Selections from the Observator (1681-1687) Part 2

The Reflexions that have been Pa.s.s'd upon my _Quality_, and _Conversation_, need no Further Answer, then to Appeal to my very _Name_, and my _Acquaintance_: But for the _Charge_ of being a _Papist_, it is as _False_, as it is _Malicious_.

I am to say One Word more now, concerning my _L. Shaftsbury_; whose _Name_, and _t.i.tle_, I have often Occasion to make mention of, in This Book. The _Reader_ is to take Notice, that it is Intended of the _Late Earl of Shaftsbury_, who Dy'd at _Amsterdam, Jan. 168-2/3. The Surviving Heir of That Honour, and Family, having ever Demean'd himself with a Remarkable Loyalty, and Respect, toward the King, and his Government_.

=Numb. 1.=

THE OBSERVATOR.

In _QUESTION_ and _ANSWER_.

=WEDNESDAY=, April 13. 1681.

_Q. WEll! They are so. But do you think now to bring'um to their Wits again with a_ Pamphlet?

_A._ Come, Come; 'Tis the _Press_ that has made'um _Mad_, and the _Press_ must set'um _Right_ again. The Distemper is _Epidemical_; and there's no way in the world, but by _Printing_, to convey the _Remedy_ to the _Disease_.

_Q. But what is it that you call a_ Remedy?

_A._ The _Removing_ of the _Cause_. That is to say, the _Undeceiving_ of the _People_: for they are well enough Disposed, of themselves, to be Orderly, and Obedient; if they were not misled by _Ill Principles_, and Hair'd and Juggled out of their Senses with so many Frightful _Stories_ and _Impostures_.

_Q. Well! to be Plain and Short; You call your self the_ Observator: _What is it now that you intend for the Subject of your_ Observations?

_A._ Take it in few words then. My business is, to encounter the _Faction_, and to Vindicate the _Government_; to detect their _Forgeries_; to lay open the Rankness of their _Calumnies_, and _Malice_; to Refute their _Seditious Doctrines_; to expose their _Hypocrisy_, and the _bloudy Design_ that is carry'd on, under the Name, and Semblance, of _Religion_; And, in short, to lift up the Cloke of the _True Protestant_ (as he Christens himself) and to shew the People, the _Jesuite_ that lies skulking under it.

_Q. Shall the_ Observator _be a_ Weekly Paper, _or How_?

_A._ No, No; but oftner, or seldomer, as I see Occasion.

_Q. Pray favour me a word; When you speak of a_ True Protestant, _don't you mean a_ Dissenting Protestant?

_A._ Yes, I do: For your _a.s.senting_ and _Consenting Protestant_ (you must know) is a _Christian_.

_Q. And is not a_ Dissenting Protestant _a_ Christian too?

_A._ Peradventure, he _is_ one; peradventure, _not_: For a _Dissenter_ has his Name from his _Disagreement_, not from his _Perswasion_.

_Q. What is a Dissenter then?_

_A._ Tis Impossible to say either what a _Dissenter IS_, or what he is _NOT_. For he's a _NOTHING_; that may yet come to be _ANY thing_. He may be a _Christian_; or he may be a _Turk_; But you'l find the best account of him in his _Name_. _A DISSENTER, is one that thinks OTHERWISE._ That is to say, let the _Magistrate_ think what he pleases, the _Dissenter_ will be sure to be of _another Opinion_. A _Dissenter_ is not of _This_, or of _That_, or of _Any Religion_; but _A Member Politique of an Incorporate Faction_: or Otherwise; A _Protestant-Fault-Finder_ in a _Christian Commonwealth_.

_Q. Well! but tho' a_ Dissenter _may be_ any thing; _A_ Dissenting Protestant _yet tells ye_ what _he Is_.

_A._ He does so, he tells ye that he _is_ a _Negative_: an _Anti-Protester_; One that _Protests AGAINST_, but not _FOR_ any thing.

_Q. Ay; but so long as he opposes the_ Corruptions _of the Church of_ Rome.

_A._ Well: And so he does the _Rites_, and _Const.i.tutions_ of the Church of _England_ too. As a _Protestant_, he does the _former_; and the _Other_ as a _Dissenter_.

_Q. But is there no_ Uniting _of These_ Dissenters?

_A._ You shall as soon make the Winds blow the same way, from all the Poynts of the Compa.s.s.

_Q. There are_ Good _and_ Bad, _of_ all Opinions, _there's no doubt on't: But do you think it fayr, to Condemn a_ whole Party _for some_ Ill men _in't_?

_A._ No, by no means: The _Party_ is neither the _Worse_, for having _Ill_ men in it, nor the _Better_, for _Good_. For whatever the _Members_ are, the _Party_ is a _Confederacy_; as being a _Combination_, against the _Law_.

_Q. But a man may_ Mean honestly, _and yet perhaps ly under some_ Mistake. _Can any man help his Opinion?_

_A._ A man may _Mean well_, and _Do Ill_; he may shed _Innocent Bloud_, and _think he does G.o.d good Service_. 'Tis True: A man cannot help _Thinking_; but he may help _Doing_: He is _Excusable_ for a _Private_ Mistake, for _That's_ an Error only to _himself_; but when it comes once to an _Overt Act_, 'tis an _Usurpation_ upon the _Magistrate_, and there's no Plea for't.

_Q. You have no kindnesse, I perceive, for a_ Dissenting Protestant; _but what do you think of a bare_ Protestant _without any_ Adjunct?

_A._ I do look upon _Such_ a _Protestant_ to be a kind of an _Adjective Noun-Substantive; It requires something to be joyn'd with it, to shew its Signification_. By _Protestancy_ in _General_ is commonly understood a _Separation_ of Christians from the Communion of the Church of _Rome_: But to _Oppose Errors_, on the _One hand_, is not Sufficient, without keeping our selves _Clear_ of Corruptions, on the _Other_. Now it was the _Reformation_, not the _Protestation_, that Settled us upon a _true Medium_ betwixt the two _Extreams_.

_Q. So that you look upon the_ Protestation, _and the_ Reformation, _it seems, as two several things_.

_A._ Very right; But in such a manner only, that the _Former_, by G.o.ds Providence, made way for the _Other_.

_Q. But are not all_ Protestants _Members of the_ Reformed Religion?

_A._ Take notice, _First_, that the _Name_ came Originally from the _Protestation_ in 1529. against the _Decree of Spires_; and that the _Lutheran Protestants_ and _Ours_ of the Church of _England_, are not of the _Sam Communion_. Now _Secondly_; If you take _Protestants_ in the _Lat.i.tude_ with our _Dissenters_, they are not so much a _Religion_, as a _Party_; and whoever takes this Body of _Dissenters_ for _Members_ of the _Reformed Religion_ sets up a _Reformation_ of a _hundred and fifty Colours_ and as may [sic] _Heresies_. The _Anabaptists, Brownists, Antinomians, Familists, &c._ do all of them set up for _Dissenting Protestants_; but G.o.d forbid we should ever enter these _People_ upon the Roll of the _Reformation_.

_Q._ Well! _but what do you think of_ Protestant Smith _and_ Protestant Harris?

_A._ Just as I do of _Protestant Muncer_, and _Protestant Phifer_; a Brace of _Protestants_ that cost the Empire 150000 Lives: and our own _Pretended Protestants_ too, of Later Date, have cost _This Nation little lesse_.

_Q. Ay: But these are men of quite another Temper: Do not you see how zealous they are for the Preservation of the_ King's Person, _the_ Government, _and the_ Protestant Religion?

_A._ I _See_ well enough what they _Say_, and I _know_ what they _do_.

Consider, _First_, that they are Profess'd _Anabaptists: Smith_ no less then a _pretended Prophet_; and the _Other_, a kind of a _Wet Enthusiast. Secondly_; 'tis the very _Doctrine_ of the _Sect_ to root out _Magistracy_, Cancel _Humane Laws; Kill_, and take _Possession_; and _wash their Feet with the Bloud of the UnG.o.dly_; and where ever they have set Footing, they have _Practic'd_ what they _Taught_. Are not these likely men now, to help out a _King_, and a _Religion_, at a dead lift? If you would be further satisfy'd in the Truth of things, reade _Sleidan, Spanhemius, Gastius, Hortensius, Bullinger, Ponta.n.u.s, The Dipper dipp'd, Bayly's Disswasive, Pagets Heresiography_, &c.

_Hortensius_ tells ye, how _Jack of Leydens Successor_ murthered his Wife, to make way to his Daughter, _P._ 74. and after that, cut a girls throat, for fear she should tell Tales. _Gastius_ tells us of a Fellow that cut off his brothers Head, as by Impulse, and then cry'd, _The Will of G.o.d is fulfilled, lib. I. Pa. 12. Jack of Leyden_ started up from Supper, _to do some business_ (he said) _which the Father had commanded him_, and cut off a Soldiers Head; and afterwards cut off his Wives head in the _Market-place. Sleydans Comment. Lib. 10._

_Q. You will not make the_ Protestant-Mercury _to be an_ Anabaptist _too, will ye_?

_A._ If you do make him _any thing_, I'le make him _That_. But in one word, they are _Factious_ and _Necessitous_; and consequently, the fittest Instruments in the world, for the Promoting of a _Sedition_.

First, as they are _Principled_ for't; and then, in respect of their _Condition_; for they are every man of them under the Lash of the Law, and Retainers to Prisons; So that in their _Fortunes_ they can hardly be _worse_. Insomuch, that it is a common thing for them to lend a Name to the countenancing of a Libel which no body else dares own.

_Q. Well! but let them be as_ poor, _and_ malicious _as_ Devils, _so long as they have neither_ Brains, _nor_ Interest, _what hurt can their Papers do_?

_A._ The Intelligences, you must know, that bear their _Names_, are not of _their Composing_, but the Dictates of a _Faction_, and the Venom of a Club of _Common-wealths-men_ instill'd into those Papers.

_Q. These are_ Words, _all this while, without_ Proofs; _Can you shew us particularly where the Venom lies?_

_A._ It is the business of every Sheet they Publish, to Affront the _Government_, the _Kings Authority_, and _Administration_; the _Privy-Council_; the _Church, Bench, Juries, Witnesses_; All _Officers, Ecclesiastical, Military_, and _Civil_: and no matter for _Truth_ or _Honesty_, when a _Forg'd Relation_ will serve their turn. 'Tis a common thing with them, to get half a dozen _Schismaticall_ Hands to a _Pet.i.tion_, or _Address_ in a corner, and then call it, the sense of the Nation: and when all's done, they are not above twenty Persons, that make all this Clutter in the Kingdom.