1[18 The LIFE of the L I B. I. vitant Stulti Vitia (as my Aphorifmsmade fome Arminiens). If youdifcover an Error to an injudicious Man, he reeleth into the contrary Error, and it is hard to (top Mm in the middle Verity. 3 r94. 38. At the fame time 1 published another Bookagainft Popery, fit for the defenfive Part, and inftruâing Proteftantshow to anfwer any Papitt. It is entitu- led, A Key for Catholicks, to open the jiggling of the knits, and fatisffe all that are but truly willing to underffand whether theCaufe of the Roman or Reformed Churches be of God. In this Treatife, proving that the Blood of the King is notby Papists to be charged upon Proteftants, I plainly hazarded my Life againft the Powers that then were ; and rievoufly incenfed Sir H. Vane ( as is before declared ): Andyet Mr. 7. N. was fo tender of the Papifts Intereft, that having beforebeen offended with me for a Petition againft Popery, and ( a Juftice of all times ) fpake against it on the Bench, and his Difpleafure encreafed by this Book he tookoccafion fine the King came in, to write againft me for thole very Palmages which condemned the Kingkillers : Becaufecomparing theCafe with theDo&rine and Pra&ice ofthe Papifts,l (hewed that theSe&arians and Cromwelians had ofthe two a more plateS- ble Pretence, ( which 1 there recited) he confuteththof Pretences of theirs as if they hadbeen my own ; thereby to make the World believe thatIwrote for the King's Death, in the very Pages where to the hazard of my Life I wrote against it ; when he hjmfelf took the -Engagement againft the King and the Houfe of Lords, and was a Jufice under Oliver, and more than fo, lignedOrders for the fe- quefiring of others of the King's Party. But the great Indignation againft this Book and the former, is, that they were by Epiftles dire&ed to Ri. Cromwell as Lord Prote&or, which I did only to provoke him that had Power, to ufe it well, when the Parliament had fworn Fidelity to him ; and that without any Word of Approbation to his Title. Yet thofe that were not prejudicedby partialityagainst this Book (myKeyfor Ca= tholicks) have let me know that it !lathnot been without Succefs : It being indeed a fuf&dent Armory, for to furnith a Proteftant to defend his Religion againft all the Affaults of the Papifts whatfoever, and teacheth him how to anfwer all their Books. The fecond part doth briefly deal with the French and Grotian Party, that are for the Supremacy of a Council, at leaf( as to the Legillative Power, and Iheweth that we never had a general Council, nor can it be at all expe&ed. § 195. 39 But the Book which path furnithed my Enemies with matter of Re- viling ( which none mutt dare to anfwer) is my Holy Commonwealth The Occa- lionof it wasthis ; when our Pretórian Se&arianBands hadcut all Bonds and pull'd down all Government, and after the Death of the King had twelve Years kept out his Son, few Men taw any probability of his Reification; and every (elfconceited Fellow was ready to offer his Model for a new Form of Government : Mr. Hobbs his Leviathan had pleated many : Mr. Tbo. White the great Pepin., had written his Politicks in Englilh for the Interelt of the Proteftor, to prove that Subjefts ought to fubmit and fubje& themfelves to fuch a Change: Andnow Mr. gamo Harring- ton ( they fay by the help of Mr. H. Nevill) had written a Book in Folio for a Democracy, called Oceans, ferioufly defcribing a Form near to the Venetian, and felting the People upon the Deliresof a Change : And after this Sir H. Vane and his Party were about their Se&arian Democratical Model, which Stabbe defended; and Rogers and Needham ( and Mr. Bag(haw had written againft Monarchy be- fore ). In the end of an Epiftle before my Book of [Crucifying theWorld] I had fpoken a few Words againft thisInnovation and Oppofition to Monarchy ; and ha- ving efpecially touched upon Oceano and Leviathan, Mr. Harrington teemed in a Bethlehem Rage ; for by way of Scorn he printed half a Sheet of foolifh Jeers, in fuch Words as ldeots or Drunkards ufe, railing at Miniftersas a Pack of Fools and Knaves, and by his gibberifh Derifion perfuading Men that we deferred no other Anfwer than fach Scornand Nonfenfe as befeemeth Fools : And with moil info- lent Pride he carried it, as if neither I nor anyMinters underftood at all what Policy was ; but pratedagainft we knew not what, and had prefumed to fpeak againft other Mens Art, whichbe was Matterof, and his Knowledge to fach Ide- ots as we incomprehenfible. This made me think it fit, having given that Gene- ral hint againft his Oceano, to give a more particuar Charge, and withal to give the World and him an Account of my Political Principles, and to thew what I held ,as well as what I denyed ; which I did in that Book called, Political Apborifine, or A Holy Commonwealth, as contrary to his Heatbenifh Commonwealth r Inwhich I plead the Caufe of Monarchyas better than Democracy and Ariftocracy; but udas
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