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A43991 The history of the civil wars of England from the year 1640-1660 / by T.H.; Behemoth Hobbes, Thomas, 1588-1679. 1679 (1679) Wing H2239; ESTC R35438 143,512 291

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of Rome And in the Doctrine of Aristotle they made use of many Points As First the Doctrine of separated Essenses B. What are separated Essenses A. Separated Beings B. Separated from what A. From every thing that is B. I cannot understand the Being of any thing which I understand not to Be But what can they make of that A. Very much in Questions concerning the Nature of God and concerning the Estate of Mans Soul after Death in Heaven Hell and Purgatory by which you and every Man knows how great Obedience and how much Mony they gain from the Common People whereas Aristotle holdeth the Soul of Man to be the first giver of Motion to the Body and consequently to it self they make use of that in the Doctrine of Free Will what and how they gain by that I will not say He holdeth forth that there be many things that come to pass in this World from no necessity of Causes but meer Contingency Causalty and Fortune B. Me thinks in this they make God stand Idle and to be a meer Spectator in the Games of Fortune for what God is the cause of must needs come to pass And in my Opinion nothing else but because there must be some Ground for Justice of the Eternal Torment of the Damned perhaps it is this That mens Wills and Propensions are not they think in the hands of God but of themselves And in this also I see something conducing to the Authority of the Church A. This is not much nor was Aristotle of such Credit with them but that when his Opinion was against theirs they could slight him whatsoever he says is impossible in Nature they can prove well enough to be possible from the Almighty Power of God who can make Bodies to be in one and the self same Place and one ●ody to be in many Places at the same time if the Doctrine of Transubstantiation require it though Aristotle deny it I like not the Design of drawing Religion into an Arts whereas it ought to be a Law And though not the same in all Countries yet in every Country indisputable nor that they teach it not as Arts ought to be taught by shewing first the meaning of their Terms and then deriving from them the truth they would have us believe Nor that their Terms are for the most part unt●lligible though to make it seem rather want of Learning in the Reader than want of fair dealing in themselves they are for the most part Latin and Greek words ●ryed a little the point towards the Native Languages of the several Countries where they are used But that which is most intollerable is That all Clerks are forced to make as if they believe them If they mean to have any Church Preferment the Keys whereof are in the Popes Hands and the Common People whatsoever they believe of those subtile Doctrines are never esteemed better Sons of the Church for their Learning There is but one way there to Salvation that is Extraordinary Devotion and Liberality to the Church and readiness for the Churches sake of it be required to fight against their Natural and Lawfull Sovereigns B. I see what use they make of Aristotles Logick Physick and Metaphysick● But 〈…〉 not yet how his Politicks can serve their turn A. Nor I It has I think done them no Good though it ●as done us here much hurt by Accident for m●n grown weary at last of th● Insolence of the Priests and examining the 〈…〉 Doctrines that were put upon them began to search the sense of the Scriptures as they are in the Learned Languages and consequently Studying Greek and Latin became acquainted with the Democratical Principles of Aristotle and Cicero and from the Love of their Eloquence fell in ●ove with their Politicks and that more and more till it grew into the Rebellion we now talk of without any other advantage to the Roman Church but that it was awakening to us whom since we broke out of their Net in the time of Henry 8. they have continually endeavoured to recover B. What have they gotten by teaching of Aristotles Ethicks A. It is some advantage to them that neither the Morals of Aristotle nor of any other have done them any 〈◊〉 nor us any good Their Doctrine have caused a great deal of Dispute concerning Vertue and Vice but no knowledge of what they are nor any method of attaining Vertue nor of avoiding Vice The end of Moral Philosophy is to teach men of all sorts their Duty both to the Publick and to one another They Estemate Virtue partly by a Mediocrity of the Passions of Men and partly by that that they are praised whereas it is not the much or little praise that makes an Action Ver●●ous but the Cause nor much or little Blame that makes an Action Vitious but its being unconformable to the Laws in such men as are subject to the Law or its being unco●●ormable to Equity or Charity in all men whatsoever B. It seems you make a difference between the Ethicks of Subjects and the Ethicks of Sovereigns A. So I do The Vertue of a Subject is comprehended wholly in obedience to the Laws of the Commonwealth To obey the Laws is Justice and Equity which is the Law of Nature and consequently is Civil Law in all Nations of the World and nothing is Injustice or Iniquity otherwise then it is against the Law likewise to obey the Law is the Prudence of a Subject for without such obedience the Commonwealth which is every Subjects Safety and Protection cannot subsist And though it be Prudence also in private men justly and moderately to enrich themselves yet craftily to withhold from the Publick or defraud it of such part of the Wealth as is by Law required is no sign of Prudence but of want of knowledge of what is necessary for their own defence The Vertues of Soveraigns are such as tend to the maintenance of Peace at Home and to the Resistance of Forreign Enemies Fortitude is a Royal Vertue and though it be necessary in such private men as shall be Soldiers yet for other men the less they dare the better it is both for the Commonwealth and for themselves Frugality though perhaps you will think it strange is also a Royal Vertue for it increases the publick stock which cannot be too great for the Publick Use not any man too sparing of what he has in trust for the good of others Liberality also is a Royal Vertue for the Commonwealth cannot be well serv'd without Extraordinary Diligence and Service of Ministers and great Fidelity to their Soveraign who ought therefore to be incouraged and especially those that do him service in the Wars In summ all Actions or Habits are to be esteemed Good or Evil by their Causes and Usefulness in reference to the Commonwealth and not by their Mediocrity nor by their being Commended for several men praise several Customes and that which is vertue with one is blam'd by
France against King Henry the Fourth wherein the Kings had a more considerable part on their sides than the Pope had on his and shall always have so if they have money for there are but few whose Consciences are so tender as to refuse money when they want it but the great mischief done to Kings upon pretence of Religion is when the Pope gives power to one King to Invade another B. I wonder how King Henry the Eighth so utterly extinguished the Authority of the Pope in England and that without any Rebellion at home or any Invasion from abroad A. First The Priests Monks and Friars being in the heighth of their Power were now for the most part grown insolent and licentious and thereby the force of their Arguments was now taken away by the scandal of their lives which the Gentry and men of good education easily perceived and the Parliament consisting of such persons were therefore willing to take away their Power and generally the Common people which for a long time had been in love with Parliaments were not displeased therewith Secondly The Doctrine of Luther beginning a little before was now by a great many men of the greatest Judgments so well received as that there was no hope to restore the Pope to his Power by Rebellion Thirdly The Revenue of the Abbies and all other Religious Houses falling hereby into the Kings hands and by him being disposed of to the most eminent Gentlemen in every County could not but make them do their best to confirm themselves in the possession of them Fourthly King Henry was of a nature quick and severe in the Punishing of such as should be the first to oppose his designs Lastly As to Invasion from abroad if the Pope had given the Kingdom to another Prince it had been in vain for England is another manner of Kingdom than Navarre besides the French and Spanish Forces were imployed at that time one against another and though they had been at leasure they would have found perhaps no better success than the Spaniard found afterwards in 1588. Nevertheless notwithstanding the Insolence Avarice and Hypocrisy of the then Clergy and notwithstanding the Doctrine of Luther if the Pope had not provoked the King by endeavouring to cross his Marriage with his second Wife his Authority might have remained in England till there had risen some other quarrel B. Did not the Bishops that then were and had taken an Oath wherein was among other things that they should defend and maintain the Regal Rights of St. Peter the words are Regalia Sancti Petri which nevertheless some have said are Regulas Sancti Petri that is to say St. Peter's Rules or Doctrine and that the Clergy afterwards did read it being perhaps written in Shorthand by a mistake to the Pope's advantage Regalia Did not I say the Bishops oppose that Act of Parliament against the Pope's and against the taking of the Oath of Supremacy A. No I do not find the Bishops did many of them oppose the King for having no power without him it had been great imprudence to provoke his Anger there was besides a Controversy in those times between the Pope and the Bishops most of which did maintain that they exercised their Jurisdiction Episcopal in the Right of God as immediately as the Pope himself did exercise the same over the whole Church and because they saw that by this Act of the King in Parliament they were to hold their Power no more of the Pope and never thought of holding it of the King they were perhaps better content to let the Act of Parliament pass in the reign of King Edward the Sixth the Doctrine of Luther had taken such great root in England that they threw out a great many of the Pope's new Articles of Faith which Queen Mary succeeding him restored again together with all that had been abolished by King Henry the Eighth saving that which could not be restored the Religious Houses and the Bishops and Clergy of King Edward were partly burnt for Hereticks partly fled and partly recanted and they that fled betook themselves to those places beyond Sea where the Reformed Religion was either protected or not persecuted who after the decease of Queen Mary returned again to favour and preferment under Queen Elizabeth that restored the Religion of her Brother King Edward and so it had continued to this day excepting the interruption made in this late Rebellion of the Presbyterians and other Democra●ical men But thus the Romish Religion were now cast out by the Law yet there were abundance of people and many of them of the Nobility that still retained the Religion of their Ancestors who as they were not much molested in points of Conscience so they were not by their own Inclination very troublesom to the Civil Government but by the secret practice of the Jesuites and other Emissaries of the Roman Church they were made less quiet than they ought to have been and some of them to venture upon the most horrid Act that ever had been heard of before I mean upon the Gunpowder Treason and upon that account the Papists in England have been looked upon as men that would not be sorry for any disorders here that might possibly make way to the restoring of the Pope's Authority and therefore I named them for one of the distempers of the State of England in the time of our late King Charles B. I see that Monsieur du Plesis and Dr. Morton Bishop of Durham writing of the progress of the Pope's Power and intituling their Books one of them The Mystery of Iniquity the other The Grand Imposture were both in the right for I believe there was never such another cheat in the world And I wonder that the Kings and States of Christendom never perceived it A. It is manifest they did perceive it How else durst they make War against the Pope and some of them take him out of Rome it self and carry him away Prisoner but if they would have freed themselves from his Tyranny they should have agreed together and made themselves every one as Henry the Eighth did Head of the Church within their own respective dominions but not agreeing they let his Power continue every one hopeing to make use of it when there should be cause against his neighbour B. Now as to the other Distemper by Presbyterians How came their Power to be so great being of themselves for the most part but so many poor Scholars A. This Controversie between the Papist and Reformed Churches could not chuse but make every man to the best of his Power examine by the Scriptures which of them was in the right and to that end they were translated into Vulgar Tongues whereas be●●● the Translation of them was not allowed nor any man to read them but such as had express Licence so to do for the Pope did concerning the Scriptures the same that Moses did concerning Mount Sinai Moses suffered no man to
might do something that might look like Hostility It hapned in the year 1637. that the King by the advice as it is thought of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury sent down a Book of Common Prayer into Scotland not differing in substance from ours nor much in words besides the putting of the word Presbyter for that of Minister commanding it to be used for Conformity to this Kingdom by the ministers there for an ordinary form of Divine Service this being read out the Church at Edinburgh caused such a Tumult there that he that read it had much adoe to escape with his life and gave occasion to the greatest part of the Nobility and others to enter by their own Authority into a Covenant amongst themselves to put down Episcopacy without consulting the King which they presently did animated thereto by their own Confidence or by assurance from some of the Democratical English men that in former Parliaments had been the greatest opposers of the King's interest that the King would not be able to raise an Army to chastise them without calling a Parliament which would be sure to favour them for the thing which those Democraticals chiefly then aimed at was to force the King to call a Parliament which he had not done of ten years before as having found no help but hinderance to his designs in the Parliaments he had formerly called Howsoever contrary to their expectation by the help of his better affected Subjects of the Nobility and Gentry he made a shift to raise a sufficient Army to have reduced the Scots to their former obedience if it had proceeded to Battle And with this Army he marched himself into Scotland where the Scotch Army was also brought into the Field against him as if they meant to fight but then the Scotch sent to the King for leave to treat by Commissioners on both sides and the King willing to avoid the destruction of his own Subjects condescended to it the issue was Peace and the King thereupon went to Edinburgh and passed an Act of Parliament there to their Satisfaction B. Did he not then confirm Episcopacy A. No but yielded to the abolishing of it but by the means the English were crossed in their hope of a Parliament but the Democraticals formerly opposers of the King's Interest ceased not to endeavour still to put the two Nations into a War to the end the King might buy the Parliament's help at no less a price than Soveraignty it self B. But what was the Cause that the Gentry and Nobility of Scotland were so averse from Episcopacy For I can hardly believe that their Consciences were extraordinarily tender nor that they were so very great Divines as to know what was the true Church Discipline established by our Saviour and his Apostles nor yet so much in love with their Ministers as to be over-ruled by them in the Government either Ecclesiastical or Civil for in their lives they were just as other men are Pursuers of their own Interests and Preferments wherein they were not more opposed by the Bishops than by their Presbyterian Ministers A. Truly I do not know I cannot enter into other mens thoughts farther than I am lead by the consideration of Human Nature in general But upon this consideration I see First That men of antient Wealth and Nobility are not apt to brook that poor Schollars should as they must when they are made Bishops be their Fellows Secondly That from the emulation of Glory between the Nations they be willing to see their Nation afflicted with Civil War and might hope by aiding the Rebels here to acquire some Power over the English at least so far as to establish here the Presbyterian Discipline which was also one of the points they afterwards openly demanded Lastly They might hope for in the War some great sum of money as a reward of their assistance besides great Booty which they afterwards obtained but whatsoever was the cause of their hatred to Bishops the pulling of them down was not all they aimed at if it had now that Episcopacy was abolished by Act of Parliament they would have rested satisfied which they did not for after the King was returned to London the English Presbyterians and Democraticals by whose favour they had put down Bishops in Scotland thought it reason to have the assistance of the Scotch for the pulling down of Bishops in England and in order thereunto they might perhaps deal with the Scots secretly to rest unsatisfied with that pacification which they were before contented with howsoever it was not long after the King was returned to London they sent up to some of their friends at Court a certain Paper containing as they pretended the Articles of the said Pacification a false and Scandalous Paper which was by the King's Command burnt as I have heard publickly and so both parts returned to the same Condition as they were in when the King went down with his Army B. And so there was a great deal of Money cast away to no purpose but you have not told me who was General of that Army A. I told you the King was there in Person he that commanded under him was the Earl of Arundel a man that wanted not either Valour o● Judgement but to proceed to Battle or to Treaty was not in his Power but in the King 's B. He was a man of a most Noble and Loyal Family and whose Ancestors had formerly given a great overthrow to the Scots in their own Countrey and in all likelihood he might have given them the like now if they had Fought A. He might indeed but it had been but a kind of Superstition to have made him General upon that account though many Generals heretofore have been chosen for the good luck of their Ancestors in the like occasions In the long War between Athens and Sparta a General of the Athenians by Sea won many Victories against the Spartans for which cause after his death they chose his Son for General with ill success The Romans that Conquered Carthage by the Valor and Conduct of Scipio when they were to make War again in Africk against Caesar chose another Scipio a man Valiant and Wise enough but he perished in the imployment And to come home to our own Nation the Earl of Essex made a fortunate Expedition to Cadiz but his Son sent afterwards to the same place could do nothing 'T is but a foolish Superstition to hope that God has entailed success in War upon a Name or Family B. After the Pacification broken what succeeded next A. The King sent Duke Hamilton with Commission and Instructions into Scotland to call a Parliament there but all was to no purpose and to use all the means he could otherwise but the Scots were resolved to raise an Army and to enter into England to deliver as they pretended their grievances to his Majesty in a Petition because the King they said being in the hands of evil Councellors they could
Houses from July the 26th to Aug. the 6th and clapt in Prison some of the Lords and some of the most Eminent Citizens whereof the Lord Mayor was one B. Cromwel had power enough now to restore the King why did he not A. His main end was to set himself in his place the restoring of the King was but a reserve against the Parliament which being in his Pocket he had no more need of the King who was now an impediment to him To keep him in the Army was a trouble to let him fall into the hands of the Presbyterians had been a stop to his hopes to murder him privately besides the horrour of the act now whilst he was no more than Lieutenant General would have made him odious without farthering his design there was nothing better for his purpose than to let him escape from Hampton-Court where he was too near the Parliament whither he pleased beyond Sea For though Cromwel had a great Party in the Parliament Houses whilst they saw not his Ambition to be their Master yet they would have been his Enemies as soon as that had appear'd To make the King attempt an escape some of those that had him in Custody by Cromwel's direction told him that the Adjutators meant to murder him and withal caused a rumour of the same to be generally spread to the end it might that way also come to the Kings Ear as it did The King therefore in a dark and rainy night his Guards being retir'd as it was thought on purpose left Hampton-Court and went to the Sea-side about Southampton where a Vessel had been bespoken to transport him but fail'd so that the King was forced to trust himself with Colonel Hammond then Governour of the Isle of Wight expecting perhaps some kindness from him for Doctor Hammonds sake Brother to the Colonel and his Majesties much-favour'd Chaplain but it prov'd otherwise for the Colonel sent to his Masters of the Parliament to receive their Orders concerning him This going into the Isle of Wight was not likely to be any part of Cromwel's design who neither knew whither nor which way he would go nor had Hammond known any more than other men if the Ship had come to the appointed place in due time B. If the King had escaped into France might not the French have assisted him with Forces to recover his Kingdom and so frustrated the designs both of Cromwel and all other the Kings Enemies A. Yes much just as they assisted his Son our present most gracious Soveraign who two years before fled thither out of Cornwal B. 'T is methinks no great policy in Neighbouring Princes to favour so often as they do one anothers Rebels especially when they rebel against Monarchy it self they should rather first make a League against Rebellion and afterwards if there be no remedy fight one against another Nor will that serve the turn among Christian Soveraigns till Preaching be better lookt to whereby the Interpretation of a Verse in the Hebrew Greek or Latine Bible is oftentimes the cause of Civil War and the deposing and assassinating of Gods Anointed and yet converse with those Divinity Disputers as long as you will you will hardly find one in a hundred discreet enough to be imployed in any great Affairs either of War or Peace It is not the Right of the Soveraign though granted to him by every mans consent expresly that can inable a Subject to do his Office it is the obedience of the Subject and then by and by to cry out as some Ministers did in the Pulpit to your Tents O Israel Common people know nothing of right or wrong by their own Meditation they must therefore be taught the grounds of their Duty and the reasons why Calamities ever follow Disobedience to their lawful Soveraigns But to the contrary our Rebels were publickly taught Rebellion in the Pulpits and that there was no sin but the doing of what the Preachers forbad or the omitting of what they advis'd But now the King was the Parliaments Prisoner why did not the Presbyterians advance their own Interest by restoring him A. The Parliament in which there were more Presbyterians yet than Independents might have gotten what they would of the King during his life if they had not by an unconscionable and sottish Ambition obstructed the way to their Ends They sent him four Propositions to be signed and past by him as Acts of Parliament telling him when these were granted they would send Commissioners to Treat with him of any other Articles First The Propositions are these That the Parliament should have the Militia and power of levying Money to maintain it for twenty years and after that term the exercise thereof to return to the King in case the Parliament think the safety of the Kingdom concern'd in it B. This first Article takes from the King the Militia and consequently the whole Soveraignty for ever A. The second was That the King should justifie the proceedings of the Parliament against himself and declare void all Oaths and Declarations made by him against the Parliament B. This was to make him guilty of the War and of all the Blood spilt therein A. The third was To take away all Titles of Honour conferred by the King since the Great Seal was carried to him in May 1642. The fourth was That the Parliament should Adjourn themselves when and to what place and for what time they pleas'd These Propositions the King refus'd to grant as he had reason but sent others of his own not much less advantagious to the Parliament and desir'd a Personal Treaty with the Parliament for the settling of the Peace of the Kingdom but the Parliament denying them to be sufficient for that purpose voted that there should be no more Addresses made to him nor Messages receiv'd from him but they would settle the Kingdom without him And this they voted partly upon the Speeches and Menaces of the Army-Faction then present in the House of Commons whereof one advised these three Points 1. To secure the King in some In-land Castle with Guards 2. To draw up Articles of Impeachment against him 3. To lay him by and settle the Kingdom without him Another said that his denying the four Bills was the denying Protection to his Subjects and that therefore they might deny him Subjection and added that till the Parliament forsook the Army the Army would never forsake the Parliament This was Threatning Last of all Cromwel himself told them it was now expected that the Parliament should govern and defend the Kingdom and not any longer let the people expect their safety from a Man whose heart God had hardned nor let those that had so well defended the Parliament be left afterward to the rage of an irreconcileable Enemy lest they seek their safety some other way This again was threatning as also laying his hand upon his Sword when he spake it And hereupon the Vote of Non-Addresses was made an
they from time to time should send him And to make this credible Cromwel himself caused Money to be sent to him The following year 1654. had nothing of War but was spent in Civil Ordinances in appointing of Judges preventing of Plots for Usurpers are jealous and in executing of the Kings Friends and selling their Lands The third of September according to the Instrument the Parliament met in which there was no House of Lords and the House of Commons was made as formerly of Knights and Burgesses but not as formerly two Burgesses of a Burrough and two Knights for a County for Burroughs for the most part had but one Burgess and some Counties six or seven Knights besides there were twenty Members for Scotland and as many for Ireland So that now Cromwell had nothing to do but to shew his Art of Government upon six Coach-Horses newly presented him which being as rebellious as himself threw him out of the Coach-box and had almost kill'd him B. This Parliament which had seen how Cromwel handled the two former the long and the short one had surely learnt the wit to behave themselves better to him than those had done A. Yes especially now that Cromwel in his Speech at their first meeting had expresly forbidden them to meddle with the Government of a single Person and Parliament or with the Militia or with perpetuating of Parliaments or taking away Liberty of Conscience And he told them also that every Member of the House before they sate must take a Recognition of his Power in divers points whereupon of above 400 there appear'd not above 200 at first though afterwards some relenting there sate about 300 again Just at their sitting down he published some Ordinances of his own bearing date before their meeting that they might see he took his own Acts to be as valid as theirs But all this could not make them know themselves for they proceeded to the debate of every Article of the Recognition B. They should have debated that before they had taken it A. But then they had never been suffered to sit Cromwell being informed of their stubborn proceedings and out of hope of any Supply from them dissolv'd them All that passed besides in this year was the Excise of the High-Court of Justice upon some Royalists for Plots In the Year 1655. the English to the number of near 10000 landed in Hispaniola in hope of the plunder of the Gold and Silver whereof they thought there was great abundance in the Town of Santo Domingo but were well beaten by a few Spaniards and with the loss of near 1000 Men went off to Jamaica and possessed it This year also the Royal Party made another Attempt in the West and proclaimed there King Charles the Second but few joining with them and some falling off they were soon suppressed and many of the Principal Persons Executed B. In these many Insurrections the Royalists tho they meant well yet they did but dis-service to the King by their impatience What hope had they to prevail against so great an Army as the Protector had ready What cause was there to despair of seeing the King's business better done by the Dissention and Ambition of the great Commmanders in that Army whereof many had the favour to be esteem'd among them as well as Cromwel himself A. That was somewhat incertain The Protector being frustrated of his hope of Money at Santo Domingo resolv'd to take from the Royalists the 10th part yearly of their Estates And to this end chiefly he divided England into eleven Major-General-Ships with Commission to every Major-General to make a Roll of the Names of all suspected persons of the King's party and to receive the 10th part of their Estates within his Precinct As also to take caution from them not to act against the State and to reveal all Plots that should come to their knowledge and to make them engage the like for their Servants They had Commission also to forbid Horse-races and concourse of people and to receive and account for this Decimation B. By this the Usurper might easily inform himself of the value of all the Estates in England and of the Behaviour and Affection of every person of Quality which has heretofore been taken for very great Tyranny A. The year 1656 was a Parliament-year by the instrument between the beginning of this year and the day of the Parliaments sitting these Major-Generals resided in several Provinces behaving themselves most Tyrannically Amongst other of their Tyrannies was the awing of Elections and making themselves and whom they pleas'd to be return'd Members for the Parliament which was also thought a part of Cromwel's Design in their Constitution for he had need of a giving Parliament having lately upon a Peace made with the French drawn upon himself a War with Spain This year it was that Captain Stainer set upon the Spanish Plate-fleet being 8 in number near Cadiz whereof he sunk two and took two there being in one of them two millions of pieces of 8 which amounts to 400000 l. sterling This year also it was that James Naylor appear'd at Bristol and would be taken for Jesus Christ he wore his Beard forked and his Hair compos'd to the likeness of that in the Volto Santo and being questioned would sometimes answer Thou sayest it He had also his Disciples that would go by his Horse side to the mid-leg in dirt Being sent for by the Parliament he was Sentenced to stand on the Pillory to have his Tongue bored through and to be marked in the Fore-head with the Letter B for Blasphemy and to remain in Bridewell Lambert a great Favourite of the Army endeavour'd to save him partly because he had been his Souldier and partly to carry favour with the Sectaries of the Army for he was now no more in the Protector 's Favour but meditating how he might succeed him in his Power About two years before this there appear'd in Cromwel's time a Prophetess much fam'd for her Dreams and Visions and hearkened to by many whereof some were Eminent Officers but she and some of her Complices being imprison'd we heard no more of her B. I have heard of another one Lilly that Prophesied all the time of the Long-Parliament what did they to him A. His Prophesies were of another kind he was a Writer of Almanacks and a Pretender to a pretended Art of Judicial Astrologie a meer Cozener to get Maintenance from a Multitude of ignorant people and no doubt had been call'd in question if his Prophesies had been any wayes disadvantageous to the Parliament B. I understand not how the Dreams and Prognostications of mad me● for such I take to be all those that foretel future Contingences can be of any great disadvantage to the Common-Wealth A. Yes yes know there is nothing that renders Humane Councils difficult but the incertainty of future time nor that so well directs men in their deliberations as the fore-sight of the sequels