ΔΙΑΠΟΛΙΤΕΊΑ. A Christian Concertation WITH Mr. Prin, Mr. Baxter, Mr. Harrington, For the True Cause of the COMMONWEALTH. OR, An ANSWER to Mr. PRIN'S (Perditory) ANATOMY of the Republic, and his True and Perfect Narrative, etc. To Mr. BAXTER'S (Purgatory) PILLS for the ARMY: and his Wounding Answer to the Healing Question. WITH Some soft Reflections upon his Catholic (or rather Cathulactick) KEY; and an EXAMEN of the late Petition of the sixth of July to this Parliament. In all which we have A most Necessary VINDICATION of the Cause; of the Honourable Persons now in Parliament and Council, from the Venom and VILIFICATION of their Pens. By Joh. Rogers, through Grace kept (under many Sufferings) a faithful Servant to Jesus Christ, his Cause and the Commonwealth.  Prov. 26. 18, 19, As he that is Mad, casting firebrands, Arrows and Death: So is the Man that hath deluded his Neighbour; and saith, Am I not in sport? 
LONDON, Printed for Livewel Chapman, at the Crown in Popes-Head-Alley. 1659.   

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE Council of State, Sitting by Authority of PARLIANENT In WHITEHALL.  
HIGHLY HONOURABLE,  
A Poor DUST (as I am) needs no great attendance; and A servant of Jesus Christ needs no other CREDENTIALS to demand an Audience than his Message: besides, the Matter herein doth more concern yourselves then me, and the best PRUDENTIALS that you have. If this Quadruple Discourse, do but come to your Ears, the Commonwealth is an object presented to your Eyes, 1. As an ANATOMY (but most miserably mangled, yea) cut up Quick by Mr. P. 2. As a PATIENT, but as pitifully Physick'd by Mr. B. in the Preface of his Holy Commonwealth. 3. As a Spartan, Athenian or Venettan State; upon orders EKDEMICK, and differing with the nature of our Cause, Climate, Manners, etc. by Mr. H. 4. As a Christian Commonwealth, in a Theocratick constitution and Cause of Christ upon orders ENDEMICK (both to MEN and to CHRISTIANS) as was contended for, by the well-affected; and is by J. R. In every corner of which Quadrangular, is somewhat observable, either from Mr. P's opening of his Stomach; Mr. B's opening of his Spleen; Mr. H. his Brain; or my plain denudation of heart to your mature and wise judgements, in the Promptuary and Larder of this Discourse. So that these Papers, as you accept them, are yours; if you reject them, are mine; though they more concern you then any men alive, upon a twofold consideration, Chilification or concoction of the whole Matter.  
1. Upon the account of that PUBLIC TRUST and confidence which the Commonwealth hath in you: if Immanuel (your Motto, or) GOD WITH US, be GOD WITH YOU, than Butter and honey shall be your food, and you shall CHOOSE the GOCD, and REFUSE the EVIL; yea, BUTTER AND HONY shall every one Eat that is left in the Land, Isa. 7. 15, 22. under such a Government. What is eligible (I hope) will be acceptable, and (upon your digestion) profitable and nutrimental to the WHOLE BOBY; it may be (by this) you may find out, who are (indeed) the Gun-powder-plotters, and which are the Grand Designs that would blow you up into the open Air. Some are so confident of carrying it yet, that already they conclude the Commonwealth is but a firm Nihil, or a mere Nothing without a foundation; and it is hard to say, whether they would propagate their work more by a Faux under, or by a Fax in the Parliament House. All I can do in that, is but to tell you where and how their Barrels are laid, and Instruments are at work. In the next place, I could not do less (if not somewhat more) then to present your Honours with the SPOIL of those GOODS that I have taken from your Enemies, by way of reprisal or Letters of Mart, in this Polemic susception for the service of the Commonwealth; and therein, the recovery made of the Honour and Reputation of your most worthy Members, Sir Arthur Haslerige, Sir Hen. Vane, etc. and others (not lost, but) invaded by most Name-murthering and uncharitable Pickroons, who have infested and ranged the Coasts of our Commonwealth (now) many months (if not years) together; to rob you and us, them and the Commonwealth, as they have done. And this I observed, that as I hoist Sail, and was in pursuit of the SPIT-FIRE (Mr. P.) I was set upon (and so fell in) with the HUNTER (Mr. B) who came in to assist the first: and afterward I met with the FOX in the way (Mr. H.) though I cannot say, of the same company, yet at the same employment; All which I have (with God's blessing) BOARDED (and without much Firing on my part) have brought them into this BAY before you, as Prize (in the RESOLUTION) where I now am bend to live and die (through God's grace) for the Good old Cause and a Christian Commonws.)  
2. Upon the account of that late DEBATE had of me, (unknown to me) in the COUNCIL; wherein some would render me what (I hope) they shall never find me; herein some shall find me what (I fear) they would never render me to be, both for Principles and Practice as to Government; which I presume are such as (infirmities excepted) you would be loath to eject or not affect. And therefore (Curvis Poplitibus) with bended knees, and a will broken and bowed to the foot of the Lord) do I present my Requests to him for you; and to you for him; and from him, that you may give us but a due encouragement (that are ready to engage our utmost in your service for Christ and the Cause) by a true judgement upon this Subject set before you, viz. the HEAD (i. e. Christ) and BODY of the Commonwealth i.e. the adherents to the CAUSE, as they are (indeed) the most sound, sanable, and sociable parts of its Constitution; and this  
1. In the PHYSIO-LOGY of it; wherein all things must be pondered that appertain to the essence or nature of our Cause and constitution, (viz. Parts, Temperaments, faculties, functions, most innate spirits, qualities, and the like) for then I dare aver, you will give us freedom to pay the TENTHS of all the SPOIL to our Melch●sedec, as well as to feed upon his Bread and Wine, and take the blessings; yea, to consecrate the gain unto JEHOVAH, and the substance to the ADONIS of the whole earth. (Hacharamti, the word is; I will set it apart, with an Anathema to any that shall alter that property of it, Micah 4. 13.) to retrieve and drive on this interest of Christ, (our ADONIS) in all, and of JEHOVAH above All; as suits best with the very being and nature of our CAUSE. It is your Honour to maintain HIS, and your interest to espouse HIS; and not to think worse than you need, or (too severely) to censure such as peaceably, piously, humbly, honestly, in a holy manner, with a gracious spirit, and without any contempt to your Persons or Authority, or to the People's just Rights and Liberty, plead this CAUSE, and justify it as YOURS, as THEIRS, as OURS, and as HIS; who shall be, who must be, the desire of all nations. But because Mr. Baxter may be heard with many when I may not, I shall usher in ALL, in his own words, that I have to offer for this Christian Commonwealth or Theocratick Government, as the CONCAMERATION and upshot of the whole Discourse.  
2. In the PATHOLOGY of it; and therein to consider how the Principal parts might be affected (if not infected) with the late Morbous estate of the Commonwealth: And acted (for that time) so preternaturally, that might render it as unsafe then to follow them, as now to fall on them for no MEMBERS, (humanum est errare, sed inhumanum perseverare, Cic. Phil. 2.) Unless we be of opinion that the only way to cure a disease, is to cut off the member; or to evacuate an humour, is to kill the man. So to measure the affections of your old friends (who are sound at heart) ADHERENTS to the Good old Cause and Commonwealth, by any humorous or incomposed resentment of your interruption (which was sudden and amazing!) however they took it, may be dangerous and unjust. Seeing some that were more troubled fell in with the Apostasy; and some that were less, fell out with it! yea, seeing such as were Active in it, and made their Advantages by it, are indemnified; shall such as were Passive in it, and pursued nothing by it, but the Public Good, be endamaged? Can any think that after so many years hard Bonds and Banishment, those that were forwardest, proclaimed the Single Person, served him (or rather themselves) therein, should be the Men of your Right Hand, and not those that have witnessed, prayed, appeared and Protested against it (from the first to the last of it) be worthy of your LEFT? Or that those who were but FOOLED into an expectation of better things (and in that did rejoice through hope) be the only marks for your enemies to shoot at; and such as were KNAVED into into a Perpetration of worse things (and in that they did Triumph and boast) be the very Quivers of those Arrows that are shot at them? As soon as the first sort saw the snare, they escaped it, with the loss of Liberty, Estate and Livelihood, a many of them; but the last sort saw it, kept it, and became their enemies that did it not. The first sort were more in simplicity, and (as they intended) upon the account of the Cause (the Reasons and Grounds in the Declaration An. 1653. pretended, were for the better carrying on of the Cause, and a more absolute weaning the people from Monarchy, and for successive Parliaments, etc.) but the last sort in Subtlety and Design (a many of them) upon the account of themselves, Places & Profits. The first sort did sink but like Peter, and as their feet slipped, their hands held fast upon Christ; but the last sort sunk rather like Pharaoh, having no principle to bear them up, and nothing to hold fast by: (only this we see by it) that a man may sink and rise! and sink and rise again! and yet be recovered at the last.) The first were WITHOUT, blinded with Words, and knew nothing but what was openly pretended; the LAST were WITHIN, even in their Cabals, and might easily guests at what they secretly intended. The first did but stumble; but the last did fall, and lie in their filth. It is a Good horse that never stumbles, but it is a Bad one that ever does; and that will wallow in it too! To stumble once, is a common fault; but twice, (at one Stone too) is a special one! and therefore (we humbly think) that the first ought not so to be exploded, if the last ought so to be applauded and preferred. The Orator said (Natura me Clementem fecit, Respub. severum; sed neque Natura neque Respubls. me Crudelem efficiet) Nature hath made me MILD, the Commonwealth hath made me SEVERE; but neither one nor the other shall make me CRUEL to any man: and the Preacher says, Eccles. 5. 8. If thou seest violent perverting of justice in a Province, marvel not at the matter: For he that is HIGHER than the HIGHEST regardeth, and is HIGHER than THEY.  
For my own part, I need no Apology in the matter, who was possessed with amazement at the rashness of the Action. I was so far from irritating or abetting it (as some would suggest) that I never mentioned or imagined it; or (to my knowledge) heard it of any other, till it was performed: And then was so unsatisfied with it (of which eminent Persons are my Witnesses) as might free me both from the suspicion and the sin of it. Besides, it is in print to the World (and was then in Press!) for Posterity to see, my opinion of them that were reputed Active in it 
* Vide my Irenic. Evang. Epist to Church, p. 7. . Yet when that interruption had so candid an Interpretation, by Good People (who were over-credulous and ignorant of the Design) I did write to the (then) GENERAL, and my fourth Propos. was, hisce Verbis, word for word, That those who were righteous, and spirited for this Government of the WORTHIES of the late (i.e. this) Parliament, that are without just exception, may be Owned with Honour, i.e. Returned again to their Trust. And these Proposials are the worst that can be said of me by any man, wherein I meant, as much as I mentioned, very honourably of them, as of our WORTHIES. But if that satisfy not, I shall presume with the words of a Scottish EARL Leviston (in his Oration to the then Lord Chancellor, ex Georg. Buchan. Rer. Scotic. lib. 11. & Junii 27. adhort. p. 151.) Non me HONORE Spoliatum, sed ONERE levatum existimo; Privatim si quam accepi injuriam, eam Publicae Salutis Causa libenter Condono: Si quam feci, Bonorum Virorum Arbitratu satisfaciam, etc. I account not myself robbed of Honour in your late DEBATE, nor exempt of Reason in any former REBATE (being armed with so much innocency that I can heartily say,) If I have privately received any Wrong, I can freely remit it for the Publick's sake; but if I have done Any either to the PUBLIC or to PRIVATE, I (as heartily) refer it to the Arbitrement of Good men, and I will make satisfaction, if I can, for it.  
Neither expect I any thanks, to be an Advocate for others; but to prevent the injustice of squaring your Affairs and their Affections by so fallible a RULE as that is. The Angel's Golden Reed is the Golden Rule to measure the Inward by; but the outward (Rev. 11. 1, 2.) may be measured by the best Reason of man (rightly fixed for judgement) and then I need not show the danger of Breaking Bones too often in one place, lest they fester, and Rot, and come to Ruin, as well as put to pain the Whole Body. But to conclude,  
I see you like Men in the Dark, up at MIDNIGHT, in a confused State; ready to Knock your Heads at every Post, and to break your Legs at every Block! and therefore hope by this Collision of flints to strike a spark of fire; and if I find my match, I shall light a Candle at the least. Which will be some comfort to me in my WAY, if it be no help to you in your WORK: and seeing I am not Worthy to live in my own Nation, I am glad that you are so worthy as to send me into Another. I would say, with chrysostom, Well, the Earth is the Lords! and the fullness thereof! ET NIL NISI PECCATUM TIMEO! yea, I would answer too with Aristotle, when asked why he left Athens, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, because I would not have the Athenians to sin TWICE against Philo-sophy; nor would I that our Honourable Worthies should run the SECOND TIME upon the (same) ROCK, or Danger of Ruin.  
My poor Prayers and Tears to my God for you have been, are, and will be, That with Wisdom and Grace (like a Burning-Glass, which gathers All Beams into ONE) you may be both HEAT and LIGHT to yourselves and us; Discovering the dark Designs and Retrenchments of all your Enemies, Recovering the Light and florid intendments of all your friends to serve the PUBLIC with. And, O that JEHOVAH! would honour you, as Instruments! and Columns of his immortal Praise! in raising up the Plant of Renown in this Nation! and making it to flourish in your Days! by the Pouring out a fresh Horn of Oil upon the Heads of his Magistrates and Ministers of the Gospel, so as may make us his HEPHZIBAH and his BEULAH in this Island; and GREAT be the Day of his JEZREEL! Amen, Amen.  
From my House in Aldersgate-street 14. of the 5. Month (called July) 1659. in the 1. Year of our second Deliverance or Return to the Liberty of a Free-State. Your Servant (to my utmost Power) whether in this Nation or any other, for the Cause of Christ and this Commonwealth. JO. ROGERS.   

ΔΙΑΠΟΛΙΤΕΊΑ. A Christian Concertation with Mr. Prynne, etc. his Anatomy, or rather Apotomy of the Commonwealth, etc.  
SInce the Publishing of some former Papers for the clearing of our Cause and Commonwealth from Mr. Prynne's charge, and others of his Principle; some Scurrilous Goose-quills have been dashing the GALL of his Ink upon them to little purpose; but to blot them a little, not to answer them a Line, nor the Argument of them in the least. And yet some Gablers of late have been so Garrulous in their Pamphlets and Reports, as if they were the only GEESE that this Age affords, to keep the Capitol (of their Cause) whiles the Dog's sleep. And as if an Annual Commemoration of this good service were too little (after the manner of the Romans) to carry a GOOSE before them in Triumph, and to lay it soft upon a rich Carpet, they ridiculously Act it every day (almost) for Children and Apes to gape and skip at, but for wise men to scorn and spurn at. My Arguments are all firm and untouched, which have proved Mr. Prynne's Cause to be the very CORPSE and stump so long since defunct, buried and rotten (though he would have it rise again, or the Ghost of it) But ours to be the living and only true Good old Cause; neither have I yet heard any Reason to decline what I have said upon this Subject, without his felo de se, and bare saying it, in p. 4. of is Republican (in the Margin) with his bungling ANATOMY (which others boast of) be sufficient to effect it. In the FIRST he refels like a Lawyer, not like a Logician; and in the SECOND like a Butcher, not like an Anatomist of the Commonwealth; by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, not a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; a wrangling, rather than a reasoning with any Sobriety. Nor can my heart but bleed at that monstrous Barbarism and horrid Error of Dissection in Herophilus and Eristratus, 
Mr. Prynne's cutting up of mea alive.  that he seems to follow (and so his fellows) in cutting up men alive to try his Skill. O cruel practice to make Proficients indeed! so to mangle the tremulous Members, and most noble Parts, Names, and Worthies of this Commonwealth! with the highest violation of the Laws of Nature, Reason and Religion! This must needs render the Art very diabolical, both in (his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) Inspection of it, and in (his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) the Instruction of it!  
As to the Gentleman's SKILL, 
M. Prynnes skill in Anatomy.  it is apparent to most men, that he exceeds more in the Ektomy & Apotomy (or most cruel incision & wounding) then in the true Art or Anatomy of the Commonwealth, which requires a more gentle, even and ingenious Hand or Head then Mr. Prynnes or mine, to make it a most Curious Section, or clear Discourse through all the Labyrinths and abstruse mysteries of State, or an Accurate Discovery of all the outward and inward Parts, with the nature, feature and structure of them, in this great ANIMAL (if I may so call it) for so he handles it; (with a rough, rash, rending, vulnerary Dissecting, or rather Bis-secting (in his two Books) of the most Principal Members of it, without order, Rule or Reason in it. Besides, he that makes no discrimination between the Similar and Dissimilar parts of the Commonwealth, cuts it up as a Butcher does a Beast; with but little skill or excellency, if with any truth or honesty at all. Neither doth Mr. P. so aim at the Curing, as at the Killing of the Commonwealth, in all his Science and Section. And what a rare Piece! or rather (Butcherly) business he has made of it, 
His instruments of Anatomy cruel.  is easy to guests from those instruments of cruelty he hath used in it, all the way of his Anatomy, viz. the RAZOR of his Tongue, like that in Psal. 52. 2. which deviseth mischief (or cuts most cruelly) like a sharp RAZOR working DECEITFULLY: in Chald. Targ. mille malshinuta, working words of slander, and detraction. As he has his Rasours of the worst sort! He has also such Brazen (faced) PROBES (for searching) as were made out of the Jesuits own Forge, by his own confession! Cavaleerish SIZZERS, to cut us off for spurious Republicans like Proud flesh! Episcopal SAWS, to make havoc of such as go under the Name of Sectaries; Presbyterian PINCERS too, to tear and pull us; and CORDS too, to bind them that are for Liberty of Conscience; some Brutish HOOKS to draw with, and Whimsical WIMBLES to wind in with, and to Worm the Vulgar; a TABLE too (after the old fashion) to bind this (living) Anatomy upon; with the very same Rings, Chains, Fetters and Perforations that before were used to bind us with, and to make us all SLAVES. These are his tools to work with; and in this manner he enters upon his bloody Anatomy, to the injury of the living Commonwealth; as if nothing could fit him for an Example, but the abominable Action of that Monster of men, who was not content to butcher his own Mother AGRIPPA (by Assassinates) but in a most barbarous manner make a Survey of her Body and Parts (so mangled by his order) and weltering in Blood.  
Had Mr. P. gone about it like a Workman, 
His Anatomy hath no order in it, neither 1. Dignity, nor  he would have done it either after the order of DIGNITY or of DISSECTION. 1. Of Dignity, and therein have told us, who and where the HEAD of it is; which is the seat of wisdom, contains in it the faculties of sense and motion; which hath upon it the face of Majesty; as well as in it a Brain fit to perform the variety of all animal offices and functions throughout the whole Body of the Commonwealth. Or 2. of Dissection; 
2. in Dissection.  and so to have told us, what he means by the public and private Regions of it, and where he begins his view of Parts, as to Structure, Action, Use, and Conformation of every one of them; yet that you might think him a most profound and Accomplished Artist, he begins his Anatomy, at the Spermatick parts of it, p. 1. and the 5. p. affirming that Parsons the Jesuit, Watson the Priest, etc. were the fathers of our Commonwealth, 
Mr. P. begins with entrails first  and had the Prolifical part, or Art of procreating it, which (he saith) he finds by his penetrating the entrails of it, in p. 1. I confess it was the manner of soothsayers and Conjurers of old to penetrate the entrails (as he calls it) for such discoveries; so did they in the days of M. Marcellus, when he fought for the Syracusans against the Carthaginians, declare this way the Projects of their enemies, 
And so did the soothsayers of old  and predict also the event of things (as Mr. P. doth) by the entrails of an Animal opened, which the Soothsayer or Witch gave his judgement upon: And thus did the Apostate Julian, when he entered Illyricum, and engaged against Constance, he used the entrails of Birds and Beasts to Soothsay by; but I never heard of this Course taken by Anatomists before, (either in order of Dignity or Dissection) to penetrate the entrails, first, (and for the discovery of a Gunpowder-Plot too, as he calls it) before he hath passed through the EXTRALS of it, or outward membranes of the body; unless he did believe that he should be lost in the snare, or catcht in the net of the Kell (or Omentum) that covers those entrails; which he rips open most inhumanely to the VIEW of the Beholders, and then reads his Lectures (like NERO) upon the very Womb wherein himself once lay. But could he have come (with the Art or Honesty of an Anatomist) to the entrails FIRST; yet how by them Mr. PRYNNE (or his PRIN— cipled ones) can presume, or pretend to find it out, that our Free-State is the Jesuits Project, without a professed Witchcraft or Sooth-saying; I profess I cannot see, nor they (I think) very rationally suggest. In the interim, these most intelligible and legible Characters which Mr. P. has made of himself, 
M. Prynne his own Anatomst, and his friends.  (and of his Consociates) by such occasional openings, passions, and enucleations, are not more easily read, then remembered (and Commented upon too) by understanding men; and as evidence enough, that (instead of the CAUSE) he hath ANATOMISED himself (and them too) to the very life, in his Bissection (or two last Books upon the Commonwealth), and before the Next he may well remember, that the man who hath no RULE over his own spirit, is but a City broken down and without walls, Prov. 25. 28. and 16. 32. He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and that ruleth his spirit, than the taker of a City.  
It would be endless to instance in every particular; But how (out of reason) remote this Novel Anatomist is from all the just Rules of Art, Reason or Honesty in his Description of the Republic, let our famous College (of Phys. Chirurg.) I mean the PARLIAMENT (that sit by extraordinary Providence, as men raised from the dead, for the PUBLIC Good we hope) perpend; it being most proper and essential to their Honourable Profession, places of Trust, long experience, and good success in the service of the Commonwealth, so to do.  
His two last Anatomy-Lectures (that I met with) upon this most (miserably mangled, 
His mistake in the subject of his Anatomy.  and) mistaken Subject (whereof the one consists of fourteen sheets) are very incongruous and irrational, upon an errand mistake of the Subject that he handles; putting no difference between a Free-State, and an Enslaved; the Commonwealth, and a Kingdom; The Parliament of the Commonwealth sitting since An. 1648. and the Parliament of the Kingdom before that. After this manner one DEMOCRITUS of Abdera did play the Anatomist (to find out the seat of Anger or Melancholy) he cut in pieces the Body of a Beast, but never considered the GALL in himself, or seat of Melancholy in his own Breast; and so is it easy to give a most erroneous judgement, upon the Dissecting of a creature of a far different Nature, as Mr. Prynne doth all the way. Therefore for time to come, before he cuts up, we must desire him to tell us truly what creature he means, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. and to write o'er the Head of it, This is a BULL, and that a Beast or Horse, etc.  
But that the Ignorant may be undeceived in this, and those silly souls (so devout at his Lectures) unseduced to that; so that their Brains be the clearer from these Notorious mistakes, by a sternutation at least, at the Pus or opus of his matter; and that they may not poison their intellectuals, with that which is neither 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, sweet nor sane, pleasant nor wholesome to the body of the Commonwealth: I shall contribute my help (for their better information,) and might answer his two Books in two pages, by obviating and demonstrating Mr P's false and suppositious GROUNDS that he goes upon in both, 
The grounds he goes upon are very mistaken, and merely fictitious.  (with an uncontrolled Prolixity and Loquacity;) but I shall for the common benefit, dilate a little, or expatiate upon his splay-footed Discourse, to strike up the heels of this Champion. 1. In that which concerns himself and the Secluded Members. 2. In that which concerns the Kinglings Interest for a Single Person, upon a most dangerous creeping insinuation, that this Commonwealth is but the Superfaetation and spurious of issue Jesuits and Papists. In both which, as Mr. P. himself will be put upon his second thoughts or reserve, if he have any to retreat unto; and if he have not, like the Camel (in the fable) by seeking HORNS lost his EARS; so his Devout Pupils be put upon another Lesson in the true Anatomy of the Commonwealth: Unless they resolve to incur the punishment, which sometimes the Heathens put their (Adulterated) People to, (viz. by thrusting the heads of such Adulterers and Adulteresses into the odious Paunch of a most filthy BEAST, and there stifled them:) So to be suffocated in the filth, venom, and excrements of Mr. Prynne's Anatomy. But we shall hope yet better and more charitably of them.  
I shall therefore begin with his first Assertion, 
Mr. P's first Discovery in his Anatomy, is, that the Secluded Members had a right to sit in this Parliament.  in Narr. from p. 1. to 18. and in p. 22. viz. That the Secluded Members had as much right to sit as any, and the Majority, were and are forceably kept out of this Parliament, etc. Mr. BAXIER seconds him with as agile a Notion in his head, and Motion from his heart to the Army for their Readmission The truth is, it is all the way observable, how PRINIAN Mr. baxter's words and Arguments are for Law, and how BAXTERIAN, Mr. Prynne's proofs are for Scripture; yet as Plato once said of Diogenes, Illum esse Socratem insanum & furentem, etc. he is no other than Socrates raging and mad, and Socrates is but a sober Cynic or Diogenes; so indeed Mr. B. is but Mr. P. in more sobriety; and Mr. P. is but Mr. B. in more bitterness and asperity. But sure neither of them could think us so far out of our wits, (or beside our senses,) and Nescient of the History and State of the Commonwealth (whatever they conceive of others, whom they carry as Falconers on their fists do hooded Hawks) that we should be persuaded this can consist with the Sanity or Sanctity of it and of the Cause. Muchless can they induce us (or any alive, 
Mr. P. no Artist in Anatomy.  who are but Masters of their own Reason) to believe a right they have to sit as members of this present Parliament. 
Hip. lib. 1. de offic. Medici.  But had M. P. been an Artist in Anatomy, he would have learned of Hypocrates, first, To look into those things that are alike to one another, and SIMILARY Members of the whole; and then into those things that are so unlike, and DISSIMILARY; I mean, of that Parliament, that was then in being; 
Secluded Members Dissimilary parts, at best.  for of THIS (that sat since An. 1648.) they never were, neither in the one sense nor in the other. Thus Aristotle teaches, That which is right and straight must be first, because it doth not only measure and manifest its self; 
Arist. lib. 1. de Anima. The Secluded Members how found in the true Anat. of the Commonwealth to be oblique.  but it also measures that which is oblique, crooked and contrary to it, and to the Body. This Mr. P. should have done; and this was done when they were secluded: They were first measured in their Affections and intentions, and so found oblique to the Public; (yea, professed and avowed enemies to the Free-State and GOOD CAUSE;) by such as have infinitely more skill in that Art (of true Anatomy) then either Mr. P. or I can pretend to. And that this is so, it hangs upon Record; so as that a little Revise of the PARLIAMENTS necessary Resolves and Votes about them (with the GROUNDS and REASONS of the Votes for their Seclusion) will satisfy any well-willers to the Cause and felicity of the WHOLE; that Mr. P. doth labour but in vain to rescue that with Wit, which they lost in Worth. Besides.  
2. Their SECLUSION and expulsion was from the House of Commons indeed; 
2 The were Secluded from the House of Commons, or that part of the Kingdoms Parl. which is long since at an end.  or that PART OF THE PARLIAMENT, which were called and convened by the King's Writ (of Caroli 17. An. 1640.) which Parliament Mr. P. himself determines, and hath resolved to have been actually Dissolved at the Death and Decollation of the late King, according to Law and REASON; and this, he so learnedly proves from p. 24. to 34. that I am ready to say, with Appelles upon the 7. years elaborate piece of Protogenes, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Labour is great, and the work too; but alas! the Grace and Beauty of it (which is the formale) is wanting! and how needless that long discourse is to prove what we never denied, let the Reader judge; but that which we deny, and which Mr. P. must prove, is, that the MEMBERS (for whom he and Mr. B. are such Advocates) ever were or are Members of this PARLIAMENT of the Commonwealth, 
Never members of the Parl. of the Commonwealth, nor never had a right to sit in it, as such.  or Secluded from it, viz. the Parliament of the Commonwealth without King, Single Person, or House of Peers. Which neither Mr. P. Mr. B. nor any man alive, with all his Art of Anatomy, Calumny, Law, or Logic can be able to do; or to evidence the least RIGHT they had, or have to sit in this present Parliament, as he would suggest it; or indeed any at all, but what grounded and precipitate presumption in any other might as much pretend to. And therefore with his leave, those Honourable Persons that his Pen dashes upon, in p. 10. of his Narr. viz. Sir Arthur Hasilerige, and Sir Henry Vane, rendered him such Reasons for his not sitting in the House, as might have satisfied the Writer as well as the Reader, him or any that had not been quite bank-rupted, and as void of Reason as of Right.  
3. The Bustling, 
3. They were not the majority of the House that were Secluded.  Blustering noise which Mr. B. and he makes of the Majority, is a mere SOUND, and mistake. Had he been pleased to have made known to the Reader, how many were Delinquents; how many left the Parliament, and sat in the Juncto at Oxford (200. or more) that never returned again! and of those that remained in the HOUSE, it must needs follow, that the Secluded Members were the lesser Number; and those that sat since 1648. are the greater Number, being now about 200. besides those that are dead of them. But whether it be more the folly of a wise man, or wisdom of a fool, to make this loud noise of a Majority, I know not! only this I know, that the Decision of a difference, by a fool in Paris, was not without that equity and justice which is due to Mr. PRYNNE and them of his Humour; for when a Cook fell out with a poor man, that had been in his SHOP and eaten never a bit, but satisfied himself with the smell of the meat that was roasted; he would make him pay; but it was referred to the NEXT that came, (which was the fool) who determined it thus; that as the Man had been filled with the Smoke of the Meat, the Cook should be paid with the jingling of the Money. And it is as just, if a fool may say it, to men so wise, that M. P. and M. B. who do fill our heads with FUME, be paid with the tinkling jingle of that FAME, for which they are never the better, nor will be richer at the last; I pray God, not much the worse, with a (Mat. 5. 2, 5, 16.) Verily I say unto you, They have their REWARD.  
4. Mr. P. confesses, 
4. Their design is to destroy the commonws.  that had he been admitted to sit (with the rest of the Secluded members) their design was p. 22. propounded, to resummon the long since defunct House of COMMONS, which hath been buried and out of mind almost eleven years. Notwithstanding (by his own words) there was no such thing in being since the King's Death; and how these could be the Antecedent, without the Relative of King or House of Peers, or made demonstrable and practicable by his own LAW, or responsible to the Writ & Summons of a Parliament as he accounts LEGAL, I understand not; but this is easy to be understood, that if these Secluded Members had pretended as fair at first, as Cleomines (the Laconian) did once to his friend Archonides, they intended as foul, and with like Policy at last. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. He swore to him, that he would do all things jointly with him, and transact nothing without his HEAD were in it; but he watched his time, when he cut off his companions HEAD; and to keep his Covenant, after he had parboiled, and fitted it, he kept it by him, honoured and perfumed it, and upon every weighty matter or consultation would set this SKULL by him, and tell it what he purposed, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, saying, That he did not violate his engagement, or break his OATH in the least, seeing he did ever take Council with the HEAD of Archonides, and did nothing without it. That this is the Honour our Patriots should have, if they could effect it, is as clear as the Sun.  
5. Mr. P. knows (as well as we) that the Parliament recalled to their Trust (by the Declaration of the Army) is expressly denominated that Parliament that sat from Anno 1648. 
5. It is denominated what Parl. is called to sit.  till Anno 1653. viz. the Commonwealth-Parliament, whereof they were never members; so that he might well have spared his squinteyed Arguments, or unanswerable Reasons (as he calls them, from p. 34. to p. 40.) to prove they are not the House of Commons till they took themselves for such a House; but thus poor Mr. P. doth make himself both Adversary and Answerer; 
Dr. Featly Serm. p. 885.  Mark and Archer in his matter; and is either like one Antipho (that a Dr. tells us of) who through a Disease in his Eye, thought he had his own IMAGE ever before him, and for THAT, he could see nothing else: Or like that Soldier who in a foolish Bravado meant to expose himself to such a needless Peril, that for want of an Enemy he would find himself to fight with; and so doth Mr. P. in the most Parts of his Discourse. Indeed he wounds himself severely, and I much pity him in those unruly passions which fall with the deadliest blows on himself and on the Bowels of his own Arguments that are torn apieces with very anger; 
Mr. P. properly and in Law-sence guilty of the Felo de se.  for this he knows is by the LAW the Felo de se.  
And thus Mr. P. hath seen his HEIRS apparent (as he supposed) to the next Revolution; (and who were accordingly in expectation of possessing) utterly disinherited, by a gracious Providence, and unexpected; so that like M. LIVIUS, who through his own folly had lost All, and said (to his own shame) he had left nothing to his HEIRS, praeter Coelum & Coenum, but air and mire; he may say it, (I fear) that it is AIR and MIRE, and nothing else, that he bequeathes by his writings to those Gentlemen; and I wish it might not have effect like the River Lyncestis, 
Robinson on Gen. 49. p. 49.  of which whosoever drinketh is sure to run Mad. Thus we see also, the Caninum appetitum of them that long after the Death of this Commonwealth; accounting their only Riches to lie in the Reversions (purchased at so easy a Rate, as a Breath, or the Vote of a company of Lawyers) for the King, Lords and Commons; which they were very near effecting in their last (Dissolved) Assembly; only lost all by over-hast; and the Commonwealth is recovered, 
The Commonwealths strange recovery.  but most strangely. Not much unlike to that of a King of Parthia (ORADES by name) the same that slew Crassus, who being desperately ill (as our Commonwealth was) it proved a temptation to his son Phraates (so impatient he was of his Death, that himself might succeed to the Throne) to dispatch him quick; he gave him poison, but the Poison did not only work out its self, but the Disease with it, and was so far from killing him, that it perfectly cured him. And so it did with this poor Commonwealth (a sick Patient! when they came together, and whose CASE 
* Vide plain case of the Commonwealth etc.  I then opened to them,) the POISON that was given to make a quick dispatch of the Commonwealth (by the Lawyers and Courtiers, etc.) hath produced a cure; And the Lord hath (we hope) saved us once again! Disappointed our Adversaries! and raised up this Renowned Parliament, as from the Grave, to do great things for Christ and his Cause in this Commonwealth, or to the Greater shame of them that hinder.  
What Mr. P. hath suggested like a learned Anatomist; Mr. B. hath as bravely seconded like a Physician (in's Preface to the Army.) 
Mr. B. Seconds Mr. P. in the same plea. Mr. B. holy Commonw.  Because (saith he) I find that self-conviction worketh in you, and hath brought you already to more confessions than Volumes from me were ever like. And when Nature hopefully begins a CURE, it must not be disturbed by VIOLENT Medicines. You have already confessed, and the Officers of the Army in Scotland confess. Penitent confessions will be some reparation of your honour. This much from another would by some have been called a second GANGRENA, or a SCANDALUM MAGNATUM. And if you be indeed sincerely penitent, we are not only in hope, but past all doubt, that God who hath showed you the sin of forcing out the last 120. will also show you the sin of imprisoning and secluding of above 140. at once, long before, etc. How exquisite Mr. B. is in this Art or Science of Physic I know not; 
His skill in Physic, examined, as well as P's in Anatomy.  but (with his favour) if he follows right Rules in his prescriptions, he ought to have told us first, what Humours he would have evacuated; and so to have proportioned his Dosis and Directions to the quality of the Disease; 
1. What Rules.  not mistaking or taking them for ACTIVE QUALITIES in the Army, which were merely PASSIVE, and under orders; 
1. What kinds of Humours are in the Commonwealth.  nor on the contrary, to account them passive qualities which were merely Arbitrary, Active, and their own, without Orders, which the Parliament ought to consider. 2. Also, with what kinds of medicaments or means, consisting with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and State of the Commonwealth, as Aristotle (when sick) said to his Physician, 
2. What kinds of Means to cure them.  What, do you think to cure me as if I were a Horse? that I must not know what ingredients you do give me? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Away, away! you shall never meddle with me, like a Farrier, Herdsman or Delver; but first go! and find out the cause and nature of my disease: and so say we. For all Medicines agree not with all men; and I presume Mr. B. hath more than one Rule or Remedy for all diseases. 
3. With what Reasons.  3. He should have given us his Reasons also; For in methodical cures, not only the remedies but the reasons of things ought to be proponderated, and as accurately prepared. Now although (as Mr. B. saith) Lenitives be most necessary when nature begins to work so, 
M. B's Lenitives examined.  and into such confessions; yet when the Humours are hard, viscous, very tough and tenacious, they are not outed with such contrariis blandis, so easily; as with corrosives duly corrected, and with such, consideratis considerandis, as best suit both with the Patient and Potion. And Mr. B. himself tells them of a more violent, working, exasperating Physic which he hath; but he shall forbear to give it at present, 
Mr. B's Corrosives examined, in's Preface to his Holy Commonwealth to the Army.  viz. to set before them the aggravation of their sins; terrors of hell and damnation, etc. (and all about the Secluded Members, or the last Assembly, for which) amongst his mild ingredients, he gives them this ARGUMENT. To resist or depose the best Governors in all the world, that have the Supremacy, is forbidden subjects on pain of damnation: But the best Governors in all the world that have the Supremacy, have been resisted or deposed; I mean (saith he) the Secluded Members, secondly, the Powers that were last put by, etc. So that his conclusion is DAMNATION. Are these his Lenitives? Though the minor of his Argument is an errand untruth, yet his MAJOR ought to have been explained, and not so applied, until he had told us what the Apostle means by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Damnation, and whom he meant by SUBJECTS, and where the Supremacy indeed is, and then was. But with such a preposterous zeal too, poor Hugh Peter's did offer them his Potion, 
P. 23. l. 13. Hugh Peter and Mr. B. for the single Person and last Assembly as the best Governors.  in his Letter to a great one of the Army, thus. The Protector and the two Houses, were the hopefullest way in the whole world to settle these Nations; and the crossing thereof, the most dangerous. So a little after he saith, The Authority of the best Parliament, and most freely chosen, trampled upon: yea, such a sort of men gathered together, as would have been a defence and establishment against all evils, etc. thus Hugh! Which Potion because they would not, indeed could not accept, he drank off himself, and (poor Wretch!) is become stark MAD. Wherefore I would earnestly wish that Mr. B. in all such Acute corrosives and threats of Damnation, (which I think he uses too often to poor sick Patients and tender Consciences) will for future lenify them with the love of Christ, and tenders of Gospel-grace; with so much Cassia of charity, and Manna of mercy amongst them, as may make them work more kindly upon the Patients. Neither let him think to correct his Lenitives with Astringents, or with binding of them up to his opinion, way, or apprehensions; for we have seen it (by sad experience) that such narrow spirits, 
Astringents or narrow spirits, ill for the Commonwealth, and now dangerous.  in their binding, contracting, and Astringent Means; which some Good Men, (whether Presbyterian, Independent or others) are propense unto, and do propose for the only means of Curation, (viz. to set up their own form and judgements, but to cast out others that differ) do rather detain then drive out the most knotty, rigid, HARSH, Clammy and Viscous humours in their (so recovering) Patients or Proselytes, under that form of godliness, or colour of being cured.  
But fourthly, 
4. Well and suitably applied.  Mr. B. must be Better advised in the clapping on of his Applications for the future; he might as well have applied Hepaticks or Liver-medicines to the Feet; or Cephalicks accommodated to the Head, unto the Bowels; (and yet such improper and impertinent Prescriptions, are common in our days,) which tend more to the destruction of the Commonwealth in its natural strength (that so through it's excessive weakness they may Refund & confound us into Kings, Lords and Commons) then to kill or expel any putrid and Peccant humours, that have appeared so high for a Single Person, by the late Apostasy, or before it; which it seems (to our sorrow and danger) are like to be left in the BODY still, if a better PURGE then Mr. B's be not (gently) given them; and such a one at least, as may reach to the remotest places of this BODY of the Commonwealth, otherwise from causes inward and outward, I profess unfeignedly, I fear the fatal issue and danger of the next CRISIS, if the great PHYSICIAN of Heaven and Earth do not miraculously help us, and prevent it. Therefore watch and pray!  
2. Mr. Baxter deals very disingenuously, 
2. Mr. Baxter's evasion of the Gangrena and scandalum Magnatum P 4. of M. P's Cause stated and stunted.  to insinuate this, viz. that an exercitation or excitation, to such a confession and return (as the Army have made) would have been from another called a SECOND GANGRENA, or a scandalum MAGNATUM; seeing himself knows that the occasion of that expression was quite contrary, upon his most imprudent (I had almost said impudent, but I would be modest) calumniating of the Commonwealth and most worthy members of it.  
Expressly declaring in his Key for Cath. p. 323. that he left it to Posterity, 
1. The occasion given to call his KEY for Cath. a Gangrena.  that the putting the King to death was the work of Papists, Libertines, Vanists, Anabaptists, etc. and that no Protestants had hand in it. So p. 355, 356. If you take Vanists, Levellers, etc. who were the chief Agents for PROTESTANTS, you might as well say PAPISTS are Protestants, p. 321, 322. Calling this Army since the new Moddel a Jesuited corrupted Army, etc. and in p. 341. and in's Epist. Dedic. he stirs up the Single Person, and them that were in Power, against some of the most constant adherents to the Cause, and living Members of the Commonwealth, under the Bear-skinny Notion of MASKED PAPISTS, or men far worse than the OPEN Papists; for whom he professes he has less charity then for open Papists; branding them to Posterity, with new names of his own inventing, viz. Vanists, Hiders, Seekers, Jugglers, Sectaries, etc. besprinkling his whole Book with such flaming fire-balls of defamations, abusive passages, and (through God's goodness abortive) instigations to a Perscution, as could merit no less (if not much more) then a second Gangrena: At such a time too, when some were like wild Boars a whetting their Tusks, and had (as he could not but know) their Teeth an Edge to be so doing, and as ready to take at the least spark of fire, as Gunpowder or Brimstone; and to be then irritating to it, was very evil, and ungospellike. Besides, as the matter is most scandalous, scurrilous and untrue; so is the form thereof very unbecoming Man, Minister, or Christian, like the ACCUSER of the BRETHREN, to be levying of so high a charge against the Lord's dear servants and Commonwealth's friends; 
Most unreasonable and unreligious in the matter and form of it, against the Lord's servants.  without once so much as admonishing them for their Errors he judges them under, or using means of conviction and recovery of them; which is not only against Humanity, but Divinity, and the very Scriptures, Rom. 14. 4. Eph. 4. 31. Jam. 4. 11. Psal. 50. 20. So Gal. 6. 1. You which are spiritual restore such, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in the spirit of kindness and mildness its self, not of madness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted; not as if thou were't exempted. For be'st thou ere so spiritual or strong a Christian, thou hast in thee faeces as well as flores, excrements as well as excellents; and art as capable of being cast by others into the like, if not the very same furnace of infamy and obloquy which thou hast heat for the honest, innocent and upright in heart. And one day thou wilt see thou needest every inch as much their pity, prayers & charity, as they do thine. Ah! and wilt thou insult over others, for those things that thou art subject to thyself? Periculosè maledicit Alteri, (saith Erasmus) Cui vel idem, 
Libro Apothegm. de maledict.  vel simile, vel diversum, sed deterius vitium possit objice. It is a mad and most dangerous thing of any man, for him to speak evil of another, against whom may be objected the same, or the like, or another, but a worse fault. And of all men, for Mr. B. to call upon them in power to heat the furnace seven times hotter than it is already, 
Strange Vicissitude! and inconstancy, that the same hand which wrote the Saints Rest, should write for the Saints RUIN. Hos▪ 7. 6, 7.  (or then HE hath done it) for so many of the dear servants of Christ, makes me amazed! And when I excogitate the matter, I profess I cannot but presume the case to be much altered with him since he wrote the SAINT'S REST, when so near (as he thought) his Dissolution, wherewith I (with others) was so much affected: To write now for the SAINTS RUIN (when so near as we thought a Persecution) wherewith we are as much afflicted; and may say with the Prophet, They have made ready (or kirbu, applied) their hearts like a FURNACE in their treachery and ensnaring. (bearbam) They have been all made hot as an oven (jecammu katannur) viz. by such as are ever putting in of fuel. And it is easy to discern how much his STUDY of CONTROVERSIES, has envenomed his spirit, destroyed his charity, and delivered him up into the very CONTROVERSY of STUDIES; which without a Retractation, will stand as a Monument indelible to his dishonour. As if his only work now had been to wove a web (like the Spider) to catch flies in; and then to poison them. The good Lord pardon him, and show him more grace and mercy than he would others! before the day wherein the Auditor-General shall cast up his accounts! Yea, show him, O God, what spirit he was of when his PEN was so gangrened against thine innocent ones! Thus far for the GANGRENA which filleth all the Avenues and Hollows of his KEY.  
Now for the Scandalum MAGNATUM, 
How a scandalum Magnatum  Whereof not only Mr. B. but a many others (by imitation) are egregiously guilty: for good men may have their Apes as well as Bad, who follow nothing more aptly than mocks and mows, and the most unseemly actions; such as these, of unjust aspersing the Persons of the most incomparable wisdom, worth and abilities (under God's) in the whole Nation; which he knows is a Scandalum MAGNATUM, and a great crime both in Law and Gospel; the punishment thereof hath been so severe both in the Roman Commonwealth, and others, as I dare not name it, lest it should be thought that I did desire it. 
England's confusion, etc.  They fix their defamatory Venom and malign aspect upon the Lord Fleetwood, Lieutenant General Ludlow, Sir Arthur Hesilerig, Sir Henry Vane, Sir James Harrington, Lord Bradshaw, Col. John Jones, Mr. Reynolds, Maj. Gen. Lambert, 
The highest Dignitaries and Star of the Commonwealths Coelum Chrystallinum above their Clouds.  Major Salloway, Mr. Scot, and such others both in Parliament and in Council, as they conceive have been or are the most Active, and eminent Dignitaries in our Orb; Whose sparkling virtues, and Twinkling lustre, like STARS above the upper Region, outshine all such clouding & eclipsing Reproaches of the lower Region, (& nihil speciosius est in Victoria, quam Virtute Vincere, saith Erasm.) and nothing is like this, viz. to overcome EVIL WITH GOOD (as the Apostle saith) vice with virtue, 
Rom. 12. 21.  and influences from the Coelum Christallinum of most orient worth and dignity. When Demochares (who was Demosthenes' Nephew) heard a company of people traducing the Worthies of those days, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, saith he, What do ye prate for! ye malignants! for ye exceed the worst that ye can say of them. And the truth is, should we ask these cruel Calumniators, what they mean by this malediction of ALL, or of the BEST; every man of them must answer for his Malevolence with Zoilus (that was called the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, for his barking Rhetoric!) 
Their Designs, to cast a mist before our eyes, and then to arise with Arms. Suttons serm. Assize in 40. p. 14.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉▪ (I speak as evil as I can) because I cannot do the mischief that I would; and this is so apparent, as is not with reason to be denied, but that like Cadmus (whom Dr. Sutton tells us of) they have sowed the teeth of the Serpent, ut ex iis homines Armati prodierent, that out of them might arise ARMED MEN, of the same breed to execute their design; which doubtless is much like to that upon poor CICERO, if they could effect it, (put on by M. Antony and others) after all his singular services for the Commonwealth, 
An example for our States, in Parliament and Council.  to have him so cast out of esteem as none might plead for him; (who pleaded for them and the Public unto his death.) Cum ejus salutem nemo defendisset, qui per tot Annos, & Publicam Civitatis, & Privatam Civium defenderat; and when they had so done, it is a rueful Tragedy to tell how he was murdered; who for the COMMON GOOD was so free to give up his life, that he put his Head out of the Litter for his Assassinates to cut it off; which Popilius Lenas' did, 
To provide against false reports.  with a most ungrateful cruelty, seeing CICERO but a little before had saved him from the Gallows. I wish the Parliament might in time perpend it, lest such Acts of Mercy, should prove Acts of Cruelty to themselves and the Public. But, Virtus Virtutis eget fultura: non satis est jecisse fundamenta, Parietes extulisse, mediana Cubicula Separasse Sine Tecto, etc. (saith STRADA lib. 3. prelect. 3. plantin. 2. Virtue must be supported by Virtue in the Commonwealth: and it is not enough to lay the foundation, build the walls, divide the chambers, but to set up a covering and shelter for their principal Rafters from the injury of the Wether too.  
But Mr. B. who is culpable for all this, 
Mr. B. by giving his example to scurrilous and scandalous pens, is the more guilty. He haps to pitch upon Sir H. Vane, to pour out his venom upon.  and conscious of the interest as well as of the principal, is pleased to pitch upon Sir Henry Vane with the greatest Virulency (not without his harsh reflections upon all the rest; and as many as sat at the trial of the late King, whereof Sir H. V. was none) a man of such eminency for piety and prudence, honour, abilities, self-denials and sufferings in the service of Christ and of his DEAR Country, as is not so meet to mention whiles he lives; (lest it come to his ears, and prove a snare;) and lest I fall under the suspicion of flattering any man, which the Lord knows I dare not (knowingly) do; but with Elihu say, as Job 32. 21, 22. Let me not NOW accept any man's person, (face, or countenance, Al●na essa pene is!) neither let me (SURNAME, ve all Adam lo akanah,) or give flattering titles unto ADAM (i e. man in his highest excellencies, that (as man) he is capable of) So ENOSH signifies often man in a more corrupt state; but ADAM, man in a more refined, renewed, and excellent consideration, Psal. 56. 1. with 11. and 58. 1, 2. and 49. 2, 12, &c,) lest if I SURNAME him (akanah) my Maker (megnat issaeni) should a LITTLE cut me off. Besides, I am sensible, what Temptations a poor creature is proclive unto, when he comes to be tickled with praises that are indeed due to the testimony, wisdom, grace, or any other excellency of God in such Earthen Vessels, which makes me very wary of what I might say, and beseech God I may go no further then to what I must say, or is of necessity for the truth. Seeing, as the Apostle saith, Not he whom (man commendeth, 
2 Cor. 10. 18.  or) that commendeth himself, is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth. And the Lord justifies, who shall condemn? Isai. 50. 8, 9 Rom. 8. 33, 34. Yet I think, there be but few that are so malicious as to hate this Gentleman for his own sake, 
A vindication of Sir Hen Vane, from his own worth and public service.  but many indeed that are envious at him for our sakes and the Commonwealths. In whose Memory and Posterity I nothing doubt, but that his indefatigable endeavours and deserts from the Public, will outlive the most irrefragable anger of all his enemies, (or rather ours.) Justum & Tenacem propositi, Non civium ardor prava jubentium, Non vultus instantis Tyranni Mente quatit solida: neque Auster, Dux inquieti turbidus Adriae, Nec fulminantis magna Jovis manus, si fractus illabatur orbis impavidum ferient ruinae; was the song of the Heathen, 
Hor. l. 3. od. 3.  which I mention to our shame (and not with much delight in reading Heathen Authors) that we should be so ungrateful as not to commemorate (in our minds at least) the worth of such men as neither Turns nor Times, 
The very Heathens wont highly to commemorate such.  Tyrants nor Tempests, Troubles nor Thunderbolts (that have rend the heavens, cracked the clouds, and split the very foundations) could ever remove, or slacken in their constancy to the cause and Commonwealth. Now that Mr. B. who (of any) hath so little knowledge of this so honourable a person, 
Reasons to think Mr. B. was set on by some enemies to the Commonwealth. His Key for Cath. like to let more into Hell then into Heaven.  must be the man to abuse him (or us rather) with such black reports of him to the world; and at such a TIME too (wherein he was and is, wholly taken up with that which he prefers above his daily food, or I think his life, viz. the service of the PUBLIC,) is an Argument sufficient that he went to the Philistimes to make and to whet his TOOLS, because he could find no SMITHS in Israel, that could make such a KEY; or a Key with such wretched Wards in it, as I fear (if the Lord prevent not) will let more into Hell, then into Heaven or happiness. And whether some that were engaged for the King, or against the Cause, Commonwealth and this Parliament, did not prompt him to it? or were the bellows of his forge to blow up the sparks of his discontent into such open flames and luculent firebrands of malignity; is to me a Question almost out of Question; if I look but into his Preface, and see in the Margin of it, 
Who were blowing while M. B. was forging of this KEY is apparent; and the Reason of his timing of it so.  how highly he extols the E. of Lauderdale as his helper in it. Yea, whether it were not designed and TIMED on purpose to perplex this person of honour, as well as others in Parliament? or to give them a Diversion from the PUBLIC, into a private vindication of themselves, and of their unblemished names? (had they thought it worthy;) and thereby to have left the House? (whiles the Adversaries should have carried all therein, (more without opposition) for the interest of a single Person, and against the Commonwealth?) or otherwise, that these ulcerous defamations might pass uncontrolled; spread further and further amongst the credulous vulgar; upon their silence, and want of leisure to rescue their reputations from such horrid impeachment. But these Gentlemen perferring their Christian names above their Surnames, have left their innocence to the omniscience of God, and the testimony of it to the Multiscience of us who know them; without the least vacillation of their restored lustre; whose wonderful constancy, is a most worthy Antidote to the poison of the Pens and Parts of their enemies.  
I am not for my own Part of any party, 
The Author of this no otherwise concerned, then for the truth, and the Public.  sect, nor faction; nor am I of that number Mr. B. charges or covers with his blackest clouds of contumely; Neither have I any man's person in admiration; nor am I put on by any but the Lord (and I hope his own Spirit) for love of the truth, and of the PUBLIC, (lest that should suffer by it,) to ward off such Coward's blows, as come behind them so unworthily, and bite them so unwarily; whiles they are swallowed up in the insuperable necessities, 
We must keep on our Worthies at the Public, and keep off others that would disturb or divert them, if we be of the Lifeguard.  and inseparable affairs of the Public Weal; so as that (without palpable injury thereunto) they have neither leisure to mind nor make answer (if they would,) without it be with the blessed Patience of Christ, who opened not his mouth, Isai. 53. 7. (in Sept. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, he So opens not his mouth.) Who when he was reviled, he reviled not again, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously, 1 Pet. 2. 23. and with the commendable Patience of Pericles, that could not be provoked by an Enemy; but when one went railing upon him to his very door in the night, he bid his man to light him home with his own TORCH: and of another that said, O! that these men could rule their tongues, as well as we our ears! their pens, as we our spirits! Now that it may appear to Mr. B. that he had need to be forgiven his traducing of them, and his seducing of others, as well as be redeemed from the great evils and temptations of BOTH; 
His own writings may convince him of the wrongs done to Sir H. Vane.  I hope it will not be imputed presumption or unkindness, if I present him (for the present) with a little taste (from his own words) of the notorious wrong that he hath done to that wise and worthy Knight, with others. And 1. from his own description of a Protestant (though I think it a very Lame and defective one, 
1. From his own description of a Protestant.  and not plena & pari ratione) saith he, p. 130. It is a title that accrued to our Religion from the PROTESTING AGAINST the Romish Innovations and corruptions. If those that have protested against the Romish Innovations and corruptions be Protestants, 
Sir H. V. a better Protestant then himself.  than these who in his vain eye (and foolish fancy of Boys-play) are called Vani, are Protestants, having protested as far as any Protestants, (that Mr. B. accounts Orthodox) have done; Yea, further than ever Mr. Baxter himself did against Romish innovations (which makes him so offended,) and therefore to use his own words in p. 393. Scarce a man that crosseth or displeaseth (i e. dissenteth from and disobeyeth) the uncharitable Clergy, but he is stigmatised for an Heretic, and charged with almost as much wickedness, as their mouths are wide enough to utter, and the ears of other men to hear. These out of his own Book, whereby no man can absolve him of self-condemnation in the justification of this honourable person by his own pen.  
2. From his Description of a Papist in p. 392. 
2. From his own Description of a Papist.  As soon as ever any man hath received this opinion of the necessity of an universal Visible Head of the whole Church; he is either a Papist, 
S. H. V. less a Papist then himself.  or of an opinion equivalent: so a little after, This Error about the necessity of an universal, visible head, is the very thing that turneth most to Popery.  
Now those that he calls SEEKERS, and in a Satyrical Vane, VANISTS, Anabaptists, Sectaries, etc. hold no universal visible head (nor any other over the Church but Jesus Christ,) And therefore are not within the compass of his description of a Papist; Nay, are further off (with his leave) than himself, according to his own Characters of them in his Treatise.  
3. From his own Grounds of Communion, 
3 M. B. goes against his own grounds of Communion.  he is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or condemned of himself, for his uncharitable censoriousness upon Sir Hen. Vane, and those he calls Sectaries, etc. p. 440, 441. Where peace and holiness may be carried on together, there unity and peace must be sought as a means to holiness (these are his own,) but amongst them that he calls Sectaries, peace and holiness may be carried on together, so p. 441. Hence it is (saith he) that wicked livers do turn Papists. But those that I know, who lie under his merciless Lash, are not wicked Livers, but very excellent examples (many of them) of Peace and Holiness; 
Sir H. V. Family for piety and virtue so exemplary that it may be esteemed a Church, though not a Parish.  and particularly for Sir H. V. his virtuous Lady and godly Family; of any that I know in the World of that quality (though I hear the like of others, as of my Lord fleetwood's, etc.) they may be called in themselves, (as once was the Family of George Prince of Anhalt) an Ecclesia, Curia, and Academia; a Church, a Court, and an University of the highest, best and most Liberal Sciences that appertain to men or to Christians. Mr. B. in p. 442. saith further 442. It is but a carnal stir that Papists and some Reconcilers make, to have unity so general, as shall take in the most impious Rabble; therefore in some cases we are called to separate. And yet because of a separation from those that are so impious, or are such reconcilers; must the poor sectary be branded by himself and his followers for Masked Papists.  
4. From his own detection of Masked Papists, 
4. From his own detection of Masked Papists, Sir Hen. Vane none of them.  p. 343. he may be convinced of the horrid liberty that he hath taken to traduce; his own words are, The Juggling Papists may be known by this, that they are always LOOSENING people from Religion: and LEADING them into a dislike of what they have been taught. But Sir H. Vane is far from being within this Character: I have heard him often open & apply the precious Scriptures, to my great Comfort; and to the best of my judgement (who have been 14. or 15. years in the Public, but sweet labour of the Gospel, with sweat and swinck, day and night, with prayers, tears, watching thereunto) & I do profess I never could perceive his Doctrine for LOOSENING, 
Sir H. V. Doctrine for strengthening and fastening, the people of God, and wherein.  but ever for FASTENING the people of God in pure RELIGION and undefiled; (and yet I have heard with prejudice enough too, upon reports of others, till I was convinced of my error,) his constant scope is to the power and principles of godliness; to fix us in the everlasting holiness under the benefit of the Mediatory Covenant, and in the benefits of the Covenant of Grace, electing and Eternal Love; LEADING them (or rather, the Lord by his Spirit) into the most holy and optable relish of what they have been taught of that nature. Expressing himself so clearly, sound and discriminatively in the principles of the New-creature (or Regeneration) from the common mistakes of men, that rest in a mere Reformation, outward Purification, or a first-Adam-renovation; and so showing the difference between a Christian per saltum and per altum, as profitably as ever I heard: Also upon the points of justification and Perseverance (and that it is the first Adam and first Covenant-spirit which is the subject of falling away:) and upon Sanctification, the life of Christ, the Mediatorship of Christ, and all his Offices; also upon the excellency, certainty, and felicity of COMMUNION with God, and acquaintance by Jesus Christ, etc. and are these loosening Doctrines? I do verily believe had Mr. B. but heard him as I and others have done (in Carisbrook C. and elsewhere) he would have said incomparably more for him, not only then I do, but then he either doth or can say against him; yea, have blessed the Lord for him more abundantly, and have wept at this incogitancy (such charity I have for him) with a Laconian Countryman, saying, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, I am not the cause, but my nature; or as the APOSTLE, It is no longer I, but sin that dwelleth in me! (which breaks out thus at lips, and in my lines, with spots like leprosy, unclean, unclean,) and in the mean time, we need no more than his own Argument, in p. 119. They that are sanctified, justified, have the love of God in them, are members of the TRUE CHURCH.  
5. Mr. B. himself proves them in the true Religion (in opposition to the Papists) thus, 
5. From his description of the true Religion, Sir H. V. in it.  p. 118. That Religion which has all the essentials of Christianity, is the true Religion. Now let him name any one essential of Christianity (if he can) that Sir H. V. or those that he calls Sectaries, Vanists, etc. do not hold; and lay aside (for shame) those Boyish fancies and youthful tricks to play with men's Names and Reputations so: and as if he were but at Hat-farthing, he hath found out a company of Hiders too (for so he calls them) to play with; 
Mr. B. plays like a Boy at Hat-farthing, with men's names and Reputations.  and though the Question be between him and them, who Hide first? yet he calls for the Magistrate to help him to play his GAME, over the Consciences of his brethren; and to thrip up a CROSS or a PILE upon them, (as upon the HIDERS,) or he'll wrangle for it, he is resolved; and so tells us beforehand.  
6. From his very Description of the Seekers as to their work, 
6. From his Description of the Seekers, etc.  saith he, p. 331. The Papists work by the Seekers, is to take us from all, or from our former Religion. But those Gentlemen so unjustly accused, 
Sir H. Vane none of them that he describes.  and calumniated by Mr. B. are not taken off from all Religion, he knows. Do they not preach, pray, expound, meet, confer together, and wait upon the Lord, in public, in private, and often in a week, in the use of his holy Ordinances? and doth Mr. B. more? Besides, he goes beyond all bounds of Logic or reasoning, both in his Definitions, 
This part of the KEY came out of the Papists fire, and is forged for their interest.  Propositions and Descriptions of things or Persons; as particularly in this, where there is not an adaption (reciprocal) of the Description to the described; and to make this a mark either of Seeker, or of Papist, viz. the taking us off of our former Religion, is to lay the charge rather upon them that took us and our fathers off from Popery (which was the former Religion) or us off from Episcopacy, which was our former Discipline; then upon the Seekers: And so indeed is he pleading for the Papists, not against them.  
7. From his own Conc●ssion, 
7. From his own concession, Sir Hen. Vane further off then himself from Popery.  p. 293. That true PROTESTANTS are no more a Sect then the Patients in an Hospital, who are almost healed; or then the higher form of Scholars in a School; but still acknowledge them of the lowest form, even them that learn the A. B. C. in the same School. If these be true Protestants, and not Papists; then is Sir H. V. (and so those worthy Gent.) farther off from that wicked impeachment then any I know of; 
Of the most comprehensiveness in Principles and Practic●, and his Love to all Saints; of no Sect or Party.  so large, healing, comprehensive and condescending to the least and lowest forms of believers are his Principles; yea, so remote and declaredly distant from the keeping up of any one Sect, sort of men, party, or faction whatever, is his Practice; and in both, so far either from opposing or imposing in things civil or Religious, that had Mr. B. been not above 89. degrees off of Logick-longitude, or 98. of Christian-latitude, I should have had some hopes of finding him out, or of overtaking him, at least before he came to the very Nadir and Antipodes of Truth its self: Ah Miser! Quanta laboras in Charybdi! but now I have lost him in the dark World, and yet would send after him one Scripture to give him Light, if the Lord please! Eccles. 7. 16. Be not righteous OVERMUCH, neither make thyself OVER-WISE: for why shouldest thou destroy thyself! lammah tishshomem, why wilt thou make thyself desolate? SEPT. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉▪ or bring a stroke upon thyself even to astonishment; to go on so (by an over-confidence) in ways of sin and slandering.  
But, by this little Pen-tilt or just, may the Spectators see, how tottering and unsure Mr. B. sits the saddle in other things, if in this he be so easily cast out of it! and more by his own unwieldy Weapons then by others; the very Splinters of his own LAUNCE splitting and flying in his own face, wound him more deeply, and the Crena of his own discourse and writings (truly collated together) do pierce him more to the quick than I could have found in my heart he should have been put to the pain or smart of; which he is sure to feel at last; and the longer they lie in the flesh rankling (and he unsensible) the WORSE, the worse! For my own part, I had rather lick the Sores than enlarge them, or make him new ones, by any new Answers or engagements! only I wish, with my heart, he may not neglect these of his own giving, which he intended for others; which may be cured, but with a SCAR. It is a saying, That the blind eats many a fly; and had not Mr. B. been as blind as a Beetle, with such bleating prejudices and dusty passions, he would have seen before he had swallowed so many unsound and notorious Soloecisms: which whiles they were dropping from his pen, might have stricken a conviction, as they do a contradiction & a confutation of himself by himself, in more (by much) than I have mentioned; besides the multiplied untruths and absurdities so often reiterated until almost believed, which are so clearly refuted both now and formerly; and Sir H. Vane's honour rescued from the devouring jaws of such insatiable detraction, by a godly 
* A vindication of that prudent and honourable Knight Sir H. Vane from the Lies and Calumnies of Mr. R Bax.  Minister a little while since; I need to say no more to prove Mr. B. guilty not only of a Scandalum Magnum, but a Scandalum MAGNATUM; unless it be in this, that he winds the Horn of falsehood HIGHER yet; and would insinuate (p. 331. of is Key) Sir H. V. brought his Doctrine out of ITALY with him, where he never was in all his days; and as if he had the greatest hand in that JUSTICE, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, (King-killing as he calls it,) who (then) was neither in the Parliament, nor of that Court. And as if God had witnessed against him in New England, which is as true as all the rest, it being known (to 1000) what a witness he hath had from God and men both here and there, even until this hour. Integer Vitae, Scelerisque Purus, Non eget Mauri jaculis, neque Arcu, Nec Venenatis gravida Sagittis, fusce, pharetra: 
Gen. 49. 23, 24.  The ARCHERS have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him; But yet his BOW abode in strength, and the Arms of his Hands were made strong by the HANDS of the mighty God of Jacob. Wherefore the Lord convince and humble Mr. B. that the Gospel may not suffer such dishonour! of whom I have had a high esteem, so long as he was comprehensive in his spirit, and yet shall have, so far as he's apprehensive in the TRUTH (with a latitude of love and charity to his Brethren) but I dare not follow him into the other world, or a world of lies, ugly and misshapen monsters; such as I should think might make him tremble to lie down with, as with Dragons, Satyrs, and with Screech-owls! Nor can I think that he hath been without some secret Psithurisms in his mind for this TEMERITY; the Concomitant of his HAST (as he calls it in's Lr. too Dr. Heylin for a far less matter, or to use the Phy-sick-phrase) his unnatural heat, and wrathful spirit, which worketh not the righteousness of God. I had rather his KEY would have let us in, to the God of truth, or truth of God, then to the father of lies; lest such as fall in with it should be left to the PARABLE and Doom of POPE Sixtus Quintus (that adam's on Pet. tells us of, 
Whether M. B's or Mr. Pope's Keys can do the Catholics most good?  p. 1114.) who when he died, knocked long for Admission into heaven, (like them in Mat. 7. 21, and 25. Saying, Lord, Lord, open to us!) but was remitted to fetch his own KEYS first, which would do him no good when they came, for the WARDS were altered; and so I doubt Mr. B's KEY will no more unlock the gate of heaven for his Catholics at the last day, than the Pope's KEY will for his Catholics, or for himself at this day. But thus we conclude the second Consideration, viz. his insinuation to the Army, that his stirring them up to a repentance, etc. would be accounted a second Gangrene, 
3. Mr. B. in his milder, and M. P. in his wilder Doses aim at one thing, i. e. the KING.  or a Scandalum MAGNATUM. 3. His Lenitives to the Army, and Mr. P's Corrosives, are applied all to one END, viz. to repent of Secluding the Members of the House of Commons, and to restore them and a single Person in all haste again! saying, We have sworn and sworn, and sworn again! for King, Lords and Commons, etc. which Mr. P. urges, as though this Parliament had not the Authority of a Parliament without them; saying, in p. 39 of 's Narr. Nor can the Bedlam, Turkish, Brutish, unreasonable Argument of the longest Sword, or Army-logick; nor Petitions, Addresses of crack-brained Sectaries and Vulgar Rabble of illiterate People make them so. Neither did they; for they are SO without them. But for all this, seeing these Corroding, biting ingredients and Diuretics will not do it! It must be Physic of a more strange operation (in their judgement) and more violent means, that must be used to revive the filthy CORPSE; if their CLISTER-Pipe cannot effect it, to try it by the SWORD-Pipe. Seeing they are not upon the subject of health and sickness, but of life and death; Not to recover a dying Patient, but a long-since dead Carcase (which by this time stinketh and is corrupt) or had they been Members of this Commonwealth-Parliament (which they never were) yet seeing (ex concessis) they are all for Kingly Government, and against the Free-State, 
Why the Secluded Members are not capable either of Conjunction, or of Rejunction.  they could never have been rejoined (by any rules that I can find) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, according to the FIRST PRINCIPLE; for that they are neither found in the Efficient, nor yet in the Material, Formal, nor Final Causes of such a Conjunction, either as to Coition, or Coalition; and so are not capable of a Rejunction (as Mr. P. and B. press it) till we see a REJUNCTION in them also; (if the Army's Repentance reach to that.) And this I say, Neither after the first intention of it (as we use to say) which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
By no Rule; neither after the first intention, nor the second.  and must be the same in nature and in substance with the rest, (viz. Commonwealthsmen All, and not Kinglings any, unless for Christ) which they are not; not yet after the second intention called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, expressed both in the colligation and obligation of such (natural-united and well-disposed) Members (every one in his proper joint & place fitted and fixed for the service of the WHOLE 
* Vide a Book of my penning and principles, upon this subject, called A Reviving WORD from the quick and the dead, etc. ;) which those Secluded Members would never take, or if they had, could never hold, viz. to be true and faithful to the Commonwealth, etc. as it is now established, without a King, Single Person, or House of Peers. So that all they propose are real impossibilities both to Reason, Art and Nature; nor are they able to offer any MEDIUM HOMOGENEUM, or suitable expedient to effect it, i. e. in the due consistency with the State of the cause, being and well-being of the Commonwealth. Wherefore if the Lt. G. Fleetwood and the Army were pleased, they might Answer Mr. B. as once the Emperor Adrian did an old Courtier who came unto him for some preferment then void; but the Emperor denied it him: within some few days after, the Gent. with great Art trimmed himself, put on a smooth face (as it is now in fashion) with a very youthful habit, and so applied to the Emperor anew. But Sir, (saith the Emperor) not so, not so; I dare not, I must not be so unjust! to give that to the SON, that I denied to the FATHER, but 3. or 4. days since! and so we hope that neither the present Lenity, future Acrimony, nor deceitful Ideopathy or Sympathy of Mr. B's Physic (no more than Mr. P's Antopathy or Antipathy) can work upon the Army to be so unjust, as to give that to those men that are the same (though now new-trimmed, and with the greatest Art they can too, for Kingship,) which they denied them before; fought against (and resisted in the Scottish-War more especially) when these men were more GRAVE in their fatherhoods, (and much more reverend) a few years since. So I leave Mr. P's first Demonstration of the Republicans CAUSE (as he calls it) in his two last Anatomy Lectures. 
2. Mr. P's Groundless asserting this Commonwealth to be the offspring of Jesuits.  His second is as groundless as the first; wherein from p. 40. to 69. of Narr. he gives his first Lecture upon the living, which only concerns the dead Anatomy; As if the JESUITS formative faculty (and designs which they had afoot in the days of the King and Kingdom) had laid the Prolific Project of this Government; and so throughout his Anatomy of the Republicans Cause, from p. 4. he would make us believe (if we could be so besotted) that the Commonwealth is a BASTARD of the Jesuits begetting; 
Little reason to take it for a child of Campanella, Watson, Parsons, or the Jesuits.  (Mr. B. seconds him we need not question) telling us stories of Campanella, Parsons, WATSON, etc. and of their designs against King James, and the Nation then; about An. 1604. or 1605. So that the child lay longer in the Womb, then that which ●o. Albos●us tells us of, that lay in the mother's Womb 28. years, and then too it was turned into STONE. Now with how little Weight of Reason or Judgement this is charged, I shall refer to the Reader, that hath any skill in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Anatomy to judge upon their own Histories and grounds. 
1. Campanella's Commonwealth was plotted for the interest of the King of Spain, and so was not ours.  In Campanella. 1. For CAMPANELLA the Italian Friar (in his Monarch. Hisp.) his Project was to promote an interest for the King of Spain against Q. Elizabeth and K. James; and all his Politics were calculated and suited to the state of the Nation at that time, and in those days (far different from what it was or is in ours, which was not made for the interest of Spain, but our own.) 2. Upon far different Grounds too, viz. 
2. As on different interests, so on different grounds.  to make such discord amongst the English as might admit them no leisure to disturb the Spanish; to persuade the Parliament of the Kingdom (in Q. Elizabeth days) to cast her off, and so fall into the form of a Commonwealth; by this means to sow the seeds of an inexplicable and in expiable WAR, between England and Scotland; that if England should be turned into the form of a Commonwealth, the Kingdom of SCOTLAND might keep up continual Wars with the Commonwealth of England (for it was never laid, 
They never laid it both for England and Scotland, but to keep up a deadly feud between them.  for BOTH to be a Commonwealth) and so to manage all affairs so slowly, as not to hurt the Spaniard, if not to give him advantage; and if a Commonwealth could not be effected, then to make it an Elective Kingdom, etc. Now are these the grounds, or the effects of our Free-State? let any judge, seeing the Friar's plot was laid, so as to keep up Scotland a Kingdom, and distinct from England, as well as England a Commonwealth; or else it answered not the Popish design, neither to incapacitate England from disturbing the Spaniard, or defending our selves against them: but in this Commonwealth it is no such matter; we are Both one, and in a far better capacity both for PRESERVATION and INCREASE to deal with an Enemy, 
3. Upon different Ends.  then under the King. 3. The Friar's ENDS were such as did as well correspond with a Kingdom Elective, or any thing, so that Q. Elizabeth, King James and that Family were (but routed, or) totally amoved; but our ends in this Commonwealth are not such as can consist with, or be answered in a Single Person, or a Kingdom Elective, and therefore cannot be the same which the Jesuits plotted (if they plotted any) for us. But that is the thing which these Gent. 
If they plotted a Commonws. yet not THIS Commonwealth.  must prove, viz. that This, this is The Commonwealth which Campanella plotted; and not to ensnare us with a Homonymy, or so to accuse the Commonwealth as the woman did Eustatius (the Bishop) for Whoredom with her, (being hired unto it by the Arrians) and thereby had him banished, until she was tormented with a judgement; and then confessed it was another Eustatius, 
4. the Papists were abortive in their plots.  and not THIS. 4. Though Campanella and the Papists would have been glad at their hearts at any Alteration either for Commonwealth or Kingdom Elective, yet their's proved an Abortment, a mere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and came to nothing; or had any of theirs by a Superfaetation, or a new procreation came to maturity amongst us, 
5. They never intended it to abide so.  it must have been upon Grounds and Ends as far different from ours, as West from East, or North from South. But, Lastly, Campanella and the Papists never intended a Commonwealth as the ULTIMATE, but upon a design, and to turn it back to a Single Person: his own words are, Tandem in Democratiam, & fine Rursus in Statum Regium revolvuntur. So that THEY carry on the Jesuits Plot, that would Revert us again to a Single Person.  
2. So for PARSON'S The Jesuit, 
2. Parson's his Commonws. not THIS.  he pretended a Revelation from God: But this Commonwealth was laid upon Reason, Righteousness, and not on Revelation: so Parsons proposes his Commonwealth to be generated, by infusing this Principle into Soldiers and People, that every Pecope or Multitude get the title and stile of a Public State or Helvetian Commonwealth. But it is not so laid in these Nations, that every Company (or County either) or any indeed, but (altogether) united, that are the Commonwealth in England; so that this Commonwealth could not be Parsons his; 
Nor is it watson's.  nor is it of that kind. Nor could it be that which Watson would have had, for he shows plainly that HIS must be effected by a Conjunction of Puritans, Anabaptists, and Jesuits together, in the principles and Theorems, wherein they agree to carry it on: and then that the Jesuits having the (optima & Acutissima Ingenia) most acute capacities, and greatest interest in Princes and Noble persons, will keep uppermost. But it is not so in this Commonwealth, 
They drove on an Anarchy or Confusion, not a Commonweal.  nor ever was there such a Conjunction in this Nation, unless invisible and unknown: besides, they set down Rules for every man to rise up, and grasp a power into his own hands in a Mutinous manner (as at Munster in Germany) and to be under no Government or Rule; rather stirring them up to a wicked Anarchy, then to a godly Commonwealth; and that was indeed the very thing they aimed at. 
Reason's why ours cannot be theirs.  So that neither Parsons, Watson, nor the Jesuits can be the father of our Commonwealth, for these reasons.  
1. For that, 
1. It could never have lain so long hid, and not have stirred or appeared until now.  that VERY design that was contrived, timed, and in travel to be brought forth (which was not so much for a Commonweal, as for any thing that might do mischief) in An. 1604. 1605. (or before in An. 1590.) in Q. Elizabeth or King James' days (through a Spanish Malignity to those persons) sure could not have been imprisoned (ever since the abortion of the Gun-powder-plot) in the Womb; and have been nourished, by the umbilical Veins of Popery, without the least appearance of life or quickening in it until now. Or if it had been so, and had lain there so long, or by such a monstrous superfaetation as was never heard of, 
2 It could never have suited with these times.  yet sure it could never suit or Quadratre with these times, as it did with those▪ 1. Because in those days, were there many eminent Papists and English Confederates both in Court and Country to Gratify by it, 
1. Because that was to gratify Papists in the Land, this is not.  and to humour; such as closed in with those foreign Projects; yea, many Arminians, Noble men, and Bishops of Popish-principles, that sucked in seminal spumous spirits of mischief both to Church and State; and through an eager attraction took a conception here of that design which was laid there: but of late days such have been discountenanced, displaced, and in no capacity to bring forth such a design, if they had conceived it in this Nation.  
2. Because in those days, 
2. Because in those days there was that Attraction, & so Retention of Popish seed, as is not in these. And the Popish womb is apparently a miscarrying womb in England.  as there was an Attraction, there was a Retention too of the Popish Seed, Principles, opinions and Jesuitical projects, which they received more heartily and with more mutual embracements, then of late days in this Nation. And yet, if in those days they no sooner conceived, but miscarried (witness 88 and the Gun-powder-plot) surely in these days the Lord hath more apparently given them the miscarrying womb and dry breasts, as he said of Ephraim, Hos. 9 16. Though they do bring forth, yet will I SLAY even the beloved fruit of their womb: and as this we have seen with our eyes all along; so in the nature and course of REASON, Hypocrates tells us (the Natur. Pueri. 1. Sect. 44. Aphor.) That those Wombs which are too much weakened and extenuated do abort the sooner, as at two months, or before. Now the Popish womb, was in no age weaker than in this, nor in any Nation then in this; 
2. Their Commonwealth not from the same Principles of Generation 1. For Liberty and Rights both as men and as Christians.  and therefore the Principle (à Quo) of this Commonwealth could not be from them. 2. Nor can this Commonwealth be THE Commonwealth, that Parsons, Watson, or the Jesuits laid so long ago; or their spurious issue (as Mr. P. is pleased to call it) from the very principles of the Procreation and Rise of our Commonwealth: and to name but some now. 1. Our Rights, and Liberties, both as Christians and as men (or in matters of Conscience and in civil things) declared and contended for (as is proved at large in Mr. P's Cause stated and stunted) conquered and maintained; of a Legitimate and fullgrown conception, founded in the Laws, Word and Spirit of God, of Nature, and of the Reason and Wisdom in this Nation; that are of longer standing then any Government, by King, Lords and Commons,) which by their own innate heat (and not by Jesuits or any others) gave the first formative faculty to this Commonwealth; which is, or aught to be diffused throughout all the matter of it: This is asserted in the Act of Parliament, March 17. 1648. Whereas by the Abolition of the Kingly Office, a most happy way is made for this Nation (if God see it good) to return to its just and Ancient Right of being Governed: reducere omnia ad prima Principia. So in the Declaration of this Parliament, May 7. 1659. Now Parson's, or the Popish Commonwealths come not up to, or from such a principle of Liberty; 
Jesuits Commonws. against Toleration, and narrow in Civil Liberty.  as Adam CONTZEN, that Jesuit tells us in his directions (which Mr. B. quotes, cap. 17. They would permit no other Religion, but call for a speedy punishing of erroneous; and not to take up JULIAN'S plot, i. e. to destroy Religion by a liberty for all Sects, etc. the Jesuits Commonwealth will not admit of a Toleration; calls it a Julian design to destroy Religion: neither would Mr. P's: so Chap. 18. in 's 4. Direct. it is as narrow, and imposing upon the Civil Liberty. 
2. They never struck at the Office of Kingship; but THIS struck at that, and not at the Person so.  But, 2. the Jesuits Project and principle for a Commonwealth (or a Kingdom Elective) is not nor ever was against Kingship, or the OFFICE of it; but against Persons, Families, Protestants, etc. But the Generative principle of this Commonwealth was against the very OFFICE of a KING; as burdensome, unnecessary and dangerous (and not so against his person or family.) Therefore it cannot be the Jesuits Commonwealth.  
3. From the Causes of it; 
3. They were not in the first Causes of this Commonwealth, if they were of the confusion and Wars that went before it, which I believe not.  the efficient causes of the Commonwealth are of three kinds; either Principal, Assistant, and Co-adjutant; or else Causa sine quâ non, that cause without which it could not be. But the Jesuits could not be or give the principal cause of it, as I have proved, for than they should have had some principal effects, and some principal benefits of it by a necessary consequence; nor were they the Assistant cause, for then there should have been a Permixtion and Conjunction of principles directly or indirectly, (but that I have proved to the contrary:) Nor are they the cause (sine quâ non) without which we could not or cannot be a Commonwealth; and this (I presume) is undeniable by all, that we may be a Commonwealth without them. Therefore they were not the chief prolifical cause, nor had they the chief projecting Hand or Head in the procreation of this Commonwealth.  
4. Had this Commonwealth been the BIRTH or fruit of Popish Seminaries, 
4. This Commonwealth hath not a Conformation of Parts with, or indeed any Resemblance of such Parents.  we should have seen it not only in some conformation of Parts, i. e. Homogenean with Popery long ere this; but in some semblance or similitude like unto the Parents of it; either in Specie or Figura, in kind or in feature, since it is so natural for Parents to beget children like to themselves, as it is said of Adam, Gen. 5. 3, He begat a son in his own LIKENESS, and after his own IMAGE: But the parts of this our Commonwealth have little conformity to, or similitude with Popery or Jesuitism, Parsons, Watson, or Campanella; and therefore sure could not be of their begetting.  
5. I cannot believe that those Jesuits, 
5. This Commonwealth is not of a Temper, motion, nature or nutriment like to Papists Commonws.  or any other, had the SPERMATICK power of producing this Commonweal, from the Temper, Motion, and Nutrition of it. Had it been theirs, it would have been of a more immoderate, bloody, cruel Temper, burning with an unnatural Jesuitick heat. Hypocrates (de diaeta) saith, That the soul steals into one that is begotten, as a thing that consists in a mixture of FIRE and WATER. Had the Popish or Jesuits soul stole into this Commonwealth to animate it, or to make it Luculent with their flames, it would have been more violent, Hectic and hot with their fiery spirit of Persecution; and have received all or much of its Alimentary moisture and nutrition from their (holy, or) unholy water. But the true Genius and spirit of this Commonwealth inclines more to a Theocratick Liberty both to us as CHRISTIANS and as MEN; and the TEMPER of it is more EQUAL, and aught to be proportioned (of all the different Elements in Harmony) orderly mingled and balanced to a Right Use of functions. So it's NOURISHMENT (even in the Womb of it) was from the choicest and best blood in the whole Nation, (that adhered most constantly to the Cause) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and yet is maintained by the Lives, Blood, Liberties, and Abilities of the BEST (and the furthest off from Papists or Jesuits) in all these Nations: 
The Weak Grounds Mr. P. goes upon for evidence.  Therefore it cannot be the same which Parsons, Watson, or those that plotted in K. J's days: Nor are the Grounds considerable Mr. P. and B. produce to evidence it by: As first, the Speeches of O. Cromwell to the Clergy, 1653. and to his Assembly at Westminster, 
1. From the advantage which the Jesuits took by the late Stateapostacy.  Sept. 4. 1654. That he knew Emissaries of Jesuits never came over in such swarms, as since the late Wars, and his being Protector, reflects not upon the Commonwealth, but upon that Apostasy, which bred an Indulgence to them, Familiarity and Correspondence with them, (as Sir Ken. Digby, Mazarine, etc.) who rather gave their instructions against the Commonwealth, 
2. From Owen Ro Oneal's and the K. of Spain's early Agreement with this Commonws. which was upon their own Account.  and for the reducing us under a Single Person or King again; so little friendship had they to THIS Commonwealth. So secondly, that Owen Ro Oneal in Ireland and the King of Spain Capitulated for terms of Peace with this Commonwealth; was not from any goodwill they had to IT, but to themselves and their own security; and upon mere Politic grounds of State, after the Law and wisdom of Nature, and of Nations, to seek their own safety, and not any other ways as I know of. 3. Much less are they discharged of Allegiance or obligations to the King, which were naturally dissolved with his death and Government, 
3. From discharge of Allegiance to a Single Person, and of the Engagement.  or the Engagement of the Commonwealth, (To be true and faithful to it) without a King or house of Lords) any rational evidence of it as laid by Papists or Jesuits, 
4. From our Wars in Scoland, in Defence of the Commonwealth.  but the quite contrary. So 4. Nor the Wars with Scotland to keep up the Commonwealth, and defend it from that cruel Confederacy of Rezin and Remaliah; who said, Let us go up against Judah! and vex it! let us make a breach therein, and set up a King in the Midst of them, even the Son of Tabeal; after THAT Government had been dissolved too (Root and Branch) amongst us. So that it was not as Mr. P. says p. 48. without provocation, and the Greatest too, that could be; This Commonwealth being but on the defensive part. 
Their sufferings no Argum this Commonws. is of the Jesuits Generation, or Regeneration.  Also the sufferings of Mr. Prin, Sr. W. Waller, Sr. John Clotworthy, etc. and afterwards of Mr. Love, and the Ministers, (which I take no pleasure to rake into, some of them being now at Rest with the LORD, where Calvin and Luther are agreed, and so shall we most happily) seem to many, to have been brought upon themselves, by their daily and incessant endeavours to destroy the Commonwealth, and so to engage us in Blood again; for that end, Agents and Instruments being employed to buy Arms, raise Monies, and Armies for the K. of Scots, against this Commonwealth; so that their sufferings (the Recoil of their own Motions) cannot appear to me to be of the Jesuits laying or plotting, 
M. Prynn's merciless and unjust JURY excepted against, nor is a Butcher (or Mangler) fit to judge in the Case.  but to arise rather from themselves, through a Principle of self-preservation, and Public Safety, on our part, which the Laws of Nature and of Nations teach us. By this the Reader may see what a wretched JURY it is, Mr. Prynne (as he calls it, p. 50, 51.) has packed or impanelled together, to condemn the innocent Commonwealth with, how liable both He and They are, to our just and lawful Exceptions, and how little proof they make, or Evidence they take for an Impartial Verdict upon the matter, 
1. It's the Jesuits Design to render the Commonws. odious, by making us believe it THEIRS; This being the last shift they▪ have left them.  as the proper Child of Father Parsons or the Jesuits. And upon the whole, I am ready (in my Reason) to conclude,  
1. That it is one of the most subtle Arts and Plots which the Jesuits have, to make us believe that to be their SPAWN, which they never had the least Sperma of; either in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Power or the Being of it; nay, which they most deadly hate (and is most against their very nature) on purpose to fright us from it, when they have no better way to beat us off it; and to turn that out at the BACKDOOR, which they cannot keep out at the FORE-DOOR; This, this is the very thing that they design in it. And upon this (it is like) they may give out, that they have fifteen Colleges of Quicksilvered Seminaries, and Jesuits in England; and according to the Lord Cromwell his Speech, Septem. 4. 1654. p. 16, 17. That they have a Consistory and Council that RULES all the Affairs of England (which it may be they did in his Days, i. e. in the Apostasy from the Commonwealth) and that in Rome, they said about four years since, They had above fifteen hundred Jesuits in England. So for that smart Jesuit, which Mr. P. tells us of, and of his reports, in p. 85, 86, 87. as Prodigious as Prolix. I profess I fear it might be a Plot on purpose to amuse us, and to make our Joult-Heads, (as they call us) believe Strange things, to deter us from our Duty, 
Not but that a Godly Jealousy be had, and search he made.  not our Danger thereby: Though I would not say one word to hinder our Godly Jealousy of them, and as strict a search for them as may be, or as Mr. P. can or doth desire in his p. 88 for a many doubtless are in England under Disguises and Folding-Doors. But I say, We may run as much into an Extreme (as I fear Mr. P. and B. do) by believing these CHEATS, and moving upon the PRATE of such pragmatics as the Jesuits are, to condemn the Commonwealth as theirs, because they (it may hap for their interest) would say it and swear it too with procacity enough to turn us from it. And this, I think, may be rather the Plot of the Jesuits and Papists (or at least the Porch of it) who fear us more as a Commonwealth, then as a Kingdom by far.  
2. I am apt to think it a BRAT of Mr. Prynne's own Brain, 
2. It appears that Mr. P. his Brains have a most Spermatick faculty; and Mr. B's Breasts have as Aphrogalaktick a faculty, through his Mammarie Vein of maintaining K. Lords & Commons; and of condemning our Free-state; which Vein of his, we find in the Claves (as the Anatomists call them) but Mr. B. his Clavis or KEY for Cath.  to make the Jesuit the Father of this Commonwealth, seeing he hath such a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or faculty of Pro-creating, yea, of Creating something out of NOTHING, as we all know. Being a man of Ability to do it, not only in a fleshly Solidity, but some say, in an inordinate concupiscence and ambition after FAME, full of Spumy, frothy, and (errand) excrementitious Spirits! through his own Natural heats and temper, (as well as preternatural) boiling up in him to bring out to others Monsters, that are as ready to receive them. Nor is he more able or strong (in that kind) to bring forth by Hard Labours against the Commonwealth and Worthies of it, then Mr. B. is to be his Nurse, and to give it suck, with all the Parts, Zeal and Abilities he has, that it may grow and get in favour with the world, which truly I think is their sin, and will be their sorrow: for such a consent there seems to be between Mr. P. and B. herein, as between the Womb and the Breasts, which are the magazine of excrementitious moisture, passing through the twine of his Glandulous and spongious Affections to Mr. P. and to all his writings. So that let Mr. P. but generate matter, Mr. B. is as ready to generate meat to keep it alive.  
3. It appears plain to us, 
3. Mr. P's hard TRAVEL this 10. years in campanellas design.  that Mr. P. hath been in hard travel for above this 10. years, to bring forth the very Child indeed of Campanella, Parsons, and the Jesuits, i e. ut in fine Rursus in Statum Regium revolventur, which are the Friar's very words, That they may at last be revolved, or thrown back again into a Kingly Government. Now is not this the very design of Mr. P. Mr. B. and the rest of the Cassocks, Cloaks, and Gowns? that the Commonwealth might be revolved into a Kingdom again, in the Tri-partite Power, and Tridentine Tyranny of King, Lords and Commons? so that he and others are labouring as for life to lay a Changeling (of the Jesuits begetting indeed) in the room of our present Commonwealth, if they have but strength or opportunity to effect it.  
4. Whether the Hysteron Proteron of Mr. P's Magnified and Multiplied Labours, 
4. His writings dangerous these times, to kindle, or blow up Popular discontents.  Throes, Pangs and distended Limbs now anew, with struggle (to bring forth his former ill-begotten Embryo (i. e.) for the KING) doth not Accelerate (with the help of Mr. B. his Nurse) the most WINGED inclinations of Popular discontents to an open Insurrection. In p. 42. of his Narr. he most importunately summons the Ancient Nobility, the secluded members, Gentry, Commonalty of the Nation; that had never (he saith) such effeminate Spirits as now. 
All the good women are called to his Labour.  And yet all these good women (or effeminate ones as he calls them) in England he sends for to his Labour, to help him with such means and active COUNSEL as may most handily obstetricate and ease him of his burden. With a special care of the Deuteron Hysteron, or of his Afterbirth as well as of his Former-birth, lest for want of skill it be left behind (in his Brain) and there lie, and rot, and Ruin him at the least; which neither that we nor the State do desire, is obvious in the full (if not foul) Liberty which he takes to write, print, or any thing for his own ease or good, if it be so. Nor had I disturbed him (if this do it) but that I found the Knocker at his own Door.  
5. It seems the Jesuits BASTARDS were most strangely begotten, 
5. It is a monstrous thing in Nature, to make this a Plot of An. 1605. etc.  (if it be as he saith) and by a most incredible superfaetation (against the course of Nature itself, sense or reason) that One of them should prove an Abortion, in An. 1605. at the Gun-powder-plot, and yet the other (or a part of the same Jesuites-plotting) continue in the Womb until now; brought forth in this new-Republick, (as he calls it) so long after, is a Monstrum horrendum! inform! ingens! Cui lumen ademptum.  
6. The highest Argument that either Mr. P. Mr. B. or any of them have for it, 
6. All their Argument lies upon fallacies secundum quid, or malae consequentiae, or homonymiae.  is by either an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as mere a nonsequitur, as to say, the possessed with devils did confess Christ to be the Son of God, therefore such as confess Christ to be the Son of God are possessed with Devils, which (secundum quid) is true and false. So to say, the Jesuits plotted a Commonwealth for England An. 1605. therefore a Commonwealth in England was the Jesuits plot, or else by an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and a mere Equivocation in putting the like for the same; if they could have made that Argument good, with the help of that fallacy. But they cannot, neither exhibit they a word to prove this is the same Commonwealth which they designed, (if they did design any) and so indeed say nothing to the purpose. Nor doth Mr. P's sore Labours or Contumacy carry less than this, that his ingenium is neither sine Dementiae mixturâ, nor Mixturae dementiâ, & that he is almost Mad. Now a Delirium at the inchoation of a Disease is dangerous; and so in a Fever if too fierce; but Most, when Melancholy is the Concomitant or Predominant; which to divert, may do him good (if it be but by changing the HUMOUR;) and therefore I shall take Example from Eliah's Sarcasms, 1 King. 18. 27. Eliah mocked them (jehattel) saying, Cry aloud, for he is a God taking a journey, or a sleep (may hap:) And so from Luther, who did often use it; and Erasmus, of whom it was said, Plus nocuisse jocando quam stomachando; that he did the Pope more hurt by an ingenious jesting, then by chiding; so that if I may imitate such Worthy Precedents, I shall presume for Mr. P's sake to subjoin a few Serio-jocular Queries: and if he take them in earnest, yet I will offer them in jest; or if in jest, yet I am as earnest, as the Philosopher was to convince Plato of his folly (in defining a man, to be a Two-legged creature without feathers) when he plucked off the feathers of a poor silly Cockrel; and so sent him to teach them in Plato's School, hopping about (a naked Bird) with an Ecce! or Behold Plato's MAN! so do I these Sarcasms with an Ecce! or behold the Secluded Members MAN, how naked he is and obvious! not only to scorn, but to pity. As it was said of Naaman, 2 King. 5. 1. That he was a great man with his master, but he was a LEPER. Wherefore let the Reader, for a relaxation to his memory, and Mr. B. for a refrication to his skill (in Physic) make him his Patient (and a pitiful one he is, as by all the indications of him specific. and generic. do appear;) and therein with prudence consider!  
Q. 1. Whether Mr. P. when he was thrown into Hell (with the other Members) did not take such a surfeit, that he never recovered to this hour? and whether this has not broken out most lamentably in his Lips, Ears, Mouth, Eyes, and in all parts ever since? and a sign that Satan smote him so! as makes him a sad Spectacle to men and Angels? Besides, the sick morbous estate of his mind from the Blackest Choler, or beds of Melancholy: and whether any Pump of Tongue or Pen can be set deep enough, or plied fast enough to fetch out all the filth of his foul stomach? (a Kitchen of uncleanness?)  
Q. 2. And whether the most loathsome, stinking, Nauseous stuff, which Mr. P. hath lately brought off of his filthy Concavous stomach, be not contragious and dangerous to the Commonwealth? and whether the very air is not infected with his breath, seeing so many are fallen into Prynian fits, and lie sick at heart of his foul disease? Or whether the orifice of his Pylorus which was open and able to digest good things (in his Pillory-suffrings) be not wholly shut up? and the Oeso-phagus and upper orifice only open, and wide enough to let out all manner of Emmets (without much straining,) or the most ugly suffusion of his excrements upwards?  
Q. 3. Whether he and his fellows▪ could lie so cold (as he saith) in Hell (p. 18. of 's Narr.) and be almost starved in one Night, without a Notorious, tremendous judgement? (too much like that in Mat. 8. 12. and 13. 42. seeing he hath ever since been under the Wailing, and in gnashing of Teeth?) (seeing his Tongue was then in such a flame, and is still on fire (as the Apostle saith, Jam. 3. 6.) to the endangering the whole course of Nature; yea, seeing the Torrid Zone of his spirit, is so inhabitable for heat and wrath! that a Temperate man can no more come near him, than one can take a fire into his bosom, and not be burnt, Prov. 6. 27.  
4. Q. Whether Mr. P's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Madness be not caused by too much Blood in his Brains since the King's death? And whether his strange conceits, staring eyes, tickling ears, roving fancies, rambling head, and ravening appetite after Kingship, are not evident symptoms (to sober men) of his fearful Madness and Folly? And whether the best, and most ordinary way of Cure be to let him Blood under the Tongue? or to lay some of the (Horse) Leaches to suck him from the forehead to the fundament? or shall he be left to the extraordinary way of laying him up warm, in St. Martin's straw, to cure him of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or brutish madness?  
5. Q. Whether besides his Surfeit, cold and madness which he catched in Hell, he were not grievously Bewitched, (like the Galatians, Chap. 3. 1. in another case,) from the Truth of the Cause, seeing ever since, at his long and strong strains, he hath raised up (as a man in much torture) amongst other stuff, the veriest Trash, rubbish, stones, straws, gravel, iron, nails, that can be, and what not? And seeing nothing will serve him, but that the Rotten Corpse of the old constitution might be raised to life, which because we cannot believe practicable or possible, he sub-poena's us for this with a legend of lies; like that poor man (the Popish legend tells of) a Guest at a feast at Benonia; where a Cock was dressed at Dinner, and carved out in the Dish; but this man denied that St. Peter was able to restore this COCK to life again, and (believe it who will!) the Cock (or rather the Devil) leapt up, and crew, and slew! and with clapping of his wings scattered the broth all about; but punished severely this unbeliever: And so because we deny that their Carcase of the old constitution can come to life again, till the great day, we shall all be punished, when the Devil hath done it, and played his part fully in it, if they prevail?  
6. Q. Whether Mr. P. were not poisoned with conceits, seeing he hath swollen so big ever since? or were not possessed with Legions, seeing matters in his Books are expressed with such variety & change of Voices? And whether M. P. doth ride better in a false-gallop of words? or like a madman for matter? or be in both HIGH Post for the King of Scots? by Summoning the Cavaliers, p. 92, 93. of 's Narr. and blowing his Horn beforehand to make way for his worship? whiles the merit of his Argument creeps like a cripple, and Lackquys after to little purpose, sense or reason? so that Mr. B. had need to set up St. Andrews Cross to carry it on better.  
7. Q. Whether any Emperor, King or Potentate on earth, can be more loaded with accumulation of titles (to make him proud, and keep him in the Herald's Books!) then this Aut'-Encomiast, p. 40. of is Nar. A member of the old Parliament, a Covenanter, a Protestor, a Lawyer, a Scholar, a Man (that's well!) an Englishman and a Christian! so in other places, a Gentleman, a Squire, a Bencher, a Barrister; and why not a Barreter too, to make up the number? Whether these be not too many for any honest man alive, unless a Lawyer? and whether this does not fill Mr. P. with as much Pride as the great Cham of Tartary had, whose servants when he had dined, used to sound the Trumpet of it at his gates; and thereby give leave to the Kings of the earth, that they (with manners) might go to their Dinners; but not before.  
8. Q. Whether Generation be not from the brain? seeing Mr. P's has had such an illegitimate and mighty issue of late? and whether it be not as likely (as what Albertus Magnus tells us of a Stage-player, who when he was dead and opened, but little of his brains were left, he had spent so much upon his Harlots) that if Mr. P's brains be opened (after his decease,) and the battlements of his Skull razed down, we shall not see how lavish he has been of the powder and shot of his spinal marrow upon others? and yet the Skull be kept for the sake of his DRY-MOUTH, 
Vincent. lib. 25. c. 4.  to make a Delphian Oracle of, against the Sectaries, so called; seeing Macarius of Alexandria did interrogate a Skull in the name of Jesus, till it said (or the Devil in it rather) that the Heretics were in the lowest hell, meaning the Protestants, with Mr. P. Sectaries.  
9 Q. Whether it had not been wisdom, to have kept out the company of gambling Geese or Scribblers, that noise it so in Mr. P's Chamber during the time of his Travel, hard labour, and unprofitable pains to be delivered of Campanella's Bastard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or headlong? And whether they had not better have persuaded Mr. P. to have kept his Terms still, then to have fallen in with such filthy interests, to commit sin with, or conceive séed from, for the trouble of the Nation? or so to sell himself to the next KING that comes, for so little profit, and for less credit?  
10. Q. Whether in all this Mr. P. and Mr. B. have not made a more exquisite and Artificial Section or discovery of themselves, their party, parts, and principles, then of the true Cause, or of the Commonwealth, through all the Meanders intricate and abstruse notions and designs to obtrude or exalt the interest of the Stuarts, and debase our Cause? Let the Reader judge: for, in Publicos Hostes Omnis Homo Miles, saith Tertul. Apol. c. 2. It is every man's case, and all the Country will up, when wild beasts are broken loose; to that I leave them and their followers.  
I have been the longer upon these things, they being the very hinges or the Axle-trées of all their Polemic Disceptations against the (present) Government in four books, which for substance are answered, and their fallacies discovered to the Readers: only Mr. B's wounding Answer (which is truly his own) to the Healing Question comes under our present consideration (& his Politic Aphorisms, (if occasion serve) for future) which he adds in the Preface of ' s Holy Commonwealth to the Army, that they may not be kept up in impenitency, i. e. from returning to King, Lords and Commons.  
I would say this for the Healing Question and its honourable Author, 
The Healing Author of the healing Quest. hath taken the Leaves of the Tree of Life for the healing the Nations.  that is of such a Healing Spirit and Frame, (whiles Mr. B. is professedly of a Wounding) That the Almighty God hath made it and him so great a Means of Blessing towards the Recovering and Healing of this poor ISLAND (as our Children after us, may live to reap, remember, and bless GOD for:) indeed I do think there is in that little Treatise such Apples of Gold, if well considered, as were taken from the Lord Jesus that Tree of Life, Prov. 3. 18. whose Leaves are for the Healing of the Nations Rev. 22. 1, 2. And to speak rationally, It was as properly called a HEALING Question, as his Antagonist would call it a WOUNDING Answer, after Gallen understanding of Healing, in a Physical Consideration, in the beginning of Lib. de Ossibus. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
What is meant by HEALING.  i. e. All things that concern the Action of HEALING, have that for their scope and direction to it, that agrees best with the Nature and Constitution of the body, or part which must be HEALED, i. e. the Commonwealth. Now whether Mr. B. by's WOUNDING, or Sir H. V. by his HEALING comes nearest to the nature and constitution of the Commonwealth or Free-State, let us diligently inquire, and duly preponderate, without respect to persons but to principles, and to the matter.  
The healing Question (saith he) placeth the cause in two things, pag. 3, 4, 5, 6. 1. In a Freedom (by way of dutiful compliance and condescension from all parts and members of this Society) to set up meet persons in the place of Supreme Judicature and Authority amongst you. Enlarged pag. 10, 11. 2. Freedom in matters of Religion that concern the service and worship of God; enlarged pag. 5, 6, 7. The PERSONS that he supposes have this Sovereign power (says he) are sometimes said to be the Whole Body of Adherents to the CAUSE, p. 3. to which they have a double Right, 
M. B. quotes the Healing Quest. in a Wounding & unfaithful manner at first dash.  1. Natural, 2. Conquered (and Recovered;) and sometimes the whole BODY OF THE PEOPLE, pag. 4. But here Mr. B. begins already to deal unfaithfully and disingenuously with the Healing Question and its Author: for pag. 4. it tell us, of the natural right and Freedom due to the whole Body of the People (for whose safety and good, Government its self is ordained) which the Norman by Lust and force of Arms kept them from. 
Natural Rights may be forfeited and lost.  This is their natural Right indeed; not but that they may forfeit it, and lose it, as a man may forfeit his Liberty and his Life, (which he hath a natural right unto, by Theft, Treason, Rebellion, Murder, or the breach of good and equal Laws.) But when he treats of the Goodness and the Nature of the Cause, p. 3, 4. then it is that he tells us the unforfeited and undoubted Power of choosing, 
The Healing Q. asserts the unforfeited Natural Right.  etc. lies in the body of Adherents to the CAUSE; who have contributed their counsels, purses, pains, affections, prayers, and united strength unto it. And these have not only their (foresaid) natural Right, but (through God's blessing) their conquered and restored Right unto it. (Which others have not, that fought against the CAUSE & the PARLIAMENT, to destroy both it and us: These (that have forfeited it) are not said to have the Sovereign Power of choosing persons fit for Supreme Trust, by this twofold Right that the Adherents to the Cause have. And therefore the Healing Question, pag. 3. speaks of Restoring This, THIS whole Body to its just Rights in Civils and in Spirituals. But Mr. B. would jumble them both like a jusculum of Hodg-podg, or Galleymaufrey into our minds by a fallaciâ compositionis, taking them together, 
M. B's dark Lantern hath no lucid Answer to the Healing Quest. Caution to the Army how they take Mr. B's ten Pills. Mr. B's 1. Prop.  as he (in his Wounding) and not as the Author in's Healing Question states and exhibits them. Also it is observable, that in lieu of any lucid or clear Replication, he would have the Reader subjugate his Reason to his Dark Lantern, or abstruse implication in some ten PROPOSITIONS (which he offers as his Purging-Pills or Troches) to the Armies Consciences: but let them first examine the INGREDIENTS of them, and the hand that gives them, if he have skill, and if there be no danger in receiving of them.  
His 1. Prop. is, That it was none of the Old Cause which we contended for in the Wars, (viz.) the free choice of Parliaments.  
Answ. 
Answ.  We shall then appeal to all Records, (living and dead) yea, 
Right to Choose Parl. part of the Cause.  to Mr. P. himself, whether Privileges of Parliament, and people's Rights were none of the Old Cause contended for: 1. (says he) the King granted it; but at the first he denied it. 
This the K. kept the people from by his own Prerogative.  And what if he did by word acknowledge it, if he (by force) hindered them the benefit of it? which is the thing the Heal. Quest. says. But for Mr. B's satisfaction, he may see it recorded in History; That in the very first four years of his Reign, he dissolved three Parliaments one after another, 
The History of it.  and by Proclamation forbid the people to speak of any more Parliaments after that; so that; in the Intervals they were miserably enslaved, oppressed both in Consciences and Estates, taxed, fleeced with Monopolies and illegal sufferings, had no visible Remedy left them: All thoughts of ever having a Parliament being banished for many years: and the ordinary discourse of the Courtiers than was against Parliaments, as injurious to the King's Prerogative. This continued until Firebrands that had been kindling by it were laid together in Scotland, and there began first to FLAME about the ears of the Clergy, and their Liturgy, An. 1637, 8, and 9 The King raised an Army against them, and notwithstanding the Pacification of 18 June 1639. he resolved to have War with the Scots; told some Lords about him (Decemb. following) he would call a Parliament in England; the noise of which made the People amazed! I so long had they been without it, and so little expectation had they of it, (whiles the King sends his bosom and Cabinet-Counsellour, Strafford, into Ireland, to call one there, to raise him moneys) but on the 13th of April it was convened, and on the 5th of May dissolved again; and some of the Members, vizt. Sir John Hotham, Mr. Crew, Mr. Belliesis, imprisoned, the Lord Brooks Plundered; and the King goes on with the War against the Scots, until about 20. of the English Earls, Lords and Barons, Petitioned to him at York, to call a Parliament that might continue until Grievances were redressed, etc. By which means, (and his unavoidable necessities together) he could not help it, but summon the Long Parliament; who seeing the people so miserably robbed of their Rights, drew up a Bill for triennial Parliaments, which the King signed 15. Pebr. 1640. Also an Act of Parliament was passed (by King, Lords and Commons then in being) That this Parliament shall not be dissolved without it be by Act of Parliament; and the Ground is expressed in it, viz. The fears, jealoustes and apprehensions that His Majesty's Subjects have, that this present Parliament may be adjourned, prorogued, or dissolved before justice be executed, Grievances redressed, etc. With what confidence then can Mr. B. put in such an ingredient, (and so dangerous a one) to make up his first Pill or Prop. to purge the Army with, and to scour their Consciences?  
To his second Prop. 
His 2. Prop.  It was not the old Cause, for the People to have right to choose a House of Commons to exercise the whole sovereignty, etc.  
Answ. And who saith it was, 
Answ. It is granted that the Cause is not a Right to choose a House of Commons.  I pray? not the Healing Quest. I am sure; neither do the Commonwealthsmen say it; that the people have any Right to choose any House of Commons at all, seeing it is utterly inconsistent with the Free-State and principles of it, to have any such House, as a House of Commons; and more to have them (as such) exercise the whole Sovereignty of the Nation. But here he contends with himself alone. As I have seen a Puppy play prettily with his own tail, weary himself, and lie down when he has done. For to what purpose is this Pill of Fumitory? 
A fumitory Pill.  unless to fetch away Melancholy Fumes, and make us laugh a little at all their weakness and folly.  
To his third Prop. 
His 3. Prop.  It was none of the old cause to assert the people's Sovereignty.  
Answ. But it was their old cause to assert their Rights, 
Ans. It was the cause to preserve our Rights.  (I am sure) both as men and as Christians; and this is one (the Healing Quest. saith,) and a natural one, which all the Adherents to this Cause (against the King) have recovered (through mercy) if they can but keep it, 
Exact Col. p. 464.  viz. to keep the Primary power (under God and Jesus Christ) or the power of choosing their own Rulers into the Supreme trust. And this was (we find by a little Retrospection) declared for, both by Parliament and Army, Act of Parl. March 17. 1648. St. Alban Remonstrance, 
Poly-pody-Pill.  in the Scotish Declarations, and a many others. So that this his salt Pill of poly-podium will serve for nothing, but to make a man cough, complain, or else to choke him quite.  
To his fourth Prop. 
His 4. Prop.  It was not the Cause to change the constitution of the Commonwealth into any other form of Government, than what we found in it.  
Answ. What ever was the Cause, 
Answ. Another form of Government a necessary effect of the King's waging War with the Parliament and People.  that was the effect (and an inevitable EFFECT of the Wars) I am sure; though I confess the CAUSE of it lay (in my judgement) more on the King's part; according to the Parliaments own words of 20. March 1642. That whensoever the King maketh War, that it tendeth to the dissolution of his Government. So that (Sublatâ, Causâ tollitur effectus) had he not made the War, he had not destroyed his Government, it is like. Nor doth this lay the Gild of the blood upon the Parliament, as he pretends, but upon the King and his evil Counselors, who destroyed him and his posterity, as well as that Constitution of Government by it; And albeit, no one part had authority to destroy the other, and set itself in the room of the whole (as King to destroy the Commons, or Commons the Lords; and set itself up as HOUSE of COMMONS) yet had they a Power to destroy one another, and to kill themselves, if they would; as the King did, and so consequently the Lords, and then the House of Commons (as the Commons-House;) 
The King and Lords destroyed themselves, and so the House of Commons.  which are all dissolved with that CONSTITUTION of GOVERNMENT (by a Felo de se) indeed. 2. Nor is the Platform of King, Lords and Commons, the Fundamental Constitution; but rather imposed upon the people (as has been often proved by the learned in History. And 3. Though this were not the ULTIMATE in our eye; 
2. The old form of K. L. and Com. an imposed form.  yet the People's Rights, and properties, (which fell in naturally to them) were in their eye, ULTIMATELY and intentionally, amongst other things of higher concernment, 
3. This form of Government fell in naturally and unavoidably upon dissolution of Kingly.  viz. the Kingdom of Christ, throughout the management of this cause.) Now where the people have the greatest propriety and interest to outbalance, (as it was in this cause) they must naturally fall into that Balance which is in a Commonwealth, and can fix for security and satisfaction in nothing less; be it ever so beyond our first intentions or second. But for my part, I cannot find one word in the Healing Quest. that saith, it was our cause intentionally to alter that constitution (though that effect was given in as a blessing, supplement, and success unto this cause;) but that we have a Right to a Civil incorporation and society distinct from that of the old constitution now dissolved (by its self and its inorable adherents.) So that as the CYNIC ran to the mark, 
The Healing Quest. a mark, but he cannot hit it.  for fear the Archer should hit him, when he shot at Rovers, we may run to the Healing Quest. and never fear that he will hit or hurt us; or can come near us, for aught I see. This is his fourth Pill as bitter as Aegrimony: 
A pill of Aegrimony.  it may serve to make a body sick, and to make him stare; but not to cure or comfort him in the least.  
His fifth Prop. is of the matter, 
5. Prop.  asserting the Parliaments Declaration for the King's person, 
Ans. This is fully answered elsewhere; all the Declar. and Engagements kept in their ends by this cause.  Privileges of Parliament, etc. which is fully answered in Mr. P's Cause stated and stunted, p. 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11. to the very same Declarations and Arguments; wherein is proved, that (in Sensu Composito) every tittle and Punctilio of all those Declarations and Protest. is kept in this Cause of the Commonwealth; so far as it comprehends all, in the sense, end, and equity thereof, wherein the Letter or form was incapable or incompatible: besides, the very words of the Covenant are, for the person of the King in (and no otherwise but) in the defence of the true Religion and liberties of the people: Now so far as any of these or all these can (or could) possibly consist together, (viz.) in the liberties of the people, they are conserved to this very day. Therefore this Pill being the same with the other, though it be a little bigger, will work but little better, and so I leave it.  
His sixth Prop. (which is the main) That it was none of the old Cause, 
His 6. Prop.  that the people should have Liberty, and the Magistrate have no power in all matters of God's worship, faith, and Conscience. 
Answ. The Author of the Healing Quest. abused, fallaciously quoted, and as falsely accused.  And here I cannot but observe how unworthily (or like the false witness) M. B. deals with this honourable Author again, after a superficial compliment which he would never give before (nor nothing like it in's Key for Cath.) saith he, Without any exception, restriction or limitation that I can find, he expressly extendeth the Case to matters of Religion, or that concern the worship of God, p. 5. and to matters of faith and Conscience, p. 6. yea, all matters, and that the Magistrates must fear and forbear intermeddling with: whereas he knows (and saith it) but a little before, that the persons spoken of, are the whole body of honest men, adherents to this Cause; and is that no restriction? I believe Mr. B. thinks it one, and a close one too, to him: for the truth is, the Author of the Healing Quest. 
He pleads especially for the adherents to the Cause; but generally for all to whom Christ hath given and bought this Liberty. M B leaves out a most material significant part of the same sentence.  is pleading for them (especially) that have adhered to the cause, and for their Rights and Freedom of Conscience, under different apprehensions and opinions; yet in the general, for that natural right, freedom and liberty, which Christ hath purchased by his blood; and may not that be admitted? who dares hinder it? does he say any more than so? But to see how like a SOPHIST his Antagonist quotes him (as if he had a mind to imitate the Grand accuser of the Brethren, Mat. 4. 6. who left out IN ALL HIS WAYS) Mr. B. leaves out the most significant and considerable Clause, even of the SAME sentence, to spoil the sense, or play the Tempter with: For the Healing Quest. saith, That all Magistrates are to fear and forbear intermeddling with: (here (M. B.) skews out of the way now, as if he were scared; or feared that his FOLLY would appear to all men, to proceed with the same sentence! which he most rudely, abruptly and ungrammatically Lacerates, at the very preposition, without the Case that follows it) with giving rule or imposing in those matters. Therefore nail up this counterfeit (Reader) upon the next Post, lest it pass for CURRANT; and then consider, does this discharge the Magistrate of his duty? or done't he rather charge him with what is not his duty? that would have the Magistrate to impose upon us in the worship of God, and matters of Conscience? (that are out of a Civil consideration, and merely spiritual?) 
What the Healing Quest. proposes about the Magistrate, that he would not impose upon tender Consciences; Mr. B. corrupts, and falsifies, most shamefully.  so that all the Healing Quest. offers, p. 7. is, The Magistrates forbearing to put forth the power of Rule and Coercion in things that God hath exempted out of his Commission: This is all, and these are the very words. And is this so wicked a Cause as Mr. B. calls it? or which deserves such a scarifying, or Cauterizing brand and denomination, of wickedness and falsehood, as he puts upon it? But if I may give him the Brand for falsifying so; for the Question is (saith he) whether the Magistrate may restrain them from propagating a false faith? or Infidelity, and drawing others into it? But stay Sir! Whose Question is it? do you think to catch old Birds AUCUPIIS, or with your chaff, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; with empty words, abusive nothings? for who (I pray) makes this the Question but your self? not the Healing Quest. I can affirm; for that which he saith, is only about the Magistrates not compelling, or imposing in the matters of God: not about this restraining of Papists or Infidels, (though some there be that question the extent of his power, merely for their faith or worship; yet it is not so much as mentioned by the Healing Quest.) Upon this the poor man (to find himself work enough with his own pretty Paralogisms and Sophisms, and so to make sport for our money, lest we take him for a Pickpocket) he spends at one clap 6. or 7. pages, very generously, to prove what none denies; that it was neither the Cause nor the good Cause to Countenance POPERY, Mahumetism, etc. Notwithstanding it never entered into the Question; and so his Answers are shot in the Air, or at himself (all the way) being in nothing adequated or adapted to the Case. But saith Mr. B. He hath not excepted Popery, etc. and if worship be out of the Magistrates reach, then so is Mass. Under due correction, and with due respect to his gravity and the Ministry, he Reasons neither like a Christian, nor like a Logician: 1. It is not like a Christian to traduce Sir H. V. so, 
Mr. B. argues not like a Christian with Sir H. Vane.  as if Popery, etc. were not excepted in the Healing Quest. when the Case (its self) is (and the whole discussion) both for matter and form (to the Body of ADHERENTS to the Cause) most proximately exclusive of Popery, infidelity and unchristianity in worship; as fully as ever it was in the times of the Wars with the King, and highest attempts, or contests with the Biships before. But Psal. 50. 16. with 19, 20. What hast thou to do to count up my statutes?— Thou givest thy mouth to evil, thy tongue joineth with deceit: thou sittest and speakest against thy brother, thou (titten dophi) givest a double mouth of thy mother's son. 
2. Mr. B. argues not like a Logician.  2. Nor like a Logician, in his rambling from the verity of the matter, and very principles of demonstration; for that Propositions ought to be true, de omni, and the Predicate to agree with the Subject in every thing: but to help the Reader, a little, out of the snare of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or fallacy which lies in the Ambiguity of the PROP. viz. If worship be out of the Magistrates reach, then so is Mass, to speak ad Rhombum, 
It is (as the Heal. Quest states it) out of the Mag. power, to impose Mass, or any worship; and this M. B. ought to prove like a fair opponent by Logick-Law.  and not to ramble from what the Healing Quest. affirms; it is out of the Magistrates reach of imposing or compelling us to Mass. For all that honourable person saith, is, that the Magistrate might forbear Coercion in the worship of God. Neither doth he say as Mr. B. by his fallacy would insinuate, that Magistrates have nothing to do; but that this they ought not to do, viz. impel or impose in the worship of God, upon our Consciences; and so Mass, Mahumetism, and all false Religion is out of the Magistrates reach indeed, viz. of imposing it upon our Consciences, and of forcing us to that or any other Religion. Now that the Magistrate may force us to MASS (or to any false or true Religion) is the Thing, that Mr. B. hath to prove (or he doth nothing,) but puzzle himself, and perplex his Reader (with a company of fallacies and falsehoods.) Now was not this a great and essential part of the Cause and quarrel at the first? between the Bishops, Popish, Arminian Imposers, and the Puritans, Brownists, and Sectaries (so called) to keep up this, their Liberty of Conscience from all such destroyers and invaders of it? 
This was in our Cause, to keep up this liberty of Conscience in the worship of God.  (as is to be seen in Husbands his Exact Coll. p. 20, 21, 22. etc. in the several Declar. and Remonstrances of Parliament and Army: And in the very Covenant itself, to maintain Religion according to the word of God, in the liberty and purity thereof. And in the history of the Wars with Scotland, occasioned by imposing upon them the Book of Liturgy, Anno 1637. being forceably and by command of the King, and Magistrates, read in Edinborough without the people's consent; which the poor people could not bear (but a Woman threw her stool at the Bishop's pate) and so began the hurly-burly, the Wars, and the Alterations to this day; for freedom in both kinds, (viz. in Spirituals and in Civils) from being imposed upon; and herein both the nature and the goodness of the cause will appear (do what he can.) Now let Mr. B. deal but honestly, as the Healing Quest. states the case (which were he a fair and allowable Opponent, he ought) without diminishing or adding to what he saith, and then prove if he can, That this due liberty for godly believers and adherents to the Good old Cause (for he speaks of such) in matters of God's worship under their different persuasions; Be  
First, 
His first Charge assoiled, that this is not against God's word; but the contrary, and his Scripture-examples examined.  against the word of God, or express Scriptures (as he pretends;) flying for proof to Moses and them that were Types of Christ, under the Law; who did in extraordinary cases, and for extraordinary ends, exercise both swords sometimes; and so not only Moses and the Kings of Israel did meddle with the external matters of worship, but even Priests and Prophets did sometimes execute in civil matters too; as Phinehas on Zimri and Cozbi, Numb. 25. Eliah upon the 400. 1. King. 18. and Samuel on Agag, 1 Sam. 15. but alas! the one is no more a Rule for Magistrates in these days, than the other is for Ministers: And besides, it is most evident even in the Old Testament (if he keeps us all to THAT, for he must never come at New Testament) that Powers over any, in the worship and service of God, (or Eccles. Powers so called) were ordinarily distinguished (all along) from the Civil, or Magistratical Power, as Moses▪ and Aaron, Rulers and Priests, etc. kept in their distinct Orbs and Places. Now for his instance of Asa his days, 
His instance of Asa obviated and enervated.  2 Chron. 15. 12. it was a voluntary Covenant which the people entered into; spontaneously, and not compulsorily; neither did the Magistrates impose it upon them; 
That the Mag. hath no such Power in his Commis. to impose, is proved by abundance of Scriptures.  so that it is Nihil ad Rhombum, again, (after his wont manner of rambling.)  
But on the Contrary, All those Scriptures that call for willing obedience, faith, and persuasions of a willing People to the Lord, Exod. 35. 5, 22. 2 Chron. 29. 5, 6, 7. Nehem. 4. 6. Cant. 4. 12. Psal. 110. 3. Isa. 2. 2, 3. Jer. 50. 4, 5, Micah 4. 12. Zach. 2. 11. & 8. 22, 23. Prov. 23. 26. Mat. 11. 27. Joh. 6. 35, 37, 44. Luke 9 23. Act. 2. 37. 2 Cor. 8. 3, 5. John 4. 23. Rom. 14. 5, 10, 14. Joh. 16. 8, etc. and all those that limit the Magistrates Civil Power to Civil Objects (as to give to Caesar, the things that are Caesar's, etc.) and Rom. 13. 3, 4. Psal. 83. 11, 12, 13. 2 Sam. 23. 3, 4. (that ruleth over MEN in external and humane matters) 1 Pet. 2. 13, 14. And all those Scriptures, that make Christ alone the Head of the Church, and the only Lawgiver in positive matters of Worship, and his Laws sufficient which he hath left for that purpose, Isa. 9 7. & 22. 21, 22. & 33. 22. Zach. 6. 12, 23. & 9 9 Cant. 3. 11. Psal. 2. 12. Col. 1. 18. & 2. 19 Mat. 28. 18. & 18. 17. Eph. 1. 22. & 5. 23. 1 Tim. 1. 20. 1 Cor. 5. 4, 5. jam. 4. 12. Heb. 3. 6. Besides Martyrs, 
And by learned Authors, with the Witness of Martyrs.  Learned Authors; as Ambrose, Epist. 13. ad Imp. Valentin. Bernard Epist. ad P. Eugen. Luther Epist. ad Fred. & Jo. D. Sax. Tom. 7. fol. 209. & Epist. ad Carol. Duc. Subaud. fol. 483. & Epist. ad Erphard. Tom. 7. Zuinglius, in Respons. libel. Strothionis, Tom. 2. fol. 302. Chamier de Oecumen. Pontif. Marlorat in Luc. 9 25. Marlinus; and the Martyrs, Jo. Huss, A. Askew, Hooper, Bradford, and a cloud of Witnesses, Books, and Arguments of the ablest (holy) Writers that ever used a Pen or a Pulpit, for above these thousand years, are (unâ Voce) for the Healing Question, against the Imposting power of the Magistrate in matters of Conscience, and of God's Worship; and were it not that I must be concise, and consulere brevitati, for the benefit of the Readers, I would have written at large their very Words and References.  
Also secondly, 
To his 2d Charge, Of the evil of it, That it tends to the Ruin of the Commonwealth; but the contrary tendeth unto that.  Let any that have the exercise of Reason free, consider upon his second charge, whether this Non-imposing-Power of the Magistrate in the Matters of Religion and Worship of God; or indulging of a Tender Conscience, tendeth to the Ruin of the Commonwealth? or whether an Imposing in such Cases doth not clearly put the People upon all the means of Freedom they can come at? as it did in Scotland, because of the Liturgy; and in England because of the Bishops, Canons, Courts and Impositions of their Hierarchy on Conscience? nay, let Mr. B. himself umpire it, if he please, when it comes to be his own case 
* Mr. B's Holy Commonw. Preface.  in his Preface to the Army, thus: I wish you to be tender of your brethren's Consciences. So, Let not men be too hastily forced to engage to a Power. ungodly men of seared consciences, will engage to any thing for worldly ends.— (So) Be not too forward with your Impositions, etc. Thus was the Philosopher convinced of his Error which he held against Motion: when his Arm came to be put out of joint, and it became his own Case, he went to Hirophilus to set it in again; sure (says this Chirurgeon) it cannot be; if your opinion hold, your Arm would hold: for if there be no Motion, there is no Dislocation. Therefore as Portius Cato was said to be so exactly just to all men, that he would choose the veriest enemies he had (such as Tiberius Gracchus) to judge his Cause, and condemn him, if he could; so will we in this, let him but remember us as well as himself, and equal with himself (for in the Conformation of parts the beauty lies, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in the equality, as Galen says) and then let him judge.  
Thirdly, 
To his 3d Charge.  Whether This tendeth to vilify the Magistrate, or Mr. B's more to vilify Christ and his Members? the Church, Truth and Gospel? and consequently, to set the MAGISTRATE upon the most conscientious?  
Or Fourthly, 
To his 4th Charge.  Whether it be against any Tittle of the Decalogue, to keep up each Table, Duty, and distinct Function of Magistrate and Minister in their proper places and functions, which Mr. B. would confound?  
Fifthly, 
To his 5th Charge.  Whether this tends to the decay, and not to the greatest encouragement of true Grace, Faith, and Holiness? not to whip, force or impose upon us in mere Spirituals, and matters of Worship?  
Yea, 
To his 6th Charge.  Sixthly, Whether the Healing Questions sweet Argumentum à Christo & Pace, or M. B.'s bitter Argumentum à fustibus & Face, would gratify the Devil and his Malice most? He that would have the Magistrate not to impose his light upon other men's consciences? 
M. B. and Mr. Harrington for a National Rule over the Conscience.  or he that would have it imposed as a Rule or Standard for All Men in the Nation to come, or to be cudgeled up unto? as Mr. B. and Mr. Har. (likewise) would have it; so in pag. 27, 28, etc. of his OCEANA, That all men might be subject to the National Conscience.  
Seventhly, 
To his 7th Charge.  Whether this or that would let out Tempter's (and Persecutors too) the farthest, and with the most loosened Reins of Lust and Cruelty over the Soul? to the Danger or Perdition of their own?  
8. Whether Parents or Masters of Families ought to impose their own Religion or Opinion upon their Children and Servants? 
To his 8th Charge.  and not rather to permit them the Free exercise and Liberty of their Consciences in the Worship of GOD (consistent with our CAUSE) both in Spirituals and Civils.  
Ninthly, 
To his 9th Charge.  Whether it tendeth to the destruction of an Army, to let every one March (not to Mutiny, that is his own word; and the Healing Q. asserts the Magistrates power in such Cases as are suitable Objects, to keep the peace, and promote the civil good,) but to let every one march on (in his own Order) without justling or molesting of another? Joel 2. 7, 8. They shall march every one in his ways, and not break their Ranks, nor one Thrust another; Or to the hurt of Families, not to impose, or to let their children have liberty to hear GOD's word and worship? (not to Theft, Drunkenness, Whoredom, as Mr. B. most unworthily states it) though in a different manner, place, time, and such like circumstances? But for an aliquid amplius, I refer to a Treatise I wrote some 2 years since, called A reviving Word from the quick and dead, etc. for Uniting of All the Godly with this Liberty.  
Tenthly, 
To his 10th Charge.  Or against the exercise of a Church-power over offenders, Mat. 18. 17. Tit. 3. 10, 11. 2 Thes. 3. 14, 15. because a Magistrate ought not impose upon their Consciences?  
Eleventhly, 
To his 11th Charge.  Or is it against the Interest of CHRIST (who shall be the Desire of all Nations, Hag. 2. 7.) to indulge any or all of his Members with Equal Liberty, Benefit and Safety in the service of GOD? without an undue magnifying of any one Form or Faction above, or to be a Rule to others? consolidating all under one Head (JESUS CHRIST) Ephes. 1. 13. Hos. 1. 11. in such sweet Symmetry, 
Vide Reviving Word, for Uniting all in one.  Order & Consistency together, as the four Elements have in the humane Body (though different asunder, yet in Harmony together) so as one may not Master, but Balance another to the service of the Whole, and of every one in their particular places, faculties and functions? and would not this be for the Interest of our dearest Lord? But says he, It's an unholy Saint that would have Liberty to reproach his Lord, or deny the faith and essential Article of it, to speak against his holy worship, etc. Whereas all the Healing Question propounds for, is, That the holy Saints that do serve their God sincerely, though under different apprehensions, that do hold the Faith, and Truth in the Essentials of it, and that are for his holy worship, not against it, that these might have equal Liberty and Countenance. But so absurdly for many pages together doth this poor man spit the Venom of his Pen upon that Noble and Pious Author, (without Ground or Matter) but of 's own devising, to render him (& such as are the liveliest Assertors of our Cause in the Latitude and Liberties of it) contemptible, if he could (as well as the Cause itself, which is the thing they aim at;) that I might say to him, as once Zeno said to Antigonus (whose breath was strong, and stomach foul) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Get you gone to your Vomit! for (as Aristides also said) we are not of that Number that can spit and vomit stuff so loathsome. And as one said when he was hit in the Teeth with his stinking Breath, that it was because of the Great trust of SECRETS which his Friends had committed to him, which he kept within him, until they were ROTTEN; he may as Wittily excuse it, but not as Worthily, if they be Designs for the King or Cavalierish Secrets, against the Worthies of Parliament, Cause and People of GOD, which lie and ROT, and export so ill a savour.  
And lastly, 
12 To his last Charge of introducing Popery.  Let Any judge, Whether this Liberty of Conscience, for the faithful Adherents to the Cause, (in matters of Worship only?) or that Persecution and Imposition which Mr. B. would put the Magistrate upon, be the most apparent Way of introducing Popery, and of destroying the Power of Godliness with a Form? or whether any one can study more to mischieve the Magistrate then by this means? For as Mr. Hooper (Martyr) said to his Friends, Anno 1555. Tyranny Extremity, and Enforcing, have been the only Arguments to maintain the POPE. And if Mr. B. had not been too forgetful, he would have considered, That these were the very Arguments of's own-quoted Jesuit, 
That Mr. B. is guilty of this Charge, shall appear by the Jesuits of his own Quoting.  Adam Contzen, in's Directions for Restoring Popery, Chap. 17. (Lib. 2.) To preserve Popery, that no other Religion should be permitted, and the speedy punishing of the Erroneous, cutting them off in their first appearance, prohibiting their Books, and taking heed of Julian' s Device, destroying of Religion by Liberty for all Sects. Thus they do (says Mr. B.) in Spain, Italy, Austria, Bavaria, etc. i. e. destroy Liberty of Conscience. Is this then the Jesuits way (by Mr. B.'s own words) to let in Popery, or to destroy it? The Jesuit calls it, A destroying of the Religion, (vizt. Popery) to give Liberty (as he calls it) to all Sects. Indeed Mr. B. doth put me in mind of one Cacus a great Thief, that was wont to pull all the cattle he stole into his DEN, backward, (or by the Tail) to avoid the pursuit of the people that followed the Track; and this pretty Knack Mr. B. uses, to pull us into Popery (as we shall see presently) and yet pretends to keep us from it, by the Track, that whoever follows (as he hath made it) shall no more find out the Introductor of Popish and Jesuitick Principles, than the People did the Thief; but be going from his Den, not toward it. And to see yet further how much he serves the JESUIT Contzen, Chap. 18 to bring in Popery into a Land, he shows, 1. Do it slowly and slily. 2. It's easy; when the common people are a while taken with Novelties, and diversities of Religion, they'll be weary, and give themselves up to the RULER'S wills, i. e. to their commands in matters of Religion. And is not this the way (by their own words) to introduce Popery? So the Jesuits 7th Rule, which is, To forbid them (they account erroneous) in their Assemblies, (and is not this to Impose upon them in matters of Worship?) and his 8th Rule is, To use Violence. And lastly, another Rule is, That the Magistrate keep the Institutions, Presentations and Examinations of Ministers in his own hand, etc. So that all those Ministers that will side with their power over the Consciences of poor people, shall be gratified with good Livings for it. Let any see now if Mr. B's be not the very Method of the Jesuit to restore Popery, to put the Magistrate upon Imposing or infringing Liberty of Conscience. And indeed, to add hereto his familiar converse and parley with the Papists, his eager invitation, and offers of peace and communion with the Roman Catholics, from p. 364. to 376. where (in 5 or 6 Chapters together) he offers to the Papists love, peace and fellowship (but is far from offering it to his poor Brethren at home, who are farther off from Popery then himself, both in Principles, Doctrine and Practice) may leave the matter without Vacillation, That it is Mr. B. not the Healing Question that would usher in Popery. The Grounds he goes upon are these, pag. 364.  
1. That he is satisfied in many Doctrinal points, 
The grounds whereon M. B. is satisfied with the Papists.  That the Difference between Protestants and the Papist is not so great as 'tis commonly taken for; instancing in certainty of salvation, of Pardon, of Works, of Justification, of faith, and almost all the Controversies about Predestination, 
1. The Harmony or Proximity of Doctrines between them.  Redemption, freewill, the work of Grace, etc. So near a Harmony he confesses, is between them.  
2. As being fully satisfied, p. 366. There are many among the Papists that truly fear God, 
2. The Condiscipulation, and Charity between them; and th● like.  and are sanctified, gracious people, with whom (says he) I hope to dwell for ever. And therefore I think it my Duty not only to forbear unjust censures of them, but also to love them with that entire Christian love by which Christ would have us known to love his Disciples, and to persuade all others to do the like. Such a special love he professes he has for the Papists, and will do all he can to persuade others to it, and forbear censuring of them; so that who intends most to let in Popery? Mr. B. or the Healing Quest. But not a word of any such LOVE, Kindness, Charity for, or forbearing to censure the servants of GOD, that go under the notion of Sectaries (poor souls!) or the Adherents to the Cause; nay, exciting the Magistrate's power most against them (and very uncharitably) what he can. Upon these and other Grounds which he gives p. 366. his Proposals to the Papists for peace, 
M. B's Proposals to the Papists.  or between the Roman and Reformed, are  
1. That we may so far agree, 
1. For personal Assemblies together.  as to hold personal Assemblies in the worship of God, and live under the same particular Pastors; And yet he will not offer this to others of Christ's dear servants that differ from him in particular persuasions of Faith and Worship.  
2. If it can't be; 
2. To have a Catholic, Christian Communion together.  That we may hold a Catholic Christian Communion in several Assemblies under several Pastors, acknowledging each other the true Churches of Christ, etc. And yet this he will not do to the Independents, Anabaptists, Seekers, Vanists (as he foolishly calls them, from the forge of his censorious and pedantic Language, Arte Pungendi potius quam Pingendi.) 
3. To take one another for Christians and Churches of Christ.   
3. If that be not attained; to take one another for Christians and Churches of Christ, though under such Curruptions. And why might he not more easily take them he calls Vanists, and Sectaries, or different Judgements at home for such?  
4. If this be not effected! 
4. To agree together, without hatred of one another.  4. To consult together on certain terms, on which most peaceably, to manage our differences with the least hatred and violence, etc. Can he offer this to Papists also, and not to Protestants at home? let the Reader judge! who are likest to introduce Popery, or are nearest allied, and most obliged to it? The Honourable Author of the Healing Quest. or Mr. B. and whether he, Mr. P. and the rest that are inveighing most amarulently against others (as if they would allow a Toleration to Popery) do not like Athaliah, cry out Treason first; or like the Cutpurse that cries out first, STOP THIEF! stop THIEF, stop the Thief! for themselves to escape by. Let any that have the command or use of Reason, judge impartially: for the case is plain enough.  
2. How far the power of the Magistrate reaches in the matters of Religion, 
2 The power of the Magist. in matters of Religion, a Controversy of long standing.  is another Question; (And a controversy long, before I or Mr. B. were born,) but not meddled with, by the Author of the Healing Quest. any farther than as to this Negative granted by most or all the Orthodox of these last ages (as well as some in former) That they ought not to interpose or impose in the worship of God, or in the matters of faith and Conscience (as such) but as they come under their Cognizance (Quatenus Magistrates) or a civil consideration, so they may and must: And so the Healing Quest. freely and fully propones it, p. 6. They are to content themselves with what is plain in their Commission; as ordained of God to be his Ministers to men for good, whiles they approve themselves the doers of that which is good: In like manner he is to be a Minister of Terror and Revenge to those that do evil in matters of outward practice, converse, dealings, etc. What can be more desired? this Controversy was so cleared in the Assembly of Divines, and in the heat of the Wars, that we made no Question of it then. Mr. Hooker in's 3. lib. of's survey of Ch. Disc. Cham 1. asserts it, That the Civil power may (as a thing civil) require men to be Civil, and to come under the call or outward tender of the Gospel: (which is vox significativa Christi,) but cannot compel them, or force their Consciences by any means. Much less force them to this place or that, this man or that; this part of the worship of God, or that; but can compel them to be peaceable, Civil, etc. no otherwise. Thus Mr. Burton said to Mr. Prynne (in's Vindic. and Answ. to's 12. Inter. p. 70.) We must put a difference betwixt Conscience, and practice: God alone is Judge, and Christ is Lord of the Conscience; but the Magistrate of men's Actions, whether good (to encourage them) or evil, to discourage and punish, Rom. 13. 3, 4. and so saith the Healing Quest. upon these reasons, p. 7. That it is not good for the people to be brought up in a biting, devouring, wrathful spirit one against the other; or be found to do that to another, which we would not have them do to us were we in their condition. Now this is the Golden Rule indeed, were it but answered with Silver Practices; and so no Consciences could be imposed upon in the worship of God: Besides, for himself and that party Mr. B. urgeth a necessity of liberty of Conscience (as we heard) when it comes to his own Case, 
Vid. Hor. li. 2. see Sat. 1. Med. so Drex. on school of Patience, pt. 2 c. 1. s. 4.  in his Preface to the Army; which puts me in mind of Opimius a Covetous Citizen of Rome in a desperate Lethargy; out of which no pinching, cupping, nor cuffing could keep him awake; till his Physician commanded store of money to be poured out, and told on a Table hard by him; at the noise whereof, and at the Doctor's loud cry! Opimius'! Opimius'! look to thine own! it is thine own! he awakes, and was CURED, was cured; and so may Mr. B. of this Error. But to proceed, Mr. Burroughs also in his Vindic. against Edwards' Gangrene; saith he, Heinous actions and turbulent carriages, do come within the Magistrate's Cognizance indeed, but they are not fit Judges of Religion or matters of faith. And therefore the Magistrates we hope do and will understand us; 
Our hearty affections and readiness to serve the Magist. in all his capacities and power; and not to deprive him of any right due to him; only desire that Christ may have but his right also.  That we are as tender of their Honour, interest and Place; and as ready to serve them with our Lives, as any men alive; are as active for them, and would not for a World be without them, or not give them their due, in all their civil capacities and commands, all we can (as to a most precious Ordinance of God, that we can be no more without, than the Sun to Rule by day, and the Moon by night;) but only in these things, that are more promixely and immediately under Christ's Government and Jurisdiction, in the matters of Gods holy worship, we dare not, and therefore would not willingly be imposed upon. And this is all that Mr. B. makes so much noise about; in this his Prop. traducing this prudent and most pious Asserter of our Liberties, for that he takes the goodness of our cause to give us this Christian liberty. The Army now may see the ingredients of this purging- pill; 
The ingredients of this Pill are in part Jesuits powder, and partly his own desire to persecute.  partly consisting of the jesuites-powder, and partly of Mr. B's own sine quibus esse nolo, compounded on purpose to work out the mixed humours of the Army; and to work in those simple downright inimical spirits in stead thereof, as would produce the utter destruction, not only of the body, but indeed of the very soul and uttals of this Commonwealth. It was a bloody Papist, whose ENMITY was so great to the poor Protestants, that he would make them first abjure the reformed Religion, and immediately upon it massacre them; saying, O noble revenge! that did reach as well to the kill of their souls as of their bodies; And some are much of the Orator's opinion (Pythea an Athenian) who thought he never did evil, but when he did the worst sort of evil! as if to suggest a false witness, or to calumniate, were a little matter, and venial; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. But it is not only an evil to do an injury, but to imagine or design it.  
His 7. Prop. is, 
Mr. B's 7. Prop. or PILL for the Army.  That it is not the PARTY that hath owned, and now owneth the fore-described cause, that have the right; nor is any man to be devested of that right for not owning it. Answ. The fallacy lies, 1. In that PLEONASM of his own invention, viz. fore-described cause: as he hath described it, we grant; but as the Healing Quest. describes it, we deny his Prop. 
Two Extremes wisely declined in the Healing Question.  There be two Extremes men have a mighty propension to, in their stating of the cause; both which are wisely avoided by the Healing Quest. 1. That wherein men do give up our Cause to merely Natural right; without respect at all to the forfeitures of them that have warred, fought against it, betrayed it, 
1. The mere Commonwealths-man, as M. Har. principle.  and given up their Interest in it to the King or a Single person; putting all into a like capacity, (viz.) The Cavaliers, Common-enemies to this right, and the faithful Adherents to the Cause; the Conquered and the Conquerors; upon such Grounds too are very dangerous and destructive to the Cause, (Mr. Harrington and others go that way.) 
2. The rigid fifth Mon. man; (or that goes under that Name) his Principle.  2. That wherein (upon the single account of our Conquests) others go to the challenging of their Rights and Liberties, and staring of the Cause, without any consideration at all, of the Natural Rights and Freedom which people have to choose their Representatives in the Commonwealth (this way Mr. Feake and others go.) The first fix it upon a mere humane Foot, and the last upon a mere Religious (in's Beam of Light.) 
The scope and substance of both in the Healing Quest.  But both these Extremes are very excellently waved, and yet the substance of both, as admirably and amiably comprehended in the Healing Quest. wherein the Cause is set upon both its feet: 1. Both to men as men: And 2. to Christians as such; upon the twofold Right, 1. of Nature, and 2. of Conquest, pag. 3. or rather their Natural right to freedom in CIVILS and in SPIRITUALS, which we are restored unto; and fortified in (under God) by success of Arms. And in this state of the Question we may close with Mr. B's words, That it is impious and injurious to set up a party for the whole: 
The equal Temperature of the Commonwealth, wherein it doth consist.  but not as he states it; Wherein no distinction must be put between Commonwealth- Traitors and True men; or between the Conquered, and the Conquering: between Kinglings, and the faithfullest friends of the cause: It is as just and honest to call up Thiefs and Murderers at the Bar (that have forfeited their Natural Rights and Liberties) to sit upon the Bench, and there to judge in their own Cause, their Accusers and the Witnesses; as it is for those Men who have forfeited their Liberties, etc. betrayed their Country, robbed, plundered, and destroyed the People, in the King's quarrel, to be invested or possessed with the Power, or Privileges of the Commonwealth equally with others of untainted and spotless integrity. The truth of this I find confirmed in all the Commonwealths that I have met with, and most in the most eminent, where as Arist. tells us, in 3. lib. Polit. c. 7. Bonos & aequos dominari oportet, autoritatemque habere omnium. So a little after, speaking of the exercise, power and privileges of the Republic, he saith, Quos si Boni semper habeant, necessarium est, alios excludi ab honoribus Reipublicae. The good, just, and faithful aught to Govern, and others to be excluded, that are insane and unsuitable to the Weal of the Public; For it must be an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and not a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, not for all without distinction, but for them to Govern that are the best Tempered, with justice and mercy to do right to all, in the exercise of their Functions; as Physicians say of the Humane body, that it must be (as to the sane Constitution of it) of a due Temperament both ad pondus & ad justitiam, and so must the Political body. 1. Ad Pondus, i.e. so as the first qualities or best sort may be brought into such an exact Proportion, that no one may domineer it o'er the other, viz. in Faction or Parties striving for the mastery; but so as one may balance another; and all be kept together in the orderly exercise of all the Functions of the Body in an equal and good Temperature. But 2. Ad justitiam, that is, so as to keep out evil and corrupt humours from obstructing the use of Functions in the body; and this is the Eukracy and Timocracy which all sound Commonwealths have maintained; and ours must. I might instance in the Lacedæmonians, Cretians, Athenians, Corinthians, Arcadians, Rhodians, Chalcedonians, and others later; The Romans themselves observing this as the Rule to keep out Tarquin and his crew; 
this Rule did keep out Tarquin, and must keep out C. Stuart.  who had a considerable Party in the Commonwealth, as Charles Stuart hath in this, even amongst Brutus' sons; and as like to have repossessed and restored Tarquin; until this distinction was maintained with justice, (not sparing) between the absolute Tarquinians (that were unexorable, and would never be for the Commonwealth, but ever plotting against it;) and the freeborn Citizens, or faithful Denizens, that did all to maintain it, not forfeiting their Liberties and Rights (as Livy tells us.) So for other Commonwealths, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. I hear that the Mantinians in Arcadia, and also the Locrians, Cretians, Lacedæmonians and Athenians had such Laws: And in this respect the Grecians were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, not only Greeks but Vindices Libertatis, Great Sticklers for their Liberties. But I am afraid, lest some consult with the same Oracle that Clement the fifth did, to destroy the COMMONWEALTH: Si non licet per Viam justitiae; licet saltem per Viam expedientiae; by Policy and expediency; I mean such as Caiaphas and the Council condemned our Lord Jesus by, Joh. 11. 50. and 18. 14. and so may this Cause. But justice is a pure intemperate Virgin, till she be deflowered by one of the two unchaste Suitors, viz. NIMIUM or PARUM. Both which must be avoided as extremes, and the Healing Quest. doth it excellently; But of M. B. I may say, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Thou hast lost the sweetness of the Rose, and the fragrants of the Cause, by thy Adulterating Art, and mistaking of it. But I have proved, says Mr. B. that it is a false and wicked cause; Wicked in the Nullity of the Magistrates duty and power; (but the truth thereof let the Reader judge; and the Magistrate himself, if he please;) And a false Cause (saith he) in giving the people the Natural Sovereignty; who have but a power of choosing (that men miss-call a Sovereignty.) The truth is, I am from my heart, with thousands more, (as well as Mr. B. saith he is in matter,) for a Theocratick or a godly COMMONWEALTH (of which I had prepared a draught in my imprisonment at Windsor Castle) and O! that we could see it with our eyes so! both in the Constitution and Administrations of it in these Nations! subjective to Jesus Christ that absolute Sovereign! 
8. Grounds of hope that we shall have a holy Commonwealth under Christ the head, who is the head of every man, 1 Cor. 11. 3. as well as of the Church, or of every Christian.  Who is 1 Tim. 6. 15. The blessed and only Potentate, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. Rev. 19 16. For whom all things were created, Rev. 4. 11. and 5. 12, 13. Col. 1. 16. Whether Thrones, DOMINIONS, Principalities, or POWERS! etc. 1. Seeing all Nations must be subservient to him under the seventh Trumpet, Rev. 11. 15. Whom he will either BOW or BREAK. 2. Seeing all these Shakes and Concussions are to that end, Hag. 2. 6. (Veani Maryish) I making them to TREMBLE, Ver. 7. (We hiryashshettis) and I will make them TREMBLE (with commotions and troubles) until (Chemeddat Col Haggojim) the Desire, the Delight, the Beauty of all Nations come. 3. Seeing the Army have Declared themselves to be upon this very Bottom and Foot of account, often; but more particularly, in Declaration at Muscleborough Aug. 1. 1650. in these words: We have have not only proclaimed jesus Christ, the King of Saints, to be our King by Profession, but desire to submit to him upon his own terms, and admit him to the exercise of his Royal Authority, etc. Yea, 4. seeing we are already so forward in it in this Nation; both by the extraordinary Session of this Parliament: And 5. by their Declaration on the 7. of May last; for our Rights and Liberties, both as Men and as Christians, i.e. in Civils and in Spirituals●. Also 6. by that Golden Vote of Parliament; 
The most excellent VOTE of Parliament for it: the Lord keep them to it.  somewhat like the Golden reed which the Angel gave John, Revel. 11. 1. saying, Arise! and MEASURE by it, viz. That and their late Votes, That none be put into Trust, but men of Ability, fearing God, of a Latitude of Love to all the people of God, (and not to this or that Faction or Party) and of Fidelity to the Commonwealth, without King, Single Person, or House of Peers. Yea, 7. seeing there is such a readiness of consent in the Adherents to the Cause; (that are not partified nor putrified, for a faction nor corruption; (and Mr. B. himself proposes it, from p. 210. to 241. of is Holy Commonwealth;) Yea, 8. seeing we are as a Rolling Stone never fixed, or at Rest, till we fall into it, do we what we can, Psa. 83. 12.— make them as a Whéel or a ROLLING Globe; and are likely to find no settlement without it, Ezek. 21. 27, I will overturn, overturn, overturn! till he comes whose Right it is; or to whom the JUDGEMENT is given (asher lo hammishpat,) and this can be meant of none but Christ, Joh. 5. 22. to whom all Judgement is committed, Dan. 7. 9 until his Government be settled in the NATIONS, (Gnavah, Gnavah, Gnavah assimenah!) I will place in them a PERVERSE, Perverse, PERVERSE spirit; or as the Sept. has it, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, until they be subverted, and brought to this Settlement of God. So that for the matter, 
Theocracy, not so well with a Single Persons exercise of the Power of Sovereignty, as with Judges as at first, and Counselors as at the beginning, Isai. 1. ●6. in Israel.  i.e. A Theocracy, I agree with Mr. Baxter in: yet notwithstanding I cannot be of M. B's mind, for the manner of it; as that it consists so well with the interest of God and Christ, (our absolute Sovereign!) or with the interest of the People (Adherents to this Cause) which stand together; that a Single Person should exercise the power of a Humane Sovereign over us! seeing, 1 Sam. 8. 6, 7. the thing displeased the Lord, and was a great evil in samuel's eyes (as the word is, vajierang) when the People said, Give us a KING; and on that, the Lord said to Samuel, They have not rejected thee, they have rejected me that I should not reign over them; or (maasu) they have loathed my Government over them, wherein I alone was their King, or the Single Person. Much less can I think that the Natural being of it under Christ! aught not to be in the whole body of the people (Adherents to the Cause!) which from all it's Integrantia Membra, 
Christ is the absolute Sovereign; but the people under him have a Supremacy  must and may set up persons to execute, & exercise it for the benefit of the whole. Hence in Dan. 7. 27. it is, that the Kingdom, (Authority, shaltana, in Sept. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉,) under every part of heaven, is to be given (leyam kaddishe) to the People of the Saints, (or of the Holy ones) of the Most High; not immediately to the Saints, as if all Saints, or none but Saints should be in Power; but that their People, Deputies, and Representatives shall be in Power, and rule for their interests, in the Cause and concernments, of them and of the whole People that adhere to the Cause, and go on with them jointly, for a Godly Commonwealth. Now this whole People cannot give what they never had: if they have not a Humane Sovereignty, or Supreme Power under Christ, they cannot give it to their Deputies, 
That the People have a Supreme Power (under Christ) in this Government to give to their Deputies in trust! & so the Government is the Ordinance of Man, 1 Pet. 13. 14. but as a Theocratick Governments, or that wherein Magistrates are the Ministers of God for good, so it is the Ordinance of God, Rom. 13. 2, 3. and wherein they are the Ministers of the whole Body for good, so the Ordinance of man too.  or Representatives. But the Argument is, if they can give it (derivatively) than they have it; But they can give a Humane Supreme Power or trust and Sovereignty, (under Christ) to their Deputies; and therefore they have it in themselves. We might further Argue; that where the lawful power of choosing and rejecting Rulers lies, there the Supremacy or Humane Sovereignty (under Christ) lies; but in this body of the people, (Sane and well-affected) the lawful power of choosing and rejecting lies; And this Mr. B. admits, that they have the Vim eligendi, or of choosing. And by the same reason or law of Nature, they have the Vim rejiciendi & Ejiciendi, of putting by, and out, as well as of putting in, or of setting up in the whole Body. We speak of Government, as it is (with God's approbation) the ordinance of man amongst us; (so the peoples;) but as it is the Ordinance of God amongst us, so Christ's. It is a Rule in Natural Philosophy (Cum aliqua virtus Duobus inest Uni essentialiter, Alteri Accidentaliter, or Contingentèr & minùs principaliter. Where a power is in two, it is in one more principally and essentially; in the other less, and more contingently. Thus it is between the people and the Parliament; in the first the same power which the Parliament have, (viz. the visible, Supreme or natural Sovereignty under Jesus Christ) is more principally and essentially (as to the being of it,) viz. in the People collectively; but in the other secondarily, accidentally, derivatively, or but contingently and pro tempore. 
Mr. B' s 7. Pill of Assa foetida.  And therefore it cannot be the false Cause, or that which subverteth the foundation of Government, as Mr. B. saith in this 7. Prop. A Pill prepared of Assa foetida, for the Warming of their stomaches (to swallow down the better those secluded members, and all such as have not owned (but are enemies to) the CAUSE and Commonwealth. 
Mr. B's 8. Prop. or Pill for the Army; à scoriâ ferri.   
His 8. Prop. That Conquest neither gives them any Sovereignty, nor right to deprive them of their liberty, that disown that Cause.  
Answ. It is true, 
Ans. Conquest gives them the benefit and freedom of their Right  that Conquest did not give them the Right, because they had it before as their Right; but it gives them the freedom of their Right, which was denied them and obstructed. As the Healing Quest. told him, p. 3. and 5. Their just natural Right, (which they never forfeited as others have done) restored unto them by success of Arms; so that they need not run to Conquest to prove their Right, but to preserve their Rights, and to claim their Liberties in exerting and exercising of their just Rights.  
2. Some kind of Sovereignty is obtained by Conquest, 
2. Conquest giv●s them a power over enemies from ruining them.  (viz.) over enemies conquered, and captivated ones at least, to keep them from ruling over us, or ruining of us, who are Enemies to us. Therefore this Prop. is false, to say it gives not any Sovereignty at all; For a Sword-soveraignty, or a Law of Force and awe over the unexorable and inexuperable enemies of the Commonwealth, is obtained thereby; (and the Lords blessing it together.)  
But that we affirm is, 
3. Conquest ratifies and fortifies us in our Rights.  3. That Conquest hath fortified and ratified us in our natural Rights, (and in the expectation of our spiritual too;) and helps us to hold them the faster by far, both in civils' and spirituals; so as that we might rather expect the enlargement of our Borders, than the confinement of our Liberties, either in the worship of God, or immunities and benefits of the Commonwealth.  
4. Conquest (with his favour) doth keep up in us, 
4. Conquest keeps up a Right of distinction so long as the troubles hold.  a right of distinction between friends and foes; between well and illaffected, between them that owned, and them that never owned (or rather that ever disowned and appeared against) the Cause; which (both as men and as Christians) we are concerned to keep up with the most lively Remembrance of those distinguishing mercies, Answers of prayers, and Appeals, and Victories which the Lord hath given us (almost miraculously) as in the days of Egypt, Exod. 8. 23. and 11. 17. and 15. 1. Judg. 11. 27. Micah 7. 15. And shall we (most unthankfully) loose? or confound the sense of such discriminating appearances of God with us in Pihahiroth (or mouth of our greatest dangers; in the days of our greatest distress) and this we shall certainly do, if these two last Prop. were true, or Mr. harrington's and such men's designs should take effect, (viz.) To put all back again into the spirit of the Nation, (upon the single account of bare natural right) without any respect at all had to this Right of distinction, which God hath so miraculously given us in, (to the bargain) by the late Wars, and Conquests of them that have adhered to the Cause. If this be an equal Commonwealth, or tends ad sanam constitutionem Reipublicae, to the Sanity or Sanctity of the Body, is worthy the consideration of the wisest Physicians. And if they please, they may feel the pulse of Oceana as well as of Mr. B. with what Vibrate Motions that beats upon the Arteries of our Cause; 
Mr. B. and Mr. Harrington for an unequally Equal Commonwealth.  and then tell us whether it had not better beat as it does, though it be not well, yet with less sign of danger, (viz.) EQUALLY inequal; then so inequally equal, as he would have it! But thus far for Mr. B's Prop. or Pill composed è Scoriâ ferri to work upon the Spleen.  
His ninth Prop. 
Mr. B's 9th Prop. or Pill for the Army  They that pretend the inward Warrant of Righteousness (as the Healing Quest. speaks, he says, p. 9) the inward Reason and Spirit of Government for the violation of Laws, Constitutions, and resisting of Authority; as being above the Letter, etc. do reject the Government of the LORD, and become their own. But must Mr. B. still be traducing and Tenterhooking the words of the Healing Quest. which p. 9 saith no such matter as he makes up his Prop. with, (viz.) for violation of Laws, Constitutions, and resisting of Authority; But thus speaking of the Capacities wherein the faithful Adherents to the Cause, have acted; he says, Sometimes in one Form, and sometimes in another, and very seldom in all points, according to the Rule of former Laws and constitutions, as to be justified by them any longer than they had the Law of outward Success, and of inward Justice and Righteousness to encourage them. 
The Healing Q. for the Inward Rule of Righteousness with the Outward; and also where the Outward is deficient.  So that without tawing or stretching his lines like Leather, into what length or shape he please; they amount but to this, 1. That the Adherents to the Cause were not without an inward Rule of Righteousness, as well as outward. But 2. when the outward failed, or that they were not justified by the Letter of the Law, they had an inward line of Righteousness and Justice to measure their Actions by, (which the Most High blessed and accepted) and that was a RULE far more perfect and strait then the letter alone of the old Laws, (which were made most of them, for the interest of a single Person) nor was this to the Violation, but to the Vindication (of the equity, sense and meaning) of all good Laws; not to the Resisting but Recovering of all true Authority from the Griffen-gripes' and Talons of all Tyranny, the Usurpation and violence of the Norman Race, or of any other Family or Interest whatsoever, innoculated into such a Stock or Stump.  
2. Is this any more than what the PARLIAMENT (when it consisted of King, 
2. The Kingdom-Parl. in An. 1642. did go by this very Rule.  Lords and Commons, as Mr. B. would have it) did justify to be good, and consonant with the CAUSE then? in that very action of taking away the Militia from the King; which being contrary to the letter of the Law, they resolved it thus; There is in Laws an Equitable and a Literal sense: when there is a grounded suspicion the letter of the Law shall be improved against the Equity of it, (i. e. the Public Good) it gives liberty to obey the Equity of it, and to disobey the Letter. Now where was the Rule of Righteousness? was it in the Letter of the Laws, which gave away all the Militia to the King? or was there such a thing as an inward Warrant of Justice to do that Action for the public Good? Thereby Defending, and not Deflowering the Equity of it.  
3. Yet the Spirit, 
3. The Inward Rule of Righteousness hath the Right hand of the outward, as the Root of it, and the Fundamental.  Reason, and inward Rule of Righteousness is to be preferred (with his leave) before the written Rule or letter, as more inerrable, inalterable & radical, (where the one is repugnant to the other) as the Orator Cicero hath it, Non SCRIPTA sed NATA Lex (against Tarquin) si Regnante Tarquinio, Nulla erat Scripta Lex de Stupris, etc. Tamen vera Lex est Recta Ratio, Naturae Congruens, diffusa in omnes, Constans Sempiterna, etc. it is not a Written but an innate Rule, which is (as chrysostom Rhetorically tells us) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. The self-Disciplining or Fundamental Law that is planted in the very Being of Mankind; and from thence it buds, blossoms, fructifies, and dilates into the fairest BRANCHES of Morality. 
Right Reason is the Law and Rule of Righteousness.  So that if there were no Law written (says the Orator) during the Reign of Tarquin to check his Lust, yet Right Reason is a sufficient Law, of an Excellent Complexion and Congruity with Nature, and of as admirable a Latitude, diffusion and extent to the Good of all; and which never fails nor fades. PHILO as elegantly gives his Testimony, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. That Right Reason is the certain and unshaken Law; not written in corrupt PAPER, or on a Lifeless stone like a dead Letter (by the greatest Art or greatest Industry of any creature) but ingraved in the most retentive and living understanding of Man, as with the finger of God himself, or of an eternal or immortal Spirit. Plutarch tells us as much tooa, s a Moralist can tell of any Man. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. The LAW its self, is not shut up in Paper or Writings, or limited to any outward Letter or expression of it in Tables of Stone, or the like; but living, and situating (like the soul in the body) in a Rational Being, or in Reason its Self. Hence came that ancient Adage; Inter Bruta silent Leges! Amongst Brutish and Irrational Creatures, Laws are mute; muzzled and unintelligible! why? because they have not this inward Rule, 
Laws are silent among unreasonable Creatures, for want of this inward Rule.  Reason, and Spirit of the Laws. The Formality and Letter of our Laws did indeed flow from the Interest or Power of some particular men; but the strength and life of humane Laws must be found and founded (under GOD) in Reason and Natural Right; which when the Letter or written Rules oppose, they become no longer Laws, but Flaws in a Commonwealth; lose their vigour, and are but as a dead letter.  
4. Both together (so long as they can consist together, 
4. Both inward and outward together▪ where they agree.  and are in their vigour (vizt.) the Inward and outward, we make a Rule for Righteous Actions, between Man and man, (and not the Inward warrant as sufficient without the outward in such a case, viz. (where they agree together) nor yet the Outward (as Mr. B. would have it) without the Inward Reason and Spirit of it, which the other indeed is deducted from, and is more Radicaliter in intellectu. So that this Mr. B. might have better said, That where the Outward is deficient, inconsistent or corrupted, 
But where the outward fails, not to use the inward Rule, is to reject the Government of the Lord.  Not to use the Inward Warrant or Rule of Reason and Righteousness, is to reject the Government of the Lord; and to become our own Murderers; and Tame-Slaves, Brutified to the Lusts and interests of Men, rather than beautified for the Common Good, as Hos. 5. 11. Ephraim is oppressed and broken in Judgement, because he WILLINGLY walked after the Commandments of men. Thus far for his 9th Pill, and a pitiful dry one, to drink up the Radical Moisture with, under pretence of a Pill, Lucis Majoris, to evacuate the humour of the head with.  
His tenth Prop. 
M. B's 10th Prop. in fallacia Homonymiae.  hath little in it, only a fallacious conclusion, from what the Healing Q. predicates in p. 10. That to the wisdom of the Laws and Orders of the Supreme Judicature, the sword must become subservient; Therefore (says he) your sword should have been so to the Parliament that was violated; the late Parliament. But the Healing Q. speaks not a word of a Parliament consisting of King, Lords and Commons (which Mr. B. means) he speaks of the Representatives of the Commonwealth, chosen by this Body of the Sound and well-affected to the CAUSE. So that Mr. B. contrary to all Catholic Laws of Reasoning, Eartheth, or Roots his disceptation in an Homonymy; and thence concludes it for the late Parliament that was dissolved; Telling the ARMY that no small fruits would be procured upon their CONVICTION by these reasons to a repentance, 
His 10. Pill or Diacatholicon, to haste them to the stool of Repentance.  ay, e. of returning to the secluded Members, and old constitution of King, Lords and Commons. So that this is the Nature of his Diacatholicon or tenth purging PILL, (if it operates as he, and those of his mind would have it) they would bring them first by Lenitives, 
Vide my Plain Case of the Commonwealth, near the Desper. Gulf of the common w●.  anodynes, and Emollients, to the Stool of Repentance! And then to ply them with more asperity, till they make them (like Arrius) purge out their very bowels and all; and then brand them with the like Infamy for the veriest— that ever breathed on English Earth, or in English Air.  
And now let the Parliament, Army, and all good people, that are sound in their senses, judge it seriously; Whether it is the Honourable Author of the Healing Question (as much as he is maligned and menaced by all Parties) or Mr. B. in 's Wounding Answer) that hath asserted the Ill Cause, and deserted the Good? And which of them come nearest to the constitution of a Free-State? and which of the TWO it is that hath given away that worthy Argument by which he should prove himself an honest man (to use Mr. B's own words) vizt. his Charity? 
Mr. Harrington introduced by M. B under colour of engaging against an OLIGARCHY.  But in the winding up of our Discourse, I am surprised or waylaid with Mr. harrington's correspondence with him, against an Oligarchy (I wish it had been as much against Anarchy and Atheism,) if he means by it, the present Parliament, or such a Parliament; or the Body of Adherents to the CAUSE, as one of them I believe he must, and some say, All (wherein Mr. B. and he agree) but when he tells us his meaning without mumping or scoffing (which we must understand before we reply) He may hear further: And at the present in the words of Hen. 8.) but on better grounds, From their Old Mumpsimus and his New Sumpsimus, Good Lord deliver us!  
But I shall give you my grounds, 
Mr. Har. and the Petition of July 6. to the Parliament.  seeing Mr. B. hath brought him to hand as his confederate, and shall modestly discuss it with him, and them of the late Petition, July 6. to the Parliament, many of whom I dearly respect; and yet I cannot but wonder how busy some are in this work of refunding, retunding and confounding us in our Cause; not only with old Popish Mumpsimus', but with new Paganish Sumpsimus' and Ideas exhibited to the Parliament like the CHAOS indeed: 
The Preamble of that Petition upon a Prolepsis and Presumption; for the Parliament provided for a Free-State, and laid a foundation for it in several Acts of Parliament.  but to enucleate first, the Preamble of that Petition.  
1. I judge it is a little too positive and reflective, though couchant under smooth and candid expressions, as if we had been hurried after an appearance or shadow, in lieu of our undubitable Rights; and as if that since the dissolution of that form of Government by K. Lords and Commons, a new constitution (viz. of Free-State) had not been provided for; which was evidently done, and settled in several Acts of Parliament, as Jan. 20. 1648. March 17. 1648. May 14. 1649. July 17. 1649. The words of one are these: Whereas the Parliament hath abolished the Kingly Office in England and Ireland, etc. And having Resolved and Declared that the People for the future shall be governed by its own Representatives, and National Meetings in Council, chosen and entrusted for that purpose, hath settled the Government in a Commonwealth and Free-State, without King or House of Lords: 
Dangerous to insinuate that the Parliament are SETTLED on no Foundation of GOV. as well as Erroneous.  Be it Enacted, etc. And yet say these Friends, in their Petition, p. 4. Your minds are not Settled on any known Constitution of Government, or Fundamental Orders, according to which all Laws should be made; wherein they are too positive, and upon such mistakes and preoccupations might gratify our Enemies too too much, had they (upon this false conception) come up to any maturity by the late Apostasy or in this NEW-CONSPIRACIE against the Commonwealth. For Mr. Harrington and that Petition strike at the very Root, Fundamental and Constituting Acts of Parliament, as well as at the very BEING & integral Parts of our Cause so long contended for; and crowned (at last) through the Lord's blessing.  
I cannot proceed without precaution, 
M. T. Cic. in M. Ant. Philip. 5.  seeing as Cic. says, Omne malum nascens facile opprimitur; inveteratum fit plerunque Robustius; it is easy to crush Evil in the Egg; and as Solomon says, Eccles. 8. 5. A wise man discerneth both the time and the Judgement.  
1. At the Foundation of our Settlement in Anno 1648. for that they propound Two Houses of Parliament, 
1. Two Houses of Parliament under what names soever, is inconsistent without settlement laid by Parliament, Anno 1648.  (under new names indeed) viz. of a Senate, and of a Popular Assembly) so Oceana, p. 13, 14. and Petition, p. 8. which appears to me repugnant and Diametrick to our dear Cause, to the Acts of Parliament, and to our Engagements, viz. To be faithful to the Government as it now stands, without King or House of Peers. Now Aristotle in's Politic. 5. lib. c. 4. tells us of two ways to destroy a COMMONWEALTH, Quandoque per vim, 
Two ways to destroy. the commonwealth.  Quandoque per dolum: Per Vim, aut statim aut posteà compellendo; Per Dolum, non nunquam enim decepti ab initio, Suâ demum sponte Recipiunt alium Gubernandi Modum, etc. Sometimes it is done by Force, and sometimes by Fraud; in the last sense, when mistaken at the first laying it, they (by persuasion) or voluntarily fall into another manner of Government. This is a dangerous CRISIS, and the Athenians had the sad experience of such Commutations through proclivity to Novelty and New Changes, as Act. 17. 21. They spent their time in it. So AELIAN. Lib. 5. c. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. The Athenians were given to change in the State of the Commonwealth, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. But I can't commend it; it is an OMEN, which shall never have my AMEN, so long as I see it conducible to the dissolution of the Whole, if they have not special care to preserve the Constitution; (which with two such Bodies, I do not so well understand.) And I wonder which is more monstrous in Nature, a Vast Body with two Heads, or a Head with two Huge Bodies; and how prodigious and dreadful will their motions be, if one go one way, and the other another, (like the Amphisbaena) let right Reason judge. But besides this, that which hath the most impression, 
The Danger of a Single Person to rise as a Third Estate, or to Head those two Bodies.  is the easy Access of a Single Person (called with us, the Third State) by it: And this is evident not only in Reason, but in Practice; as in the Lacedaemonian and Athenian Commonwealths; For in the First (after Lycurgus' death) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. The Lacedæmonians instituted the Court of the Ephors, who had the chief Power in the Commonwealth, for none stood or were raised up, but a King and the Ephor; So that a single Person had an Executive Power there: But if a nimble Wit will without ground, object that this Commonwealth was imperfect or degenerate, we might instance in Athens (the Pattern of all that they set before us) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 
Ex Heraclid. de polit. Athen.  In like manner the Athenians instituted eleven men to take the care of Prisoners; and nine Archons, of which were the Thesmothets, who were throughly tried and sworn to do righteously in the Magistracy, not to take Bribes, nor to set up again the Golden Image; But the King (who is said to be one of the Archons) did administer the Laws which belonged to Sacrificing and to Warring. So that after this Platform, are we exposed to the open Danger of a Single Person or a King, and of giving the Power of Religion and Worship into the hands of the Magistrate; not answerable to the Rules of Christ, our Cause, nor a Christian Commonwealth, but of Heathen Lawgivers, or Nomothets.  
2. In my apprehension (submitting to better judgement) it casts its keenest Arrow at the very being, 
The Pet. strikes at the cause.  principal and integral parts of the Cause (which we have proved to be our Rights in civils' and in spirituals, without imposing upon Conscience by a National-worship.) For,  
1. In Civils, 
1. In Civils, giving away our cause to the King's party, or spirit of the Nation.  they have not stated their Aequale cum justitiâ, neither in Righteousness to the Cause, nor indeed to the Reasons or Prudentials of their own Authors; I mean the Heathens whom Mr. Har. most follows, (for they admit not the Holy Scriptures; or our (heavenly) Politics ad Theocratiam, (though it is like they have said it often (Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven) as the Woman used to say her Prayers and feed her Hens together, Our Father which art in Heaven! Coop, coop, coop, coop! etc.) Nor vouchsafe they such a value upon the series of Mercies, Providences, Prayers and Victories all along the late Wars, as to give in one Word for jesus Christ or his Interest in the Nations; Nay, leave him like a Pelican, and account it Ridiculous, some of them, having scoffed at it openly; and therefore to make myself intelligible (even to Barbarians, if they will be such) I shall sum up an evidence against them out of Mr. Har. own (Oracular) Tutors; and begin with Arist. in lib. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. for his Correction in that most inequally equal Liberty that he and they allow to the King's Party, and them that have forfeited all, not laying justice in the Foundation of their Commonwealth, but planting it upon the whole multitude and community; yea, Oceana p. 46. saith plainly, That the Royalist for having opposed the Commonwealth in OCEANA, can neither justly for that cause be excluded from his full and equal share in the Government, 
This agrees with M. B's Prop. to the Army.  nor prudently for this, that the Commonwealth with consist of a Party. But how imprudently and differently from his own Authors! (as well as how irrationally and unjustly as to the cause!) Mr. H. would call the Malefactors from the Bar to the Bench? and so (in little time) worm us quite out of our Possession and Rights that have adhered to the Cause, by their Majority of Votes throughout the Nation that have not; is worth considering. That so if that Thesis be true (in's Prerog. of Pop. G. lib. 1. ch. 10.) That a Commonwealth well fixed can never be conquered by force! yet this Hypothesis is as true, that not fixed, but inconstant, it may be conquered by fraud; and the Cavalier may win it at the last Game, though they lost it at the first. Wherefore this I find was their first Policy and care at Athens, as it ought to be in England; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. THEMISTOCLES, 
Heathens deny such a foundation of Commonwealth, as too evil for them.  Aristides and the Senate of the AREOPAGITES were able to do much in the Commonwealth; and first of all, Care was taken of this; That none should unsettle the State, or exceed the limits laid to it. This is not the Policy they follow, I am sure; and it is obvious out of their own Authors, how ill they would found the Commonwealth, that take so little notice of the Cause, (of the interest of Christ,) or of the distinction that is made between Delinquents and Adherents: 
Lib. 5. c. 2. de Carthag. Republics.  thus Arist. Pol. Horum igitur Principium est magis, quam Patrimoniorum exequatio, civitatem sic instituere; Ut boni quidèm Viri plus sibi quam competat habere non quaerant: Improbi autem etsi quaerant, habere non possint, etc. That the beginning of them, (viz. such Governments) ought to have more in it, than a mere equality or exequation of Patrimony (or of Natural rights,) viz. that good men may not seek to have more than is fit for them; Nor bad men have it though they seek it. So in the 4. lib. c. 11. he speaks, ad omnem rem & rhombum, to the Case in hand from the Laws of Lycurgus, Charondas and others; 
The Conquered have lost their Rights.  That if any Risings, Tumults, Seditions, (aut Pugnae fiunt inter Multitudinem & opulentes, quibuscunque Vincere contingit; Hi neque Communem amplius habent Rempublic, neque Equalem) or Wars be waged between the People and the Rich ones (such as the King's Party were, and therefore called Cavaliers;) and it happens to them to have the Day; these that were conquered, have neither common nor equal Commonwealth privilege, after that. And this he (de optimâ Repub.) affirms to be of the best Commonwealths in the World. For otherwise (saith he) not only the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
His Reason for it, why they have not equal privilege with others.  the little Deliquents, or offenders in small things, but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, very great offenders, and greatest Enemies in the Nation, will be ever and anon doing mischief, and most capable of it (do what we can!) This may invite them from beyond the Seas, with a change of Projects, but not of Principles, (Coelum non scelus two mutant, qui transmare currunt;) and 'tis a pretty toy (for fools to play with!) to think that frames (of men's making) can keep them in, 
Unruly spirits of men not to be kept in, like Italian Cats to turn Spits.  like Cats; when the Laws of Gods making cannot hold them, without new hearts! But a prettier sport for the mimic Ladies by half to laugh at; (after the Italian mode) if our Englishmen (were put into frames) like Cats to turn their SPITS and baste their MEAT, and (in the mean time) they fall a MEWING and a MADDING, till they have broken loose, tore all off of the Spits, and served themselves with it in the first place. As sure enough they will, seeing such Cats are strong, and (for all his frames) will be Cats still: nor can they be made to turn the Spit without a Rack; and when they are enraged, I would be loath that Mr. H. should be basted, as they will baste him to make up the Mumming. Nor can we trust that Maxim of his (p. 48. Oceana,) Give us good orders, and they will make us good men! so much, as give us good men, & they will give us good orders; and Government too, with God's blessing.  
Tristes Quaerimoniae  
Si non Supplicio Culpa reciditur.  
Quid Leges sine moribus  
Vanae Proficiunt?—  
Therefore if the Petitioners mean with Mr. Har. by the free people (p. 6. of the Pet.) all the Nation, without any distinction, 
To put the Government into the spirit of the Nation, is destructive to the Cause.  or Cognizance of any difference between Royalists and Realists, Delinquents and Adherents, such as have forfeited, and such as are well-affected (that have waded through their own blood to recover and hold these their Rights) they strike Mortally at the Cause, the Blood, the Treasure spent; the Prayers, Tears, Skulls, Bones and Limbs of thousands in the Cause! yea, at all the distinguishing Mercies, manifestations and Victories that we have had. And when (by this fraud) the Cause is thus far gone; and all the Blood in the Veins of the Commonwealth mingled, 
Then the Rotation will be a mere Rottation to Parl. adherents and the Cause.  with ten times more corrupt than is sound? (forsooth!) what serves your Rotation for, but for Rottation, and inevitable ruin to the Commonwealth?  
Besides all this, it is contrary to all forms of Commonwealth, to lay such a foundation for the Civil Government! See Arist. Pol. lib. 5. c. 1. Plures sunt formae rerum Publ. & in his confitentur quidèm Omnes justitiam & convenientem aequitatem (additur in Marg. secundum Proportionem equale,) 
Contrary to all true forms of a Common-waalth, to lay the equality as Mr. H does.  Nam populus constat ex iis, qui cum sint SECUNDUM QIUD Pares, Putant se SIMPLICITER Pares. Many are the forms of Republics, and truly all acknowledge justice and convenient equity, (or equality proportioned;) for the people consist of such as are simply equal; or else so, in some respect, and not absolutely. Thus also did the Syracusans after good success against the Athenians; They fell into a Popular State, and planted it upon the sound part or body of the people (as what wise Masterbuilder, but would lay the best and soundest for a foundation? 1 Cor. 3. 10.) lib. 3. c. 7. Verùm bonos & equos dominari oportet, Autoritatemque habere omnium, etc. But it is fit that good and just men Rule, and that such as they have the whole Authority; and not the known Enemies of the Commonwealth: for those that will not yield to the Government of it, must never wield the Sceptre in it: Neminem bene imperare posse, qui non prius sub Imperio fuerit; it is unreasonable to set up him over us, that will set himself against us; 
Some under tempt. of running out of one extreme into another, from Oligarchy into Ochlocraty. What Oligarchy is, and what it is not.  and no man can Rule well, that is not first in subjection to that Rule and Government. But as Mr. H. (and those friends with him in the Oligo-machy are) so incessantly afraid of an Oligarchy, so I wish they would not hazard us with an Ochlocraty; And if he had defined it, like a Logician (rather than a mere Etymo-logist) or an Oligo mathist, he would have told us, that every few ruling (be they but 1, 2. or 300.) are not an Oligarchy; but when those few are a mere Party, faction, or but part for the whole; of one judgement, way or design, for themselves or their party, without respective and due Aequilibration to the whole, but imposing upon the whole: which cannot be said of our Parliament now sitting; who consist of the several judgements, principles and parts of the whole Body (of adherents and in sanity.) 
The Saints to Rule how not? and how.  But, it seems the Scheme is cast, and jealousy is laid, lest Saints (as they say) should get into the Government; who (of all the Rest) saith Oceana, p. 47. are the most dangerous (and I must confess, such as would be accounted so that are not; or would set up any one Party, Sect or Opinion whatsoever, over all the rest, and call themselves the Saints; or that are for Saints merely as Saints, and for none but such whom they so account, (excluding men as men) are dangerous: nor are we of opinion that this Government under the seventh Trumpet, Rev. 11. 15, 16. is initiated or matriculated by the personal appearance of Jesus Christ; but all we hold is, that the most holy, able, wise, pious and (every way) qualified persons, men fearing God, hating covetousness, of the highest capacity, reason and latitude to all (as Solomon had a heart like the Sea!) and of the liveliest courage for the cause and interest of our dearest Jesus, and of the whole Body, be set up over us. Not that they should be all such, or none but such (for that we cannot expect) but to do our best to find some such; to pray for them, and to empower them; and that the highest principles have the highest places (which they are suited to and for) in Harmony and Symmetry with the whole, and not otherwise. Now if this be Dangerous, We will be tried by God and the Country; I mean by the God of order, and orders of God himself (in his Government.) For M. H. and those Philo-demoticks that skew at this, 
They admit not so much in the foundation and equality of it, as the Heathens.  would set us to dance the beginning of the World, or with Mr. P. and B. the Spanish Galliard (after Contzen and Campanella:) not admitting us so much as the very Heathens (their Teachers) did allow in the laying of the foundation of the Commonwealth, viz. upon the sound and most untainted parts of the whole Body, and not upon tag and rag, good and bad, Adherents and Delinquents together for that (in disparibus non existit Proportio) there is no possibility of making this equal. 
Arist Pol. l. 3. c. 3.  The dispute in Arist. is, whether the Virtue and worth of a Good man? or of a Good Citizen, as such, should carry it; and Arist. is for both: but not so much as hesitates or Questions whether wicked men, or Bad Citizens should be in it, or equal with the rest; for he positively concludes it, 
What Government wicked and unstable.  in these words: Civitas non ab Improbis, sed ab Optimis gubernetur! yea, he tells us, where the Government is not laid so (i.e. upon the best men) it is wicked and unstable. See lib. 5. c. 1. Propter inaequalitatem oritur seditio; sed Duplex est aequum, Vnum Numero, Alterum dignitate; 1. Numere quidem ceu multitudine & magnitudine, idem & aequum; 2. Dignitate autem dico id quod est secundum Rationem, fatentes autem Simpliciter esse justum, id quod est secundum dignitatem contendunt. Simpliciter omninò secundum Alterutrum (i.e. Numerum) statuere aequalitatem improbum est, patet autem ex eo quod contingit, nulla enim hujusmodi Rerum Publ. recipit stabilitatem; Causa verò hujus, quia impossibile est, ex primo Errore in Principio Commisso, non evenire ad extremum aliquid Mali. It is because of an inequality, that sedition arises; but there is a twofold equal: (1.) one in the Number (of all the people together, 
Equality to lie in the multitude or mere number, is injurious to the Commonwealth  tag and rag as they come.) 2. The other in the dignity (good and most deserving of the People.) In the number, or in the multitude and magnitude of them, is the same equality; but in the dignity, (or good, sound and best of the whole body) I say, is that which is according to Reason. But such as profess for a Commonwealth, do simply contend for that which is laid upon Dignity (or goodness) as that which is the Just (Government) and equal. But it is a wicked thing to appoint the equality simply, altogether according to to t'other (i.e. upon the whole number, or Promiscous Chaos of the people.) And it appears from what happens, that no Commonwealth of this kind, hath stability, or can stand long! (mark that!) and the reason is this, because it is impossible from the first error committed in the beginning (or first laying of the Commonwealth) there should not happen some extreme evil, or other. Thus far for the sense (and sentence) of his own Oracle (to name no more) against such an unjust Equality of Pandemick Government and foundation; without distinction of Dignitaries, 
This will certainly rob us of all at last.  or discrimination of the Good from the Bad, as a very unadvised thing, that will certainly rob the well-affected of their Rights! give them up to the Dammees of the Times! and but put them into an equal capacity for present! and into an under-capacity for future! (or by unavoidable consequence, through overbalance of Number) with their enemies! who so shall be sure, to swallow all up at once! 
Lib. 1. Prolus. 2. Host.  And Strada calls this, the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or ungodly Rule. But because Mr. H. thinks us all bare-walled Idiots, and illiterate in Republi. (that run not his way,) as if we were not able to lay down the difference between a Woodcock and a Wagtail; although I have read divers others beside Aristotle upon this subject, I shall leave him to commence Master of that Art, and Doctor of that Conceit; and conclude with Cicero's words, 
In M. Anton. Philip. 2.  Dolebam, dolebam, P. C. Rempubls. vestris quondam, meisque Consiliis conservatam, brevi Tempore esse perituram; Neque verò eram tam indoctus, ignarusque rerum, ut frangerer animo propter vitae cupiditatem; quae me manens conficeret Angoribus; dimissa molestiis omnibus liberasset! It troubles me! it grieves me! (O renowned Fathers!) that the Commonwealth kept formerly by your and our (care and) Counsel, should perish in so short a time; neither was I (nor am I) so unlearned or ignorant of affairs, that I should break my heart through any greedy desire after life; which remaining in me, would fill me with Anxieties; but leaving of me, would free me from all my Troubles. And there I leave the first Part.  
2. The other part of the Petition respects that Integral of our Cause, 
2. Part of the Petition wrongs us in our cause, which requires equilibrity at God's worship.  which asserts our Religious freedom and Aequilibrity at the worship of God; which the Petition would entrench upon, p. 9 proposing to the Magistrate a National-worship or Religion (saith M. H. suitable to the National Conscience,) which when the Powers that are, have defined, resolved and ordained; They offer (in the same Petition) two things: 1. That all who shall profess the said Religion (which succeeding Parliaments shall appoint) though of different persuasions (in the said Religion) be equally protected. 2. That no Religion contrary to Christianity (it being left to them to define, and to defend what they mean by that!) be tolerated, or allowed. If this do not endanger, or leave us exposed to Popery, 
The danger of committing to Parliaments chose by the spirit of the Nation, the worship of God National.  Prelacy, the old Hierarchy, Common-prayer, or any thing that they shall call Christianity, (in case it be committed to Parliaments chosen by the Spirit of the Nation) I submit to the judgement of the Reader, upon what I have said before in Answ. to M. B's 6. Prop. and do find my fears (raised by the Libanius-like or Julianick scorn and contempt, some of them put upon the Lords servants that assert Christ's interest in the Nations,) that they would not leave us a Penthouse to stand under when the storm comes.  
The two Expedients, 
Their two Expedients defective in divers particulars.  p. 10, 11. to secure the Cause, and keep the People from betraying their Liberties (if any yet remain, when the life of our Cause is fled to the Antipodes; for quarters, if any can be found) are: 1. That it may be I reason, for any member of either Assembly, or any person whatsoever, to move or propose in either of the said Assemblies, the Restitution of Kingly Government, or Single Person; or against the equal freedom and protection of Religious persons of different persuasions. But 1. they never tell us who must make that Law-Paramount; for if they say this Parliament hath the Legislation in that, they must acknowledge it in other things too, and why not in all? 2. Will the People stand to it, when it is done? or what Use or previous signification will such a Law have, before the convention of the whole body of the People? whom they suppose to be above Law, and what can bind them? or the two Assemblies met, and till there be their own (Spontanean) consent? before which time the King will be entered, and the Scene be altered. 3. And how not speak against the equal freedom of Religious persons? when the freedom of them is far from being equal, or indeed Religious? That it is not equal, is evident in their own words, viz. That those who fall in with the National worship, be maintained; but others (accounted Sectaries, must only) be protected from bodily violence, (or tolerated:) and is this equal? or to all alike? 4. They would have nothing else made Treason (p. 11. for no other matter or cause whatsoever) so that all risings, rebellions and other preparations for the King may go scot-free. 5. And this is only for them too, that shall propose it in either of the Assemblies; so that in any other part of the Nation else, or in any Market Town, they may do that, and more too, without Treason or Reason. There be many other things of less weight, which will admit of just exception; 
The Order of Their Rotation.  as p. 8. in the Order of their Rotation, That a Third Part of the People's Representatives (and no more) do sit at once? (but how that can be the Representative Collectanean of the whole Body, I understand not.) Also as to Time; why with such inequality, 
And in the Timing of it unequal.  that a Third part be but for one year, another Third for two years, and the Next for three years? why none (be he ever so able) may be chosen again? to serve his Country, till some considerable Interval, or Vacation? albeit he have a more excellent Anointing than others, and a Testimony like to Job's, Chap. 29. 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, etc. for Righteousness, Merit, and Works of of Mercy? I cannot conceive for the▪ Public Advantage; seeing that his own Oracle tells him, 
Arist. Polit. Lib. 3. Chap. 9  In optimâ Republicâ si Quis excellat Virtute, quid de eo faciendum? Non dicendum est ut Talis Vir sit pellendus, atqui neque Gubernationi Aliorum Talis Vir, erit Subjiciendus. That Such a one is not to be cast off or put away, neither to be subjected to others, who is so fit to Rule over others.  
And whether this way be not (of any) the most liable to an Ostracism, 
Danger of an Ostracism by this Rotation.  let any judge? by discouraging, laying aside, or driving out of the Land, the most publicly Spirited Worthies that are in it; Men of the greatest Ability, Gallantry, and Fidelity (by which means a many brave Governments have been utterly destroyed:) As the Athenians, Argives, Thebans, Rhodians, and others. It is said in Athens, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. That Hippias played the Tyrant, and he brought forth the Law of Ostracism; but others were cast into exile by it, such as Xantippus, Aristides, etc. Nor can we but foresee, how fast the Wheel of their Rotation would Bolt or fling out the best and ablest in the Commonwealth, 
Mr. Har's Cake made by this bolting. Oceana, p. 13.  for Bran, leaving the worst behind In, of all others. And yet of this must his Cake be made, which (after it is baked) he would have divided by silly Girls! A pretty sport for the Mummers indeed, or those nimble-witted Housewives (that with Vice can outvie the Virtues of the best) to learn so lightly the whole Mystery of a Commonwealth, and most abstruse Intrigues or Cabals of State (pag. 13 Oceana) That when these joan's are weary with their Bobbins, they may bob our ears bravely, with a Garrulous Rule: and when they lag in their Bonelace, they may lace our bones, (for Loggerheads,) to let them lay down the Distaff, and take up the Sceptre; leave the Spindle, and divide the Spoil; yea, then sit like Megpies at their doors, Dumb Saints in their Idols Churches! Goats in their Gardens! Devils in their houses! Angels in the Streets! and Sirens at their Windows! as they say of the Italians; for when they can live no longer by their Work, they shall live by their Wits, in Mr. Har's Commonwealth, that sifts our the best, and keeps in the worst to make his Cake with. But in Lacedaemon, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Lycurgus' the Son of Eunomus, willing to endow the Lacedæmonians with their deuce in Righteousness and Justice, took not away any worthy or good Reward from any one. And the Thebans, to encourage Dignity, and keep up the Honour of Magistracy from contempt, made a Law, Vt nemo habilis esset, ad Honours Reipublic. suscipiendos, nisi Decem Annis à Mercatur â destitisset, etc. That no man should be accounted qualified for the Honours of the Commonwealth, i.e. in Magistracy) unless he had first left his Merchandizing ten years: Such a care had they to keep out the joan's and Toms, which M. H. admits (by turns and times) as the Rotation bolts them into the Government, and their Betters out. And what was said of Clisthenes an Athenian, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, might possibly be applied to Mr. H. were their Rogation effected; that he was one of the first that introduced this Government by Ostracism, and one of the first that felt it, and would have retroduced it; The first that brought it in, and the first that it wrought out. Therefore let him secure his own Bull, before he baits another's, and take his Play! 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
Lastly, 
His Platform would more gratify Popery, Athiesm and Paganism; then the Platform of a Christian Commonwealth  I would willingly be informed how his New Platforms or Principles Paganish or Popish, fetched from Athens, or from Venice, can without cruciating extremities and applications) be adequated to our Commonwealth under Christian profession? so that Quae semel possidebant Papiste, semper possideant Rapiste; what the Papists once had, Rapists and Ravenous ones would ever have, (viz. our Rights and Liberties from us;) Nor could it be acquired (I think) without greater Advantages to Papists & Atheists then to us, seeing the very interest of the Son of God, and Saints in the Nation, the best and noblest Cause on earth (in all the integrating Parts thereof) and Adherents thereto, is not taken Notice of in his Platform; neither in the Balance nor the Wheel; in the Ballot nor Rotation, (or Rogation) of it; so that, Differs curandi tempus in Annum? Quicquid delirant Reges, Plectuntur Achivi. I may conclude with Mr. B. p. 240. 
* His holy Commonws. from p. 224. to p. 240.  That God having already given us the best Fundamental Laws; Let us have but good Magistrates, and we shall have good Derivative Laws (or humane.) It was a Law amongst the Cretians, that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. that their children should learn their Laws with Melody; that from the MUSIC they might take great pleasure in them, and more easily commit them to memory. We need no such Law, to endear or dulcify our Cause or the Laws of it in the Commonwealth. If the foundation of it be that, which the Hand of the Almighty hath laid amongst us both for Church and State; from Christian principles, rather than from Paganish or mere Morals; it will make most excellent Harmony in the ears and Hearts of all men and Christians; And the Governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The Inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my Strength, in the Lord of Hosts their God, 
What our Governors in Parl. once thought of those called Sectaries, the poor despised servants of Christ.  Zach. 12. 5. Thus our Governors' thought (of them) in the days of straits (and will again see it) one of their best interests, to have their Prayers and their God, as well as their Purses and Blood engaged for them; and not disoblige them (upon jealousies suggested by the enemy) who for their virgin-fidelity and untainted adherence to the Cause, may be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as the Lacedæmonians did their wives after their innocency did break out, and get above the clouds of suspicion and reproach. But if (after all) they will be planting and founding us again in the spirit of the Nation, as if God had owned no Cause, or made no signal discrimination; or shaken no such foundations of the earth, etc. (which their Lord General pretended as one ground of their interruption) which Mr. H. & others would hurry them into, to the endangering of the Cause, and the disobliging the Adherents; Then will the jehovah, that keepeth Covenant with his people, and not alter the thing that is gone out of his lips, Psal. 89. 34. Acts 2. 30. and 3. 20, 21. raise up others in their stead, to carry on this his cause, both in the civils' and the spirituals; and to form another People for himself to show forth his praise, Isa. 43. 21. Then they that Rule over men, shall be just, ruling in the fear of God; and they shall be as the light of the morning when the Sun ariseth; A Morning without clouds, and as the tender grass that springeth out of the earth, by a clear shining after rain, 2 Sam. 23. 3, 4. which that these may be, agrees better with my Prayer then with his Proposals I am sure. But thus I leave him whom Mr. B. had Quoited as a stumbling-block before me: whom I am not only gotten over, but I presume have given a good lift to the removing of him out of others way, (as to the right foundation of the Commonwealth, and stating of the Cause.) So that from this time forward, we need no Luxuriant wit (or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) to fain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, him a vomiting (as Mr. P's followers Pamphlet it a Commonwealth) and others (qui sputum lingunt, who lick up any thing) as haurient and attractive of the stuff; as Galaton did picture out Homer, in his strains, and other Poets a supping up what he so exuberously vomited out. Neither need we answer him with much more than the Germane Min. wrote in his Study, when the Devil did disturb him, and look over his shoulder,) But the Son of God came to dissolve all the works of darkness; which his enemy no sooner read, but vanished. Now to conclude with Mr. B. (for Mr. H. I met with but in the way, 
The Author's impartial and respective close with Mr. Baxter.  with his Mummers; and those that ride in post, use to take fresh horses for present Service, but look no more after them: thus does Mr. B. make use of Mr. H. no otherwise.) I would, if he were capable of hearing me (for the noise of DRUM'S) assure him, that not a desire to rake into any Man's failings (having so many of mine own, by which the Lord is pleased to keep me most busy at home, under the sense and burden of them▪) or to pick out the evils, without due acknowledgement of the good in many of his Books, that gave edition to this decertation; but indeed a sincere affection to my dearest Christ, his cause and the Commonwealth; to truth and righteousness, and the Assertors of it, that lay too much under the most unchristian Trajections, supercilious and oblique censures of his Pen, prepared (it is feared, from the effects) to sharpen the most malign influences and aspects that could be cast upon them by the common enemies; who would as much rejoice in their destruction, as in their traduction; (who lie in ambush to murder the innocent, Psal. 10. 8.) and like the Q. of Scots once of the Protestants (slain in the days of Joh. Knox) would look upon it with a Protestation that their eyes never beheld a better Tapestry! But they that have the Record of the Highest hand, and protection of the Holiest to preserve their Memories (and embalm them to Posterities,) are above their reach. For he shall bring forth their righteousness as the (or) shining light; and their judgement as the (tzohorajim, dual. N.) double, or as two lights and splendours, Psal. 37. 6. in our Transl. as the Noonday, i.e. shining both in the former and in the Afternoon (or future) Light. Nor do I desire to study the Alphabet of Great men's dispositions, but to obviate that STRATAGEM (made in the same forge with his Key for Cath.) devised and timed to divert our Worthies (who (we hope) will raise up the Renown of this Nation) from minding the Public, by their own Private Vindications; or else to raise round about them such a SUMMER-DUST, that we might be sure to lose them, or have them hid a while, in the midst of it, but that a shower hath allayed it; and it is hard to say whether Sir H. Vane and our other Patriots be of more unblemished honour, integrity, and desert (beyond any bad-mans' blasting or contrivance;) or Mr. B. Mr. P. and such unsober Pickthanks, (yea, Pickroones (of good men's reputations,) of more sin and shame, for slandering so (beyond and good man's blessing or connivance.) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Pythagoras himself was wont to say, These two things (which are very beautiful) are given to men as Divine, viz. to embrace the truth, and to do well to others. Neither of which are much seen in Mr. B's company all the way of his Aeromachy, nor Hairesiomachy, as he pretends; neither is his Tongue the Pen of a (mahir sophar) ready Accountant in the matters of the KING, i.e. Jesus Christ, 
Counsel to Mr. B to scum his own POT first.  Psal. 45. 1. Wherefore I could have wished, he had so much weighed his own Reputation, (as well as Christ's Ministry,) seeing a good name is called an ointment, Cant. 1. which Olfactum afficit! Spiritum reficit! & cerebrum juvat! that gives at savour,) as first, to have scummed his own POT! seeing the Prophet saith, 
Ezek. 24. 6, 11, 12.  Woe, woe! to the pot whose scum is in it! and whose scum is not gone out of it! how doth that appear? Verse 12. Wearying with lies; and the great scum went not forth; but it shall be in the fire! therefore saith the Lord, Verse 11. Set it empty upon the Coals! that the Brass of it may be hot and burn! and the filthiness of it in it! So that he shall hurt none but himself! burn his own brass! and the filthiness of his own pot. And indeed I was the better content to undertake this duty to the Public, and to deal thus with M. B. because he is a man of such severity and Eagle-eyed acuteness in others men's faults, that I may thereby learn more to my own PROFIT, then by the best Book I ever yet met with; and as one said to Antisthenes, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Strike me home! if you will! only let me learn what I can from you! neither can you find a Cudgel so cruel to me, that it should drive me from the benefit of the occasion of it. Wherefore let us look to it diligently! 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Heb. 12. 15, 16. lest any man fail (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) from the grace of God lest any root 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (or radical humidum) of bitterness! be springing up in you, etc. he that doth aught presumptuously, reproacheth the Lord, Numb. 15. 30. yea, the very Heathens (as Numa Pompilius) instituted Priests called FECIALES, whose office was to preserve the peace (between the Romans and others) not to disturb it, or destroy it: and our Lord Jesus hath left us most ample and excellent Rules and examples of love, peace, and estimation of each other, without striving for the mastery, Mar. 9 34. Luk. 22. 24, 26. Joh. 13. 34, 55. & 15. 12. Eph. 5. 2. & 4. 32. Tit. 3. 9 1 Cor. 1. 10. & 11. 17, 18. 1 Thes. 4. 9 1 Joh. 4. 21. Rom. 16. 17, 18. Mat. 24. 23. Phil. 2. 1, 2, 3. and oh! that the same mind were in us also! each striving to serve the other in love! keeping up a commensurate and equal latitude of liberty in matters of worship amongst all the members of the BODY, though differing in their several forms, 
The most probable way to reconcile us ALL IN ONE.  seats, offices, and functions, for the service of the head and of the whole, as it is in the Humane Body, 1 Cor. 12. 13, 27. Rom. 12. Were all an eye (saith the Apostle) where were the hearing? or were all an ear, where were the smelling? And could we impetrate it at the Hands of our honourable Senators, (as I hope we shall) a General or Grand Meeting of some of all different judgements (who are most comprehensive and large in their love to all Saints (as the Apostle saith Col. 1. 4.) a little to argue the Case together like Brethren in love, without heat of passions or provocations) to advise with the Lord, his Word, and one with another, upon the way and means of Reconciling, Uniting, Indearing, and Injoynting of the WHOLE BODY of Adherents and Believers, Ephes. 4. 12, 13. (for which end is the variety of Gifts, Administrations and operations given, Ephes. 4. 11. 1 Cor. 12. 4, 5, 6.) until we find out the proper places, joints, graces, offices, and usefulness of all (collectively;) and every individual part, party, or form of the Body (distributively) under one and the same head Jesus Christ; I am persuaded it would have a wonderful blessing in it, and might tend to settle us most sweetly, satisfactorily and Symmetrically in this Nation; (if the Lord please) both to all Parties, and to the WHOLE; no one seeking to set up a Party for the Whole; or a Party-growth, but the growth and increase of the whole Body. Col. 2. 19 Ephes. 4. 16. or the Communion of all Saints; and of all sorts of Saints, as of necessary use and functions even in those things that differ. That all the whole building may be fitly framed together, and growing up into one Temple, one Tabernacle, one House, one Vine, one Kingdom, one Body, and one City compact: and though the Temple hath many Parts, and the Tabernacle Courts; the House many distinct Rooms, and the Vine Branches; the Kingdom (of Christ) several divided Provinces, the Body Members, and the City Streets and Companies (in the same Corporation) yet they are all but one. And truly with strong cries, sighs and groans for Zion thus pulled apieces and into PARTIES! with struggling Prayers, Faith, and Tears to the Lord! shall I labour after this Uniting, and Injoynting of all good men! and for Mr. B. P. and that Party, I wish they would be quiet, for their own sakes, as well as SION'S.  
Ut quiescant porrò moneo, & desinant  
Male dicere; Malefacta nè noscant sua.   

TO THE Parliament of the Commonwealth, NOW Returned to the Great Exercise of Supreme Trust.  
YOu are brought together to do your last Works, by the same hand that blessed you together in your first. Neither have we been wanting in our poor Prayers to the Almighty, and incessant endeavours with the Mighty (particularly the Army, Council of Officers, and others) to effect your Return and the late Turn. By which we see how (Ludit in Humanis Divina potentia rebus!) the Lord plays with the Affairs of men, and tries them with the most Golden Opportunities (to serve his interest in the Nations) that may be; wherein never men met with more Concurrent significant and glorious Providences than yourselves; and this for one, that you might revive the Plant of Renown in this Nation, or it revive you; and the most orient Luculency of your former Actions aspire and sparkle out in your Latter, if the Lord so please. Et ita praeclara erat recuperatio, Libertatis Reipub. ut ne Mors quidem fuit (aut fit) repetendâ Libertate fugienda. Of such Renown and eminency is your second Arrival, and this Revival of the Commonwealth, that verily Death it's self, neither was (nor is) to be bawked in the further pursuit of it. But ah, alas!— how quickly are our windows shut up again? 
The present Cloud over us, what it is made up off.  and our matutine irradiations muffled up with Clouds? The Vesper tilios of our times have taken their flight again over our heads! and the Rubbish that was left is so immense, that the strength of the Bearers began to decay! Neham. 4. 10, 11. At which our adversaries said, They shall not know, neither see, till we come in the midst of them, and slay them, and cause the work to cease. Oh! are we not rather warmed a little with a Widdows-joy, then with the joys of harvest? of them that are entered into the possession? or of them that divide the spoil, Isai. 9 3. O the Threnody of some of your dearest friends! whose sighs have lately issued with such confusion! 
Jer. 8 20.  as if our harvest had been over, the summer ended, and yet we never the nearer saved! and would that were the worst, that the welcome report of your first sitting might never be setting! or veiled with such a Sable, as is cast upon it: for either you faithful friends are (a many of them) slighted, 
What Enemy is most dangerous.  or you are slandered. And it is not so much an Enemy in ARMS, as an Enemy in ARTS that amazes us so! for though the first have sallied, yet 'tis the last have sullied our faces again, that began to cheer; having dissheveled our expectations, sent our hopes flying, and your Votes fluttring into the air. Ah! must we like DOVES (in our Cliffs and Holes!) go MOURN again in secret, till he that sees us in SECRET, does reward us openly? Then we will!— But alas! we no sooner say it, but the Alarm of your Enemies makes you see it best, not to disoblige your faithful friends too fast, 
The Authors Address on the behalf of Christ and his interest in the Nations.  for Super-numeraries: And O! that I could utter it from the Most High, as his Oracle unto you! that it might reach you to the quick, home, close, and fasten like an Arrow feathered with the fullest love to the Cause that can be! (without respect to persons or Principles repugnant,) O! that I were such an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a Champion for Jesus Christ, and his interest in these Nations, that I might rather choose to die, then to deny it: I hope, I shall never be of that number that would flatter you for base ends; for verily, Science, Conscience, and the sense of duty, 
Prov. 29. 26.  will not flatter me then for better ends; and I know it, that many seek the Ruler's favour, but (yet) every man's judgement is of the Lord. Nor is it an itch after meddling with the Arcanis Imperii or Intrigues of Government, (unless it be in my own soul and family;) so much as the Arcana Evangelii, fidei, & Christi mei, that have suggested these lines in very faithfulness to you, amongst other Lucubrations and Evigilations of this season. Aristotle used to sleep with a Bullet in his Hand o'er a Basin, that by the fall it might wake him: Pythagoras, with a thread that tied his hair unto a Beam; that with a Nod it might Check him: and if the Bullet in hand do not awaken you, I am sure the Nod will quickly check you and us too. When the Prince of Orange was in his Camp near the D' of Alva, he slept so secure, that his enemies that Night got to his very Tent; but a little Dog lying by him, barked and cried, and scratched his face, till the Prince awaked, and so saved his life: and I would at least do you as good service, in a more concinnate language then by scratching, should you use me like a DOG when I have done it; for to him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward, Prov. 11. 18. if not from man, yet from the Lord, Psal. 58. 11. which is the best of all.  
In the Transition of our Disceptation, 
The first Ground of this humble Application and warning unto them.  I am engaged by your foes to a just Vindication of your honourable Persons and the Cause, from that contumely most unjustly cast upon you: But the transposition of your affections in the observation of your dear friends, did as much require this discriminating dispensation again in the Nation, that you may know whom to confide in, and keep most constant to. For wise men began to dread what a Labyrinth of confusion we had like to have been involved into, by some men's over-valuing of unfaithful ones, and over-vilifying of some of the most faithful ones in the Commonwealth. In the first encounter, I have tried your enemies, and I find them weak; but in the last, they have tried your friends, and we found them strong; especially when they struck so hard at our Patience, to have conquered that, by the many unkindness that we have met with. In the first, they intended to divert you (or some of you) from the Public service; but in the last, they intended to divert the Public from you, (or from some of you) as well as you from us. Both which are so apparent now, that the evidence of it (at the Lord's appointment) is like to be written down as legibly to the Readers observation with the Point of the Sword as of the Pen; 
Our readiness to give up our lives to the Public service, with all alacrity.  in either of which if the Lord shall call us, (for the interest of Christ and this Commonwealth) those of us that have been most despised, are as ready as Any to offer up our Lives, and sacrifice our all for the service; In the choice of Tribunes, the Romans were wont to pitch upon them that could show the most Marks, Scars or Wounds in the service of their Country; and some there be yet alive, (though little looked upon) who can like Veteranus (whom Sueton. in Aug. C. tells us of) but open their Garments, and show you the GASHES which they (gladly) received either in suffering or doing for this Cause; that had rather (a thousand times) see the Blood spin out of their own Veins, then drop out of Christ's, by another Agony! Et totum hujusce rei consilium non periculo meo, sed utilitate Reipubls. metiar; and for my own part, I will not measure my business by my danger (which is as great as most men's) but by the benefit of the Public.  
2. A slander by may see more of the Game which the Enemy is playing (with Art and with Arms too,) 
2. Ground is the Enemy's Art or endeavour to make a Game, out of your hand.  and the great advantages which our friends may give them in their dealings) than they see themselves; so that I hope such diligent observers, (who have ever betted on your side, and to the Cause,) may without offence, or the brand of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, inform you the best they can of those, that are peeping into your hands; and do make their Game by it accordingly (or endeavour it) for the interest of a Single Person, or of Charles Stuart. It was said of Queen Elizabeth, that like an ill Housewife she swept the house, and left the dust behind the door; but we hope you will not sweep the door (as you did at your first entry, to our great rejoicing!) and now leave the dust within the House, (to breed Spiders and Cobwebs, which will be sure to hang in the highest places:) And therefore as we do in times of danger and robbery, be pleased first to search well within doors, and then without in every corner; seeing the Enemy may steal in at so many secret and imperceptible ways.  
3. The grounded jealousies and certain fears, 
3. Ground. If this cause miscarry, Christ, Gospel, and all suffer Slavery.  that if this Cause should miscarry, CHRIST, the Gospel and good People of the Commonwealth would all suffer slavery; do nib my Pen with the more Promptness and Acuteness (in the presence of Him that is higher than the highest) to call upon your Prudence and utmost care, to preserve it in its Purity. Nor am I herein beyond my line, whiles in pleading the Cause, I plead for Christ, the Gospel, and his Saints (the best support, column and interest) in the Whole World.  
4. The great and growing desires which I have to be serviceable to the Public (ere I die) Secundum singulas species Evangelii Christi necnon Reipubls. both as a Minister and a Man, 
4. Ground is the Enemies use of these Princip. (here opposed) to intricate the Counc. of Parl. & to carry on their work with.  with the deep resentment of that desperate Design of the Enemies now on foot, to the utter extirpation of us, (and of all whom they call Sectaries) as well as perplexing of your Councils if they can effect it! set forward from those very Principles that I have opposed, and which they had calculated for the total interfection of the Cause, interruption of the Parliament, and infection of the People, from 1. Principles of Falsehood, 2. Confections of Calumny, and 3. Concoctions of Crudity. 
1. Mr. P's Perditory Anatomy.  The first, in Mr. Prynne's (Perditory) Anatomy of the Commonwealth, which is no more to be followed then the School of Alexandria (in Gallen time) who did use to quarter Bodies for their Scholars, and not allow them the dissection or discovery of the Whole Body, neither doth P. to his Followers; only in this (against his will) we may commend him for an Artist, that he hath found out the most sound, solid, and untainted parts of the whole Body, to show his SKILL upon, (i. e. of cutting and calumniating, Psal. 10. 8. & 50. 20. & 89. 51.) 
2. Mr. B's Purgatory-Art.  The second in Mr. B's Purgatory Art of curing the Army; whose Pinion or Pen is hardened into his own Opinion for the Government of a single Person, and recovery of the Kingdom again; and not so for a due and equal Temperament of the whole Body, by an even Balance and proportion of the four Elements, and so Aliments of this Politic. Body, conducing to the most concinnate and right use of all the Functions in it; as for the Mastery of the One above the other, and all the Rest; which would be the inevitable Ruin of All at last: and all the OPERATION of his Pills, is but to cast the Commonwealth out of an Acute, 
3. Mr. H's Pulsatory-Method.  into the most Chronic and irrecuperable Diseases. But the 3. is in Mr. H's Pulsatory Method, which tends more to the maintenance of the Diastole then of the Systole of the Commonwealth, 
By the 1. sort the Repub. is handled quatenus immedicabilis.  i. e. for the promoting then expurging the putrid humours of the Body. By the first sort (or P's) is the Commonwealth considered quatenus immedicabilis, and so he cuts it all to pieces; as the Levite did his Concubine, Judg. 19 29. and sends them into all Quarters to raise the Rebellion. 
By the 2. sort quatenus est Sanabilis.  By the second sort (or Mr. B's) is the Commonmonwealth considered, quatenus est Sanabilis, or restorable to a Kingdom, and so he gives his Pills, his Powders, and his Portions, that by strange operations they might enervate and deforce the Vitals of the Commonwealth, but animate and revive the spirits of the Cavaliers, and corrupt ones for Kingship in the Nation; (and accordingly are the humours, spirits and armies of the Enemy up.) 
By the 3. sort quatenus est Mutabilis.  By the third sort (or Mr. H's) is the Commonwealth considered quatenus Mutabilis, and so he exhibits new Forms, Platforms, Orders and Foundations, in the first Concoction Heathenish, but in the second Concoction Popish; which he presumes will be as easy of digestion as the Jusculum or decoction of an old Cock, ere he has cooked it. Now although these last have done the least hurt, and are our Friends, yet the Enemy might presume upon it, that we judged our State very unsettled, to hang by Geometry (like Mahomet's Tomb in the Air) or by a Charm, or without a Foundation: which is a great mistaste. And by all these have I learned in Politics, 
Arist. lib. 4. c. 1.  that Non minus est corrigere Rem Public. jam institutam, quam ab initio instituere, etc. It is nothing less to govern well a Commonwealth when it is instituted, then to institute a Commonwealth when it is not as yet governed, or as yet a Commonwealth. So that your Lessons (most Noble Senators!) are no less difficult, which you learn ex post facto (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) than those that you learn antè post facto: wherein we had all need (and hope we shall) help you (all we can) with our prayers, counsels, and endeavours; and none to Hinder you, in the least, nor yet You to Hinder one another. And therefore (though from a worm and no man) I beseech you (RIGHT HONOURABLE) to admit of a few praevious Considerations, 
12 praevious Considerations presented to the. Parl. for Settlement.  for the better Settlement of the Commonwealth to the satisfaction of all Parts and Parties of it; not exempting the sober-minded and most capable of ALL Judgements, (whether they follow Mr. P. in Dissection, Mr. B. in his Physick-Administration, Mr. H. in his Politics, or us in our Theo-cratick-Constitution) according to the Reason of all Rules and Principles (whether Historical, Practical, Political or Theorical) that agree with their own Art, Judgement and Profession, and wherein they must necessarily acquiesce at the last. As,  
1. That a most Demonstrative Care may be ever had to the Balance of the Government, 
1. For an equal & certain Balance  by which judgement and Justice is Weighed out to All. This Rule of a Balancing, equal and even Hand (as well as Habit) is with Demonstration to be observed in a true and sober Anatomy, distinguished from a rash, irrational and vulnerary Dissection (such a one as Mr. P's) of the Commonwealth. 
1. By Mr. P's Rules of Anatomy  Such a special care is to be kept up (also) in all Physical Doses (to the Hum. Body, which Mr. B. is far from accommodating) as may most exactly Balance all the humours, 
2. Mr. B's Rules of Physic.  elements, spirits and parts of the Body, in an Equal and orderly Temperament for the whole; that one have have not the mastery of another, or over all the rest, 
3. Mr. HE s Rules of Politic constit.  to the Ruin of the whole. And in Politics (Mr. Har. hath demonstrated it) to be most absolutely and accurately requisite, so as the EQUI-LIBRIUM of it be not imposed upon, obtruded or obstructed by fraud or force, neither in the Equal Libration of encouragements due to Good Men, and Adherents, nor yet of punishments due to Bad Men, and Delinquents: 
Vid. Case of Commonwealth, near the Gulf of Common wo.  (which I have offered in a former Book) that the Frame of it, be so held, as may keep the Scales even to All Men, and not more leaning to one party then another: which is most certain and perfect in a Theocratick Government, where the frame is good, the balance even, the Strings sound and certain, 
4. In our humble tender of a Theocratick Balance.  the Hand that holds it, most just, steady and exact; and the Weights and Measures are all Sealed and Authentic with GOD and Men, in all Nations under Christ: so that no one can complain of violence and spoil, injustice, oppression, or injury done unto them by that Balance, the Equity of it is with such Conviction and Demonstration to Men, Dan. 5. 2. Ezek. 5. 1. Isa. 26. 7. and Delight to the Lord, Prov. 11, 1. & 20. 23. & 16. 2, 11. while a false or uneven Balance is abhorred, Micah 6. 11. Hos. 12. 7. Prov. 11. 1. A false Balance is abomination to the Lord: But a just weight is his delight; and therefore says Job, Chap. 31. 6. Let me be weighed in an Even Balance, that my integrity may be known.  
2. Consideration. 
2▪ Consideration, to avoid faction.  Let as exquisite a care be had to keep out or kill all faction, or party-interest in the Parliament; which like a Canker-worm, will be sure to eat into the very body and being of the Commonwealth; 
1. This Rule agrees with true Anat. or cutting up a body.  if not prevented; which will pain it for the present, and kill it in time. This Rule Mr. P. aught to have observed in the true Anatomy of the Commonwealth (as Artists do,) so to consider a Part, as co-hering and co-alizing with the whole, and as that which doth integrate and accompish the whole; and so to have cut up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, This with respect to that and the other, and so all parts of the Commonwealth. 
2. With true Physics and methods of cure or recovery of a body.  This Rule was as requisite too for Mr. B. to have observed in his Physical Directory and Dispensatory to the Army; for in all Methodical Cures of distempered bodies, such means must be used, as suit best with the State of the whole body; and not with the state of that or those parts of the body only which are so morbous and illaffected; for the easing of them, may be with the destruction of the WHOLE by it; and this is his dangerous prescription, to promote a faction, gratify a party among illaffected Presbyterians or Cavaliers, and utterly ruin the Commonwealth by an universal and most certain revulsion of all those vicious humours which he complains of. Wherefore to avoid this dangerous DESIGN of curing a part (who may cry him up for an able Doctor, to give them present ease) by killing the whole; All Curatory and Conservatory means of health to this body of the Commonwealth, must consist with the constitution, indications, and coindications of the whole body; and not of a part for the whole. 
3. It is a special Rule in Politics and Governments.  This Rule is also most exactly observed in Politics, wherein the indulging of a faction did ever presage the fatal destiny of that Commonwealth: so did the Factions of Hanno and Hannibal in Carthage; and of the Decemviri in Rome; so Sylla and Marius, Pompey's and Caesar's parties: but what need we go so far? seeing this our Parliament may remember, that Tarquin was never nearer his return to the Throne, by the factions of Rome, and Conspiracies of Brutus' sons; then the King was by the contentious and factious parties in the Long Parliament (both before the eleven Members were accused of Treason, and since) between Presbyters and Independants, not wanting the widest Bellows of others to effect it, by the blowing up of every spark to a burning flame or shame. But ah, alas! whither go we? is it not too notorious, and talked of already, as if such a faction were now in the House at the old Game? to the extraordinary Regrete of your friends, 
Few can find the Art of curing a faction  and rejoicing of your foes, which WISE MEN profess will be past the skill of any mortal wight on earth to cure, (if the Lord prevent not!) so few there be that find the Art of killing this Canker, or of curing the Commonwealth. But yet a many offer it; 
M. P's Prop.  And 1. Mr. P. by cutting off the new Members so infected: 
M. B' s Prop.  2. Mr. B. by calling in the old Members worse corrupted: 
M. HE s Prop.  But 3. Mr. H. by an innovation of all together, and so of all the Malign humours (in one) which are sure to maintain it. 
The Authors Prop. or way to cure a faction.  Whereas the only way to cure it (in my judgement) is to find out the Cause of this Gangrening faction, and 1. to state the true interest of the Commonwealth and Cause; that we may know what to call a faction or Deviation from it to any party. And then to prevent it by MEANS inward, 
1. The inward means to cure the Canker of faction.  and outward. 1. INWARD, in a moderate purging out the most dangerous humours or spirits of Malignity; and in keeping cool and clean the Liver, i. e. (the seat of Natural Life in the Commonwealth both as to the inward and outward, or most Gibbous parts thereof, which I have formerly described 
* In plain Case of Commonwealth near gulf of common woe, p 20, 22, 23 The Liver goes along with the Head and Heart of the Commonws. altogether. ) for the benefit of good blood throughout the whole body; not distinct (as Mr. H. would have it, upon the single account of natural right and freedom) but conjunct with the Animal and vital spirits, viz. of the head and heart; (which is Jesus Christ and his precious servants that are truly godly (without respect to any judgement or opinion,) who are indeed the very seat of the vital faculties and sense of this Commonwealth; as much slighted as now they are: this will one day appear, when we are a little wiser, and better skilled in the state of the whole body.) And if Cor (as Arist. will have it) be à Currendo, we can tell you, that no men in England did more (if so much) move, run, write, meet, Counsel, pray, sit up night and day to effect your return into the Places of Trust where you now are, than those whom you grieve, slight, frown upon, and do least for, in point of justice, Conscience and encouragement. Now this is grievous, and must needs prove dangerous to the whole at the last, 
A Symptom of danger, to see so little Harmony between the Naturals, Animals, and Spirituals of the Commonws. or men as men, Mag. as Mag. and Saints as Saints, all in their places, and yet joint in the Commonws.  to see no better an understanding or correspondence kept up between the natural faculties, and the nervous, or spirituous, viz. the Liver, Heart, and Head of the Commonwealth, i. e. in the common or natural rights, and in the special and spiritual rights & concerns of Christ and the people: until which, the Canker-worm of faction will be sure to eat into the most excellent parts and life of the Commonweal. Now when this inward means, of settling all, (viz, Natural, Animal (or Political) and vital motions of the Commonwealth, as men, as Magistrates, as Saints) in a good correspondency and consistency together in the state and constitution of the whole body, 
2. Outward means of curing this Canker of faction, is by wise, godly, hearty, sober, experimental reasonings.  comes to be effected; then the outward means may be used to good purpose, viz. such as these are; Sage-water, or wise Counsels and Reasonings; and Herb-of-grace, (which through corruption is called Rue) or godly and gracious reasonings; and White Wine, or Cheery hearty reasoning, well-boilded until the scum be off, and it be cleared from all frothiness and dregs. And if you will, you may mix therewith the Burnt-Allom, or experiences of them that have passed through the FIRE of sufferings, being much refined, 
Both the inward and the outward must go together.  and the more fitted to kill rather than to keep up this Canker of faction, or of Party-interest. But it is in vain to use the outward means, till the inward have effected or prepared the way of it. Both together being the most probable (if not infallible) means of cure, not only of the present faction, but a Preservative from the future; 
4. It is a most peculiar rule in Theocracy, to avoid faction, or Parties.  And this is in a most peculiar manner to be observed in Theocracy under one head Jesus Christ, Hos. 1. 11, Isa. 4. 1. to serve him with one consent, Zeph. 3. 9 seeing the Magistrates Trumpet is but one, Numb. 10. 4. and is made all of one piece, (or of the whole piece, Ver. 2.) and not to be bandying of it by Parties and Factions, lest they be broken all to pieces, Isai. 8. 9  
3. CONSIDERATION. 
3. Consid. to stop the horrid flux or looseness of pens and tongues.  That the Liberty which loose pens or tongues take to traduce, and revile our Worthies in Parliament, to the prejudice of the State, and hindrance of them in their Public faculties, actions and functions, may be provided against. 
1 Anat. care to keep out manglers.  According to this Rule the Anatomists make provision against unskilful, mangling, butchering Akrotomists; of which number Mr. P. might Commence Master, for his cutting, 
2. Physician's care to keep out Empirics.  calumniating, wounding, and slandering. The like care is taken in the College of Physicians, against Empirics, Mountebanks, and such like Impostors, whose practice is most in undervaluing or vilifying of their BETTERS, to gain the more credit to themselves; that every stinking stuff might go off for a rare secret or mystery of Art. Mr. B. and P. are both guilty of this Arti-tomy, or most cutting false accusations. So in all concinnate, orderly and well-setled Governments (or Polit. 
3. Politicians care in all Governments.  Bodies,) was there ever a most vigilant eye over such; as in the Lacedaemonian Petatism, and Roman Turpilian. Not but that a just and lawful liberty be admitted to charge any man orderly, and before a lawful Authority. For Maxim interest Reipubli. libertate, ut libere possumus civem aliquem accusare, etc. it concerns the interest and liberty of the Public very much, 
Vide Thucid. Hist. li. 3, & Livii, lib. 28. & Tacit. Hist. lib. 15.  to maintain that freedom, and to keep all men accountable and responsable. But yet an unjust, unlawful Licence of Slandering and Butchering the Reputations of our honourable Patriots, to the view of the World, and shame of our Government, must have a remedy suitable to the constitution of it. 
4. In a Theocratick constitution are excellent Laws against it.  And so in a Theocracy is most excellent Provision made against it, as we find not only in the Canons of Israel, Exod. 22. 28. Numb. 12. 1, 9, 10, 11. but in the New Testament, 2 Pet. 2. 10. Jam. 4. 11. Speak not evil of one another (brethren:) he that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the Law, and judgeth the Law! but if thou judge the Law, thou art not a doer, but a Judge. So Judas 8. 10. we must not speak evil of Dignities, or of persons in Government; such an ill tendency it hath to the disturbance of the Peace, 
Livii Hist. lib. 28.  as well as defamation of the State. It was an excellent Oration of the P. Scipio to the Senate of Rome upon this Subject, in Ans. to Q. FABIUS. Neutrum faciam P. C. & si nullâ aliâ re, Modestia certe & temperamento linguae adolescens senem vicero, etc. So that wide meuths may be in fashion in Cumena; but not so in the Commonwealth, to complain of Freckles as sore as of Plague-spots: which some do very indiscreetly.  
4. Consideration. 
4. Consid. to secure us from a Lapse.  That the Lapse of the Commonwealth into a Kingdom (so much threatened from Causes inward and outward) requires the utmost skill, wisdom, care and vigilance that can be, to keep it off, and to secure it from the Causes of it. How agreeable and obliging this Rule of preventing a Lapse is, 
1. A Rule with Surgeons & Anatomists.  for the perfect Sanity and Recovery of the Body, is obvious from the daily practice of all skilful Surgeons, Anatomists and Physicians; 
2. With Physicians, which Mr. B. practices contrary unto.  who ought to take as much care; and use as much judgement to keep off the Lapse, as to recover the Patient of a dangerous Disease; and this is usually by an Universal Evacuation of those vicious humours out of the Body, that caused the Distemper; that so the same peccant & malignant spirits may neither revive, return, nor yet retire into any place of the same body, (be it the remotest;) and so the Body will be the better secured both from the reversion and revulsion of those morbific Causes. 
3. With all the wisest Statesmen, Grecians and Romans.  And it is as necessary in the body Politic to be observed and preserved; if we value the examples of the wisest men that ever laid a Commonwealth, or served in it, Zaleucus for the Locrians, Archytas for the Tarentines, Solon for the Athenians, Bias and Thales for the jonians, Gleobulus for the Rhodians: so Charondas, Socrates, Xenophon, & a many others, which Thucydides recounts, in Hist. l. 3. particularly, when the Mityl●ans left the Athenians; and in later Republ. what extraordinary care was always taken to keep off a defection, 
Ex. 11. lib. Polybii. Ex. l. Dion. Rom. Hist. 45. & Livii lib. 28.  we find by the abundance of terse and quick Orations made by P. Scipio to's Soldiers, but especially M. T. Cicero in the Roman Senate, and to the People after Caesar was slain, when he moved for an Amnesty for Brutus, Cassius and others that were fled into the Capitol; and in his Orations against Catiline, his Philippics against M. Antony; And de Lege Agrariâ against P. Servilius, Rullus the Tribune and others; to all which we might add Brutus' practice to prevent the Lapse, by obliging the Romans in an Abjuration of KINGS; and so they disposed of all the Crown-Lands to the Public sale, and tore down Tarquin's statues. The like did the Hollanders by an Oath of Abjuration, and the like did you before the late Apostasy: but alas, alas! though this shows your care, yet somewhat more must go to show your skill, before you perfectly cure us of this disease (or of the danger of it) which (in the judgement of some of your mourning friends!) can never be by Mr. P's, B's, or H's Advice; nor so long as the very same Humours and some of the most dangerous remains of the late Apostasy, are so far from being evacuated and expulsed, that they are returned again into their former Places and Capacities, yea, seated about in several, 
Not only by outward means, but by taking away the inward causes Lib. 5. c. 4.  (and some in the eminentest) parts of the whole body; which are shrewd Symptoms of our returning again to folly (if the Lord prevent not!) for in a course of Reason, what will the aforesaid outward means signify, if these inward causes shall remain? Corruptioni conservatio est contraria, (saith Arist.) Not that the Parliament ought to use the utmost rigour or severity, in all cases of maladministration or the like; This Austerity in the Gracchis (Livy tells us) did keep up the deadly feud between the People and the Senators of Rome, till the Rupture of a downright War: And indeed Cleon's Oration for the utmost severity upon the Apostates from the Commonwealth of Athens, viz. the Mitylenaeans, after they were brought under (Vt omnes Mitylenaei Puberes capitis supplicio afficerentur: Venderentur pro Mancipiis conjuges & liberi) that the very flower and Cavalry of them be wholly cut off; 
Thucyd. Hist. l. 3.  their wives and children sold for slaves, etc. was as quickly revoked by others, for the utmost lenity and clemency they could show them, that did consist with the safety and tranquillity of the Commonwealth, when they saw the inconvenience of extremity on either part: in another Oration; At nos nunc contriarium faciemus, si liberos homines qui indomiti repetiverunt libertatem, rursus oppressos crudeliter puniamus. Oportebat autèm non post Defectionem in homines liberos saevitiam exercere; sed ante eos valdè custodire, & cavere ne consilia talia instituant; post recuperationem quam minime eis hoc delictum exprobare. But now let us do the contrary: if they who were so unruly, have repent, and repetitioned or desired their liberties (as fréemen) in the Commonwealth, we may let them have them; and if they offend again, may punish them the more severely. But it did not so much behoove us after their defection or Apostasy to be cruel to them that are freemen; but before, rather to beware and watch lest such Counsels should establish them in their way, then after their recovery to upbraid them with their Apostasy. And the like Counsel was given about others, whom the Athenians decreed should lose a finger or a thumb of their right hands for their defection, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. that they might be disabled from using a spear against them, & yet able to work, or Row with their Oars. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. but the Mitylenians were worse used, and their youth slain. So that such severity we abhor; but withal we wish that the Parliament would be wary, if not weary of them that yet do, and will (do what they can) retain the same spirit of malignancy and Malevolence to the Cause and suffering servants of God that they had before; so as to eye them diligently, 
Sad symptoms of a Lapse into the late disease.  lest they settle and involve a Lapse to the Commonwealth, either by revuision or reversion. For what Physician (to this body Polit.) that sees not these the very signs of a Lapse into the late or like disease or Apostasy; which arose up in this very manner? from the same seat of (black) choler? and shall we ever forget by what steps their late General mounted to the top of temptation, (and slept upon the top of a Mast, Prov. 23. 34.) when he had procured that Act of Indemnity, and gotten an interest in that Party; and is not this, this over-iudulgence of vicious, corrupt and inimical spirits in the body, that which hath shortened the lives of many excellent Commonwealths? was not the Roman Republic in continual fluctuations, motions, and a thousand hazards (daily) of being destroyed by the Tarquinian Parties keeping up an interest in the Commonwealth? opposite to the interest of the Commonwealths? and of all Governments, they are most alterable and unstable, Arist. lib. 5. c. 12. that nourish such spirits and humours as are all for a Single Person, and Ran-counter the true state of the Commonwealth to effect it. So in Corinth, it is true Cypselus was the longer up, through his interest and favour which he had with the People as a Popular man; and Periandrus his son after him, being he was a brave Soldier, and kept the Sword girt about him; but Pisistratus who succeeded him, was twice driven out of his Government, and the People restless till they had secured themselves from the like attempts of a Single Person. So among the Syracusans some had a mind to keep up the interest of a Single Person, which the Commonwealth could not endure; and until secured from such attempts, was never without commotions, particularly by Hieron and Gelon, the last of whom got in for seven years, and the first for ten years and all that ever (after that) attempted it, 
Till the inward causes be removed, the outward means will never cure us in the Commonws.  brevi tempore duraverunt, saith the Historian, were but shot-lived. How many instances might I give besides, to secure us from the Lapse, by a rout of those malevolent humours Heterogenean spirits and inward causes which endanger the Commonwealth, and are inconsistent with it, (at least from PLACES most considerable, or near the heart of the Commonwealth) until which no outward means will or can be a Preservative sufficient. And as in Politics, so in Theocracy it is a sure Rule, and requires the highest diligence, 
4. In Theocracy special care to secure us from the Lapse.  industry, and insight that can be, Josh. 24. 22, 23, 24. 2. Chron. 15. 2. and the promise is, Dan. 2. 44. His kingdom shall never be destroyed, nor left to other people. Because, Prov. 17. 15. He that justifies the wicked and condemneth the just; even they both are an abomination to the Lord. Besides, the saddest Tragedies we might tell you amongst men, have had their rise from an over-indulging, I mean nourishing and impowering inimical spirits in the Commonwealth, as of Brutus' sons (for his father's sake) Maelius and Manlius, and so Sylla and Marius, and a many others in the Roman Republic; besides, Agathocles in Sicily; Cosmos and Savaranola in Florence, Castrucio in Luca; and of late years it is observable how the Jesuits served the King of France (Hen. 4.) who to gratify the Pope and the People, recalled the Jesuits (that were before exiled, and a monument of it set up for posterity) into that Nation again by the Parliament of Paris; but to his own cost: for they stabbed him quickly; so dangerous is a Lapse, or a Revocation of them again into trust, that are or aught to be evacuated the Body. Wherefore a Commonwealth in aequali, must first be considered ex quali as to the quality of them that rule and are entrusted in it; and not first ex quanto (as Mr. H. and others would) if ever we mean to keep it stable, sound, and immovable in its foundation and constitution.  
5. Consideration. 
5. Consid. all extremities avoided, both an Oligarchy and Ochlocraty.  That all extremities be wisely avoided; and particularly this of falling into an Ochlocraty, by flying out of an Oligarchy pretended. As this Rule of Mediocrity is requisite in the Anatomist, to make a curious and complete Section; so in the Physician, as to every Potion he gives the Patient, so corrected and composed, as may at once both kill the Disease and keep up the spirits. 
Mediocrity in Anatomy and in Physic, and in Politics.  So in Politics it is the Golden Rule; and that which (saith Arist. Polit. lib. 4. c. 12.) hath ever been the Cause of the long continuance of a Commonwealth (Mediocritate quadam, durationis causa fuit;) and it is observable, all the time that Corinth flourished, it was said, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. to administer a most righteous and Moderate Government, as Ovid saith, Medio tutissimus ibis. Now it is very often, that a sickly or distempered body doth fall out of one extremity into another, out of one passion, humour, or danger, 
Danger in running from one extremity to fall into another.  into another; (Incidit in Scyllam qui vult vitare Charibdim,) so to shun the Sands, OCEANA would cast us upon the Rocks in his Platform; or for fear a few should Rule us, he would (to run wide enough) flinch us quite out of the way, and put it into the hands of the mere Multitude or Confusion together, without discrimination (of friends and enemies.) 
Oligarchy in the meaning of it, is the Tyranny of a few: so in the Roman Oligarchy.  Whereas an Oligarchy indeed, is not meant the Rule of a few (as p. 76.) but the Tyranny of a few; as in the Triumvirs and Decemvirs of Rome (whom Livy describes, lib. 2. to have been rather Butchers than Rulers, Tormentors than Magistrates) keeping up a Monarchick-interest and spirit repugnant and repudiant to a Free-state; so that Mr. H. and those friends so afraid of Oligarchy, would do well to tell us, if such a thing (rightly defined) be in being or no, amongst us! Such were the thirty Tyrants or Oligarchy in Athens, 
So the Athethenian Oligarchy. Lib. 2. Xenoph. Reb. Gest. Graec.  rising from the corruption of a Free-state, who (to use the Historians own words,) Non solum Improbos ac Seditiosos è medio repellerent; sed etiam bones (maximè ditiores) aut necarent, aut ex urbe repellerent, were so cruel and unjust, that not only wicked and seditions, but good men and the best were cut off, or banished; which made Socrates complain so to Antisthenes of it: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. When he saw so many men of repute and worth, rich and of great esteem in the Commonwealth, to be made away, ensnared, or cruelly slain by the ill Government of the thirty Tyrants, he said to Antisthenes! Now brother, let it not trouble us that we have hunted after nothing great or considerable in our kind of life: seeing such Tragedies are daily perpetrated and bleeding before our eyes. Such a Government of a few (or Tyranny rather) was an Oligarchy indeed, 
Malice it's self cannot say this Par. Government is an Oligarchy in the Definition of it.  which MALICE its self cannot say of this Parliament, or of any now in Power. This was that which Theramenes (one of the thirty, a wise and prudent man) did oppose very elegantly and gallantly, & hortari collegas suos caepit, ut moderate non insolenter concessâ sibi potestate uterentur: sed eam ob causam à Critia, apud collegas reliquos accusatus fuit, quasi perfide ageret, 30. Tyrannorum proderet causam, parts populi tueretur, ideoque puaiendus & è medio tollendus esset, etc. and began to exhort his colleagues that they would use the power granted them moderately, and not so imperiously; but for this cause was the good man accused by Critia to the rest, as if he had done perfidiously, betrayed the cause of the thirty Tyrants (or, Oligarchy) in defending the People's Rights and Liberties, and therefore would have had him punished and put to death. But his Oration, and Theramenes his defence, though worth our reading, I think not fit to commend to writing, but refer to lib. 2. Xenoph. & Junii orat. 3. pt. p. 29, 30, 31, 32, 33. The main Argument being taken from the example of the Lacedem. Ephors. By all which, we find an Oligarchy far different from what good people are apt to take it; and so through mistake, to hazard us with a mere confusion or Ochlocraty, 
An Ochlocraty, what it is and the danger of it in our days. Under the Decemviri to avoid an Oligarchy they ran into an Ochlocraty, so in Florence.  i. e. the Tyrannical and unruly spirit of the Multitude, which hath no more mercy nor bounds in it, than the Sea when broken loose. And this the sad experience of old Rome hath left upon Record: the people (in the days of the Decemviri, to avoid that Oligarchy) ran into it, like mad, committing the most flagitious outrages of any, that they might be revenged upon them of the Oligarchy. And in the State of Florence, one Soderino and some others kept themselves up in a Monarchick spirit of Oligarchy over the people; which to avoid, they ran into Tumults, and fell at last (like the Flounder out of the dish into the fire) into a remedy as bad, 
The sad effects of an Ochlocraty  or worse than the disease, by calling in the Spaniards. It is out of doubt, that an Ochlocraty, is little better than a daily Massacre of the most eminent Worthies that the Commonwealth has▪ and it saddens my Spirits to see, how eager (upon Mr. H. his Principles) some are to put it on, under a pretended danger of an Oligarchy. In Theocracy there is nothing more obvious, obnoxious, or liable to disturb the Peace and order of the Commonwealth: 
This Ochlocraty the people ran into, in the days of Moses and Aaron.  and it occasioned that notorious Rebellion of Corah, Dathan and Abiram, Numb. 16. 2, 3. who with two hundred and fifty others (in anger, like the Secluded Members,) of the chief, rose up against Moses and Aaron, etc. (as against an Oligarchy) saying, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the Congregation are holy every one of them; So that they fell into such an Ochlocraty as cost not only the two hundred and fifty dear, but the lives of 14700. in the tumult by the hand of the Lord against them; so little pleasure hath he in such extremities; and under the colour of flying from an Oligarchy to involve us in a worse.  
6. Consideration. 
6. Consid is, that Reason of State be not our staff or strength, or only principle to act by.  That you be exceeding wary how far you rely upon that broken reed of REASON of STATE, or trust to that deceitful BOW, either against your enemies, or for the Cause and Adherents thereof; seeing it has destroyed so many that have gone before you. We mean not here the Public Reason, or right reason; Reason it's self rightly qualified and fitted for the Public good; but Private reason, or the reason of a few, for their own own ends and interests, pretending them the Public; 
1. In Anatomy private reason to be exploded.  or Opinionative reason and understanding; which in all true Sciences are avoided. As in Anatomy mere and empty notions like Mr. P's, which make much noise, but with little substance, and to little service for the Public, 
2. In Physic private reason to be avoided, when adminster to Patients.  either in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Inspective or Instructive parts of Anatomy. So do wise Physicians, leave private disceptations, opinionative and impractical Notions to mere Upstarts, as fitter for Schools to be troubled with, then to perplex or endanger sick Patient's. And as requisite is it for the Body Politic, that we disquiet it not with perplexable Platonian speculations, 
3. In Politics, as dangerous and deceitful.  or the rolling Political Ideas of every ones private reason, or with Reason of State; like to Machiavils Prince, whose principles of Policy and knavery I have answered, and encountered with principles of piety and honesty, in a Treatise long agone, 
(*) Sagrir. or Doomsday drawing nigh, etc. p. 142, 143, 144, 145, 146. True reason from false, or public reason from private.  so shall say the less here. This is the very cause of all eccentric Motions in the management of our Cause, and that which sets up the reason of the State (which is most shameful and unreasonable) in many things directly opposite to highest and bravest Acts of justice, Piety and Innocency, to the great grief of all the upright in heart! Reason (true Reason) is indeed the very life of motion in matters of outward Government: But Private Reason, false and flattering Reason, (called ordinarily Reason of State) is the life of all dangerous Motions and stirs to the ruin of the Commonwealth: Whereby men can play fast and loose, smile and smite, Compliment and kill at once; Give good words and bad deeds; and that which is worst, under the mask of Piety manage iniquity with both hands, Mic. 2. O horrid principle! the break-neck of all good Government as well as bad. 
How destructive Reason of State is to Commonw. to make that the Principle of Gou.  For by this Principle or Reason of State, Pharaoh thought to have ruined Israel, Exod. 1. 10. Come! let us deal wisely with them; and ruined himself. Saul spared Agag, whom he should have destroyed, 1 Sam. 15. and destroyed himself. jeroboam by this Reason set up his Calves! and jehu kept up the Statutes of Omri. Daniel's enemies by this prevailed with the King to cast him into the Den, where themselves were destroyed, Dan. 6. By this, Pilat condemned, and the Pharisees accused our Lord Jesus, Joh. 11. and 18. And what mischief is it (even to themselves as well as others) that this (Single) Principle leads not headlong to? Jesabel's brains did the mischief, so Jesabels' brains received the mischief, and were dashed against the stones; and as by a Letter she had Naboth's blood, so by a Letter she lost her own. This Reason of State, is the Ruin of State; and that which withholds the Truth in unrighteousness, Rom. 1. 18. For which the wrath of God is revealed from heaven. But there is a Reason (in Theocracy) Public, 
4. In Theocratick Gou. not private reason, or mere Reason of State, but pure, and Public Reason.  Pious and Pure Reason (which men as men, as well as Saints, are the Subjects of, and may be restored unto) and a Cicero could say, Lex nihil aliud est nisi Recta & à numine deorum tracta Ratio. Now for as much as Christ is (1 Cor. 11. 3.) the head of every man, and of every man's reason, or rational life, as well as of every spiritual; which acts and moves, as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a Principle of Nature for the Common good of all, and not as a Principle of expediency or of Policy; not of Fortune (as they call it) nor of Art; it is Divine as well as Humane, and agrees in all things with Honesty, Justice, Piety and Simplicity. In which sense it is said, Prov. 8. 14, 15. Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom; I am understanding, I have strength. By me King's reign, and Princes decree justice: by me Princes rule, and Nobles, even all the judges of the earth; and so all motions are sure to be concentrical for the service of that head and of the whole body. 
Heathens had some sparks of this fire, or Candle of the Lord, as it is called, Prov. 20. 27. The understanding of man, is the Candle of the lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Sept. & Aqu. Symm. Theod. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  It was a worthy piece of wisdom and reason in the Roman Senate (when Pyrrhus had wars with them, and his own Physician Cineas for reward, had like a Traitor written to them, that if they would, he could easily kill him with a Purge) to repudiate and abhor such perfidy (which Policy in many, or Reason of State (so corrupt it is) would have admitted) and send word to Pyrrhus what a Plot Cineas had against him, saying, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, The Romans have learned to overcome by Virtue; they are good men, and scorn to conquer their ENEMIES with Treachery, tricks, or frauds. This (as the APOSTLE saith, Rom. 2. 14, 15.) was doing by nature the things of the Law; much more will the true Reason or light of Nature derived from above, abhor to hurt or injure your friends by subtlety and Policy. Not but that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
How far right reason is Artifical?  this natural reason (we speak of) is in all things exact, in many things artificial, and in nothing defective (for such a use under Christ) nor yet luxuriant; yet so is it Artificial only, as tends to accommodate Righteousness and Truth, with good Government, the Public Interest, and the Cause of God. And Peter (the Apostle) tells us, Acts 10. 34, 35. That in every Nation (of the Heathens) he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted; which they may do from the best, or purest Light of Nature and Intellectuals they have; which therefore was accounted Divine and immortal by the Heathens, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and indeed, as it is renewed and restored by Jesus Christ, and recovered in any measure from the fall of the first Adam, by him (who is the head of all Rational and Spiritual beings, whether in heaven or in earth, visible or invisible, whether thrones, dominions, principalities, or powers, Col. 1. 16, 17.) This right Reason amongst men, and Governments of men! may be said to be Divine, and to have its heavenly birth and being in the Creature, as it had in Adam, (as I have largely and lucidly expatiated upon it, in Doomsday, etc. Chap. 2.) under this Adam or rational righteousness and dispensation, is, or ought the Dominion, Psal. 8. 5, 6. to be over others; and when this Principle is perfectly restored, the Lord alone will be exalted in that day, Isa. 2. 11, 17. Psa. 18. 46. and 46. 10. and 97. 9 but as this Principle of right reason is rejected, the Beast or brutish spirit is set up and exalted in the Governments, and the worst of men put in on all sides, Psal. 12. 8. Hab. 1. 4. but Prov. 11. 11. By the blessing of the upright the City is exalted.  
7. Consideration. 
7. Consid▪ for Instruction of people in the principles of a Christian Commonwealth. A Rule with Anatomists and with Physicians.  That there may not be such an universal neglect of a due instruction and education of all people, and PROFICIENTS in the true and genuine Principles of a Christian Commonwealth; the knowledge whereof would be the most probable means of a plenary satisfying, convincing, acquiescing, & establishing them therein; & to see their best or only interest to lie in a Commonwealth. This Rule of Instruction and education, agrees with all Arts and Sciences, wherein they had need to Commence some degrees, before they become Professors, Practitioners, or Doctors to others. So in Anatomy and Physic, a man must first find out all the difficulties, mysteries amazing Meanders and hard Labyrinths in the whole body, before he undertake to meddle with it,— aget mercede Caballum, Arcanum neque tu scrutaberis ullius unquam, commissumque teges, etc. Hence had they an Oath given them of old, which Hypocrates would have all Physicians take; not only to acquaint themselves with the utmost secrets, intricacies, and mysteries of those Sciences, before they fall to practice; but to oblige them wholly in the contemplation thereof, without deviation or intention of mind to any other thing, that they might have a most excellent inspection in the State of the body (both inward and outward:) which I wish Mr. P. and B. had done with a due and more mature judgement. 
And with Politicians, the most prudent and best Commonws.  But in the Politic body, such provision hath ever been made to principle the people and their little ones in the knowledge and practice of a Commonwealth, as seldom but they made it one of their first precepts, to secure and perpetuate the Government, as Horace hath it, Lib. 1. epist. 20. Hoc quoque te manet, ut Pueros elementa docentem, occupet extremis in vicis balba senectus. And so the Druids did educate their very children in the principles of a Free-State, saith Caesar. Thus in the Grecian Commonwealth, Plutarch, Isecrates, Aristotle, and a many tell us the extraordinary care they took in this, 
In the Schools of the Lacedæmonians  tying up the Paedagogues and Schoolmasters to such Rules as were most accommodate to the constitution of a Free-state. And the Lacedæmonians, in their public Festivals had their three Courses brought in thus: 1. By the old men rejoicing in a Free-State or Commonwealth.  
We have been young and strong! and valiant heretofore, Till crooked age did pull us back! and hid us do no more.  
2. By the young men in their prime, with this Song. We yet are young and strong! and ready to maintain Our Commonws. against all men! that on the earth remain.  
3. The last Course was brought in by little children singing and leaping.  
And we do hope erelong! to pass you all at last! Of this the world shall witness be, ere many years be past.  
They were admirable examples in the education of very little ones, 
The Lacedaemonian Laws for instructing youth in Commonw. Principles.  Aristot. lib. 8 c. 1. Quod igitur à legis-positore maximè intendendum sit circa disciplinam juventutis, nemo utique dubitabit; nam id quidòm neglectum in civitatibus affert Reipublicae detrimentum. Oportet enim ad singula Gubernandi genera disciplinam accommodari. So a little after, Laudari possunt in hoc Lacedaemonii: nam plurimam circa pueros diligentiam faciunt, & quidem Publicè quod igitur Lege providendum sit, circa disciplinam juventutis, & hoc Publice faciendum patet. Therefore that the Lawmaker do in a special manner mind the disciplining of youth in the principles of the Commonwealth, is questioned by no man; for indeed the neglect of it exhibits detriment to the Government of a Commonwealth: and it behoves that the education and institution be adequated or accommodated to the kind of Government we are under. In this the Lacedæmonians may be praised highly; for they gave much diligence to the bringing up of their children (in the principles of a Free-State) and that publicly; which therefore ought to be provided for by a Law. So lib. 7. c. 14. Similiter quoque posterorum quidam Scriptores opinionem suam eandem ostenderunt, à laudantes enim Lacedaemoniorum Rempublic. admirantur, etc. Also late Writers have highly applauded the Commonwealth of Lacedaemon for this. Also the Laconians, l. 8. c. 4. are commended for it, 
Xenoph. li. 7. Pediae Cyri.  and accounted it necessary in their establishment. Yea, long before that, at the rise of the Persian Monarchy most excellent Arguments did Cyrus lay down in an Oration to the States for the instructing the Persians and their Children in such principles as suited with that establishment. Educatione liberorum diligentur Publico in loco institutâ ab ipsis parentibus; quâ fit ut & Parents in officio contineantur, exemplo bono liberis praecant; & liberi etsi velint, tamen improbi facile non evadant, cum turpe nihil vel audiant vel videant. By an exquisite education of their Children in some public place appointed of their Parents; by which it would happen that their Parents (in office) by their good examples shall go before them; and their Children (if they would) shall not easily be wicked, when they hear or see nothing that is shameful or base. So that as this was ever accounted a requisite Point in Politics, 
4. In Theocracy as necessary to educate them in the principles of a Commonws.  it is no less enjoined in the Theocratick Government of the Commonwealth, Deut. 6. 7. Thou shalt whet them diligently upon thy children, and talk of them, when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. Deut. 4. 9 and 11. 19 Prov. 22. 6. Ephes. 6. 4. Gen. 19 19 And to make it practicable, is the easiest of all things: as Arist. lib. 7. c. 17. 
How delightful it is, to make it practicable in Schools and Colleges.  tells us, in their public Schools, they were wont to acquaint their YOUTH with the Histories of their Free-state (as well as with the Principles) Quas autem Narrationes & fabulas illâ aetate, pueni audire debeant; cura sit iis quì pueris Publice praeficiuntur: Which Stories of that Age, the Children ought to hear and know; and special care be on them that have the education of them! Thus the Children of Israel did often repeat the Histories of their coming out of Egypt to their little ones, 
1. To acquaint them throughly with the Histories and occurences of our Commonwealth, such as are fit for Posterity to keep in Memory.  and tell them of their mercies, deliverances, Victories, and establishment of their Commonwealth, how they came to be so formidable a People in the earth, Deut. 4. 9, 34, 35. and 11. 19 and 31. 13. and 32. 7. and of their Purim, Esther 9 27, 28. Also in their Schools the Lacedem. were wont to have suc● Orders as if every School were a Commonwealth, in their several forms, 
2. To have such orders in every School and College as consist best with a Commonws. I had thoughts long since of presenting a Platform of it, both to the advantage of learning and of the Common-weal.  places, parts, functions, offices, and honours, graduating and degrading, making one entire body; Cuncta enim talia ad conversationes posteà futuras accommodanda sunt, itaque ludi utplurimum tales essent, debent, ut sint imitationes eorum, quae posteà serio erunt, facienda. For all such things are to be accommodated now, as to their after conversations; and therefore they should be such, as have much of DELIGHT and PLEASURE in them to the CHILDREN, that they be imitations of those very things which afterwards, and in time, must be done seriously and in earnest by them. 
3. To prohibit and punish all obscene language, and sordid discourse or unsavoury words.  Furthermore, Omninò obscaenitas verborum, ut quicquam aliud per Legislatorem exterminanda est de civitate; ex turpiter enim loquendi licentia sequitur & turpiter facere; potissimum igitur statim à pueris, neque dicant neque audiant quicquam turpe, etc. Obscene naughty words, actions, or any such filthy thing that would not be approved or admitted in the good Government of a City or a Commonwealth, must not here be suffered; for if they take a liberty to speak evilly, they will quickly take it to do evilly. And therefore of all things, this must be most strictly eyed in children (brought up for a Christian Commonwealth) that they neither speak any thing, nor hear any thing that is filthy or shameful; if any do, that they be forthwith punished, fined, or degraded their honour, and put into a more servile seat, office and capacity. Many such Rules might be given in the education of youth, that a Commonwealth of all Governments may be the most destreable to them, and they see it to be their very Interest, indeed, to keep up that Government, in opposition not only to Charles Stuart (as it is de facto offered in the late Book called Interest will not Lie; at whose Author, I had almost said, Scripta pudet recitare, etc.) but to any Single Person or Family whatsoever.  
— nunc adhibe puro  
Pectore verba (puer!) nunc te melioribus offer.  
8. Consideration. That a wide and welcome door may be set open (and kept so) to the merit of those Persons, 
8. Consid An open and honourable door to merit and virtue.  who climb up into the Chair of honour and dignity of the Commonwealth, by steps of public virtue, wisdom, fidelity, fortitude and ability. That this Rule is observed by the masters of Anatomy, Physics and other Sciences, 
It is so in all the Arts of Anatomy, Physic, and Politics.  we all know, platting wreathes of honour upon the heads of the most deserving, able and experienced in those faculties; and he must be as monstrously ignorant of History, as of the Minerval, that knows not this to be the very PATH in all Politics, and well-governed Commonwealths 
— aut virtus Nomen inane est,  
Aut decus, 
Hor. lib. 1.  & pretium rectè petit experiens vir. 
Epist. 17.   Seeing honours and places were not exposed to sale, or given away by favour, but purchased and possessed by virtue and merit, to the Great Renown of those Nations and Commonwealths. 
Among the Grecian Commonwealths.  As first, among the Greeks, men of mean parentage, and of extreme poverty (most of them) that were raised (merely by merit) to the highest pitch of Honour and preferment. 
Aelian lib. 2 c. 43. and lib. 11. c. 9  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. The best and most famous of all the Grecians were very low and mean, as Aristides, renowned at home and abroad, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. and Epaminondas a General of the Thebans against the Lacedæmonians, so low in the world, that when his Garment was mendding, or at the Fuller's, he was glad to lie in bed, all day-long, for want of another to put on. So Photion, who when Alexander sent him an hundred Talents, asked the reason of it; the Messenger said, Because of all the Athenians (〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) he thinks thee alone to be the honest and good man, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Then (saith he) let him suffer me to be such a one, and to keep so, for I scorn his Bribes. Thus Pelopidas the Theban; Lamachus the Athenian; Socrates, Ephialtes, and a many others, that all rose into honour by merit and exceeding worth. The like we find in the Roman Commonwealth, 
And in the Roman Commonwealth.  as Attilius Regulus, Quinctus Cincinnatus, Paul. Aemylius, Lucius Tarquin (not the Tyrant,) Horatius Cocles, Fabricius; and abundance more than came into request and renown by mere worth and excellency for Public-spiritedness and service, 
Vid. Aurel. de Viris illustriss.  being men of very mean descent, and estates, (if any.) And that this is the Rule in a godly Commonwealth (or Theocracy) we have it highly exemplified in the holy Scriptures, 
4. A Theocratick Governm. Win it and Wear it; the Palm is given to merit and dignity.  as 1 Chron. 11. 6. And David said, Whosoever smiteth the Jebusites fi●st, shall be chief and Captain. So 2 Sam. 23. 8. to the end of the Chapter, all David's Worthies and honourable ones were such as won their honour and preferment by merit and worth. It is observed that Moses, Numb. 3. 38. when he settled the People, (in eight Wards, as the Hebrews say) in order and dignity, did not so much as prefer his own Sons, into any high places, so much respect he had to worth and dignity in the Commonwealth. And Nehemiah, Chap. 7. 2. would not give his Brother Hananiah a Commission but for this, that he was a faithful man, and feared God above many. By this Rule all such Lori-pedanean Parasites, pitiful Time-servers, and splayfooted Suitors for Places or preferment, upon the account of kindred, friendship, interest in persons, or any thing else but worth and honour, 
According to the Parl. Golden V. could we see it enamell'd with silver practices.  should be sent back (re infectâ) for a better Testimonial, then that in Prov. 30. 20. She wipeth her mouth! and saith, What evil have I done? and by the Parliaments most excellent Vote to be otherwise qualified; which O! that it were put in practice! and written upon a Pillar of Marble! 
Luxuriantia compescet, nimis aspera sano  
Levabit cultu, virtute carentia tollet.  to put an end to our Controversy! raise up the Renown of our Nation! and open the door of preferment to the faithful of the Land; to the depression of Vice and Luxury, but to the highest pitch and emulation of Virtue and Desert! Psal. 101. 3, 6. Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me! Some there be like Heart of Oak have stood to it in all turns for the Cause, and have not warped in the least! Now shall our (Renowned SENATORS!) make a staff of Osiers to lean upon? that will bend any way? or are little worth? Time will come, When time shall be no more, Rev. 10. 6. this may be sad to them, that serve the Time! but sweet to them that serve Eternity! How can ye believe (saith Christ) Joh. 5. 44. which receive honour one of another? and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?  
Virtus repulsae nescia sordidae  
Intaminatis fulget honoribus;  
Nec sumit aut ponit secures  
Arbitrio Popularis aurae.  
9 Consideration. 
9 Considered. that the spirit of Monarchy and malignancy pass not out of one form into another form of Government.  That the temperature of this Body Politic or the Commonwealth may be such, as that the spirit of Tyranny and injustice, may not pass out of one form into another, to persecute the people (or any of the parts) with, either in Civil or Religious matters. For as in Anatomy the body is to be opened according to the Structure, conformation and constitution of every part, wherein as the substance is considered both from the form and matter of it by sensible qualities; so also is the Temper that depends upon and seats in substance, in all which Mr. P's Anatomy is most defective. So in Physics, the whole body (as I said before) is the Patient, 
The care, in Anatomy and in Physics, and in the Body Politic, as in Athens.  and not this or that part only (as Mr. B. makes it;) now as a disease may be driven out of one part of the body into another, where it may as certainly kill it as before; So it is in the BODY POLITIC. And of this had Athens the sad experience in the Oligarchy of the thirty (as I said before) for when they laid aside Kingly form (as Tyrannical) they let the same spirit rise up again in the thirty, to their cost. Also when Tarquin was turned out of Rome, 
And in Rome it did; to the almost ruin of the people, and the extinction of the Republ.  and the people had declared for a Free-State, they wanted wisdom to evacuate the Monarchick spirit, quite out of the whole body; but they let it rise again in another form of Government, viz. the Consulary, so that saith Livy, (Lib. 2.) Regni quidem Nomen, sed non regia potestas Româ fuit expulsa: The name of a (King and) Kingdom was expelled with him; but (alas!) yet Kingly Power and spirit was retained in the CONSULS; whom he calls Carnifices, non consuls, rather Hangmen and Tormentors of the people; and so tells us, consuls immoderatâ infinitâque Pratestate omnes Metus Legum in Populum, etc. the Consuls by an immoderate and boundless Power, turned all the dread and fears of the Laws upon the People; And after that they had laid aside this form, succeeded the Decemviri in the same spirit of Tyranny, and imposing still, keeping up a Monarchick spirit and power of presecuting; And after that was laid aside, arose the Consuls with Dictator's, and also Tribunes, as bad as any before. So that it is not the laying aside of any one form of Government, so much as of the spirit, Tyranny, injustice, private interest, and selfseeking in every form, seeing Potentes Potenter torquebuntur; preferring the Public good and freedom of the sound body of Adherents to the Cause, above life, ease, honour or any thing. 
4. I● Theocracy, an exact justice and freedom weighed out and measured by the spirit of a Commonwealth  And to make up a Theocratick Temper of Government, it is (of all things) expected (both from God and men,) that in every form, justice, righteousness and freedom be administered by the Plumb-line, Amos 7. 7, 8. and the measuring-line, Zach. 2. 1. to all the people, suitable to the nature of the establishment. Isai. 9 7. and 1. 26, 27. and 32. 1. and 58. 2. and 59 4. Psal. 85. 11. and 97. 2. Gen. 18. 19 Deut. 33. 21. Eccles. 5. 8. Prov. 8. 5. and 21. 3. Jer. 31. 23. etc. So Amos 5. ●4. and 15. Hate the Evil! and love the Good! and establish judgement in the Gate! seeing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. Caesar himself was then glad to frequent the gates of Aristones, and Pompey of Cratippus; prefessing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; they desired not so much to Rule, as to rule well, worthily and with righteousness.  
10. Consid. 
10. Consid. to keep up the recovery of th● Commonw. by all suitable means So as Phys. deal with the Natural body recovered, must the Parlia. with this Politic body.  That the special means for preservation of what is recovered, be kept up and maintained; seeing we have as much need of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, helps to keep health, as of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, helps to procure health to the Commonwealth when it is in danger. This is one of the special Ends of Physic; so that the Patient must be as careful (after he is recovered) of his Diet, Air, Motion, Rest, and of the Temper of his Body, and Pathemata or passions of his mind, as may be: so it is in the Commonwealth; it is not enough to have health, but to hold it! to be restored to it, but to be secured in it, and corroborated with suitable Aliments, such as consubstantiate into the whole, with temperate, clear and nitid air, and moderate motions, such as may conserve health in an almost recovered Patient; with such rest and refreshing of the spirits of the Commonwealth, as will further the concoction of the whole body. And not to fall in again or feed upon the very same corrupt, hurtful and unwholesome trash as hath spoiled the blood, endangered the life of the Commonwealth, or generated malign humours in it. The Locrians observing how many sickened, and were in woeful hazard with a wine they drank, made a Law, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that if any one of the Locrians sick, should drink any of that Wine, yea, although he were in a way of recovery, he should forthwith be put to death, because he did it without command. So there must be a most strict order to keep us off of that wine which did lately poison so many in the Apostasy; and as Aristotle saith to the very Case: 
Lib. 3. c▪ 1.  Respublicas autem videmus specie differre: & alias esse posteriores, alias priores. Quae enim aberraverunt, ac prolapsae sunt, necesse est ut posteriores sint integris & incorruptis, etc. Commonwealths we see to differ in specie: some are so at first, and some at last; for those Commonwealths that have Apostatised, slipped, erred and fallen, it is necessary that at last (or after that) they consist of such as are sound, untainted, entire, uncorrupt and faithful (both as to persons and things!) or else they are never like to stand long. Now this is the Way to preserve the health after it is recovered and restored. Cicero tells us (in orat. 1. in Catil. about the end) that the danger of a Commonwealth is more within it then without it, or from open invasions. So orat. 2. Intus insidiae sunt! intus inclusum periculum est! intus est host is, etc. So orat. 1. Periculum autem residebit, & erit inclusum penitus in Venice atque in Visceribus Rei Publ. ut saepe homines aegri morbo gravi, cum aestu, febrique janctantur, si aquam gelidam biberint primo relevari videntur, deinde multo gravius, vehementiusque afflictantur: sic hic Morbus qui est in Republ. etc. the danger of the Commonwealth lies close, in the veins or bowels of it. As oftentimes a man that is sick drinks that which may a little refresh for present, but enrage for future the Disease; 
In a Theocratick Government, special heed must be had to keep the health recovered in the State.  so it is with the Commonwealth. The evil and danger of this in a Theocratick Government, is evident, by the Lords own complaints of Israel, after he had restored that State, Psal. 78. 8, 9, 10. 36, 37, 41. again and again! so Hos. 7. 1. When I would have healed Israel, than the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria, etc. And therefore seeing you are made whole again, Sin no more! lest a worse thing befall you!  
Narrares Medicis: quòd quanto plura parasti  
Tanto plura Cupis; Nulline Saterier audes?  
Si vulnus tibi, MONSTRATA radice vel Herbâ  
Non fieret levius—.  
11. Considerate. 
11. Consid. Perilous to the Commonws. to admit of so many alterations in the form or foundation A Rule in the Anat. of the Repub.  That it is very dangerous for a Commonwealth, to be in a fluctuating and uncertain State of Establishment; or proclive to any, or many alterations either in the form or FOUNDATION of it. As in Anatomy there is (a Nimium) an overdoing as well as underdoing, which puts the part (as well as body) into many or any shapes, and not into its proper; (neither according to the Structure, conformity nor Constitution or Composition of it; neither in a Mathematical sense, in a Coherence of Quantities; nor yet in a Physical, in the adherence of qualities, use, and union of life with the whole body:) 
Also in the Physical administrations of it.  So it is in Physics, whereby the Doctor may make so many changes and alterations in the blood, & body, as will render it uncapable of recovery: & this is frequent, as by over-physicking, so by undue administering it; I mean, without the Reason, Rule, experience, or Analogy of it, as Mr. B. does constantly in his prescriptions; and all the Cure is but (by alteration of humours or parts incident) out of one Disease with the Introduction of another (as bad or worse) till the Body be destroyed. As in the altering of a Melancholic distemper or humour (Mr. B's disease) which is most gross and earthly (as to the Elements of this Body Politic) being cold and dry, must be obviated by means that are hot and moist: 
So in all the true Politics of it.  but because the same things that will heat and attenuate, will not also moisten; how easy is it to prescribe such means as may alter indeed that humour or indisposition into a far worse? and put all into a Fever or inflammation past Recovery, according to Mr. B's Rules? Thus in the Politic body, it was one of the worst Symptoms that Athens had, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. that they were ever variable in the Polity of their Government, and the most propense of any People alive to vicissitudes and alterations; for sometimes they would be under the Government of Cecrops, and Erechtheus, and Theseus; after that, they found out a Tyranny under Pisistratus; after that, they fell into an Aristocracy; sometimes striving for Monarchy, Aristocracy and Democracy together; A few years after, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. some ten of the prime Citizens managed the Government of the Commonwealth. After that, they constituted the Oligarchy of the thirty Tyrants, and so were always in an unsettled condition, to their utter destruction. Which is a fair warning to us, that we yield to no more alterations than needs must: for Arist. in's Polit. l. 5. c. 1. tells us, In the Causes of such mutations are the most dangerous Commotions, that tend to the inevitable ruin of all; whether made ex presenti statu ad alium, ceu ex Populari Gubernatione ad paucorum potentiam, vel ad Popularem ex Paucis, etc. out of its present state into another, as from a Popular Government to an Oligarchv, or the like. This proclivity to change in Lacedaemon, gave Lysander such grounds and temptations to assume the Government of a Single Person; and would not this animate the vigilant Enemy at all Essays to step in for Ch. Stuart or a Single Person? to see us so changeable or unsettled? Tarquin's friends by this means missed but little (many a time) of restoring the Tyrant, and destroying the Commonwealth, it being the occasion of many (if not most) of their disturbances, and the enemy's designs, 
4. In a Theocratick Government is settlement, to be found.  till they were better settled. But in the Theocracy of it, it is an absolute requisite that it retain the foundation inalterable and for ever; as the foundation of many Generations, Isai. 58. 11. and 44. 28. and 28. 16. Prov. 10. 25. But the righteous is an everlasting foundation; therefore Prov. 24. 21. Meddle not with them that are given to change. Wherefore when Mr. Harrington hath put upon us the Magic Garment called Industum necessitatis, or shirt of necessity, 
Vierius li. 5. c. 15.  once in high esteem with the Germans (Nothembt) which they say, Was spinned upon Christmas-day out of Mud, 
Bromhal's Spectr. 245 p. 89.  by a company of Maids (well-skilled in the Cake it is like) in the Devil's name; we may see a necessity to change our Government with a witness; but not before, without a witness of our folly and madness to all men, and in the sight of all the Nations. Therefore renowned Senators! Quoniam quatuor omnium genera hominum violarunt: Unum eorum, qui odio Rei publi. quòd eam ipsis invitis conservarem, mihi inimicissimi fuerunt; alterum, qui per simulationem amicitiae, nefari● prodiderunt; tertium, qui propter inertiam suam, eadem assequi non possent; quartum, qui cum custodes Rei publi. esse debuerunt salutem, statum, & dignitatem, etc. vendiderunt. There be four sorts of Invaders and Violators of our Liberties, which I have had in Chase to refute for your sakes and the Cause; (that their shirt of necessity, might not put us upon any perilous alterations.) 1. The open and professed Enemy, an Enemy enraged, fell, and rankled; and become mine, for very faithfulness to you and the Commonwealth, being charged up to the Mouth with Volleys of falsehoods and aspersions (which he lets fly with a Powder, upon all the faithful of the Land;) who fell upon the Project of altering the State with a most imprudent and unhappy Procacity; such a one as will rout his Argument with dint of Reason, as easily as his Army with dint of Sword, (the Lord our God blessing with his wont and signal appearances.) 2. The close, knavish and Projecting Enemy; he seems our friend, to be our enemy the more safe and unsuspectedly; and hath the prettiest tricks, but the highest Treacheries to ensnare us with his Petty-forgery. 3. The befooled and possessed enemy, that declines the Cause for want of wisdom to serve it, being so pitifully overreached with the Paltrycraft, or Petty-foggery of the former. But 4. the Lavish and most Plausible, perplexing enemy, that pretends to preserve us, whiles he does expose us, and sell us to the L●ugh, scorn, and contempt of our enemies, who upbraid us with our fidelity and integrity, that (to use the Athenian Proverb) ha●e had an Atticam Fidem for the Common-weal. The 1. sort are Prynian, an enemy now in Arms, that have laid their Wits a little aside, to become Bustlers, Bufflers, or else brutish. The 2. sort are more Baxterian, an en●my in Arts, and upon their Guard; whose Wits are working and on every side. The 3. sort are enemies in Hearts, but (poor creatures!) Whifflers in Reason, Triflers with Treason, and fiddlers in weighty Affairs, beside their Wits, Reason or sound judgement. But the 4. sort, are an Enemy with Parts and Principles, pretending the Commonwealth, but cruel to us who have suffered bonds, banishment, plunderings, perils of life, liberty estates, five or six years together, in many prisons one after another; and yet no reparations, restitution, provision! or encouragement for holding out like fortresses against so hard a siege, and the proffers or preferment. All this for the Cause and Commonwealth, worthy of thanks at least, who have been Instruments of your restitution; but these are slighted by friends and foes! the Pipers, Dancers, and Devisers of new forms to trouble us with! that are rather the Incubus' then the Incumbents of a Free-State!  
12. Consideration. 
12. Consid. so to govern as may be with the greatest evidence of God and Christ with us; in the demonstrations of his wisdom and power.  That the form and FOUNDATION of our Christian Commonwealth be so kept up and maintained before men, as may most teach us the mind of God, & Jesus Christ (the sole SINGLE PERSON, or absolute Sovereign of it) in his righteousness, truth, peace on earth, and goodwill towards men under every administration of Govern. both civil and military, unto all sorts, parts and degrees of Subjects in the whole body. Thus in the true Anatomy of a Body, is abundance to be learned of God's wisdom, power and wonderful workmanship, bounty and goodness to the creature; which therefore some call the Book of God; to see all parts so Homogeneous, above 200. Bones, more Cartilages, more Ligaments, and yet more membranes; near 400. Muscles, and millions of veins; 
In Anat. and in Physics much of God.  to make up one body complete, is most admirable to see, and observe the hand that made it too. Psal. 139. 14, 15, 16. I will praise thee! for I am fearfully and wonderfully made! marvellous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well! So in Physics, is much to be learned of the most high, seeing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Nature of the body is the first thing to be spoken of in the ART OF PHYSIC; which Mr. B. observes not his Pills or Prop's to the Army, but exhibits them as one utterly ignorant in the History of this Body Polit. 
So in Politics, which the very Heathens noted.  or in the mystery of it. For in a Commonwealth-Government is more to be learned of God's righteousness and goodness to a people in continued Series and Emoluments of mercies; and of his wonderful wisdom, to see all parts in such order, symmetry and service, then under any other form whatever. And as the very Heathens did acknowledge it the best Polity with respect to Piety; so Christians and the Scriptures most amply. Many Elegant Orations are upon Record, with this Argument for the precedency of a Popular Government: As after Cambyses (the Persian King's) death, and Smerdes; the Persian States consulting upon the form of a Commonwealth, one of them (Otanes) made an excellent Speech, laying down five Arguments against Monarchy (as Herodotus tells us, lib. 3.) too large to transcribe here; And with two terse and tearing Arguments for a Commonwealth, batters down all the high conceits, which some of the Stateholders' had of a Monarchy, or of an Aristocracy at least, for which Megabyzus made his Speech (with elocution enough.) But Otanes his first Argument is common, or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, from the most eligible equality of liberty and benefit to the Commonwealths-members or adherents. The second Argument from the evils of Monarchy in entrenchment upon the people's liberties, with the Retrivement and Retrenchment of the Monarch's Lusts (in things Civil and Religious, we may add.) And in the Rom. Republic, how many Orations by Cicero and others do we read for piety in the Commonwealth? (which was after their man of Heathen worship, knowing no better,) as add Pontif. & De Harusp. Respons. etc. but to our shame, if our Commonwealth be more deficient for Christ, and for the true God (whom we worship.) For saith he, Nihil praeclarius, quam quòd vos eosdem, & Religionibus deorum immortalium, & summae Reipubli. praeesse voluerunt; ut amplissimi & Clarissimi cives Rempubli. bene gerendo, Religiones sapienter interpretando Rempubli. conservarent. And to instance but in one Oration more; and that is of Agrippa to Aug. Caesar (lib. 52. Dion.) he saith, Reipubli. forma illa optima judicanda, in quâ injuriae prohibentur, virtutes excitantur, foventur, praedicantur; Odio vitia habentur; Singulorum Damna communia judicantur, quae omnia in Democratiâ non Monarchiâ fieri, etc. That is the best form of a Commonwealth, in which injuries are suppressed, virtues excited, cherished, and promulgated; Vices detested, etc. which cannot be so in a Monarchy as in a Popular Government (and I may say, in no kind of Popular Government like to a Christian Commonwealth.) He tells us the Grecians never thrived, nor grew up in their flowery renown, till they came to this; and instances in the Thebans, Athenians, Megarians, etc. The like he avers of the Romans, (Romani oderiat & detestati sint Vnius Dominatum, permutarint Monarchiam utiliter, etc.) And Guicciardin saith, That Free-States must needs be more pleasing to God, than any other form of Government, because of the Common good, and impartial distribution of justice, and emulation in men's minds to Virtue, and their love to Religion is usually more enlarged then in other Governments. It is said of the Grecians, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: that of all men, they delighted in piety in their Commonwealth, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, their very enemies confessing that they carried themselves bravely for piety, to them that were such; and toward them that reverenced their Parents, and toward their very enemies, equal, honest, and easy to be appeased. But oh! how much may be seen of God then in a Theocracy! 
So in a Theocraty.  which with Mr. B. I must affirm to be most after God's mind; and to use his own words, The more Theocratical or truly godly a Government is, the better it is. Better in its Principles, and in its ends! better in its constitution, and in its administrations; yea, better in its head, Psal. 2. 9 Acts 10. 36. and 5. 31. Mat. 28. 18. Rom. 14. 9, 10. Joh. 13. 3. and 17. 2. and its Members, orders and Ministers of all sorts, in such a Commonwealth, all holding à capits their power from Christ and for Christ, Rev. 4. 11. and 11. 15. Col. 1. 16. 
Holy Commonwealth  And Mr. B saith further in's Preface, That this governing power must be exercised in the Name of God; the Officers of it being his Ministers for good. Rom. 13. Non propter hominem, sed propter Deum; for the Lord's sake they keep the Piety of the State, Not but that they are the people's Creature also, 2 Pet. 2. and therein for man's sake, they keep the peace of the State. It was an Oration of Theodos. to Valentinian junior, that was called the Orthodox, and yet a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or Emperor that held for the Reign of Christ, (by Binius, Baronius, and others,) so to govern as might be most for piety and for Christ, for these Reasons; First, For that non Armis, sed Causis justis imperatoria Stet Acies. Furthermore, Nullius nisi Christi in Pugnâ invocari Nomen & Auxilium possit, etc. the EDGE of Government is not made so kéen by Arms, as by an honest Cause; And in Engagement; with your enemies, you must make use of the name of Christ, and of his help to overcome with. So, si Christum non videmus, quem invocabimus Pugnaturi? whom should we call upon for conduct and conquest with our Armies? but our Christ? now is it gratitude to lay him aside? or as Themistocles used to say (of the Athenians, that they used him like an Oak indeed; for in danger, and when a storm came, they ran under it! but when it was over, they unthankfully cropped it, and lop'd the boughs off of it?) to cast him off till they need him again? to crop or lop him? as if they should never need him again? or at least not to Rule, but to save only; and as occasion serves. RIGHT HONOURABLE! in this Name it was that our Prayers (as hearty as ever) went forth with YOUR ARMIES even in this Cheshire-expedition; and another link is added to the long Chain, by the same hand that was wont to be with us, when we declared for jesus our only King; and we cannot imagine that you should lop off any thing that is his due; or ever undervalue either him, his Government, or his dear servants (if they yet must go with the brand of Sectaries) seeing Valentinian, Theodosius, Constantine, and others, did style themselves so long since, vassalos Christ, the very servants of ●esus Christ; and Theodosius professed he accounted it more his honour to Rule like a Christian, then like a King! yea, Augustus himself said, Ei gratius erat Nomen pietatis quam Potestatis; 
For Theocraty, M. B. his own words.  he had rather be PIOUS then powerful, and it was more grateful to him. O! then let our Parliament be holy! and Magistrates holy! But to conclude, Mr. B. himself saith, (whom I presume you will hear when you will not me) p. 221. Thes. 206. It is this Theocratical polity, or Divine Commonwealth, which is the unquestionable Reign of Christ on earth, which all Christians are agreed may be sought; and that temporal dignity of Saints which undoubtedly would bless the world. So in p. 223. Thes. 207. I think the promoting of this holy Theocratick Government, is the point of reformation, that we are called to desire, by them that now plead for the Reign of Christ and the Saints. And what do we desire more? Wherefore (we hope) you will see no Reason to explode them called fifth Monarchy men, that are gracious and meek, or Sectaries (as Pope Zach. did Virg.) that say, there is an Antipodes and a Nadir, as well as a Zenith in this Cause (seeing Mr. B. is so positive in it) & alius est mundus, & alii homines sunt sub terras, & that the Lord has his hidden ones, Psa. 83. 3, 4. dear to him, that aught to be (and we hope are) so to you, (Right Honourable!) which you would do well to look after and encourage; seeing the very Romans have found out the bravest men of their Commonwealth by such noble inquiries, and have taken them from their Dinners of Turnips and Water-cresses (as the Curii, Fabritii, etc.) to the service of the Public; & saepe sub attritâ latitat sapientia veste. This fit Location of the best, holiest and ablest in the body, 
This settlement will satisfy all parties.  and Theocratick Government, will with God's blessing prove such a settlement, as shall satisfy all parties and (honest) interests in the Commonwealth, and the best, most; by obviating of fears, dangers, threnodies, temptations, and our enemy's designs, which are very dangerous and in the Deep) to invade, innovate, or alter; when all our supplies, our supports, our wisdom, power, courage and our protections, shall be assured and secured unto us by the Holy One (to whom all power is given by the Lord, (and aught to be by men) in heaven and earth.) For which Cause and the Commonwealth, (without blandishing discourses, or blending affections) I do profess for one (amongst the thousands of Israel) I am ready, hearty, and resolved (with the Lords grace and assistance) to live or to die; if every drop of blood in my Veins spin out! and Gobbet of flesh on my bones (against the common enemies of Christ, this Cause, the Commonwealth and the Parliament) be sown like seed upon the earth; let who will plow or harrow upon it, I care not; so it may have but a fertile Harvest for Posterity! And Resurrection with the Just men made perfect.  
— qùod si  
Frigida curarum fomenta relinquere posses,  
Quò te Caelestis sapientia duceret, ires.  
Hoc opus! hoc Studium! parvi properemus & ampli.  
Si Patriae volumus; si nobis vivere Cari.   

TO THE READER.  
SIR,  
IT is Civility to yourself, and service to the Truth, that lets you know, these Papers were in their first draught ready, & intended for the Public above six weeks since; (before the Rebellion, and in the nick of Time;) but the Press fell sick, and hath had a Disease; it was at first Costive and bound; which tenasm continued till our Emollientia, and Medicamenta resolventia, by the help of a Silver-clyster-pipe set it a work again: but then, with as much danger of a Lax or Flux, (for these times, the Press has such a Looseness as le's out the thinnest matter with the most applause) but that the supine care of the Corrector applied such Astringents as were ready (and requisite;) and yet some Erratas have given him the slip; which the Author had no leisure to Supervise: Sed ubi non sunt Errata, non sunt Narrata; there is nothing without them I am sure. It is a pretty tale, and yet a Truth, (for as there be Erroneous Truths! so true Errors!) which the Press let pass upon the Bible, An. 1612. in Psal. 119. in stead of Princes have persecuted me, that Printers have persecuted me; and it is not long since Princes hindered us: but to say it now (of these in power) is the Errata of the Times; Since our Privileges and Liberty to serve the Public do publish the contrary; being so piously and peaceably revolved upon us after a sable night and scandalous hour of Temptation What is scattered with the Fork, I would have gathered with the Glean; but that I need not be so curious, if thou be'st Courteous or Ingenious; and (as Cato said) I care not much for them, Who have a better judgement in their Mouths, then in their Minds, in their Palates then in their Pates. Besides, I am called aside (of a sudden) into another Part of the Harvest, and must leave somewhat for the Rakers, as well as for the Reapers here behind me. Nor indeed did I cast eye upon all the Sheets or Proofs of the Press, much less time had I to Read or to Correct them. At a Perfunctory View of some Papers, I saw these Erratas: Page 26. l. 28. read REPUNCTION, p. 27. l. 18. Autopathy, p. 63. l. 26. in it, p. 67. l. 16. inoculated, p. 82. l. 22. Papistae, l. 22. Rapistae, p. 93. l. 23 r. and no considerable man, p. 95. l. ● and so to all parts, etc. What else I know not; And all I desire, is but as good constructions from you, as I am ready to give (with the Lords grace) instructions to you, and to receiv from you in the furtherance of the Gospel, this Cause, the Kingdom and Interest of Jesus Christ and of this Commonwealth.  
FINIS.