The Consolidator; or, Memoirs of Sundry Transactions from the World in the Moon

These Testimonials were things not much unlike our Addresses in England, and which when I heard I could not but remember our Case, in the time of the late King James, when the City of Carlisle in their Address, Thankt his Majesty for the Establishing a Standing Army in England in time of Peace, calling it the Strength, and Glory of the Kingdom.

So strong is the Ambition and Envy of Parties, these Solunarian Gentlemen not grudging to put out one of their own eyes, so they might at the same time put out both the Eyes of their Enemies; the Crolians rather consented to this badge of their own Slavery, and brought themselves who were a free People before, under the Power and Slavery of the Sword.

The ease with which this Prince got over so considerable a Point as this, made him begin to be too credulous and to perswade himself that the Solunarian Church-Men were really in earnest, as to their Pageant-Doctrin of Non-Resistance, and that as he had seen them bear with strange extravagancies on the Crolian Part, they were real and in earnest when they Preach'd that Men ought to obey for Conscience's sake, whatever hardship were impos'd upon them, and however unjust, or contrary to the Laws of God, Nature, Reason, or their Country; what Principle in the World could more readily prompt a Prince to attempt what he so earnestly coveted, as this zealous Prince did the restoring the Abrogratzian Faith, for since he had but two sorts of People to do with; one he had crush'd by force, and had brought the other to profess it their Religion, their Duty, and their Resolution to bear every thing he thought fit to Impose upon them, and that they should be Damn'd if they resisted, the Work seem'd half done to his Hand.

And indeed when I reflected on the Coherence of things, I could not so much blame this Prince for his venturing upon the probability, for whoever was but to go up to this Lunar World and read the Stories of that Time, with what Fury the hot Men of the Solunarian Church acted against the Dissenting Crolians, and with what warmth they assisted their Prince against them, and how Cruelly they insulted them after they were defeated in their attempt of Dethroning him, how zealously they Preach'd up the Doctrine of absolute undisputed Resignation to his Will, how frequently they obey'd several of his encroachments upon their Liberties, and what solemn Protestations they made to submit to him in any thing, and to stand by and assist him in whatever he Commanded them to the last Drop, much with the same Zeal and Forwardness, as our Life-and-Fortune Men did here in England. I say, when all this was consider'd, I could not so much condemn his Credulity, nor blame him for believing them, for no Man could have doubted their Sincerity, but he that at the same time must have Taxt them with most unexampled Hipocrisie.

For the Solunarians now began to discern their Prince was not really on their side, that neither in State Matters any more than Religion, he had any affection for them, and the first absolute Shock he gave them, was in Publishing a general Liberty to the Crolians. 'Tis true this was not out of respect to the Crolian Religion any more than the Solunarian, but purely because by that means he made way for an Introduction of the Abrogratzian Religion which now began to appear publickly in the Country.

But however, as this was directly contrary to the expectation of the Solunarians, it gave them such a disgust against their Prince, that from that very time being disappointed in the Soveraign Authority they expected, they entred into the deepest and blackest Conspiracy against their Prince and his Government that ever was heard of.

Many of the Crolians were deluded by the new Favour and Liberty they receiv'd from the Prince to believe him real, and were glad of the Mortification of their Brethren; but the more Judicious seeing plainly the Prince's Design, declar'd against their own Liberty, because given them by an illegal Authority, without the assent of the whole Body legally assembled.

When the Solunarians saw this they easily reconcil'd themselves to the Crolians, at least from the Outside of the Face, for the carrying on their Design, and so here was a Nation full of Plots, here was the Prince and his Abrogratzians plotting to introduce their Religion, here was a parcel of blind short-sighted Crolians plotting to ruin the Solunarian Establishment, and weakly joining with the Abrogratzians to satisfy their private Resentments; and here was the wiser Crolians joining heartily with the Solunarians of all sorts, laying aside private Resentments, and forgetting old Grudges about Religion, in order to ruin the invading Projects of the Prince and his Party.

There was indeed some verbal Conditions past between them, and the Solunarians willing to bring them into their Party promised them upon the Faith of their Nation, and the Honour of the Solunarian Religion, that there should be no more Hatred, Disturbance or Persecution for the sake of Religion between them, but that they would come to a Temper with them, and always be Brethren for the future. They declared that Persecution ran contrary to their Religion in general, and to their Doctrin in particular; and backt their Allegations with some Truths they have not since thought fit to like, nor much to regard.

However by this Artifice, and on these Conditions, they brought the Crolians to join with them in their Resolutions to countermine their designing Prince; these indeed were for doing it by the old way down-right, and to oppose Oppression with Force, a Doctrin they acknowledg'd, and profest to join with all the Lunar part of Mankind in the practice, and began to tell their Brethren how they had impos'd upon themselves and the World, in pretending to absolute Submission against Nature and universal Lunarian Practice.

But a cunning Fellow personating a Solunarian, and who was in the Plot, gravely answer'd them thus,

'Look ye, Gentlemen, we own with you that Nature, Reason, Law, Justice, and Custom of Nations is on your side, and that all Power Derives from, Centers in, and on all Recesses or Demises of Power returns to its Great Original the Party Governed: Nay we own our Great Eye from whom all the habitable Parts of this Globe are inlightned, has always directed us to practice what Nature thus dictates, always approv'd and generally succeeded the attempt of Dethroning Tyrants. But our Case differs, we have always pretended to this absolute undisputed Obedience, which we did indeed to gain the Power of your Party; and if we should turn round at once to your Opinion, tho' never so right, we should so fly in the Face of our own Doctrin, Sermons, innumerable Pamphlets and Pretensions, as would give all our Enemies too great a Power over us in Argument, and we should never be able to look Mankind in the Face: But we have laid our Measures so that by prompting the King to run upon us in all sorts of bare-fac'd Extreams and Violences, we shall bring him to exasperate the whole Nation; then we may underhand foment the breach on this side, raise the Mob upon him, and by acting on both sides seem to suffer a Force in falling in with the People, and preserve our Reputation.

'Thus we shall bring the thing to pass, betray our Prince, take Arms against his Power, call in Foreign Force to do the Work, and even then keep our Hands seemingly out of the Broil, by being pretended Sticklers for our former Prince; so save our Reputation, and bring all to pass with Ease and Calmness; while the eager Party of the Abrogratzians will do their own Work by expecting we will do it for them.

The Crolians astonish'd both at the Policy, the Depth, the Knavery and the Hypocrisy of the Design, left them to carry it on, owning it was a Masterpiece of Craft, and so stood still to observe the Issue, which every way answer'd the exactness of its Contrivance.

When I saw into the bottom of all this Deceit, I began to take up new Resolutions of returning back into our Old World again, and going home to England, where tho' I had conceiv'd great Indignation at the Treatment our Passive Obedience Men gave their Prince here, and was in hopes in these my remote Travels to have found out some Nations of Honour and Principles. I was fill'd with Amazement to see our Moderate Knaves so much out-done, and I was inform'd that all these things were meer Amusements, Vizors, and Shams, to bring an Innocent Prince into the Snare.

Would any Mortal imagin who has read this short Part of the Story, that all this was a Solunarian Church Plot, a meer Conspiracy between these Gentlemen and the Crolian Dissenters, only to wheedle in the unhappy Prince to his own Destruction, and bring the popular Advantage of the Mob, to a greater Ascendant on the Crown.

Of all the Richlieus, Mazarines, Gondamours, Oliver Cromwels, and the whole Train of Polititians that our World has produc'd, the greatest of their Arts are Follies to the unfathomable depth of these Lunarian Policies; and for Wheedle, Lying, Swearing, Preaching, Printing, &c. what is said in our World by Priests and Polititans, we thank God may be believ'd; but if ever I believe a Solunarian Priest Preaching Non-Resistance of Monarchs, or a Solunarian Polititian turning Abrogratzian, I ought to be mark'd down for a Fool; nor will ever any Prince in that Country take their Word again, if ever they have their Senses about 'em, but as this is a most extraordinary Scene, so I cannot omit a more particular and sufficient Relation of some Parts of it, than I us'd to give.

The Solunarian Clergy had carry'd on their Non-Resistance Doctrin to such Extremities, and had given this new Prince such unusual demonstrations of it, that he fell absolutely into the Snare, and entirely believ'd them; he had try'd them with such Impositions as they would never have born from any Prince in the World, nor from him neither, had they not had a deep Design, and consequently stood in need of the deepest Disguise imaginable; they had yielded to a Standing Army, and applauded it as a thing they had desir'd; they had submitted to levying Taxes upon them by New Methods, and illegal Practices; they had yielded to the abrogation or suspension at least of their Laws, when the King's absolute Will requir'd it; not that they were blind, and did not see what their Prince was doing, but that the black Design was so deeply laid, they found it was the only way to ruin him, to push him upon the highest Extreams, and then they should have their turn serv'd. – Thus if he desir'd one illegal Thing of them, they would immediately grant two; one would have thought they had read our Bible, and the Command, when a Man takes away the Cloak, to give him the Coat also.

Nor was this enough, but they seem'd willing to admit of the publick Exercise of the Abrogratzian Religion in all Parts; and when the Prince set it up in his own Chappel, they suffered it to be set up in their Cities, and Towns, and the Abrogratzian Clergy began to be seen up and down in their very Habits; a thing which had never been permitted before in that Country, and which the Common People began to be very uneasy at. But still the Solunarian Clergy, and all such of the Gentry, especially as were in the Plot, by their Sermons, printed Books, and publick Discourses, carry'd on this high topping Notion of absolute Submission, so that the People were kept under, and began to submit to all the impositions of the Prince.

These things were so acted to the Life, that not only the Prince, but none of his Abrogratzian Counsellors could see the Snare, the Hook was so finely covered by the Church-Artificers, and the Bait so delicious, that they all swallow'd it with eagerness and delight.

But the Conspirators willing to make a sure game of it, and not thinking the King, or all his Counsellors would drive on so fast as they would have them, tho' they had already made a fair progress for the Time, resolv'd to play home, and accordingly they persuade their Prince, that they will not only submit to his Arbitrary Will, in Matters of State, and Government, but in Matters of Religion; and in order to carry this Jest on, one of the heads of their Politicks, and a Person of great Estem for his Abilities in Matters of State, being without question one of the ablest Heads of all the Solunarian Nobility, pretended to be converted, and turn'd Abrogratzian. This immediately took as they desir'd, for the Prince caress'd him, and entertain'd him with all possible endearments, proferr'd him to several Posts of Honour and Advantage, always kept him near him, consulted him in all Emergencies, took him with him to the Abrogian Sacrifices, and he made no Scruple publickly to appear there, and by these degrees and a super-achitophalian Hypocrisie, so insinuated himself into the credulous Prince's favour, that he became his only Confident, and absolute Master of all his Designs.

Now the Plot had its desir'd effect, for he push'd the King upon all manner of Precipitations; and if even the Abrogratzians themselves who were about the King, interpos'd for more temperate Proceedings, he would call them Cowards, Strangers, ignorant of the Temper of the Lunarians, who when they were a going, might be driven, but if they were suffered to cool and consider, would face about and fall off.

Indeed the Men of Prudence and Estates among his own Party, I mean the Abrogratzians in the Country, frequently warn'd him to take more moderate Measures, and to proceed with more Caution; told him he would certainly ruin them all, and himself, and that there must be some Body about his Majesty that push'd him upon these Extremes, on purpose to set all the Nation in a Flame, and to overthrow all the good Designs, which with Temper and good Conduct, might be brought to perfection.

Had these wary Councils been observ'd, and a Prudence and Policy agreeable to the mighty consequence of Things been practis'd, the Solunarian Church had run a great risque of being over thrown, and to have sunk gradually in the Abrogian Errors, the People began to be drawn off gradually, and the familiarity of the thing made it appear less frightful to unthinking People, who had entertain'd strange Notions of the monstrous things that were to be seen in it, so that common Vogue had fill'd the Peoples Minds with ignorant Aversions, that 'tis no absurdity to say, I believe there was 200000 People who would have spent the last drop of their Blood against Abrogratzianism, that did not know whether it was a Man or a Horse.

This thing consider'd well, would of it self have been sufficient to have made the Prince and his Friends wary, and to have taught them to suit their Measures to the Nature and Circumstances of Things before them; but Success in their beginnings blinded their Eyes, and they fell into this Church Snare with the most unpitied willingness that could be imagin'd.

The first thing therefore this new Counsellor put his Master upon, in order to the beginning his more certain Ruin, was to introduce several of his Abrograzians into Places of all kinds, both in the Army, Navy, Treasure, and Civil Affairs, tho' contrary to some of the general Constitutions of Government; he had done it into the Army before, tho' it had disgusted several of his Military Men, but now he push'd him upon making it Universal, and still the Passive Solunarians bore it with patience.

From this tameness and submission, his next Step was to argue that he might depend upon it the Solunarian Church had so sincerely embrac'd the Doctrine of Non-Resistance, that they were now ripen'd not only to sit still, and see their Brethren the Crolians suppress'd, but to stand still and be opprest themselves, and he might assure himself the Matter was now ripe, he might do just what he wou'd himself with them, they were prepar'd to bare any thing.

This was the fatal Stroke, for having possest the Prince with the belief of this, he let loose the Reins to all his long conceal'd Desires. Down went their Laws, their Liberties, their Corporations, their Churches, their Colleges, all went to wreck, and the eager Abrograzians thought the Day their own. The Solunarians made no opposition, but what was contain'd within the narrow circumference of Petitions, Addresses, Prayers, and Tears; and these the Prince was prepar'd to reject, and upon all occasions to let them know he was resolv'd to be obey'd.

Thus he drove on by the treacherous Advice of his new Counsels, till he ripen'd all the Nation for the general Defection which afterward follow'd.

For as the Encroachments of the Prince push'd especially at their Church Liberties, and threatened the overthrow of all their Ecclesiastical Privileges, the Clergy no sooner began to feel that they were like to be the first Sacrifice, but they immediately threw off the Vizor, and beat the Concionazimir; this is a certain Ecclesiastick Engine which is usual in cases of general Alarm, as the Churches Signal of Universal Tumult.

This is truly a strange Engine, and when a Clergy-Man gets into the Inside of it, and beats it, it Roars, and makes such a terrible Noise from the several Cavities, that 'tis heard a long way; and there are always a competent number of them plac'd in all Parts so conveniently, that the Alarm is heard all over the Kingdom in one Day.

I had some Thoughts to have given the Reader a Diagram of this piece of Art, but as I am but a bad Drafts Man, I have not yet been able so exactly to describe it, as that a Scheme can be drawn, but to the best of my Skill, take it as follows. 'Tis a hollow Vessel, large enough to hold the biggest Clergy-Man in the Nation; it is generally an Octagon in Figure, open before, from the Wast upward, but whole at the Back, with a Flat extended over it for Reverberation, or doubling the Sound; doubling and redoubling, being frequently thought necessary to be made use of on these occasions; 'tis very Mathematically contriv'd, erected on a Pedestal of Wood like a Windmil, and has a pair of winding Stairs up to it, like those at the great Tun at Hiedlebergh.

I could make some Hierogliphical Discourses upon it, from these References, thus. 1. That as it is erected on a Pedestal like a Wind-Mill, so it is no new thing for the Clergy, who are the only Persons permitted to make use of it, to make it turn round with the Wind, and serve to all the Points of the Compass. 2. As the Flat over it assists to encrease the Sound, by forming a kind of hollow, or cavity proper to that purpose, so there is a certain natural hollowness, or emptiness, made use of sometimes in it, by the Gentlemen of the Gown, which serves exceedingly to the propogation of all sorts of Clamour, Noise, Railing, and Disturbance. 3. As the Stairs to it go winding up like those by which one mounts to the vast Tun of Wine at Hiedleburgh, which has no equal in our World, so the use made of these ascending Steps, is not altogether different, being frequently employ'd to raise People up to all sorts of Enthusiasms, spiritual Intoxications, mad and extravagant Action, high exalted Flights, Precipitations, and all kinds of Ecclesiastick Drunkenness and Excesses.

The sound of this Emblem of emptiness, the Concionazimir, was no sooner heard over the Nation, but all the People discover'd their readiness to join in with the Summons, and as the thing had been concerted before, they send over their Messengers to demand Assistance from a powerful Prince beyond the Sea, one of their own Religion, and who was allied by Marriage to the Crown.

They made their Story out so plain, and their King had by the contrivance of their Achitophel rendred himself so suspected to all his Neighbours, that this Prince, without any hesitation, resolv'd to join with them, and accordingly makes vast Preparations to invade their King.

During this interval their Behaviour was quite altred at home, the Doctrin of absolute Submission and Non-Resistance was heard no more among them, the Concionazimir beat daily to tell all the People they should stand up to Defend the Rights of the Church, and that it was time to look about them for the Abrograzians were upon them. The eager Clergy made this Ecclesiastick Engine sound as loud and make all the Noise they could, and no Men in the Nation were so forward as they to acknowledge that it was a State-Trick, and they were drawn in to make such a stir about the pretended Doctrins of absolute Submission, that they did not see the Snare which lay under it, that now their Eyes were opened, and they had learnt to see the Power and Superiority of Natural Right, and would be deceiv'd no longer. Others were so honest to tell the Truth, that they knew the emptiness and weakness of the pretence all along, and knew what they did when they Preacht it up, viz. to suppress and pull down the Crolians: But they thought their Prince who they always serv'd in crying up that Doctrin, and whose Exclusion was prevented by it, would ha' had more Gratitude, or at least more Sense, than to try the Experiment upon them, since whatever to serve his Designs and their own, which they always thought well united, they were willing to pretend, he could not but see they always knew better than to suffer the practice of it in their own Case. That since he had turn'd the Tables upon them, 'tis true he had them at an advantage and might pretend they were Knaves, and perhaps had an opportunity to call them so with some reason; but they were resolv'd, since he had drove them to the necessity of being one or t'other, tho' he might call them Knaves, they would take care he should have no reason to call them Fools too.

Thus the Vapour of absolute Subjection was lost on a suddain, and as if it had been preparatory to what was coming after, the Experiment was quickly made; for the King persuing his Encroachments upon the Church, and being possest with a Belief that pursuant to their open Professions they would submit to any thing, he made a beginning with them, in sending his positive Command to one of his Superintendent Priests, or Patriarchs, to forbid a certain Ecclesiastick to officiate any more till his Royal Pleasure was known.

Now it happen'd very unluckily that this Patriarch, tho' none of the most Learned of his Fraternity, yet had always been a mighty zealous Promoter of this blind Doctrin of Non-Resistance, and had not a little triumph'd over and insulted the Crolian Dissenters upon the Notion of Rebellion, antimonarchical Principles and Obedience, with a reserve for the Laws, and the like, as a scandalous practice, and comprehensive of Faction, Sedition, dangerous to the Church and State, and the like.

This Reverend Father was singl'd out as the first Mark of the King's Design; the deluded Prince believ'd he could not but comply, having so publickly profest his being all Submission and absolute Subjection; but as this was all Conceit, he was pusht on to make the Assault where he was most certain to meet a repulse; and this Gentleman had long since thrown off the Mask, so his first Order was disobey'd.