as it

may afford some diversion to the reader, I shall give an account of.

tion, which they published concerning prodigies. Amongst these, all the prodigies in Livy were seen every day two suns; ships sailing in the air; a bloody rainbow; it rained stones; a lamb with two heads; cathedral churches every where set on fire by lightning; an ox that spoke; a hen turned into a cock; a mule brought forth; five beautiful young men stood by the regicides while they suffered; a very bright star shone round their quarters that were stuck upon the city gates. A certain person rejoicing at the execution of Harrison the regicide, was struck with a sudden palsy; another inveighing against Peters as he went to the gibbet, was torn and almost killed by his own tame favourite dog;-with an infinite number of such prodigious lies." What ridiculous tales are here! How worthy to be preserved in a work called an history! The fanatics, if they reported these things, undoubtedly reported lies; though many of them, in great simplicity of heart, believed them. However, it is no great wisdom to relate idle stories to disgrace the understanding, or impeach the honesty of parties. For weak, credulous, superstitious men, are to be found on all sides. The reader, as he has a right, is welcome to laugh at these stories. And, to contribute to his mirth, I will add the following "relation, of a child born in London with a double or divided tongue, which the third day after it was born, cried a king, a king, and bid them bring it to the king.

* Parker's Hist. of his own Time, p. 23. translated by Newlin. Lond. 1727. 8vo.

He was weak, ignorant, and zealous, and consequently, a proper tool for ambitious, artful men to make use of ". All preachers

The mother of the child saith, it told her of all that happened in England' since, and much more, which she dare not utter.-A gentleman, in the company, took the child in his arms, and gave it money; and asked what it would do with it? to which it answered aloud, that it would give it to the king." This story matches pretty well the others, and, I believe, will be thought equally as ridiculous, and yet the relater of it, (no less a man than bishop Bramhall) says, he cannot esteem it less than a miracle". But let us away with these trifles; they are fit for nothing but ridicule, and can serve no purpose, unless it be to show the weakness of the human understanding, or the wickedness of the human heart: though these are many times, by other things, but too apparent.

17 Weak, ignorant, and zealous, and, consequently, a proper tool for ambitious, artful men to make use of.] Peters's weakness, ignorance, and zeal, appear from his own confession, as well as the testimony of Whitlock before quoted. Now such a man as this was thoroughly qualified to be a tool, and could hardly fail of being employed for that purpose. Fools are the instruments of knaves: or, to speak softer, men of small understandings are under the direction and influence of those who possess great abilities. Let a man be ever so wise and ambitious, he never would gain the point he aims at, were all men possessed of equal talents with himself. For they would

Ormond's Papers, by Carte, vol. IL p. 208.

ought to be warned by his fate, against go

see his aims, and would refuse to be made use of as tools to accomplish them. They would look through his specious pretences, they would separate appearances from realities, and frustrate his selfish intentions: só that his skill would stand him in little stead.

But as the bulk of men are formed, nothing in the world is easier than to impose on them. They see not beyond the present moment, and take all for gospel that is told them. And of these, there are none who become so easily the dupes of crafty, ambitious men, as those who have attained just knowledge enough to be proud and vain. It is but to flatter them, and you become their master, and lead them what lengths you please. And if they happen to have active spirits, you may make them accomplish your designs, even without their being sensible of it. Those who have great things to execute, know this; and therefore are careful to have as many of these instruments as possible, to manage the multitude when there is occasion; for which end they carefully observe their foibles, and seemingly fall in with their notions, and thereby secure them. Hence it has come to pass, that real great men have paid very uncommon respect to those they despised. They knew they might be of use; and therefore were worth gaining.-Peters must necessarily have appeared in a contemptible light to Cromwell: but as his ignorance and zeal qualified him for business, which wiser and more moderate men would have declined, he was thought worthy of being caressed; and had that respect paid him, which was necessary to keep him tight to the cause. And, generally speaking, they have been men of Peters's

ing out of their province, and meddling

size of understanding, who have been subservient to the interests of aspiring statesmen, and the implements of those in power. Were nota Shaa and Pinker weak men, in assisting the then duke of Gloucester, protector, afterwards Richard the Third, to fix the crown on his own head? Armed with impudence, Shaa at Paul's Cross, declared the children of Edward the Fourth bastards; and Pinker at St. Mary's Hospital, sounded forth the praise of the protector: both so full, adds the historian, of tedious flattery, as no man's ear could abide them. What was John Padilla's priest', who did not fail every Sunday to recommend him, and the sedition of which he was the great promoter, with a Pater-Noster and an Ave-Maria? Indeed, ill usage from the rebels caused him to change his note soon after, and to advise his people to cry out, Long live the king, and let Padilla perish!

To come nearer home.-Was not Sacheverel a weak, ignorant man, to be made the tool of a party? Would any but such a one, have exposed himself by a nonsensical sermon, set the nation in a flame, and brought himself into trouble?-But he was in the hands of intriguing politicians, who spurred him on, and made him the instrument of raising a cry of an imaginary danger, which served many purposes to themselves, though detrimental to the nation.-And what character have our jacobite clergymen universally deserved? If we will not be uncharitable, we must impute their behaviour to ignorance, and the influence they have been under. For men of sense and penetration

* Speed's Hist. p. 902. fol. Lond. 1632. Padilla (John de).

Bayle's Dict. Article

with things, which no way belong to them".

could never have set themselves to infuse notions into their flocks, which have no other tendency than to inslave body and soul: and men uninfluenced, would not run the risk of the gallows, for the sake of nonsense and absurdity, as jacobitism really is. But they have been the dupes of wicked, artful, and ambitious men, who have blinded their understandings, and by flatteries and caresses, gained their affections; and consequently the poor wretches are the objects of pity.

So that Peters, we see, was as his brethren have been and are. His faults arose chiefly from his weakness, and his being in the hands of those who knew how to make use of him. Had he contented himself with obscurity, he had avoided danger; which indeed is the chief security for the virtue, ease, and welfare of men, in such a noisy, contentious world as this.

"All preachers ought to be warned by his fate, against going out of their province.] The business of the clergy is that of instructing the people in piety and virtue. If ever they meddle with civil matters, it ought to be only with an intent to promote peace and happiness, by exhorting princes to rule with equity and moderation, and subjects to obey with willingness and pleasure. This, I say, is what alone concerns them; and if they confine themselves within these bounds, they merit praise. But, if instead hereof they mix with civil factions, and endeavour to promote hatred, strife, and contention; if they aspire to bear rule, and attempt to embroil matters, in order to render themselves of some importance; they then become not only really contemptible, but likewise criminal.