the shame of this impiety Providence bestoweth her blessings with blinde hands Prosperity doth not alwayes joyn hands with goodness neither is Adversity a true sign of illegality Good Kings may perish whilest wicked Rebels flourish David was forced by ungodly Traytors to flee from his Country Therefore our King may be a man after Gods own heart yet wrongfully driven from his own HAving given the unfortunate an Antidote Let us apply this Cordial That goodness is not an unseparable incident to prosperity success is no invincible argument that the cause is good Goodness and greatness are not alwayes companions Though Foxes have holes and Birds of the air have nests yet our Saviour the King of Kings had not where to lay his head King David though a man after Gods own heart was not without his troubles but had many infoelicities Though the subtile Foxes with their deceitful wiles banish our King from his Sacra Patrimonia his sacred Patrimony for so the possessions of Kings are called and make him wander up and down like a Pelican in the wilderness yet this is but like Jobs afflictions to make him the more glorious The top which is most scourged spinneth the better and the blustering windes make the Tree take the deeper root The Camomile the more it is trodden on the better it groweth and the Palm depressed riseth the higher so the afflictions of our Soveraign shall extol his renown the higher and like a ball thrown against the ground shall rebound and fly with more lofty Majesty For why his goodness doth increase by his misery and his Royal virtue like grass after a shower shall florish more gloriously God let Daniel be thrown into the Den to encrease his honour and chasteneth the Children which he loveth onely for their good What though cross gales drive us from our intended Haven And our hearts fail of all our desired injoyments so that blinde Fortune only striveth to make us miserable in prohibiting us from all our pleasing wishes Yet is this no argument that we are sinfull or that our desires are prophane What though a man be born blinde and so continue from his birth to his death Yet neither may this man have sinned nor his parents But that the John 29 works of God might be made manifest Can any one have the impudence to say that the King is wicked and that his cause is naught because the multitude of reprobates prevail and through the mightiness of their villanies subdue all that is good So may they argue that the Jews were Saints when they murthered our Saviour and that the Devil was an Holy Angel when he spoiled Job No God correcteth the pious that he may preserve them and permitteth the designs of the wicked to coach them to their own destructions He letteth Rebels dethrone their Soveraign and pull the earthly Crown from off his head that he may crown him in Heaven with everlasting glory The meanness of the case doth not diminish the lustre of the Jewel and Christ was a King though in the manger Seneca in Hyppolito Res humanas ordine nullo Fortuna regit spargitque manu Numera caeca pejora fovens Fortune doth not alwayes signally attest the design of such a party or the justnes of such an action to be righteous by permitting it to prosper and taper up into the world the Sun shines upon the bad aswell as the good and the rain makes their corn to grow oftentimes more plentiful than the righteous mens which makes the wicked glory in their actions and scorn all those as Atheists who will not Canonize them for Saints Honesta quaedam scelera successus facit If success doth but attend their enterprises let them be never so impiously wicked all the Logick and Rhetorick in the world cannot perswade them but that they are most sacred and righteous such is their profound ignorance and blind zeal That if the Devil put it into their hearts to murder their lawful King and Soveraign and likewise assist them to effect it they think they do God good service and punish all those with an Egyptian slavery who will not be of their opinion although expresly against God his Commandments viz. Fear God honour the King 1 Pet. 2.17 They make God to be even altogether such a one as they are in crying that it is Gods cause even when they commit the greatest Sacriledge Persperum ac faelix scelus virtus vocatur a mischief neatly effected is one of their chiefest virtues This indeed made King David to stagger nay his steps had wellnigh slipt when he saw the prosperity of the wicked when he considered that they were not in trouble as other men nor plagued like other men Their Eyes stand out with fatness they have more than heart could wish This made him cry out Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocence But when he went into the Sanctuary of God Then understood he their end For Surely thou didst set them in slipery places Thou castedst them down in destruction How are they brought into desolation as in a moment they are utterly consumed with terrors as a dream when one awaketh So O Lord when thou awakest thou shalt despise their image was his next vote Prov. 1.30 They would none of my Counsell they despised all my reproof Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way and be filled with their own devices for the turning away of the simple shall slay them and the prosperity of Fools shall destroy them Thus you see that prosperity is sometimes a curse and no blessing To those beasts we intend to kill we commonly allow the best pasture And surely those men are better acquainted with Mahomets Alchoran than our Saviours Gospel who will not be convinced but that temporal happiness is the true index of Divine favour God scattereth his outward blessings upon the wicked aswell as on the good because if Virtue and Religion should only appropriate riches more men would become virtuous and religious for the love of mony and wealth than out of any love they did bear either to Virtue or Religion Maro O fortuna potens quam variabilis Tantum juris atrox quae tibi vindicas Evertisque bonos erigis improbos Nec servare potes muneribus fidem Fortua immeritos auget honoribus Fortuna innocuos cladibus afficit Justos illa viros pauperie gravat Indignos eadem divitiis beat Haec aufert juvenes retinet senes Injusto arbitrio tempora dividens Quod dignis adimit transit ad impios Nec discrimen habet rectaque judicat Inconstans fragilis perfida lubrica Nec quos deseruit perpetuo premit Therefore let not those despair whom blind Fortune hath kicked into any mishap nor measure the justness of their actions by the quantity of success Though the voyce of the world censure it For it is not the event which makes it good or bad Careat successibus opto Quisquis
Almighty hath said that ye are Gods and I will not say that ye shall die like men The radiant beams of your Countenance declare you more than mortal For in the light of the Kings countenance there is life saith Solomon Prov. 16.15 Neither is their voice like the voice of other men For A divine Sentence is in the lips of the King and his mouth transgresseth not in judgement Prov. 16.10 Therfore I will conclude that the King is a sacred Deitie A day in his Courts is better than a thousand I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of the King than be a Protector c. and reign in the tents of wicked Traytors For the Kings Throne is established by righteousnesse and mercy but Traytors reign by their Villanies and raise themselves up by the bloud and downfall of their superiors But God hath given his judgements to the King and his righteousnesse unto the Kings son and he will judge the people with righteousness and the poor with judgement Therefore kiss the son lest he be angry and ye perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little blessed are all they that are trusty and faithfull unto him I counsel thee to keep the Kings commandment and that in regard of the Oath of God Be not hasty to go out of his sight stand not in an evil thing for he doth whatsoever he pleaseth Rejoyce greatly O daughter of Zion shout O daughter of Jerusalem behold thy King cometh unto thee he is black but comly he is just and will be a nursing father to the people his Queen shall be a nursing mother For God hath made him our King And our King cannot be made glad with our wickedness But our lies and hypocrisie grieve him to the heart The King by Judgement shall establish the Land It is abomination to Kings to commit wickednesse neither is it for Kings to drink wine Mercy and truth preserve the King and his Throne is upholden by mercy Therefore thrice happy would the people be if they did not rebel against the Lords anointed who is righteous and pious For when the righteous are in authority the people rejoyce but when the wicked beareth rule the people mourn Rebellion is as the sin of Witchcraft and stubornnesse is as Iniqvity and Idolatry and an evil man only seeketh Rebellion Therefore a cruel Mâ—ssenger shall be sent against him For if ye rebel ye shall be devoured Therefore Rebel not against the Lord nor the King But when he cometh salute him Hail King but not of the Jews for you professe yourselves Christians Therefore learn of Christ obedience to the King But sâ—ppose you were Jews the Jews abound with reverence to their King and loath to be so wicked as to murther their King For when Pilate said Behold your King shall I Crucify your King They answered We have no King but Caesar accounting it a most barbarous and worse than Jewish act for any people to crucifie their King though in a way of publique justice Therfore even of the Jews let Christians learn their duty to their King and rejoyce at his coming as the Bribe doth at the approach of the Bridegroom The Husbandmen indeed in the Gospel killed the servants and when the son came to demand the fruits of his Fathers Vineyard they conspired against him and said This is the Heir come let us kill him and the Inheritance shall be ours But they were wicked and their Judgement and doom was miserably to be destroyed to have their Vineyard taken from them and to be let out to others who would yield better obedience and render the fruits in their seasons Therefore let all men take heed that they doe not perish in the gainsaying of Core and with those wicked Idolaters Isa 8.21 Curse their King and their God and look upwards Whose reward is Hell where the Devil shall curb them and rule over them for ever because they would not let their King whom God placed over them be as in truth he was and is their only lawfull Soveraign It is so well known to every one who knoweth any thing how the Heathens did honour their Kings as Gods not onely when they were dead but also whilst they were living that it would not only be losse of inke and paper but also expence of time which is better to relate the particulars But pudet heu their obedience and allegiance may shame aswell as be a pattern to the Christians of our age who wander so far from the path their Lord and Master went in And if any one be desirous to know how God hath alwayes esteemed of Kings and with what reverence Gods people have alwayes obeyed them I refer him to the Bible Where I may with confidenee speak it there is no duty more commanded and prest upon the people than obedience and no sin so much punished as Treason and Rebellion And the chiefest end of their obedience to the King is not only for God his glory and the Kings honour but also for their own good praise and profit For for this cause did the Apostle exhort the people to pray for Kings and all that are in authority That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour 1 Tim. 2.2 O Melilaee Deus nobis haec otia fecit Virgil could tell that the welfare of the King brought Tranquillity and Peace upon the Land and therefore he calleth him a God Nay he will therefore honour him as a God Namque erit ille mihi semper Deus saith he And I fear his allegiance and due obedience will rise in Judgement to condemn many who profess themselves Christians yet by their actions are worse than Infidels who Judas like pretend loyalty to their Soveraign whilest they plot and contrive with a kisse to betray him But Judas hanged himself and if these men do not hang themselves It is a great mercy beyond their deserts if some body else do not do it for them before they live out half their dayes For in the fifth Commandment which as Divines hold is most obliging We are commanded to honour our Father and Mother by which words are meant Kings Princes and other Magistrates That our dayes may be long upon the Land which the Lord our God giveth us which is the first Commandment with promise as St. Paul observes Ephes 6.2 But this promise is not absolute lt is upon this condition that we honour and obey our Soveraign and if we do not perform our parts God is not tyed to perform his If we break his Commandments he may well break his promise which was made only on that condition that we should obey and if we had loved him we should have kept his Commandments But whosoever breaketh one one of them it were better for him that a milstone were hanged about his
time hunted the distressed King and his Royal party pretending to be set on only by their Master Rebels the Commons but it seems they had a game to play of their own which on the sixth of December 1648. they begun to shew And therefore when the Trayterous Commons had obtained what they could ask or desire of their Soveraign then their Prisoner at the Isle of Wight being such Concessions which never any King before him granted nor Subjects ever demanded So that shame compelled them to vote them satisfactory Then the bloody Souldiers thinking themselves lost if the King and Parliament should find a peace went up to the House of Commons and by force kept out and imprisoned those who voted the Kings Concessions satisfactory which the militant Saints pleased to call purging of the House so that body is purged which hath poyson left in it and nutriment taken out of it by the purge yet this purge would not do the Lords must be turned out too and only 40. or fifty packt Members of the House of Commons who had sworn to be as very if not worse Knaves than the wicked Souldiers would have them to be were only left in the House who presently took upon them what power their own lusts could desire or the over-ruling Sword help them to Murthered the King and the chiefest of the Royal Party and yet to colour their Tyranny caâ—led themselves a Parliament by which name blowing up King Lords Spiritual and Temporal and all our Lawes and Religion with them they still Domineer and Rule over us yet not so but that the Army Rule them as the Wind doth a weather-cock turning them which way and how they please sometimes up and sometimes down and no doubt but that shortly they will be cast down for altogether for the wicked shall not last but vanish as a shadow Blessed art thou O Lord when thy King is the Son of Nobles Eccles 10.17 But alas Servants have ruled over us and there is none that doth deliver us out of their hands Lamen 5.8 The Crown is fallen from our head Wo unto us that we have sinned Verse 16. For now they shall say we have no King because we feared not the Lord What then should a King do unto us Hosea 10.3 ENGLANDS CONFUSION OR A True Relation of the topsy turvy Governments in mutable England since the Reign of Charls the Martyr The Tyranny of the Rump further manifested And that we shall never have any setled State untill Charls the second whose right it is injoy the Crown Though frantick Fortune in a merriment hath set the Heels above the Head and gave the Scepter unto the Shrubs who being proud of their new got honour have jarred one against the other during the Interregnum Yet Charls the second shall put a period to this Tragedy and settle our vexed Government which hath changed oftner in twelve years than all the Governments in the whole world besides Oh the heavy Judgment when Subjects take upon them to correct their King AS a distracted Ship whose Pilate the rageâ—ng violence of a tempestuous storm hath cast down headlong from the stern staggereth too and fro amongst the unquiet waves of the rough Ocean somtimes clashing against the proud surly Rocks and somtimes reeling up and down the smoother waters now threatening present Shipwrack and Destruction by â—nd by promising â— seeming safety and secure arrival yet never setled fast nor absolutely tending to the quiet and desired Haven So the vexed Government of frantick England ever since the furious madnesse of a few turbulent Spirits beheaded our King and Kingdom threw down Charls the Martyr our only lawfull Governour from the stern of Government and took it into their unskilfull and unlawfull hands it hath been tossed up and down somtimes falling amongst the lawless Souldiers as a Lamb amongst Wolves or as a glass upon stones and somtimes happening amongst Tyrants calling themselves a Parliament who are so much worse than the Souldiers by how much wickednesse covered with a colour of Justice is worse and more dangerous than naked villanies Yet in all our Revolutions although many gaps have been laid open that way hath not the Government steered its course directly to Charls the second it s only proper right and quiet Haven to which until it come we must never expect to have the Ship of our Common-wealth so secure but that Tempests and Storms will still molest and trouble if not totally ruine it Though it stand so fast one day that it seemeth impossible for humane strength to remove it yet the next day it moultereth away to nothing I vouch every mans experience to warrant this truth And were not our blind Sodomites intoxicated with Senselesse as well as Lawlesse Counsels They would never gape after preferment nor hope for continuance in their imaginary Commonwealth where the greatest one hour is made least the next and they themselves swallow up each the other never having rest or peace no not in their own House And can this divided Monster which is the cause of all our divisions cloze up our divisions and settle our Nation in peace and happinesse 'T is madnesse to think it So fire may quench fire and the Devil who was the first Author of wickedness put an end to all wickedness Examine the condition of the times since the Reign of Charls the first and you may see what times we shall have until the Reign of Charls the second Tyranny and Usurpation Beggery and Slavery Warrs and Murthers Subversion of our Laws and Religions changing the Riders but we must alwayes be the Asses Hunger and Famine Guns and Swords Drums and Trumpets Robberies and Thieveries Fornication and Adultery Brick without Straw Taxes although no bread These must be the voices which will alwayes sound in our Ears untill we cast off this old man of Sin viz. The Long called Parliament and submit as we ought to Charls the second our only lawfull King VVe may read of many Kings who have been suddainly killed by the rash violence of an indiscreet multitude who in the heat of Blood do that which they repent of all their life after mad Fury being the only cause of their unjust Actings But to commit sin with reason and piety to kill their King with discretion formally and solemnly is such a premeditated Murther that the Sun never saw until these Sons of perdition brought it to light For a long time before the fact they machinated and plotted the Kings death and contrived how they might with the best colour and shew of Justice effect it At length as if their Votes were more authentique than all Srcipture they passed amongst others this Vote Die Jovis Jan. 4. 1648. viz. That the People under God were the original of all just power This was the foundation upon which the superstructure of all their murthers and villanies which they call just Judgments were built which granted it consequently followeth that all
in stead of proving a Keeper to the Trayterous Keepers he hath approved himself a glorious Dâ—â—ender of our Liberties for which Trophies of honour shall be erected to his eternal renown neither will our King spare heaping of rewards upon his so memorable merits at his return to his own house which the General hath swept for him and turned out them who made it aden of thieves On Tuesday the 21. day of February 1659. a day which deserveth more solemnization than Gunpowder Treason day for then we were delivered from those who only intended to destroy King and Parliament but now we are delivered from those who actually did destroy both King and Parliament and so consequently the whole Kingdome General Monk our famous Patron conducted the secluded Members to the House of Commons where according to their former agreement with the General they voted themselves in a short time to be dissolved and a free Parliament to be elected Now I hope no man will presume to conceive the General so insipid as to think there can be a free Parliament without the King and House of Lords No it is ridiculous to think so for a free Parliament without the King would be but like salt which hath lost his favour thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and to be troden under foot of men Mat. 5.13 It would be but a Rump fatned and grow bigger For we are all sick of the Kings Evil therefore nothing but the touch of his Sacred Majesties hands can cure us And I may with confidence and truth affirm that every one of that infinite number of people which so much rejoyced at the destruction of the Rump and at the voice of a free Parliament would mourn and cry at their sitting if they do not bring with them the good tidings of restoring their King the hopes whereof only made them rejoyce And indeed they would have more cause to bewail a free Parliaments sitting without the King than the sitting of the Rump for this we may be sure of that the King will come in either by fair means or by soul if by soul that is by war then the war will be greater with a free Parliament and so consequently more grievous to the people than with the Rump because a free Parliament will have greater force and power to levy a war than the Rump and so the combustible matter being more the flame will be the higher But it is Atheism to think that a free Parliament will withstand the King therefore I will not taint my Paper with such detestable words I let fall a blot of ink upon Mr. Prynne's Soverain Power of Parliaments and Kingdomes a Book which I am sure deserves a greater blurre But Mr. Prynne hath since repaired his credit and got the applause of the people by writing for the King and against the Rump and other sectaries Therefore to give him his deserts there is no man in the Nation hath so much merited as himself in pulling down the many Tyrannies over us since the murther of Charles the Martyr He hath been our Champion whose pen hath fought against the scriblings and actings of the Traytors and Rebels for which I shall ever love and honour him and without doubt our Gracious King will sufficiently reward him if he continueth constant in his loyalty which God grant he may And although the Presbyterian held the head of Charles the Martyr to the block by his hair whilst the Independent cut it off yet now I hope the many evils which we have sustained by that royal fall for which he shewed the first play will teach the rigid Presbyter moderation and make him confesse notwithstanding his violent Covenant against that Apostolical constitution of Bishops that Episcopacy is the best form of Church Government and the only way to extirpate and keep down those infinite number of s31y'sects and factions which have taken root and budded since Episcopacy was rooted up and blasted No Bishop No King was the Symbole of our Solomon King James who I think was as wise and as much a Christian as any of our Lay-Elders therefore in vain do the Presbytery think of enjoying Monarchy unlesse they first resolve to lay aside all their schismatical Tenets and stick to Episcopacy For as the same King sayes A Scottish Presbitery and Monarchy agree as God and the Devil Our Soveraign Charls the Martyr in his sacred writings hath so clearly approved and vindicated Episcopacy from the false aspersions of the Presbiterian faction and also laid open the absurdities of Presbitery so fully that it would be arrogance in me to say any thing after him and not only ignorance but impudence in any man to look upon his writings and still remain a Presbiterian Therefore O Heavenly Father asswage the pride and open the Eyes of these rigid Zelots that in seeing they may see and in hearing they may hear and understand and not professe themselves wiser than our Saviour that great Bishop and his Apostles which were Bishops and appointed successive Bishops as you may read in the Epistles of St Paul to Timothy and Titus c. And the Government of Bishops hath been the universal and constant practice of the Church so that as Charls the Martyr writeth ever since the first age for 1500 years not one example can be produced of any setled Church wherein were many Ministers and Congregations which had not some Bishop above them under whose Jurisdiction and Government they were Therefore let not the aspiring currish Presbiterian who would pull down a Bishop in every Diocesse but set up a Pope in every Parish no longer spet venom against the Reverend Bishops And truly I think their grounds are so slender against Episcopacy that if the King would but make them Bishops they would then be as violent for Episcopacy as they are now against it Therefore rest content Presbiter for though not thy deserts yet State Policy may in time make thee a Bishop The Antipodes indeed viz. the Long called Parliament who acted all things contrary to all Law and Religion voted that Bishops should never more vote as Peers in Parliament But why was it not because the Religious Bishops should not withstand their Irreligious and Blasphemous proceedings in Murthering the King Destroying the Church and all our Laws and Religion with them Surely no man can deny but that was the only reason Que enim est respublica ubi Ecclesiastici primum non habeant locum in Comitiis publicis de salute Reipub Deliberationibus For which is that Commonwealth where the Ecclesiastical persons had not the first place in all meetings and publique consultations about the Welfare of the Commonwealth Surely none but the Utopian Commonwealth of these Rebels For it is the practice of all Nations nay the Rebels themselves who voted it unlawful for Bishops and other grave Prelates of the Church to meddle the least in Civil Affairs could approve it in their new
Astraea Redeunt Saturnia regna progenies caelo Demittitur alto Bishops the Coâ—on prâ—â—ier Booke â—ewarded Sectaries reiected SALMASIUS HIS BUCKLER OR A Royal Apology FOR King CHARLES the MARTYR Dedicated to CHARLES the Second King of Great Brittain Salus Populi Salus Regis LONDON Printed for H.B. and are to be sold in Westminster-hall and at the Royal Exchange 1662. The Epistle to the Reader THere have been so many Wolves in sheeps-cloathing and so many Innocents by the reviling tongues of their Enemies robbing them of their good names as well as of their good estates made Malignants in this our worse than iron age that I know not what Epithite to give thee If thou art an Honest man Rara avis in terris I invoke thee to be my Patron If thou art not Noli me tangere But since St. Austin once perhaps as zealous a Reprobate as thy self was converted by looking on the Bible by chance I will not prohibit thee from eating of this fruit Though I believe to think that thy view of my Book will work the like conversion on thee is to have a better opinion of thee and the Book than both will deserve For though an Angel should come from heaven or a man arise from the dead yet could he not perswade our hot-headed Zealots but that they did God good service even when they rebell against his own Ordinance transgress his Commandements murther their Father the KING and pollute their once flourishing Mother the CHURCH Before this prodigious off-spring like Vipers destroyed the Mother by their birth The Jews indeed murthered the Lord of life because they did not know him and therefore thought it was pleasing to God But wo be to them who did not only with Ham see their Fathers nakedness and reproach him but commit Paricide see his heart naked and call the multitude to laugh at it En quo discordia Cives produxit miseros O the miserable effects of seditious men Who shall now cure the Kings evil Or who shall cure the evil of the People O purblind City how long will you enslave yourselves to ravenous woolves who by their often changing of their feigned Governments do but change the thief and still your Store-houses must be the Magazine to furnish them with plunder You must never look to enjoy your lives estates or Gods blessing with the fruition of your Wives and Children before your lawfull King and Soveraign CHARLS the II. unjustly banished by Rebells be restored to his Crown and Kingdom For what Comfort can any honest or conscientious man take in any thing so long as he seeth his own native Prince like King David driven from his own natural inheritance by the unjust force of a multitude of Traytors both to God and their King Who Judas-like acknowledging his Master with a kiss so they swore with their mouthes that King CHARLS the I. was their only lawfull King and Soveraign and had the Supreme power over them all and then delivered him to the Sword-men who came out with Clubbs and Staves against their Soveraign as against a Thief and as the Jews did the Lord our Saviour whom they did not acknowledge to be their King otherwise they would not have done it These men murthered their dread Soveraign whom they all acknowledged and vowed to be their only King Excelling the Jewes only in wickednesse Therefore since by the Laws of the Land there can be no Parliament without the King what difference is there between a Protector and one of their Parliaments but only number For their Protectors are but the head thieves and their Parliaments but a headless multitude of thieves For so long as the Royal Progenie of CHARLS the I. which God long preserve remain alive all other our Governours besides them will be but Rebells Traytors and Tyrants let them call themselves a Free State or by what names they please continue until the worlds end Therfore rouze up Citizens and take courage How long will you be the common Hackney to be ridden by every one that will stride you How long shall your Sanctuary be made a Stable and Den for Thieves Shall your Streets blush with the blood of Prophets and with the blood of your Citâ—zens and will not you change your colour where is the reverend Doctor Hewyt that Glory of your City that Glory of all Christians that Glory of the whole World whose fame shall out-live the Sun and his renown shine longer and brighter than the Moon or the lesser Stars Caesar the Usurper was wont to say Si violandum est jus regnandi causa esse violandum That if it is lawfull to forswear one self for any Cause the Cause of gaining a Kingdom is the most lawfull But there are those amongst us who have turned the Supposition into a Proposition and confidently by their practice affirm that it is lawfull to forswear one self for any thing and most sacred to be forsworn if by the perjury a Kingdom may be gained But I will not touch the Soars which lye raw before every mans eyes only this will I say which every one knoweth to be true that no Kingdom in the World was so happy both for peace and plenty law and religion and all other good things as our Kingdom of England was whilest due obedience was lawfully paid to our Soveraign Lord the King but now the King being murthered and all goodness with him no Nation under the Sun is more miserable and so it will continue untill King Charles the second be restored to his Crown The Sword of Gods word ought only to fight for Religion the Iron sword of Rebels did never establish Christian Religion nor ever will set up Christs Kingdom especially if it be unsheathed against Kings by their Subjects And to satisfie all Objections whatsoever against my writing I answer Si natura negat facit indignatio versum It was not to shew my self to the world for as in Tempests so in our daies he is best who is seen least abroad But it was to shew and prefer the Truth which hath been laid asleep by the Charmes of our Sins For to this end was I born and for this cause came I into the world that I should bear witnes to the truth every one that is of the Truth will hear the voice of the truth when I saw the many revolutions turnings of men like Weathercocks being presented almost every day with new strange and various shapes and forms of Government it caused me more diligently to search after the true reason of our changings which I found to be our Sins and the absence of our King also which was the best kind of Government which I found to be Monarchy and that all trayterous Tyrants sine titulo might most lawfully be killed by any privat hand but Kings only by God Truth often getteth hatred and it is the doom of serious books to be hooted at by those who have nothing
fortunam fremere Pelli potes capi caedi perimi vinci autem nisi manum extuleris non potes neque ornamentis tuis spoliari cum quibus quocunque ieris civis patriae Principum unus eris Sorrow I am unjustly driven into banishment Reason What hadst thou rather than be justly banished For as touching the heap of injuries whereof thou speakest it is taken in the contrary part and now thou hast justice to be thy companion which shall be a comfort unto thee in thy unjust banishment which forsaking thy unjust Countrymen hath chosen rather to follow thee into exile Sorrow I am banished unjustly Reason Hath the King banished thee or a Tyrant or the people or an enemy or thou thy self If the King either thy banishment is not unjust or he himself is not just and so by consequence no King If a Tyrant rejoyce that thou arâ— banished by him under whom good men are exiled and Theeves are set in authority If the people they use their old manner they hate the virtuous among whom if this many-headed Tyrant had found any like themselves they would never have banished him Think not therefore that thou art expulsed thy Country but removed from the fellowship of wicked persons and that thou art not driven into exile but received into the Country of good Citizens If an Enemy acknowledge the lightness of the injury for he hath not dealt extreamly with thee he that could take from a man all that he hath and hath taken but his Country hath left him hope But if thou thy self the cause is that falling into misliking of the people or Tyrant thou hast chosen to depart not only because thou wouldest not be sorry but also vaunt thy self for preferring the honour of thy Country So that now thou hast not a miserable but an honest cause not of exile but of absence hateful to the wicked and grateful to the virtuous Pythagoras voluntarily forsook Samos and Solon Athens and Lycurgus Lacedemon and Scipio Rome Sorrow I am driven from my Country Reason Being driven away of the worst insinuate thy self into the Company of the best sort and make it evident by good proofs that thy Country was unworthy of thee and not thou of thy Country Let it perceive what it hath lost and know thou how that thou hast lost nothing Let the evil Citizens want the wearisomness and also the hatred and suspition of thy presence and let the good persecute thine absence with love and desire and with their eyes and minds follow after thy departure let them be sorry for that thou hast forsaken them Sorrow I am sent into exile Reason Nay rather to try thy self Beware how thou behave thy self in thy exile if thou faint then art thou a very banished wight if thou stand stoutly thy banishment will ennoble thee as it hath done many other before thee who passed invincibly honourably through difficulties to the end they might shew the right way to them that came after Let Tyrants rage let the people chafe let thine Enemies and Fortune fret and fume thou maist be driven away taken beaten slain but thou canst not be overcome unless thou yield up thine hands nor yet be despoiled of thine Ornaments by means whereof whithersoever thou goest thou shalt be a Citizen and one of the Princes of thy Country The Certain incertainty of Fortune who crowns Coblers and beheads Kings Advice to the prosperous to beware Insolency and to take heed lest they fall Comfort to the miserable to keep them from despair with several remedies to cure the maladies of a troubled minde being Physick for both Fortunes good or bad HAving sheltered the banished from the tempests of a forraign exile Let us arme him against the Changeling Fortune Constant only in inconstancy according to mellifluous Ovid. Passiâ—us ambiguis Fortuna volubilis errat Et manet in nullo certa tenaxque loco Sed modo lecta manet vultus modo sumit acerbos Et tantum constans in levitate sua est She wandereth about the Earth making all men Tenants at will of their possessions and as a whirlwind bloweth up dust on heaps then scattereth it about so she puffeth riches to a man then puffeth both man riches away together Quem dies vidit veniens superbum hunc dies vidit fugiens jacentem Whom the rising Sun saw as glorious as himself in the morning the setting Sun often seeth as low as himself in the evening Therefore let not them glory in their prosperity who raign in the palace of Fortune triumph over their enemies and have success to crown their actions whether they be just or unjust Nempe dat quodcunque libet Fortuna rapitque Irus est subito Qui modo Craesus erat Fortune dealeth with men as a wheele with its spoaks turneth those lowest which even now were highest She throweth down Kings and setteth up Beggars he who even now was but a servile Cobler is by and by metamorphosed and translated into his Soveraign Master Ex humili magna ad fastigia rerum Extollit quoties voluit Fortuna jocari It is her sport to promote fools to lift the Peasant from the plough to the Throne to set the frogg upon the washing block and elevate him to the highest point of honour that she may break his neck down again Tolluntur in altum ut lapsu graviore ruunt They are lifted up for no other cause but that their fall might be the greater Therefore my advice is to all those if advice may have the honour to look upon them who have their hearts desire in all things and want nothing of this world to make themselves compleatly happy to remember in the midst of their prosperity King Craesus if they will vouchsafe to let a King come into their thoughts Who when he was esteemed the most happy of all mortals both for riches and peace was admonished by Solon Neminem ante cineres beatum dicendum quod quoad vivimus periculum sit ne instabilis hujus mundi foelicitas dolore aliquo contaminetur That no man before death could be said to be happy because whilest we live it is a chance but that the foelicity of this unstable world will be blotted out with the black pen of misery which sentence of Sclons the Calamity of Croesus did afterwards declare most true For he being conquered by Cyrus and chained to the stake to be burned remembring the wholesome saying of his friend Solon did cry out Solon Solon Solon at which Cyrus much wondering asked him which of the Gods or men he did invoke and what was his meaning Cyrus being informed of the whole matter and put in minde of humane vicissitudes delivered Craesus from the flame and ever afterwards had him in great esteem fearing lest the like calamity might fall upon himself so when Sesostris King of Egypt being drunk with good fortune and lifted too high with his great successes against his
enemies caused four Kings taken prisoners to draw his triumphal Chariot wherein one of them looked back with smiles to the wheel of the Chariot and being demanded his reason for it answered That he smiled to see the spoak of the wheel now at the top to be presently at the bottome and again that which is now at the bottome to be by and by at the top Which when the King heard considering the mutability of all earthly things his haughty spirit was not a little mollfiied These relations I thought good here to insert that the mighty and dreadful men of the world who have got the power of the Sword into their own hands taking Cyrus for their example whose example will be no disgrace for them to follow though he was a King for he was likewise a valiant Souldier might not exercise Tyranny over their vanquished enemies especially over their own fellow subjects Cain purchased little honour by the murder of his brother Abel Though the Heathens appeared as glorious as the Sun at their triumphs after the conquest of a forraign enemy yet mourning was their habit instead of triumph after a victory obtained in a civil war when two Noble men were convicted for affecting and aspiring to the Empire of Titus Vespasianus he proceeded no farther against them than to admonish them to desist and give over saying that Soveraign Power was the gift of Destiny and Divine Providence If they were Petitioners for any thing else he promised to give it unto them For Melius est servare unum quam occidere mille It is better to save one then to kill a thousand is a saying worthy to be written in letters of gold but more worthy to be put in practise O blessed Conqueror that is thus qualifyed O blessed prisoner that hath such a victor Having pruned the fortunate let us now stoop to the miserable whom fortune hath cast to the lowest stair of affliction Nemo desperet meliora lapsus prohibet Clotho stare fortunam vicissitude o◠Fortune is sufficient argument to keep the unfortunate from despair for though the highest spoak of the wheel be turned lowest yet it doth not tarry there but presently returneth to its former heighth Non semper imbres nubibus hispidos manant in agros Though it rain one day the Sun may shine again the next No storm without a calm nor no Winter without a Summer Post tempestatem tranquillitas The North-wind which bloweth cold may quickly turn into a warmer corner Weeping may indure for a night but joy cometh in the morning Psalm 30. vers 5. But if the brevity of time will not give ease unto thy malady declare thy grief a disease well known is half cured What art thou robbed of all that thou hast Consider what thou broughtest into the World and thou hast lost nothing this thou hast got the means to wean thee from things below and if thou wilt to set thy mind on things above Art opprest with sickness The sickness of thy body may prove the welfare of thy soul Thou learnest to pitty others and knowest that thy earthly cottage is not invincible Doth poverty knock at thy door Let her in shee will teach thee to be humble keep thee from envy and lock thee up secure It is better meekly to entertain her then proudly to oppose her Art born a bondman There is no bondage like that to sin cast of that and thou art free it is better to be born a bondman and dye free from sin than to be born a freeman and dye a bondslave to Satan Is thy fare thine Thou hast avoided two sins gluttony incontinency Thou hast wydened the way to virtue Though streightened the passage to thy belly Hunger nourisheth arts and a full belly is the ensign of an empty head Bonae mētis soror est paupertas Art thou poor and over-burdened with children Children are riches then how canst thou be poor amongst so many jewels acknowledge thy blessing and give thanks and He that feedeth the fishes of the Sea the fouls of the Air and apparelleth the flowers of the Field will both feed and cloath thy children It was harder to raise them to thee than to provide food for them Art thou rich and childness He that created thee can create thee children Sarah had a Son in her old age In the mean time make thy self the child of God and thou art better than if thou hadst many children Hast thou lost thy mony Thou hast exchanged fears and cares for quietness and carelesness liberty is better then golden chains Thou hast but paid fortune that which she lent thee For omnia tua tecum portas Thou canst not truly be called Master of that whereof fortune is mistress Art thou become a surety Thou art near a shrewd turn henceforth give away all that thou hast rather than thy liberty In the mean time let thy hand discharge that which thy mouth hath set on thy score It is no charity to pluck a thorn out of another mans foot to put it in thine own Hath nature made thee deformed Let the deformity of thy body put thee in minde of the deformity of thy soul Depart from sin and adorn thy soul with virtues as for thy body it is the work of Gods hands Beauty is at best but a fadeing vanity profitable to none hurtful to many and perhaps might have been thy destruction Pulchrius est pulchrum fieri quam nasci Si mihi difficilis formam natura negavit Jugenio formae damna rependo mea Hast thou lost thy time Thou hast lost an invaluable pearl which cannot be re-called nor superseded by riches or honor But it is never too late to repent lose time no more and thou hast made amends Hast thou lost thy betrothed mistress He that loseth his wife is delivered of many cares but he that loseth his spouse is preserved both of these are good but the last is the best Therefore grieve not too much lest thou lose thy self Hast thou buried thy wife Thou hast buried her on earth who first buried thee in the grave of sin in Paradise couldest thou be rid of sin as thou art rid of her Thou hadst cause to rejoyce and had shee not brought thee a Saviour thou hadst had cause to repent that ever thou sawest her Hath Infamy blasted thy name If it be deserved lament not the Infamy but the cause of the Infamy But if it be undeserved contemn the errours of men with a valiant courage and comfort thy self with the testimony of a good conscience It is better to be innocent and slandered than nocent and applauded Hast thou many enemies If they profess it openly thou art armed if they keep it secretly thou liest open to danger be thou a friend to justice and God will be so much a friend to thee as to deliver thee publickly from thy private enemy none are so pernitious enemies as flattering friends Hast thou lost an occasion to revenge
to a Multitude of Tyrants and the dreadfull events if the Tyrants do not restore the King to his own again The murder of the late King Charles is proved to be most illegal and how the Rebels use the liberty of the people only as a Cloak for their wickednesse and their Knavery discovered in pretending the supreme power to be in the people whereas they use it themselves and so Tyrannize over us The Laws of England described and proved that our Soveraign Charles the 1. was unjustly killed against the Common Law Statute Law and all other Laws of England WE have already clearly proved that Kings are by Divine institution that they have their power from the Heavens and not from terrestrial men and that their power is above the people and Laws We are now come to see whether the people the Kings subjects have power to destroy and put assunder that which God hath thus created and joyned together It is a sound conclusion which naturally and of necessity floweth from the premisses that they have not and having shewed 1. That God made the first King Adam in Paradise 2. That there he received his regal power from God not from the people And 3. That there he arbitrarily made Laws according to his will where he had reigned a Monarch for ever as Divines hold had not he transgressed Let us now see what became of him after his transgression for King Adam did transgress and he must give an account of his Stewardship But to whom must he give his account To man he cannot for the King hath no superiour on earth Therefore he must to God who in the 19 th verse of Gen. cap. 2. challengeth his praerogative And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him Where art thou No sooner did Adam hear God call but he presently gave an account of himself saying verse the 10. I heard thy voyce in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid my self Where note That God taketh an account chiefly of the king for his subjects offences The king is Gods Steward and God will reckon with him God sent him from Paradise out of the garden of Eden to till the ground Therefore that he may make a good account he must Parcere subjectis debellare superbos cherrish the flowers and root up the weeds He must be a nursing Father to his loyal subjects but he must batter down the swelling pride of Traytors The true Protestant Religion must florish as the best flowet in his Garden But the Anabaptists Independents Presbyterians Papists Jesuits and other wicked Sectaries must be pulled up as weeds lest they overspred and choak the good flower They must be extirpated by the root whilest they are young lest theâ— grow up and seed and their seed be sowen up and down in the whole World He must set the Bishops again in their natural soyl which is now grown over with these weeds and rubbish That that stone which these new builders refused may become the head stone of the Corner and the Bishops Lands which they did not refuse must be given to the Church again The Common Prayer Book now rejected as fit for none but the use of Papists He must bring in and make those Papists read it who now reject it as Popery for no other cause but that there is no Popery in it He must turn the Horses and other unclean beasts out of his Sanctuary now made a Stable St. Pauls c. and put in holy Bishops and reverend Pastors in their room And since our Saviour hath commanded it He must make the Lords Prayer current amongst us That our Ministers may leave off piping what they list and pipe the true tune which the Lord of life the best Musician taught them that all Gods people may dance For how can we dance when the instrument is out of order and the wrong tune is piped Good God! what a superstitious and Papistical age do we live in when we account it superstition and Popery to say the Lords Prayer the Common Prayer the ordinary means of our salvation O blessed Iesus Hast not thou commanded us not to use vain repetitions But when we pray to pray thus Our Father c Dost not thou know what we want better than our selves and hast thou not prescribed us a set form of prayer to ask it with And shall we cast thy prayer behind our backs and presume to come before thee without it are we wiser than the Lord of life or is there any nearer way to Heaven than that which he hath taught us shall we present the Lord with our own husks and trample on the Manna which he hath prepared for us Is there any other spirit to teach us to pray than the Spirit of the Lord which taught us in his Gospel When we petition to any of our superiours on earth then we premeditate and cull out filed and curious words worthy of his personage But when we should pray to the Almighty then any thing which lyeth uppermost is shot out at him like water out of a squirt and what pleaseth our foolish phantasies that we pretend to be the Spirit of the Lord. O God arise vindicate thy own cause Let not the soul of thy Turtle Dove be given into the power of the wicked For how is the Mother reviled by her Children and it grieveth thy servants to see her stones lye in the dust But rege venienti hostes fugierunt It is Gods Steward otherwise called Stewart with must remedy all this He must turn our spears into pruning hooks and our swords into plow-shares and so consequently our sword-men into plow-men The love of his Subjects must be the Magazine of his Artillery and their Loyally and obedience must be their chiefest good and honour O fortunatos nimium sua sâ— bona norint O happy multitude if they did but know their summum bonum their chiefest good which is loyalty and due obedience to their Soveraign For he will not break the Charters of their Corporations nor invade their rights and liberties He will not distrain for excessive Taxes nor impose great burdens on his Subjects The Law shall be to him as the apple of his eye and the true Protestant Religion as his dearest heart Learning shall florish and the Vniversities shall not be destroyed He will not murder the Prophets nor massacre the Citizens before their own doors He will not contrive plots with his Impes and Emissaries to catch honest men with their estate Justice shall run down the streets like streams and peace shall make the Land flow with milk and honey Every man shall eat the fruits of his vineyard under his own vines and enjoy the presence of his family with the absence of a Souldier He will not build up his throne with bloud nor establish his royal state with lyes and dissembling Flatterers will he abandon from his Court and those who keep other mens estates
the due course of Law smote the Shepherd and so the sheep of the Protestant flock were all scattered abroad Bradshaw indeed that Pontius Pilate pressed the King very earnestly and by subtil and crafty inventions thought to have wrought upon the King to have submitted to their summa injuria their Arbitrary High Court of Injustice and pleaded So that his Example might have been urged as an irrefragable precedent against the lives and liberties of the whole Kingdome and that after ages might cite King Charles his case as an authority to kill Kings But the King foreseeing their delusive and abominable intentions rather than he would betray the lives and liberty of his free born subjects to the Arbitrary Lusts of these Tyrants told them of the great wickednesse they were about and shewed to his people how these Traitours endeavoured to inslave the whole Realm and so patiently suffered himself to be murdered dying a most true Martyr both for our Lawes and Religion but for plea he said nothing So Bradshaw more wicked than Pilate for instead of washing his hands he impudently bathed them in his Masters innocent blood gave the sentence of their wicked wills against him and delivered him over to the blood-thirsty to be crucified who spit upon him threw Tobacco pipes at him mocked him cryed out Away with him away with him Crucifie him Crucifie him cut off his Head with their wicked Engines and then cast lots for his Garments and Estate giving each Souldier a part But instead of writing over his head This is Charles the King of the Jews his true Title or rather the King of the Devils they writ over his head Exit Tyrannus Regum ultimus anno libertatis Angliae restitutae primo although in truth the best of Kings then went out and the greatest Tyranny under the Heavens then entred into our England comming far short of the Jews in all that is good but exceeding them in all wickednesse treachery perfidiousness and villany Now all this impious Council sought false witnesse against the King to put him to death but found none Therefore that they might do nothing without wickedness but proceed in all their Actions contrary almost to the very colour of Justice and make themselves the greatest and most illegal Tyrants that ever the world heard of they made themselves both Judges Jury Witness Party and Accuser in their own quarrel against the King For whereas by the Laws of the Land our gracious King alwayes made the Judges of the Land Arbitrators between his Subjects and himself in all cases from the lowest offence and trespass to the highest offence Crimen laesae Majestatis High Treason This Amalekite the House of Commons made part of themselves the Judges of the King who had committed the greatest Treason against the King and by the Laws of the Land deserved rather to hang at Tyburn than sit in the Chair of Justice likewise they made the Souldiers his Judges who professed themselves to be the Kings inveterate Enemies by their Remonstrances and Speeches and that they desired nothing more than his Blood and Life fought against him with their Guns and Swords Yet forsooth of this Hotchpotch of Traytors was their high Court of Justice made up Most of them being Collonels of the Army and other Souldiers who fought against him abroad and others Parliament men who conspired his ruine at home By the Laws of the Land it is a just exception to any Jury man who is to try the basest or poorest Felon and a legal challenge for which he must be withdrawn That he is a professed Enemy and Prosecutor who seeks his life and therefore no lawful nor indifferent tryer of him for it yet these bloody Butchers who professed themselves to be the Kings greatest Enemies and Prosecutors seeking after nothing so eagerly as the Kings life were both the Judges and Jury-men too to try the King Perjured O. Cromwell who then intended and afterwards effected to have the supreme power over these three Kingdoms was one of the Tryers to judge whether the King or himself with the rest of his brethren in iniquity deserved death and whether the King and his Royal Progeny ought not to be distroyed and Oliver and his stinking stock take possession O unparraleld lump of impiousness Aliquis non debet esse Judex in propria causà It is a Maxim in Law that no man ought to be Judge in his own cause Yet these villains made themselves the only Judge whether they committed Treason against the King or the King against them Nemo tenetur prodere seipsum No man is bound to accuse himself and it would have been a wonder indeed if these Rebels should have spoke the truth and said that they had committed high Treason against the King Therefore for fear the Law should punish them according to their deserts they thought good to prevent that mischief punish the King as they pleased according to their lusts And that they might make themselves the greatest Tyrants and the people the basest Slaves in the world they took upon them the Governing power which by Law only belongeth to the King 2. The Legislative power which likewise belongeth to the King with the concurrence of the upper and Lower House And 3. The Judicative power which belongeth to the Judges who are known Expositors and Dispencers of Law and Justice in all Causes brought before them So that these Trayterous Tyrants by their boundless and arbitrary wills put us to death when they please for what cause they please and take away our Estates when they see occasion And yet they have the impudence to tell us and many the sottishness to believe that the Parliament having the Supreme power doth all these villanies by Law O Abominable How these Tyrants mock the people with the name of a Parliament the Parliament consisteth of the King the head and about 600 of his Subjects and there were not above 50 or 60 of the Parliament who caused the King to be murthered and ruined his people yet these Schismaticks call themselves a Parliament and so having nothing good but their name Tyrannize over us They may as well say that the parings of the nailes of the toes are the whole man and have the power of all the other members as say that they are the Parliament or have any lawfull power they being nothing but the dregs and lees of the inferiour House from whom we must never expect any thing pleasing to any honest mans palate If the Parliament had power to depose the King yet what power can these few Gaol-Birds have who are scarce the tenth part of the Parliament and no Representatives of the People but only of their own Devilish ambitions By what authority do these Ignes fatui abolish Kingship and the House of Lords as dangedangerous and useless which all our Ancestors have found most profitable and glorious for our Kingdom These Currs have several times been kicked out of
the power which they then and now exercise over these three Kingdoms is unjust and Tyrannical because not derived from the People There are no Representatives amongst them for Scotland nor Ireland nor the greatest part of England neither did they ever receive any power at all from the People of either England Scotland or Ireland and now all the People publiquely declare against them as the greatest Usurpers and Tyrants in the world yet contrary to all the Peoples wills they sit and Rule and will admit of no Member of the Peoples chusing to come amongst them unless they first qualifie and fit him for their own purpose therefore it plainly appeareth that this Vote that the People had the supreme power under God was but a meer juggle to gull the people and to bring their wicked designs to passe So that as A whip for the Horse or a bridle for the Asse have the People made of this quondam Parliament a rod for their fools-backs Pro. 26.3 The King being murthered by these Tyrants and all our Laws and Religion totally subverted a time wherin every one did what was right in his own eys Oliver Cromwel who for his excellency in wickedness and villanies was made General of the long called Parliaments unjust Forces the twentieth of April 1653. entred the House attended with some of the chief Commanders of his Army and delivering his reasons to them in a Speech why he came to put a period to their siting as judging it a thing much conducing to the publick wellfare of the Nation dissolved them And why might not he turn out them by force who by force had already turned out the King Lords and all the Commons besides themselves Surely if he had taken and hanged them all it would have been a glorious Act pleasing to God and the whole people and a Cordial to heal the miseries of our long-distressed Nation But his ambition was to make himself Great not to give relief and take away the Tyranny therfore he summoned a certain select number of his own creatures to appear at Westminster on the fourth of July next which he called a Parliament and none could deny but that they had the Soveraign power because Cromwel said so yet not so but that he made them resign up their power to him and make him the Lord protect us Lord Protector not a King because a King might do nothing but by Law but the Protector did nothing but according to his will and pleasure yet in this were we happy that in his reign one Tyrant Lorded it over us but in the long Parliaments many It is worth the observation that notwithstanding a Parliament had newly abrogated the very name and being of a King as dangerous and burthensom to the Common-wealth yet a Parliament summoned by Cromwel in July 1656. to meet on the 17 of September Petitioned and made many humble addresses to Cromwel that he would take Kingship upon him and be anointed King which old Nolls mouth watered at yet because some things did not fall out according to his expectation he declined it and refused to be what he eagerly though not openly persued Cromwel likewise created a House of Lords which was called the other House but the high aspiring thoughts of this turbulent Scorpion were at length blown down and extinguished by a high and mighty wondrous and unparalleld wind which out raunted Old Nol and whirried his black Soul down ad inferos So that after this storm we had a Calm and as the Sheep are at quiet ease when the bloody Woolf forsakes them so the People did rejoice and solace their hearts when this Tyrant made his Exit yet no sooner were we rid of this crafty Knave the Father but we were troubled with a simple Fool his Son Richard his eldest Son was proclamed by the new Courtiers and Army-Officers Lord Protector of England Scotland and Ireland and so tumble down Dick thought to have risen and Reigned in his Fathers room But a Fools bolt is soon shot Richard was quickly up quickly down No sooner had he called a Parliament but the Souldiers who feared that his Parliament should be honest and disband them as the only instruments to execute all Villanies went to the Mushroom Protector and by dnresse made him dissolve the Parliament and divest himself of all his Power and Authority And in this respect it is better to be a Knave than a Fool For crafty Noll kept the rude Souldiers in due obedience But simple Dick let them be his Masters whereas he might easily have made them and the whole people have been his Servants to this day When Richard was dismounted the Souldiers could not well tell where to hang the Government to secure them in their Rebellion and Roguery At last they pitcht upon the old rotten Rump viz. the fagg end of a worn-out perjured Parliament who had formerly dissolved themselves witnesse the Entry in their own Journal Book April 20.1653 although they pretend to be interrupted by Cromwells force So these Knaves the worst of Tyrants cemented together again like a Snakes tail and for colour called themselves the Revivers of the Good Old Cause and were as busie as if they had had another King and 3. Kingdoms to destroy So these infamous wicked Traytors returned to their wickedness as a Dog to his vomit to the great grief and grievance of all sorts of People in the Land who groaned and murmâ—red as if they were entering into a far worse than Egyptian bondage and Slavery under these task-masters To say that the people not they had the Soveraign power was now high Treason although they themselves had voted so formerly and to talk of a Free Parliament the antient birthright of the people as they themselves likewise formerly affirmed was now made a greater offence than Crimen lae sae Majestatis These Custodes filled all the Prisons in the Kingdom with those persons who desited a Free Parliament and in that respect they may be called The Keepers of our Liberty as Gaolers do Thieves in Chains or as the Cage doth Birds in grates For they keep us so much from our Free Liberty to do well that they will not so much as give us leave to speak or think well But there is no peace with the wicked when these Tyrants had beaten down Sir George Booth and other Assertors of a Free Parliament and made themselves as secure as Force and Violence could make them One Lambert a Chip of the old Block newly made General of their Forces displaced the Rump and with his Souldiers inhibited their usuped sitting which made the whole people not only rejoyce inwardly but break out in open laughter for joy But nullum commodum sine incommodo there is no pleasure without a displeasure No sooner did the Rump leave riding of us but up gets the Committee of Safety into the Saddle who made account that they were so absolutely our Masters as
be chased away as a vision of the night The eye also which saw him shall see him no more neither shall his place any more behold him because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor because he hath violently taken away an house which he builded not Job 20. ENGLANDS REDEMPTION OR The Peoples rejoicing for their great deliverance from the Tyranny of the long called Parliament and their growing hopes for the restauration of Charls the second whose absence hath been the cause of all our miseries whose presence will be the cause of all our happinesse The prosperity of Rebels and Traytors is but momentary As Monarchy is the best of all Governments so the Monarchy of England is the best of all Monarchies Therfore God save King Charls the second and grant that the proud Presbyterians do not strive to make themselves Kings over him as they did over his Father by straining from him Antimonarchical Concessions and by Covenanting to extirpate his Bishops c. that they might set up themselves which was the primary cause of our late unnatural and inhumane wars Mr. Prynne commended Episcopacy is the best form of Church Government The Votes of the Clergy in Parliament The Arrogance of the Presbyterian faction who stand upon their Terms with Princes and make Kings bend unto them as unto the Pope OH the inscrutable judgments of God! Oh the wonderful mercy of the Almighty Oh â—he Justice of our Jehovah No sooner had I written these last words of the momentary prosperity of the wicked out immediately the same hour news was brought me that General Monck and the City were agreeed and resolved to declare for a free Parliament and decline the Rump Obstupui stetteruntque comae vox faucibus haesit I was strucken with amazement joy made me tremble and the goodnesse of the news would scarce permit me to believe it when I considered the crying sins of our Nation which deserved showers of vengeance not such sprinklings of mercy then all such conceipts seemed to me as vain and empty delusions but when I considered the infinite mercy of the Almighty then why might not God spare our Nineveh and send joyfull tydings into our discorsolate City Surely his mercies are greater than our great Sins Therefore to resolve this doubt I went up into the City where instead of Tears as formerly I had like to have been drowned with the Streams of joy and rejoycing The Bell rung merrily the Streets were paved with mirth and every house resounded with joyful acclamations I had do need then to ask whether the newâ— I heard in my Chamber were true or no both Men Women and Children Old and Young Rich and Poor all sung forth the destruction oâ— the Long called Parliament the whole City was as it were on fire with Bonfires for joy And now those who formerly threatned the firing of the City were burnt at every door for all the people cryed out let us Burn the Rump let us roast the Rump A suddain change History cannot tell us of its parallel No lesse than thirty eight Bonfires were made between Pleet-Conduit and Temple-Barre To be short there was scarce so much as one Alley in the whole City wherein there were not many Bonfires so that so great and general joyfulnesse never entred into the Walls of the City since it was built neither will again untill Charls the second be restored to his Crown The hopes whereof only caused the fervency of those joyes The Pulpits on the morrow being Sunday and all the Churches ecchoed forth Praises and Thanks to God and private devotion was not wanting neither was this joy confined only within the walls of the City but being a publique mischief was removed a publique rejoycing overspread the whole Kingdom and all the people with one heart and voyce shouted clapped hands and poured out joyful thanks for this great deliverance So the wearyed Hare is delighted and cheereth her self when she hath shook off the bloody Hounds and so a Flock of Sheep are at rest and ease when the Ravenous Wolves have newly left them Oh therefore let our distracted England be a warnin-gpiece to all Nations that they never attempt to Try and Judge their King for what cause soever And let all Traytors and Tyrants in the World learn by the example of our English Rebels that their Prosperity and Dominion though it seemeth never so perpetual is but momentary and as the wind which no man seeth For who so much applauded and look'd upon as the Long Parliament when they first took upon then to correct and question the King and who now so Ridiculous and Scorned They were them admired by the People as the Patrons Vindicators Redeemers and Keepers of their Liberty Nay I may most truly say that the people did worship and adore them more than they did God But now although they were as wicked then and did as much destroy our Laws and Liberties as they do now they are become a by-word the Scorn and Derision both of Men Women and Children and hooted at by every one as the greatest and most shameful laughing-stock in the World Who then can think upon our late most graciour King Charls the Martyr without Tears in his Eyes and contrition in his heart who can remember his patient Suffrings without Amazement and mourning who can look upon his Prophetical and Incomparable Book without Admiration and Weeping Rejoycings especially upon that Text in the 26 Chapter of his book viz. Vulgar complyance with any illegal and extravagant wayes like violent motions in nature soon grows weary of it self and ends in a refractory sullennesse Peoples rebounds are oft in their faces who first put them upon those violent strokes This needs no Commentary for every one knoweth with what zeal the Rabel of the people did at first stick to the Trayterous House of Commons in their Grand Rebellion and how they are now weary of them and with refractory sullennesse rise up against them and are ready to fly in their Faces who first taught them to Rebel and fight against their King Nay the Apprentices of London whom formerly these Rebels made instrumental to carry on their wicked designs against the King are now most vehement against them For why a noysome House is most obnoxious to the nearest Neigbours and the stinking House of Commons that sentina malorum doth most annoy this neighbouring City It is the nature of foxes to prey furthest from their holes but these unnatural foxes in sheeps clothing make all their prey both at home and abroad All is fish which comes to their net And that these Rebels may still have freedom to persevere in their villanies they cry up a free-State as the best of all Governments yet mark the nature of the beast a free-State say they is most beneficial for the people yet not so free but that they may and will qualifie and engage the persons chosen by the people according to