they often become a Charm and the Antidote it self turns to a Disease For since the World cannot so easily fubdue us by Threats and Hostility by Assaults and open Force it immediately flies to all the Arts of Policy to Stratagem and Retreat like a subtil Magitian it presently turns its Rod into a Serpent it dazzles our Senses with a delicious prospect of its Counterfeit Glories and so leads us in Golden Fetters to Destruction For the World like the Old Enemy of Mankind doe's first deceive the Female Parties within us it caresses each Lust and tender Passion with fair and specious Allurements and when these have embraced swallow'd the Golden Delusion our Masculine Faculties are too soft and flexible to resist the pleasing Temptation and proselyted Reason begins to hearken to the Dictates of our Senses And thus having at length enslav'd our Understandings it begins to play the Tyrant over us to engross our Time our Thoughts and all our Actions If we chance to be in a religious or thoughtful mood the World soon turns it into Hippocrisy and Disguise if we enter into Discourse about sacred Mysteries it soon perverts it into Burlesque and wanton Talk and when we would draw forth our honest intentions by the Rules of strict Morality it brings 'em out in the Dialect of Friends in Crusings and bitter Calumny when we are busy and employ'd about our necessary Callings it instructs us in the quaint and artificial Methods of Knavery and Deceit and when we retire from them for a sober Indulgence and Refreshment of our Natures the World is ready at hand to overwhelm us with Luxury and Excess Nay if we enter into our Closets for the Exercise of our Devotion the World do's there likewise pursue us it imprints its Image upon our very Hearts and Minds challenges all our Thoughts and Attention and so turns our lawful Prayers into Idolatry These Dangers of Prosperity have struck such an awe upon the Spirits of Great Men in former Ages that they never consider'd 'em without trembling and astonishment Hence 't is Recorded of many Antient Hero's that after some Signal Victories and Atchievments they have grown pensive and melancholly and chang'd their August and sprightly Countenances into a sad dejection and captivity of Spirit And tho' some late Vertuosi have ascrib'd these effects to the Effluviums and Darts of some envious Eyes about 'em yet I question not but this will ever pass among the thinking part of Mankind for a very derogatory and ungrounded Fancy It was not the Envy or the Frowns of Men but fear of the just Anger of the Gods that made the Renowned Cato cry out in Livy That the more he prosper'd the more he grew afraid And for the same reason Augustus Caesar once every year laid aside his Regalities and receive'd Alms with all the humble Ceremony of a Beggar he feared his long uninterrupted Prosperity suspected the Anger of the Over-ruling Deity and therefore endeavour'd to divert his wrath by a Voluntary Humiliation And if we look into the Annals of the Christian Church we shall meet with some in the hot Interval of the Heathen Persecution bewailing themselves that God not yet called them to the Glories of Tribulation the Illustrious Toils of Martyrdom and after this Pagan Storm was blown over and the Church of God was adorn'd with honourable Endowments we shall find many wise and venerable Bishops climbing very heavily into the Episcopal Chair and when they were there plac't as sadly lamenting the Danger of their Station they look't upon such heights as a Temptation rather than a Duty and more a Punishment than Promotion And if we cast our eyes forward and observe the succeeding Centuries of the Church we shall be tempted to think that this noted suspition was no Panick Dread but a very just and necessary circumspection for as Tacitus has observ'd of the Roman Empire that after its martial Humour was abated by Peace and a gentle Discipline it became dispirited by Riots and intestine Factions so may we plainly discern a most deplorable alteration in the State of Christianity so soon as the Heathen Tyranny was overpast While the First Christians were treated with Severities their Lives were a genuine Transcript of their Profession they convinc't the world with the best Argument of a Religious Conversation insomuch that the Heathens submitted at length to a tame and a gentle Discipline and Christianity appear'd a True Mystery of Godliness But when through the favour of a milder Providence it became the Imperial Profession when it's Votaries were dismist from the Lectures of the Cross and the Prevailing Council of Afflictions they quickly clos'd with the treacherous Sollicitations of Flesh and Blood and flattering Vanities of the World And this was the immediate Doom of Christianity so soon as the Pagan Tyranny was over-past for then Christians themselves renounc't all Obligations of Meekness and Humility and turn'd the former Glories of the Cross into the Scandal of Persecution Their former Unity became broken and subdivided by the Pride of Arrians Donatists and Novatians and those latter Ages were almost as remarkable for Ambition Luxury and a Tyrannical Zeal as the former had been for an incomparable Piety and victorious Martyrdoms So natural is it for Men to turn their Liberty into Vanity by too high an Admiration of it and to corrupt their Food by the Poyson of their own Natures And when Men are become such Vassals to the World such Votaries of Sense and Pleasure they must also languish in their Duty towards God and fall off proportionably from the divine Assistance For how can they listen to the call of Heav'n amidst all this Pomp and Secular Distraction or bestow one Thought upon Futurity and Judgment But when at length some signal Calamity shall give the daring Sinner an Alarm when Afflictions the Welcome Harbinger of God's Love fall like a Dew upon him This shews him the Vanity of his Carnal Ease and Security and opens a prospect into the Land of the Living For the apprehensions of a God and of our Duty to him are so essential to our Souls and inseparable from our Natures that tho' Men may seem to drown 'em for a while they lye dissolv'd in delicacy and pleasure yet the least touch of anguish will sometimes awaken us into severe Reflections and dash all the Harmony of our Blood and Spirits 'T is is very pious Remark of that Great Philosopher whom wise Antiquity hath justly honoured with the Title of Divine That when a Man perceives that he is just drawing towards his latter End 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. He is then seized with a doubtful Trembling and an Enquiry into those things which before he would scarce vouchsafe to think upon And tho' he might once laugh at the Pious and grave Cheats of Immaterial Beings and Immortal Spirits yet now the very Tales of Ghosts and Fayries will affright him he will be ready to shrink at
Martyrdom was baited with Honours and Wealthy Accommodations it became the more dangerous thereby and tho some good Men foresaw the Temptation and declin'd the Charge yet others we find could not be so perfectly consecrated as to apprehend it And as Riches encreas'd so did Mens Affections too till as Platina himself tells us The Church was defac't with riotous Pomp and sordid Luxury it lookt more like a dissolute Wanton than the holy Spouse of Christ Nay to so prodigious a height was the Ecclesiastical Grandeur advanc't towards the latter end of the 4 th Century that it gave occasion to this Sarcastical Saying of a heathen Consul Make me but Bishop of Rome and I will strait turn Christian. And now the days of darkness were at hand when the Roman Clergy however illiterate according to the mode and genius of the Times wanted not subtilty to advance their secular Designs Several gainful Articles were invented Canons were forg'd and Donations pretended to promote the Royal Splendor of the Church and abett the Pope's unlimited Jurisdiction But do our English Clergy hold any meer pecuniary Doctrines honorary Articles or chargeable Propositions If our Author will be so hardy to assert this and so acute to prove his Assertion I do solemnly promise That by way of Pennance and Mortification for my Mistake I will get all Mr. P n's and Mr. B r's Books by heart a task not to be perform'd standing upon one leg and when 't is done cannot much improve the Christian or the Schollar Therefore whatever degeneracy of this kind may be found among some few which ought not certainly to reflect upon the whole Order must be ascrib'd to an unhappy particularity of Temper to the weaknesses of Old Age or some other such like Infirmity when the Intellectual Fire begins to grow weak and languishing and the Divine Particle is almost overwhelm'd For to speak in the stile of the Learned Annotator upon Lux Orient The Constitution of Youth in those that have not an unhappy Nativity is far more Heavenly and Angelical than that of more grown Age in which the Spirit of the world is more usually awaken'd men then begin to be wholly intent to get Wealth and Riches to enlarge their Interests by the friendship of great Persons and to hunt after Dignities and Preferments Honours and Employments in Church and State And so those more heavenly and divine Sentiments through difuse and the presence of more filling Impressions are laid asleep and their Spirits thicken'd and clouded with the gross Fumes and Steams that arise from the desire of earthly things and it may so fall out if there be not special care taken that this mud which they have drawn in by their coarse Desires may come to that opaque hardness and incrustation that their Terrestrial Body may prove a real Dungeon and cast 'em into an utter oblivion of their chiefest concerns in another State If that sacred Character which adorns and distinguishes the Profession of the Clergy weigh little with our Prefacer yet methinks that Knowledge which as will appear anon doe's a little distinguish 'em from the generality of Canting Travellers should awe him into some degree of deference and respect If he were actually as deep a Padder in Politicks as he would seem he would fear to affront an Order of Men the meanest of which could give him just occasion to hang down the head to blush and to look sillily But we find by daily experience that as there is a Superiority of Education and Wit as well as of Authority so 't is as natural to sordid and illiterate Wretches to run a-tilt against their Betters in Understanding as 't is to others to despise Dominion and speak evil of Dignities Here let the generous Reader give me leave to make a stand a while and complain a little of the hard Fate of Learning in this Age Suppose a Man has entertain'd and polisht his Mind and rational Faculties with the Works of those Ancients that rescu'd and preserv'd their natural Reason and Religion amidst all the wildnesses of Pagan Darkness and Coufusion such as Orpheus Homer Euripides AEschylus Menander Xenophon Socrates Aristotle Pythagoras Hierocles and others together with all the Divine and Perfective Discourses of Cicero Seneca Virgil Horace and the rest of the Grecian and Roman Poets and Philosophers let him add to all these the Pious and Seraphical Discourses of the Fathers be able to recite and confute all Heresies from Nicholas and Cerinthus Carpocrates and Valentinus successively down to the times of John a Leyden and all the rest of our Modern Innovators Nay though he comprehend all the Rarities and Treasures of the Vatican the Escurial the Ambrosian Florentine and Bodleian Libraries yet that very wretch whose Politicks and Reading never rais'd him higher than the Dâ—or of Hope Poor Man's Cup God's loud Call A Token for Children The Morning Seeker None-such Charles The Assemblie's Works Scotch Psams and the Account of DENMARK shall start up as Grand a Resolver of Cases expounder of dark Texts confounder of Heresies and modeller of States as the most celebrated Oracle of Divinity or Law Nay a confident Traveller by virtue of a hard Forehead a set of Stories and Legerdemain of the Pen shall on a sudden transform the most Excellent Body of Men into a loose pack of Worldlings and silly graceless Professors Pref. Had these Countries whilst they were free committed the Government of their Youth to Philosophers instead of Priests they had c. This Passage if consider'd in it's just and proper connexion and dependance seems only to relate to the ill management of the Jesuitical Priesthood But I am fully persuaded by Reasons obvious enough that he designs here to stab the Canonical Priest-hood in general and that he would be thus understood by common and injudicious Readers 'T is hard and ill fencing with an Enemy that looks a-squint and such a Character is truly applicable to a great part of this rambling Preface This sort of doubtful or double meaning has done far worse execution than the double Sword of the Bishops which this tender Gentleman seems so much afraid of and while some white ey'd Jugglers have been railing and making faces against Antichrist and the Man of Sin The Church of England has fall'n a design'd as well as unlamented Sacrifice And here I shall observe That our Prefacer is not only affectedly Vain and Romantick in his Projections but commits unhappy Blunders in the management of 'em too The two choice things which he chiefly seems to adore and exalt above the King and every thing that is sacred are the Commonalty and Old Philosophers yet the former even of these he exposes upon the Stage acting like Madmen out of a Principle of punctilious Baseness and to render 'em the more contemptible and ridiculous he shuffles them and the Clergy into one foolish and revengeful Plot A Plot to undoe themselves and their Posterity Account pag.
Man arriv'd to before his time And as the Philosophers acquir'd an Immortality to themselves so they gave a kind of Reputation and Lustre to their Kindred and Acquaintance too 'T was an Honour heretofore to a Gentleman to have been at Athens and convers't with the Grecian Sages Olorus had not been remembred by Posterity but for his Son Thucidides and Seneca observes That the name of Sophronischus had been buried in oblivion but for his Son Socrates Nor had Aristo and Gryllus been known to after Ages if it had not been for Xenophon and Plato Pref. Germany was freer than any other part of Europe till at length 't was Lorded by Captains which in process of time grew Princes and Electors and by Bishops with Temporal Authority who may thank Charles the Great a very bigotted Prince for their double Sword of Flesh and Spirit And again They speaking of the Clergy have cast off the Opinions of Rome in the Supremacy of the Pope and other Points but they would retain the Grandeur belonging to that Church and applaud us for doing both so dextâ—rously Account cap. 16. p. 230. This is all over the exact Genius and Spirit and almost the very stile of a broken-hearted Covenanting Brother as will appear to any that shall peruse the Sayings of the great Lights o' th Church or new Reformation 1641. c. Nay if I well remember the Sweet-singers of Billingsgate canted in this Tune and much after the same manner The Oyster-women lock't their Fish-up And trudg'd away to cry no Bishop Here is a strong mixture of Ignorance and Ill-manners nor is it easy to determine which is the most predominant Ingredient Every Prince it seems that is zealous for the Honour of the Church and Clergy is with him an half-witted Bigot and consequently not fit to Govern and every Modern Prelate and Usurper Nothing doe's more dazie envious and weak Eyes than Ecclesiastick Splendor and a peaceable flourishing Condition of the Church He could make no question as bold a stroke at the Picture of Constantine himself upon occasion and I shall venture to tell him That he has already libell'd most of the Courts and Governments of Europe For the European Princes upon the the first entertainment of the Evangelical Codes admitted the Episcopal Order into their Courts of Judicature so doe's Adam Bremensis particularly speak in Relation to the State of Denmark Starovolscius of Poland Loccenius of Sweden Hinâ—mâ—r and Bignonius of France The Toletane Councils of Spain and Arumaeus a German a much better Lawer and Protestant than our Prefacer speaking of Bishops sitting in the Diets both as Prelates and Princes commends the Wisdom and Justice of that Constitution in relation to true Polity and safety of Religion Indeed the imperial Constitutions before the Papacy began give allowance to Bishops to be Judges in Civil Causes as well as Ecclesiastical which I presume laid the Foundation of this sort of Episcopal Rights and Jurisdiction and all Donations and Favours of this kind from Princes in After-Ages were only a glorious Transcript of this Original The Prefacer seems to have espous'd the Doctrine of the Leviathan part 3. cap. 47. where Mr. Hobbs endeavouring to over-throw Christ's Kingdom in this world represents that Notion as a design or artifice of the Roman Clergy to support their secular Greatness But how Christ's Kingdom upon Earth should be a Popish Imposture to advance ambitious Ends when this Doctrine was first preached by our Saviour himself afterwards by his immediate Disciples and propagated by succeeding Apostolical Men in the Ages of Persecution is a mysterious Riddle which I cannot comprehend But this State of Affliction was not to be perpetual and unalterable for when Kings should become Nursing Fathers of the Church the Evangelical Priesthood was to make a more Glorious Figure in the World St. Peter mentions a Royal Priesthood and this is so far from carrying a new and surprizing sound to the more rational part of Mankind that it has been ever own'd by the more polish't and civiliz'd Nations Among the Romans the Pontifices were carried in a Charriot of State to the Capitol and were allow'd to interpose in matters of Polity and civil Concernment as well as of Religion as Cicero speaks at large in his Oration for his Hoâ—se Among the Bâ—â—ylonians and Egyptians as Josephus writes in his Tract against Appion and which I would have the Author of the Account of Denmark particularly observe there were none thought worthy to be honoured and entrusted with the Office of an Historian but the those of the Sâ—cerdoâ—al Character Every pedling Observator was not then thought fit to communicate the Actions of Princes and brave Men or recommend the Examples of Heroe's to Posterity To give an Account of tâ—â— vast Affairs of State the Revolutions of Governments the various turns of Providence in the advancement declination and fall of Empires and of great Personages to discern the more hidden Springs the private Walks and all the Masques of Villany to trace fallen Vertue through the Cloud and Veil to distinguish nicely betwixt the Prosperous and Brave the Bad and the Unfortunate was thought a task that requir'd a great and unwearied industry a penetrating Judgment a sublime Learning an impartial Reason and other extraordinary Accomplishments in the Undertaker But now each Youthful or Grey-headed Pedant aspires to the Historical Faculty 't is but rambling a little about the Globe casting his eyes around and travelling till he is tired and then he shall lye down fall into Dreams and Visions and rise up an illuminated Historian in a moment and not contented to take the Office out of the Rightful Hands he fancies it to be his peculiar Province to expose the Sacred Office to contempt and ridicule the Priesthood like the Evil Spirit that perpetually haunts him he seeks but can find no rest And that worm of impertinence that is got into his Brain can never lye still till the whole Nation 's disturb'd by it's wrigling Secondly Another preparatory Step towards the carrying on an Antimonarchial Project is making a senseless pother and noise about Tyranny and Arbitrary Power For the people are govern'd by Names and the power of Words and seldom see beyond the surface of things and any little Jâ—ggling Poliâ—itian can in the view of the people make an unfortunate Sally an involuntary Tax or some other trivial Digression appear â— terrible advance towards Tyranny and absolute Dominion This was heretofore the Logick of the Saints as well as of Gottam to uplift the Good Cause in the days of Regeneration and to shew how good Wits can jump upon occasion I shall set down the very words nay the Heart and Soul of the Prefacerâ— Pref. Good Learning as well as Travel is a great Antidote against the Plague of Tyranny The Heroe's celebrated in the Books of the Antients are for the most part such as had destroy'd or expell'd Tyrants Good Learning indeed which the
World with his presence we want not those who would revile his person dispise his Office and applaud his Crucifixion Pref. The Books that are left us of the Antients are full of Doctrines Sentences and Examples exhorting to the conservation or recovery of the publick Liberty Here he would fain shelter himself again under the authority of the Antients who as I have shewn before have already turn'd him out of their Society for his Insufficiency and false Accusations The Antients ne're dream't of such a Liberty as he would inculcate since't was the main design of their Phylosophy to curb all irregular sallies of our Nature and bound our Appetites with a prudential restraint Publick Liberty in the mouth of a Flaming Enthusiastick Zealot is like a naked Sword in the hands of a Lunatick Brother dangerous and destructive and the one should no more be trusted alone without a limitation than the other without a Scabbard 'T is a Licence to Kick Bite Swear and play the Libertine thro' all the various Scenes of carnality and lust to be Covetous and what 's worse to Rebel for Conscience-sake Write Treason Directly or Indirectly and cheat our neighbour with a zealous twinkling of the Eye or in saying of a Prayer He that is Free-born is likewise born in a State of Subjection to Laws and though by his Birth-Right he 's Entitled to certain Priviledges and Civil Rights yet he is also Entitled to some certain measures of obedience as he 's a Subject And whosoever talks so loftily of the one and industriously conceals the other doe's but abuse the Multitude into dangerous Sentiments with a nonsensical jingle of Words and is so far from being a True English Polititian that he 's a down-right shuffling Impostor Again tho the Conservation of Publick Liberty which he so feelingly talks of may admit a soft and easy Interpretation yet to talk of the Recovery of it at this time as if it were totally lost seems to carry with it an ill-natur'd Republican Sound such as can strike musically upon none but the Longâ—ear'd Rout as the Comick Poet describes ' em But to proceed Pref. Heroe's there celebrated are for the most part such as had destroy'd or expelled Tyrants and though Brutus be generally declaimed against by Modern School-boys he was then esteem'd the true Pattern and Model of exact Vertue I am so far from favouring the name of Tyrant that I am almost sick and nauâ—eated with the Repetition I had rather He had told us some prodigious Tale of Sir Guy Bevis Garagantua or Tom Thumb such Romantick Raveries would have suited much better with the prerogative of a little Traveller they had also done as much good to the publick But then as he is cunning enough to discern it seems He had done less harm and execution As to the Heroe's which he doats on and seems to admire They were some of 'em like the celebrated Gods among the Heathens or the Modern Saints in our New Martyrology the vilest and basest of Mortals and fit only to be extoll'd by such a fulsome Orator as himself I know but one Modern Hero that comes near him for blustering and proud Language and that is the Great Almanzor in the Play who in a vaunting stile describes himself after this manner I am as free as Nature first made Man E're the base Laws of Servitude began When wild in Woods the Noble Savage ran Seneca advises us always to bear in our Minds the Idea of some Great Man for whom we have a singular Veneration And his Authority will help to fix and purify our Thoughts and be a good Conductor of our Lives Now some perhaps upon perusing this Direction would have thought of the Divine Plato others of Socrates who as Solinus AElian and Maximus Tyrius report was of a sweet and even Temper all his Life But our Prefacer scorns to be confin'd within such narrow and ordinary Rules or to soar so mean pitch No less than Brutus his beloved magnanimous the Brave and King-killing Brutus must be his Guide and Director He 's the true Pattern and model of exact Vertue Apulejus heretofore wrote in favour of an Ass Sextus Empiricus in commendation of a Dog Erasmus of Folly Scaliger of a Goose and Heinsius of a Louse all which may pass for ingenious Extravagances and Innocent Tryals of an Exuberant Wit and Fancy But to commend the action of Brutus touching the Death of Caesar is a Sally of a different Nature Character and Consequence and appears a flight beyond the Vanity of Cardan himself who wrote a Panegyrick upon Nero. We meet with but few even among the Orators and Poets Euthusiastical enough to justify this Act of Brutus and they that have done so had better eternally been silent for it has left a Stain and Blot upon their Memories Tho Milton who durst say any thing in the perillous Times of Darkness and Usurpation has made use of this instance to grace his Insolent Triumphs yet R. F. no great pretender to Modesty or Assertor of Kingly Government has not confidence enough to make the least Apology for the Fact but exposes Cicero for his Justification of the Villany Adding withal Had we nothing but the Sentiments of Philosophers to conduct us in our Loyalty no Prince could be secure Of Moral Vertue and Grace p. 229. I must freely own That I could never contemplate the Fate of Caesar without a mixture of compassion horror and detestation I consider that Men of the most bright and eminent Station and Character have their Faults and Deviations and then 't is customary with mean and obnoxious persons to make their invidious Remarks and Observations If the lesser Lights digress the world is little concern'd but should the Sun make a false step the generality of Mankind would immediately fear a bad Omen and Desolation But whatever faults lay mingled with Caesar's Vertues Brutus must still be his equal If Caesar was ambitious Brutus was too aspiring If Caesar was Tyrannical Brutus was ungrateful and therefore we have in him an Abridgment of all Iniquity This celebrated Action was not the effect of Piety to his Country the everlasting pretence of Villains in such cases but of a wretched Pride Popularity and Affectation In the Death of Caesar at least we may behold all the Lineaments of a Gallant and Brave Soul while in the Action of Brutus we see nothing but cowardly Insult and all the lamentable Marks of a groveling and abject Spirit Now there is nothing gives a more deadly wound to a great and ingenuous Mind than Desertion in time of Extremity and a secret treacherous Blow from the Party whom we love They that have courted Danger in all its Images and Forms and have been glad to meet an open generous Enemy in the Field have grown pale and trembled at the sight of a sneaking Adversary under the false Colours of a Friend This was the Case of Caesar at his last hour when surrounded