Ancestors who were called Lords and Kings thereof but charge and trouble beside a bare Title But to her was the Kingdom conquer'd and quieted that as the Author of the History called Pacata Hibernia in the Epistle to the Reader speaks Q. Elizabeth might have it justly written upon her Tomb Pacata Hibernia or Ireland Tamed But our Royal Soveraign is doing more and hath begun it already and suffered longer and worse than ever Queen Elizabeth did Yet not thou O Charles but God which is in thee Secondly If we consider his Majesties Constancy and Patience in the mids of his great Tentations Shall K. Charles II who was by wicked men banished from his own Kingdome forced to remain in the Dominions of a Popish Prince such a King who by no Necessities nor Sollicitations could be drawn to forsake God to advance himself shall he I say be miraculously preserved in his escape from his cruel hunters and more miraculously in France and Flanders from Idolatry and only be kept to make us happy God forbid Had not Joseph whose bow abode in strength whom the archers sorely grieved shot at and hated Genes 49. 23 24. a double portion to him and his posterity Ezek. 47. 13. having one portion for that cause above his brethren given him by his father taken out of the hand of the Amorite with the sword and with his bowe Gen. 48. 22. But our Soveraigns bowe abode as much and more in strength when for the sollicitations of the Egyptian Romish harlot he started not aside Beside in the very letters of their names there is a parity between the Type and Antitype and this sometime happeneth not by chance but providence as when Mary Aarons Sister a virgin and Jesus Moses successor prefigured in deed and names the virgin Mary and Jesus our Savior betwixt Clovis and C and Clovis as to note those great evils shall be taken away when C and Lovis meet as now they do Concerning the Healing of the Kings-Evil in France and what is prefigured thereby thus far If any of my Readers shall object which doubtless most will do that what I do presage touching our Royal Soveraign and the Kingdom of France is no more then probable to him I will be bold to say and let him well consider that even among the Sages of the Law great Probabilities have the esteem of Certainties and according thereunto Sentence is pronounced by them And we know that in the difference of the two Harlots about a surviving childe who should be the true mother thereof when King Salomon gave sentence on her side who shewed pity toward the Infant as to be mother thereof judgement thus given from probable conjecture is said to be the Wisedom of God in him 1 King 3. 28. Or are our children known to be the fathers but by probability Yea although we are enjoyned to give diligence to make our calling and election sure how few of the elect ever attained to that height in this life that all his mis-doubtings were taken away and that he was fully assured of a future happinesse I must acknowledge that there are degrees of likeliness some things which are probable are not yet firm enough to conclude others of so high a degree of probability that according to the example commended by the Spirit of God in Solomon they are as strong as the clearest certainties And of that sort of probable things which are the strongest or very near them I here maintain these sore-named to be Thus much pertaining to the cure of the Struma performed by the French King and what is signified thereby And here at last it will not be unseasonable to explain what before was partly touch'd by me whence it is that neither our Soveraign nor yet the French King do heal of the Struma all that are touch'd by their hands 2. That they do not likewise help such as are troubled with the Gout Feavers Palsie c. but this Evil onely 3. Kings of this Kingdom and of the French nation although they have erred in the faith and have been of a false Church have healed this Disease as well as those which have been sound in the faith and members of that true Church of which Christ is Head in which small number our Royal Soveraign is one and a principal 4. That in some few although healed at present the foresaid disease through some occasion breaks out again In answer to the first Objection first acknowledging if the healing of this Evil were perfectly miraculous like unto those cures wrought by our Saviour it should be perfect in any of which our King should lay his Royal hands Joh. 7. 23. Are ye angry at me saith our Saviour because I made a man altogether whole upon the SÃ bbath day Then was there no unsoundness left behinde therefore we may conclude this power given unto our Kings was not for the same cause for which our Saviour and his Apostles healed the sick To the second Objection I confess that whereas our Saviour healed all that were sick and likewise the Apostles yea the Pool of Bethesda all with what infirmity soever they were troubled it was to signifie that which the Scripture elsewhere saith He healeth all thy Diseases that is all both outward and inward Diseases of which sort are sins specially Wherefore for some other distinct cause doth our Soveraign cure the Struma only Nevertheless it cannot be denied that this vertue given to our Kings is miraculous although not to perfection To the next Objection I say That even miracles themselves were wrought by the hands of the evil as well as the good sometimes For is it not written that at the last day some reprobates should say unto our Saviour Have we not in thy Name cast out devils And this was given unto them not as it was unto the Apostles who represented Christs person and were as in Christs stead so the gift of healing this Evil because it was given as a signe of what was to come so much as they were Types in being Kings of such a Kingdom was given to the evil as well as to the good Kings Thus to the last thing which is objected I say I cannot deny but to have known how some after a long continued soundness and being cured of their mattury ulcers have began to fall back into the same Disease and Symptomes but being touch'd again have recovered All which notwith standing doth not disprove the miraculous cure but pointeth at somewhat else therein Now to satisfie the first and second objection to the full Our Royal Soveraign doth not take away the Struma by that power which is given him from above because it is a great evil for there are greater which he cannot cure nor yet because it is a little one as if his vertue could extend it self to small Diseases for we know there are less which he cannot take away but for that this Disease which we call the Kings-evil is such a malady which is parallel to the things which are signified his Majesty shall help and other Diseases are not like them For what likeness is there in the Gout Feavers and Palsie to the bruises and putrid sores full of corruption of which Isaiah speaketh the corruption of Doctrine and manners leath some to the eyes and unsavory to the nostrils of God and man Erasmus though tormented with the Stone rejoyceth that he did not suffer under some disease which might make his presence leathed But the kings-Kings-evil we know hath bruises and putrid sores full of corruption This Malady therefore the Providence of God did make choice of to demonstrate what sins and afflictions our Royal Soveraign through Gods mercy will cure not for it self nor for the sick Patients sakes but for the cause of that which being most like unto it was to be taken away Nor is it done to perfection in all some being remediless which are touch'd that we may know that corruption in justice unsoundness in faith and doctrine shall not and cannot be so universally taken away by our Good King but that some do what he can tares and wicked men will continue among the wheat and good men And touching the last Objection where it is said that some which have been healed of this Evil have relapsed it doth indeed plainly inferr that this healing of the Evil by our Kings must be in that respect different from the like miracles of old The smiting of the rock twise by Moses was his sin as if the doing of it once had not been sufficient and the virtue of causing the water to flow out of the rock had been in his hand If once touching by the Royal hand be not ever and altogether sufficient for the cure and the second be helpfull it may well signifie that in this our good Josiahs reformation men shall not be so fully reformed as that none shall endeavour to fall back again but yet by his Royal hand they shall be reduced A PRAYER In the mean time let us beseech Almighty God to plant in our Soveraigns Heart the awful Fear of his Holy Name and that his unerring Word may be the Measure and Rule by which alone Religion and Justice may be reformed as by Josiah his Royal Type was done Hasten him O Lord herein that thou mayest hasten to reward him with another Crown upon the earth and a Crown of Glory hereafter which is void of cares and fadeth not Make me O Lord and all his Subjects unfeignedly to love and honour him for thy sake and grant we may never forget what by woful experience we have found true the counsel of thy wise servant King Solomon My Son fear thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them which are given to change For their calamity shall rise suddenly and who knoweth the ruine of them both Amen Lastly of all which hath been spoken to God alone be given the Praise and Glory for from him and by him and to him are all things He revealeth the deep and secret things he knoweth what is in darkness and the light dwelleth with him For thine is the Power and the Glory and thou hast now made known unto us the Kings matter FINIS
six Prophets sent unto them and in the time of miserable afflictions Now although I cannot but acknowledge that I have not heard almost of any Prophet of future events in these times who hath not been a deceiver or deceived or who hath used any lawful way to expound Divine Visions saving Interpreters of Holy Scripture whose rules if men would follow them and adjoyn fasting and prayer after the Prophet Daniels example in the like cases they would some of them using the right means undoubtedly attain the desired end For it maketh no difference but there is still the same way of interpreting Visions sent from God and enrolled in Scripture or sent from him and presented before our eyes yet so as what I laid down before as a rule be remembred what the old Prophets understood in an instant or soon after and fully we have it not given to us to finde out but by labour and by degrees and using fasting and prayer as common to both not to perfection Whereunto let this be added because Christian people are according to promise more enlightened in their understandings then those of old times those Prophecies and Visions which are now to be interpreted are by those that hear them expounded to be examined in the ballance of right reason agreeable to the Holy Word when most of the old Visions were to be credited because a Prophet pronounced them who could not lye For this was appointed to be the touchstone of a Prophet the certainty of his predictions in the event Deut. 18. 22. When a Prophet speaketh saith the Lord in the name of the Lord if the thing follow not nor come to pass that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken but the Prophet hath spoken it presumptuously thou shalt not be afraid of him Now let us see since the Lord hath used in evil and wicked times to send among his people Admonitions and Forewarnings also of their sorrows like as of their deliverances their captivity in Egypt and going out their going into Babylon and their return and when there is no cause imaginable why he should not do the like unto us in England if God hath not by immediate and wonderful Messages from himself warned us of our sins and forewarned us of our afflictions and what will be the end of them For the calamities which the children of God have suffered in these Three Kingdomes of England Scotland and Ireland are so great as like and equal to them never any Nation upon whom the Name of God hath been called hath undergone by whomsoever considering that monstrous and universal Massacre in Ireland as the chief part and the general Injustice and Hypocrisie in England and sufferings from our own brethren who profest so frequently love pity and compassion toward us a treachery which we never suspected the next If therefore the Lord is wont to foreshew great troubles is it improbable that he hath forewarned his dear children of the greatest which ever befell the Church of God And if all injustice be a sin and oppression a crying sin is it unlikely that the greatest Injustice and Murther that ever was committed all circumstances considered since the crucifixion of our Saviour Jesus Christ the Murther of our Innocent Soveraign Lord King CHARLES the first and the revenge thereof should be also foreshewn us Nor is what I speak concerning Gods foreshewing of matters concerning the Church so strange a Doctrine and incredible but that divers Reverend and Learned men have observed the Portents and applied the Events unto the Signes when they have plainly seen them fulfilled among the rest and above others the Magdeburg Century Writers have done it carefully collecting the Signes and Portents which befell in every age and while others say That Signes are interpreted when they are fulfilled implying thereby that they were of that nature that they were capable of being expounded before their fulfilling Whensoever such miraculous Signes are expounded though after their events God procureth unto himself the praise of his Providence Fore-knowledge Power and Truth c. but if we neglect to consider such Signes we deprive our selves of our own mercy by neglecting those comforts which the Lord of tender mercies sends expresly to support his fainting children under the rod of their enemies For but consider if the Signes which are sent by him to premonish if as it is in Job man regardeth not we do not unthankfully frustrate the end I say and scope for which they were sent As for the end and issue of these evils in this and in the two other counited Kingdoms as he hath dealt with other nations it is not improbable but he hath in his great and endless Mercy so dealt with us signifying together with their calamities how he would farther and at last shew himself toward them The Lord unto the servitude which the Israelites were to endure in a land which was not theirs 400 years doth annex this comfortable news and the issue of their captivity and in a Vision that in the fourth generation they should come out thence and with great substance Gen. 15. and by Moses did promise them the possession of the land of Canaan On the contrary he hath unto the pomp pleasures and delicacies of the City of Rome foretold and foreshewn the burning and devastation thereof and that it shall never be built again by the Type of a Milstone cast into the Sea by an Angel and saying Rev. 18. 25. Thus with violence shall that great City Babylon be thrown down and shall be found no more at all Wherefore it is full as likely that Almighty God with our Sins and Sorrows hath foreshewn whether he will utterly forsake England and cast us off or with our true repentance which he will give us take away our long continued miseries Listen now O Reader I bring you glad glad tidings from a far Countrey as cold water to thy thirsty soul but according to the sense of the holy Proverb that i such news as have been expected these twenty years but hitherto in vain and therefore almost despaired after so many changes and frustrated expectations said to be from a far Countrey when they are long in coming as if from far and so in great danger of miscarrying because I tell you what is much feared And this is sent thee O England from thy merciful God by the hands of him from whom considering the crimes of too many undeserved in respect of so many frustrations of hopes and promises made by all others much feared even by our Gracious Lord King CHARLES through the Power and Mercy of God Almighty restoring him unto his just and undoubted Right and Inheritance of his Three Kingdomes and for the sakes of that small number who have mourned and do mourn for all the abominations of this Kingdome so long continued and who have continually sought the Lord to give us our True and Lawful Soveraign whom blessed be the Lord we now
by which not only our late Soveraign but divers of his Innocent Subjects have had their blood spilt to the defiling and making guilty too many of this our land Our great Oppressions and Oppressors are parallel to those there named in the Prophet And as they were promised deliverance but that afar off and not yet accomplished so are we and ours near at hand through the Mercy of God toward those that fear him by the administration of our Good King V. 16. Wash you make you clean saith the Prophet put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil V. 17. Learn to do well seek judgement relieve the oppressed judge the fatherless pleade for the widow Have not our Sins been such as that the Cause of the Oppressed the Poor the Fatherless and the Widow hath not so much as come before those which sate in Parliament a Court of the utmost redress Or if peradventute by unwearied labour and violent importunity they have prevailed so far as to be heard have they judged the cause of the Poor and Fatherlesse and not perverted their Judgement and have they pleaded for the widow and not wrested her cause to please and favour the rich man Who is ignorant that they have not so done And thus complaineth the good Prophet V. 23. Thy Princes are rebellious and companions of theeves every one loveth gifts and followeth after rewards they judge not the fatherless neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them Our great Governors also were Companions of Theeves because they suffered us without all remorse to be robbed or spoiled no great matter of whom and yet farther because they took bribes by doing whereof they become Thieves fellows in that they require gifts as a Thief doth a Travellers purse or else we and our cause shall fall under them Of which sort of gifts though given secretly and in the bosome some have come to light notwithstanding and of the rest we may definitively pronounce They were Receivers and Expecters of Bribes because then them no greater Respecters of Persons in Judgement to be found as we learn from Solomon Pro. 28. 21. To have respect of persons is not good because for a piece of bread that man will transgress May we not likewise say properly with the Prophet ver 21. How is the faithful City become an harlot it was full of judgement righteousness lodged in it but now murderers The hypocritical service of God which the Jews performed consisting in outward and formal worship how like was it to our wonted frequent Praying Fasting and Thanks-giving and the most strict enjoyning of rest on the Sabbath For the Lord took no pleasure neither in those because not proceeding from syncerity nor in the outward hypocritical worship of the Jews saying v. 13. Bring no more vain oblations incense is an abomination unto me the New Moons and Sabbaths the calling of Assemblies I cannot away with it is iniquity even the solemn Meeting And for the reason for which God did despise all this was not the cause of the Jews and ours here in England all one expressed v. 15. Your hands are bloods that is defiled and polluted with innocent blood To which people for their great sins their heavy punishment the Prophet expresseth v. 7. Your Countrey is desolate your Cities are burnt with fire your Land strangers devour in your presence and it is desolate as overthrown by strangers Part of this hath been fulfilled upon the Nation of the English in Fire Sword and Famine in the Kingdom of Ireland by the bloody Irish and the other part in England when we were devoured by friends and foes in a consuming war of our own nation and our neighbours as if we were eaten up by strangers All which sins of these sinfull Jews of which the Lord complains as well of the great as of the small and the negligence of those which should have applied the remedies and the general despair none hoping for amendment the Prophet doth Allegorically describe in the nature of a spreading disease from head to foot and seizing upon the vital parts For thus speaks the Prophet v. 6. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it but wounds and bruises and putrifying fores they have not been closed Heb. crushed neither bound up nor mollified with ointment and before ver 5. The whole or every head is sick and the whole or every heart faint Yet to put them in comfort in such a hopeless condition of sin and sorrow when he had before told them in the same verse Why should ye be stricken any more ye will revolt more and more he foretelleth them of better times and a change from all their wickedness and afflictions by sending them good Magistrates and taking away wicked men in the following verses Ver. 24. Therefore saith the Lord the Lord of hosts the mighty One of Israel Ah I will ease me of mine adversaries and avenge me of mine enemies Ver. 25. And I will turn my hand upon thee and purely purge away thy drosse and take away thy tinn Ver. 26. And I will restore thy Judges as at the first and thy Counsellors as at the beginning afterward thou shalt be called the City of righteousnesse the faithfull City In which part of the Prophecy as the Jews estate runs parallel to England as I have shewn and as under the Type of a disease in the same Chapter the Prophet describes allegorically their sins and sufferings so hath the Lord God miraculously by two Diseases of the body of man described unto us mystically the people of England and such as resemble the Diseases set down in the Text our sins and our calamities And as by Isaiah are described the instruments of their wo under the notion of a disease no lesse are the Authors of our miseries comprehended in the mystery of the fore-named diseases and over and above what Person shall be our deliverer Observe that it is there said ver 5. Every Head is sick and every Heart faint and v. 6. From the sole of the Foot even unto the Head there is no soundnesse in it but wounds and bruises and putrifying or corrupt sores Like unto this Disease are those Two Maladies one whereof is called the Rekets the other the Kings evil They are thus alike the Rekets is a disease of the head yea of every head for it is not that disease if it be without that Symptome any time the Kings-evil is a noysome infirmity full of bruises or hollow apostemated swellings and sores which run with filthy mattur But that I may perswade my Reader that these Two Diseases may signifie somewhat more then what all diseases do Gods just displeasure against and punishment of sin I shall shew examples of diseases in Holy Scripture which do plainly confirm what I here affirm of these One of these diseases is mentioned Exo. 9. ver 8. And the Lord said unto
not so they are not only Persecutors of the Church themselves but all their subjects follow their Princes example a great part therefore of such matters which the Lord is pleased to premonish his people of whether good or evil is joyned with the Persons and Princes which shall be principal authors of such things This is manifest in Nebuchadnezzars first and second Vision and in many of Daniels wherein are foreshewn the different estates of the Four Monarchies in respect of their Princes and by Ezekiel chap. 1. in the Vision of the Four living Creatures with four Faces applied distinctly unto the Church how those Princes of the Four Monarchies should exercise their authority toward the Jews their Subjects and Captives Insomuch that not only Josias was fore-named who should be a Pious and Excellent Prince unto the Jews near three hundred years before his birth but Cyrus also a heathen Prince who should be Gods Shepherd to help and cherish his people many years before he was born pointing and shewing them as with the finger a King who contrary to the nature of other Princes should send them home freely out of their captivity assisting them in whatsoever they could desire So it is not without example that a Prince should be designed by name if otherwise by some way equivalent to a name it will be the same thing to some great work some ages before he was Now having laid a strong foundation as I suppose for what follows concerning the Matter which I have before affirmed to have been comprehended in the two forenamed Diseases the REKETS and KINGS-EVIL I come at length to make good my assertion by making it by Gods grace appear to a judicious and competent Reader to be altogether true And first of all it will be needful that I describe unto you the Disease at large with the necessary circumstances thereunto belonging The Description of the REKETS THe REKETS is a Disease so strange and which is therefore to be wondred at that it was not heard of in our fathers times but began in our memory and not many years ago and in that part of the Kingdom according to the report of the most diligent Searchers and learned Writers thereof the Authors De Rachitide which is most healthful either Dorset or Somersetshire not in London nor in a Marish countrey Neither did this New Disease arise from contagion at first nor doth it now as the Venereous doth For no Countrey was found infected with this malady until England was seizing upon young infants not in the womb not until nine ot ten moneths of age lest any man should suspect it might arise from the infection of their parents Nor doth this Malady accrue by default of the nurse nor by evil attendance for it layeth hold wheresoever it pleaseth Almighty God on rich and poor even where greatest care is had and spareth as often such as are much or altogether neglected To finde out the Cause of which disease the Physicians have most diligently lookt about from one Cause to another so much and so far as to the stars but seldome higher till at the length they acknowledge They lose themselves And now I proceed to the DESCRIPTION of the REKETS at the full from the First and Pathognomik Signe thereof through each degree unto the utmost extent of the same not as it is in every single Patient affected with the REKETS but taken collected and put together from all and every childes Symptomes which is troubled therewith The REKETS is a disease laying hold on yong children about nine or ten moneths old in which the Childes HEAD is always OVER-GREAT for when other Symptomes are wanting which notwithstanding is seldome or never that One is never absent while the REKETS are present I proceed to the other Signes all of which are rarely missing together or if haply onely in the beginning of the sicknesse With the Head the FACE of the childe hath an appearance of SOBER GRAVITY much differing therein from the looks of other children The NOSE which is the ordinary Purging place of the Head and Brain is dry without distillation of Rheum in those children and is UNPURG'D Those children which lye under this Infirmity are of much more WIT and UNDERSTANDING then others of so small age The TEETH of them if they were first sound turn all ROTTEN and fall away or else they TOOTH very LATE The ARM-BONES become CROOKED The WRIST-JOYNTS and ANCLE-JOYNTS grow KNOPPY called DOUBLE-JOYNTS The FLESH of the whole BODY is PINED The BELLY appears OVERGROWN The RIBS toward the Breast are found VERY THICK and the EXTUBERANCIES named KNOTS The SHIN-BONES of these children RISE very HIGH and appear SHARP HIGH in the MIDDLE and DECLINING ABOVE and BENEATH Their THIGH-BONES and LEG-BONES are CROOKED The BREAST like in shape for sharpness to the BREAST of a FOWLE and KEELE of a SHIP The use of their FEET although when they were yonger they could walk is TAKEN AWAY Lastly not onely their stature by the bending of their Leg and Thigh-bones is shortened but their GROWTH is HINDRED The REMEDIES vulgarly commended against the REKETS I Shall not have any thing to do here with those various Remedies which have been invented against this disease Nor indeed is it easie to set down the greatest part of them many of which and of the best of that sort are compiled in that Learned Treatise De Rachitide But I shall reckon up such Remedies as as are Empirical and go current among the people universally nothing depending upon Reason and Experience together as others do although these also have had their influence upon and gotten credit I know not for what cause among the learned also Of this sort are Three in Number 1. REMEDY is SWINGING such children from side to side TOSSING them UP and DOWN and Turning them TOPSEY TURVEY 2. LIFTING the sick children up by the ARMS 3. Letting them BLOOD BEHINDE the EARE So much at present for the DESCRIPTION of the REKETS and REMEDIES I come now to the other Disease called the KINGS-EVIL the REKETS answering to EVERY SICK HEAD the KINGS-EVIL to the WOUNDS BRUISES and PUTRIFYING SORES described in the fore-named place by Isaiah Which later Disease is not wonderful in it self I confesse for what nation is there which is not and hath not been troubled with that disease which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Latines Struma and Scrofulae but how many nations are there whose Kings have such a Divine vertue given unto them that with the Touch of their Hands they can heal this Evil beside the KINGS and QUEENS of ENGLAND and the FRENCH KING This power God hath bestowed neither upon any Prince nor private person beside Which cure is performed at this time by our ROYALL SOVERAIGNS HANDS he truly acknowledging in the rite of healing GOD to be the AUTHOR thereof in these words I TOUCH and GOD HEALS For as the former Disease the REKETS is a
be denied that many children have recovered from the Rekets to a soundness in every part yet is the conclusion false To assert thereupon That this Disease hath been so cured by Physical Medicines And the seeming contradiction is thus reconciled to the truth by example of the Leprosie No Leper was cleansed saving Naaman the Syrian saith our Saviour in the place abovesaid yet we read under the Law a Prescription of the Rites and Ceremonies to be used in Cleansing of Lepers under this Title Lev. 14 2. This shall be the Law of the Leper in the day of his cleansing Moreover it is acknowledged by the words of Almighty God that in the Legal times Lepers were cleansed ver 3. And the Priest shall go forth out of the Camp saith the Lord to Moses and the Priest shall look and behold if the plague of Leprosie be healed in the Leper Hence by comparing the words in Moses with the speech of our Saviour Christ the one acknowledging Lepers to have been healed and the Form thereupon of their cleansing prescribed the other denying any then to have been cleansed but Naaman the Syrian we are taught to finde aneasie way out of this appearing Labyrinth and which doth exactly fit the cure of the REKETS by looking up to God by whose hand we must know many untoucht by man were healed although by mans Art and Power until our Saviour came no Leper was cured It is most apparent to our eyes that very many children labouring under the REKETS have recovered in their Limbs Ribs Heads and Body but such as enjoy this mercy are not made partakers thereof by Physical helps For we deceive our selves while we think whatsoever is applied to such children in such a time in which it pleaseth the Lord to be in healing them to be the very causes of their recovery As it cometh to pass that such medicines which are applied unto persons sick of Agues or Toothe-ache although most of them are known to be of no force against those griefs at all if in the use of such Applications the Agues and Tooth-ache leave such Patients which ever almost sooner or later go away of themselves are famed for most approved Helps against the said Diseases Whence ariseth such a multitude of False Remedies against those and other Griefs And if it be peradventure of little credit most confidently to protest mine own experience which here I do of the Remedies against the Rekets were it a Naturall Disease and such as those which write of it report it to be applied by me before the Lord gave me this knowledge to have been without the least success let the anxious Reader consider and weigh that some have been healed without the least Application of Natural means others have died of that disease others have retained the Symptomes still against all use of means Of the First kinde of whom Almighty God is pleased blessed be his Name to make my little Son a welcome Example Wherefore by the way I advise every man in the fear of the Lord and for the foregoing Reasons to abstain from Humane help in the REKETS as the Jews did most religiously in their Leprosie and to implore Divine assistance by Prayer and Fasting For as in the Leprosie when our Saviour was come and performed his work he came about of our Redemption first leprous persons were healed afterward all Leprosie vanished so when He our Gracious K. CHARLES II who now is come hath performed the work he is come to do of Reformation the Disease of the REKETS will be heard of no more in the Land But this may not be expected from our Royal Soveraign now at his first coming into his Kingdom until that shall be accomplished which undoubtedly by Gods grace will be for till the things typified are come the Types will remain Thus the Leprosie and the cure thereof did so designe our Saviour the Physician of Soul and Body and so point at him as it were with the finger that unto the Baptist who sent to know of him whether he were the Messias he gave no other answer but bid them tell John that the Lepers were cleansed c. yet notwithstanding was not the Leprosie taken away till after his Passion when the Type was fulfilled His Royal Majesty shall take away the Disease of the Rekets in two kindes First the Typified Rekets and each Symptome thereof removing from us that which he hath put his Royal Hand to already the Pining of our even famished Body the Common-wealth so that betwixt the Head and Body there shall be a due and meet Proportion By whose Gracious Favour neither the Doubling of the Joynts of Armies with their Generals and Commanders nor of the Parliament with their Substitutes not the Ribs doubled in multiplying Ships to guard our Seas or Garrisons to fortisie our Land-Coasts These will not be needful The Lord will restore unto us as he promised the Jews by his Prophet our Judges as at the first and our Counsellors both Houses of Parliament as in the beginning The Two Legs Houses of Parliament shall be no more crooked and unjust but upright The Breast-plate Armour and Ships in great number shall be put off and layd by and liberty shall not fly away The Childe of England shall be healed of all her Maladies Her teeth shall no more hide themselves yea the sound teeth of Orthodox and unblameable Preachers shall fill their empty places The subordinate Heads of the People shall purge their own corruption In such manner as when our Saviour did cleanse the Lepers he did signifie thereby the taking away of sin Secondly God Almighty hath ordained our Lord King CHARLES II to take away the Typical Rekets even the Bodily Disease it self And as our Saviour cured Both the Typified leprosie of sin and Punishment by his Suffering and the Typicall in Persons first and took the Leprosie away at last and He and none but He could do it so King CHARLES II first taking away the signified Disease by his Gracious Goodness and Wisedom shall take the Bodily Rekets quite away when this work is done which the LORD hasten And his Majesty hath given us a great Essay thereof already in his Gracious Assent to the Disbanding the Army in his Edicts against Drunkenness and Rioting c. To conclude concerning the REKETS As the Leprosie was such a Disease which infected no other Nation but the children of Israel excepting Naaman the Syrian intimating thereby that Christ should by his Death cleanse the Leprosie of the sins of the Gentiles and seems by Tacitus the Historians words to be imputed to them and no other Nation beside although he falsly concludes that for such a Disease they were drove out of Egypt So is the REKETS the proper Disease unto the Nations of England Scotland and Ireland and to the Kings Dominions and to no other people beside unless living in his Majesties Kingdoms And as the Leprosie did portend the Physician thereof