Mercvry, or, The secret and svvift messenger shewing, how a man may with privacy and speed communicate his thoughts to a friend at any distance.

CHAP. II.

The conditions requisite to Secrecy, The use of it in the Matter of speech, either By

• Fables of the Heathen.
• Parables of Scripture.

TO the exactnesse of Secrecy in any way of discourse, there are these two qualifications requi∣site.

1. That it be difficult to be un∣folded, if it should bee doubted of, or examined.

2. That it be (if possible) altoge∣ther devoid of suspicion; for so far as it is liable to this, it may be said to come short in the very Nature of Secrecy; since what is once suspe∣cted, is exposed to the danger of exa∣mination, & in a ready way to be dis∣covered: but if not, yet a man is more likely to be disappointed in his

intention, when his proceedings are mistrusted.

Both these conditions together are to bee found but in few of the fol∣lowing instances; only they are here specified, to shew what a man should aime at, in the inventions of this na∣ture.

The art of secret information in the generall, as it includes all signifi∣catory signes, may be stiled Cryptome∣nysis, or private Intimations.

The particular wayes of discour∣sing, were before intimated to bee threefold.

• 1. By Speaking.
• 2. By Writing.
• 3. By signes or gestures.

According to which variety, there are also different wayes of Secrecy.

• 1. Cryptologia.
• 2. Cryptographia.
• 3. Semaeologia.

Cryptologia, or the Secrecy of spea∣king, may consist either,

• 1. In the matter.
• 2. In the words.

1. In the Matter: when the thing we would utter is so concealed under the expression of some other matter, that it is not of obvious conceit. To which purpose are the Metaphors, Allegories, and divers other Tropes of Oratory: which, so farre as they concerne the ornament of speech, d•••• properly belong to Rhetorick, but as they may be applied for the secrecy of speech, so are they reducible unto this part of Grammar.

To this likewise appertaines all that aenigmaticall learning, unto which not onely the learned heathen, but their Gods also were so much devo∣ted, as appeares by the strange and frequent ambiguities of the Oracles, and Sybils. And those were counted the most profound Philosophers a∣mongst them, who were best able for the invention of such affected ob∣scurities.

Of this kind also were all those

mysterious Fables, under which, the ancients did veile the secrets of their Religion and Philosophy; counting it a prophane thing to prostitute the hid∣den matters of either, unto vulgar ap∣prehension. Quia sciunt inimicam esse naturae, apertam nudamque expositionem sui; quae, sicut vulgaribus hominum sen∣sibus, intellectum sui, vario rerum teg∣mine operimentoque subtraxit, ita a prui dentibus arcana sua voluit per fabulosa tractari, saith Macrobius. The Gods and nature wold not themselves have hidden so many things from us, if they had intended them for com∣mon understandings, or that others should treat of them, after an easie & perspicuous way: Hence was it that the learned men of former times were so generally inclined, to involve all their learning, in obscure & mysteri∣ous expressions. Thus did the Egyptian Priests, the Pythagoreans, Platonicks, & almost all other sects and professions.

And to this generall custome of those ages (we may guesse) the holy-Ghost

do's allude, in the frequent Parables, both of the old and new Testament. Parabola est sermo similitu∣dinarius, qui aliud dicit, aliud signifi∣cat, saith Aquinas. It is such a speech of similitude, as sayes one thing, and meanes another. The Disciples doe directly oppose it to plaine speaking. Behold now speakest thou plainly, and no Parables.

And elsewhere tis intimated, that our Saviour did use that manner of teaching for the Secrecy of it: That those proud and perverse auditors, who would not applie themselves to the obedience of his doctrine, might not so much as underst and it. To whom it is not given to know the myste∣ries of the Kingdome of God, to them all things are done in Parables, that seeing they may see and not perceive, and hea∣ring they may heare and not understand.

The art of these was so to implie a secret argument, that the adversary might unawares be brought over, to an acknowledgement, and confession

of the thing we would have. Thus did Nathan, unexpectedly discover to David, the cruelty and injustice of his proceedings in the case of Vriah. Thus did another Prophet, make A∣hab, condemne himselfe, for suffering the King of Syria to escape. And by this meanes did our Saviour in the Parable of the Vineyard, and the un∣just husband-man, force the unbelee∣ving Jewes, to a secret acknowledge∣ment, of those judgements, they had themselves deserved.

Of this nature was that argument of an antient Orator, who when the enemies had proposed peace, upon this condition, that the City should banish their teachers and Philoso∣phers; He steps up and tells the peo∣ple a tale, of certaine warres betwixt the woolves and the sheepe, and that the woolves promised to make a league, if the sheep would put away their mastiffe Dogs. By this meanes better instructing them of the dan∣ger and madnesse there would be in

yeelding to such a condition.

The Jewish Doctors doe general∣ly in their Talmud, and all their others writings, accustome them∣selves to a Parabolicall way of tea∣ching; and 'tis observed that many of those horrid fables, that are fa∣thered upon them, doe arise from a misapprehension of them in this par∣ticular. Whilst others interpret that according to the letter, which they intended onely for the morall. As that which one Rabby relates concerning a Lion in the forrest of Elay, that at the distance of foure hundred leagues, did with his roa∣ring, shake downe the walls of Rome, and make the women abortive. Wherein he did not affirme the exi∣stence of any such monster, but only intimate the terriblenesse and power of the divine Majestie. But this by the way.

By this Art, many men are able in their ordinary discourses, so se∣cretly to convey their counsels, or

reproofes, that none shall under∣stand them, but those whom they concerne. And this way of teaching hath a great advantage above any other, by reason it hath much more power in exciting the fancy and af∣fections. Plaine arguments, and morall precepts barely proposed, are more flat in their operation, not so lively and perswasive, as when they steale into a mans assent, under the covert of a parable.

To be expert in this particular is not in every mans power; like Poe∣trie, it requires such a naturall fa∣cultie as cannot be taught. But so farre as it falls under the rules and directions of Art, it belongs to the precepts of Oratory.

In the generall 'tis to be observed, that in these cases a man must be ve∣ry carefull to make choyse of such a subject, as may beare in it, some pro∣per analogie and resemblance to the chiefe businesse. And he must before∣hand in his thoughts, so aptly con∣trive

the severall parts of the simili∣tude, that they may fitly answere un∣to those particular, passages, which are of greatest consequence.

Notes

• Fables.
• In Samn. Scip. Lib. 1. Cap. 2.
• Parables.
• Co••hmen, in Isai. 14.
• Ioh. 16. 29.
• Mat. 13. 10. 11.
• Mar. 4. 11. 12.
• Glas. Phil••. lib. 2. pat. 1. tract. 2. Sect. 5.
• 2 Sam. 12.
• 1 King. 20. 39.
• Mat. 21. 33.
• Schickard Examen Comm. Rab∣bin. dis. 7.