them overboard into the Sea: but in vain, for the Jesuits lie all upon the Surface of the water, with their faces looking com∣fortably towards Heaven, and cannot sink, but are all sustain'd by Miracle: It is strange that the Jesuits being men so weighty in worth, should now be so light, and not worth their weight either in Gold or ought else. I hear likewise, that they use dark Chambers, and Pictures presenting Homi∣cides, to sad and tragical ends: It is whis∣per'd by their own Pupils here. This my present Employment they call their exer∣cise: And it was impos'd upon me in my entrance, to search my Inwards whether I have a Call to be a Jesuit or no. I do not like these quotidian and ubiquetary Mira∣cles; nor this warping of divine things to self-ends. Hypocrisie haunts me still: The Picture, Image, or the Representation in a Looking-glass, that shews a Face less than it is, may happily be like the Face it shews, and symmetrical with it; but the Repre∣sentation, Image, or Picture that swels up the Face, and allows it greater, except it be wrough so for the suppliance of what is lost by distance, attempts above it self, is monstr ous, and cannot be like its Arche∣type; because Proportion is retain'd in Re∣presentations which are lesser than the life, but in such as are greater, the Composition is discompos'd, and the Proportion seat∣ter'd.
He opens the Lock.
Enter Father Wallis, a Jesuit, in his Habit.
F. Wallis.
I wish forsooth all happiness to you: Child, how fare you forsooth in your heavenly Meditations? I have brought you a Relick here of most high considera∣tion; a, Feather forsooth of the wing of an Arch-Angel. Look not upon it but with due reverence.
Arist.
Father forsooth, my Meditations gain and win much upon me: But when I was a Cantabrigian, as having been matricu∣lated in that University, my Master taught me that Angels were immaterial and incor∣poreal; and that they appear in the shapes of young men, to signifie their strength, virtue, and power, and that they are wing'd in the Picture, to set in view their readi∣ness and quickness in their moving from one place to another.
F. Wallis.
Your Cantabrigians forsooth, are fallen as from Religion, so from Learn∣ing. We of the Society are Antistites, At∣lantes, & Heroes Literarum, the most learn∣ed of all the world.
Arist.
This is a Feather from a West-In∣dian Bird, which the good Father would entitle to Heaven.
F. Wallis.
And Child forsooth, how stand you affected to our Vocation?
Arist.
Father, I have a special observance for your Order (I must speak here after this Dialect) but I desire to be more experi∣ence-proof, before I determine upon a set∣tlement.
F. Wallis,
Child forsooth, you fear want perhaps, because we are vow'd away to po∣verty. We have alwaies a secular Priest at∣tending upon us, that purchases Lands for us in his own namé.
Arist.
And is not this Hypocrisie, which put me upon the wing, and engaged me to flie our of England?
F. Wallis.
Besides, we of the English So∣ciety, have a Ship that trades betwixt Lon∣don and Flanders; in the which we conti∣nually receive and return the best Goods at the best advantage: and we in these parts, receive ten thousand Pounds in ready coyn every year out of England. You stand upon a broad bottom, if you joyn with us: We are above him that wrote, Ego & Rex me∣us; I and my King: Emperours, Kings,