multitude when they shall be called to answer before Kings and Rulers for his sake Besides even wicked Kings are the just Judgements of God and shall we fight against his Judgements We may no more remove a wicked Prince by murder than seek to asswage the Pestilence by Idolatry but this wicked and ungodly Maxim is never more preach't and proclaim'd abroad than when there is the least reason for it even whilst we are under Religious Kings and Governours However 't is at all times most Diabolically impious because diametrically contrary to the plainest sense of the word of God in which we are taught that by him Kings Reign and Princes decree Justice By him Princes rule and Nobles even All the Judges of the Earth Secondly This Proposition is impious and false because the Kings of England do not derive either their power or form of Government from the People All the Objections about Contracts Covenants Coronation-Oaths c. come at last to this consequence that then God Almighty himself has a less right of Dominion over us because he condescends to incourage our Obedience to him by the Grants and Promises he makes in his Covenant with us For by him and for him do the Kings of this Realm rule over us and from him they receive all that power and goodness which they as his Ministers to us for good communicate unto the People and indeed they have been Ministers to us for good in reducing us from the Barbarism of Heathenish Picts to become the most civiliz'd Nation and best Christians in the world For let but any man without the squint-ey'd malice of Doleman and his Disciples peruse the Chronicles of England and he will find that the people thereof are under God beholding to their Kings for all the good they injoy at this day it may be truly said of the Ancient Britains Populus nullis Legibus tenebatur Arbitria principum pro Legibus erant 'T was Lucius the first Christian King in all the World that sent to Rome for the unvaluable Treasures of the Gospel which he set the higher price upon by his own pious and illustrious example 'T was he chang'd the Arch-Flamins and Flamins and all that mockery of Heathenisin wherein the Devil pretended to ape the Divine Institutions into Arch-Bishopricks and Bishopricks long before the name of a Rebellious Presbyter or of a persidious Jesuit was known upon the face of the Earth 'T was Alfred the Saxon but Christian King of England that divided this whole Realm into Shires those Shires into Lathes Rapes or Ridings those again into Wapentakes or Hundreds those again into Boroughs and then as Jethro advis'd Moses set over them c. 'T was Edward the Confessor that like Justinian collected the Laws that were dispersed into one Body But said the Politician again interrupting me Were they not Laws before he put them in order Without doubt said I they were not until allow'd of by his Predecessors although perhaps they were never inroll'd But hark you Sir I will thank you and so shall all my Neighbours if you can shew me a Copy of the Grant of the People to this King wherein they impowered him to cure them of that nauseous Disease the Struma and when you have done I will as easily prove that they gave the Levites of old power to heal the Leprosie and when I have done I will take care that it shall not be called the Kings Evil but the Peoples Evil for the future But don't so frivolously interrupt me How can the King derive his Power from the People when all Power is originally under God from him The People indeed sometimes chose their subordinate Magistrates as the May or of a City and this choice designs the Person but does not confer the Power which descends by virtue of the Kings Charter and therefore are said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as are sent by him and Lambard in his Archion or Commentary upon the High Courts of Justice in England learnedly derives all the Lay and mixed Courts of Records from the Crown their Original and saies moreover that whatever power is by him that is the King committed over unto other men the same nevertheless remaineth still in himself for as Bracton saith well Rex habet Ordinariam Jurisdictionem omnia jura in Manu sua quae nec ita delegari possunt quin ordinaria remaneant cum ipso Rege Though the Great Council of the Nation to which He gives life may by the same sacred Breath be dissolv'd yet the King never dies and all other inferiour Courts Civil or Ecclesiastical derive their Power from the King by which as well the Sovereign's goodness to the People as that he derives not his Power from them is very manifest Henry the Third granted unto his Subjects that great Charter wherein he Ordained thus * Communia 9 Hen. 3. Placita non sequantur Curiam nostram sed teneantur in aliquo certo Loco Yet the Kings Power is not diminished though Himself and his People thereby both eas'd I might confirm what I defend with innumerable Instances but once I say for all That the Liberties the Priviledges the Power the People have is from this that the King has not his power from them For Thirdly This Proposition is impious and false because the most ready way to Tyranny King Charles the First died a Martyr for the People for their Liberties and Properties and Our Gracious Sovereign King Charles the II. restored them but how long might they have whistled for them had Cromwell's or any other Family continued the Vsurpation About the Year 1410. John de Medicis stoutly maintaining the Liberties of the People of Florence against the Nobles first setled that Soveraignty over them that they pay excise for Herbs and Sallads and but that the Princes of Tuscany have generally prov'd mild and good there is not the least scrit of a Law or compact to limit them For the people who alwaies do such things in a heat and hurry never trouble their heads about such Contracts and Compacts as our santastical Politicians dream of But why is this Proposition so frequently started under so gracious a Prince and so good a Government Oh! without doubt to settle the Nation Why at this Time a-day do we puzzle our heads with prying into the remotest times of darkest Ignorance and Barbarism for an unnecessary uncertainty Oh! by all means to establish Christs Throne But must Christ's Throne be establish't by appealing to the People Was he ever so revil'd in his three Offices before To the People Who it seems need him not in his Prophets to instruct them they can preach to themselves who it seems need him not in his Priests to interceed for them because they can pray for themselves who it seems need him not in his Kings to rule them for they can govern themselves Was he ever so revil'd by people that call themselves Christians Such Doctrine is more suitable
by word of mouth Nay thou hast carried me to the top of an higher Mountain of Dominion than ever he pretended yet to set his Cloven Foot upon since his fall but the height makes me giddy and subject upon the least touch to drop after him into the bottomless Pit Therefore the Devil who pretends to dispose of Kingdoms with the same Authority thou pretendest to give Rules to govern them take thee and thy Book for thy pains And then rising up and looking on us with a Gastly Visage What said he have I got by the sycophancy of this cowardly Paltroon but real and everlasting shame and disgrace What have I got by all the Hypocritical villanies that I have acted under the Sun but Eternal and substantial Miseries those that call'd me Gideon and Joshua and I know not who forsooth and made Poems and Panegyricks upon me are themselves so ridiculously infamous that their very Names outstink the Brimstone of Hell My memory is scandalous my Posterity dishonourable this Politick head of mine that was whilom so wondrous wise is now nothing but a Whirl-gig to the winds which in consort with Ireton's Bradshaw's whistles tunes to Owls and Batts in gloomy nights and this Heart of mine formerly so stout and firm is now as full of Infernal Vermin as an old rotten Holland Cheese is of Mites The Atheists magnified me on Earth the Fanaticks plac't me in Heaven but the Devil was more sure of me in Hell And now Sir You might better have stiled your Book the Salamander of unquenchable fire and then I would have thankt you in my own Element At this His great red Nose bounc't like a Cracker and He vanisht with a stink and a smoak Hobbs was so affrighted that he would have didled away in all hast but that Seignior Chr. stopt him saying Is this Sir the Famous Leviathan with whom you have made such a Bustle Is this your renowned Behemoth The greasie Villain indeed lookt as if he had been anointed with none other but Train Oyl Bless me How could a man of your parts and Education condescend to slatter such a nasty and loutish Brute with Titles and Prerogatives overtopping all the Laws of God and Nature What! said 1 do you wonder at this What is it He will not say or write who has used his Pen as Arbitrarily as Oliver did his Sword and has cancel'd all the obligations that can be laid upon the soul of man with the same insolence with which the other has trampled upon them If this Mr. Hobbs had not so much valour as Cromwell He had no less Ambition and took as much pride and pains to be thought an absolute Philosopher as the other did to be an absolute Soveraign Now when the Knave or the Fool prevails what signifies the Scholar as to any thing either of publick or private good But such an one is in as ready a way to do mischief in the State as Nestorius that eminent Heretick in the Church In both cases it holds true what Castalio says Nihil est tam absurdum quod non dicat quamvis doctus homo si falsum defendendum susceperit There is nothing so absurd which a man though otherwise learned may not say if He once undertakes to defend that which is false And indeed nothing in the World can be more absurd nothing more destructive of Human Society and Government than the Principles and Positions in that wicked and ridiculous Book What can be more absurd than to make a man an absolute Prince and an absolute Slave in the same moment I suppose He did not wade over the tops of his Boots to descry the true state and condition of his unwieldy Leviathan if he did he might have found it as truly Miserable as He has made it monstrously great to carry on his Metaphor He might have found the True Protestant Flail Fish ready to give him mortal thumps on his Crupper upon all occasions whilst the Sword-Fish is playing the more dangerous part of the Assassin at his Belly And this is the true state of his Soveraign Lord Behemoth by his wit and the malice of the Devil Vsurper of the great Deep And this is the whole duty of all his loving Fishes according to the Doctrine of Hobbs And now what can be more ridiculous what more absurd Now those Principles that are contradictory and destructive of themselves must needs be very destructive of Human Society I will cull out but two Propositions for a taste Nothing the Sovereign can do to a Subject on what pretence soever can properly be called injustice or injury On the other hand The obligation of Subjects to their Soveraign is as long and no longer than the Power lasteth by which he is able to protect them Upon which and several other Propositions saith the right Honourable Edward late Earl of Clarendon in his excellent Book Intituled * Pag. 193. A Survey of the Leviath The view of these naked Propositions by themselves without any other cloathing or disguise of words may better serve to make them odious to King and People And the first will easily discern to how high a pinnacle of power soever he would carry him he leaves him upon such a Precipice from whence the least Blast of Invasion from a Neighbour or from Rebellion by his Subjects may throw him headlong to irrecoverable Ruine and the other will as much abhor an Allegiance of that Temper that by any misfortune of their Prince they may be absolv'd from and cease to be Subjects when the Soveraign hath need of their Obedience And since that Learned States man has so effectually confounded Leviathan with this issue of his Brain We need not to fear that such an one will ever spring from his Loins The People of England replied Seignior Christiano have more reason to be afraid of a great many than of a Great one For they who are for turning this Ancient Monarchy into a Commonwealth are for Complementing their Patriots with the same unlimited and unbounded power which Hobbs gives his single Soveraign and are not a Shoal of Sharks damn'd devouring eager swift Sharks as ravenous as a great lubberly gorbellied Leviathan Do you think that Cromwell ' s Divan consisting of an hundred and four Godly as He call'd them were not as merciless as himself was Cruel I do assure you that the Authour of Plato Redivivus has out-done Mr. Hobbs and from Mr. Harringtons Oceana has pilfer'd whole Shoals of the aforesaid Sharks that will do more mischief in one day than his wallowing Leviathan ever could in a whole month For 't is that stump of a Politician that sharking Politician said he pointing to the Authour of Plato Redivivus who has nim'd all his santastical and rascally Notions from Doleman and Harrington and stands leering in that Corner that has been beating that Bush of his Blockhead that struts out like a Foxes tail and wherein the Vermin are all of a
quality to reduce this Ancient Monarchy into a Democracy in order to which He imploys the whole stock of his malice to scoff and burlesque all the Sacred Orders of the Church as the ready way to ruine the State The truth is says he page 98. I could wish there had never been any Clergy the purity of Christian Religion as also the good and Orderly Government of the World had been much better provided for And so says Mr. Harrington An ounce of wisdom is worth a pound of Clergy Ocean p. 223. And Ministers of all others least understand Political Principles And then having vilisied Monarchy as the worst of Governments and the Corruption of all others He very Dogmatically proclaims the State of Venice to be the Perfectest pattern of Government now existent And so did Mr. Harrington in his Venetian Ballott To gain Authority and success to his Politick frame He recommended to this Nation he Caresses the People with the same unlimited and transcendent power which Doleman is most graciously pleas'd to bestow upon them by which they are inabled to change and depose their Princes at their Leisure and alter and model the Government at their pleasure to prompt them to this with his Father the Devil and Doleman He slights the Plea of Monarchs Divine right makes the King a sharer with and Trustee of the People and looks upon it as a pretence that they have their power from God And after all with an impudence only proper to himself He would cully the King out of his Prerogatives with the rusty Complement of giving him more Ease and of making him more Glorious These and other wicked and ridiculous Positions destructive both of King and People make up the Politicks of this filthy Dreamer who has more of Pythagoras his Ass than of Plato ' s Spirit in him If the Devil said I be in him I will make him come out of him if I can And with that I march't up to him You Sir said I that have so industriously laboured to change and new model our Government did like a Politician indeed to conjure up the Ghost of an Athenian a sort of sickle giddy headed people that felt more fatal Changes and Revolutions than any Nation under the Sun So like our present Fanaticks * Acts 17. â—1 That they spent their Time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing But Sir when you were scraping in the rubbish of their City for the Ghost of Plato you had done well if you had brought along with you the Statua of Jupiter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which they erected to deter men from being perjur'd Hence 't is that one of their Poets wondring that such persons escap't when the Oak is sometimes thunder-struck said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Oak is not for sworn Hence it was that they termed a righteous person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a perjurious signified a wicked man insomuch that I meet but one among them fit to make a Foreman of a true Protestant Ignoramus Jury and that was Lysander who was so infamous for that saying of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That we ought to cheat Children with Cock all 's but Enemies with Oaths Now since your Friends at home are grown so scandalous for breaking the Third and Ninth Commandments which were given by Moses who was a King among the righteous You cannot tell how far such a Statua might deter them because set up by a Religious Commonwealth But you have brought nothing with you from thence but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Brazen face And 't is with this Brazen face you have the confidence to appear in defence of your many-headed Democracy to vilisie the present Establisht Government in despight of the Fundamental Laws of this Kingdom and when you have done as I am told to appear in Westminster Hall at a time when one a very little worse than your self received Sentence of Death for High Treason And if the Platonick Year were true a man might easily guess your fate every Revolution of Saturn But to the purpose Greece is not able to contain your Politicks but you whip over into Italy and as the Painters of that Country use sometimes to summon the fairest Courtesans together and draw a Beautiful face for the Blessed Virgin Mary from the slagrancies of Harlots So from the Charming Constitutions of Rome in its Youth and Venice in its old Age would you model us a pure sound and glorious Government I would so replied Nevil For in the most turbulent Times of that Commonwealth and Factions between the Nobility and People Rome was much more full of vertuous and Heroick Citizens than ever it was under Aurelius or Anteninus p. 43. But said I are there not as many vertuous and Heroick Persons under King Charles the Second in England But now I think of it the late Shaftsbuty's Conspiracy would have left us as few had it taken effect as Catalines would in Rome And I believe that such a Protestant as you are who will allow of no Priests but those of Mars esteem a few Heathen Philosophers before all the Ministers of the Gospel He was a Conjurer like your self that was ravisht with the love of Tully for writing against Transubstantiation in his third Book de Natura deorum Cum Fruges Cererem vinum Liberum dicimus genere nos quidem sermonis utimur usit ato sed ecquemtam amentem esse put as qui illud quo vescatur Deum credat esse When we call Corn Ceres and Wine Bacchus we only use a customary way of Speech but whom do you think so mad as to believe that with which he is sed to be a God And just such a true Protestant Politick Antiquarian is the Authour of Plato Redivivus and just such a formidable enemy to Popery But Sir if Ancient Governments do not please you said he because out of Fashion What think you of the Venetian I declare it to be the best in the World at this day Indeed said I the Venetians I confess have not been altogether so Pope-ridden as some others have and their Dukes may marry the Adriatick Sea without a Licence from the Bishop of Rome but I hope you believe it cannot be done without the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of Rome And that the Pope has a great deal less Jurisdiction in England if ever you took the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy But you have lost your English Conscience and no body values your Protestant Policy For is not the King of England much better than a Duke of Venice Is not the Succession in the right Line as Authentick from Scripture as good by experience as Ballotting Is not the King of England by the Grace of God greater and better than a Duke of Venice by the vertue of Hocus Pocus He is greater said he but that greatness is not better either for himself or
Christians is Jacomo Jacomo God knows Pray save me or I shall be devoured presently What is the matter What do you mean said Seignior Christiano to him Truly Sir said he when I was a Boy I was taken by the Spaniards from those People you call Canibals or Man-eaters and sold to the English Plantations under whom I have been brought up by degrees to the knowledge of Civil Government and of the Christian Religion an happy Captivity to me but passing through yonder Grove I saw a great many of my Country men in a kind of Pagode and if they get me they will certainly eat me up therefore pray good people save me from them Fear not said Seignior Christiano they shall not hurt you come along with us and shew us where they are so with much intreaty he carried us to them and as soon as we saw them we knew some of them by their faces They were a great number of Adamites at their execrable and impure Mysteries Which Seignior Christiano observing These are a sort of Enthusiasts said he that have a peculiar piece of good Husbandry for they would not put the Nation to much charges for Royal Robes Crowns or Scepters for they have abrogated the very Primitive Institution of Fig-leaves Yet a Tyrant in Armour is not half so destructive to mankind as one of these naked Devils Devils said Jacomo ready to run three quarters speed again Hold hold cry'd Seignior Chr. they are only Adamites Adamites said he What! where there is so many Christians 'T is no wonder to find nothing else among those you call Canibals for they poor creatures said he weeping have no knowledge of God or goodness God has not sent any one unto them nor has he rais'd up any among them nor has he impowered any with Wisdom and Authority over them to redeem them from that general Darkness dismal Ignorance and fatal Barbarity they lie under Being equally under the power of the Devil who makes them equally the Enemies to one another he being the common Enemy of them all But God has given you good Kings good Governours many wise men and good Laws by which you are instructed and commanded to Build to Plant to Cloath your selves to live justly peaceably plentifully and honourably in this World and he has sent you his good Ministers to conduct you safely to a better How is it O ye Christians that I see such Barbarous people among you How is it that I hear of others so wickedly Rebellious as would pull down these good Kings these good Magistrates these good Ministers and would bring themselves under the power of the Devil and of one another Are such people better than those you call Canibals Are they not much worse who under a pure and holy Religion are thus beastly and shameless who under an obedient and patient Religion are thus unquiet and rebellious who under a loving and peaceable Religion do thus worse than Canibals bite and devour one another What would They give to know that they are unclean What would they give to know how happy a thing 't is to obey what would they give could they know how to forgive one another O ye Christians I hope God will be more merciful to the Souls of my poor Father and Mother for they knew no better But what will become of such people I cannot tell for they can do no worse The Politician who heard all this was so extremely confounded and ashamed that with great wrath he went up to the Adamites and in the most bitter language reproved them for their shameless Bestiality But their zeal was as hot as his anger for without any more ado they laid hold on him crying out Priviledge Liberty Property Saying may not we go as we please and do what we please but you must rule and govern us We will teach you to invade the Property of the Subject and Liberty of Humane Nature And with that without any Redemption they hurried him away tearing him like so many wild Beasts and so that Power he plac't in the People at the Beginning soon made an end of him We were now returning back to the Scholes of the Politicians and having conveighed honest Jacomo out of all danger and delivered him from his fears he very thankfully took his leave And now Sir said I to Seignior Christiano you see what becomes of the Politician and of his Proposition too nothing can be more impious more dangerous more ridiculous For if every particular Faction have so many endless difficulties concerning Government not only in opposition to each other but even in it self what must needs be the Villanies the follies the freaks and frensies consequent of them when in full Combination against and when they shall have overthrown that which is by Law establisht For all these and many more are the People for whom this Proposition is ready cut and dried That therefore it was ever true in it self or can be good to mankind I will then be perswaded and never till then when that Golden Royal Age of the Politicians comes to pass wherein the People shall All become Kings wherein Scepters shall be as common as Hedge-stakes and Crowns as Blue Bonnets and instead of Chairs they shall cry ha' ye any Thrones to mend in the mean time laying aside these ridiculous Dreams is it not much better for men of all Orders to mind their own business and according to Gods Ordinance to live quiet and godly lives under their King than to be wheedled by the fantastical Notions of a few rascally Politicians into mutinies murders and Seditions until at last they scramble to the Devil upon all four in the blood of their fellow Subjects for this pretended Original of Civil Power from the People tends only to lead them into Civil Wars and Actual Rebellion against their Sovereign Prince from which Libera nos Domine We were again returned into the Court of the Politicians and at a door that stood open on the other side we saw several people of all sorts going in So Seignior Christiano and I followed them expecting rather Fanatical Conventicle than a learned Lecture in Politicks wondring that no body of a long time stept up into the Desk I thought I heard a kind of disputing and jangling behind me on the other side of the Wainscot and by the help of a little hole in the Boards I peep 't into the withdrawing Room and saw Rutherford the Author of Lex Rex Hunt Parsons and Johnson very earnest in forcing Complements and Civilities upon one another Parsons especially who was the Author of Doleman's c. drew back and peremptorily refus'd the Preheminence of sitting in the Chair that day pretending a great deal of modesty and telling them that they liv'd in an Age wherein Impudence was very modish and that they had the Confidence to stealout of that Book which he was ashamed to own at last by Vote it was fix't upon a Jesuit that
was a stranger who told them That he should make bold for that little he had to say with some ends and scraps of what they had all written so that they should teach the people by Proxy and He would do it in disguise He had now fixt himself in the Chair and after three or four lamentable sighs and groans My Brethren said he never was Popery in this world so near breaking in upon us never was the Nation so much in danger of Tyranny and Arbitrary Government and can ye indure Tyranny and Persecution Can you who are Free-born Subjects indure to be bound in Chains To be burnt in Flames To be mangled and cut in pieces Can ye indure to have your Eye-balls hang down like ropes of Onions And to have your Gutts dangle about your Shanks like Knee-strings To be torn asunder by Trees and Wild Horses And which is worst of all can ye avoid it if Popery Hellish Damnable Diabolical Devilish Infernal Idolatrous Cruel Perfidious silly sneaking Popery comes in And can ye avoid Popery coming in if ye have a Popish King And can ye avoid a Popish King if ye have a Popish Successor And can ye hinder a Popish Successor unless by a Bill of Exclusion ye drive him out like a midnight Thief and a Robber Oh my Brethren when ye have such fundamental Priviledges when Parliaments have such uncontrollable Power will ye be such Turkish Bowstringish slavish fools to indure it Do ye not know that all Power is Originally in the People In the People I say I suppose ye are acquainted with Them Do ye not know That all Monarchies are de jure Elective That the disposal and descent of the Crown depends wholly upon your pleasure and that You have an unlimited Power to determine this or that Government That Succession to Government by nearness of blood is by no Law of Nature or Divine that an Heir Apparent before his Coronation and Admission by the Realm hath the same and no more Interest to the Kingdom than the King of the Romans or Caesar hath to the German Empire And consequently that Birthright and Proximity of Blood give no Title to Rule or Government and that it is Lawful to preclude the next Heir from his Right of Succession to the Crown The People seem'd strangely tickled and pleas'd with these Cokesing Doctrines But Seignior Christiano was so extremely incens'd that he had much ado to refrain himself but with a contemptible smile I desire Sir said he according to the priviledges of this place that you and I before we part may freely and seriously debate these Points of Doctrine which you have so Dogmatically taught the People for I must tell you that they are so far from being either true or good that they are the very belchings of the Father of Lies and more destructive of Mankind than the most Pestilential foists that were ever squeez'd from the Bottomless Pit These your Propositions like the chains of Darkness are linkt together to bind and fetter both Kings and People The Original say you of Civil Power is in the People and that drags on this consequence that as they first conferr'd so that they may afterwards transfer the Power to whom they please Now this is contrary to all Law Natural and Divine For as I have prov'd that Moses receiv'd not any of his Power from the People so neither did Joshua that was his Successor for Numb 27. v. 18. we find that God did in particular order Moses to take Joshua the Son of Nun to lay his hands upon him at the 20. Vers to put some of his honour upon him that all the Congregation of Israel might be obedient This was that Joshua whom the People were so far from chusing to be their Chief Magistrate that Numb 14. v. 10. They bad stone him with stones even for that very obedience for which God afterwards conferr'd that Honour upon him If therefore neither the Original of Power nor yet the Succession of it was in those Ancient People because Israelites so much less is it in the People of England not only because Christians but also because under an immemorial Hereditary Monarchy This reply'd he is not a like case 't is an inconclusive way of arguing from the Jewish Theocracy In this said I it is not for though the occasion was extraordinary yet it shews that God did vindicate his own Ordinance of Government in an extraordinary manner too and as the Moral Law was only that Law written on Tables which was first ingraven in the Heart so the Duties of Obedience and the Original of Authority were naturally the same among the Clans of Barbarous People that they were in the Tribes and the Original of both was Patriarchical derived from and accountable to none but God so that although I grant that many Examples in the Jewish Theocracy cannot be for our Imitation because Typical yet those things which happened unto them upon the account of their Rebellions murmurings and disobedience * 1 Cor. 10. 11. hapned unto them for Ensamples and are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come that we should not murmure as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer But Sir reply'd the Jesuit to come home to our last Proposition let us come to those times wherein the Theocratical Government had an end in being setled in the Tribe of Judah and Family of David What think you of the case of Adonijah He was Solomon's own natural and Elder Brother yet upon bare suspicion he put him to death by a Messenger without any form of Law and succeeded his Father David in his Kingdom You should first have said He succeeded his Father then put his Brother to Death reply'd Seignior Christiano But what is this to the People It is enough to show said he That Birthright and Proximity of Blood give no Title to Rule or Government It gives no Authority to the scope and design of your Proposition reply'd Seignior Christiano Shew me such an Instance as this That Nathan the Prophet that very Nathan who by command from God in a miraculous manner discovered to David his secret Murder of * 1 King 1. 13. Vriah and his Adultery with Bathsheba should advise that Bathsheba to go to David and put him in mind of the Oath he sware unto her that her Son Solomon should reign after him Show me such an Instance now and I will conclude it to be as extraordinary as any thing under the Jewish Theocracy But there is so much to be said upon that account that nothing but a Jesuitical Commentator would urge it for a Rule and Example to an Hereditary Monarchy in this Age of the World However Sir you have given me an opportunity of taking off one Objection you pious Politicians sometimes make against the Government of wicked Kings You say That evil Kings ought to be Depos'd and that evil Princes ought to
their fear towards me is taught by the precepts of men therefore behold I will proceed to do a marvellous Work amongst this People even a marvellous work and a Wonder for the Wisdom of their Wisemen shall Perish and the Understanding of their Prudent shall be hid This Sir said I would have been a good Text to have Preacht upon before the Wittena Gemot or meeting of the Wisemen at S. Margarets in Westminster about the Year 1641. Oh! replyed Seignior Christiano it had been a Malignant Text and the Preacher would have been committed to the Custody of the Black Rod. For they were then scrambling for the Sovereignty to share it amongst themselves however they soon lost it by the same Principles by which they Usurpt it and whilst they kept it they made so ill use of it that had the Protestants in Queen Maries Reign been then alive they would have commended her as much as the Fanaticks have done Queen Elizabeth So dreadful was that Judgement when inflicted upon England which was anciently threatned to the Israelites for their rebellion against their Sovereign * Hos 3. 4. the Children of Israel shall abide many daies without a King and without a Prince c. Lord Sir said I if it was dangerous to preach then upon such a Subject before the Wise Men at Westminster 't is in vain to preach it now to some people for they very learned in the Law will tell you that they did not set up another King a Jeroboam to which that Text relates but that they more prudently transferr'd or at least fixt the Sovereign Power in a Parliament and therefore will say What signifies your old fashioned Divinity to the Learned in the Law Those Lawyers reply'd Seignior Christiano learnt their Seditious Principles in the State from Schismatical and Heretical ones in the Church And they that maintain that the Sovereignty of England is not in one single Person are as great Hereticks for Lawyers as the Archontici the Marcionites the Heracleonites the Colarbasians or Valentinians were for Divines and they were Hereticks who were condemn'd for holding several Beginnings Truly Sir said I I think here comes one of these antient sort of Gentlemen you talk of For we now overtook a Comical old Fellow in such a Garb as I never before had seen he had a great Ruff-band on which needed no imbroidery for it was made up of old Saxon Manuscripts and the Trimming to his Cloaths was old Parchment tassels tagg'd with Wax upon which was the Impression of King Arthurs Tooth and of the Fangs of all his Knights This is a pleasant Antiquarian said Seignior Christiano let 's brush the Cobwebs off him a little and make our selves merry with him We needed not to seek long for an opportunity for he immediately came up to us saying Gentlemen my Business in this World is to vindicate the honour of our English Parliaments from the Calumnies of those who say That the Commons of England were introduced and begun An. 49 H. 3. Therefore pray come along with me into yonder Castle and there I will shew you all the ancient and undeniable Records under the British Saxon and Norman Governments We willingly followed him until he brought us into a very large Room where there was Provender enough for the Rats and Mice of twenty Generations He had now pull'd his Hat off and made a low obeysance to an heap of musty Parchments when a bold Fellow came up and with a great deal of scorn kickt them all about the room You old fop said he look you here I have in this Cabinet of mine a sett of Antiquities worth a thousand loads of your mouldy Parliament Rolls Here is said he the Tongue of that Parrot that was first Speaker to the House of Commons in the Parliament of Birds and here are two of his Speeches Here is the Ancient Charter of the City Mouse which he forfeited for eating too far into an Holland Cheese Here is a Tobacco stopper made of Log the first King of the Froggs What do you talk of your Records and Parliament Rolls and House of Commons a fart for your House of Office We did certainly expect that the Antiquarian would have blead him alive to have made new Vellum of his skin for the affronts he put upon his old Parchments But what was extraordinary strange we could not discover that he was in the least angry with him at which we much wondred and therefore I examined those Parchments and found them to be the same which Mr. Petyt of the Inner Temple had made use of for Asserting the Ancient Rights of the Commons of England Printed in the Year Eighty And therefore said I to Seigntor Christiano the writing that Book at a Time when the just Priviledges of Parliament were not in the least call'd in Question but on the contrary when not only the Kings Prerogative but his life also was in Danger by a Conspiracy formed among several that were Members of that House was just as if one should have written of the Antiquity of the See of Rome and of the Grants of our English Kings to several Popes at that very Time when the Popish Plot was first discovered Why truly reply'd Seignior Christiano 't is pitty but that Mr. Petyt should have the same reward the next Parliament which that last Parliament would have bestowed upon such an Authour and that he may not want company some hope that the next Parliament will take the Ignoramus Jury into consideration it being a case according to Mr. Lambard his own Antiquarian not within the reach Archion f. 105. of any standing Law or Statute and in which the Parliament hath Jurisdiction But Sir said I I further remarque upon that Book that whilst he pretends to assert the rights of the Commons he hinders the main Ends of Parliaments What a noise does he make of Baronagium Generale placitum and Communitas Regni and several other denominations by which the Common Council or Parliaments were expressed But not with any design to the right ends for which they were called One great end according to his own Quotation out of †Preface f. 43. Knighton de Event Angl. is ut Inimici Regis Regni Intrinseci hostes extrinseci destruantur repellantur that the Domestick and foreign Enemies of the King and Kingdom may be destroyed and repelled And in order to this it is very requisite that the King should have those that are all Loyal Subjects in that Great Council that He should be supplied with moneys to defray the Publick Charges and therefore what signifies a great many of the Records he has quoted and that in particular of the 34 E. 1. unless he had design'd that the last Westminster and Oxford Parliament should have considered Onera Domino Regi incumbentia as that Parliament did by which dutiful Considerations of his Parliament King Edward I. became a Victorious Prince for he awed France
subdued Wales and brought Scotland into subjection of whose King and Nobility he received Homage But a King it seems may be made Glorious at a cheaper rate than Victorious and our Antiquarian forgot in his Quotation that honest old Rule Incivile est particulam aliquam Legis sumere non perspect a tota Lege For he should as well have had respect to the end of their meeting as to the particular Persons that were there had he written as became a Loyal Subject and an honest man at that time and I do not at all question but he who seems so tender of wounding the Peerage would be the first were it in his power that would turn the Bishops out of the House of Lords although for the blood of him he cannot in all his reading bring the Burgesses into the House of Commons but must stumble over Archbishops and Bishops by the way I suppose reply'd Seignior Chr. He Dedicated that Book to the late Earl of Essex for the same reason that the last Edition of Gods Revenge against Murder is Dedicated to the late Earl of Shastsbury At this both the Antiquarian and He that kickt about his Parchments join'd together and came up to us with a great deal of Fury and had not I by chance catcht hold of his venerable Ruff and threatned to demolish that reverend relick we had not parted without a fray but he thus receiving some damage at the first onset they compounded the matter and so we parted pretty quietly No sooner were we got from them But you see said Seignior Chr. they both agree against any one that defends the Government and in the main design of changing this Ancient Monarchy into a Commonwealth For they who vilifie Parliaments if they do it not out of a rash and inconsiderate humour do it with an ill design to make the King suspected by his People and so at last would have no King and they who give to Parliaments that power that does not belong to them give them power to destroy themselves and so would have no Parliaments a true notion of a Commonwealth destroys the very being both of King and Parliament for he that diminisheth or taketh away the Prerogative of the King takes away the very Power of Parliament even when He pretends to give them the Kings Prerogative So they that fought for King and Parliament in the late Wars fought against them both as appear'd in the conclusion and England can never be a Commonwealth again until their be no King and then there will ipso facto be no Parliament As soon as we were out of the Castle we saw a world of people coming towards the Gates so that I fancied that we were formally Besieged but it seems they only came thither for Intelligence as their Custom was once or twice a week Upon which we fell in among them and found people of all Qualities and Conditions but most of the commonsort and a great many Women I do not know But methoughts I found my self strangely uneasie among them for they differed very much from men of Debonair and civil conversation they had such a dreaming way of talking such leering and suspicious looks that I never saw so much ill Nature together in a crowd all the daies of my life and almost fancied that they had a particular smell with them Seignior Christiano who saw me in a musing quandary taking me aside if there was said he but a small strinkling of Laplanders and Canibals among them they would be the compleatest Body of Commonwealths-men under the Sun However that they may not want some Foreigners to illustrate them they have a few Calvinistical and busie Walloons prickt in among them Have they not a few Rattoons and Baboons too said I Truly they have as much reason to be altering and changing the Government as any Walloon of them all Is it not an horrid shame and scandal that they who are naturaliz'd by the favour of the Prince and have here gain'd good Estates under the Protection of his Laws should grow insolent and mutinous and join with Rebels to ruin him and his Government You know the monstrous gratitude of a Factious Fanatick or you know nothing said Seignior Chr. how many men whose dulness his Majesty has covered with a Title of Honour and a Gold Chain have in requital acted as if they design'd the old Game of binding Kings in Chains ' T is nothing certainly but the Spirit of ingratitude pride ambition covetousness or revenge that makes so many Commonwealths-men in the Kingdom of England I could give you the exact Characters of these men their particular rules of Education and their behaviour in their several Imployments but they will not singly stand the shock of a reprimand and I have no time at present to do it therefore I will in general advise them all We being now got up a little hill and they all before us Men Women and Children said he Tag Rag and Bobtail since the good old Cause is in so bad a condition that you can never expect to turn this Kingdom into a Common-wealth whilst ye live and think that without one you can never die in peace Let me advise you all to make a step to a certain place at the Head of the River Nilus where Sir John Mandevil in his Travels tells us the People themselves have none but that like Flounders they wear their eyes and mouths in their Breasts these would be fit Companions for you Commonwealths-men for those who will have no King or no Bishops are properly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men without heads truly solks Niceph. l. 18. c. 45. ' t is not sit ye should stay here for ye have made your selves such monsters of men as the world never knew You that stickle so for a Commonwealth have taken such wicked courses to procure one as are condemned by the Laws of all the Common-wealths that ever were since the World began the Gallant Romans under Consuls and Tribunes scorn'd to make use of treachery breach of Faith secret Assassinations against their most dangerous and formidable Enemies in Time of War or at least they were forbid in the Civil Law but you have added the invention of Blunderbuzzing against your own Gracious and good Prince in Times of Peace Perjury of which you have been so scandalously Guilty was a crime so detestable to all Nations * Sanderson de Jur. oblig Prael 7. that a learned Casuist tells us Perjurium autem vel ipsis etiam Ethnicis inter gravissima illa Crimina est habitum quae credebantur Deorum Immortalium Iram non in Reos tantum sed in Posteros ipsorum imo in universas Gentes accersere Perjury even by the very Heathens was reckon'd among those highest crimes which were thought to stir up the anger of the Immortal Gods not only against those that were Guilty of it themselves but also against their Posterity ay and against
of the Scales all the Commonwealths that have been under the Sun let them clap in the Ephori of Sparta the Demarchi of Athens the Tribunes and Consuls of Rome the Gentlemen and Senators of Venice the Hoghen Moghen States of Holland the Cantons of Switzerland the Leagues of the Grisons the Elders of Geneva with whole Bundles of Hans Towns and all the late Holy Brethren that are fled to them and I will put but one single Monarchy into the other and it shall as certainly weigh them all down as the Bible does the Pope and his Trinkets the Devil and all his works in the Book of Martyrs What Monarchy is that said he The Ancient and Flourishing Monarchy of England said I a Monarchy which has the singular advantages of all the three known Forms of Government without the Inconveniencies of any one of them a Monarchy so divinely good as neither Jew or Gentile knew of Old and such an one as none other Christians besides enjoy at this day Pray Sir said he give me a short account of it As well as I can said I with all my heart You must know that this Monarchy of England is a Paternal Hereditary Monarchy the Kings thereof not using that absolute Despotical Power which the Kings of Judah sometimes did No mans Life is taken away from him by any of the Kings Messengers but he may clear himself if Innocent or give better satisfaction to the world if guilty by being tryed according to Law And where the Chronicles of England seem to speak the contrary those persons as Tho. Becket c. are to be considered as Traytors in the very act of open Hostility and Rebellion or protected from the proceedings of the Law by the Pope or the People But our present Gracious Soveraign hath given such admirable instances of his great Justice Clemency and Patience as no History can parallel even the very Murderers of his Father who would scarce allow him to speak before their impious Tribunal were permitted to say what they could in their own defence And those very Barbarous Villains that did not design to * at the Ryeâ— allow him time to say his Prayers were not only legally try'd convicted and justly condemned with all manner of regular proceedings but had afterwards the charitable assistance of his own Chaplains And although upon the relation of such an horrid design against his Royal Person if He had cut them all to pieces without any more ado no mortal man could have question'd or have call'd him to an account for it yet such is the malice of that implacable Party that for his great Clemency they insinuate that he wants Courage and for his Justice they do as much as say he is a Tyrant But as the King so are his Laws so good for the People that King James did as truly as solemnly declare That the Common Law of England was as proper for this Nation as the Law of Moses was for the Jews But still to supply the defects of the Common Law we have our Statute Laws which were made at sundry times and upon divers occasions in Parliament and these Laws receive matter from the Lords and Commons but form and life from the King and then our Ecclesiastical and Maritine Courts are governed by the Civil Laws which are the result of the Wisdom and Prudence of the best Law-givers that have been in all Ages and for the Good of others as well as of our own Nation If your Laws said he be so very good how comes it to pass that there are so many Controversies long and vexatious Suits such endless Differences and Quarrels among the Subjects What is the reason that those who have been Factious Turbulent and Seditious should go so long unpunished The Reason Sir said I is because the King will govern by Law but they will not be ruled by it But have a little patience Hemp is not ripe in a day 'T is no Magical plant rais'd by the sin of Witchcraft and yet 't will conjure down the Devil in Time Easter Term is coming on a pace and as some of their mouths have been pretty cool the last great Frost So if others be not more quiet for the Future they will not have so much money to burn in their pockets against the next To your first Question I might Answer by asking you the reason of so many Disputes and Janglings in Religion I am sure you confess that you are satisfied as to the excellency of the Christian Faith and yet you might as well object against the Truth of it because there have been so many Heresies in the Church as against the goodness of our Laws Because there are so many peevish subtil and factious persons in the State There are likewise Hereticks among the Lawyers as well as among the Divines For if the Laws of God are not free from the false Glosses and Expositions of ambitious or covetous Casuists how shall any Law of man escape them To conclude after all our Government is a Miracle of a thousand years working And although some will tell you the Times and Occasions of Enacting or Repealing any Statute Law and the Originals of all our Courts of Judicature Yet considering the many and strange revolutions that attend all sublunary Principalities and Powers 't is a work beyond the reach of the most exquisite Judgment to unravel the whole Series of Affairs that have brought this admirable frame of Government to perfection Truly Sir said he I do not perceive that the People of England have any reason to fear Arbitrary Government under so gracious a Prince or to he weary of a Monarchy so vastly differing from those four which were so formidably represented in the Ancient Vision of the Prophet Daniel I am sure said I there is none in being that may at this day compare with it all the Eastern Empires and Monarchies are absolutely Tyrannical and of the West the people of France have lost their Liberties the Kingdom of Spain suffers extremely by the clashing Interests of the Jesuits with other Orders and their treachery to the House of Austria and so does the Empire of Germany the Kingdoms of Denmark and Bohemia have not been so long Hereditary and the Kingdom of Poland is Elective to this day Now said he you are come to my Native Country I can assure you that there are great Inconveniencies attending the Time of the Interregnum and Election too And however our present Magnanimous and truly Illustrious King has by his Conduct and Valour gain'd himself immortal renown Yet 't is better for the people to have Peace than a prosperous War And the King of England has had as hard a Task and which has required as much Courage and Prudence to subdue and quell his Turkish Protestants at home as the King of Poland had to conquer the Protestant Turks abroad Against which sort of true Protestants the true Turks shall arise in the Judgment
and shall condemn them For they make Obedience to their Prince a point of their Religion but these make a Duty and a practice of Rebellion The very Indians shall arise in the Judgment with these Protestant Barbarians and shall condemn them For the Noble Inhabitants of Nicaragua made no Law for that person that should kill the King thinking like Solon in the Case of Parricide that none could be so wicked as to do it but these condemned their King from whom they have their Law and that contrary to all Law Nar the very Jews the Scribes and Pharisees shall arise in the Judgment with these Reformed Christians and shall condemn them for they offered Sacrifices for the prosperity of Caesar but these Sacrificed Caesar himself at his own Gate You have said enough to their immortal shame and confusion said I But thanks be to God who has restored the Son to the Throne of his Father to our great Comfort And may He in despight of all the Enemies of God and the King long continue to sit thereon to our lasting peace I am sure this Nation has under him injoyed three and twenty such years of plenty and prosperity as you cannot cull out and shew together since the Conquest enough to testifie that Monarchy is the best of Governments that ours is the best of Monarchies and King Charles II. is the best of Monarchs whose Service like his whose Minister He is is Perfect Freedom Neque enim Libertas Tutior ulla est Quà m Domino Servire bono The Sun was now down and it began to grow dusky so my little Polander took his leave and Seign Chr. who had been talking all this while with another man came smiling to me and said I know dear Friend that you are a person very Curious and Inquisitive into the Nature and Reasons of Human Affairs and I have now an Extraordinary Opportunity of pleasuring you at the highest rate That Gentleman I now came from is a Magician and He with two or three more it seems are to have an Action to night wherein they design to raise the Ghosts of all the late Politicians that are dead and to charm the Spirits of those now living from their bodies whilst asleep so that you may hear extraordinary Conferences about Polity and Government and may have occasion of ingaging your self in them as you shall think convenient The name of a Magician did a little startle me at first but the bent of my fancy prevail'd above any scruple of Conscience being in a Dream wherein honest men do those things sometimes which they would abhor when awake Indeed I had no time to determine with my self for methoughts Seign Chr. was very earnest with me saying See Yonder the Gentleman calls us let us go to him I know you will be very welcome for my sake as soon as we came to him I am apt to think said he to me that you Sir are somewhat afraid of Spirits I never see him tremble but once in all my life replied Seignior Chr. and that was at the sight of a very pretty Woman and then indeed He could neither sing nor say But They who in Combate dare the Devil desie Are sometimes vanquisht by a Ladies eye I do assure you He neither sears your Spirits nor yet your Politicians for He is an Honest Fellow and though I have known him mistaken yet that Honesty of His is better than the strength of Goliah than the valour of Cromwell than the wit and learning of Hobbs or Milton than the Policy of Shaftsbury or the piety of Baxter And therefore I will venture to set him upon whole Troops of Rascally Knavish Apparitions and you will be satisfied that he does not fear such Spirits Then turning to me What in the dumps Friend Chear up I shall now give you an opportunity of seeing to what extravagant excesses the late Politicians have run on both Hands some swelling the Soveraign Magistrate into such a monstrous Bulkiness that He bursts asunder with the shining venome they infuse into him others scattering the Supreme Power into whole Herds of Pharaoh's ravenous lean Kine Some are for Absolute Tyranny others for Dissolute Anarchy Thus leaving us the dismal choice of the Fire from the Bramble to devour us or of the more scorching flames from whole Bundles of Jack Straws to consume us We were now come to Fox-Hall that renowned Magazin of Narratives and Gunpowder and this was the place of Randesvouze for these famous Politicians The Lord knows which way we gat into a Vault but methoughts as soon as we were there one of the Magicians speaking a sort of unintelligible gibberish burnt a composition of strange Gumms in a Censer which had such an odd smell that a trilling damp seiz'd my spirits and in that confusion the place was chang'd into a stately long Portico supported with several rows of Marble Pillars upon which their hung a great many Trophies and Spoils taken by surprize or stratagem and great numbers of Historical Pictures of Martial exploits that succeeded this led us into a Magnificent Dome almost as large as the Pantheon in Rome in the rotunda upon Pedestals of equal height stood the Statuas of Famous Persons who by the strength of their own Genius's from low beginnings arriv'd to marvellous grandeur and continued in it As of Marmurius Marius Dioclesian Justinus and Tamberlain and others Turning on the left hand we passed through a door into a ruinous Court in which there were several antick Statuas Crowned with Mushrooms as of Massianello Knipperdolling and several other excrescences of Fortune who in her freaks had taken them from Stalls and Bulks to set them on Thrones and then suddenly kickt them down again into their Graves In a corner of this Court we entred a narrow and winding passage which led us at last into a large Room hung with black and set around with dimm Tapers I was strangely surprized with this inchanted place But much more astonish't when at the upper end of it I saw Oliver Cromwell sitting in a Chair of State with two skeletons on each hand attending him which sometimes seem'd to move whilst I was looking on him there came out from behind the Hangings an old Fellow in Boots with a Book in his hand who made his obeisance to Oliver and as he presented it He said You Sir are that unlimited and absolute Soveraign that mighty Leviathan I have here endeavoured in this Book to recommend to all mankind suffer me therefore a poor Mackrel to come under the shadow of your Finns until this storm of Thunder be past Oliver took the Book and after he had read a little of it He returned him another Intituled Killing no Murder telling him that by that Book which had made him as fearful as himself he might see how much he had been beholding to him for his own For thou hast herein said he given me more power under thy hand than the Devil ever did
Davenant in his twelfth determin'd Question sayes Induant quam velint isti Magistratuum Reformatores c. Let those Reformers of Magistrates mask under what vizor they please Religion may be their Plea but Rebellion is their Practice And this is so true of Mr. Baxter that as far as I can perceive he will confirm it with his last breath But the Mask he has on will appear to be that of the Fool as well as of the Knave for whatever he in one place denyes he most strictly and rigidly maintains in another and there is not a more ridiculous Book of Polity in the world He confesses indeed that he did not design an Accurate Tract of Politicks not a discovery of an Utopia or City of the Sun And indeed I am apt to believe him for it rather dropt from the concavities of the Midsummer Moon Had he spent his Itch of Scribling in writing his Wifes Life the History of Stew'd Prunes or the Pedigree of his Gib-Cat he had done much better than to have defiled so much good Paper with the indigested Excrements of his Brain upon such a subject For Mr. Baxter did not either honestly or seriously enough consider that his whole Pile of Politicks stands tottering upon a false and rotten foundation For he holds that the Soveraignty of England is in the three Estates viz. King Lords and Commons that the King has but a Co-ordinate Power and may be over-ruled by the other two This is the fundamental Maxim of all his Politicks without which he never could have pretended to the framing his Theocratical Government as he calls it or have made such a Bustle for his peculiar godly Friends and Associates but if this were true which is utterly false why may it not as well happen that the King and Lords should over-rule and consequently exciude the Commons And then what thanks is that House bound to give such a notable Aphorismmonger The Counsellors in that August Assembly are of three sorts by the Fundamental Laws of this Kingdom Some are by Birth as the Barons some Lambards Archion p. 118. by Succession as Bishops and some by Election as Knights and Burgesses and these be all for the time the Kings Council Did ever any King call a Council to depose him But suppose according to Mr. Baxter they might or should do so who should then hinder the two that are by Birth and Succession from over-ruling and excluding the third that are by Election But the Bishops it seems must troop out after the King for fear Mr. Baxter should stumble upon such an horrid piece of non-sense as the making two Estates become three by the taking away of one No less ridiculous is Mr. Baxter in this deposing humour of his for he does like the Abbess who chid the Nun for Fornication when she her self had the Monks Breeches on her head instead of her Veil at the same time He pronounces very terribly Thes 327. That it is a most impious thing for Popes to pretend to disoblige Christians from their Oaths and Fidelity to their Sovereigns and to encourage their Subjects to rebel and murder them But as if it were a most pious thing in a Jack Presbyter he breathes nothing but perfidious Covenants Engagements Associations Seditions and murdering Treasons for several Pages together immediately after Like a Fool as he is to his own Good Old Cause he confesses pag. 461. that God has no where in Scripture told us whether England should be governed by one or two or an hundred but that where the King is Supreme it is the will of God that the people should obey him A strange things that the Politick Saint should want Scripture upon so material an account who is used to squander it away so plentifully upon every trivial occasion Well! since Scripture as he sayes cannot nothing more or better can declare the King of England to be Supreme unaccountable to none but God than the fundamental Laws of this Ancient and Just Monarchy But because Mr. Baxter who would never be govern'd has little or no knowledge of the Laws he sends his Reader in p. 458. to Bacon and Prynn who were as great Hereticks for Lawyers as he is for a Divine I wish that Mr. Baxter who has deserv'd to lose his Tongue as much as Prynn did his Ears would take example by him and lay things seriously and impartially to his heart that by better Aphorisms of Humility and Obedience he would grow so good a Politician indeed as at last to cheat the Devil For 't is a strange thing that a man who has taken so much pains for the salvation of other mens souls should so carelesly run on tick for the damnation of his own If it be true that the King is Supream and that they who resist him as Mr. Baxter has done shall receive damnation to themselves and as Mr. Prynn himself Prynn's Repub. or spurious Good Old Cause sayes they shall But I fear he will never be of so good a mind For like a Knave as he is by his Politicks in this Book and by his Schism and Separation to this day he practises those very Rules which in the beginning of this Book he discovers and declares to be the Jesuits Directions for preserving Popery and changing Religion in this Nation I do not wonder that the late Colonel Sidney who was so great a Crony of Father Oliva ' s the General of the Jesuits at Rome for several years together should borrow part of his Speech he left behind him out of Baxter ' s Holy Commonwealth for sayes he pag. 377. No Man or Family hath originally more right to govern a Nation than the rest till Providence and Consent allow it them Few Princes will plead a Successive Right of Primogeniture from Noah And this without doubt was the Original of that politick strain in Colonel Sidney ' s Speech as the directions of the Jesuits are of Mr. Baxter's Politicks and practices For sayes he himself the summ of Campanella ' s Counsel for promoting the Spanish Interests in England was in Queen Elizabeths daies 1. Above all to breed dissentions and discords among our selves To exasperate the minds of the Bishops against King James by perswading them that he was in heart a Papist and would bring in Popery To make the Kingdom Elective And lastly To perswade the chief Parliament men to turn England into the form of a Common-wealth Pray Sir said I do but hear what Mr. Baxter sayes for himself at the latter end of his Book p. 489. If any one saies he can prove that I was guilty of hurt to the Person or destruction of the Power of the King or of changing the Fundamental Constitutions of the Commonwealth c. I will never gainsay him if he calls me a most perfidious Rebel and tell me that I am guilty of far greater sin than Murder Whoredome Drunkenness or such like or if they can solidly confute my Grounds
with Propositions dress'd up with probable Notions and plausible Conveniencies I will carry you to their Scholes where you may have the Opportunity not only to know them but to discover the Roguery and Folly of them if you can With all my heart Sir said I as I see my opportunity I will do the best I can And with that following him through a Gate-house we came into a large Court and upon one of the doors on the left hand was cleav'd a Schedule on which was written The Proposition to be defended to day is All civil Authority is deriv'd originally from the People As soon as the door was opened we went in and a small number of people came after us to hear a mongrel kind of a Fellow read upon this Question from which he maintained That in the first Original of Nations Monarchy came by the Peoples Choice That the forms of Government and the Persons of Governours were of Mans Appointment That the King had his Authority by the consent of the People in the beginning of this Government and consequently that he held it by Compact and then concluded with a long Harangue about the safe Title from willing Nations challenging any person there present to make what Objections he could against what he had said I observ'd that no body oppos'd him of a long time and therefore being incouraged by Seignior Christiano I stood up and said Most profound Sir I suppose that you have read of the off-spring of the Serpents Teeth and how that crop of Levellers in the heat of their sap most cruelly destroyed one another and since it was so fatal to spring rank and sile out of the earth I fancy you believe that the more lucky part of Manking dropt in whole Shoals like showres of Froggs from the Clouds and so peopled the World If this was the first adventure of Human Race you might truly enough conclude that they most calmly after their fall laid their heads together and chose themselves a Governour and prescribed him a form of Government Nemine contradicente But if the Books of Moses be more Authentick and Rational than Ovids Metamorphosis we may without leading-strings learn of him that the Propagation and Government of Mankind were ordain'd by the Divine Wisdom at the same time and that Alam became a King and a Father the Adam day We may see and know the Original and Plastick form of all the great succeeding Monarchies in the Families of the Partriarchs and prove this your Proposition to be contrary to the Fundamental Law of Nature and the first practice of Mankind But to give Your politick Conception all the advantages it can possibly claim we will consider it in respect of a People so far separate from this Patriarchical O economy and under such peculiar Circumstances that your fancy could not have contrived much less can all History afford you an instance more to your purpose If you are in hast to know I tell you I mean the People of Israel in Egypt They were almost Four hundred Years remov'd from this Patriarchical Sovereignty all the Authority that they had over one another was confounded and swallowed up in that common slavery they were in under the Egyptians Now if the Original of their Civil Government for which they were so famous was not deriv'd from the People then that your Proposition is utterly false but 't is very true that it was not Originally deriv'd from the People Ergo That it was not is so true that nothing is more impious than this your Proposition because First It is contrary to Scripture For when God raised up Moses to be a Ruler Judge and Deliverer of his People that were scattered like the Straw they were to gather over all that Land wherein they were equally in Bondage we find Exodus 4. that Moses so long expostulated with God about it that at the 14th Verse we read that the Anger of the Lord was kindled against him for he pleaded at the first Verse That the people would not believe him nor hearken to his voice at the 10th Verse that he was not Eloquent as if not sufficient to discharge such a message at the 13th almost peremptorily refused to go and would have turn'd it upon some other So that 't is hence manifest that he never sought it of the people nor did they first chuse or call him before he was sent from God Pray now how was the person here of mans Appointment And still your Politicks will prove but false Divinity for afterward when he had signaliz'd his Divine Mission by Wonders and Miracles because Corah Dathan and Abiram rebelled against him saying * Numb 16. 13. Is it a small thing that thou hast brought us up out of a Land that floweth with Milk and Honey to kill us in the Wilderness except thou make thy self altogether a Prince over us Therefore †Numb 16. v. 32. the Lord made a new Thing and the Earth opened her mouth c. Because all the Congregation murmured against Moses and against Aaron there died of the Plague more then fourteen Thousand Because the People in the Absence of Moses caused Aaron to make a Calf they were so far from making a King that had not Moses interceded for them they had been * Exod. 32. v. 10. no longer a People Thus this Moses whom they refus'd saying Who made thee a Ruler and a Judge the same did God send to be a Ruler and a deliverer by the hands of the Angel that was in the Bush said the Proto martyr S. Stephen Act. 7. v. 35. Perhaps Sir said Seignior Christiano they that will allow of no Kings but those of their own making will allow likewise of no Saints I suppose reply'd I they will allow that the holy man here in his last speech reflects upon that stiff neck't and Rebellious People of the Jews who had been commanded †Exod. 32. ◠not to follow a multitude to do evil Not that multitude that murmured against Moses and Aaron not that whole multitude that led Jesus Christ before Pontius Pilate S. Luke 23. 1. from which multitude he had sometime before withdrawn himself because he perceived that they would come and take him by force to make him a King S. Joh. 6. v. 15. But Sir reply'd the Politician may they not depose wicked Kings No Sir reply'd I they may not because they cannot tell when they have a good one and even the Bad ones Pontius Pilate himself had no power at all but what was given him from above how then can they take away that which they have no Authority to give But if the holy and righteous Jesus when before an unjust Tribunal did not make use of those many Legions of Angels which he then could have commanded against his most malicious enemies but was contented patiently to suffer for our sakes Why should any that name his name presume to appeal to the rash and giddy
my shoulder because they are persecuted by the Counsels of the Jesuits will they be damn'd by their Doctrines Was there ever such a Mysterie of Iniquity since the subtle Serpent twin'd about the Tree with the forbidden fruit in his mouth Was there ever such an Age as this Surely these are the last and norst of dayes and I am certain it was not so in those wherein I lived and were I now amongst them I should tell them that the Christians did not revolt from Constantius though an Arian nor rebel against Julian though an Apostate and both Persecutors They did not call in the Goths to refine the Gospel nor the Persians to reform them from Idolatry They took up the Cross to suffer with their Saviour but they did not take up Arms to rebel against his Vicegerent They wrote against Heresies but durst not so much as speak evil of Dignities So that as the Practices of these dayes are much differing from the Piety of the former so let them pretend to what they will of the latter 't is Ambition makes great Traytors and Covetousness little Rebells for the first pray observe my Commentary upon that Text Put them in mind to be subject to Principalities and Powers and to be ready to every good work Quod quidem Comment S. Hier. in cap. 3. Epist ad Titum praeceptum c. which precept in this and that other place viz. Rom. 13. I think to be therefore given because at that time the opinion of Judas of Galilee was yet fresh and had many followers and of which there is mention made in the Acts of the Holy Apostles for before those Acts 5. 36. dayes rose up Theudas boasting himself to be some body Now for the second And in the dayes of Taxing arose Judas of Galilee who propos'd it as probable from the Law that none but God should be called Lord and that those who payed their Tenths to the Temple should not pay Tribute to Caesar Ay but Holy Father said I I told you that they were persecuted for the sake of their Religion and therefore cannot be said to rebel out of Covetousness I confess reply'd he that a blind zeal may carry them a great way but such sight not so much against the Idol as for the Gold that is about it 'T is for this gay dross pointing to the Silver Ore that they drag the glittering Steel from the bowels of their Mother Earth to sheath it by an unnatural War in one anothers They quarrel not for Heavenly Graces but for Earthly Plunder they sight not to refine their Religion but their Gold 't is for this the Turk who hates an Image becomes an Idolater by his Covetousness and the True Protestant turns Jesuit to worship this Mass and since the Banners of Mahomet are the Ensigns of Mammon 't is no wonder that so many crowd under them At this I heard a mighty clashing of Armor and a great confused noise of people howling and groaning upon which the Candle before S. Jerome burnt blue and by the last light of it he dissolv'd into a shower of Tears and so in a Mist vanish't away I was now left in the dark not knowing which way I came in or how to get out again and therefore I stood my ground expecting to see what would be the event of that great Hurly Burly I heard at last a pair of great Gates opened and there crowded in a vast number of Turks all bloody and wounded stript stark naked shivering and groaning and crying How has the Mufti deceived us What a prodigious Impostor does our great Prophet Mahomet at last prove to us the first promising us victory if we fight and the second a Paradise if we die But what did they promise you for running away cry'd a great number of ugly she Devils with nasty duggs pushing them forward with flaming Torches Had ye not superfine notions of the state after death think you Are you not pretty Companions for rolling black-ey'd women when your carcasses are nothing but dust or putrefaction assure your selves we are all the Company you are like to keep and if this be your Paradise you shall injoy it for evermore These were no sooner dispos'd of where those implacable Furies thought fit but I saw a great number as I thought under a more cruel discipline for they were driven along by an huge and terrible tall Fiend branding them on the backs with red hot half Moons and their faces were all oversmear'd with blood asking who they were I was told that they were the Teckelites and that Lucifer had taken particular care of them by separating them from the honester Turks by cutting off their foreskins and had bedaubed their faces with the blood of their Circumcision in token of their renouncing their Christian Baptism and to mark them out for the greater Damnation I was no sooner got clear of those numerous wretches but I espied a Gentleman whom I formerly knew and who was acquainted with most of the affairs of Christendom and had travailed through most parts of Turky but before I could accost him there came between us the renowned Vizier Cuperlee raging and fretting with so much wrath and fury in his face that he made all tremble before him However as soon as he was past Signior Christiano for that was my friends name came to me and inviting me to follow after him told me that I should both hear and see things worth my Observation and indeed we had not gone a Furlong before the haughty Vizier fell on his knees and laying his hand on his breast and bowing his head O Mahomet cry'd He our holy and great Prophet why hast thou suffered so much shame and dishonour to hefall the Ottoman Forces that were raised to propagate thy Faith and holy Religion to the ends of the Earth Whilst I govern'd the Divan all things we undertook prospered both at home and abroad but now I understand that the Banner that bears thy Sacred name is carried in Triumph to the Idolatrous City And the Musselmen Rome thy true disciples flee before the face of Gaurs and Vnbelievers see here the Carcasses of thy proselytes that come from the burning sands of Libya lye here unburied in this cold Climate where Rocks of Ice blunt the Sun-beams Grant we may revenge this loss this dishonour upon these unwashed Christians that we may flea their Magistrates alive That we may rip up their teeming Matrons and give their Breasts to Wolves and Dogs That we may send all their Sacred Priests to the Plough Not all of them cryed a Jesuite who had like to have stumbled over him I know not what wrong we of our Society have done you You are beholding to us for that posture of affairs that gave an advantage of beginning a War which in all probability might have prov'd very honourable and profitable to the Sultan had our designs taken effect in Poland that King had never hindred
yours before Vienna Did not We divide the Christian Princes it were in vain for all the forces of the East to attacque the united Powers of Christendom 't is we have weakened the house of Austria 't is we have brought your mortal enemy the Spaniard so low and although you will not acknowledge Christ yet I know not what reasons you have to object against Ignatius Loyola who was as good a Souldier as Mahomet and We have since been as great Merchants I do not forget replyed the Vizier how much the Divan is beholding to your Conclave and therefore let this be the agreement betwixt us We will carry on the War in the Empire untill you have gained the Popedom and when Vienna is Ours and Rome Yours you shall help us to destroy all the Hereticks of our Religion especially the Persians and We will assist you to destroy all those of Yours particularly the English The Bargain was concluded by their friendly parting but the Jesuit was not long gone ere there was a cry Make room for the King of Poland At this very name the Vizier quaked for fear but when he saw only a lean fallow Carrion of a fellow coming towards him Had the Pox said He but sprung such a Mine in the sides of Sobietski Our forces had taken Vienna long ago But it was a fatal * Septem 9. day to us when he with his Young * Alexander Scanderbeg came upon us a day wherein the Gaurs have reason to rejoyce and a day wherein the Tories replyed the Earl of S. had as much reason to give Thanks Who are they said the Vizier I never heard of them before The most irreconcileable enemies that you have in the World replied the Earl and whom we had utterly destroyed had not our designs been unfortunately discovered by a short relation of which you will know how much I deserv'd the Kingdom of Poland at your hands You must know that the King of England is Guarrantee of the Peace of Christendom and by that high Honour conferr'd upon him by the Christian Princes He was in a capacity to turn all the strength of the West upon you and not only to free the Empire of Germany from the Arms of France but to put both the Dutch and Spaniard also into a condition of sending Supplies both of Men and Monies besides what he might have afforded of his own But we the true Protestants of Great Britain being opprest with Popish and Idolatrous Abominations stirred up the minds of the people to contend against the encroachments of the Man of sin By which means we raised so many Tumults and Seditions that he had not only enough to do to keep his own Subjects in Peace but indeed it was a wonder that he preserv'd his own life However We made it uncomfortable enough to him For though the Occasions were never so pressing and urgent Though the Honour and safety of the Nation depended never so much upon it we would not grant him a Penny nay we would not let him borrow an Asper of any of his Subjects How Cry'd the Vizier smiling Would you not grant him any Would you not let him borrow any by Mahomet ' t was bravely done thou shalt have all the Goggle-ey'd wenches in Paradise by that very means we gain'd the Imperial City of Constantinople For when Mahomet the Great besieged that City the miserable Emperour Constantinus Palaeologus went in vain from door to door to borrow money to pay his Souldiers but when it was taken to the eternal shame of the Citizens there was enough found not only to supply the Luxury but the Covetousness of the Turks I see now you are our friends and therefore let us make a League an Association be pleas'd to call it said the Earl and let it be to destroy Popery and Popish Successors Withall my heart replyed the Vizier I 'le down with their Images I 'le burn their Wooden gods untill the sap runs out at their Heels we 'll persecute their Crucified God from City to City Oh! ay ay cry'd the Earl Now you have hit upon 't be sure utterly to abolish the Sign of the Cross and you will gain the Hearts of all true Protestants for ever Well! said the Vizier now our hands are in we 'll take care to establish the Protestant Religion so that no time shall wear it out How so replyed the Earl Why said the Vizier you know that one Pope Gregory hath polluted your Christian account or Kalendar by the alteration of ten days for the future therefore let all true Protestants date all affairs from the Year of Hegira All the reason in the world said the Earl for I 'll tell you what a Sorcerous trick a damn'd Popish Almanack maker served you What was that said the Vizier You know replyed the Earl that the ninth day of September the Christian Army came to the Relief of Vienna that on the tenth they were clearly Masters of your Camp and routed your forces Too true said the Vizier What then why in an Almanack which a Gentleman bought at Florence in Italy printed for the year 1683 for the 20th day of September which with us is the 10th was this prediction il gladio di Dio in viscera di Imperio Ottomanno principi Christiani molto felici c. No more of the Language of the beast In English thus That the Sword of God should be in the bowels of the Ottoman Empire that the Christians should be very happy c. How wonderfully replied the Vizier did all your Protestant Prognosticators fib that year when they so confidently affirm'd that we should pull down the Pope and overturn the Triple Crown Don't despair said the Earl you have the prayers of the Brethren Do but once again clap your Horse-tail to the Beast in the Revelation and I 'll warrant you she will run away with the Whore of Babylon and give her such a damnable fall as she never yet had I perceive replyed the Vizier you are not very faithful to any body you do but make sport with our affliction but I am sure we have reason to be sorrowful in good earnest Oh! that Fatal day that Black and Gloomy day The Earl seeing him in a great fit of grief turn'd to his Chaplain a little diminutive Puritan that stood at his back in Querpo Comfort him up thou man of God Comfort him up said He with some portion of Scripture lest he faint away At this Mr. Prick Ears opened his mouth and began to utter How are the Mighty fallen Hold cryed the Earl have a care of stumbling upon the Mountains of Gilboa you know 't is about Vienna apply 'um right and now go on How are the mighty fallen and the weapons of war perished Tell it not in London publish it not in Rome least the Daughters of the Tories rejoyc least the daughters of the Vncircumcised triumph An excellent Preacher reply'd the Vizier he cuts out all our