Two Diseases I will and may affirm justly That if it be probable that the Lord hath been wont to foretell Great Troubles to Nations and Kingdomes and the issue of them and if it be certainly true that in all respects no Nation under Heaven upon whom the Name of God or Christ hath been called hath felt such miseries and so great in so short a space as the English have done in the last twenty years unless they have been predicted by the REKETS and KINGS-EVIL there was never of these great things any Divine Forewarning mentioned in any History Much less was any Prediction like to these but such as did quickly vanish after their appearance in a moment as it were or if any have been of longer continuance their matter and argument hath not been so copious But these Two Diseases the REKETS and KINGS-EVIL have been stable and constant the eldest of which in the Prodigious Healing thereof hath continued six hundred years The former of which as the Leprosie in time of the Law was to typifie the Great Cleanser Christ Jesus our spiritual King who was anointed with oyl of Grace above his fellows and as the Balm of Gilead and Pool of Bethesda were made to foreshew that Merciful Physician who with his blood should heal our sins and miseries and wash us from impurity was determined to shew Gods Providence Power Justiee and Mercy to poor England by the Hand and Government of his anointed Servant K. CHARLES II. Whose Person I say is with the other evils designed in the second Disease the KINGS-EVIL He is that Physician to cure those wounds and putrified sores which our State-Physicians as they have been often called have made and caused The things which are foreshewn are in General our Sins and our Calamities 2. The Authors those that have caused our miseries and 3. he which shall be our Deliverer The method of this discovery is plain for the Persons which have been and shall be the Authors of these contrary effects are plainly described as if it were by their names these in the one this in the other Disease The Sins and Calamities which some have been guilty of and which almost all have suffered are shewn unto us as under the Allegory and Type of Diseases in so plain a manner as that the Diseases are nothing else but in every part and circumstance living pictures of what we have done and suffered and but Metaphorical names of the very things And either they are the very pictures and likeness of the things which I would have them signifie and in this respect we give their natural signification or else they are Metaphorical expressions of such things and bear some good proportion unto the things which I shew they typisie Which Metaphors are not wrested and strained but easie and taken from Holy Scripture and used here in that signification in which they are there used Nor is there any Trope or Figure which is less hard to be understood nor more usual in our mother tongue or the Latine Greek or Hebrew tongues then Metaphors insomuch that for using of names to certain things we do not only commonly but by necessity borrow the names of other things that is use Metaphors Such are these expressions in ordinary and familiar use To be in high or low place that is to be honorable or without honor and it is taken from places high and low in a Physical notion so to be poor when there is little flesh upon any creature is borrowed from that word which properly signifies want of things necessary but is made to signifie being lean c. The SIGNIFICATION of the REKETS in each particular FIrst of all let us examine the Name of REKETS and therein shall we finde the names of those men which have caused our miseries The word Regentes is a Latine word signifying those that are Rulers and Governors whether in the highest or in a lower degree indifferently from rego to rule from which Latine word Regentes is derived a French word and English given to such a Person which exerciseth Regal authority though not a King as the Queen wife to the French King is by courtesie called Queen Regent to distinguish her from the Queen mother as if she had regal authority and like to the King The Vice-royâ— of Scotland are called Regents of Scotland This is the thing Governors taking upon them Regall authority not being Kings and under Kings are meant by this word REKETS with no greater alteration of letters but the very same which hath been found in our English tongue elsewhere For of Regents leaving out the letter n is made Regets as of Tenent which signifieth an opinion maintained by a man is made Tenet signifying the very same thing the letter n being omitted there also both which words we know are used promiscuously at this day And both Regent and Tenent Participles of the present tense and this from Teneo Then in Regets the letter g is turned into k and of Regets is made REKETS which change is also found in our English tongue Ghaucer in the Shipmans Prologue no. 13. saith His barge was called the Maudelain For that vessel which the Poet there and Barclay in his Poeme called The Ship of fools in sundry places calleth a barge we at this day do name as is well known a barke with the like mutation of g into k For the calling of it as we do REKETS pronouncing of it as if it were written with i in the first syllable there is little difference in the sound whether it be written with e or i for the letter i there sounds not full but like the sound of e insomuch that sometimes e is pronounced like as we would have i pronounced in RIKETS written with an i Thus is the letter e ordinarily pronounced in end metre Peter c. and in Devonshire well puteus is uttered as if the vowel and the word were the same with will voluntas Thus in the Name of this Disease are in the first place discovered those men who were the AUTHORS of our late CALAMITIES for according to the Name of the Disease they were not Kings but such as took upon them REGAL AUTHORITY For the Disease is not exprest by a word of the singular number REKET but plurally REKETS since not one single person but many were the causes of our miseries And in this Name the Cause is put for the effect for that those men were the cause of our evils the evils are called by the Names of such who were the Causes of them The Effects of Original Sin are called the Old man in relation to Adam who was the fountain thereof Regeneration and Holiness called the New man directing unto Christ Jesus the worker of it in Holy Scripture by a Metonymy of the Cause put for the Effect Thus our unjust and usurping High Governors being by the Name of the Disease marked out unto us the Nature and Symptomes of the
Moses and unto Aaron Take to you handfuls of the ashes of the furnace and let Moses sprinkle it toward the Heaven in the sight of Pharaoh V. 9. And it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man and upon beast throughout all the land of Egypt V. 10. And they took ashes of the furnace and stood before Pharaoh and Moses sprinkled it up toward Heaven and it became a boyl breaking forth with blains upon man and upon beast V. 11. And the Magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boyles for the boyl was upon the Magicians and upon all the Egyptians This plague of a noisome and grievous sore named before in Exodus a boyle breaking forth with blains upon man and upon beast by reason of which neither the Magicians nor Egyptians could stand before Moses is in a Vision shewn unto John in this manner Rev. 16. 2. And the first Angel went and poured out his vial upon the earth and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the Beast and them which worshiped his Image The disease in the Story written by Moses and the Vision thereof in the principal matters shewed unto John did in brief portend and foreshew That in a place a part of Spiritual Egypt which is Rome a certain man should take the ashes of the furnace Henry VIII which was himself and advancing dust and ashes toward Heaven in the Popes place by the Oath of Supreme Head of the Church which should so fall upon the men of knowledge and others void of wisedom Clergy and Laity that it should beget boiles and blains that is be lothsome and troublesome For while the Clergy who had sworn to the Pope were compel'd to swear the same to K. Henry they as men troubled with sore boiles knew not which way to turn themselves to finde rest if they sware to K. Henry they wounded their consciences if they denied it they suffered death And as bodies full of boiles and botches are lothsome to be lookt upon so this oath when it was taken could not but make them odious to those that knew it was done out of fear not from their hearts So could not the Magicians stand before Moses nor those Clergy men but all that well could hid themselves or fled For the Vial fell upon those which had the Mark of the Beast and them which worshiped his Image By the Mark is to be understood the Signe of the Cross because a Saltier Crosse in this form X is the Mark of the Beast which is the Pope noting numerically among the Greeks six hundred being the round Number of his Name which in full is DCLXVI And those that worshiped the Image of that Peast are those which adore the Hoste or Sacrament of the Altar Because the Bread and Wine hallowed by superstitious Consecration from the Priests mouth is made to have life and to become of those Elements a living Christ Soul and body It is called the Image of the Beast because found out by the Pope and established by him under the name of the Sacrament of the Altar who is that Beast in the Apocalyps as is elsewhere abundantly proved and this is the sense of these words Rev. 13 15. And he had power to give life unto the Image of the Beast That the Bishop of Rome should give life unto dead creatures of Bread and Wine making them a living Christ by his authority So much briefly for the First Disease which was Portentous The Second follows and this is the Leprosie which as it was in some respect a punishment of sin particularly the Leprosie of Miriam Numb 12. and of Gehazi 2 King 5. 27. and that of K. Azariah 2 King 15. 5. and it was called the Plague of Leprosie and simply the Plague sundry times Lev. 13. and 14. for the Malady was Painful and Loathsome and the cause of solitary habitation to the Leper so for the kinde and Nature of it this disease was such an extraordinary Messenger of God as which did contain in it a figure of the Pollution and Odiousnesse of Sin the diffusive nature thereof with the Punishment and the Deliverer from the guilt and punishment also a Person which should free us from both the Son of God Christ Jesus Leprosie was then in the highest when the Disease was as white as Snow such a Leper was Gehazi in the place above-named and thus was Moses's hand leprous as snow Exod. 4. 6. It seized likewise upon sundry parts of the body and sometime the whole as the head forehead beard and sometime garments of skin and of wollen and linnen and divers times houses In which cases and in such parts of the body the Leproste was either a bright spot with white hair growing in it deeper then the skin and spreading or a white rising in the skin turning the hair white or in some case yellowish thin hair and where appeared quick raw flesh in the rising in mens bodies or a white reddish sore in a bald head or forehead In garments if there did appear a greenish or reddish spot and spreading The Leprosie in a house were hollow strakes greenish or reddish appearing deeper then the wall and spreading See of all thls Lev. 13. and 14. The uncleanness of sin defiling the soul was signified when the Leper having a covering upon his upper lip his clothes rent and his head bare was to cry twise Unclean Unclean to note defilement of his soul by sin and his body by Leprosie Lev. 13. 45 46. The Leprosie in the garments and in the house judged by the colour deepness and spreading did insinuate the spreading contagion and from without and outward senses the inward motion thereof into the heart and affections and by example as our garments are carried and worn outwardly and in our houses as spreading in a family among our servants children and betwixt husband and wife The Separation and living apart of the Leper noteth That the society of the wicked is to be avoided and the above-named Levitical Law is applied unto the company of sinners 2 Cor. 6. 17. Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you The pain and torment of the Leprosie consisteth in itching and burning the later whereof is to be gathered from Moses Lev. 13. 24. of both which some kinde of lepers found at this day do tell us and Writers do declare That which among the Israelites was white as snow and burning figureth the pains of Hell on the right hand as it were and the Duration and Perpetuity of Hell Torments as on the left hand For the snowy whiteness is the whiteness of salt and one is very like the other and it hath this whiteness to signifie salt not snow unto us Burning is signified by salt in two respects 1. Because saltness
Lord was wont to send them Prophets in evil and sinful times Prophets so inspired with his Spirit that they knew infallibly and did shew unto that people most certainly what things both good and bad and how they should befal them that their oppressors and the wicked might not live secure nor the oppressed and righteous be discouraged But in a short time after our Saviours Ascension such Prophets which were thus miraculously instructed ceased to be among men By which difference of the times those from these it might at first seem either that God loves not the Christians so tenderly as formerly he did the children of Israel or at least that the Christians now adays have no need of such forewarnings as the children of Israel were wont to have Divine and miraculous premonitions were so usuall to them that they accounted it and complained of it as an affliction when they wanted them This appeareth true from the words of Asaph a man left in Judea when the rest were carried into Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar complaining of the want of a Prophet and Signes which they were formerly accustomed unto to declare and foretell how long their captivity after the present destruction of the City and Temple was yet to last For thus he speaketh Psa 74. 9. We see not our Signes there is no more any Prophet neither is there among us any that knoweth how long Albeit Jeremiah the Prophet had formerly prophesied unto them of 70 years captivity and Daniel and Ezekiel were both now in Chaldea and did prophesie Whereby it appeareth as I said that Asaph was left in the land and that he speaketh of the remainder of the Jews which were left in the same place with him and lastly that this Psalm was written after the carrying away of Jeremiah into Egypt Concerning the difference of those old times before our Saviours coming from these although we should grant it true and we must grant it to be so in some kind touching Prophets yet is the Assumption false to conclude from thence That God loves not the Christians so tenderly as formerly he did the children of Israel for how little soever the Lord loveth any of his children he accounteth and nameth them his Jewels and is as tender of them as of the apple of his eye who spared not his onely and beloved Son but gave him to dye for the least of them all But this is an inestimably greater favour then to premonish and forewarn them of that which is to come a thing which he hath done even to his greatest enemy the devil though for a different end from that for which he forewarns his children letting him know his secret counsel touching Saul and his Sons For did not the Lord reveal unto Satan that Saul and his three sons should be slain even as it came to pass and the Spirit told Saul the day following 1 Sam. 27. 19. And while we consider that the Lord is unchangeable in his love For he is not a man that he should repent this cannot be the cause want of Gods love that Christians are without divining Prophets In the second place as little reason is there to say That we which are Christians have no need of forewarnings of our suffering nor of our deliverance As if the oppressions in Egypt were more than under the Pope and these not seven-fold greater then those as the burning in a fiery furnace or in fire than making and burning of brick by and in such a place or the thraldome of the body greater then of the soul or the length of the captivity under Pharaoh which lasted not in all two hundred and fifteen years more tedious then under Antichrist who began to reign above a thousand years agoe Whereupon neither of these two Causes being to be admitted want of love from the Lord toward his people and no need of Premonitions and likewise necessarily admitting and confessing it to be truth Fully illuminated and infallibly inspired Prophets have not been found and are not now to be expected much after our Saviours leaving the earth it behoveth us to enquire after the reason of this thing Of which by Gods grace I find there are Two Causes 1. Why we may not look for such Prophets in these times which are fully illuminated and infallible is the End and the consideration thereof for which such Prophets were sent by Almighty God for the information of his people which being accomplished and come and past that which points to that end is not necessary any longer Such Prophets were instituted to be forerunning Types and Figures of Christ thereby to signifie that there was a Prophet to come after them like unto themselves but greater who should fully and infallibly know the Lords mind and counsels For thus saith Moses of our Saviour who was to be exhibited in the flesh and making himself the Type of Christ Deut. 18. 15. The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee of thy brethren like unto me unto him ye shall hearken In respect of whom some though not all of the Prophets had power at some not at all times to work certain Miracles and alluding to this it is said The Prophets were unto John 2. Prophets were more fully enlightned before our Saviours coming than in these times there can be found any for another cause even for their sakes to whom their Prophecies and Messages were sent that is because of the people The Prophets were sent principally to call men to repentance thus speaketh the Lord Jerem. 7. 25. Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day I have even sent unto you all my servants the Prophets daily rising up early and sending them V. 26. Yet they hearkened not unto me nor inclined their ear but hardened their neck they did worse then their fathers The different condition of the people therefore is a second cause why the old Prophets were more enlightned and infallible then the Prophets or Preachers which now are for so are Preachers called by the Apostle Paul or necessarily are required to be In those old times the understanding of the people of Israel concerning God and heavenly things was very small witnesse the Apostles themselves who were conversant with Christ when Peter reproved our Saviour speaking of his suffering death telling his Master that this should not befall him that he should not dye Yea the Lord threatens his people blindeness of mind and stupidity of understanding greater then formerly they had by the mouth of Isaiah calling it fatness of heart for fat is insensible For which cause if the Prophets should not have shewn before their eyes great and wonderfull matters they would not have beleeved and if such Prophets had not also had extraordinary knowledge they would have wanted a guide if they had not also been indued with infallibility the people would certainly have fallen into errours And notwithstanding
last words of Ailredus Ammirantibus qui aderant tantam c. declaring that those which saw this cure performed by the King were thereupon amazed seeing so strange an effect do argue that this kinde of cure was not performed by any other King before nor by himself until this time And to this Prince Tagautius a French Writer ascribes the first cure of this disease in such manner in England Institution Chirurg lib. 1. In the next place let us consider the Nature of the Kings-evil which is a Malady most like to the Disease in Isaiah spoken of before consisting in Bruises and putrified and corrupt Sores and to this we may joyn the other part of the Description in Wounds also For what are those apostemous Swellings in this Disease but of the nature of Bruises which contain corrupt blood or 〈◊〉 in them And nothing more common in the Disease then Corrupt and Mattury Ulcers And wounds are properly taken for solution of continuity as Physicians call it without sanics or corruption and from an outward cause so the word here expounded wounds signifies such a solution of continuity and is a part of the disease of that state not of sin but of suffering from cruel men and unjust as in this disease of the Kings-evil where the swellings if the bones be rotten or the corruption cannot otherwise easily break out are oftentimes wounded by the Chirurgians knife Thirdly We are to consider more accurately the Person to whom the Lord first gave this great Gift of Healing the Kings-evil First in respect of his DIGNITY and DESCENT Secondly in regard of his ORDER and PLACE of SUCCESSION Thirdly in the addition of his new SIR NAME Fourthly In respect of his ADVENTURES For all which in few words this may suffice First he was by his DIGNITY King of England and by his DESCENT King Edward III before the Conquest was the natural and legitimate son of Egelred which Egelred was the son of King Edgar and yonger brother unto King Edward II who for that he was innocently murdered by the counsel of his Stepmother as is supposed Queen Alfrith after that he had reigned King a very short time was sirnamed the Martyr according to Ailredus in the said History pag 409. speaking thus Aâ—â—rat interim boati regis martyris Edwardi hujas nostre pricipis patrui praeclara solemnitas qui ab impiis sine culpâ percâ—â—ptus creditur innocentiae martyriâ— coronatus that is to say It was upon the great Feast day of S. Edward King and Martyr Uncle to our Soveraign that now is who for that he was causlesly murdered by wicked 〈◊〉 is beleeved to have received the crown of martyrdome for his innocence Thus much for this K. Edwards DIGNITY and DESCENT who first of our English Kings healed the KINGS-EVIL Secondly for what concerns this King Edward in his ORDER and PLACE of SUCCESSION he being the brothers son as was abovesaid to Edward the Martyr was notwithstanding the Fifth King in ORDER and COURSE of reigning from the former Edward taking both terms inclusively and accounting those Kings which reigned together for one and by the name of one of which Holy Scripture affords us more then one example Thus Edward the Martyr the First Egelred the Second Edmund Ironside the Third Hardicanutus the Fourth Edward the Confessor the Fifth Thirdly for his new SIRNAME the CONFESSOR that he was ordinarily called Edward the Confessor and for his HOLINESSE witnesseth Henry Knighton Canon of Leicester in his first book ch 8. De Eventibus Anglia Iste supradictus rex sanctus Confessor dictus est Edwardus III saith he that is This holy King Edward III was named the Confessor Whereunto adde the words of the Chronicle attributed unto John Brompton Abbot of Jereval pag. 956. of the Edition 1652. Iste rex Edwardus ab infantiâ deum diligens bonas consuetudines suas primarias pro honore terreno non commutavit fed cunctis diebus magis ac magis omni sanctitate casitute humilitate munditiâ Deum sanctam Ecclesiam dilexit panperesque ob amorem Dei tanquam fratres suos charos habuit dilectos nos largis elecmosynis aperto corde voluntate bona saepe respexit plures in Angliâ statuit leges bonas quae pro majari parte adhac in regno tenentur Which in English is This King Edward the Confessor from his childehood fearing God did not change his wonted goodnesse for earthly honour but daily encreased in all kinde of sanctity chastity humility and purity loving God and holy Church and such was his love toward God that he loved the poor tenderly accounting them his brethren and bestowing large and continuall almes upon them in singlenesse of heart and true affection and enacted more good laws in England then were before which for the most part are of force in the kingdome at this day Fourthly In what pertains to King Edward the CONFESSORS ADVENTURES he was by reason of an Usurper forced to shift for himself and to live as a banished man in Normandy for so writes Ailredus De Sancto Edwardo Confessore ac Virgine pag. 366. in the forenamed Volume of Historians Edwardus frater Edmundi filius Edelredi qui in Normanniâ exulabat that is Edward the brother of Edmund Ironside who lived in Normandy in Banishment From which place of his exile he was sent for by the testimony of the History called John Bromptons Abbot of Jerevall not written but set out by him Edwardus à Normanniâ vocatus King Edward saith the Historian was sent for out of Normandy But how welcome the King was and to whom Let us hear the words of Ailredus in the place aforesaid Veniens igitur in Angliam Edwardus ab universo clero populo cum maximâ exultatione suscipitur But when King Edward came into England saith he he was welcomed by all the Clergy and People of the land with all expressions of joy and some of the reasons of that great and universal gladness are in the same place exprest by the same Ailredus in this manner Homo mansuetus magis pace quà m armis regnum protegens habebat animum irae victorem avaritia contemptorem superbiae expertem which is He was a milde Prince who defended his Kingdom more by peace then by war of such a frame of minde that he could bridle his anger hated covetousness and was void of all prids Now I shall by Gods grace shew unto you in what manner it hath pleased Almighty God out of these Two Diseases the REKETS and KINGS-EVIL to foreshew unto us our Publike SINS and MISERIES and the AUTHORS of them and DELIVERANCE from them in One and the SINS we have been publikely guilty of and our MISERIES which we have within these twenty years undergone with the PERSON who shall by GODS mercy deliver and set us free from these long and miserable afflictions in the Other KING CHARLES II our DELIVERER Of which
Disease do pourtray unto us their cunning fraud combinations injustice cruelty with the rest of their eminent Sins In the Disease it self let us first consider the Pathognomik and most constant Signe and Symptome thereof which is the HEAD OVER-GREAT For the understanding whereof if we call to minde that in Holy Scripture a HEAD is a GOVERNOR or person chief in rule as where the Princes of the Tribes are stiled the Heads of the children of Israel Numb 13. 4. and when the Husband is named Head of the wife Eph. 5. 23. for Head in both Testaments is near seventy times set for the chief and for Rulers and that it is proper not only to the Hebrew but to the Greek and Latine nations and to our own language to call Magistrates and Rulers our Heads we will not I hope deny but that it is fitly enough exprest by the OVER-GREATNESS of the HEAD describing the OVER-GREATNESS of such men by assuming unto themselves and growing to so great POWER to have been the most certain and unremoveable cause of our late afflictions For much power is called great power where the Angels are stiled Greater in Power 2 Pet. 2. 11. By the Greatness of the head therefore is very aptly set out unto us the taking and gaining too-much power to have been the first and great cause of the misery which we have undergone from those which were set over us In the next place the SOBER GRAVITY of the FACE of such children comes to be examined and we may joyn thereunto the more then ordinary WIT and UNDERSTANDING found in such children far beyond what is found in others of that age This argues in what sense and signification head is to be taken that is in no other than as a HEAD of WISEDOME Counseil and GRAVITY this last being a discreet behaviour of a man such as may serve for the begetting of awe and reverence in inferiors that their governors be not despised and this is exprest in and mesnaged very much by the SADNESS of the COUNTENANCE Eccles 7. 5. Anger is better then laughter for by a sad look the heart is made better And whereas it is observed that the NOSES of such which are troubled with this Malady are UNPURGED remaining dry without distillation of Rheum which in other children abounds this is to let us understand that these our swelling heads which thus ruled over us although they seemed to cleanse themselves by removing Malignants which they named PURGING of the HOUSE again and again from sitting among them yet did not these Heads PURGE THEMSELVES from nor yet cast out from among them Malignity and Malignants but did notwithstanding retein in themselves their sins and vices such as least become a Court of Justice Oppression and Delay among many other less scandalous sins PURGING in the Scripture is casting away the FILTH of SIN 2 Tim. 2. 21. If any man saith Paul therefore purge himself from these he shall be a vessel unto honor From the Nose I come unto the TEETH which in such children become all ROTTEN and FALL out or else beyond the custome in other yong children they for a great space TOOTHE NOT. The Signification whereof that we may understand we are to consider that the TEETH are those Bones which God hath given unto us for grinding and CHEWING MEAT by which the body is nourished We likewise knowing that PREACHING of Gods word is termed FEEDING of Gods flock because thereby is administred unto the hearers FOOD for their SOULS for it keeps the soul by that profitable knowledge knowledge being hungred after by the soul as meat by the body from eternal death to everlasting life in feeding upon Christ by faith Well therefore may those PASTORS which prepare by breaking it after grinding in their mindes and hearts the Bread which came down from Heaven contained in the Holy Word be accounted and be typified by TEETH in which sense the same are to be understood Cant. 4. 2. Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep that are even shorn which come up from the washing which all of them bear twins and Chap. 6. 5. Thy teeth are as a flock of sheep which go up from the washing whereof every one beareth twins and there is not one barren among them The TEETH of the CHILDE of GOD whereof the King is Head are the PREACHERS the ROTTEN TEETH are to be expounded such Ministers which being CORRUPT and UNSOUND in their LIVES DOCTRINE and FAITH unto all which the Holy Ghost in Scripture gives such names have been removed from the Church But NOT-TOOTHING and LATE-TOOTHING doth imply that SOUND PREACHERS which should painfully skilfully and uprightly prepare nourishment for the Body of Christ which is his Church should here in England be MUCH and LONG WANTING withdrawing and hiding themselves leaving the mouth empty as it were those places where they should be fixed as it hath proved most true also in the event because of unlawful oaths and engagements against their Sovereign to be laid upon them which with a good conscience they could not submit unto and for the like un just causes The ARM BONES of such children as labour of the REKETS turn CROOKED the Mystery whereof we shall finde by Scripture phrase ARMES in Gods Word noteth sundry times military Forces and ARMIES and this not without just reason in a fleshly arm men put their confidence and the strength thereof for by the strength of their arm they yield their sword for offence and defence The Armes of the wicked shall be broken saith David Psa 37. 17. and in armed men the strength multitude and valor of them Princes place their confidence In this sence Armes are to be taken where God speaking by his Propher and foretelling the destruction of the king of Egypts forces by the King of Babylons army nameth the forces and armies of them boâ—â— Armes Ezek. 30. 22. I will break his Pharaohs Arme and ver 24. And I will strengthen the arm of the King of Babylon Now let us search in the same place for the meaning of this word CROOKED Here we may finde that whensoever men once INTIRE and as it were STRAIGHT which figure in the limbs is the just and proper shape shall become by what means soever BOWED from their former STRAIGHTNESS and turn to be worse they are for this declining accounted and reputed CROOKED For which cause the Israelites are intitled a crooked generation Deut. 32. 5. and for the same cause the people of the Jews are by S. Paul who formerly had walked in the ways of the Lord uprightly which the Gentiles had not done meant where he saith Phil. 2. 15. In the midst of a naughty and crooked generation Hereby the Almighty and Just Lord by inflicting such CROOKED ARMES upon our children doth not only punish us mediately in the persons of them but would have us to be premonisht that by the Signe of CROOKED ARMES he was for our sins sending against us
troubled therewith and the significations of them so far as the Lord hath enabled me I have also examined the Name of the Disease and found out the Mystery thereof but although the REKETS be the general name to all degrees and sorts of this Malady yet when the diseased are troubled with such JOYNTS and RIBS as they call DOUBLE this they call the TENT See Arnoldus Bootius in libello De Affectibus Omissis in Cap. De Tabe Pectoreâ If you then ask me What means this Name I answer By a Metonymy of the Adjunct it signifyeth and expresseth Souldiers and Armies For Castra the Latine word by interpretation Tents among the Romans is very often put to express an Army or Armies in the Field where Tents were used as among the Holy Writers Tents are put for Habitations and Houses because in former times the Israelites dwelt in Tents and sometimes Shepberds dwellings because their habitations in the Fields were constantly such But because among us here is no use of Tents but in time of War it must signifie naturally according to its Name and doth confirm that such Joynts were in signification a combining of Generals and Commanders with Souldiers of Parl. with Souldiers and Fortifying by Lands with Soldiers and though by Sea there is no use of Tents yet the Denomination is given to all for the outward likeness of the Types although proper but to Two of them and that not without example as the Crown and Sceptre are used in speech when by them we mean nothing but a Kingdome Thus the Wise God knoweth every word in our Tongues and when men or women give names to things they know not what nor why doth oftentimes so overrule them that they speak the Truth in a Mystery So did the High-Priest not knowing what he spake prophesy of our Saviour The MYSTERY of the THREE GENERAL REMEDIES AFter the Mystery of the REGETS and TENT and of each SYMPTOME thereof the three forenamed Vulgar REMEDIES are not without their Mystery The first Remedy is SWINGING such children from side to side and TOSSING them up and down and TURNING them Topsey Turvey This is ordinarily taken to be and used as a Remedy against that Disease but careful observation and experience teacheth the contrary that it is vain Thus for a Remedy against our evil Regents we were promised when we should change from a Kingdom to a Common-wealth we should have all amended But that then failing we were made to beleeve how such a Protector would indeed perform what others had promised and when he had deceived we must have a piece and the worst piece of a House of Commons to over-rule us who pleaded the Justice of their own cause as the rest did although the people never received Justice from any of them And was not this Tossing England from side to side and up and down When we were sometime under a King and Parliament we were up when we were subject to a Few or One of our Fellow-Subjects we were down At last we were turned Topsey Turvey when the Heels the Souldiers possest the place and RULE of our Superiors the King and Parliament And this was a False Remedy The Second REMEDY is the Lifting up such sick children by the Armes The meaning of which thing will by Gods grace be understood if we remember in what sense I declared to you from Holy Scripture and the reason thereof Armes are to be taken which is in signification of Armies This Remedy Lifting the sick children up by the Armes is a False Remedy and never used with success But it is much to be observed that above all other Remedies which are wont to be applied to such children there are none so much abhorred by them as this for when it is done they will complain and cry out The Mystery hereof is that when the childe of England should be lifted up by the Armes at which time the weight of the body depends upon the Armes that is the Armies and at that time the Armes also are lifted up and lifting up signifieth raising to honor Psal 113. 7. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill ver 8. That he may set him with Princes even with the Princes of his people The poor Patients which were troubled with the Regents would least of all endure and most of all complain against the Tyranny of the Soldiers and Army bearing rule that is the Lifting up by and of the Armes This was fulfilled to the utmost when the Agitators of the Army pluckt and threw out of the Parliament house that Piece remaining and left of the Whole House of Commons and for a short space under the greatest indignation of the people ruled alone The Third REMEDY generally famous but False is the letting of the diseased children Blood Behinde the Ear. And how true it hath been in the Antitype that the Head our Royal Head our Dear Lord the KING should for a pretended cure of our miseries be let blood behinde the Eare that is in the Neck by cutting off his Head to the encrease of our miseries I abhorre to think and much the more because it was plotted and acted by men which were Professors of the austerest religion But let not the Profession of Religion be branded for this cause Were not those that had the chiefest hand in our Lord Christs death one of his Disciples and the Priests Is not he that hath been guilty of so much of the blood of the Saints that the City of Rome is become drunk therewith counted the most Holy Father the Pope and with him the Fathers of the Clergy This is the craft of the old Serpent when he cannot destroy the Church by open enmity to endeavour it by seeming friends But for the real Cure and true REMEDIES of the Disease we call the REKETS as we take it according to the letter it may for good cause be accounted wonderful in that regard also and therein like unto the Leprosie The Leprosie was a Disease not curable by any Art or Power of man For thus answereth Ahab unto the King of Syria who sent unto him desiring that he would heal his servant Naaman of the Leprosie concluding the curing of that Disease to be a Divine work above mans strength 2 King 5. 7. Am I God to kill and to make alive that this man doth send to me to recover a man of his Leprosie To which purpose and more plainly speaketh our Saviour Luk. 4. 27. Many Lepers were in Israel in the time of Elizeus the Prophet and none of them was cleansed saving Naaman the Syrian Even so neither is the malady of the Rekets curable by any Art or Physician upon the Earth although I doubt not all men both Learned and unlearned beleeve the contrary perswaded from what they see that divers children afflicted very much with this Disease at length become found and perfect But although it cannot