all causes whatsoever though they be never so Diametrally opposite one to another Secondly I answer that there is not one grain of clear distinct necessary truth in this whole Discourse but uncertain suspicions groundless perswasions confused generalities and beggings of the question That the terms are unlawful and unwarrantable that he and his party are the soundest and wisest and holiest of Christians is groundless presumption and begging of the question That the Princes of Christendom will be perswaded themselves and thereupon condemn the dissenters and silence the Ministers and persecute the People are all uncertain conjectures and accidental events What Princes of Christendom he doth intend or can intend who are those dissenters whom he calleth the soundest and wisest and holiest of men what Ministers he meaneth ordained or unordained or both And what Flocks such as they had a legal title to or such as they have usurped are all confused indefinite generalities and ought to have been set forth more distinctly In a word mutato nomine de se Fabula narratur Whatsoever he faineth of imaginary Grotians is really true of his own Party They have prevailed with persons of power and Authority and perswaded them to silence and persecute and to chase away from their Flocks the right Pastors and have usurped their Benefices and Charges themselves And all this while pretended shameless men that they are doing God good service He is not able to charge any of his imaginary Grotians with any such thing This is to bite and whine as the Proverb hath it to do wrong and to complain of suffering wrong Popular Persecutions of all others are ever most groundless and most violent The more moderate that mens judgements are as Grotius his judgement was and mine is the farther off they are from engaging Princes to persecute their Subjects Cowards ordinarily are most cruel So weak and willful persons are most apt to promote Persecutions knowing that to be their only defence against those whom they are unable to answer with reason There are seditious principles and practices enough in the World to irritate Princes without any other bad offices which have been introduced into the Church under a pretext of Religion such as no man living can justifie such as are inconsistent with all humane Societies Such as if God be pleased once to restore men perfectly to their right Wits they must be sure in the first place to cast out of the World if they do ever mean to preserve Peace and Tranquility among themselves It were much more politickly done of him to leave this subject which the more it is stirred in the worse it will smell to some body In the conclusion of this Objection he complaineth thus This is the unhappy issue of the attempts of Pride When men have such high thoughts of their own imaginations and devices c. Which is most true in general if he can let it rest there But if he proceed any farther to examine on what side this Pride doth lie whether among the Grotian Party as Cassander and Wicelius and Grotius or among his own Party if it were fit to name them he will quickly find who they are that do calcare fastum majore fastu tread down Pride with greater Pride through the holes of whose coats vain glory doth discover it self That ever Presbyterians should complain of Pride CHAP. VII Of Mr. Baxters one was of reconciliation THus having in his own Imagination battered down that frame of an Union which he thought I had proposed though in truth all his reasons have scarcely force to shake an Aspin leaf Yet for our comfort he telleth us that he will not leave the business thus lest whilst he pulls down all and offers nothing instead thereof he might he thought an Enemy to peace It is all the reason in the World that if peace be so desirable as he maketh it and he shew his dislike of our ways to procure it he should propose a better expedient of his own that other men may have the liberty to try if they can say more against his way than he hath hitherto been able to say against theirs but I have my jealousies and fears as well as he and better founded that he will never prove a good Architect in this kind because I never found any man yet who was given to innovation but his genius was ten times apter for pulling down than for building up But let us view his own way or terms of peace without prejudice In general therefore I say that the terms of an Universal concord or peace must be purely Divine and not humane necessary and not things unnecessary ancient according to the Primitive simplicity and neither new nor yet too numerous curious or abstruse These are Generals indeed and if they were all consented unto the peace would not be much nearer than it is I think such general terms or Articles of peace were never seen before in our days From what hopes am I fallen I expected that having rejected our ways of reconciliatioxn he would have chalked us a new ready way of his own free from all exceptions And he only telleth us that a way must be short and streight beaten and smooth and so leaveth us to find out such a way for our selves where we can This is just take nothing and hold it fast Such general ways are commonly the ways of Bunglers or Deceivers One of Mercuries Statues though it were dumb could have given better directions for a way than this But he who will be a Reconciler of Controversies must be more particular Yet let us take a particular view of his general directions The terms of an Universal peace must be purely Divine not humane How purely divine not humane That is impossible That which is purely divine hath no mixture of humane in it but these terms of peace must be made and contrived by men between man and man for the use of men and after an humane manner not by immediate inspiration So these terms cannot be purely divine But perhaps his meaning is no more than this that in an accommodation no humane Constitutions ought to be imposed upon the Churches Then down goes his Presbyterian Discipline for that is both humane and new When Calvin first proposed it to the Helvetian Divines for their approbation he desired no more of them but to testify that it was not disagreeable to the word of God or came near to the word of God It is meet and just that no humane Constitutions should be imposed as Divine ordinances but it doth not follow thence that all humane right and law must be thrust out for rotten Humane right is grounded upon Divine right that is the Law of nature and the positive Laws of God and cannot be violated without the violation of the Divine Law and ought to be observed for Conscience sake out of a respect to the Divine Law which commandeth every soul to be subject to the higher
without the consent of his Bishops Thirdly my former exceptions as he stileth them or rather my preparatory conditions do virtually comprehend all the gross errours of the Roman Church both in Discipline and Doctrine leaving no difference in necessary points of faith but only in opinions So if my conditions be observed there is no place left for any such supposition Lastly I observe what an unsound kind of arguing this is to deny a man his just right as Patriarchal power was the Bishop of Romes just right for fear lest he may abuse it All factions use to miscal their own terms Christs terms to cancel all humane right under the notion of humane devises is both inconsistent with the Law of Christ and the welfare of all Societies They who made the Bishop of Rome a Patriarch were the Primitive Fathers not excluding the Apostles and Christian Emperours and Oecumenical Councils What Laws they made in this case we are bound to obey for conscience sake until they be repealed Lawfully by virtue of the Law of Christ. A fairer plea than I know any for their own Consistory where Lay-men usurp the power of the keys contrary to the Law of Christ. His sixth exception is the same with the fifth only there it is proposed hypothetically If the Pope as Patriarch of the West should impose And here it is repealed categorically many things in Doctrine and worship which on these terms would be imposed both on East and West and prevail in most of the Churches at this day are sins against God and therefore how small so ever they may be are not to be consented unto for unity If there be any grain of truth in this proof it is so indefinite so conjectural and so accidental that it requireth no answer How should a man either affirm or deny or distinguish of many things without specifying any one thing in particular I assent thus far in general that no man can be obliged to do a sin against God and that whatsoever humane Ordinance doth necessarily and essentially produce sin is unlawful But until he tell us in particular what these many things are or at least some one of them and prove evidently that it is a sin against God indeed and not in his opinion only and that it is infallibly true that it would be imposed which would be an hard task to undertake without the gift of Prophesy and lastly that the imposition of some such sinful thing or things is not an arbitrary or accidental abuse of that Lawful power which I admit but floweth naturally or essentially from it I say until he do all this all that he doth say signifieth nothing and so I leave his many things as just nothing And come unto his seventh exception The Aethiopian and other Churches that were still without the verge of the Roman Empire will never alknowledge thus much to the Pope seeing that even those humane Constitutions which gave him his Primacy of Order determined of no more than the Roman World and had nothing to do beyond Euphrates How did the Popes lay any claim or meddle any further And abundance among the Eastern Churches will deny this Primay This exception was made in the dark and therefore the errours that abound in it may more easily be pardoned as proceeding from the not knowing of the true State of the Aethiopick and other Eastern Churches Both the Aethiopick and all other Eastern Churches do unanimously admit this form of Government by Patriarchs which I acknowledge The Aethiopians have a Patriarch of their own and so have all the other Eastern Churches And particularly the Albuna or Patriarch of Aethiopia is under the Partriarch of Alexandria named by him and ordained by him from time to time So untrue it is that the Oecumenical Constitutions of general Councils extended not beyond Euphrates The Aethiopick and all other Eastern Churches do submit to the Council of Nice and other Oecumenical Councils by which Patriarchal Government was confirmed They all acknowledge the Patriarch of Rome to be the chief Patriarch whilst he behaveth himself well and to have a Primacy of order among the Patriarchs They know no points of faith but those which are contained in the ancient Creed as we find at large in the Historical Description of Aethiopia by Francis Alvares They all deny the Popes Supremacy of power as we do And when the Pope songht to introduce it into Aethiopia by the mediation of the King of Portugal Claudius then Emperour of Aethiopia returned this answer Se quidem fraterna in Lusitanum Regem voluntate esse ac fore caeterum nihil sibi minus in mentem venisse quam ut ideirco à Majorum institutis ac tot saeculorum spatio corroborata religione deficeret That he ought all good will to the King of Portugal as his Brother but it was the least part of his thought therefore to Apostate from the orders and Religion of his Ancestors received and radicated in Aethiopia throughout so many ages Pet. Maffei Hist. Jud. l. 16. p. 749. His eighth Exception is There is no hope of uniting the Churches on any terms but what are necessary and divine for its vain to think that things humane and unnecessary should be consented to by all Much less things sinful In the name of God why is it not possible that the Churches should be united upon some humane or prudential terms Are there not common principles of natural equity which reason dictateth to all mankind That is one mistake Secondly the Law of Nature is a divine Law And though Patriarchal Regiment be no express principle of the Law of Nature yet it is very agreeable to it and grounded upon it Thirdly though no humane ordinances be absolutely necessary to salvation as those supernatural truths which are revealed in holy Scripture are yet they may be respectively necessary to the well-being of Religion Lastly in his conclusion much less things sinful he disputes upon that which is not granted nay more which is absolutely denyed Mr. Baxter will never be able to prove that any thing which is sinful is contemned in my reconciliatory Propositions His ninth Exception signifieth as little as the rest There is no union to be had but upon the terms on which the Churches have sometimes been united For a new way of union is not to be expected attempted But never was the Church united on such concessions as these and therefore never will be I Deny his assumpsion altogether And if I were to chuse a reason or medium whereby to demonstrate my way of reconciliation to be good I could not fix upon a better than this The Catholick Church hath been united on these same principles which I suppose the same Faith without any addition the same Ecclesiastical Discipline without any variation the same Form of serving God publickly And since the dispersion of the Church all over the World it never was united upon any other principles but these nor
return to the ancient and Apostolical simplicity a thing very easie and very practicable were not Interest and Ignorance engaged against it Not that he was so vain or so presuming as to hope to see it effected in his own days He too well understood with how many invincible Prejudices it was obstructed he therefore only designed to declare his Iudgment to the Wise and the Unprejudicate and so to leave it to Posterity and some happy Iuncture of Affairs to accomplish what he could only advise and wish for But by this plain dealing with all Parties it is not to be doubted because it always so happens in the like cases but that he must displease and disoblige all but more especially he raised the Choler and enraged the Zeal of the Geneva Faction that Waspish Sect being according to the humour and spirit of their Founder never able to bear the least Affron or Contradiction And then immediately there was no gainsaying but that he must be as arrant a Papist as Antichrist himself This cry they smels of a Spanish-Popish-Iesuitical-Arminian Plot. It is a plain Prosecution of the Cardinal of Lorrains design that allowed annual Pensions even to the Lutheran Ministers themselves to revile and preach down Mr. Calvin thereby to reduce the People to Popery That crafty Statesman knew well enough that he was the only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to their Mystery of Iniquity and were he but once removed out of the way the Apostolical Chair would quickly be restored to its ancient Empire and Soveraignty over the Christian World And hence the Alarm is given to the People both from the Pulpit and the Press to stand upon their Guard against such dangerous and Babylonish Attempts These moderate and lukewarm men are but the Forerunners of the man of Sin and do but prepare the ways for his Entrance by removing the strongest and most stubborn Opposition against him And what though he deal as roundly and much more severely with the Church of Rome that is but a meer disguise for his present turn those hard Conditions are easily shaken off when once the Protestant cause and interest is utterly expired And therefore he and his Partizans may publish as many Books as they please against their present abuses and corruptions but the most charitable design they can be supposed to aim at is to bring in a more refined and a more cunning Popery And when this surmise is once voted and noised abroad and vouch'd by publick fame or their own vulgar Tales it is in vain to remonstrate to their rudeness and disingenuity It is not no it cannot be doubted of by any but such as are either privy or at least well-wishers to the design such indeed may pretend or counterfeit a Disbelief to cover their intentions and to escape suspicion And by this Artifice they begin first to seize upon all men in their Wits either for madmen or for parties in the Plot. And then the common people dare not but believe it in their own defence lest they should be suspected to have lost their Understanding as well as their Religion And by this rude and boiterous Confidence are they able as oft as they please to raise any disingenuous and spiteful surmise into popular Reputation and by strength of face and forehead to bear out the credit of the largest and most abusive Lyes And it is well known what strange and monstrous stories they obtruded upon the Multitude against the King the Bishops and the Church of England in defyance even to common sense and the most undenyable Experience But no man was more vehemently charged and more confidently condemned of this Attempt than this Reverend Prelate partly because he was a zealous and resolute Assertour of the publick Rites and Solemnities of the Church against all their wild and fanatick Pranks partly because he expunged some of their dear and darling Articles not only from the Christian Faith but from the Protestant Cause in that they were so far from being or pretending to be of Apostolical Antiquity that they were much younger than the Reformation it self or at best were but the Opinions of some private Doctors and were never establish'd into Articles by any publick Laws or Councils or if they were voted for Orthodox Doctrines in any meeting in Germany or Geneva they were never received for such in the Church of England and therefore ought not to be charged upon the Protestant Cause as such much less upon the English Reformation when it was never any part of its design to model new Bodies of Orthodoxy nor to exchange the old School-Doctors for Calvinian Systems and Syntagms but meerly to clear the Christian Faith of all Corruptions and innovations and reform it into its primitive and uncorrupted simplicity And if any Errours or fond Opinions should have escaped her first Observation she reserves a power in herself to review her own Decrees and either to ratifie or abolish them as they shall upon mature deliberation appear consonant to this Rule and agreeable to this design This was ever the Doctrine of the sober and intelligent men of the Church of England as well as her own declared sense They would never submit to any Authority of a later date than the four first general Councils and as for all forrain Churches of the modern stamp they were so far from being determined by them that they censured all their proceedings and rejected all their Doctrines that fell short of or went beyond their own standard of Prudence and Moderation But this was not to be endured by the fierce and fiery Calvinists to have all their Orthodox stuff cut off at one blow had they spent so much pains and gained so much reputation by their skill in Polemick Theology and must they now throw away all their Problems Subtilties and Distinctions and must all their deep and solid Learning be at last despised as a silly and impertinent piece of Duncery This certainly must needs be very grievous and somewhat provoking to great Clerks Men care not to be convinced that they have wasted so much Oyl and Sweat to no purpose And though they are not able to justifie the Follies and Errors of their Education yet being flush'd with the Glory that they have gain'd among their own party by their skill and ability in contending for their Opinion it is easie to imagine how stubbornly they will struggle in its defence rather than quit the support of their pride and self-conceitedness This Itch is so incident and delightful to humane Nature that where it is not over-ruled by an habitual Integrity and Discretion it is the most powerful not to say the only motive of all our Actions and has such a strict and undiscernable Influence upon our most serious thoughts that if well-meaning men are not very careful or very curious in observing and preventing its inward motions it will quickly prevail over their Understandings insinuate into all their designs and poyson
Persons that have no regard to Truth or Modesty or Sobriety towards God or Man and shall be sure to be accounted with at the Day of Iudgment to the great Relief of his tender Heart That are animated by their secular Interest or desire of Revenge that are unacquainted with the Spirit of the Gospel and the Christian Religion that are incompassionate towards the Infirmities of others whereof yet none in the World give greater Instances than themselves that have no thoughts but of Rage and Destruction and that had they Power would render all Christians like the Moabites Ammonites and Edomites that is are for nothing less than Massacres and cutting of Throats c. Sweet Sir Enough enough of these healing Words we are vanquisht for ever with these generous strains of Meekness and Civility Did ever Man pass by such unparallel'd Injuries and Provocations with so much Gallantry and Greatness of Mind What execrable Miscreants must they be that could treat so brave an Adversary with Rudeness and Incivility or assault such an Heroick Ingenuity with ignoble and unhandsom Arts He is too hard for us at all Weapons there is no contending with a Person of such an Adamantine Honour he rebukes us with his Endearments and strikes us dead with his sweet and kissing Looks We yield we yield we cannot resist all this kind and melting Goodness He has requited our Malice with so fair and â—ivil a Character that it were a notorious Calumny to paint any thing but the Devil himself in blacker Colours And if but one half of this Enamouring Description that he has bestowed upon his Adversaries in the very Pangs of Love and Compassion were true or credible no Man that is yet unhang'd unless he had been marked thrice at least with the Honourable Brand of Authority would ever be so mad as to change condition with such cast and irreclaimable Wretches However we accept his kind Offer and his Good Meaning and seeing he is willing to respite his Revenge to the Day of Iudgment Ah sweet Day when these People of God shall once for all to their unspeakable comfort and support wreak their Eternal Revenge upon their reprobate Enemies it is agreed upon for we are not so fierce and fiery but we can wait with as much patience as he for satisfaction And therefore let us by mutual consent forbear all this unnecessary Courtship and Complement for the future and fall on bluntly upon the Argument without hugging and kissing before we draw Sword It is a pretty point of Honour for young Gentlemen but we that are a more sullen sort of Combatants may without any great inconvenience spare the Ceremony And now upon this Proposal it will be found that these intemperate Reflections as he calls them are so far from making the Book unanswerable that they are the only thing to which he has ventured to make any Reply so that it is plain this is not the Reason but purely the Pretence of his Reluctancy For alas the Evidence of the Cause is so bright and convictive as prevents all tolerable Mistakes or Exceptions and as for his bold and bare-faced Falsifications they arâ— all spent in the former Engagement and all his jugling shifts have been so sufficiently laid open to the World that they can never do him or his Cause any service for the future And setting these aside the Argument of the Controversie is so plain and easie that it is not capable of any farther Doubt or Disputation For all their Exceptions especially as they concern the Church of England relate either to the Power it self or to the Matters of the Command the first are directly levell'd against the very Being of Authority and Magistrates of what kind soever according to their general Pretences must not dare to put any Restraints upon their Subjects Consciences lest they invade the Divine Prerogative overthrow the Fundamental Liberties of Humane Nature and undo honest Men only for their Loyalty to God and their Religion Now if this Right be claimed without Restraint or Limitation then the Consequence is unavoidable That Subjects may whenever they please cross with the Authority of their Governours upon any pretence that can wear the Name or make a shew of Religion But this is so grosly absurd that J. O. nor any Man else in his Wits never had the Courage to assert it And then the Necessity of a Sovereign Power in Matters of Religion is granted and all Arguments that prove it in general necessary to Peace and Government are allowed or at least not contradicted for whoever admits an Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction howsoever bounded and limited admits it and that is enough to the first Assertion of a Supreme Authority over the Conscience in Matters of Religion But then say they there are some particular things exempted from all Humane Cognizance which if the Civil Magistrate presume to impose upon the Consciences of his Subjects as he ventures beyond the Warrant of his Commission so he can tie no Obligation of Obedience upon them seeing they can be under no Subjection in those things where they are under no Authority Now this pretence resolves it self thus that they do not quarrel his Majesties Ecclesiastical Supremacy but they acknowledge it to be the undoubted Right of all Sovereign Princes as long as its Exercise is kept within due bounds of Modesty and Moderatiâ—n Which being granted all their general Exceptions against the Sufficiency of the Authority it self are quitted and they have now nothing to except against but the excess of its Iurisdiction So that having gained this ground the next thing to be assigned and determined is the just and lawful bounds of this Power and that has been already distinctly enough described as to all the most material Cases that can probably occur in Humane Life all which may be summ'd up in this one general Rule viz. That Governours take care not to impose things apparently evil and that Subjects be not allowed to plead Conscience in any other case this is the safest and most easie Rule to secure the Quiet of all that are upright and peaceable and all that refuse Subjection to such a gentle and moderate Government make themselves uncapable of all the Benefits of Society in that if we stop not their Liberty of Remonstrating to the Commands of Authority at this Principle we shall for ever be at an utter loss for making any certain Provisions for the Peace and Security of Commonwealths So that if they will attempt any thing here to any purpose they must again either cancel all Ecclesiastical Power or confine it within narrower bounds of Iurisdiction both which are equally absurd and dangerous the former we have already cashiered as flat Anarchy and the latter is no less because there is no end of the Follies and Impostures or at least the Pretences of Religion so that if they may be suffered to over-rule the Power of Princes then can Princes claim no Power over any
Villanies and if there should happen in their way any attempt so very horrid than the Saints were for very shame obliged to boggle at it there the bold and profest Sinners may advance and lead on the Party and if on the contrary there be need of any Hypocritical Declarations or Remonstrances too demure for these bare-faced People to patronize they must be subscribed and carried on by the zealous and sanctified Ones And thus when they combine together there is no kind of hindrance that they may not easily overcome nor of advantage that they may not as easily command Their Union is like the mixture of Nitre and Charcoal it carries all before it without Mercy or Resistance III. Especially if in the third place it should ever so fall out that crafty and sacrilegious States-men should join themselves into the Confederacy There are several sorts of these devouring Vermin but the most dangerous because the least honest are the cowardly and self-designing Men that in Publick Employments mind nothing but purely their own private Interest and so that thrive care not how much the Affairs of the Commonwealth run backward All their Counsel is nothing but Flattery and they will not stick to exhort a Prince to undo himself if it be in such ways as are agreeable to his Vice or Humour They will encourage and authorize the lawfulness of all his Practices and if he have any ill Inclinations they will recommend them for great and Princely Qualities and assist them too by the meanest and most dishonourable Services They will debauch his Mind with such Principles as will allow him to do the most dishonest and unworthy things without shame or remorse of Conscience they will set him at liberty from all the Restraints of Religion and prepossess his Mind against all the Counsels of Priests and not suffer him to be imposed upon with their Impostures and juggling Pretences neither is it fit for a Sovereign Prince to think himself obliged by the Laws of good or evil Truth and Iustice and Honesty and every thing must give place to the Publick Weal and when the Safety or the Interest of the Crown requires it then breach of Faith is not Falshood nor to slay the Innocent Murther It is not for Kings to submit themselves to the Pedantry of the Laws nor are States to be Govern'd by scruples of Credit or Conscience Convenience is and ever was the only Rule of Policy and you may violate your Word or your Oath for Reasons of State all the wisest and all the greatest Princes in the World have ever done it before you None but ignorant and unexperienced Book-men would ever go about to tie the Management of State-Affairs to the strict Rules of Morality Alas they understand not the nature and the difficulty of Government they never observed the rise and decays of Empires nor ever weighed all the Circumstances and Possibilities of things and from hence it is that they prescribe such impracticable Mâ—thods of Policy and are so desperately silly as in many cases to require Princes rather to hazard their Crowns than to lose their Reputations No it is for Subjects to do as they ought but for Sovereigns as they please Nay what is more unhappy than all this these false Pretenders to Policy are forced in their own defence to whisper in their Princes Ear such Maxims and Propositions as directly undermine or at least undervalue all Principles of Government They instruct him to despise his own Authority and to resolve all Sovereign Power rather into Chance and Fortune than any Institution of the Divine Providence And hereby they roundly cancel all Duties and Obligations of Allegiance and allow no other Ties of Fidelity upon Subjects than present Interest and Preferment that are always as effectual under a prosperous Usurper as they are or can be under a Lawful Prince and then if there either does or ever has hapned any Competition of that kind they only are to be look'd upon as the Men of Shrewdness and Understanding that know how to temporize and tack about neatly with all Turns of Affairs whilst all others that make Conscience of their Loyalty and have or are ready to venture Lives and Fortunes in defence of the Rightful and Hereditary Claim shall be marked out as shallow People that understand not the true Wisdom and Interest of Humane Nature They Govern a Nation Poor Souls they have not Wit enough to Govern themselves and to manage their own little Concerns They are likely to give their Prince wonderful Advice for the Advancement of his Prerogative that have so little reach to consult or consider the improvement of their own private Estates Take them to your Council and they will be perpetually troubling your Head and entangling your Affairs with Cases of Conscience they shall endanger your Safety to preserve your Honour and hazard your Crown for a pedantick Word and when you might easily disengage your self from any Streights or Difficulties only by making bold with your Word or perhaps forgetting an Oath or so you must rather chuse by their Maxims of State to perish under them than make as they call it a dishonest or dishonourable escape and all the reward you shall have to compensate your Misfortune shall be perchance that a few Church-Men and such like People shall cry you up for a Saint or a Martyr whilst all Men that have any Brains or Breeding shall pity your Softness and Simplicity It becomes not Men of Wit to be over-awed with these old Grandame Stories of Honesty and Conscience they are fit Tales to abuse the Rabble into Servitude but Interest of State is the only Rule of Princes and they are to know no other Cases of Conscience but Maxims of Italian Policy nor to employ any other Persons in State-Affairs but such as are able to go thorow with all Undertakings and such as will never scruple the Lawfulness of any Action so it be but expedient And the last result of all their Wisdom is that they would perswade their Prince that none are fit to be employed but only such as are not fit to be trusted such as have set themselves at Liberty from all Principles and Pretences of Honesty and are as ready to betray their Prince for their own Interest as they are to oppress and abuse his Subjects for his And by these and the like Suggestions if they chance to take they quickly run the Commonwealth into woful Streights and Distresses and then there is no way to maintain their former Practices but by proceeding on to farther Enormities till at last they are forced to support their Government by Rapine and Sacriledge There have been sufficient numbers of these People at all times in all Princes Courts so that though their Doctrine does not always reign yet it is always contending for Superiority with the Rules of Honour and Vertue Now 't is none of my business and but little to my purpose to upbraid the