_Citt._ These two _Grand Committees_, I tell you, nominated and appointed the _Sub-Committees_, gave them their _Orders_, and received their _Reports_: It was their Office moreover to digest _Discoveries_, and _Informations_; to instruct _Articles_, improve _Accusations_, manage _Controversies_, defray the charge of _Intelligencers_, and _Gatherers of hands_, to dispose of _Collections_; to influence the _Anglicus_'s and _Domesticks_, and fortify those that were weak in the Faith; to furnish matter sometimes for _Narratives_.---- Bum. _What dost thou mean by_ Narratives, Citt? _Citt._ They are only _Strange Storys_; as that of the _Dragon_ in _Essex_; _Earth-quakes_, _Sights in the Air_, _Prodigies_, and the like. Bum. _One would think it should not be worth their while, to busy their heads about such Fooleries as these._ Stories of Prodigies startle the Common People. _Citt._ Now this is thy simplicity _Bumpkin_, for there is not any thing that moves the hearts of the People so effectually toward _the Work of the Lord_, especially when the _Narrative_ carries some _Historical Remarque_ in the Tayl of it: As for the purpose, _this or that happen'd in such a Kings Reign, and soon after such and such troubles befell the Church and State_: such a _Civil War_, such or such a _Persecution_, or _Invasion_ follow'd upon it. When the People perceive once that the Lord hath declared himself against the Nation, in these tokens of his Displeasure, the Multitude seldom fail of helping the Judgment forward. Bum. _I don't know what ye call your_ Committees, _but Our Gentry had their_ Meetings _too; and there was a great Lord or two among 'um that shall be Nameless_. _Citt._ We could shew you _othergates Lords_ among _Us_, I'le assure you, then any you have; but let that passe. Bum. _You told me that your_ Committees _were to procure_ Subscriptions; _we were hard put to't, I'm sure, in the_ Country _to get_ Hands. The way of getting hands in and about _London_. _Citt._ And so were we in the City _Bumpkin_; and if it had not been to advance the _Protestant Interest_, I'de have been torn to pieces by wild Horses, before I'de have done what I did. But _extraordinary Cases_ must have _extraordinary allowances_. There was hardly a _Register_ about the Town that scap'd us for _Names_: _Bedlam_, _Bridewell_, all the _Parish-books_, nay the very _Goals_, and _Hospitalls_; we had our _Agents_ at all _Publick Meetings_, _Court_, _Church_, _Change_, all the _Schools_ up and down; _Masters_ underwrit for their _Children_, and _Servants_, _Women_ for their _Husbands_ in the _West-Indies_, nay we prevail'd upon some _Parsons_, to engage for their whole _Congregations_; we took in _Jack Straw_, _Wat Tyler_, and the whole Legend of _Poor Robins Saints_ into our List of _Petitioners_; and the _same Names_ serv'd us in four or five _several places_. And where's the hurt of all this now? So long as the Cause it self is Righteous.