THE CHARACTER OF A Leading Petitioner.  
HE is an Insect produced by the Carrion of a Commonwealth, and naturally tends to dissolve into his Principium, and primary constitution: though he be preserved by the heat and moisture of serene Majesty, yet like contemptible Vermin, He will with noisome pestilence infect that Air, to whose teeming indulgence he owes his original, He's unmannerly and mean, senseless and impertinent, and though, being enjoined by duty, and qualyfied by education, to show himself an industrious Terpawlin, when the billows of the troubled State furiously heave, yet He'll saucily presume to give directions to his , and regardless of his own respective Office, will boldly aim at the management of the Healm. He in the repining Ghost of a dissolved Parliament, that uneasily stalks about in obscurity and night, abusing popular credulity with the deluding hopes of imaginary Treasure. He has the wit of a Dane, the truth of a Frenchman, and the conscience of a London Grand-jury-man; And yet this vain and troublesome tool would possess his obsequious rout, that the healing results of a most wise Prince and untainted Council, are inferior to the long Muster-Roll and Country Clubs of Richards and Robins, He is that unnatural Green-sickness of the Body- Politic, that would exchange the wholesomer nourishment of a well-ordered Government, for the loathsome Trumpery of odious Trash. Herodotus takes occasion to illustrate the ridiculous vanity of a Malcontent of this nature in his History about Cambyses, who perceiving some discontent in one of his Officers, that could not without some pretence attempt the traitorous design of unkinging his Master; The Prince did indulge his Petitioner so far, as cautiously to comply with his unreasonable request; But when the Supplicant perceived the very Grant of his requests. had ruind his design, He condemned his importunities, and submissively sued to be restored to his first condition. How greadily this Petitional Animal catcheth at the seeming gilded bait of that imaginary Liberty that betrays him; He repines when he's hungry, and murmurs when he's full, no sooner has a Moses redelivered him from slavery, and pampered him with the Manna of peace and plenty, but the High-fled Blockhead grows senseless of his happiness, and industriously contrives for misery and want. He has the feathers of a Swan, but the stomach of an Ostrich; He pretends innonsence and wellmeaning zeal, but can digest a harsher diet without any offence to his constitution. He is that troublesome Vapour that breaks out of the earth to make a wind, and only sighs himself into a Calm to recover breath and blow again. He is the crudor humours and Itch of a Kingdom, and not only tickels himself into torment, but revengfully infects his Neighbour, and if the wholesome Phebetomy of the Observator, had not fetched it out of his veins by the timely discovery of his disease, the Infant Itch would have spread into an incurable Scurf. He is the Epitome of all sorts of villainies, and compriseth in his own peculiar Nutshell the bold contrivances and ridiculous attempts of Jack Straw and his successless Gang. Rebellion is his end, but the pretence of good service his means: There's more Loyalty in the very Title Page of one of the Intelligences, then in a thousand advising Sheets of his Petitioning Scrowls. He pretends 'tis the fear of Popery that alarms him, and to prevent that, He'll pull up the Wheat together with the Tares, and (like the foolish Indian, that despiseth the Pearl because he found it in a puddle) he'll reject the truth of the Religion together with the Errors. He refuseth to come to Church, and comply with the Ceremonies because death upon the Belfry is Popishly affected, and because the sand in his hourglass is Jesuits Powder; He contemns the Church Bible because 'tis corrupted by the evil Council of the Apocryphas, and fancies that Tobith's dog was nothing else but the Pope's Cerberus; Addresses he esteems as a sneaking peace of cowardice, and reckons him to be the boldest Champion of Religion that will strenuously oppose the Defender of it; His Bugbear jealousies are the creatures of his own head. And (like the Artist that made a Devil which terrified him) he first creates and then fears them; In a word, he's a desturber of the tranquillity of the Nation, and an Enemy to all Loyal Subjects.   

LONDON, Printed for W. Davis. 1681.