth But if searched into is but a meer plausible Flourish For their Sanctuaries at Doway and S. Omers supersede all the Crosses and Obstructions they have met with hitherto especially if we consider what vast Contributions have been made both by Foreigners and Natives toward the carrying on the Plot and they have had no Occasion as yet we may presume to expend so great a Summe of Money and whether they be not yet aided in the same manner and their Treasury encreased we have no assurance This then according to the account given by Doctor Oates in several Passages of his Narrative and the Appendix thereto and as the Event in some measure evinces seems to be their Second Plot to raise Commotions and Rebellions in the Kingdom By traducing His Sacred Majesty's Counsels and Actions casting Aspersions and Calumnies on whatsoever he does or intends and so by Consequence they would disaffect the Kings Subjects against his Government suggesting to them that he is Tyrannically dispos'd purposing a Monopoly of Arbitrary Rule Notwithstanding His Majesty has in all His Speeches Publick Deportments and Transactions discover'd Intentions Diametrically opposite to such Treacherous and Uncharitable Surmises But here lies the Ground of the Jesuites Hopes They observe that as in all Alterations of State in Wars Sieges Rebellions or any other Signal Popular Calamities the Vulgar People are Impregnate with a strange Turbulency and heat in their Spirits which is apt to exert its self in Various Pranks and sometimes in Enormous prevarications So it is now in this Land For being as it were nettled with the late Horrid Attempts of the Papists they cannot be quiet but are harassed in their Spirits by an unusual Fervour and this differs proportionately to their various Tempers Educations Converse and Interests Some swell'd by Hypocondriack Flatulencies presume to foretel that these Convulsions in our Land are certain Prodromes of the last period and dismal Catastrophe of this Lower World others provoked by peccant choler and habitual Self-conceit are angry with every thing almost that occurs if it have any Reference to the Publick Others act and speak after another manner all as their Fancy guides them that Faculty however Tinctured with peculiar Idea's accommodate to the Genius of each Individual being generally Regnant among the inferiour Orders and Ranks of Men. But that which is of greatest Subserviency to the Jesuites ends amongst the several Humours of Plebeians is the common propension of their over-heated Heads to be tampering too busily with the Abstruse