A General Address to all bountiful Encou­ragers of Religion and Learning, in the behalf of Clare-Hall in Cambridge: which remains half built, after all the endeavours of the Society for more than Forty years to finish it.

OƲR College, which as to its Antiquity, is the Second in the Ʋniversity, hath from the very Age in which it was Founded, been always Ʋnhappy, either in the Ruines, or the Defects of its Building. It did at one time suffer so much by Fire, that a very considerable part of it (wherein were the Master's Lodgings, the Treasury, and what was therein repo­sited of greatest Value) was to the irreparable damage of the College consumed.

But long before that time, and when it had numbred but sixteen years, the whole Fabrick was by a casual Fire burnt to the ground. This occasioned the re­signing of its first Foundation by Richard Badew (as the Ʋniversity Tables relate more particularly) into the hands of the incomparable Lady Elizabeth de Burgo, one of the three Co-heiresses of Gilbert the last Earl of Clare and Gloucester, who bestowed upon the then ruined Society a new College, and upon the College, unendowed before, such fair Revenues, as justly required that it should be called for ever after by her own Excellent Name.

But yet the most valuable part of a College, a Chap­pel, was wanting for above two hundred years; till the Society had by their good Husbandry saved so much Money, as with the Gift of a hundred Pounds built one, with a fair Library over it.

Within another hundred years, what our Foundress built for us decayed: part of it fell down: and that the College and its Inhabitants might not be buried together in the same Ruines, that new and unfinished Fabrick we now enjoy was begun: of which, (to justifie Scholars, against those that charge them with Luxury and Profuseness) at least one half was erected, with that Stock which many years frugality had trea­sured up; and with that Credit, which brought indeed a heavy Debt upon the College, but which, by the wary management of our Revenue, we have since discharged. The other, and greater part was built by the Contri­bution of some large, and many small Summs: by which charitable assistance we had fair hopes of finishing our College, had we not been prevented by the late Troubles.

Since His Majesties Happy Restauration, we have obtained an Addition; upon which, and the Avenues of our College, we have expended above two thousand Pounds. And yet we have still got no farther than half our Building, in the compleating whereof, we are now engaged.

We have begun with our own private Subscriptions: but we are unable to proceed, without those liberal aids from abroad, which (without considering either the former products of our Education, or our future usefulness to the Publick, or the ornament we shall add to the Ʋniversity, or the general satisfaction we shall hereby give to Scholars, and all that favour them) [Page 5] the Beauty and Elegancy of our Building alone, with­out the help of other Topicks, does beg with more Rhe­torick, than we our selves can ever command.

In this Affair, we do at once both importune and serve our Friends, whilest we offer to their Improve­ment the best of Opportunities. For as there is no disposal of Wealth so commendable, so there is none so necessary, as that we now sollicite.

Since Piety, and useful Knowledge are of greater Consequence to the Welfare of Mankind, than any thing in the World besides: that ingenuous liberality which is necessary to the support of them, is the clearest proof of Christian sincerity, and as much our Privilege as our Duty. Since we are Debters to Heaven for all that we are, and have; our right is undeniably for­feited, nay, and our Possession too is endangered, when we fail in those expressions of Thankfulness, which are all the return we can make, but are no part of Payment without the Divine Acceptilation even of the easie condition which entitles us to the satisfaction of our Redeemer, which does at once both discharge and renew our Debt, which makes the least offering an acceptable Sacrifice, and our perishing Riches to become an immortal Treasure.

Since we have so high a value for Wealth, and are so very unwilling to part with it, when it is against our Interest to keep it, and when we are forced to leave it; propitious Heaven, in the Opportunities of pious Munificence, has put it into our Power to be always Rich. This is the way to receive the greatest Benefit from our most dangerous Enemy Wealth, which lays retrenched in the Bowels of the Earth, as if it were conscious to its self of the innumerable Mischiefs it hath done, by its Sallies into the open World.

For Persons of great Estates and Fortunes, to make no other returns of all their Plenty, but in those shameful Excesses which Beasts are never guilty of, is that which every Man, while he continues a Man, condemns: for the Wealthy to provide freely for their present harmless Satisfaction, and for the future happy Subsistence of their Offspring, is what Nature, allowably enough, does suggest: but for these Persons, while they design their Contentment, not to forget their Safety; while they study the happiness of their Heirs, to think of their own, and to bestow, at least one Legacy upon their better part, is what Christian Wisdom does with the highest Reason dictate.

So that if rich Men desire the satisfaction of the best and truest Improvement of their Fortunes, if they would do all the good they can both to themselves and others; the greatest temporal Good they can re­ceive, by the consent of all the wise Men that ever lived in the World, is the Honour that is gotten by good Actions; and the greatest good they can ever hope to do, is that disposal of their Wealth, which upholds and che­rishes the two best things of this World, Piety and Learning: whereby the truly Charitable will have the Happiness, not only of future and infinite Recompences, but they will likewise attain that end, which is always the meaning, but never the effect of paternal Fondness, an Immortality here upon Earth.

By this means they will inherit the just esteem of wise Men, of such as know how to use their Fortunes, and that do not love their Money better than themselves. They will continue in this World, even when they are possessed of a better, and by their bountiful Donations, they will, in all succeeding Ages, still remain here, ex­ercising the greatest Charity, that is, instructing the [Page 7] Ignorant, reclaiming the Vicious, and relieving the Necessitous.

The fair Monuments of their Piety will out-last all others: and if the World should happen to survive them, yet the Memory of them will not be lost till Charity it self shall fail. Their excellent names will not then be buried, when they shall become too great a weight for the Pillars that bear them: they must needs live, being repeated thrice every year in publick and so­lemn Commemorations, with the greatest Honour that can be paid them by ingenuous Men; in a Society col­lected from the distant parts of our own Country, from whence their Charity and Fame will be carried or sent abroad to all others, and sent down to all Posterity; with the Sculpture of our Building, the History of our Benefactors, and with the just, sincere, and eternal Acknowledgments of

PAge 17. Japhet the eldest Son of Noah, &c. We cannot conclude the respective Ages of the Sons of Noah, from the Order in which they are named. For then Ham would be the second Son. But that he was the youngest is plain from Gen. 9. where it is related v. 22. That when Ham saw the nakedness of his Father, he told his two Brethren without: and v. 24. That when Noah awoke from his Wine, he knew what his younger Son had done unto him.

Neither can Sem be the first-born. For Noah was six hundred years old when the Flood came upon the Earth, Gen. 7. 6. He was five hundred years old when he begat his eldest Son, Gen. 5. 32. The Son whom at that Age he begat, could not be Sem; for he was not an hundred years old, till two years after the Deluge, Gen. 11. v. 10.

Forasmuch then as Noah's eldest Son was an hundred years old when he entred the Ark, and Sem was then but ninety eight; it follows evidently that Japhet must be the eldest of the Sons of Noah.

These Particulars are confirmed by the general Sense of the Jewish Doctors. [...] sayes R. Salomon Jarchi, of the Sons of Noah, Japhet the last named, is the eldest. But there is better Au­thority for the Assertion. The Septuagint Version says it expresly, Gen. 10. 21. [...]. They here call Japhet in the plainest words can [Page 9] be spoken, the elder Brother of Sem. Flaminius Nobilius having compared the Copies of the Septua­gint, reports their Agreement in this reading.

Neither is it only in Pagnin, Arias Montanus, Tremellius, the Polyglott Interlineary, and our last English Translation, The Brother of Japhet the El­der; but the Sense, Propriety, and constant Gram­matical Construction of the Hebrew do fully prove it. For when these words are to be expressed in the Holy Language, Sem the elder Brother of Ja­phet, it must be [...] ▪ But if we will have the forementioned words to be the English of [...] we shall never be able to find, in any part of the Scripture, the like Interpretati­on: much less can we tell how the Hebrew should express those last words of this Text any other way, without departing from its Idiom, or in­volving its Sense in an ambiguous Phrase.

PAge 19. Throwing of Stones to Mercury 's Heap. If we enquire what Mercury's Heap was, we shall see what Reasons S. Hierom had for this ren­dring of Prov. 26. 8. Sicut qui mittit lapidem in acervum Mercurii: ita qui tribuit honorem insipienti. Whom our English, according to its usual regard to him, should thus follow in translating the Text, As he that throweth a Stone to Mercury's Heap; so is he that giveth Honour to a Fool. The pay­ment of Honour, where it is not due, is compared to the blind Idolatry of the Gentiles in worshipping Mercury by throwing Stones to his consecrated Pile.

This is the account of the [...] in Ho­mer, Odyss. 16. which was an elevated place in that City of Ithaca, from whence Eumaeus saw the Rivals of Ʋlysses returning.

Eustathius upon this place informs us, that De­mosthenes the Thracian, who wrote a Paraphrase upon Homer (long since lost) concludes, that the place where Eumaeus had this prospect, and which was called [...], had its name from the Ceremonies of Mercury. He reports it to signifie besides a heap of Stones in the Highway.

Such were the Terminales lapides among the Ro­mans, for showing the Bounds of their Lands, which Lib. 4. de Co­ronis, c. 4. Paschalius upon a Distich in the first Elegy of Tibullus observes to have been adorned with Crowns and Garlands.

Although there was no Statue in the place, yet every Heap of Stones was Sacred. Which Heaps were encreased by the superstitious Diligence of Passengers throwing Stones to them in Honour of Mercury. This Idolatrous Practice is mentioned in the Talmudic Book Sanhed. c. 7. Sanhedrin [...] He that throws a Stone to Mercury, is a Person that commits Idolatry, for Mercury is thus worshipped.

This Pagan Rite had its Original from a Fable of Mercury, which is not commonly met withall. The Story is, that when he had killed Argus, and was to be tryed for the Fact in a Senate of the Gods, he pleaded Jupiter's Commission. The Gods were thereupon afraid to condemn him: and that they might not incur the displeasure of their King, they threw down those Stones, by which they were to give their Suffrages, at the Feet of the Criminal: which did not only discharge him from Punishment, but was likewise the occasion of the forementioned Ceremony, as well as the gathering of Votes in Ju­dicature by Stones.

This [...] does also signifie an Altar erected to Mercury: or the Basis of his Image: or those Stones which shewed the distances of Miles, and Furlongs: Mercury being, not only the Tu­telar Deity, but said likewise to have been the first Officer for the Highways, and to have begun the clearing of them from great Stones. These Stones [Page 12] were laid together by the Wayes side, and upon the foregoing account they were stiled [...], Mercurial Heaps.

These Remarques explain that old dark In­scription,

We have here likewise an Illustration of that passage in the Epigram:

This Arcanum Vii was the mysterious Religion of the Cabiri in Samothracia: of which Cabiri Mer­cury is reckoned for one, in that old Distich that re­cites them,

We are told by Drusius out of an Arabick Book against the Alcoran, that it was a Practice of the Indians, to pile up Stones in Honour of their Gods. From them it was carried over into Arabia: where the worshipping of Venus with the same Ceremony, was the only piece of Idolatry which Mahomet re­tained at Mecha. The Arabian Convert agrees to [Page 13] this Sense of Salomon's expression. Neither is the forecited Passage one of the weakest Arguments for our subscribing to S. Hierom's translating the Ex­pression, Acervum Mercurii.

Why we should not follow the Septuagint, and translate the Hebrew Word, a Sling, we have more­over these Reasons. That since the Hebrew Word [...] signifies a heap of Stones, since the Superstition of those Mercurial heaps was spread through the East many Ages before Solomon, since the very name of Mercury was formed out of this Word Margemah; since Manetho, though a fabu­lous Writer, is confirmed by Josephus in his Opini­on, That they were Seth's Pillars: To interpret the expression, As he that tyes a Stone in a Sling, is a sense which those that are best acquainted with the Pagan Rites, and the Jewish Learning, cannot admit of as the most obvious, true, natural, and worthi­est of the wise Author of the saying.

Besides all this it is certain, that Margemah is of the same signification with [...] Markolis the Talmudic name of Mercury, and of his Image or Statue. They are used promiscuously by the old­est Jewish Writers. The Medrasch on the Proverbs thus paraphrases the passage, [...] Whoever honours a Fool, is like him that throws a Stone to Mercury.

This is not the only instance in the Old Te­stament, that shews the Antiquity of the Pagan Idolatry. Orion and the Pleiades are mentioned by Job: Whose youngest Daughter is called in the He­brew, The Horn or Ray of Beauty, that is, says the version of the Seventy, The Horn of Amalthaea, [...], Job 42. 14.

In the desolation of Babylon, Isai 13. 21, 22. it is said by the Vulgar Latin, and the Maronites, That Satyrs shall dance, and Sirens lodge there. Si­renes & Daemonia illic salt abunt.

So likewise in Ezechiel's Vision, ch. 8. v. 14. At the North Door of the Temple, there sat Women lamenting Adonis, concluded by S. Hierom to be un­derstood by Tammuz. Mulieres sedebant plangentes Adonidem.

Now S. Gregory Nyssen in his ninth Homily on the Canticles, gives good satisfaction to those that wonder at the mention of Poetick Fables in the holy Oracles of God.

PAge 19. There is a Pagan Empire on the further side of Asia.

It is that Empire where all Nobility is from Worth and Knowledge, where none are born great but those of the Royal Family, where Men are honoured and advanced then only when they deserve to be so.

The principal Sect among them, called Jukia, hath no other charge, but to mind the business of Government, and the practice of Moral Vertues.

This people, the Inhabitants of Cathaia, and the Northern China, have little Philosophy that is con­siderable, besides Morality. Their chief Science is the Moral Contemplation of Man: In which it is their business to consider the Offices of Princes and their Subjects, of Parents and Children, Hus­bands and Wives, Brethren and Friends. They have three thousand Rules concerning Decency, Civility, Modesty, and the Vertues of that Rank. Prudence is one of their most admired Vertues: And next to that they esteem Courage, when it is imployed in the conquest of our selves.

They value Justice, because it directs us to look into our selves, when we determine any thing re­ferring unto others: In which they place the highest degree of Humane Perfection. They say they are lovers of Vertue for no other Reason, but because it is its own abundant Recompence. They do not concern themselves in any enqui­ries about future matters; alledging, they have [Page 16] not yet attained the knowledge of those things that are before their Eyes.

They understand little, and dote very much in Natural Philosophy. They hold a double Metem­psychosis, that of Pythagoras, and the transmigration of the Soul into new Passions and Desires. They affirm all the Events of this Life to be Good or Evil, according to our Opinion and Judgment of them.

The great things that are reported of them are credible enough, if it can be made out, That they are the Posterity of the old Seres: Quos Lusitani perperam Sinas appellarunt, sayes the very learned Mr. Is. Vossius in his late Tract, De Art. & Sci­entiis Sinarum: And when we receive the account of their Socrates, that Divine Philosopher Cumfusu.

Now Ptolemy, Mela, Pliny, Strabo, Salinus, Di­onysius and others, make the Country of the Seres to border Southward upon India without Ganges, and to be that very Tract which is now called China. Pliny taking notice of the simplicity of their Manners, says, they are very unlike their Neighbours the Scythians.

Those very places which Ortelius, Mercator, and the generality of Modern Geographers make the Boundaries of China, are named by the Antients as the Confines of Serae. Ptolemy sets their Country (whose Metropolis, he sayes, was called Sera) in the Neighbourhood of Scythia, on the outside of the Mount Imaus, next India without Ganges, and on the further side of Asia. The same situation is given them by Ammianus Marcellinus, who as­serts their Country to reach Southward as far as India, Ganges and the forenamed Mountain Imaus. In Pomponius Mela, we find the Serae, and the Chi­neses [Page 17] to be the same people: And that the Persians and Saracens call the Inhabitants of Cathaia, Seres. Solinus carries us through the Scythian and Eastern Ocean to this Country; which Pausanias says, de­rives its name from the Worms that supply the In­habitants with Silk, which according to him and others, as we find in Suidas, are called in Greek [...], Seres.

This appears further from their great plenty of Silk, and their skill in weaving it: Which was first called Serica, from their Country. Their Art is thus set out by Dionysius in his Periegesis, v. 755.

There have been those Opinions, and Reports of their great Antiquity, that might give some occa­sion to the vast Extravagancies of the Chinese Chro­nology. They are the oldest people that were known to Pliny: Primi sunt hominum qui noscantur Seres, is his account of them. And Tertullian in his Book De Cultu foem. says they were Weavers, Ab initio rerum, from the beginning of the World. Primos hominum Seres cognoscimus, are the Words of Julius Solinus, The Seres we know to be the first Gene­ration of Men.

Besides this, the exact similitude of Temper, in the Historical Accounts of both, is a sufficient Argument of their being the same people. The best description of the Seres, we have from Eusebius in these Words: [...]. The Law of the Seres is against Murdering, Whoring, Thieving, and all wor­shipping of Images. And in that most spacious Country you shall not see a Shrine, a Fornicatress, an Adultress, a Thief arraigned, a Murderer tryed, a Man slain. (He goes on disputing against Fate.) The Influence of Mars belching Fire from the midst of Heaven, hath never forced the Liberty of any mans Will to give a fatal Stab to another. The Conjunction of Venus and Mars did never force any Man in that Region to an adulterous Embrace, though Mars is there to be seen in the midst of the Heavens every day, and in every hour of the day there are Children born among the Seres.

The like Citation of Vigerus in a Note upon this Passage, may be supposed to be taken from an Au­thor of good Credit and Antiquity, though he does not name him.

That the Seres were the Ancestors of the Chi­neses, appears in other Instances. The Chineses wear no Weapons, travel without Arms, and have little or no esteem for Soldiers. The like account we have from Strabo of the Seres: that they [Page 19] reckoned it a crime for men to exercise themselves [...], in the Arts of War. He likewise mentions their [...], their Frugality, and Healthfulness. As Lucian, when he speaks of the most long-liv'd Nations, names the Seres in the first place, and ascribes their Longevity to their Temperance.

Ammianus Marcellinus tells us they lived quietly, Strangers to Arms and Wars, nulli finit imorum mo­lesti, troublesome to none of their Neighbours, the most frugal of all Nations in a most plentiful Coun­try, that they studied the tranquillity of Life, and avoided the Conversation of the rest of Man­kind.

Mites quidem, says Pliny of them, they were meek People, but fled from Strangers like Beasts, and had no Communication of Language with any other Country. To which Solinus adds, that they traded with Merchants without verbal Conference, Mercium pretia oculis aestimantes, buy­ing and selling with their Eyes, and allowing Merchants only to cross their first River. This is the same Character that we find of them in Stephanus de Ʋrbibus, namely that they were [...], a People that would not mingle with other Societies.

This shieness and aversion to Strangers was found to be the temper of the Chineses by Mar­cus Paulus Venetus, who first discovered them to the Europaeans; and is confirmed by many others, who give us surprizing Relations of the Inno­cence and Honesty of the Chineses in the days of their great Master of Morals CƲMFƲSƲ, and in the Ages after him.

The Chinensian Socrates CƲMFƲSƲ, by the Pre­cepts of his admirable Philosophy, did work a perfect Reformation in the Manners of the People. He restored the use of Weights and Measures, the decence of Funerals, the duty of Children in maintaining their indigent Parents, and the In­tegrity of Merchants in their Affairs. He pre­vailed with the Men of the Age to be just and kind; and the Women to be chast, humble, and quiet.

He brought the whole Empire to the Temper of a single well-ordered Family. They had for one another the tenderness of Parents, the affecti­ons of Brethren, and the sincerity of the best Friends. Nothing could be lost in the Country: but whatever was dropt upon the Highway, was always left there by those that found it, for the re­turning Owner.

Strabo says as much of the Seres in the same Age, that they had the strictest Justice, and [...], a Process even against bad Language. That they should so far exceed their Posterity the modern Chineses, who are now lascivious, malicious, and false Pretenders to Virtue, will be no matter of wonder to us, when we shall have considered either the Doctrine or the Person of their excellent Tutor, the oriental Socrates, the Divine CƲMFƲSƲ.

PAge 23. That Christian Charity which thinketh no Evil.

[...]. 1 Cor. 13. 5. Charity sus­pecteth no evil. Where the case is doubtful (sayes Grotius upon the place) it always interprets in the best Sense.

It thinketh no evil either of Superiors, or Equals, where it sees none. According to the excellent temper of the Laws by which our Nation is go­verned; it presumes every Man to be good, who does not appear to be otherwise.

But ever since Man degenerated, it hath been the greatest part of his temporal Misery, to esteem him­self upright and wise, and other Men Villains and Sots. Which makes him disobedient to his Go­vernours, and unjust to his Neighbours. He looks upon his Neighbours as Dotterels, and his Go­vernours as Harpies. He reckons it as easie to catch the former, as difficult to escape the deadly Talons of the latter.

Since the time that Men had reason to be afraid of one another, their Fears have undone them. Ever since they have been unable to govern them­selves, they have been afraid of their Rulers: lest they should invade their Properties, and by altering their Religion, make way to their Civil Rights.

Through the want of Christian Charity, and that Faith from whence it proceeds, People are so void of good Thoughts, and so full of jealous Sur­mises; they have so great a concern for their Pelf, [Page 27] and so little trust in the Providence of God, that when their Fortunes are as safe as if they were the only care of Heaven; for seditious Men to con­vince them that their Prince will have no regard to Rules and Constitutions, but intends to govern them by Arbitrary and lawless Administrations, they have no more to do, but only to tell them so.

Upon the first strong report, they believe them­selves to be Slaves: and indeed they are so, to their own Passions. They feel more smart from their own Fears, than they can suffer under the Whips of Infidels. For want of crueller Masters, they become Tyrants to themselves.

Rags and Prisons with a quieter mind would be great Blessings to them. For they are of a Temper which makes Prosperity an Egyptian Plague. They that have nothing to lose are in a much happier con­dition. For Poverty is not so great an Evil, as the fear of falling into it.

But the great Riddle is, that these Men should be wounded and tortured, by that which never touched them, by something at a distance from them, which they cannot prove by one Argument will ever be nearer: nay which hath nothing at all of Beeing, more than it received from their distem­pered Imaginations, yet frights and distracts them, more than any thing that is real and certain.

It is indeed very strange for a Kingdom to be thunder-struck by an undiscernable clap of Tyranny that melts and consumes all the Rights of the Peo­ple, and yet not one Man hurt in his Person or Fortunes.

The true State of the Case is this. When the guilty Conscience tells a Man plainly what use he himself would make of Soveraign Power: when the Wretch hath done all the Mischief he can to his Inferiors; and has thought wickedly of his Prince, that he is altogether such an one as him­self, 'tis no wonder that he fears Him first, and then hates Him.

This is the account of all the Commotions, Tu­mults, Seditions, and Confusions that ever yet were, or perhaps ever will be raised by discontented or seduced Persons in all the Governments of the World. When designing Miscreants undertake the embroiling of their Country, the People ferment immediately upon the bare report of approaching Slavery.

They believe all that is told them, unless it be then, when it happens that there is any thing of truth in the Relation. Where there is any just cause of suspicion and mistrust, they are everlast­ingly secure. It is an expence of thinking too great for their stock, to examine the following Parti­culars.

Whether their Governours have not been injured by the malicious and crafty Insinuations of some bad Men?

Whether they have any better, or other Argu­ment than their own confidence, that they are not imposed upon?

Whether the Grievances which their Leaders make so great a noise with, be any other than the Necessities which their chargeable Vices have brought upon them?

How it comes to pass, that the Evils which terrifie and afflict them, which are said to grow and encrease upon them every day, are commonly husht and untalkt of, and laid asleep for such long Intervals, and never heard of but from Male-con­tents in some high Contest with the Government; that the popular clamour of Grievances should prove the most dangerous sort of Thunder, and never be heard but in times of great Heat?

In a few words, what should be the reason, that in a Country which in its own Productions, and in foreign Supplies, in the easiness of its Government, in the Wealth, Safety, and Priviledges of the Peo­ple, exceeds all other upon the face of the Earth; in a time of Peace, and open Trade, and universal Prosperity, there should be those sudden hideous outcries of Grievances, pressing to death the Men that do not feel them, nor understand what is meant by the word, nor know what to complain of, till they are instructed by the idolized Mutineers?

The Credulity, Fickleness, and Levity of the common People, have in all former Ages been the Engines with which politick Atheists have ruined the best Governments. Neither is it a Prophecy, but a clearer prospect of an effect in its unhappy Causes, to say, that scarce any Country will be embroiled hereafter without this old Artifice, with­out the help of this Weapon, which after all the execution it hath done in the World, is still as sharp as ever, and will never want an edge as long as there is Ambition and Revenge to whet it.

This hath always been the temper of the Multi­tude, in all times and places by the just judgment of the Almighty upon their disobedience to God and Man.

Upon any noise of Oppression and Tyranny, though the Alarm be never so false, the People fall immediately into the cold and hot Fits of an incurable State-Quartan, they are presently light-headed, and presently after stark raving Mad.

That the pretended danger of Tyranny and Sla­very, or an Invasion of the Peoples Rights, Reli­gious or Civil, hath been the chief, and for the most part, the only Incentive to all the Sedition that ever disturbed the Peace of Kingdoms and Common­wealths, in any Age or Country whose Records have come to our hands, may be concluded from the following Instances; and proved by thousands more, ready to be produced.

THE INSTANCES.