the Countrey-Clowns As one who scarcely knew or heeded ought The Spanish-Fleet that perish'd on the Downes I heard of and to minde it some what brought Sometimes I have intelligence from Rome And know what in the Conclave hath beene done I have observed other men to come On businesse thence as well as Senior Con. I know Archbishop Laud and he knows me The worse for him by many hundred pounds For which I recompenced looke to be When he againe at Lambeth walks his Rounds And I from these though they suppose not so Some Reasons drew for that which now I doe I heard of what within their Cabinet The Machiavilian-Counsellers debate And informations other while did get Of ill-presaging secresies of State The German-horse that should have trotted hither Prodigious Straffords projects deeds and triall With other Characters speld all together Have showne me Truths that can have no deniall And when my heart had rightly pondred these Weigh'd what they are with whom we have to doe Their words their hopes their lives their practices What things they seek whom they belong unto With such like notes as these me thinks they be All blinde men who perceive not what I see And when I had with these considerations Consider'd too for what a worthlesse Crew The suits and cries of two most loyall Nations Have wanted those effects which are their due That He who for the Sheep his life should give Can give them to the Wolves and see them slaine That He who should our grievances releeve Can adde unto our torment and our paine That He because we feare his Dogs will bite And for that reason pray they may be ty'd Can therefore let them loose and take delight To see them kill whom they have terrifide These things considered me thinks we wrong The Humane-nature to be tame so long When I perceived our deare Countries Father So peremptorily affect his will That he would hazard three brave Kingdomes rather Then his unlawfull pleasure not fulfill And when I saw the Devils who inspire This wilfulnesse into him ceaze the goods Of his best subjects their faire houses fire Deflowre their Virgins shed their Old-mens bloods Betray their nearest Kinsmen slay their Brothers Deprive the blamelesse Infants of their lives Enslave their Fathers kill their frighted Mothers Abuse their Daughters and defile their Wives It griev'd me that this Iland should afford One man who for this Quarrell drew no sword But since I have consider'd that from ROME These Plagues these mischiefes these unhappy warres And all our present miseries did come With our unequall'd Irish-Massacres And that beside the many thousands here Well nigh two hundred thousand Protestants Were slaine and rooted thence within one yeare By those to whom the King high favours grants And since t is not improbably beleev'd They called are to be our Butchers too If we permit our selves to be deceiv'd Till they can compasse what they meane to doe Me thinks we have not beene so tame as mad To have so slow a hand as we have had And lastly since I weigh'd that not alone A plot is laid three Kingdomes to undoe But also in their spoile to have undone All other true Reformed-Churches too That Gods own glorie and the servitude Of Christian soules is in this Cause concern'd From thence whatever other will conclude I these Conclusions with good Warrant learn'd That those whom in this Warfare we resist Are neither worse nor better but those Bands And those Confederates of ANTICHRIST Which are to be his Champions in these Lands And that whoever fighteth on their side When this is known hath GOD CHRIST deni'd I see as plainly as I see the Sun He draweth neare that on the * white horse rides The long-expected Battell is begun The BEAST to muster up his Kings provides With him will all his Edomites conspire The seed of Hagar and the sonnes of Lot Philistia Gebal Moab Ammon Tyre And all that with his Marke themselves bespot Those brave white-Regiments me thinks I see That on the LORD of LORDS KING of KINGS Attending in triumphant habits be And which with him against our foes he brings Me thinks I hear his * Angel call the Crowes To eat the Kings and Captains of our foes If this be so as with a heart unfain'd I do believe it is how brave a lot Have we that were before all worlds ordain'd To be for souldiers to the LAMB begot With what high courage should we march along Against this Foe That being Conquerours We may with Angels sing a Triumph-Song And crowned sit among Celestiall Powers Why should we be afraid to speak or write What may from this curst Army fetch our King Why should we feare to perish in that Fight Which will through Death to Life immortall bring Or why should any now this work delay Or doubt the truth of that which here I say I beg no grace from King or Parliament If an Impostor I shall prove to be Or if men find not by the Consequent That GOD hath spoken to this Land by me And that the maine of all my Musings were Inspir'd by Him though often he permit My foolishnesse among them to appeare That nothing be ascribed to my Wit Excuse I crave not but a just correction Or Approbation as my words may merit If an ill-spirit hath been my direction What thereunto pertains let me inherit And if the truth be spoken do not grieve me VVithout a cause but hearken and believe me Suppose not my deare Countrimen that here I have been over-bold although you see A bitternesse doth in my lines appear For in this Cause great things concerned be It doth concern our children and our wives The publike safetie and the publike good The honour of our Nation and our lives The just avengement of our brethrens blood The freedome of our persons and estates The honour and the safetie of our King Our present being and our future fates And almost ev'ry other precious thing Yea it concerns our souls and more then so It highly doth concern GODS glory too Now then for conscience or for shame begin To call to minde the duties that ye owe Let what appears without be found within That by your actions we your hearts may know For your own sakes if not for GODS and our Be zealous in the cause you undertake Lest you ere long have neither means nor pow'r Your peace with GOD or Them or Vs to make For both to GOD and man above all creatures The most abhorred are those hypocrites Who can comply with disagreeing natures Yet false to all but to their appetites Take therefore counsell from a souldiers Pen And while you may be warn'd be wise be men Asham'd if not a little mad I am To see so many in this cause so cold So false so faint so cowardly and tame That can in other causes be so bold And not without affliction this I say Should this good cause miscarrie all
world approve our innocence And that he may thereby informed be How little cause we give of just offence And to that end to what I said before In our defence I le add a little more Though others may be fool'd with Protestations And words or oaths which peradventure none Did vow or make but he whose Declarations Have lately for the Kings among us gone The Parliament hath many piercing eyes That in the dark descry their foes devices And by discov'ring of their Treacheries Ere they come forth destroyes those Cockatrices When mischiefs are by Providence fore-seen And then prevented they that would have done them Make Friends and Fools believe they had not been Because they were destroid ere they begun them Yet some who saw not where the Foxes went Can finde where they have haunted by their scent What things the King hath sworne I doe not heare But should he sweare ten times and ten times over There were no cause to dread what yet we feare Me of that feare his Oathes could not recover For though I should beleeve that he thought true What he had sworne yet what should me assure That he his owne Designes should still pursue Or that unchanged he shall still endure And though his heart bide fixt how can I know That he shall still have powre to doe me right Since they who seeke his Kingdomes overthrow Alreadie are Commanders of his might And so prevailing that in him I see Nor Will nor Powre his owne true friend to be Though others can beyond beleefe beleeve And hope beyond all hope I cannot yet In Reasonable things permission give Vnto my Fancie to befoole my Wit In flights-divine my Contemplation flies Without restraint But in all humane things My Vnderstanding still my Iudgement ties To Reasons principles or clips her wings What ever therefore other doe or say What ever sounds or showes I see or heare Each weightie-matter by it selfe I weigh With ev'rie circumstance that may appeare And when that all things I have throughly prov'd I silent am or speak as I am mov'd So did I in this Cause before I dar'd Resolve upon the course that I have took And ere I hither came came so prepar'd That nothing to affright me can be spoke Though all for whose defence I hither come Should use me worse then yet my foes have done As I already have been us'd by some I would not leave the path I have begun But meerly for the justnesse of the Cause And conscience sake perform my best endeavour To vindicate Religion and the Lawes And in this duty to my death persever That I may live to see our Freedome sav'd Or bravely die before I am inslav'd For though some wilfully and weakly some Object unto us that in Primitive And purer ages Christians did not come With Fire and Sword the Law of Faith to give Nor seek by force of armes to make defence Against those Tyrants in whose lands they taught Much lesse came arm'd against their native Prince To settle that Religion which they brought This argument of their is but a cheat To cozen Innocencie with a show That 's empty For the difference is great Betwixt their Cause and that we mannage now VVhich I should make more plainly to appeare But that too tedious for this place it were They had no Party to defend their cause They came to preach where Freedomes they had none They were not armed by their Countries Lawes And greatest good by suffring might be done To Russia or to Turkie should I goe Our Faith to publish there the likeliest way To settle it would then be sufferance too And meekly on the block my head to lay Must therefore we permit the Whore of Rome To send her Bastards and her Fornicators Whom Law forbids within our coasts to come To teach her Baudrie to our sons and daughters And make the Kings and Princes of these Nations Drunk with the Feces of her Fornications Because the Martyrs suffred by that State Whose settled way of Worship they gainsaid Must downe to those who come to innovate Our settled Truth this Kingdomes neck be laid Shall we be able an account to render For our neglect now we in danger see Of Romish-Slaverie our Faiths-Defender If we endeavour not to set him free Shall we sit still and whine when Law and Reason Cries out All-arme untill we be indeed Traitors by fearing Loyaltie is Treason And bring both Plagues and Curses on our Seed Doe as you please my way to me is knowne And I will walk it though I walke alone For that without a partiall inclination To either side the right I might disclose It was and is my full determination To set aside respect of friends or foes And let me be by both of them abhorr'd If I now utter or have uttred ought For private ends or what shall not accord In ev'ry sentence with a loyall thought To keep me from Delusion I have pray'd I have look'd up above me to discover What notions may be downe to me convayd Of those things which above our heads doe hover And downe below me I have cast mine eyes To mark what fogs may up from hell arise About me I have look'd on either side On disagreeing and agreeing actions The manners and the speeches I have tride Of most Professions all Degrees and Factions And from them all have made for my directions And for my informations in this Cause A chaine of Observations and Collections From whence my Iudgement her conclusions drawes Behind me I have look'd to take a view Of what was done or suffred heretofore VVhat did on this what did on that ensue What makes a Curse or Blessing lesse or more And I have look'd before me too and see Events of things that shall hereafter be I have consider'd what I had foreseen In that great Plague which this Kings Reigne began VVhat I fore-told him what fulfil'd hath been VVhat courses He and His since that time ran I have consider'd why I did prefer That hearty-prayer for Him which yet stands As registred in my Remembrancer And hath been published through all his Lands I have consider'd well what kinde of men Were then his Counsellors and who are now What Parliaments and Promises were then Made void and what effects from thence did flow How fast injurious Projects were incretst How cruelly the people were opprest I have well weigh'd what persons were prefer'd In Church and Common-wealth and with what sleight Acceptance if not with a disregard All honest services they did requite Their Proclamations did from yeare to yeare Proclaime to me much more then they intended I should have known And though I silent were I could have told in what they should have ended The Life and sudden Death of Buckingham The Voyages of Rochel and of Ree And other things whereto I privieam VVere true Prognostications unto me And to my understanding more foretold Then all the Constellations did unfold And though I live among
and serving GOD by halves That Kingdom which to him he freely gave Till he like him hath made the people sin And brought our Endlesse-desolation in They would not have him Ahab-like misled By wicked female Counsels or by those Dissembling Priests and Prophets who have bred That Plague which now this Island overgrows Nor would they that with King Iehosaphat Some fruitlesse complements or causlesse fears Should draw him to become confederate With such as are profest Idolaters Much lesse by those that are unwarrantable And such as flatterie alone imputes We wish he may be great but not with some So great as from a lawfull King to swell Into a Tyrant and by that meanes come To gain a principality in hell We wish him rich but not by tricks that may Inrich Projectors more and lastly prove A cheat procuring him another way A greater dammage in his peoples love But of these things we wish him so possest That they may make him happie and us blest The Parliament would so our Kings enable If they by their advisement would proceed As that hereafter no dishonourable Unsafe or unfit courses they should need We blush and are asham'd as well as griev'd That they of whom we Justice should obtain When injuries from others we receive Give cause of greater sufferings to complain We thinke what ere seducing Prelates say They should have consciences as well as we And may have soules which will another day Made subject to the Common Judgement be And we would have them none of those that shall Cry to the Mountains down on them to fall We would not have them to our daily sorrow And their dishonor wrong'd by such as they Who keepe them still so needie as to borrow And never in condition to repay We would not have them live and die in debt as usually they doe without regard Whose wants and whose complaynings they forget And whose deserts they leave without reward Or need to be incumbred with so many Oppressing Officers who from us teare But that like David he should purge his Court From impudent offenders and from all Those practices which are of ill report And chiefly those which will for vengeance call That so his Kingdom might be safe in GOD From Traytors here at home and foes abroad They would not have his Minions rob his Name Of all that honour which thereto belongs And in requitall make him bear the blame Of their loud-crying cruelties and wrongs They would not have each honourable Place Fild up in stead of Princes with such groomes As to this Kingdomes and our Kings disgrace Late fild and yet defild those noble Rooms Fellowes of whom the publike fame records No merit unlesse merit be in roring In being trusty Panders to their Lords In gaming drinking quarreling or whoring For by these virtues from a trencher-man A Princes Minion riseth now and than They would not at the sacred Counsell-board That Lust and Pride and Avarice should sit Arrayed and intiled like a Lord That hath nor credit honesty nor wit Or such a Ruffian as when suiters there In humble wise their grievances prefer Shall swear GOD damne me I will nothing heare That is inform'd against an Officer Or such as with notorious impudence Shall taunt imperiously or tartly blame A man that is of well known innocence When they themselves do merit publike shame Because in publike view and without aw They violate divine and humane Law We would preserve our Sovereigns honourable Not by a blast of ayry Attributes A shilling for themselves for him a penny Yet Raven-like still hungry Carions are If their estates were setled once aright And managed by men that are upright Then should our Princes never need to send their Privy-Seals to borrow for their use And when they came where nothing was to lend Be much displeased at a just excuse Nor should they need to seek as oft they do By petty Loans a generall supply And which ill suits with borrowing threaten too If we their expectation shall deny Nor take such other courses as of late Have been devis'd and which are baser farre Then our Collections at the Church-yard-gate Yea baser then our Countrey Help-Ales are And which a generous mind would scarce admit Whilst he had rags to wear or pulse to eat For who can mention without Indignation Those Rascall Projects wherewith some pretended His Majesties Revenues augmentation As when the Sope and Pins they him befriended Or when they raysed Fines by Proclamation From Labourers and Beggers Cottages Or from their new-invented-Corporation Salt Mault and I Coals with such like things as these Or if I erre not some from baser things To rayse the Kings Revenue made a show Ev'n from old Rags from Guts for Fiddle-strings And if these Projects had not been enow I think ere this there had been some device To raise a profit out of Nits and Lice We scorn this Kingdom or our King should be Dishonour'd by such beggarly inventions To make him rich a nobler way have we When he shall please to like of our intentions And whatsoere thy sland'rous tongue hath said Wee seek our Soveraignes welfare and with him No guilefull or disloyall Parts have plaid To wrong the Scepter or the Diadem Nor have we raced any Monument Of Christian-Piety the Crosse except That we might those Idolatries prevent Which in among us by that Relique crept And down for ought I know the Crosse was took As justly as the brazen Snake was broke For though when Christianity began And Iewes and Gentiles mentioned with scorn Christ-crucifi'd unto the Christian-man That badge was then with approbation worn Because it witnes'd them no whit asham'd Of Him in whom they did professe belief Though doom'd he was unto a death defam'd And suffer'd as a murtherer or theef Yet since the Popelings have a trick devis'd To lift it up above the civill use And for a Saint the same hath canoniz'd And stain'd it by idolatrous abuse We have rejected it as now become A wanton Token from the whore of Rome That Sects or Schismes we favour I deny For Law and true Religion we befriend Against their fury and Idolatry Whom you have arm'd injustice to defend We to be regulated are content Not by the fancies of one private braine Or by a few that came ere they were sent By those to whom such matters appertaine Some Lawyers have the sense of Law estrang'd From what it was some Priests and Prelates too Both Doctrines and Church-Discipline have chang'd From that which was establish'd long agoe That therefore we might in the truth abide We by the Fountaines would have all things tride Though of her Members faultie some appeare The Parliaments maine purpose is upright And while preserved their Foundations are The Righteous cannot lose their labours quite Although the Kings intentions may be good As I still hope they be yet most of those That give him counsell now are men of blood And such as dutie bindes