Υπερηφανιαζ Μυζηριον OR, Machiavil Redivivus. BEING An exact Discovery or Narrative OF THE Principles & Politics OF Our Bejesuited Modern fanatics.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Menander. Idem facere, quod plurimi alii, quibus Res timida aut Turbida est, Pergunt turbare usque, ut ne quid possit conquiescere. Plautus. Quod non praevalet Sacerdos efficere per Doctrinae Sermonem, Potestas hoc imperet, per Disciplinae terrorem. Isid. 
By J. YALDEN Esq;  
LONDON: Printed for Will. Cademan, at the Pope's head in the New Exchange. 1681.   

TO The Right Honourable Thomas Earl of Ardglas, Viscount Lecale, And Baron of Okeham.  
MY LORD,  
HAD I no other grounds whereon to warrant this Intrusion into your Lordship's Patronage, no other pretence to court your Protection, than barely by Prescription from your Lordship's accustomed Favours, (which are the common effects of your universal Goodness) I should not have presumed, especially in this 
* W●en e●●● one t●●t int●●●●●●s Countries' 〈◊〉, is either ●ate● or m●●d●●●●.  Crisis, to offer this Dedication: But 'tis from and under Principles, and those most eminent and invincible. (like refulgent Attributes) your Lordship's Loyalty and Courage, that I presume to crave shelter: And the world knows the exuberous current of your inexhausted Virtues cannot be oppugned, even by the strength of the greatest malice; nor can the strongest Venom either hurt or prejudice amidst the glowing Beams or Sunshine of your Lordship's Excellence, but must, like the unwholesome Fogs, yield and fly before the vigour of the rising Sun.  
Though (my Lord) I could plead my Innocence, and both justify and cry out, Qui nihil injustè agit nullà opus habet lege, in bar to all the malice I must expect to meet with; yet that alone is not of force sufficient, but I must have Recourse to your Lordship for Succour and Defence. And I find by common Experience from the Methods of Fanaticism, that by how much the greater my Innocence is, by so much the greater is the Danger I am to encounter; and that not so much from the knowledge I have of my own weakness, but much rather from the strength of Malice and Revenge, which are of the Leaven of Popery and Presbytery. However, 
Sir Edmund-bur. Godfrey. The Archb. of St. Andrews.  I shall not fear under the defence and conduct of so good a Patron, being fortified with Truth and good Design. The damnable practices of some men , and the accursed cruelties of former times, are but Emblems of those insupportable Miseries which these Kingdoms (divided into Schisms and P●●●ies) have too evident grounds to ●●pect and dread from the devouring jaws of Ambition, Self-interest, and Faction.  
I have endeavoured in the Sequel of this, to represent unto your Lordship and all good men, the arcana Ambitionis, by giving you the picture of a person over-covetous of Glory. The Piece is corpse, but yet ad vivum pictus; 'tis the vera Effigies or Expression of that which was the life of our late abortive Troubles and disastrous Miseries. But here I meet with the mighty Objection of that Party which were either active in the late Rebellion, or are now about to act over again and revive that bloody Tragedy, (viz.) The Act of Oblivion, which is strongly pleaded in bar to all discourses of this kind; and is so strangely wrested by some men of these times, even to anticipate our Oblivion to what they are now about to act. 
Qutre.  But I would fain know, whether it be an offence against the Clemency of his Majesty and that Parliament, so to remember the old Rebellion, 
An. 1641.  as a caution to prevent the multiplied Oppressions and Miseries that must necessarily happen upon a new; when (alas!) 'tis too evident, that men act  upon the same principles with those of Forty One; and it can never be intended, but that this Act ought to bury both the 
* Tot Fac●ions of t●●●e times t●●d t● a Rebellion.  Offences with the punishments due to the demerits and guilt of the Offenders.  
'Tis true (my Lord) that transcendent Act of Mercy, the Act of Oblivion, did for some while rake up the Ruins of our Late Times; and we rested quiet, till some of wretched and restless principles (who are always busy for the sake of Strife and Contention) did first begin to spread abroad those Embers, to search for old matters to work new Mischiefs: But I hope the all-discerning Providence of Heaven will surprise them in their own Snares, and so direct the prudence of our Governors, that by their wise Counsels they may timely crush the Cockatrice in its shell.  
Shepherds of People had need know the Kalendars of Tempests in State; 
Bacon's Essays, Tit. Seditions.  for as there are certain hollow blasts of wind, and secret swell of Seas, as the certain signs of a following Tempest; so are there in Kingdoms and Commonwealths.  — Ille etiam caecos instare Tumultus Saepe monet, Fraudésque & operta tumescere Bella. 
Libels and licentious Discourses against the State, when they are frequent and open; and in like sort false News, often running up and down to the disadvantage of the Government (and hastily embraced) are amongst the signs of Trouble. Virgil giving the Pedigree of Fame, saith, She was Sister to the Giants.  
Illam Terra Parens ira irritata Deorum,  
Extremam (ut prohibent) Caeo Enceladoque sororem  
Progenuit.—  
As if Fame's were the relics of Seditions past; but they are indeed no less than the Preludes of Seditions to come: However, he noteth it right, that saith, Seditious Tumults, and seditious Fames, differ no more but as Brother and Sister, Masculine and Feminine, especially if it once come to this, That the best actions of a State, and the most plausible, and which ought to give the greatest contentment, are taken in an ill sense, and traduced; for that shows the envy great, as Tacitus saith, Conflata magna invidia, sen benè, sen malè, gesta premunt.  

Private Cabals.  There is no Kingdom but hath a Race of men, that are ingenious at the peril of the Public, that are busy and at work always to undermine that Government that is uppermost; such whose shoulders are so gauled, as they cannot endure the least touch of Obedience: So that as one said of Galba (in respect of his withered crooked body) Ingenium Galbae male habitat; so may I say of these, in regard of their crooked use, That Wit could not have chosen a worse Mansion than where it is vitiated, and made a Pander to Wickedness. There is, I say, a Generation of men that are born to be the plague and disquiet, and scourge of the Age they live in; that gladly sacrifice the public Peace to private Interest; who when they see all fired, with joy warm their hands at those unhappy flames which themselves kindled; tuning their merry Harps, when others are weeping over a Kingdom's Funeral.  
Your Lordship is of another stock, so that whosoever contemplates your Actions, must conclude, that Nobilitas est sola atque unica virtus: Your Family hath stood against the Waves and Wethers of Time, immovable, fixed, and always loyal. Je feray mon devoir, is the Motto of your Lordship's Coat; which I cannot better understand than in allusion to that excellent Axiom of the Roman Orator, Omnis laus virtutis in actione consistit. And now, my Lord, I humbly beg that your Lordship will be pleased to own me for such, as I am obliged in all Gratitude to render myself,  
Oct. 5. 1680. Your Lordship's most devoted humble Servant, J. Yalden.   

THE PREFACE.  
HOw horrendous are the Times? And how monstrom, and to be bewailed and hated, are the Principles of s●●e men, whose greatest aims and constant practices seem to endeavour at the very roots of Piety and Christianity; and to turn moral Honesty topsie-turvis, taking the antipodes of every Virtue for their Paths, as the nearest abode to the bottom of their endless Ambition? 'Tis that alone is the abyst of man's perpetual tortures, 
The dismal effect of ambition.  the wrack of his mind, and the wings of his restless desires: Sometimes 'tis dark and envious, and cannot endare the luminous irradiations of another's peace and happiness, and is always ready for destruction. In fine, it is that door of Hell which opens to all the disastrous miseries of mankind; it is that hand which directed and plunged the Knife of Cain into the throat of his Brother Abel; it nearly resembles those Birds of blood and prey, which live in the unfortunate Islands near the North-Pole, and devour one another even in their Nests. Ambition carries continually in its hand Glasses of a thousand Faces, and coloured with as many Passions; which causeth Fire frequently to be taken for Smoke, Black for White, and all Beauties for Deformities or Deceits.  
Let us look about us, and see it aptly deciphered in the present State of Europe, which has sufficiently felt the dismal consequences thereof, in the miserable effects of unnatural and bloody Wars: Which most influencing and malignant Plan●● of the Passions, will be always Regent, until Kingdoms and Commonwealths are steered by honest and good Councils; until Princes make Justice the Herald of their Demands, and make no other use of Wars, 
The true use of Wars.  than as the last Appeals to Heaven, when Wrongs cannot be removed on Earth.  
There is certainly now no Heaven upon Earth; the Devil is broke lose, and that Master of Misrule has set the World together by the ears; his Engines are now abroad, his Politics only practised, his Machiavil is now become Redivivus, and his Disciples preach the ensuing Doctrines. Nothing that's Sacred, can bind Mankind to its good behaviour, the Decalogue, and all sacred Ordinances, are ᵉ but weak Restrictions where Ambition holds the Blow, and Faction or Self-interest drives it. Hence spring the general Calamities of all Nations; and the two great Enemies that now seem principally to threaten Europe, are, either Ambition abroad, or Faction at home. 
Foreign Ambition, and domestic Faction.   
As for the first; Do we not see how frivolous are the Pretensions of France? With what violence he has carried on a War, and with what injustice; how all Europe burns and consumes by the Flames he kindled and begun? Can we not see that his Ambition has outstretched a greater distance than betwixt Dover and Calais? Or do we imagine our Strength and 
* See the Character of the French in Heylyn's description of Italy, parag. 38. sol. 57  Courage to be greater and more formidable than the Emperor and Confederate Princes? Or have we so mean thoughts, as to think his Majesty's Dominions not worth his pains? Or is the French King's love so great (and that entailed on the Crown he wears) that he will not hurt us? Can we be secure in Fool's Paradise? Safety lies not in Imagination, but in Judgement: And the tyranny of that Prince is such (prompted by his Ambition) as will admit of no Counsels that shall be safe either for us or others. His Ambition is that Soil on which nothing can grow, to advance the interest of another: He hates all Superiors or Equals; and with restless pains and Labour covets and pursues universal Monarchy.  
Then secondly, 
Faction.  Let the State beware of that Bufie-body, Faction at home; an enemy of a more horrendous shape than Ambition; the intter being but as the Stirrup by which the former mounts into the Saddle of Rebellion.  

Virgil 1. Aen●id.  Ac veluti in populo cum saepe coörta est Seditio, saevitque animis ignobile vulgus, Jamque faces & arma volant, furor arma ministrat.  
'Tis that Vulture which gnaws out the very bowels of Government; it gins with Order (the more immediate Tie of smaller, but the firmest obligation of greater Communities) by setting Particulars together by the cars; and afterwards proceeds to greater mischiefs, by engaging Parties and dangerous Cabals; and rarely ends but in the ruin of the Commonwealth: Ambition is its Father; Policy its Mother, Ignorance is its Nurse, and Rebellion is its Brother, What cursed Fiend engendered so foul a Monster! What Bowels of Hell enwombed thee! What Darkness gave consent to thy fi●●t conception! O more than Spider-like Malignity! Dire Serpents Veneme, that turns all Honey into Poison! It pretends Religion, but shuns the Practice: It is a Devils in an Angel's plight; most artificially it insinuates the evil of all its actions in show for the public Good. It exclaims against Popery as the Whore of Babylon, when it aims only to suppress Episcopacy; and if Monarchy stands in the way, the Diadem shall be destroyed with the Mitre. In fine, it makes the deepest impressions on popular easiness; and by sounding in the ears of the unwary people the pleasing clangors of Liberty! Liberty! hurries them into at state of the most abject Slavery.  
But (alas!) when I have been told that the 
* The Jesuit and Fanatic.  Clergy have been in the highest degrees accessary to the Civil Distempers, Animosities, and Contentions that have every where shaked the foundations of Church and State, I grieved. I then searched Evangelical Records, wh●re I found nothing but mild and soft Doctrines; I enquired into the breathe of the Spirit, and they were pacificatory; I wondered from what Precedents and Scripture-encouragements these men deduced their practices, and at last was forced to conclude, that they were only pretended Chaplains to the Prince of Peace: Those Tor●bes that should have been for saving Light, were degenerated into Firebrands; those Trumpets that should have sounded Retreats to popular Furies, knew no other Music but Martial Alarms.  
My design in this is only to detect the Politics of wicked men, to expose their Principles to every man's view: This is that Key that must open and at once expose the cancered breasts of evil Ministers: 'Tis this that will dilate the close designs of Tyrants; and if duly observed, both opens to the view of all, and for ever shuts the back-doors and byways to Grandeur: This is for bringing all above-board, and playing fair: This will instruct us how to prevent the dangerous consequences of Ambition abroad, and Faction at home: This will put us on our guard against the designs, and prevent the Surprisals of France: This will remind ●s of Forty One, and if well understood, will undeceive many true Protestants, whose judgement now as well as then have been hood-winked and perverted (much against their own dispositions and Loyalty) by the false News and Impostures of the Jesuits and Faraticks, into evil conceits, destructive in their consequence both to themselves and lawful Governors, in the ruin of their Lives, Religion, and Liberty. And I dare appeal to many sober Gentlemen, If they have not too lately found themselves by such means deceived? I need not mention such who have been too lately drawn in by the Faction, and have since protested against all sorts of tumultuary proceed.  
And to let you see that our fanatics, even of these times, are of the same Stamp with those of Forty One, read but the two Speeches of John King and John Kid, Ministers; 
Executed at Edinburgh, Aug. 14.1679.  where, in the very hour of death, they both bear testimony to the Solemn League and Covenant, and against Antichristian Prelacy, as a thing that calls for divine Vengeance; and in their judgements declare, They thought their Rising in Scotland to be no Rebellion, because they endeavoured to support the Cause. How many hundred instances are there to be offered, wherein they have openly expressed their implacable Malice and Hatred to the present establish and Liberty. And I dare appeal to many sober Religion and Government?  
But before we proceed, it will not be impertinent to overrule the Presbyterian's Plea of Innocence in all matters of Blood and Cruelty: The Lord knows (says he) who is the searcher of hearts, 
King's Sp. p. 4.  that neither my design nor practice was against his Majesty's Person and just Government, but always studied to be loyal to 
* They count no Authority lawful in the Lord, but what allows them Libertty.  lawful Authority in the Lord. Which are the very dying-words of Mr. King, having in the words immediately foregoing, justified the Rebellion as necessary for the suppart of his poor afflicted Brethren: Therefore it was, said he, that I joined with that poor Handful, meaning the Rebels.  
The Presbyterians were not concerned in the Murder of our late martyred Sovereign! No, not they! But let us see what the Independent tells them (who was jointly concerned in that Rebellion with them) going about to convince them of the danger of this King's Restauration. Consider (says our Author) the animosity naturally inherent in the Royal Party and their Head against you; 
Fol. 12, 13.  they will never leave buzzing in his ears, that the interest of your Party was in its infancy founded in Scotland upon the ruin of his great Grandmother, continued and improved by the perpetual vexation of his Grandfather, and at length prosecuted to the Decapitating of his Father. Be not so weak as to so●th yourselves, that you shall far better than others, because you never opposed this young Gentleman's person; it is ground sufficient for his hatred, that you bandied against his Father, and the Prerogative to which be conceives himself Heir. It is the common sense of the Cavaliers, that you prepared his Father for the Block, and are incensed at others, because they took from you the honour of the Execution. And in a Fast-Sermon preached upon the news of his death, before his Son then at the Hague, Dr. Creighton told him, That the Presbyterians pulled his Father down and held him by the hair, while the Independents cut off his head. And after him, it was more elegantly expressed by Salmasius in his Defensio Regia; Presbyteriani Sacrificium ligârunt, Independentes jugulârmt. Nor will be count your Part any whit the less guilty for your hypocritical protesting against the death of his Father, seeing in Sermans' printed several years before, you declared him over and over to be a man of Blood. The Scotish Ministers printed it, That he had shed more in these three Nations, than was shed in the Ten Christian Persecutions: And upon the same account Mr. Love proclaimed in the Pulpit at Uxbridge-Treaty, That no Peace ought to be bad with him. In short, you brought him (as it were) to the foot of the Scaffold, whoever led him up. And now try the Cavaliers courtesy, if you please, you that have both fought and preached against him; but remember this (though I trust ye shall never have occasion) that when time s●r●es, the Philosopher's Maxim will prove good Logic at Court, Qui vult media ad finem, vult etiam & ipsum sinem: Ergo (will the Courtiers say) seeing the Presbyterians did put such Courses in practice as tended to the King's ruin, they certainly intended it, and are as deep in it as others. I wish (says our Author) you may understand rather than feel, what Conclusions will be drawn by them against you, from that Act of Justice, in outting off the King.  
Here is a Charge fairly drawn up by one of their fellow-Labourers, who because they joined in the Murder of King Charles the First, doth from thence endeavour to persuade them to keep out King Charles the Second, lest they should be brought to Justice. That they have acted heretofore even in this very manner, they cannot deny; but I hope they will have more grace or less power for the future, and let their Loyalty and Allegiance be as e●●inent for the time to come, as their Insurrections and Rebellions have been notorious in times past: But I must suspend my Faith in these matters, and cannot believe they are come to this pass, till I hear of no tumultuous Petitions or Associations, till I meet with no 
* A damnable Libel against the Government.  Appeals, and other seditious Pamphlets and Libels. To rebearse even these matters, may seem somewhat harsh; but to see them repeated by that Party, would be much more terrible. I know the old Rule, which saith, That Truth is not to be spoken at all times, doth not deny but that there is a time for mourning as well as laughing, and seems to intimate, that the severest Truths may be told at proper seasons. That we may tell his present Majesty what his Royal Father suffered, when the same Engines are at work for his destruction, is surely no Crime, but an act of Loyalty, a seasonable Memorial, and a Duty incumbent upon every Subject.  
This Treatise designs not to derogate from the true esteem and dignity of any sober, honest, and judicious Politician: Wholesome and good Policy is not to be exposed to irreverence, by prostitution to every vulgar judgement; that Science is ever built upon Piety and Prudence: On these foundations the wise and honest Statesman makes it his endeavours to raise the glorious Superstructure of a well-establisht government in a Prince, which will effect the most willing Obedience in the People; by which the interests of both are so mutually interwoven, that the good or bad fortune of the one, cannot occur without the necessary consent or means of both together: That the Prerogatives of the Crown may shine forth and be preserved in their due lustre, and the Subjects Liberty's rest without Injury or Violation.  
That Statesman is not unaptly styled the Atlas of the sinking State, which hath Remedies against every Malady, heals it when sick, easeth it when oppressed, and meets it in its several pressures with suitable reliefs. Such was Philip the Comines, of whom one said it was a measuring cast, Whether Lewis was the wiser King, or Philip the wiser Counsellor. Such was Butleigh to our late Queen Elizabeth, whose Counsels most effectually produced, or contributed to the prosperity of that Queen's Reign, which was so eminent, as I believe few Ages can parallel; and Posterity shall read her happy Annals like Xenophon's Remarks on his Cyrus, Non ad historiae fidem, sed ad exemplum justi imperii.  
Facticus and ambitious Spirits (that always take their measures of what is just and right, by the probability only, and not by the honesty of the means) have too frequently sullied the Glory of this noble Science by impious Glosses (like the common Blasphemers of the most divine Oracles) and by wresting the true designs thereof to contrary and wicked ends, have made it truckle under the Slavery of their hellish actions, according to the emergency of their own occasions; like the Laws that were made in Causinus his Babel, to be ruled by Manners, and not Manners by Laws. These are the men that can vex true Policy by traductions and false glozing; they erect in their hearts Diana's of Hypocrisy, which they always adore and worship in the subtlety of their actions.  
The following Principles, there are few so silly as to make them the Articles of their Creed, tho' too many  so wicked as to practise, and not only so but by a daring impudence, to persuade and justify the wickedness of their actions by the goodness and necessity of these Principles. These men raise the billows of the Commonwealth; these turn all calm Serenities into blustering Storms and Tempests: Where these Monsters come, there's nothing but lamentable Outcries, occasioned by Rapes, Robberies, and Murders. From which,  
Good Lord deliver us.   

ERRATA.  
PAge 53. line 15. read justified. p. 54. l. 24. r. they had. p. 61. l. 10. r. those Rebels.   

MACHIAVIL REDIVIVUS.  

PRINCIPLE I. Religion is the best Cloak for our Politician; he must have it in show and pretence, but▪ not in Conscience and Practice.  
ASqueamish stomach is not fit for sour sauce; but he that hath an Appetite to every Relish, and is not offended at an evil Object, is Madam Natures best friend, and determines the indifference of the Aphorism, in being the Physician, and not the Fool. As in Physic, so in Politics, a man must not stick at any means to compass his ends; and in both, there is no Superstition more dangerous and to be avoided, than to stand too much upon Niceties and Scruples: A desperate Disease must have a desperate Remedy.  
He that will dig for Gold, must resolve to go through the Dirt; and he that aims to set up the Idol of his own ambition, (and resolves to worship that alone, till he finds it established on the summit of Grandeur) must dive as deep as Hell to fix the foundation, lest the elevated and endless height thereof render it liable to tumble for want of a profound fixation. True Piety exercised in obedience to the commands of true Religion, is most obvious to the aims of a subtle Politician; but if he makes a right use thereof, and has it only in show and pretence, and not in practice, it is the most necessary Tool he can work with: and therefore Machiavil split an Hair, when he determined not absolutely and openly to renounce Conscience, but to insinuate an opinion of his regard thereto by the plausible methods of his close designs. He notes it from Papirias in Livy, who slighted the Pullarii handsomely, and was rewarded; whereas Appius Pulchre did it grossly, and was punished.  
Nothing can so fairly gild and cover the deformity of Rebellion and Innovation, as the beauty of pretended Holiness and Religion. 'Tis an excellent art to make the people Saint us even in the most hellish Erterprises, by managing them with a dissimulate Piety, when we act most vigorously against it. Herod would feign Worship, when he means to worry.  
— Ipso seeleris molimine, Tereus  
Creditur esse pius.  
And Oliver Cromwell seemed most fervent in Prayer, when his Zeal tended only to win time of the General (by the prolixity of his Devotion) for his wretched Accomplices to finish the great work of murdering the late King.  
This is that which leads the credulous Rabble by the nose; for the common people (which are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) never see behind the Curtain; an hand some Gloss is with them as good as the Text: They are many times so easily caught, that although they perceive the Snare, they will greedily swallow the Bait; their affections (being always transported with the gilded delusions) are the strongest line by which our Politician draws them on to their ruin, and his purpose; and new Projects are the dish on which he feeds their wavering appetites, without the least danger of a relacting surfeit.  
Pliny was not much mistaken, when he called a Deity a jolly invention, 
Plin. l. 1. c. 7.  Irridendum agere curam rerum human arum, quicquid est summum sed eredi 〈◊〉 usu vitae est. Let Religion be my friend in helping me to the Blessings (the pleasures and advantages) of this life, and let others expect from, or use her as they please in the next; let me but use her as a Cloak for my practices here, and let others expect from it a Crown hereafter. I like the humour of the Samseans in Epiphanius, that were neither Jews, nor Gentiles, nor Christians; preserving to themselves a commodious correspondence with all. As the Mountebank personates the Physician, so our Politician does the Christian; whatsoever he acts in reference to Heaven, is merely theatrical, and done in subordination to some other interest. Let me be a superficial, let others be fundamental Christians; like the River in Athenaeus, Cujus profivens aqua dulcissima, quae vero in imo salsa. Lycurgus could never have ingratiated his Laws so effectually, had he not pretended a conference with his Goddess. No more could that grand Impostor Mahomet have infected so great parts of the world with the venom of his Blasphemy, without the help of his Pigeon. Nor could the Faction of our late times have carried on their own designs for their peculiar benefit, without the specious pretext of a thorough Reformation.  
'Tis to me indifferent (says our Politician) what the doctrine and principles of my Religion be, whether true or false, so it be but Popular; and if the people I mean to juggle with, err fundamentally, or prove obstinate Schismatics, I can by no better means wed them to my interest, than by suitable compliances with their obstinacy and delusions: and when I have drawn them by sly insinuations into a credulous faith of my worth and abilities to maintain their Cause, there remains then nothing to further my projections, but to convince them of the necessity to arm in the defence of themselves and their righteous Cause; which is done in a trice: for men are ever ready to support that which they would be glad to set uppermost; and therefore I commonly lead the Van, and appear in the head of the Faction. I sanctify their proceed with the old charm of Jure Divino, though I never found them registered but amongst Hell's blackest Canons, signed with the dismal paw of Legend.  
He that can privately act his Villainies, and neatly hocus his worst Impostures, is a man of parts; by which means he shall appear as pure and innocent as the most exact Christian. It is of excellent use, for our Politician to hollow his designs, by saying Grace before his impious actions, and to thank heaven for the Event, be it never so foul and bloody. How comfortably the Pope and Cardinal conferred notes,— Quantum nobis lucri peperit illa Fa●ula de Chr●sto! O the rich Income and glorious Results of a well-managed Hypocrisy! This! this! our subtle Pharisce must with all diligence study, and throughly practice.  
Horace.  
— Da justum sarctum ●ue videri,  
Noctem peceatis, & fraudibus obj●●ce rathem.  
There is no greater hindrance to generous Actions, than a coy and squeamish Conscience; which, as some tell as, vents its greatest force, surdo verbere, which can never be heard amidst the noise and bustle of a clamorous world. The Judgements of the Almighty threatened in Holy Writ, and what else may seem to terrify the exact Christian, must not at all affright our politic Heree; nor ought he to distinguish betwixt good and evil, but by the bala●●● of Self-interest. Had Alexander boggled at invading other Prince's Dominions, he had never wept for the scarcity of worlds. Had your mighty Conquerors listened to, and guided their Actions by the Rules of a righteous Conscience, their Faine had never been so felly great and they had died and been forgot like other men. But I'll live, and be great by any means.  
Flectere si neque● Superes, Acheronta m●●●●●.  

The ALLOY.  
Beware, beware, fond Man! methinks I hear a Vae vobis pronounced against thy Hypocrisy: Remember, that although thou mayst deceive thy fellow-creature by thy crafty and subtle dissimulations, thou canst never be able to juggle with thy Omniscient Creator. 'Tis but in vain to put Ironies on the Almighty; for his terrible vengeance will certainly meet with thee in the end of thy projects. Be not deceived, God is not mocked. Put away this cloak of Religion, and cloth thee in Sackcloth and Ashes, these Garments of Humility will better become thee in the sight of Heaven and good men than all the pompous Vanities this world can afford thee. Thou mayst possibly feast thy exorbitant Lust and Ambition here, but thou wilt never be able to satisfy or quench the least draught thereof hereafter. Though thy hypocrisy may help thee to walk in masquerade, and contribute much to the service of thy impious designs, yet there is nothing that God's pure and undeluded Eye looks on with greater hatred and abhorrency; and a counterfeit Religion shall be sure to find a real Hell.  
Over and besides the horrid wickedness of the Impostor, how grievous is it in the sight of Heaven and all good men, to behold the most divine Oracles, and sacred Ordinances, enforced even to obstetricate to the most impious and irregular designs? Cur tu non desinis, virtutis stragula pudefacere? quoth the Cynic to the coward in Arms▪ which may be as aptly applied to thee, who dost at the same time both use and abuse the whole Armour of a Christian to contrary and wicked ends. Base wretch! thou truckle●t under the servility of every Sin, and wadest through the filthy mire of the most loathsome Jakes, to gratify thy lustful Appetite with that which, after all thy pains and travel, may prove but gilded Poison, or at best but silly Trash. God created thee for other ends, and made thee a Creature after this own Image: He designed thee for glory, greater than that of Angels; but thou hast rendered thyself fit for shame and confusion, beyond that of Devils: He made thee capable of eternal Happiness, but thou hast chosen everlasting Misery. Yet know, cursed Caitiff, Heaven shall be glorified, though in thy damnation; for the most desperate sinners by their greatest crimes, can but change the attribute they should bring honour to, and but oppose the glorifying of the Almighty's goodness, to occasion that of his Justice.  
See to what a pass Religion was brought by our Pretended Reformers of the late times, as it was delivered in a Speech in the House of Commons, by a worthy Lawyer. Mr. Speaker, I would not be mistaken, 
June 23. 1647.  I say not my own words, but I speck what the Malignants say of us, and my Lord Say: 
A thorough Reformation.  They say that we have in our Religion an outward Garment or Cloak of any colour; which none do wear amongst us, but Secrataries, Fools, Knaves, and Rebels; the said Cloak being, with often turning, worn as threadbare as our public Faith, full of Wrinkles, Spots, and Stains; neither brushed, spunged, nor made clean; with as many Patches as Beggars coats. And (they also say) that our Preaching or Prattling is kept by Cobblers, Tinkers, Tailors, Weavers, Wyredrawers, and Ostlers; so that all Order and Decency is thrust out of the Church▪ all laudable Ornaments and indifferent beseeming Ceremonies, are cried down, trampled under foot, and banished, under the false and scandalous terms of Popery; and in the place thereof, is most nasty, filthy, loathsome, and slo●enly Beastliness or Doctrine, being vented in long and tedious Sermons, to move and stir up the people to Rebellion, and traitorous Contributions; to exhort them to Murder, Rapine, Robbery, Disloyalty, and all manner of Mischief, to the confusion of their Souls and Bodies. All these damnable Villainies our Adversaries say are the accursed fruits which our new-m●ulded Linsey-woolsey Religion hath produced: for they say our Doctrine, is neither derived from the Old or New Testament; that all the Fathers, and Testant Doctors, and Martyrs, never heard of it; that Christ and his Apostles never knew it.  
He that hath, by an inveterate wickedness, subdued the aversation which the Almighty did once seat in his heart against the ugliness of sin, may possibly be said to consult well for his present advantage and greatness; but to have utterly suppressed the thoughts, as well as hop●s, of any future comfort. No man in his right senses did ever yet combine with his Enemy, or wilfully go about to murder himself; but too many have been so nonsensically wicked, as to confederate with the Devil in their own destruction, and have yielded those points which otherwise he c●uld never have gained upon them.  
Some there are who hate downright Honesty and true Religion; who, by being Disciples of the Prince of the Air, and inspired with his Spirit of Darkness, have at length gained of the Devil himself, and outdone their h●llish Master in the mystery of Deceitfulness. Such are the Devil's choicest Engines, and are able to do him the greatest service in the accursed methods of g●lling their fellow-creature, by how many degrees they stand nearer in relation to Mankind.    

PRINCIPLE II. The deformity of all his Actions he must cover, and that in pretence for Liberty, Religion, etc. and otherwise endear himself to the People by Adulation, and the most sly Insinuations imaginable.  
THe Multitude must be cultivated with perpetual Soothe and Encouragements, ●ntil they grow immeasurably luxuriant in our Politician's gilded Delusions, and as absolutely believe he designs their good, as be most certainly does his own. He must transport them so far, even to the credulous faith of all he says and does, to be as sacred towards them, as their Persons and Estates, Religion and Laws are to themselves; or rather as much esteemed by him, as they are useful to the furtherance of his designs. He must always accommodate himself to the matter he has to work upon; he must have his R●medium in omne morbum. The simpler sort of people he must busy with his horrid Plots and false Alarms; amuse the timorous with Tumults and foreign Invasions; and deceive the factious by Covenants and Associations: In fine, his Party must be the Refuge and Receptacle for all sorts of Libertines and Malcontents.  
Thus qualified, let him first possess the Rabble that the Government is become a Monster, and hath already devoured a great part of their Liberties; and make the hideous Outcry throughout the Kingdom, of Breach of Privilege, Privilege of Parliament, Magna Charta, etc. for our Politician well knows, that Corruptio optimi est perniciocissima Pestle.  
Then secondly, strike at Religion, worry her with the name of Heresy; re-establish and issue forth Writs De Haeretico comburendo; build Piles in Smithfield; commit Massacres; murder a King at his own door: And it you cannot abolish the Principles, be sure to sacrifice the persons of such as stand most eminently engaged in opinion opposite to those of the Faction. Serve up a John Baptist's or a Bishop's head in blood, that certainly will be grateful to the longing appetite of a Godly Sister, when perhaps her squeamish stomach (being lately surfeited) cannot so easily digest the coarser Diet of the common Shambles. Cry out against Popery with the thundering voice of Forty One. 'Tis the best way to destroy the Church of England, if your can handsomely insinuate her to be leaning that way, under the notion of Arminianism. And let all this and ten times more be done, our Politician knows he may warrant his Actions from 
* The late Times.  approved Precedents, especially if he act by the specious pretext of a tender Conscience, and get the Undertaking once to be christened God's Cause.  
His Coat must be of divers colours, and his Shape as alterable as that of Proteus; he must look through the eyes of Argus, miss no opportunity, fit all seasons, and neglect no means: for 'tis most certain, that the prosperity of Innovation depends upon the right knack of kindling and fomenting Jealousies and Dislikes in the people, and craftily wielding those Grudges to the favour and advantage of private ends; for the various humours of the Rabble are like the different Tools of the Mechanic, necessary to produce one and the same effect.  
And if our Politician aims either to alter the Government, or to engross the Supremacy, he must first assault the people with false Alarms of imminent dangers, invent horrid News, and ply them with such fictitious perils, as may make them believe Religion and Liberty and all are at stake, and that they are the Geese which must save the Capitol. And when by these methods he has cajoled them into Fears and Jealousies, they begin then to be ●it Instruments for the boldest and most unwarrantable Undertake, and so soon as they are once touched in the Noddle with these Conceits, 'tis but sadling their Noses with a pair of State-spectacles, and you may persuade them upon Newmarket-heath, that they are tumbling down Dover-cliff. After all this, it will not be difficult for our Politician to conjure them into Petitions, Tumults, Associations, Oaths, and Covenants for the common Safety; and when by such means he has made them stark mad, he need not doubt of being chosen Governor of the Bedlam.  
Secondly, he must compose his very garb and gesture: 'Tis an excellent gift, to tell a lie with a boon grace. And if Religion be in vogue, he must pretend mightily to the gift of the Spirit, and call his Followers the people of God. He must be well skilled in the impressing art of Canting and Whining, and must deliver his Tales and Stories with Ardour and strong Affection, and zealously knock his breast, call Heaven to witness, and invoke all manner of Imprecations on himself, it he fails to do that which he never intends, or so much as thinks on, with the least inclination to performance.  
Thirdly, he gives them good words and bad actions: he ravishes them with the apprehensions of Liberty, into the strongest chains of Oppression and Slavery: Nomina rerum perdidimus, & licentia militaris Libertas vocatur, saith the Roman Orator: And Plautus in Truculento, sings excellently well to the same purpose:  
In melle sunt linguae sitae ve●rae, atque orationes,  
Lacteque corda felle sunt sua, atque acerbo aceto.  
E Linguis dicta dulcia datis, at cord amarè facitis.  
Fourthly, he observes that they swallow Probabilities, wisely offered, with greater greediness than naked Truths. Our subtle Craftsmaster is therefore very curious in gilding his Impostures, and never reveals his designs, but at fit seasons and convenient opportunities; and that by piece-meal too: for the prodigious view of his monstrous Projects (entirely delivered) would greatly amaze and look big, even beyond all hope or possibility of digestion: whereas the same thing delivered by parcess, and at proper seasons is swallowed with greater ease, and will produce the same effects.  
But further, 
S. M. p. 12.  to give you a more concise touch of our Polititian's principles, we cannot better do it, than by setting forth the admirable harmony and consort that appeared (in the Rebellion of our late Times) betwixt the Lay-Cabal and the Ecclesiastic; both agreeing in the same method, in the same steps, in the same cause, and in the same opinion: Only that which was matter of Policy in private, was made matter of Conscience and Religion in public. First, They find out Corruptions in the Government, as matters of Grievance, which they expose to the people. Secondly, They petition for Redress of those Grievances, still ask more and more, till something is denied them. And then, Thirdly, They take the Power into their own hands of relieving▪ themselves; but with Oaths and Protestations, that they act only as trusties for the common good of King and Kingdom. From the pretence of Defending the Government, they proceed to the Reforming of it: which Reformation proves in the end to be a final Dissolution both of Church and State. Then! then our State-Chymist hath brought the Elixir of his Machinations to perfection: He may now apply his strongest Remedies to the feeble State, and work upon the people's weakness what projects he please; but must always take heed that the recovery of their strength does not outrun the growth of his power.  
'Tis ●●●idst the Divisions of the people, our Politician wrists the Sword into his own hand; and 'tis through the floodgates of their Disser●tions, he rusheth to the summit of Grandeur. The Power once obtained, the Scene gins to change; and he that of late made the most servile compliance with the humours of the Rabble, gins to sing, Tempora n●●tamur!— and resolves both to awe and force them into a state of Bondage. He that courted them before, with all the adulatory terms that Ambition could invent, or they receive; as if he had been vowed their Martyr, and ready to sacrifice his dearest enjoyments upon the Altar of public Liberty and Freedom; as if his veins know no other blood, but such as he would be proud to spend in their service; having now served himself of them, he forgets the bosom that warmed him: They hear from him now in a Palinode; he curls up his smooth Compliments into brief laconics, and changeth his Courtship for Command. He is now at liberty, and repeats all his Villainies in open view: He had long since purchased an habit of doing ill, and hath now acquired a daring impudence to maintain it; which in a politic wisdom makes all things good and lawful. Having so unlimited a Power, his passions are now become indomitable, his Will's the Law, and his Hand the Executioner of all his Arbitrary Determinations; according to that of Grotius, Jus dicitur esse id quod Validiori placuit, 
De Jure Belli. l. 2. c. 6.  ut intelligamus fine suo career jus, nisi vires ministras habeat. And our Politician sees now that (to justify his greatest Tyranny) he may impose the greatest hardships on his conquered Vassals, as just and legal; since that only which it pleaseth the stronger Party to ordain, is said to be Law; since nothing can accomplish the end of a Law, except it be attended by force and power to constrain Obedience.  

The ALLOY.  
Flattery is indeed a collective accumulative Baseness, it being in its elements a compound of the most sordid hateful qualities incident to Mankind, (to wit) Lying, Servility, and Treachery; each of which, being most detestably deformed in their own natures, must certainly in conjunction make up a loathsome monstrous guilt. And first, we may take Lying for the very cornerstone of the Fabric; for without that, the mighty projects of our accursed Politician cannot subsist; and unless he deceive the people by his horrid falsehoods, into a resolved hatred of the Government he intends to destroy, 'tis utterly impossible for him to work his ends; because, though the Rabble affect change, yet every Individual loves to be quiet, if he can be secure. It is therefore the practice of our devilish Impostor to worry the Government by his Hellhounds of Scandal and Calumny; whereby to insinuate panic fears, and groundless jealousies of imminent dangers, into the minds of the ignorant and unwary Commons: and all this to be done in pity and devotion to the public good, accompanied with the most artificial blandishments, and subtly dissembled piety in all his actions to every particular Member of the Community. But to the more Ingenious▪ these tricks and impostures are the less dangerous: so that our Merchant is constrained to trade with the more ignorant Chapmen, the Plebeians; for with them his counterfeit Wares are most easily put off. Our most eminent Practitioners (in these sort of Politics) of the Late Times, 
The methods of the Late Times to destroy the Government.  did not fall point-blank upon the Government itself, but began first with the Redress of Grievances, both in Church and State; amusing the people, that Popery and Arbitrary power were breaking in upon them; and that unless evil Ministers, etc. were removed from about the King's person, his sacred Life, together with their Lives, Religion, and Liberties, must all perish and be destroyed; which they had vowed themselves always ready to support and maintain, according to the Remonstrance of December 15. 1641. wherein, 
The Parliaments Remonstrance, Decemb. 15. 1641.  after many protestations for the good of the Kingdom in general, they further declare and protest to this Nation, and to the whole world, in the presence of Almighty God, for the satisfaction of their Consciences, and the discharge of that great Trust which lies upon them, That no private passion or respect, no evil intention to his Majesty's person, no design to the prejudice of his just honour and authority, engaged them to raise Forces, etc. Of the damnable falsehood of all which, fatal experience hath convinced the world, in the bloody consequences of their after-actions, to the scandal of mankind in general; but more particularly, to the eternal infamy of the English Nation, who to this day continually bear the reproach thereof from other Nations in their Travels abroad. And we have too much grounds to believe, that from hence it is, Turks and Infidels refuse to give Faith to Christians, since they can trifle with the greatest bonds of Religion, and so solemnly protest before God and the World, what they never intent to perform. And all this for God's Cause, for the sake of 
* Presbyterianism.  Religion; to purge her from Popish Ceremonies, to root out Antichristian Prelacy, and to complete a Through Reformation.  Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum! 
Such is his Servility too, (and that implicitly involved in Lying) that he must not only truckle under the basest and most wicked designs, but even yield himself up a slave to the vilest humour of the worst of men: And accordingly the nobler Heathens accounted Lying the vice of Slaves and Vassals, below the Liberty of a Freeman. It was once the Character given to Christians, (even by their Enemies) Behold how they love one another! But God knows we may now be pointed out by a very different mark, Behold how they deceive and delude one another! And we shall one day find, that the Violation we herein offer to our Religion, will not one jot allay (but much rather mightily aggravate) the impious baseness of our Double-dealing.  
Lastly, to complete our State-Sycophant, 
Treachery.  Treachery comes in; a crime so odious and ugly to the view, that it hath been held all one, to name and implead it: Of this there are such crowds of Examples in Story, that it would be impertinent to single out any; especially in an Age that is fit to furnish precedents for the future, than to borrow of the past times. But yet further to discover him amidst all his Cheats and Impostures, we may be assured that there is no greater Index of Ambition, than an affectation of Popularity; which appears in meek Addresses to the people, wooing and familiar condescensions, bemoaning and bewailing their Sufferings, and commending a more vigorous sense of their present, and a necessity of resisting their future Calamities: And all this covered with the specious pretence of the Common Good.  
'Tis Friendship that is the Cement, 
Friendship.  which only really and effectually combines Mankind; all other natural or civil Ties, take their greatest force from this: And therefore we may observe, that God, reckoning up other Relations, illustrates them by several notes of Endearment; but when he comes to that of Friendship, 
Deut. 13.6.  'tis the friend who is as thine own soul: Nothing below the highest instance, was deemed expressive enough of that Union. What a Legion of Fiends then (says a modern Author) possesseth men, that can break these Chains, nay, that can forge them into Daggers, and shape their Friendship into the unnatural Engines of Ruin and Destruction? This is certainly the blackest colour wherein we can view a Parasite. As the Ape hath a peculiar deformity above other Brutes, by that awkward and ungraceful resemblance he has to a man: so surely our State-prodigie is infinitely the more hateful, for being the ugly counterfeit of a Friend; and that aggravated too by being abused not only against particulars, but also in the destruction of Kingdoms and Commonwealths: In fine, that which should 〈◊〉 the Balm, our damned Impostor turns to the bane of all Mankind.    

PRINCIPLE III. He that aims at Sovereignty, must be sure to beat down the Bulwark of Government (the Prince's Credit) by the powerful force of irresistible Calumny.  
THis part was most curiously played by our subtle Gamesters of Forty One; and from the Chronicles of that time, our Politician may furnish himself with the most effective Instances and Examples; and (besides that which is requisite for his purpose) he may leave enough for the greatest Tyrants, both to imitate and admire, even to the world's end. First they fell upon the King's Reputation, 
So they begin . Witness the false News, Libels, etc.  than they invaded his Authority, after that they assaulted his Person, then seized his Revenue, and in conclusion, most impiously usurped the Supreme Power, by taking away his sacred Life.  
It cannot easily be imagined of what singular importance the aspersing and blotting of a Prince is, to boil up popular Discontent and Faction to that height, which is requisite for a Rebellion: And therefore in our late times of Apostasy, our then Reforming Bigots having extremely discomposed the people, upon the apprehensions of Popery and Arbitrary power, and shaken them in their Allegiance upon a belief of a strong Design in the Government itself to introduce it, well knew how to build upon this foundation. And first they inveigle the people into strange and unreasonable Petitions, 
Popular Petitions.  (which are the most compendious method of attempting a Commotion, being the gentlest of political inventions for feeling the pulse of the people) Protestations, Associations, and Covenants, for the common defence of themselves, for the safety and preservation of their Lives, Religion, and Liberties; and into a favourable entertainment of any plausible pretext, even to the justification of Violence itself; especially the Sedition coming once to be baptised God's Cause, and supported by the Doctrine of Necessity, and the unsearchable instinct and equity of the Law of Nature: And all this recommended to them by the men of the whole world, 
Private Pastors.  upon whose integrity and conduct they would venture their very Souls, Bodies, and Estates.  

How to make a Traitor lie a Martyr.  Our Politician must further remember, by art and eloquence to extenuate the crimes of such that have suffered by the stroke of Justice for the Cause, and so cry out upon their hard measures, and bewail their loss with an abundance of sighs and tears; that by such tricks old Traitors may be propounded for new Martyrs. This hath been the ordinary methods of Ambition, as you may find it noted by a great Scholar in these words: 
Barclay contra monarch. 30.  Fuit haec omnibus Saeculis, & adhuc est ad occupandum Tyrannidem, expeditissima via; Dum summo se amore, ac pietate in patriam esse simulant; Principum vitia, & Populi miscriam; apud suos primùm, deinde palam quaeribundâ voce lamentantur: Non quò Plebem (cujus solius commodis inservire videri volunt) ab illo Servitutis jugo asserant in libertatem; sed quò populari aurâ subnixi, additum sibi & januam ad eam ipsam dignitatem, nequiora aliquando ausuri patefaciant. And therefore if the Prince be severe, he gives him Nero's brand, a man kneaded up of Dirt and Blood; if he be of Parts and Contrivance, he calls it pernicious Ingenuity; if he urge Uniformity and Decency in Divine Service, he than rails at his Superstition and Idolatry: And because there is no such equilibrious Virtue but hath some flexure to one of the Extremes, he is very careful to publish the Extreme alone, and to silence the Virtue; and his words are full of imbittered Sarcasms.  

Methods to be used against Loyalty.  And if after all this, he cannot utterly crush the power of his Prince's Reputation, being too firmly rooted in the hearts of his Loyal Subjects, he has a Remedy for this too; either by Bribery with ready Money, or promises of great Rewards and Preferment; or else by subtle Insinuations expressed in a most seemingly sensible Zeal for their infatuations, and want of sense to apprehend the danger, and so most affectedly he seems to lament and bewail their senseless stupidity. And if these means prove ineffectual to trepan them into the Faction, he has yet others left which more powerfully does the work; which is, to draw the whole Party on their backs, by putting on a Saintlike Indignation, and giving them sharp and open reproofs for their wilful blindness. And if after all this, they prove inflexible, he must then be sure to cry out against them as Enemies to God's Cause, and haters of the common Good, to combine in the horrid Conspiracy; and so render them to be meet partakers in the same destruction which he has before determined to bring upon the Government.  
'Tis a figure in Politics, to make every infirmity a fault, and every fault a crime. And because there have been Plots in France, henceforward no Ambassador shall go, without making the people believe that his business is to contrive their ruin, and bring upon them everlasting Slavery. And if you can by any means (though never so wicked) dress up a King, and represent him in the odious habit of a cruel Tyrant, and transport the people into passionate desires of Liberty and Self-preservation; it will become a matter then very easy to dispose them either to murder or depose him: Which sort of practice is both warranted and commended by the excellent Orator— Graecos Deorum bon●res tribuisse iis, 
Pro Mil.  qui Tyrannos necaverunt. And by the Tragedian,  

Hercules furiens.  Victima haud ulla amplior potest,  
Magisve optima mactari Joci,  
Quam Rex iniquus.  
And Buchanan complains that there are not some glorious rewards appointed for Tyrannicides.  
And the better to render these plagues of Government epidemical, our subtle Politician must be sure not to suffer his Doctrines to be immured within the single compass of the Metropolis, (whose bowels were only fit for its first conception) but to transmit them into the Country, where the innocent and unwary Rustic (who because he contrives, expects no harm) being bewitched by the beauty of its outward figure, and partly for the sake of its novelty, will be dotingly fond, and cherish this Viper, till he be throughly infected with its venom. And thus (like the Bear in the Fable, which for the sake of imaginary Honey, was seduced by the crafty Fox to his own destruction) are the credulous Rabble, by the delicious baits of our State-Impostor, sweetened into their own Ruin, and hurried (by the stimulations of groundless jealousies) in the ●ager pursuit of an imaginary Liberty, until, like the Dog in the Fable, they catch at the shadow and lose the substance.  
And notwithstanding our Politician aims at Sovereignty, he must not think to persuade the people to put that Crown on his head which they were sick to see upon another's; but must compass his ends some other way: And to draw them the better to his Lure, he must be sure to cry out against the sinking State, and pot stick to devolve the personal faults of each Minister upon the Monarchy itself. He must strongly urge with Machiavil, 
Upon Livy, p. 22.  That they are the most suitable Guardians of any thing, who are least desirous to usurp it, and must seem himself to be that modest man. He must now play the Hypocrite, dissemble Piety, and cover his Ambition with the greatest Humility, that so the Rabble (whilst he is the most scrupulous and careful in finding out a fit person) may pitch upon him to be their Protector.  

The ALLOY.  
It is a general conclusion, that no man loves to be deceived; and I think (if possible) fewer to be undeceived. It has been a Task extremely difficult (even next to an impossibility) to convince some men of the iniquity of our Late Times; insomuch that when I have urged the horrid impiety of murdering the late King, (and the wickedness of those that usurped the Government after him, expressed in the most arbitrary Cruelties on the persons and estates of his Majesty's Friends and Adherents) they have so far allowed that cursed Fact, and concluded with the Regicides, as to charge the Royal Martyr with being guilty of some faults; or else have past those matters over wholly in silence: and such memoirs have served them only to revive their ancient malice against the present Government; and instead of a sincere Repentance to avert the heavy Judgements of the Almighty for those crying sins, they have usually replied, That truly they do not know whether Oliver were a Rogue or not; but this they were sure of, that they had much better times than than now; Drunkenness was not so much encouraged, and Whoredom was out of fashion; Trading was much better, and they did not pay so many Taxes, etc. And if all this were true (which we cannot allow, because we know the contrary) will it one jot extenuate the guilt of such who shall go about, either directly or indirectly, to approve and justify the prodigious Villainies of those cruel Usurpers? No; let such men know, that an Act of Mercy and prudent Oblivion in the State, will rather aggravate than obliterate their monstrous Crimes in the Court of Heaven. I have urged this so plain, because the dangers are now so great, when the smallest Errors of the Minister are cast, as the greatest Crimes, in the very face of Majesty; and people seem to tread in the very same footsteps now, as, then.  
What admirable methods the restless spirits of some men find out to delude the people! 
I wonder who gave him authority to print that Address, which w●● never presented to the King: but I know whither 〈◊〉 tends, even to Sedition ●●d Rebellion.  how they come with Honey in their mouths, and never miss of having Stings in their tails! See a late Libel entitled, The Nation's Aggrievance; which gins with a God be praised for his Majesty's deliverance from the late horrid Popish Plot: And yet I dare be bold to say, the principles of that Libeler are as dangerous to the Government, as those of the rankest Jesuit. That as a Free People (says he) we request in all duty and submission to your Majesty's Royal Command, we may have our free Votes in the Election and Choice of a free Parliament, for our Representatives; 
* What ●t th●● but to charge 〈◊〉 Majesty with over-awing loyal Subjects, to please 〈◊〉 enemies? and that be has not se●ce ●nough to know the out from the other.  and that those your most Loyal Subjects shall be no ways overawed, threatened, or bribed, to pleasure the wills and humours of such whose interest (though it be to compliment and flatter your Majesty) runs counter to all true service to their King and Country; and it being contrary to the constitution of the Government under which we live, and the Privileges that a Free People may expect to enjoy, under so noble a Prince, to have any thing unequal or unjust, ●●d violently imposed or forced on them, etc. What is this but to infect the people with a belief of his Majesty's Misgovernment, and to slander his Actions and Counsels? to render the best of Princes mean and contemptible, and so (under the pretence of Reformation) to work his and his Kingdom's ruin? But the best on't is, we know whence he is; the Devil was a Liar from the beginning, and so is our Author: He calls his Libel, The Nation's Agrievance, by way of Address to the King: It was none of my 
* The whole matter of it is a demnable Lie ti●ding to crate Distrust, and to set 〈◊〉 to either by the ters.  Agrievance, nor did he ever confer with me (and many thousands more) about any such matters. So that which was but just now The Nations Agrievance, is now become an impudent Lie; and I dare say the Address too is another: for 'tis a Rule in Law, That the King cannot be unjust. And our Friend had certainly met with some notable Reward, either one way or other, if his Majesty had ever seen him. But whereas he calls his Libel The Nation's Agrievance, I verily believe he had spoken more truth, if he had named it a Whelp of the Good Old Cause, or a Spawn of out late Green-Ribbon-Club. 
Rebellion in expross terms.  Another puts a Quere, Whether it be not high time for all the Protestants in England to resolve as One man, that they will stand by and maintain the Power and Privileges of Parliament? 'Twould be endless to tell you how many Monsters of this hue (like those of Forty One) daily creep abroad, even in these times: And these seem to be like Night-Ravens to the health of the Government, whose ugly Screetching always foreboad approaching death and destruction.  
And as to the charging the faults of a Governor upon the Government, 'tis certainly a grand Delusion; nor can there be a more gross abuse, than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And Grotius, 
Isocrates.  in his Book de Jure Belli & Pacis, saith, That the faults of the Minister must not be cast in the face of Majesty: Omnis facultas gubernandi quae est in Magistratibus, summae Potestati ita subjicitur, ut quicquid contra voluntatem summi Imperantis faciant, id defectam sit ea facultate, ac proinde pro actu privato habendum: Which will be the more pat to our purpose, if we compare it with that of Bracton, Rex Angliae hic solum non potest facere, quòd non potest injuste agere.  
However, this I presume, That the most exact Puritan can in no wise boast of such an absolute Saintship, 
Was heretofore an exact Rebel.  but that there will now and then some actions fall from him, which must confess Humanum est errare, and require Candour. There are some Leaves in the volume of the fairest Life, that are legenda cum venia: 
Prince's Frailties.  If this be a common frailty, why do we fix such rigid Censures upon the Miscarriages of Princes? Or rather, why do we deny to give them the same grains of allowance which we use when we commiserate the Infirmities of other men? 'Tis yet much more disingenuous, to revive and poor upon a few bad actions, which its possible have been long ago attoned and recompensed with many good. Take this from no mean Statist, Iniqua in omni re occusandâ praetermissis bonis malorum enumeratio, vit iorúmque Selectio; nam ne villus quidem isto modo Magistratus vituperabilis non crit. As Greatness gives a lustre to the Virtues of a Prince, so it ought to mitigate his Vices: for if we look upon him as circled with Honour and all outward Enjoyments, and consider that men are most easily corrupted in the supremest fortunes, where Lusts may have the advantage of being armed with Power; we may easily believe the violence of his temptations to be so much the stronger, by how much he is greater than Subjects; having no other shield or weapon to resist their force, than his mere Virtue. We are sometimes defended from a sin by our very Impotency, 
Impotency a defence from sin.  (or else I fear our streets had long  this, been filled with Mourning and Lamentations, by the bloody Swords of the Spirits of Popery and Fanaticism;) it may be above our sphere, or out of our reach; we do not, because we cannot. How frequently do we transgress, even to the most horrid guilt, in our Wills and Affections, when our hands remain innocent? We are checked from without, and rendered good by the bonds of Necessity, because unable to be otherwise; but Princes have no other means to oppose their immoderate desires, but what proceeds purely from themselves: for who can say to his Soveveraign, 
* Eccles. 8.2, 3, 4, 5.  What dost thou? This is that which enhances the goodness of a Prince, and sets an extraordinary lustre upon his person, according to the eminence of his extraordinary Virtues.  
It has been the constant practice of Usurpers, to delude the people by the false lustre of their subtle Impostures, even into a concatenation for the drawing on of their wicked ends: Such an one even loads the people with the bare notion of imaginary Liberty, till he breaks their backs with the most intolerable tyranny and slavery: and when Success atttends the Tyrant's Erterprises, it is not the indulgence of Heaven to the Usurper, but much rather the indignation thereof, on the people for their folly.  
It is no lessening of this execrable Popish Plot, to say, 
L'Estrang. Narrative, fol. 11, 12.  That subjects ought dutifully to acquiesce in the Resolutions of their Superiors; and that all clamorous Appeals from the Magistrate to the Multitude, are only so far pardonable, as the abundance of Good will may help to excuse the want of Moderation and Discretion: So that a great part of those fierce and unmannerly Transports that have been employed upon this unhappy Occasion, and without any regard either to Quality or Sex, or, in truth, to the very foundations of Christian Charity, might have been much better let alone; since they serve only to inflame the Vulgar, without any sort of avail to the Cause in question. It is no better than either a translating of the Judicature from the King and his Courts of Justice, to the Rabble; or else a Complaint to the people, brought in with a side-wind against the Government; which are two dangerous points, striking at his Majesty's Sovereignty the one way, and at his Reputation the other: And yet all this is tolerable, if it goes off so, and without blowing up a Passion into a Design. But alas! 'tis the practice of wicked and ambitious men, to translate a Popular Odium from the Papists to the Government, and so they mount by degrees from a Zeal against Popery, to a Sedition against the State.  
And whither all this tends, we may well conclude, if we do but consider the miserable consequences that inevitably followed the prodigious Impostures and Delusions imposed on the people of our late Times: Poor England was then frighted out of a dream of Dangers, into Cutting of Throats in earnest; out of a fear of Popery, into a prostitution even of Christianity; and out of an apprehension of Tyranny, into a most despicable state of Slavery.    

PRINCIPLE iv To render the Contagion epidemical, our Politian must always have some dissenting Pastors, or mercenary Jesuits, to justify and appland his Designs and Actions in the Separate Congregations.  
NOthing more abundant in Examples! nothing more notorious in History! than this, That there has been no Innovation so gross! no Rebellion so hideous! but hath had some Ecclesrastical Fomenters! for such as want Worth enough of their own to reach Preferment in a regular way, are most apt to envy the just Honours and Promotions of other men; and despairing to obtain their ends by Learning and Piety, they aspire to it by the crooked means of Faction and Schism. These men mainly support the pretended Piety of our Polititian's Designs; they never fail to carry him through the greatest Dangers, and are able to retort the most pernicious Events: for the keenest Sword in our Polititian's Army▪ cannot vie services with a subtle Quill. 
Aristoph. Concutiunt Populos, vexant Regna, Sollicitant Bella, Diruunt Ecclesias. Dr. Oates' Narrative printed by authority of Parl. p. 63.67. proves that the Jesuits herd amongst the Dissenters: And how shall we discover them, but ●y their Fruit, their Doctrines?  You may see his business in the Comic, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
The Jesuit accounts it in the number of his Merits, if he can by any sinister means ruffle and disorder Heretical Kingdoms, encourage weak and unstable minds to sleight the Magistracy, irritate Divisions, Tumults, Rebellions, absolve from Oaths and all sacred Ties: so that it is hard to find any tragical Scene, or bloody Theatre, into which the Jesuit hath not intruded, and been as busy as Davus in the Comedy; contributing in a very high measure to every Fanatic Outrage, whose actions daily approve the old Lemma of Lojola's picture▪ Cavete vobis Principes. And so we find Father Faircloth, in his Sermon on Josh. 7.25. preaching Rebellion; To you of the honourable House of Commons, Up, for the matter belongs to you; We, even all the godly Ministers of the Country, will be with you. And likewise Father Call, in his Speech at Guildhall, Octob. 6.1643. quoth he, Here is an extraordinary appearance of so many Ministers to encourage you in this Cause, that you may see how real the Godly Ministry in England is unto this Cause: And if I had as many lives as hairs on my head, I would be willing to sacrifice all those lives for this Cause. And you shall read, Numb. 10. that there were two silver Trumpets; and as there were Priests appointed for the convocation of their Assemblies, so there were Priests to sound the silver Trumpets to proclaim the War. And Deut. 20. when the children of Israel would go out to war, the Sons of Levi, one of the Priests, was to make a Speech to encourage them. But harken to what the Provincial says, 
Baxter 's holy Commonwealth, p. 72.459, 460.  The real Sovereignty here in England, was in King, Lords, and Commons: and those that conclude, That the Parliament being Subjects, may not take up Arms against the King, and that it is Rebellion to resist him; their Grounds are sandy, and their Superstructure false. And the same worthy Author, in his Cases of Conscience, 
Theses 137 181.  An. 1659. casuistically resolves (upon the point of his Majesty's Restauration, then in hope and prospect,) That the King himself could not (in that state of things) justify the resuming of his Government, nor his People the submitting to it. 
Jenkins 's Sermon before the Commons, Sept. 25.1656. p. 23  Worthy Patriots (says another of the same Order) you that are our Rulers in this Parliament! 'Tis often said, we live in times wherein we may be as good as we please; praised be God for this, even that God who hath delivered us from the imposition of Prelatical Innovations, Altar-genuflections, and Cringing, with Crosses, and all that Popish Trash and Trumpery. And truly I speak no more than I have often thought and said, 
The King's murder justified.  The removal of these insupportable Burdens, countervails for all the Blood and Treasure shed and spent in these Distractions. Nor did I as yet ever hear of any Godly men that ever desired (were it possible) to purchase their Friends or Money again, at so dear a rate as (with the return of them) to have those Soulburthening Antichristian Yokes reimposed upon them; and if any such there be, I am sure that Desire is no part of their Godliness; and I profess myself in that to be none of the number. Good God says a modern Author, that any thing in humane shape, that glories in the murder of his Sovereign, should make a face at a Ceremony! And Father Cockayne, in his notable Sermon before the Commons, 
The King's murder persuaded.  November 29. 1648. both urgeth and persuades the murder of that Royal Martyr, by comparing him to Benhadad King of Assyria, whose life Ahab King of Israel had spared, against the Will of the Lord. And Mr. Baxter says as much (viz.) That having often searched in his heart, 
Holy Commonwealth, p. 486.  whether he did lawfully engage in the War, and encourage so many thousands to it, he tells us, That he dares not repent of it, nor forbear doing the same, if it were to do again in the same state of things. The Scotish Ministers printed it, That our late martyred Sovereign had shed more Blood in these three Nations, than was shed in the ten Christian Persecutions. And upon the same account, Mr. Love proclaimed in the Pulpit at Vxbridge-Treaty, That no Peace ought to be had with him. And Father Calamy says, 
Calamy 's Sermon, Dec. 25.1644. p. 18  Those that made their peace with the King at Oxford, were Judasses' of England; and it were just with God to give them their portions with Judas.  
These are the methods of murdering a Prince with a tender Conscience; and these are the men that can act the basest Villainies under the shadow of Religion; nothing can resist the force of their holy Violence: These are Sampson's Foxes, that have always Firebrands in their tails; the Forge and Bellows of Sedition, infernal Emissaries, the Pests of the Age: These are the men, who by their Life and Doctrines prove, that In nomine Jesu incipit omne malum.  
There was never yet any Kingdom or Country without some turbulent Spirits of its own, 
False Prophets.  the dishonour of the Gown and Pulpit, the shame and sometimes the ruin of the Commonwealth. You would think they had their Text much rather from a Gazette, or Domestic Intelligence, than from the Holy Scriptures, their whole Discourse being but a continued Narrative of invective Fables against the Government.  
Nevertheless, to render these wholly fit for our Polititian's purpose, they must be throughly skilled in these requisite Qualifications. First, They must be well versed in that most excellent gift of wresting the Divine Oracles, by vexing and urging the holy Text, and constraining it to patronise the most barbarous and bloody Design. The great Apostle expresseth this in three very emphatical terms: 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  First, Cogging the die, making the Word speak what they list. Secondly, Crafty Applications and Expositions of it. Thirdly, All the methods and arts of Cozenage, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, gilding and vamishing rotten Doctrines. And this must be done, First, In public vomiting out Flames and Sulphur from that sacred Pegma, where should be delivered mild and soft, none but Divine and Evangelical Embassies. Secondly, In private, at Parlour-Sermons and Meeting-houses, where he is listened to as an Oracle; and here commonly he is more Enthusiast than Scripturist, and his Auditors believe his Dreams to be as canonical and infallibly sacred as the Revelations; like those Melancthton speaks of, Quicquid somniant, volunt esse Spiritum Sanctum; or those that the Father chides, when he tells them that every Whimsy is not Prophesy, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Thirdly, He ought to be of some abilities in Dispute; and what he wants in Logic, he must supply with Impudence and Garrulity: for whatsoever he affirms, the interest he hath in his seduced Hearers, improves into a Syllogism. If you ask after his Topics, 
S. Hierom.  Ex officina Carnificium argumenta petit; if after his weapons, 
Strada.  Armat se ad latrocinium per Christi nomen: and the Wound he makes is Faction: Which is so putrified with occurring variety of malignant Qualities, that Nature herself cannot afford a Cataplasm to work its Cure; and in spite of the most skilful Artists, it will fester into Rebellion; which admits no other Remedy but what is extracted from itself, by the dismal effects of a fatal and long Experience.  

The ALLOY.  
How lamentable it is, to see Urania, divine Urania, enrolled in Blood! The Stars and Luminaries of the Church, to shed nothing but black and malignant Influences, in lieu of pious Documents! And instead of the Gospel of Peace, and Doctrine of Charity, to hear none but furious Incentives!  
Papirius.  Ite alacres tantaeq, precor confidite Causae. 
The Cause they serve, is the Doctrine and the Use, the Egg, the Apple, the Head and Foot of all their Discourses. See a piece of their Sermon in Barclay, to this effect: 
Cont. Monarch. p. 23  See Evangelii libertatem praedicare, nullam Christianis animis vim infer, suam cuique conscientiam liberam relinquere, verbo ducere, non vi quenquam adigere: Eam esse Evangelii Doctrinam, ut omnes Conscientiae fruantur libertate; sibique ut id liceat votis omnibus postulare.  
Christ the Son of God, our blessed Redeemer, reproved St. Peter for drawing his Sword, though in the defence of his Lord and Master: And we nowhere read that we should offend even our most malicious Enemies; but on the contrary, we are enjoined to forgive, and pray for them; by which blessed means we shall be able to heap coals of fire on their heads, not to burn and consume them, but much rather (to thaw and disperse those frozen qualities which both damp and benumb their Brotherly Love and Charity) to enkindle their affection. We are not to arm ourselves Cap-a-pe (and preach Rebellion) to assail a lawful Magistrate, but much rather to put on the whole Armour of God, that we may be able to resist such fiery assaults of the Devil. We are to struggle and fight with all sorts of Temptations, but not to plunder, sequester, or murder our Neighbour. We are commanded to be obedient to our Superiors, for the Lords sake, and yet (under the Mask of Religion) we have murdered a Prince for God's sake. We are commanded to preach Peace in the Name of Jesus to all Nations; and in the same Name we have raised and fomented Rebellions, Massacres, and Murders in our own native Country: 
Aug.  And thus Ecclesiae nomine armamini, & contra Ecclesiam dimicatis. Thus under the pretence of a Tender Conscience, we cannot bow towards the Altar; but for the sake of God's Cause, we will cut the throats of the Bishops, to root out Antichristian Prelacy.  
Diagoras first set up for an Atheist, because the Gods did not immediately strike a perjured person dead, as he desired. And Cato, when he saw the Roman State decay under Pompey (whom he esteemed a Patriot of his Country,) and beheld Caesar prospering in his Tyranny, he professed that he saw a fallacious Instability in the Government of the Gods. And what shall we think? shall not the ignorance of these Heathens (who erred barely in opinion for the sake of Virtue, and yet nevertheless lived up to the Rules of Morality) arise up in judgement to condemn these Dregs of Humanity! these mouths of Hell? Yes, the very innocence of a Devil shall rise in judgement against these Wretches: for in all that he does, he acts but his Devilships part; but these do more: He can but tempt, not compel; these do both, and the former with more subtlety: The Voice of God can make the Devils believe and tremble, but the Word of God has not power enough to convince these Apostates; yet they have impudence sufficient to give the Lie to the Almighty, by wresting the sense of his Holy Word, to obstetricate to the service of their impious ends. Good God bless us, good God What is Religion, if this be Religion? and what is Religion good for, if these be the fruits? If these be the Mysteries of their Religion, let every good man say (as Jacob of his bloody sons) Oh, my soul, come not th●● into their secrets: unto their assembly, mine honour, 
Gen. 49.6, 7.  be not thou united; Instruments of Cruelty are in their habitations. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel.  
These are the men that invert the design of our blessed Saviour, and abuse his holy Gospel, by pretending his favour to unwarrantable and impious actions: And thus is the Prince abused by alienating the affections and allegiance of his Subjects; the Church abused by shattering it into Rents and Schisms; wounding it with a feather from its own wing, and snatching a coal from the Altar, to fire both Church and State. But alas! that which justly heightens our grief, is the sense of our own folly, which wholly brought these Calamities on us: for such is the easmesses and credulity of the Vulgar, such the subtlety and dissembled Sanctity of the Impostor, that he commonly meets with as great a proness in the people to be cozened, as he brings willingness and abilities to deceive them.  
How they deal with the Devil, and conjure, I cannot tell; but I am sure they had very lately poisoned a great many of his Majestics good Subjects, and by their tricks and devices, had wrought them into Suspicions and Jealousies. 'Tis true, there has been of late an horrid, hellish, Popish Plot discovered; 
The Popish Plot.  and I hope (by the hand of Providence, and wisdom of the Government) the same is now in a great measure prevented, and will ere long be fully discovered, and the wicked Confederates brought to condign punishment: Yet at first (by the affrighting terrors of which, subtly managed by some illaffected Brethren) people were so strangely amazed and stupefied into the old Spirit of Faction, that the whole frame of Government (in the judgement of many sober men) stood in very great, if not in equal jeopardy, from the mischiefs likely to arise from the hatred of Fanaticism, as from the malice of Popery itself: And it was come to this pass, that no man could undertake to defend the Government from Reproach and Calumny; nay, every man that would not side with the Faction, and do as they did, was sure to be branded with Popery, or at best with being Popishly affected. To lay more stress upon the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy, than the solemn League and Covenant; to advance the King above the two Houses; to deny the Sovereignty of People; to speak reverently of the Bishops and Orthodox Clergy, the Ministers of State and Justice, the Service-book, the Rites and Appointments of the Church, in opposition to the Assemblies Directory, with the practice of their slovenly Conventicles; All this is to be Popishly affected. 
A cursed Invention, to suppress the hellish Popish Plot and ruin the Church of England  And thus the Faction, by a Metamorphosis of the late Popish Plot from the Papists, into a Popishly affected Plot against the Friends of our Government, have endeavoured to insinuate on the one hand, that the Bishops and English Clergy are leaning towards Popery, and have a strong design to bring it in; and that Arbitrary Power must necessarily follow, to support and maintain it.  
Nevertheless, we may possibly discover the juggling of these Religious Cheats, or Pious Frauds, and preserve ourselves from the venom of their Doctrines, if we rightly observe these following Directions and Cautions.  
First, We ought to distinguish betwixt Divinity and humane Policy. I should suspect a Clerical Statist; I mean, such an one as in the dispensation of sacred Oracles, tampers with Secular Affairs, unless it be in case of high concernment to his Auditors Souls; and that in preaching down, rather than exciting a Rebellion, by rendering Tribute to whom Tribute, Honour to whom Honour, etc.  
Secondly, I should believe him a Juggler that sprinkles his Sermons with Murmurs against the lawful Magistrate, whether Ecclesiastical or Civil, unless he hath some better grounds for his dislike, than barely a thwarting his opinion or humour in things merely controversial and adiaphorous.  
Thirdly, I should more than doubt his knavery, that should wrest or suborn the holy Scriptures, to attest or incite to illegal actions, as standing nearest in relation to that which Salvian calls Religiosum Scelus.  
Fourthly, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  I may safely conclude, that all news in Religion, whether in Doctrine or Discipline, is the common Screen of private design; 
Apud Dion. Cass.  Let Maecenas tell it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which is noted by the great Causabon in his Epistle before his Baronian Exercitations, thus: Cupiditas novandi haec secum mala semper trahit, Christi inconsutilem tunicam lacerate, Sectas novas parit, & statim multiplicat, Ecclesiam & Populum concutit, etc.  
Lastly, We ought to distinguish betwixt Reason and Clamour, Truth and Calumny; betwixt the Acts of Authority, and the Licence of Tumults; betwixt the just and temperate Deliberatio●s and Resolutions of Government, and the violent Heats and Partialities of the Common People. Nor is it any lessening of this Execrable Popish Plot, but much rather a ready way to a full discovery, to say, That Subjects ought dutifully to acquiesce in the Resolutions of their Superiors: And that all clamorous Appeass from the Magistrate to the Multitude, (for those are the Tribunal of the Faction) are only so far pardonable as the abundance of good will may help to excuse the want of Moderation and Discretion.    

PRINCIPLE V Our Politician must urge every prosperous Event, as sufficient to prove the Justice of his Cause.  
THis is the Doctrine of all Impostors, by which they must charm the common people into a credulous belief of all they say, and a sure approvement of every thing they do. So cunningly were the projects of our late Usurpers carried on from time to time, and with that success, as it became a matter extremely difficult to distinguish the iniquity from the prosperity of all their actions, especially for such who either affect novelty or change. And as the surest means of rendering their delusions palliable, the Faction were well ware of that excellent use of hallowing their Designs, 
The use of public Fasts by the Faction.  by appointing days of Humiliation and Fasts, immediately to precede the birth of any notable Enterprise; as likewise public Thanksgivings for every Event, whether lucky or unfortunate: for such was their Cunning, that the people should be sure to hear nothing of ill, neither understand or perceive any thing, but by reflection from the imaginary Brightness of the Cause.  
There is no Argument more popular, than to urge and persuade the Justice of the Attempt, as a most certain conclusion from the goodness of the Event: for the Bulk of Mankind is not able to distinguish the Permission of the divine Goodness from his Approbation: And yet notwithstanding the pernicious subtlety of this Argument is both perceived and understood by some, yet the insupportable miseries of the Conquered, deny them the opportunity to dispute the Justice of their Sufferings; and that which they might possibly have prevented by a prudent foresight, serves only now to strengthen and increase the Fetters of their woeful Captivity; and the most sacred and usual pleas of Liberty or Magna Charta, can now neither resist or one jot allay the rigours of their greatest slavery: They shall now learn to know that Inter arma silent leges; they must now look upon the Conqueror with the greatest reverence, and behold him in glory; they must yield themselves Vassals to his usurped Arbritary Power, who but of late courted them with the most servile compliances, and seemed to be a slave to their interest. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 
Philo.  The Soldiers in Plutarch wondered any man would be so impertinent as to preach Laws and Moral Reasons to men with Swords by their sides; 
In Pomp.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; as if Arms knew how to descend to rational Inquiries, and are not enough junified by an odd kind of necessity of their own creation; like those in Livy, In armis jus far, & omnia fortium virorum esse: Such are now the proceed of France; and I fear, whenever time serves to give them opportunity to play their pranks, 
French proceed.  and us occasion to examine the justice of their Do, they will give us only pretensions for the just necessity thereof, and convince us of the rest (as our Neighbours have felt by sad experience) with knocking Arguments. Numberless Examples likewise of this kind, our Politician may meet with from the History of our late Rebellion, sufficient to direct him in the most desperate Exploits, without further search into foreign Precedents.  

Why Tyrants pretend to public Justifications.  I have often considered with myself, what should move Traitors and Tyrants to offer public Justifications of themselves even in the most barbarous Acts and Cruelties (which I conceive never made any understanding man a Convert, or ever met with a cordial reception in any) unless the abuse of some few ignorant and shallow Believers, be esteemed a triumph worth their pains: I have sometimes thought they do by such Manifesto's please themselves in their abilities to delude; and so gratify their Tyranny over the noblest part of man, by surprising the liberty of the Thought, and subduing the powers of the Soul to an implicit coherence with their own Magisterial opinions. These were the methods that were daily practised throughout the continuance of our late unnatural Broils, Remonstrance and Declaration, and Declaration and Remonstrance continually followed one another at the heels, till at length (by the prosperous success of all their projects) they have gained the advantage of Power to enforce the compliance of such who wanted faith enough to digest their impostures. 
Men of Parts deluded by the Doctrine of Success.  Yet notwithstandding these Baits have sometimes proved so successful, that many, even of Parts and Prudence, have been deluded and surprised by them: Some question whether Diagoras merited the brand of Atheism (considering the wild conceits they then had of their Gods) or differed from the common Creed, crying out, O how the God's favour Sacrilege! when he had a merry gale after a sacrilegious attempt. The best of the Roman Historians calls the Victory, the Impartial Arbitress of the Justice of the Cause, Eventus Belli velut aequus Judex, unde jus stat, ei victoriam dabit. So hard it is to detect this falsehood, and convince mere Reason, that the most accursed Vice (being too frequently clad in the glistering Robes of a prosperous success) hath set herself upon the Throne of Virtue, and been adored for a Deity. He was no small Poet, that argued himself out of his Gods, by seeing Wickedness honoured, and Worth slighted; which he thus expresseth:  
Marmoreo Licinus tumulo jacet, at Cato parvo,  
Pompeius' nullo; quis putet esse Deos?  
In English thus:  
Licinus doth in Marble sleep,  
A common Urn doth Cato keep;  
Pompey 's Ashes may catch cold:  
That there are Gods, let Dotards hold.  
There may be some use made of that in Seneca, Honesta quaed●m Scelera, successus facit; 
Hipp.  prosperous, Mischiefs are cardinal Virtues in the world's Ethics; and therefore the Tragedian repeats it, 
Herc. fur.  Prosperum ac foelix scelus virtus vocatur, the prosperity and glory of the Event, is an excellent subterfuge for the unwarrantableness of the Action: We often praise the Macedonian Conquest, but never regard or mention their unlimited and endless Ambition.  

The proceed and period of a factious People.  When (by any means) a People are drawn in to abet a Faction, they seldom square their actions by what is just or equal, and never so much as once consider the dangerous effects that must naturally flow from their headstrong proceed; they become immediately conjured into a Circle for the service of By-ends; and what they seem to pursue (their Liberty) is always furthest off when popular Fury is seen to follow it: But that's the Jewel which they prise, that's the Game they aim at; he that once names that to hit their humour, may work them as he please; the basest Villainies shall then pass for Acts of Grace, and the most unspotted and firm basis of Government, can never stand up in defiance of the people's hatred. In fine, they matter not what they undertake; if Success attends their do, they then believe Heaven allows that Blessing to the justice of their Cause. When our Politician has brought them to this pass, he need not much doubt (by so strong an interest) to remove the greatest difficulties, to finish his designs in the compliment of his Grandeur; which is nevertheless so strangely brought about, that his interest which stood at first upon the same bottom with that of the people, and could never be wrought without their help, must now subsist in their defeat and destruction: And thus that licentious freedom which they have used in all their actions to the plague of their fellow-subjects, is now justly retorted on themselves in the greatest Servitude and Oppression.  
This follows too upon that Doctrine of Success, as the strongest Argument to support our Polititian's power, 
This was urged to keep the King out, and to reconcile the Royalist to the Rump. And may serve now to secure this Government, if that Party will du●ly observe this Doctrine.  That if a Government be altered, and another Power in possession of it, all are bound, as private men, to submit to the present Powers, because ordained of God; (for such the Apostle hath declared all Powers in being, whatsoever, to be;) and that the former Government ceasing, which was the Object of Obedience, the Obligation thereunto must of necessity cease likewise: for no man can be concerned in any respect or relation to that which is not; and so when a thing cannot be done, the Obligation to it***** must needs be void, ex impossibilitate facti. And may we not infer from hence, that the prosperity of the Success denominates every action either good or evil? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 
Did.   

The ALLOY.  
Harken what the wise man says; 
Eccles. 9.1, 2, 3.  All things are come alike to all, there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked, etc. And it is written in the Prophet Malachi, They that work wickedness are set up; 
Mal. 3.13, 14, 15, to the end. And cap. 4.1, 2, 3.  yea, they that tempt God are even delivered. But those that fear me, shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels, I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that served him. Then shall ye discern between the righteous and the wicked; between him that serveth God, and him that serveth him not. Hence we may know, that the Wicked have as little reason to exult and glory in a present prosperity, as the Righteous have to despair because they suffer in the nonfruition of the same things. We are nevertheless so short sighted, that we cannot see beyond Time; we value things and men by their temporal felicities; whereas if we put Eternity into the other Scale, it will much out-poise that worldly lusty that so much cheats our Eyes, and abuseth our Understandings. The smoothest Waters are for the most part deep and dangerous; and the goodliest Blossoms nipped by an unkindly Frost, either perish, or produce their Fruit sour or unwholesome; which may properly imply, That the visible Calendar is not always the true character of inward perfection. I nowhere find in Holy Writ, that God hath inseparably annexed Goodness and Greatness, Justice and Victory: The divine Goodness hath secured his servants of the felicities of a better life, but doth not always defend them from the calamities of this. Christ's Kingdom was not, our Happiness is not, of this world. And St. Paul says, he were of all men most miserable, if his expectations were in this life. Nor indeed doth my Bible show me any warrant for appeal to Heaven, for the decision of this or that intricacy, by bestowing Success upon this Party or that Cause, according to its righteousness. The grand Signior may justly exult and magnify himself in discourses of this nature, if they once come to be admitted and owned by Christians; and I will then receive his Alcoran for Gospel, 
When to receive the Koran for Gospel.  when I shall be convinced that temporal Happiness and Triumph are a true Index of divine Favour; I am sure our Religion hath something more to invite our closure with it; it proposeth a conveniency on Earth, but the Garlands and Crowns are reserved for Heaven: And yet how strangely opposite to the truth and purity of this excellent Doctrine of our blessed Saviour (even to the scandal of the Gospel of Christ, and to the glory of Mahomet and his Alcoran) did our divine Rebels of the Late Times thunder out from their Pulpits (with greater horror to all good men, than the roaring of their Parties Canon) this damnable Doctrine of proving the Divinity of their Cause, from the imaginary glory of their constant Success?  
So strange and prodigious was the daring impudence of our late Usurpers, 
The Motto of the Rebels Coy●.  that at the Close of their many dreadful and bloody Tragedics, they usually cried out, God with us. And after their many Villainies repeated to accomplish the horrid Murder of the best of Kings here on Earth, they raise their Gigantic sins to the very Throne of Heaven, and there openly affront the Majesty of the King of kings, by wresting the attribute of his Goodness to favour their hellish actions; and so in abuse to the most holy and sacred Trinity, as the Motto of their Coin, they stamp these three words: God with us. But Heaven knows 'twas the justice of his Cause which so severely scourged us for our sins; the Almighty did only permit those Rebels to plague us, as the Executioners of his provoked Vengeance: It was not the Indulgence of Heaven to the Cause of our Usurpers, that gave them success, but it was our Rebellions against his divine Goodness that produced those heavy Judgements as the effects of his just indignation upon us. The Cause of these Rebels was indeed no Cause, but much rather an effect of punishment on us for our Iniquities; they had no just power to warrant their pretended Reformation of the established Religion; God used them only for the reformation of men's manners, by bringing his people to Repentance.  
And I wish the miseries of those men to be no greater than their folly, 
Wilful Slaves.  who look beyond their own freedom and liberties, and shall make it their endeavours to bring themselves into the severest bondage and slavery; that they may feel, I say, as well as their fellow-creatures, the insupportable burden of the Spanish Inquisition, the Fanatic Sequestration, Imprisonments, and the like-dismal effects of an usurped, licentious, arbitrary Power: that such, and such only, may be convined of their Errors by fatal experience, who will not so remember as to resist and avoid the miscrable Desolations, Bondage, Tyranny, and Oppressions of our Late Times, under which these Nations groaned for so many years together. And that we may know from whence those monstrous Deviations came, observe the Comparison which a late reverend Divine makes betwixt the Spirit of Popery and the Spirit of Foppery; 
C. Meroz. fol. 29.  I know not, says our Author, which is worst, they are both bloody and dangerous; the former by plotting, (but blessed be God their Plots come to nothing) the latter by plotting and acting too: God knows; though the Papists might plot Rebellion and Treason, yet the fanatics have not only plotted, but twice been up in Arms (which the Papists never were;) twice, I say, in Arms, and open Field-fights in Scotland, where our miseries were first brooded, and begun their rise; but blessed be God, as soon defeated, which was God's goodness more than our deserts; no thanks though to the Conventiclers and Field-meeters, they shown their good Will, and their good Religion, and their tender Consciences in the interim; O true Church-Militant here upon Earth!  
The Money-god in Aristophanes pretends a command from Jupiter to distribute as great a largess to the Wicked as to the Good, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  because if Virtue should once appropriate Riches, that fair Goddess would be more wooed for her Dowry, than for her native Excellence and Beauty: Even so if Religion were accompanied and attended with those outward Allurements which most please the Senses, we should be apt to follow Christ for the Loaves, and overlook the spiritual Charms and more noble ends of Christianity.  
There are many Vices which have their operation common with Virtue, being distinguished only by the intent; which because it cannot be seen, is very difficult to be judged; and Opinions of men are not always without Passion, it seldom happens that they judge without Error. The Heathen could say, Faelix praedo mundo exemplum inutile, Happy Piracy is a thing of unhappy presidency; fortunate sins may prove dangerous temptations: But to say, that the Almighty doth signally own and attest the actions of such a Person, or the justice of such a Cause, by suffering it to thrive and prosper in the world, is such a deceitful falsehood as deserves our serious abhorrency. I leave it with Ovid's Wish,  
— Careat Successibus opto,  
Quisquis ab eventu facta notanda putat.    

PRINCIPLE VI Our Politician must be sure to turn with the Tide, and change with the Times.  
'TIs the boast of a Dutchman, That he can sail with all manner of winds: Our Politician must never sing Tempora mutantur, without a Nos mutamur in illis; he must never fail to observe that quarter of the Compass whence the fairest and most propitious Gales of his interest and preferment blow, and be sure to entertain them in the spreading Sails of his endless Ambition.  
Nor indeed can the Compass breathe more variety of changes, than the dexterous soul of our Politician hath correspondent and suitable compliances: He is most excellently well skilled, even to perfection, in those methods which Varro calls Versatile Ingenium, a voluble Wit, like the Changeling derided by Plautus, as more turning than a Potter's Wheel, Rotâ figulari versatilier. He is as the Heliotrope to the radiant beams of the glorious Sun of Honour, and can endure no Shades: He hath long since abjured his God, Religion, Conscience, and all that should either interpose or screen him from those beams that may ripen his Wishes and Aims into fruition: And Satan-like, if his projects be discovered under the bright appearance of an Angel of Light, he can presently transform himself, and appear in another shape, and yet retain the same black, hellish, and devilish design, seeking whom he may devour. And again, he can assume whiteness; for I often find him wearing the Veil of Innocence to cover the horrid deformity and blackness of all his actions. If Religion be in vogue, you can scarce distinguish him from a Saint; he doth not only respect and reverence the holy Ministers, but if occasion serve, he can preach himself; and if he fail in Method, he can nevertheless (never heeding Blasphemy) persuade the Rabble that his Whining Cant and Babbling is truly Spiritual and Holy, as proceeding immediately by Inspiration from the Holy Ghost. If Cunctation prevails, he acts Fabius; if the Buckler must be changed for a Sword, he personates Marcellus; if Lenity and Meekness be useful, Soderini of Venice was not more a Lamb than he; if Severities are requisite, the Butcheries of Oliver and Nero are acts of Grace and Mercy, if compared with his. What the Orator esteems his Masterpieces in Rhetorical Harangues, (happily to apply to the various humours and genius of all sorts of men, qualifying his Address with what he knows will most charn the person he treats) that our Politician doth not only perform most exactly with his Lip and Tongue, but also most artificially with his Life and Actions. And like the English Marquis, 
Nanton 's Regalia.  being asked by what means he preserved his Fortunes, amidst the various difficulties of so many Changes he had run through (having successfully served four Princes, and still in the same station of favour) he replied, That he was made ex Salice, non ex Quercu, of the pliant Willow, not sturdy Oak; that he was always of the prevailing Religion, and a zealous Professor. This is notable for our Politician; and such an easiness of Flexibility is indispensibly requisite in the prudent conduct of his Affairs: for those violent methods which are necessary either to resist or abate the force of opposing Interests, are improperly applied to a composed and quiet Government; and so on the contrary. Even as Alcibiades in Plutarch shifted his disposition as he altered place (being jovial and voluptuous in Ion●a, frugal and retired in Lacedaemon) so must our subtle Politician proportion and apply himself to Times and Seasons, Places, Persons, and Religions, with suitable addresses to the humours of that Faction or Opinion which most prevails; as if he had been born to no other ends, but for the service of that alone. He may so court the Rising Party, as to enamour them with his Zeal and Abilities; and though he seem to espouse their Cause, he must not so throughly engage, but that the departure of their strength and power (which is the life of every Faction) may justify the separation of his interest; yet because the greatest power will somewhere reside, he must be sure to follow her, and both cry up and applaud the Pretensions of that Party, where he meets it next, as he once used to extol the former. Thus like a subtle Proteus, he assumes that shape which is most in grace and favour, which by consequence is of most profitable conducement to his ends and purposes; In eo stant Consilia, quod sibi conducere putat.  
Sometimes our Politician must dive into the very gulf of Hell, and both favour and maintain any Opinion, be it never so prodigious, bloody, or extravagant, (as a late Author has it;) I have read, says he, 
C. M. 34.  of a Sect called Cainites, because they praised Cain in murdering his brother Abel; others that have commended Corah, Dathan, and Abiram, as stout Independants and Libertines, that would not be comptrouled by never a Moses or Aaron of them all: Nay, I have read of one Bruno, that writ an Oration in applause of the Devil and his Luciferian pride. Nor will it be impertinent for our Politician to observe what the same Author says, speaking of the Spirit of Antichrist's continually shifting up and down, sometimes working in the Spirit of Popery, and at other times in the Spirit of Fanaticism; but still with the same mischievous design. The hellish Popish Plot was swom by Dr. Oates and others, to be a design carried on by the Papists, for the destruction of our Lives, Religion, and Government; but that project at this day seems in a great measure quashed: The principal Contrivers of that Machination are now removed, the Jesuits hanged, the Lords in the Tower, and the Great men, secured from action: Yet nevertheless the same bloody Tragedy is still acting, 
The Popish Plot carried on by the Schismatic, or rather by the Jesuit in Masquerade.  and the cursed Design carried on, by the Pope's other Engines; and the Spirit of Antichrist is shisted from the Conclave to the Conventicle. The grand Design, at first, was carried on by the Jesuits for the destruction of the Church of England, to introduce Popery; and as matters are now managed by the Schismatic, the same Church must be traduced as Popishly affected, and strongly charged as 
* A strange Paradox!  Parties to the Popish Conspiracy against itself, for bringing about the same ends. This they know is the readiest way to rid the Church of England; and this follows, That what before was a design in the Papists for the ruin of that Church, is now a project amongst the fanatics to the same purpose, but to different ends; for as one endeavours to bring in Popery, so the other strives to make way for the Schism.  
Our Politician must practise in these Disorders, and be sure to cast his Baits when the People swallow any thing; and when he has wrought them into a Disorder, he may from thence date the rise of his Power, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Arist. Ethick. l. 8. c. 12.  Regni quidem defectio tyrannis est: And that Power once acquired (being obtained by fraud) must be imposed with the strongest violence, that so the people may not be able to rise up under the weight of their oppressions. He must court some, and correct others; he must always remember to practise his part of the Philosopher's distinction, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 
Ibidem.  Tyrannus quidem suam utilitatem spectat, Rex subditorum.  

The ALLOY.  
So detestable were the thoughts of 0233 0844 V 2 change, 
Change in Religion.  especially in Religion, amongst the Heathens themselves, that Cicero condemns him for an Heretic, who shall either differ or descent from the Religion of his Country: And the King of Morocco answered the Ambassadors of King John of England with a protestation (requesting to know how his Majesty liked St. Paul's Epistles, which he had lately read,) That, were he to choose a Religion, he would be a Christian; but he held it abominable not to live and die in that Religion which he had received from his Forefathers and his Country. These Heathens make Religion their Interests, and not their Interests Religion; these cannot seem one thing, and act another; they are really what they pretend, and will not shift their religious Principles to wrong purposes.  

A Parallel betwixt the Pope and Presbyter.  The Jesuit (under the pretence of Religion) exalts the Mitre above the Crown, and the Crosier above the Sceptre: The Fanatic plumes himself in his Almighty Pulpit, whilst the Magistrate truckles under him upon the Stool of Repentance: Both of them oppose and exalt themselves above all that is called God: Both of them will, without scruple, do Evil, that Good may come thereof; equivocate, lie, plunder, sequester, and behead, for God's sake, and the Cause's sake: Both of them agree in that Jesuitical Tenet, That Dominion is founded in Grace: Both of them plot and contrive mischief, where and when they have sway; but always mischief, as much as in them lies: Both of them have for many years been the great Disturbers of the Peace of all Christendom, as well as of the Peace of England: And tell me but of any Massacre, or bloody Wars and Stratagems against the Magistrate, any Treasons and Rebellions, but what was carried on, either by Papists and Jesuits, or by Presbyterians and fanatics, in the memory of man; and I'll be content to abide the bloody Inquisition of the one, and undergo the same fate of the Archbishops and Metropolitans of Canterbury and St. Andrews, murdered by the other.  
That Alterations and Revolutions in Kingdoms, are the Rods with which God scourgeth miscarrying Princes, is resolved by my Lord of Argenton: 
Comines. 170.  To which may be added out of Aristotle, in the fifth book of his Politics, Per frandem & dolum regu● evertuntur. But let these Instruments of Darkness work as they please, 'tis nevertheless the part of a righteous Statesman, 
A good Statesman  to remain and be inviolably constant to his principles of Virtue and religious Prudence; his ends are noble, and the means he useth innocent; he hath a single eye on the public good; and if the Ship of the Commonwealth miscarry, he had rather perish in the wreck, than preserve himself upon the plank of an inglorious Subterfuge: His Worth hath led him to the Helm; the Rudder he useth, is an honest and vigorous Wisdom; The Star he looks to for direction, is in Heaven; and the Port he aims at, is the joint Welfare of Prince and People. This firm Constancy, is that solid Rock upon which the wise Venetian hath built its long-lived Republic; so that it is not improbable the Maiden Queen hath borrowed her Motto of Semper eadem, from this Maiden Commonwealth.  
'Tis nevertheless true, that something is to be allowed and conceded to the Place, and Time, and Person; and I grant, that there are many innocent Compliances; Virgil's Obliquare sinus is observable: There may be a Bending without a Crookedness; we may circumire, and yet non aberrare. Paul became a Jew, that he might gain the Jew; but he did not become a sinner, that he might gain sinners: He was made all things to all men, but he was not made sin to any; that is, his condescensions were such as did well consist with his Christian Integrity. Hence we may see the detestable wickedness of our Chronopantists, the monstrous Impieties and horrid Blasphemies of those Beasts of Prey; hence, as in a Mirror, we may view the Cruelties and Impostures of our late Usurpers, and perceive their Snares, though never so cunningly laid: Now we may return Religion it's stolen Cloak; and having thus disrobed our State-Sycophant, we may at once both view and abhor all his loathsome tricks and devices.  
Greatness, and Honour, and Riches, and Sceptres, those glorious temptations that so much enamour the doting world, are too poor Shrines for such a Sacrifice as Conscience, which our Politician hath so much abused by an inveterate neglect, that it is become menstruous and ephemeral. Such was the miserable condition of the Church heretofore, that (to use the words of Bishop Gauden in his Sighs of the Church, p. 202.) the Dilemma and distressed choice of Religion was then, 
God preserve the Church of England now established, from such a damned Dilemma.  says he, reduced to this, That peaceable and well-minded Christians, wise, etc.— so long harrassed and wearied with novel Factions, and pretended Reformations, would rather choose their Posterity should return to the Roman Party, which have something among them settled, orderly, and uniform, becoming Religion, than to have them ever turning and towering upon Ixion's Wheel, catching in vain at fanciful Reformations, as Tantalus at the deceitful waters; rolling the Reformed Religion, like Sisyphus his Stone, sometimes asserting it by Law and Power, otherwise exposing it to popular Liberty and Looseness; than to have them tossed to and fro with every wind of Doctrine, with the Foedities, Blasphemies, Animosities, Anarchies, Dangers, and Confusions attending Fanatic Fancies, and Quotidian Reformations; which, like Botches and Boils from surfeited and unwholesome Bodies, so daily break out among those Christians; who have made none other rule of Religion, but their own Humour; and no bounds of Reformation, but their own Interest: The first makes them ridiculous, the second pernicious to all sober Christians; Rather than to be everlastingly exposed to the profane Babble, endless Janglings, miserable Wranglings, childish Confusions, atheistical Indifferencies, and sacrilegious Furies of some latter Spirits, which are equally greedy and giddy, making both a Play and a Prey of Religion. And Calvin himself (on the first of Hosea and the ninth of Amos) saith, Quam multi sunt in Papatu, qui Regibus accumulant quicquid possint Juris & Potestatis? Whence King James, in his Basilicon Doron, Epistle to the Reader, saith, Puritans had put out many Libels against all Christian Princes, and that no body answered them but the Papists. And our late Protestant Martyr King Charles the first, in his excellent book of Meditations, saith, I am sorry Papists should have a greater sense of their Allegiance than many Protestants. And I dare say, that all good Christians grieve at this very day for, and Posterity will read with detestation, horror, and amazement, to the world's end, the barbarous Villainies, inhuman Cruelties, and impious Actions of those Protestants the good King intends; yet if those Princes had lived in these times, they must (as all the world now do) have cried out with horror and amazement at the horrible hellish Plots and Contrivances of the Papists.  Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum!   

PRINCIPLE VII. If Oaths are requisite in the conduct of Affairs, let them be of such ambiguity, as may furnish with a sense obliging to the Design, and yet so soft as the People may not perceive the Snare.  
TO compose the wavering minds of the Multitude, and to oblige them to the service of our Polititian's most impious ends, there is nothing so binding as Oaths of all sorts and sizes, according to the necessity of Affairs; as solemn Leagues, Covenants, etc. And though the practices leading to the end propounded be never so barbarous and bloody, yet the strength of a solemn Oath does so firmly bind them to the seeming Justice of their undertaken Cause, that no Divinity or Precepts (though never so just and holy) shall ever interpose betwixt them and their propounded ends; but what is urged against the Cause, shall be taken to proceed from the wicked, and be deemed as Malice and Imposture.  Finge Deum (Belial!) quoties vis fallere Plebem. 
Did ever man read of more bloody Massacres, 
A pretty Couple.  than under the conduct of the Papists, covenanted together in France by the name of the Holy League? Did ever any thing parallel it, except those hellish Contrivances and bloody Butcheries in this Island, under the favour and influence of the Solemn League and Covenant? 
1 Tim. 4.1, 2.  These are your men of seared Consciences; and none but such as these are fit for our Polititian's purpose, that can swallow Oath upon Oath, kill and rob, plunder and steal, sequester and behead, and still their Consciences blunt no more than a piece of brass. Hear what a noble Lord said in the House of Peers, December 19 1642. 
A Dispersation for Perjury.  They (says he) who think that humane Laws can bind the Conscience, and will examine the Oaths they have taken according to the interpretations of men, will in time fall from us; but such who religiously consider that such moral Precepts are fit for Heathens than Christians, will never faint in their Duty. And in another place of the same Speech, he says, They cheerfully undertook to serve against that Army wherein they knew their own Fathers were; 
Dutiful Sons.  and on my conscience (I speak it to their honour) had they met them alone, they would have sacrificed them to the Commands of both Houses.  
And that our Politician may see how some even of the Tribe of Levi, have stood up for and maintained these delusions, let him but read the two Speeches of John King and John Kid, Ministers, lately executed at Edenburg for the trifling sin of Rebellion; 
Aug. 14. 1679.  and he may there see how, in the very hour of death, they both bear witness to the solemn League and Covenant: And the words of Mr. Kid are very remarkable (says he) That if ever Christ had a People or Party wherein his soul took pleasure, 
His Speech, p. 27.  I am bold to say, these Meetings (blasphemously nicknamed Conventicles) were a great part of them. Oh, that Scotland were a mourning Land, and that Reformation were our practice, according as we are sworn in the Covenant!  
The advantage is great which that man hath in a credulous world, that can easily say and swear to any thing, and yet withal so subtly palliate his falsehoods and perjuries, as to conceal them from the conusance of most: Our Politician must never want an handsome Subterfuge to cover the natural deformity of his otherwise-ugly actions, and must be able on all occasions to cure all Miscarriages.  
Mankind are too prone, even in affairs of the greatest importance, to advise rather with corrupt and pemicious Ingenuity, than with soundness of Judgement or Conscience. Hence it is (upon that cursed Doctrine of mental Reservation) that the prosperity of flourishing Kingdoms, hath often been transposed into most lamentable Scenes, perspicuous in the various calamities of every Individual; but more terrible and notorious in the accumulative Miseries and Disasters of the whole. Our Politician is never without such means; he has still new Inventions; and amongst all his pack of Delusions, 
Salvoes to avoid Perjury.  he will be sure to apply Salvoes to the tender Conscience.  
First, We are ready to interpret the words of an Oath, and all other sacred Ties, too kindly, especially if they be ambiguous; and it is hard to find Terms or Expressions so clear and positive in themselves, but that they may be eluded indeed, or at least seem to us to be so, if we be disposed.  
Secondly, There are some, who being frighted into these Bonds by threats or losses, or other temporal concernments, please themselves that they swear by Duress, and so conceive and fancy that they are ipso facto disengaged.  
Thirdly, There are some who have learned from the Civilians, 
Gr●t. de Jure Bell●, 245.  that though we swear to a thing not materially unlawful, yet if it impede a greater moral Good, it thereby becomes void.  
Fourthly, Some take the liberty to swear, because they judge the person to whom they swear, incapable of imposing an Oath. So Cicero defends the breach of an Oath to a Thief, from the imputation of Perjury: And Brutus, to a Tyrant, as it is in Appian, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
The first sort of these is most fit for our Politician's purposes, though he may make use of the others as occasion serves; and being throughly skilled in this sort of Metaphysics, it will not be difficult for him to model his Proposals into such soft and glib Expressions, as will easily down with most; yea, with many that would otherwise condemn and disavow the same thing in a rougher Language. Let him but observe the Protestation of May 1641. (the world knows what success that met with, by woeful Experience;) I A. B. do in the presence of Almighty God, 
The Protestation of May 1641.  promise, vow, and protest, to maintain and defend [as far as lawfully I may] with my Life, Power, and Estate, the true Reformed Protestant Religion expressed in the Doctrine of the Church of England, against all Popery and Popish Innovations within this Realm, contrary to the same Doctrine, and according to the duty of my Allegiance to his Majesty's Royal Person, Honour, and Estate; as also the Power and Privileges of Parliament, the lawful Rights and Liberties of the Subject, etc. Now, says a late Author, As the whole Pretext was plausible, 
L'Estrang.  so the Saving Clause in it [as far as lawfully I may] made it go down without much scruple. Which Oath was of subtle policy, contrived for the service of by-ends: for take it as it runs with the aforesaid qualifying Clause, and there is nothing more in it than what every man is obliged to do without it; so that without some mystery in the bottom, the thing appears in itself to be wholly idle and impertinent, and not answerable to the solemnity of making it a National Duty. Was ever any thing in appearance more harmless, loyal, or conscientious, than this Protestation? And if the fellow of it were now in agitation, how would the Town ring of any Church of England-man, for a disguised Papist, that would refuse to take it? And yet what ensued upon the people's joining in this officious piece of misguided Zeal? when they were once in, there was no longer any regard had to the Grammar or literal construction thereof, but to the List of those that took it, as the discriminating Test of the Party; and every man was bound, upon the forfeiture of his Life, Liberty and Estate, to observe it in their sense.  
But let us see what became of this so solemn a Protestation, after it had been swallowed by the Multitude: Why, it made way for an Oath of a larger size, the Solemn League and Covenant; 
The Covenant, An. 1643.  which had the same Salvo with the Protestation, and the very same specious pretences for the Protestant Religion, the Honour of the King▪ the Privileges of Parliament, and the Liberty of the Subject: only enlarged to the setting up of the Scotish Discipline and Government, the extirpation of Episcopacy and Popery, and the bringing of Delinquents to punishment. So that from the maintaining of the Government which they swore in the Protestation, they are now come to the dissolution thereof in the Covenant; and what is this, but to do like the Jesuit, J●r●, Per●●ra, Secret●m prodere nol●?  
Usurpation hath only these two Pillars, it's own Arms, and public acknowledgement▪ And it is most certain, there is no other Tie of that strength and security, as this of Oaths, and it is scarce worth the Q— Whether when the gross of a Nation is thus bound, the Oath be not as valid, and the Conference as much concerned, as if it had been sworn to a lawful Sovereign. As for the solemn Oaths, Promises, and other Engagements of our Politician, he puts them into the same bottomless bag which the Poets-feign Jupiter made for Lovers Asseverations. His word is as good as his Oath; for they are neither to be regarded, but for the service of his Interest; and are both Trifles, as it is in Plautus, Pac●um non pactum est, non pactum pactum est, cum illis lubet. 'Twas he that first invented that useful distinction of a Lip-Oath and an Heart-Oath; you find him in Euripides, Jurata lingua est, me●●e juravi nihil. He makes good use of that in Plutarch, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, That Children are to be cozened with Rattles; and Men with Oaths.  
It cannot reasonably be supposed that a usurped Power can have the same confidence in the love of the people, which a just and lawful Power hath: Therefore if our Politician get uppermost, he must never trust to those ingenuous Guards, His own Goodness, and the Love of others; his best defence is Awe and Fear; and if that will not do, he must apply Fire and Sword, Scaffold and Gibbet: for he that hath no moderate means left to gain a voluntary subjection from the people, must use his utmost Rigours to compel their compliance, N●c quisquam Imperium, 
Tacitus.  malis artibus qu●stum, bene administravit. The same with G●●●zo, where one objecting the Vices of Princes, receives this Answer: 
De Civil. Converse, l. 2.2. p. 13  Perchè non eran● Prencipi per natura, ma per violenza, & era●● più temuti che amati.  

The ALLOY.  

Common Swearing.  Like our common Debauchees, who stick not to provoke Heaven itself a thousand times to damn them in one hour, and every moment vainly utter (unless it be to procure their eternal misery) those Coeli Sacra which should only serve to confirm the most sacred Truths, in abuse and defiance of God himself; and all this to verify the most palpable falsehoods in deceit of their fellow-creature, to acquire or preserve the most trivial interest or meanest pittance to themselves: 
Oatbs' of Policy.  Even so will every Tyrant and Impostor either insinuate or impose Oaths and Protestations and hundred thousand times over and over, upon so many particulars; and value not though he damn the whole world, if he can thereby but carry on the work of his wicked designs, or satisfy the smallest atom of his endless ambition: So that in proportion to that, how many worlds shall we imagine such an one would destroy before he left? It is even beyond all imagination! 
T●● rise of common Swearing.  Nor shall I be mistaken, if I assert, That these grand abuses (by such as our State-Impostor) were the original and productive Examples of those first mentioned very great, but much lesser Profanations.  

What a● Oath is, and the true use of it.  Yet nevertheless an Oath is in itself pure and holy, a religious Affirmation, a Promise with God's Seal; and therefore it highly concerns Christians to be cautelous before swearing, to swear liquidly, and to observe conscionably. Will it not rise up in the last day to our condemnation, that such slender Evasions should satisfy us, as have been scomed by Heathens? We are bound says one of them, to the sense of the Imposer, or else we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; we are bound to the performance of what we have thus sworn, or else we do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 'Tis much that a moral Conscience should more check them, than a clearer Light can a we us; as if they more honoured the genius of a Caesar, than we revere the presence of God; or else we should never engage in new Associations, Protestations, and Covenants, that do interfere, yea, and sometimes positively quarrel with the old. Concerning our Loyalty and Obedience to the King, 
Perjury laid against the Faction, in a Speech in the Commons h●●st, 1647.  it is manifest we have all taken the Oath of Allegiance to his Majesty; and that we have also taken Oaths and Covenants to make War against him. Our Enemies would fain know who had power to dispense with, or free us from those Oaths; and likewise by what Authority the latter Covenant and Oaths were imposed upon the Consciences of men: And it is reported by them, That if we had kept our first Oaths religiously, and not taken the second most perjuriously, and performed them so impiously, than we had never so rebelliously offended so gracious a Majesty, whose words are these: Confederations, by way of solemn Leagues and Govenants, 
EI●. BASILIUS.  are the common Road used in all Factions and powerful Perturbations either of Church or State.  
Over and above the iniquity of these Oaths, how ridiculous is it for every paltry fellow to swear to the doing he knows not what, and the maintaining of the Privileges of Parliament, which he doth in no wise understand! But the Multitude were brought to it by these following train of Thoughts, and drawn in by Oaths and Protestations, even to the commission of the foulest sins, which in the end brought them into a most miserable state of slavery. The Lord bless us (say they) we are all running into the French Government, 
The Delusions of the Late Times  and Popery; the Courtiers and the Bishops will be the undoing of us all: The King is a good man enough of himself, if he had but good people about him; but be i● so damnably led away by Popish Counsels! I would to God he would but call a Parliament, and hearken to their advice: But why should we not press him to it, and ferret out all these Caterpillars from about him? 'Tis true, the King can do no wrong, but his Ministers may; and yet the King is ●●●●nd by the Law as well as we. Had we not better g●t together and join to stand by one another as one man, for the preservation of our Liberties and Religion, than stand gaping with our fingers in our mouth till All's lost? These Crotchets make the people mad; 
Plebs aut humiliter servit, aut super●è dominatur.  they get together in Tumults, and like the tumbling of great Bodies into a precipice, suo feruntur pondere, they break through all Order, and put themselves out of protection in the rash pursuit of their mistaken Liberty: They run a gadding after Religion, regardless either of moral Honesty, or Christianity. In fine, when men are thus bewitched, they become brute and barbarous; they then act the most inhuman Villainies, and run into all manner of mischief and misery; they then neither think of Heaven or Hell; God forsakes them, and the Devil takes them.  
Though we are now sufficiently ware of the drift of out late Usurpers, in imposing Oaths contrary to Law, yet we may look back and view their Impostures, that we may the more detest and shun them for the future. 'Tis their own opinion of the Covenant, The Walls of Jericho have fallen flat before it; 
Case on the Covenant, p. 65.  the D●gon of the Bishop's Service-book broke its neck before this Ark of the Covenant; Prelacy and Prerogative have bowed down, and given up the ghost at its feet. And again, 
Caryl's Sermon at the taking of the Covenant, Octob. 6. 1643.  Take the Covenant, and you take Babylon; and her seven hills shall move.— It is the Shiboleth to distinguish Ephraimites from Gileadites, page 27. Not only is that Covenant which God hath made with us, founded upon the blood of Christ, but that also which we make with God, page 33. We may now see with horror and amazement, to what a fine purpose they imposed their Oaths; Prelacy and Prerogative, that is to say, Church and State, have bowed down and given up the ghost at its feet! 
The miserable effects of the Cou.  By this Covenant, these Kingdoms were made an universal Golgotha, a Purple-gore, an Aceldema, a bloody Field, a Gehenna, a den of Devils or infernal Furies; and finally, an Hell upon Earth, were it not for these differences, That here the best men are punished, and in Hell the worst only are plagued; here no good man escapes torment, nor any wicked man is troubled.  

How the Heathens punish Perjury.  The Heathens had their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, their Perjury-revenging Gods, to whose vindictive powers they referred their Offenders. They punished such as swore falsely by their Prince, with Fustigation; but such as abused their Gods, they left to the dispose of their injured Deities, as if they were at a loss how to find a punishment equal to the sin. Hear how soberly Plato mentions it (out of the noble Commentator upon Philostratus) En tantes manieres sà esté un fort belle ordinance & institution, de n' user point du no●● des Dieux Legerement, de peur de Les contaminer; car le Majesté des Dieux ne se doit imployer, qu' en un sancte & venerable pureté. See what real honour they gave to their counterfeit Gods: Let us have a care that we ascribe not counterfeit honour to the true God. 
C●●●●bon ' s Exercitat. fol. ●02.  Our God hates every false Oath: It appears in his severity to Zedekiah for breaking Covenant with the Babylonian Monarch, though a Tyrant of the first magnitude. And were all Christian Subjects duly solicitous about the weight of this Bond, we should be less prone to take, and more studious to observe every Oath. I remember the Scholiast upon Aristophanes, 
Pag. 848.  derives 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. It hedges in and shuts up a man, and ties his hands behind him. I know not how some Conquerors may abscind this Knot with the Sword, or how some sampson's may shake off these Cords, or what gaps the Licentious may make in this Hedge; but such as value God, or Heaven, or Prince, or Peace, can discover it no way better than in a sincere use of so divine an Ordinance.  
There can be no certain rule given when to believe, and when not, what such as are, or would be great, please to inculcate to us: and it is no Heresy to affirm, That many have been saved by their Infidelity, since so many Wrecks are daily cast ashore, that have been split upon the Rock of Credulity, commanding at once both our pity and admiration. I commend that of Epicharmas, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.    

PRINCIPLE VIII. Necessity of State is a very competent Apology for the worst of Actions.  
OUr late Usurpers never wanted a pretence to justify their most hellish Erterprises, and it has been observed, that in all Innovations and Rebellions (which ordinarily have their rise from pretences of Religion, or Reformation, or both) the breach and neglect of Laws, hath been constantly allowed and authorized by that great patroness of illegal actions, Necessity. Hence those of the Late Times metamorphosed the Common Law of the Land, into the Lands common Calamity; that instead of the common benefit which the Laws in community should yield to all; we have now perverted the same to the private interest of some few.  
Our Politician is never without his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sava Necessitas, either to insinuate or enforce his ends and designs: He cares not to determine, whether the necessity be of his own creating, or from whence it grows; but for the most part it proceeds from himself, being indeed nothing else but an Appendix to the wrong he undertakes; and signifies no more than that (by the necessity of such mediums to compass his ends) he is compelled to heap Injury on Injury, and so to cover his past wrongs with renewed acts of Injustice and Oppression; as if the committing a second sin, were enough to warrant or justify the iniquity of the former. Thus a worthy Patriot (speaking under an Allegory) urging the doleful miseries of our late martyred Sovereign, as they were by degrees, both impiously and severely laid upon him; Mr. Speaker (says he) Our Adversaries do allege, 
Speech in the Commons House 1647.  That our obedience to his Majesty is apparently manifest many strange ways: We have disburdened him of his large Revennes; we have eased him of the charge of Royal House-keeping; we have cleared him from repairing of or repairing to his stately Palaces, magnificent Mansions, and defensive Castles and Garrisons; and we have put him out of care of repairing his Armouries, Arms, Ammunition, and Artillery; we have been at the charge of keeping his Children and most trusty Servants for or from him; we have taken order and given Ordinances, that he shall not be troubled either with much Money or Meat, and that his Queen and lawful Wife, shall not so much as darken his Doors; and we have striven by open Rebellion to release him of troublesome life and reign, by hunting him like a Partridge over the Mountains, and by shooting Bullets at his Person, for his Majesty's preservation, on purpose to make him glorious in another world; we have also eased him of a great number of his Friends, Subjects, and Servants, by either charitable Famishing, brotherly Banishing, liberal and free Imprisoning, Parliamental Plundering, friendly Throat-cutting, and unlawful Beheading and Hanging, or utterly ruinating as many as we could lay hold of, that either loved, served, or honoured him. All this was necessary to be done for the sake of their Through Reformation; and in truth they did a great deal more, and never left, until they had undone us all.  

Massacres encouraged by the fanatics.  Our Politician may now learn from the Rabbis of Schism and Rebellion, how to justify the most barbarous Villainies: He may now work on; and though his actions contradict all Humanity, yet shall he never want Vouchers even for the most unwarrantable and horrendous Cruelties. See what a pretended Levite (but a real Priest of Baal) urgeth, both to encourage and justify such proceed: 
Bridges, on Revelations 4.8.  Whensoever (says he) you shall behold the fall of Babylon, say, True, here is a Babylonish Priest trying out, Alas! alas! my Living! I have Wife and Children to maintain. Ay, but all this is to perform the Judgement of the Lord; though as little ones they call for pity, yet as Babylonish they call for justice, even to Blood. Hear another: In vain (says he) shall you in your Fasts, with Joshua, 
Herle, on Psal. 95.11. p. 31.  lie on your faces, unless you lay your achan's on their backs: In vain are the high praises of God in your mouths, without a Two-edged Sword in your hands. 
Idem, on Gen. 22.5. p. 23.  The blood thas Ahab spared in Benhadad, stuck as deep and as heavily on him as that which he spilt in Naboth. But what says another? The Lord is pursuing you, 
Faircloth. on Josh. 7.25.  if you execute not vengeance on them betimes, p. 48. Why should life be further granted to them, whose very life brings death to all about them?!! p. 50. And again, Cursed be he that withholdeth his sword from blood; 
Case, on Dan. 11.32. p. 44.  that spares, when God saith, Strike, etc. Thus our Politician sees how to father his most hellish Erterprises on the divine Goodness, and may hence learn to enforce the most sacred Oracles (God's holy Word) to sing Songs of Triumph, and plead his justification amidst the most barbarous and impious Cruelties, Massacres, and Murders.  
Our Politician must invert that old charitable advice, Benefacta, benefactis aliis pertegito nè perpluant, into Vitia vitiis aliis pertegito ne perpluant; that so heaping one Crime upon another, the latter may defend the former from the stroke of Justice. He adores that Maxim in Livy, Justum est Bellum quibus necessarium; & pia arma, quibus in armis spes est. It were very unnatural to desire that man to leave his Crutch, which cannot walk without it; 'tis no less a Soloecism to invite or persuade him to quit his Sword, whose Life and Fortunes lean entirely upon it.  
That design will certainly seem just and reasonable, which the people are bewitched to believe pious and legal; and the goodness of the end, will at once both legitimate and commend the otherwise prodigious and unlawful means and circumstances: 
Victor. de Jure Belli. nu. 18.39.  That of the Civilians must be remembered, Lioere in Bello, quae ad finem sunt necessaria: The divine oracles are too tender for Swordmen; and it may be he had wit in his anger, who affirmed, That Martial Law was as great a Soloecism as Martial Peace; Inter arma silent leges. So that if our Politician can by his Subtleties and Impostures convince the Rabble that he as much intends their good (in the redress of grievances, etc.) ●s his aims are just, they will never expect that his methods should be retrenched by the strict boundaries of Law; but where that stands in competition with his ends, and may seem, to oppose the project, they will give it Club-law, and cry out that summum j●● est summa injuria: He manageth that rule very practically, Rem alienam, ex quà mibi certum periculum eminet, citra culpa alienae consider ationem invadere possum: Now he can very plausibly make this Peticulum either Certum or Incertion, as shall best suit with the emergency of his affairs. Hear what the learned Grotius says, 
De Jure Belli, 424.  the liberty that he concedes is very broad, Quare si vitam (inquit) aliter servare non possum, licet mibi vi qualicunque arcere eum, qui eum impelit, licet peccato vacet; & hoc ex jure quod mibi pro me natura concedit: 
Mach. on Livy, 627.  When Life, Liberty, and Safety, come in question there ought to be no consideration had of just or unjust, pitiful or cruel, honourable or otherwise.  
When by these Arts our Politician hath thus wrought the people into a good opinion of his worst actions, so that according to his wishes and desires, they have either outlookt the mischiefs, or otherwise suffered them insensibly to slip their understandings, and that under the brightness of the delusion; it will then become a matter not difficult, to set all future proceed (though never so bloody) upon the score of Liberty and Religion: and if it so fall out, that he be constrained to use means grossly unlawful, he has then, notwithstanding, nothing more to do than to sanctify and make them seem holy in the application, and all's well: for such are the humours of the unwary Multitude, that when they have once rushed into a Party implicitly, to prosecute it as desperately as if they were under demonstrative convictions of its goodness.  
In fine, because no Virtue can be induced to truckle under the service of our Politicians base designs, he is therefore enforced to make a virtue of Necessity: she may well favour and smile upon Licentiousness, who will be tied up to and confined by no Law. An habit of doing ill, and a daring impudence to maintain it, makes all things in a politic wisdom, lawful.  

The ALLOY.  

Libels the foundation of our late Wars.  As in our Late Times, when people were strangely agog, and enamoured with Barbarisms and Cruelty; when every moment produced new scenes of Blood, as if Mankind in general were transmogrified into Beasts of Prey, and made for no other ends than to murder and devour one another: which prodigious deviation of Nature from her usual course, cannot be ascribed to any thing more properly than to that dismal and destructive poison which daily sprun●● from the Invectives and venomous Libels of those times, against the then established Government: Even so the same danger is now to be feared, for that there is hardly one day passes without satire or Libel against his Majesty's Authority, Administration, Designs, and solemn Resolutions of State and Council; belying the condition of his Affairs, and endeavouring to create Distrusts and Jealousies, both at home and abroad, by false Intelligence; animating and exciting of turbulent Factions, and anticipating of Confederacies, to involve us all in Blood.  
And indeed we have Sedition preached as well as written amongst us, 
Dr. Oater 's Nar. 63.67.  and our Conventicles both instructed themselves, and instructing others in the methods and principles of Rebellion.  
The Old Game seems now to be begun again; and the Dissenters will never be persuaded out of the necessity of a Through Reformation, nor otherwise be convinced (though perhaps they believe the contrary) but that Popery and Arbitrary power are breaking in upon them, until once more (as heretofore) they trump up Fanaticism in the room of Episcopacy, and build up their new-fangled accursed Commonwealth, upon the lamentable Ruins of our ancient Monarchy. See what a stink a late Libeler makes, by raking into the Ashes of that Parliament which first burned the Rump: 
A Letter of Advice concerning Elections.  Our Grandees (quoth he) do now see, that they did out-shoot themselves, and are full of Repentance for their rash and hasty dissolution of the late odious overlong Parliament; and are therefore attempting to retrieve the Error, by tiring out the people with frequent Changes, till they can get another to their tooth as manageable and inercenary as the former. Who means he by our Grandees? or who was rash and outshot himself in dissolving that Parliament, but the King? O impudent Libeler! resolve me but this Quere, Whether all thy seeming care tends, but to the involving three Kingdoms all in Blood and Gore? But hold! We may guests what he is, and from whence these Libels spawn abroad, if we look but a little further, and observe how this Whelp of the Good old Cause scratches and claws the Church as well as State: I find all persons (says he) very forward, 
The Clergy made Traitors.  except the highflown Ritualists and Ceremony-mongers of the Clergy, who being in the Conspiracy against the People, lay out to accommodate their Masters with the veriest Villains that can be picked up in all the Country; that so we may fall into the hands again of as treacherous and lewd a Parliament, as the wisdom of God and folly of man have most miraculously freed us from, These are the common Euulsions of ●●anaticism, and sour Belchings from the abominable Covenant, which lies stinking in our Author's loathsome guts: This a man would think might startle that Subject which has but one grain of Grace or Loyalty left; however this is ugly, yet it cannot be called but a Cub-monster, when we behold the terrible, prodigious, and ugly deformity of what follows; nor can it be said (though Monster enough of all conscience) to be worthy note, in comparison with those hatched and produced out of an universal concourse of Plagues and Curses; upon which the Devil himself sat in Hell's blackest antrum (fired with malice and envy against our Church and State, and that inflamed by the vigorous emission of Blasphemy, Murders, Massacres, etc. from the flaming nostrils of Oliver, Bradshaw, Ireton, Peter, and the rest, constantly supplied with Fuel from the Good old Cause Faction, Sedition, and Rebellion, by their Brethren and Confederates here on Earth) to bring forth those two too prodigious Monsters; the one called, 
Two terrible Prodigies!  An Appeal from the Country to the City; the other, An Answer to the King's Declaration, concerning his Majesty's Marriage with Mrs. Walter, etc. Those who ever read these two, will blame my temperance and lenity in their character, and be concerned that the deepest Hyperboles cannot afford terms expressive enough of their endless mischief and envy against his Majesty and the present Government. And all this is done to undeceive and satisfy the people, 
A strange Delusion.  and in pity and devotion to their good. And were I now to define a Through Reformation, I must call it an universal State of Oppression and Slavery, brought upon us by the malice of our Enemies, with the concurring help of our own folly.  
If once Emergency and Necessity be accounted a sufficient warrant or authority for a Thief whereon to ground the lawfulness of Stealing, it would soon cut asunder the strongest ties of the eighth Commandment. But that which our Politician calls Necessity, is no more than the necessity of convenience, nor indeed so much, unless we expound that to be Convenience which favours his by-ends; and so may seem necessary or convenient in the conduct of private designs, for the help and furtherance of Self-interest. He useth Necessity as the old Philosophers did an Occult quality, though to a different purpose; that was their Refuge for Ignorance, this is his Sanctuary for Sin.  
Pausanius tells us of a Chapel in Acrocorinth dedicated to Necessity and Violence: Those Twin-goddesses may be fit Objects for the Worship of Heathens; yet how great pity is it that Christians should be of the same Communion, and be guilty of such hateful Idolatry! From hence proceed the most lamentable Disasters that can befall Mankind, and from hence arise the greatest Scandals to the very name and profession of Christianity. Let that great and good Rule be received, That no man can be necessitated to sin; our Divines generally damn an officious Lie, and the equity binds from any officious Sin.  
This fundamental Error most certainly lies in a greedy and unwary entertainment of those specious pretences, and seemingly candid propositions, which are at first made to us, before they have passed those Scrutinies and severe Inquiries they deserve, or have been duly examined by the Test of God's holy Word and National Laws: All the rest are but ugly consequences of that absurdity we first granted; according to the ancient Philosophical Maxim, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
Those Civilians which are most charitable to this Doctrine of Necessity, 
Lesle. l. 11. c. 12. Dub. 12. nu. 70.  allow it nevertheless to be no Plea at all, unless it be absolute and insuperable; as, by the Platonic Laws, only those persons are allowed to drink at their Neighbours Well, which before had in vain sought a Spring, by digging fifty cubits deep in their own ground. We approve of and allow the disburthening of a Ship, in imminent peril of wreck; but this will not excuse such who shall, upon a fond or feigned prevision of a State-Tempest, immediately cast Law and Conscience overboard, discard and quit Rudder and Steerage, and so assist the danger they pretend to fear.    

PRINCIPLE IX. Because our Polititian's Design lies deep, he must plunge to the bottom, though in an Ocean of Blood, for buoying it up.  
WIthout doubt Mr. Kid, the Scotch covenanted Presbyterian Jesuit, told a great Lie, even in the very hour of death, when he asserts in the 25 page of his Speech at the Gallows, That a public Spirit in contending for God in his matters in substance and circumstance, according to our 
* The Covenant.  Vows and Obligations, is much wanting amongst us at this day: And surely he might have asserted his innocence, since he had forget the matter for which he came to be hanged: might assert, did I say? He does at the same time both confess the Fact, and with the selfsame breath justify the Rebellion. The Jesuits did ground their Plea of Innocence upon a peremptory denial of the Crimes laid to their charge; but this man doth proceed upon the merits of his Cause, and strive to enervate his guilt by a downright justification of the 
* The Rebellion.  matter of fact. As concerning that for which I am condemned (says he, page 18.) I magnify his Grace, that I never had the least challenge for it; but on the contrary, I judge it my honour, that ever I was counted worthy to come upon the Stage upon such a consideration. But because he's dead, I'll rake no further into his Ashes, but leave his Disciples and Fellow-labourers to exult and glory in his Martyrdom, as he himself did in his Treasons and Rebellion. Another of the same Cabal, without doubt he is, and, did time serve, would prove an excellent Example in our Polititian's present case of blood; but however, he helps forward and preaches good Doctrine in the interim; which will in the end do the work (unless Heaven prevent) and make our streets serve but as so many channels to convey that blood, which he thinks fit to shed for the satisfaction of that execrable gust which still lives in the prodigious womb of their accursed Covenant. Observe his Doctrine: When Rehoboam (says he) had prepared a great Army to reduce the Israelites, he was forbidden by the Prophet. Thus saith the Lord, Ye shall not go up nor fight against your brethren, for they are from me. Mark (says the Libel) he calls them Brethren, not Rebels. And farther adds, That passive obedience is therefore simple, and fit for such that know no better.  
Such as study to be great by any means, must by all means forget to be good. 
In Apolog.  Ambition knows neither Law nor Limits; nothing so sacred but it violates; the Gods themselves must bow and yield to it, as Tertullian, Id negotium sine injuria Deorum non est, eadem strages moenium & Templorum, tot Sacrilegia Romanorum, quot de Diis, quot de Gentibus Triumphi. And again, Crescit interea Roma albae ruinis, gins one of the Decades. That the Walls of Rome were cemented with blood, is both known and commended by Machiavil; although the superstructure was brave, 
Upon Livy, l. 2. c. 3. Thebes maritum Timole●m fratrem, Cassius filitum hoc jure interficere.  yet if we search the foundation, we shall find it laid in the red ruins of her wasted Neighbours. That the first Founder became a Fratricide upon reason of State to guard his new Conquest by freedom from a Competitor, is not only vindicated from cruelty, but otherwise applauded and maintained for a piece of meritorious policy: Nor did this happen to that City alone in its Structure, but after in its Reparation, when the Sons of Brutus were sacrificed to the designs of their Father. So that Rome did not only suck and thrive upon blood in her Infancy, but likewise at her full growth and maturity she supported herself and lived upon Magna & Sanguinolenta Latrocinia: So that from this City, and from the Barbarisms of our Late Times, our Politician cannot be without most effective Instances and Examples, both to commend and warrant the most bloody Tragedies that Ambition can invent. He must not so much as wink or startle, where horror may justly terrify and amaze a tender Conscience, but must perpetrate all manner of Villainies, and behold the miseries of such as daily languish under his severest cruelty, as the common objects of his sport and derision.  
He both admires and applauds the generosity of Nero's Mother, who is reported to have said of her Son, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: Let my Son be my murderer, so he may thereby become a Monarch. According to the advice of an high-spirited Fury, Pro Regno, velim Patriam, Penates, Conjugem flammis dare; Imperia pretio quo● bet constant been An Empire cannot be purchased too dear, though it cost the blood of millions. This Lesson was well learned and put in practice by some; yet such was our misery, that we may boldly challenge the world to produce but one instance of any Tyrant that ever ruined and wasted his People at that bloody rate as we butchered and destroyed one another.  

The imminent dangers of these times.  And again, it is now high-time for our Politician to look about him; he hath gotten his Tools at work, and the Sword of the Spirit of Fanaticism is half out, looking only for his help to quit the Scabbard: People now again speak evil of Dignities, both talk and justify themselves in acts of Treason and Rebellion, and in downright terms disown and disavow the present Government. The most contemptible Member of the Rabble doth  act the part of a Privy-Counsellor; and the most discreet and sober determinations of Law and State, are daily censured and traduced by the Vote of the Multitude: No Power owned but that of the People, and their force seems wholly bend against the safety both of Church and State. 
A new Covenant.  Witness to all this, the draught of the new Covenant, which we have very lately heard of from Scotland, surprised in the possession of Mr. Donald Cargile a Preacher in the Field-Conventicles, and Mr. Hall (who were both actually in the late Rebellion there;) by which they swear to advance the Kingdom of Christ and the true reformed Religion, to extirpate Kingly Government and Prelacy, etc. This a man would think had been sufficient to express their meaning; yet they proceed more plainly to remove all doubts of what they pretend. After a solemn procession and singing of Psalms, they published and affixed on the Cross at Sanchaer, a certain Paper, wherein they declare, That for themselves, 
Presbyterian Declaration, June 22. 1680.  and all that will adhere to them as Representatives of the true Presbyterian Church and Covenanted Nation of Scotland, They do disown Charles Stuart, who hath been reigning or rather tyrannising on the Throne of Britain these twenty years past, as having any right or title to, or interest in the Crown of Scotland, or Government, as forfeited several years since, by his Perjury, and breach of Covenant with God and his Church, and usurpation of his Crown and Royal Prerogatives therein, etc. This is but like Thunder afar off, which ere long riseth up against the orderly course of the Wind, till it break out with its terror over our heads: 
The confounded methods of Fanaticism  This fiery Exhalation is from the over-warm Zeal of Fanaticism (the same here as in Scotland) and the Government is that Cloud which would contain it within the happy bounds of Peace and Tranquillity; but the connatural fury of that Zeal being hot and violent beyond all moderation, cannot be contained by a well-tempered mediocrity, but is still bustling from place to place, and hurries about, until it break out of all order into horror and confusion.  

A mischievous Comet to the heaith of the Government.  But hold! the Clouds gather, and the Storm is already rising; and we may now guests, since we perceive the disposition of the true Presbyterian-Church of Scotland, from whence proceeds those terrible Thunderclaps against the Kings most sacred Majesty, expressed in that Libel which is entitled, An Answer to the King's Declaration concerning his Marriage, etc. Which in a most horrendous impudent manner, giveth his Majesty the Lie, and urgeth the same and such matters with the Scotch Declaration, in reproach and scandal of his most sacred Person and Government.  

Presbyterian Zeal.  These are terrible! hideous! execrable! prodigious! lamentable! and malicious Belchings or Euulsions! from the burning Aetna of Presbyterian Zeal!!! These being incessantly supplied with fuel from the Good old Cause, (constant Libels, and false News,) will in the end involve us all in blood, and bring us to ruin and destruction, unless the wisdom of Heaven so direct our Councils, to prevent their designs by anticipation from the Sword of Justice.  
The great Turk rivets himself to the Imperial Chair with the bones of his murdered Brethren: Aspiring desires are not only insatiate, but admit of the foulest sins. See Basianus murdering his brother Geta in his mother's arms; Andronicus strangling his Kinsman Alexins, lest he should have a part in the Empire, which had a right to all. See Caesar slighting the Oaths by which he had obliged his obedience to the Roman Senate. But to come nearer home, see how the Tragedians of our Late Times laid their very first Scene in the 
* The King signed t●at Bill to 〈◊〉 please the people.  blood of my Lord of Strafford; and so they proceeded by degrees, till they had enveloped three Kingdoms all in purple Gore. On this crimson Torrent did our late 
* Oliver.  Usurper waft his Ambition, and seat himself on the Throne of our Murdered Sovereign.  

The ALLOY.  
Religion! True Religion (says our blessed Saviour) like a Tree, is known by its Fruit. Consult all Histories both ancient and modern, view the present posture of Affairs, and you will find, that for these last hundred years, there has been no Rebellion, Massacre. Tumults, or Treasons, Blood, Rapine, and Murder; but either Papist or Fanatic, or both, had the great hand in it. 
C.M. f. 22.  To look no further back (says the Author of Curse ye Meroz) than the reign of King James: Who dethroned his Mother, and made a slave and property of him in his Infancy, but that bloody Knox, Buchanan, and the rest of that Paritan Presbyterian Brood? By woeful experience he tells his Son (our Royal Martyr) in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. That under the pretence of Religion, he should find (alas! alas! he did find it by sad experience) not such barbarous and bloody Villains in the world. And had his Majesty taken this course, perhaps he had miss their fatal Block; Quod non praevalet Sacerdos efficere per Doctrinae Sermonem, 
Isid. Sent. l 3. c. 15.  Potestas hoc imperet per Disciplinae terrorem: or done as Constantine the first Christian Emperor did with the factious Conventicles of his time; he prohibited them by Edict, he burned their Books, and proscribed the Authors, P●stium illarum andacia Ministri Dei, hoc est, nua executione c●ercebitur: Those bold pestilent fellows, which dare offend in defiance of all Law, I'll make bold to punish their Insolence by my Authority.  

The Pope's Discrimimination from J●●k Presbyter.  These are the men that have most exactly performed their parts in the bloodiest Tragedies: Nor will it be wholly impertinent if we observe by the way how the Pope himself discriminates his honesty in comparison with Jack Presbyter: Was it from any of the Papists books (says a late Author of theirs) you have drawn these vile Maxims, 
Advocate of Conscience-liberty p. 124.  viz. That the Authority of the Sovereign Magistrate is of human right? That the People are above the King? That the People can give power to the Prince, and take it away? That Kings are not anointed of the Lord? That if a King fail in performance of his Coronation-Oath, the Subjects are absolved from their Allegiance? That if Princes fall from the grace of God, the People are loosed from their Subjection? And again, fol. 128. 
See the disposition of the French Clergy, in Heylyn's Cosn●grap. 176, 177.  During the time of the late King of France, there was proposed by an Assembly of Catholic Divines and Bishops, this Question: If it were supposed the King of France became a Mahometan, and by his Power endeavoured to force his Subjects to that Infidelity, whether they might lawfully, according to the principles of 
* There is a great difference betwixt Popery and Christianity. This might be true, if the Jesuit would leave off plotting, & renounce the Pope's Supremacy.  Christianity, by Arms resist him? To which (says our Author) the unanimous consent of the Assembly was, That such a resistance would be unlawful, since Christian Religion allowed no other way of maintaining Faith against lawful Sovereigns, but by Prayers, Tears, and Sufferings. And fol. 129. When shall we find such a Result from a Synod of Presbyterians? Compare these Primitive Doctrines (says he) with the Evangelists, and we shall find them quite contrary to the Rules of Wicliffians, Waldenses, Paraeus, Knox, Buchanan, the Jesuits, etc. who teach, that Subjects may not only defend by Arms their Religion, but offend also. And lately Baxter in Lib. of Rest. p. 258. saith, We may fight against Kings, if it were for cause of Religion, to purge the Church from Idolatry and Superstition. The Geneva Notes on the Bible, 2 Chron. 5. allow the deposing of Queen Macha.  
The Italian Politician seems to intimate a scruple, when he says, Si jus violandum est, regnandi causâ violandum est: His [if] dictates an uncertainty; and if we appeal to the bar of nature or Divinity, though possibly the entire assertion may have something of truth, yet we shall find that wicked [if] absolutely banished.  
'Tis true, we may more justly pity him that swallows a Bait fair and beautiful, than such an one who even tempts Temptations to deceive him; because in the first case a greater reluctancy is required, and the Dart may possibly be so sharp as to pierce through the Armour of a sober Resolution: But all this will stand him in little stead, who knows it to be a Bait, and hath beforehand designed its external lustre to apologise for the foulness of the sin: for in this case the bulk of the Temptation will not at all extenuate the grossness of the Crime, no more than he mitigates the guilt of his Robbery, who shall plead that he stole nothing but Gold and Jewels.  
'Twill now stand our Politician in no small avail to look about him, and remember, that however some false and flattering Sycophants may seen to indulge his Ambition, and urge the justice of his pretensions from unheardof, false, and obscure Testimonies, that he knows not but the Imposture may be retorted upon himself. The world is much mistaken in the value of a Sceptre or Crown; we gaze upon its brightness, and forget its brittleness; we look upon its lustre and glory, and neglect its frailty; we respect its colour, and take no notice of its weight: But if all those gay things which we fond fancy to our selves, were really to be found in Greatness, yet still he pays too dear, that pawns his Heaven for them: He that thus buys a short Bliss, or temporal Felicity, gives not twenty or one hundred years purchase, but (if Mercy prevents not) Eternity itself; and will be forced at last to cry out, Omnia vanitas!  
The Example of a Roman, Turk, or Christian, will be of little advantage to warrant the unlawfulness of any action: such precedents may perchance baffle the easy Vulgar (in whose Creed you may insert what you please) but will prove very cold and insignificant Answers, when we appear before an Omniscient, Just, and Omnipotent Judge.  
It will now much rather concern us to observe how Ambition claims kindred with every other Vice, stoops and takes up every sin that lies in its way; and if upon enquiry we find it to be such a complicated mischief as herein before is represented, it will then certainly become us (as men and Christians) studiously to shun it ourselves, and seriously to detest it in others.  
Let us never forget the tottering and feeble state of such, who when they have arrived to the very summit of Grandeur, have from thence tumbled into the dismal Abyss of Miseries and Misfortunes,  
Altius evexit quam te Fortuna, Ruinam  
Majorem timeas.—  Juven. 
And now give me leave, 
The Dangers of Change in Government. Faulkland.  as a caution against changes in Government, to repeat what was long since told us by an ingenious Lord; That all great mutations are dangerous; even where what is introduced by that Mutation, is such as would have been very commodious and profitable upon a primary foundation: And it is none of the least dangers of change, that all the perils and inconveniencies which it brings, cannot be foreseen; and therefore no wise man will undergo great Dangers, but for great necessities. And again, my Lord Bacon says, 
Bacon's Essays, Tit. Innovations.  It is good not to try Experiments in States, except the necessity be urgent, or the utility be evident; and to be well ware, that it be the Reformation that draweth on the Change, and not the desire of Change that pretendeth the Reformation; and that the Novelty, though it be not rejected, yet be held for a Suspect: And as the Scripture saith, That we make a stand upon the ancient way, and then look about us and discover what is the straight and right way, and so to walk in it.  

How to redress Grievances.  And if it so fall out that there be some Grievances in the State which are proper for Redress, let it be attempted in a fair and legal manner, and not so much as once offered at by the Sword of Violence: for I never read that Illegal, or Tumultuous, or Rebellious, were suitable and proper Epithets for Reformation.  
And now, Reader, let us mix our Prayers, That God would for ever banish this cursed Policy out of Europe and the whole Christian world; and damn it down to Hell, from whence originally it came: and let such as delight to abuse others, think of that self-cousenage with which in the interim they abuse themselves. Let us also consider, whilst we are busy with politic Stratagems and tortuous Arms to invade the Rights of others, that this is not that violence by which we may expect to fight our way to Heaven. Let it be a piece of our daily Orisons, That the Almighty would guard our Pulpits from such Boutefeus', as, like Aetna and Vesuvius, daily vomit out nothing but flames and fiery-discourses, using the holy Scriptures as preposterously and impertinently, as some Pontificians, who (transported with the vehemence of Hild●brandian Zeal) think the temporal Monarchy of Popes sufficiently Scriptural, from the saying of our blessed Saviour to St. Peter,— Pasce Oves. Far be it from us to entitle the Spirit of God to exorbitant Doctrines; it is easy to distinguish the Vulture from the Dove. The miscarriage of the Clergy have a deeper stain from the Sacredness of their Function, as probably he that envenomed the Eucharist ●as the more to answer for his Triple Crown.  
Let Heaven now bless the King with able and faithful Counsels, and bless these Kingdoms with an happy and lasting Union betwixt him and his People, without which the dangers seem now to be so great, as beyond removal. Let the horrid Conspiracies and Machinations of wicked men be brought to nothing; let their Secrets be discovered, and their Counsels laid open; that so the Subtle may be caught in their own Snares: And let all true Protestants pray for a full discovery of the late horrid Popish Plot, and a sure prevention of the Devices of Forty One. And with the Psalmist, 
Psal. 61.6.  That the Almighty will prolong thè King's life: and his years as many generations. For the King trusteth in the Lord, 
Psal. 21.7, 8  and that through the mercies of the most high he may not be removed. But that his hands may find out all his enemies, and his right hand those that hate him.    
FINIS.   

THE CONTENTS.  

PRINCIPLE I. REligion is the best Cloak for our Politician; he must have it in show and pretence, but not in Conscience and Practice. page 1  
PRINCIP. II. The deformity of all his Actions he must cover, and that in pretence for Liberty, Religion, etc. and otherwise endear himself to the People by Adulation, and the most sly Insinuations imaginable. page 11  
PRINCIP. III. He that aims at Sovereignty, must be sure to beat down the Bulwark of Government (the Prince's Credit) by the powerful force of irresistible Calumny. page 23  
PRINCIP. iv To render the Contagion epidemical, our Politician must always have some dissenting Pastors, or mercenary Jesuits, to justify and applaud his Designs and Actions in the Separate Congregations. page 37  
PRINCIP. V Our Politician must urge every prosperous Event, as sufficient to prove the Justice of his Cause. page 51  
PRINCIP. VI Our Politician must be sure to turn with the Tide, and change with t●● Times. page 6●  
PRINCIP. VII. If Oaths are requisite in the condu●● of Affairs, let them be of suc● ambiguity, as may furnish with 〈◊〉 sense obliging to the Design, an● yet so soft as the People may no● perceive the Snare. page 76  
PRINCIP. VIII. Necessity of State is a very competent Apologic for the worst of Actions. page 90  
PRINCIP. IX. Because our Polititian's Design lies deep, he must plunge to the bottom, though in an Ocean of Blood, for buoying it up. page 102   
FINIS.