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
non usu valet argumentum But they all unanimously resolve and report the contrary Reader I Would not have thee imagine as some men through malice or ignorance do most impudently assert that when we say The King is absolute and above the Law that thereby is intended that the King is freed from and hath power to act against Gods Laws when he pleaseth No this is but their false glosse and interpretation For non est potentia nisi ad bonum hability and power is not but to good There is no power but what is from God and therefore no mortal man can have a power to act against God To sin and break Gods commandements is impotency and weakness no power For the Angels which are established in glory do far excel men in power yet they cannot sin The Law of God is above the King and he is bound to God to keep it yet neverthelesse he is an absolute King over men because God hath given him the Supreme power over them and hath given no power to men to correct him if he transgresse But God only whose Law only he can transgresse can call the King to an account Hoc unum Rex potest facere quod non potest injuste agere the King only is able not to do unjustly is a rule in Commonlaw and the reason is because the people do not give Laws to the King but the King only giveth Laws to the people as all our Statutes and Perpetual experience hath taught us Therefore how can the King offend against the Laws of the people or be obnoxious to them when they never gave him any Laws to keep or transgresse and then how can the people punish him who never offended their Laws Therefore the King must needs be absolute over the people and only bound to God not to the people to keep those Laws which God not the people gave him and as God is above the Laws and may alter them at his pleasure which he gave and set over the king so is the King above and may alter at his pleasure those laws which at his pleasure he gave set over the people still observing that he is free from all Laws quo ad coactionem in respect of any coaction from the people but not quo ad obligationem in respect of obedience to God by his obligation Therfore well might Solomon counsel us to keep the Kings commandement saying Eccles 8.2 I counsel thee to keep the Kings Commandement 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 Where the word of a King is there is power and who may say unto him what dâ—st thou These words are the words of God which King Solomon did speak by infusion of the Spirit In which you may see that the King doth what he pleaseth And we are commanded not to stand in an evil thing that is according to Iunius and Tremel translation perturbatione rebellione quae tibi malum allatura esset ageret tecum arbitratu suo sive jure sive injuria We must not murmur and rebel against the King though he deal with us unjustly He may be just when we think he is unjust The Kings heart is in the hands of God the searcher of all hearts as the Rivers of Water not in the hands of the people Therefore God not the people can turn it whether soever he will Prov. 21.1 King David was filius Dei non populi The Son of God not of the People Psalm 89.26 It was God who made him higher than the Kings of the Earth verse 27. not the People He was neither chosen of the People nor exalted of the People For I have exalted one chosen out of the people saith God verse 19. The exaltation was Gods and the choice not of but out of the people For I have found David my Servant with my holy oil have I anointed him saith God verse 20 Kings are the Children of the most high not of the people Psalm 82. Therefore who can say unto the King what dost thou If the people of England have power to depose and make Kings Why are they usurpers who by the power of the people destroy the lawfull King as did Richard the third and by the consent of the people established himself in the Government They are Kings de facto but not de jure as all our Books agree For the people have not the Soveraignty but the King Surely the people of England thought so when by act of Parliament they ordained that none should be capable to sit in Parliament before they had Sworn it vide 1 Eliz. 1.5 Eliz. 1.1 Jac. 1. And I am sure that the breaking of the Oath can give the Parliament no new Authority It is declared by the Lords and Commons in full Parliament rot Par. 42 E. 3. nu 7. Lex consuetudo Parliamenti 4 Inst 14. upon demand made of them on the behalf of the King that they could not assent to any thing in Parliament that tended to the disherison of the King and his Crown whereunto they were Sworn And it is strange to think that the House of Commons which is but the tail of a Parliament should have that power which both Lords and Commons had not But since there can be no Parliament without the King 4 Inst 1 2.341.356 We may conclude that these men being Traytors Rebels and Tyrants will take upon them to do any thing Defensive War against the King is illegal or the Great question made by Rebels with honest men no question Whether the people for any cause though the King act most wickedly may take up arms against their Soveraign or any other way by force or craft call him in question for his actions Resolved and proved by the Law of God the Law of Nations the Law of Nature the Laws of the Realm by the rules of all Honesty Equity Conscience Religion and Piety by the Example and Doctrine of our Saviour Christ all the Prophets Apostles Fathers of the Church and all pious Saints and holy Martyrs That the peoplâ— can have no cause either for Religion or Laws or what thing soever to levy War against the King much lesse to murther him proved in Adam The manner of the Government of the King Gods Steward and Stewart when he cometh described The Bishops Lords Prayer and Common Prayer Book must then be restored with their excellencies now abused He will lay down his life before he will betray his trust and give his account to any but God as did our last great Stewart his Father The blessednesse of the people when the King shall come and rule over them declared his Majesty The Christians duty towards their King laid open and warranted by the Death and Sufferings of Christ and multitudes oâ— Christians The madnesse of the people in casting oâ— the Government of a gracious King and submitting
will he banish from his Realm But suppose that he should eat of the forbidden fruit do what was right in his own eyes and evil in the Lords To whom shall this great Steward give an account shall he give his account to the Inferiour servants of his Lord That would be an audacious and wicked attempt of them A high prejudice to the Lord and a great dishonesty and disgrace to the Steward in his Office For the Lord would be extremely offended The Inferiour servants severely punished for exacting an account which only belonged to their Lord And the Steward would be dismissed of his Stewardship as dishonest and unfaithful Therefore every just and pious Steward will dye before he will so much wrong his Lord and Master of his right as to give an account of his Stewardship to them to whom it doth not belong and although they are so unjust and dishonest to require it yet he will give them his life before he will be corrupted For he is accountable to none but unto the Lord who will require it as his due For the Lord called unto Adam and said unto him where art thou And he said I heard thy voyce in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid my self But what is this all Must the King give an account only of himself No he must answer for his subjects too Of him to whom much is given much shall be required For Adam said The woman whom thou gavest to be with me she gave me of the tree and I did eat Where note that the subject may cause the Soveraign to sin and the sin of the subjects often times pulleth down judgments on their Soveraigns head aswell as on their own and the King must be their Accomptant Eve first sinned But Adam must be first called in question Yet he was a King and therefore none must call him in question but God who only was his Superiour But when Adam fell did not his Soveraignty fall with him No Adam was a King after his fall and had his Soveraignty confirmed to him by God for ever For Gen. 3.16 And thy desire shall be to thy Husband and he shall rule over thee so that Adam did still retain his superiority But was not this Soveraignty personally fixed in Adam and so dyed with him No God did declare it transmissible from Adam to the first born For Gen. 4.7 God said to Cain the first born speaking of his younger brother Abel sub te erit appetitus ejus dominaberis ei Unto thee shall be his desire and thou shalt rule over him So that from Adam it doth appear 1. That Kings are ordained by God not by the people 2. That God gave them their regal power 3. That that power is above the laws 4. That they have no Superiours but God And 5. That God only hath power to call them in question and punish them if they offend For Crimine ab uno Disce omnes From that one great offence which Adam the King committed and was not accountable neither did he account with any but with God leaâ—n all that the King cannot commit any offence so great as to give his Subjects just cause to call him in question or to take up arms and with force to resist him Which I shall prove with luculent authorities and pregnant examples both human and divine I think it is received by all for a truth That the King is Pater Patriae the Father of his Country Maritus Reip the Husband of the Commonwealth and Dominus Subditorum the Master of his Subjects I remember that Roffensis de potestate Papae asketh this Question An potestas Adami in filios ac nepotes adeoque omnes ubique homines ex consensu filiorum ac nepotum dependet an à solo Deo ac natura profluit Whether the power of Adam over his Children and nephews and so over all the men in the world doth depend on their consent or whether it doth not flow from God and Nature I have already made it clear that his power doth not depend on their will and consent but is instituted by God and Nature If so then I ask this Question Whether the sons of Adam have any power either from God or Nature violently to resist and oppose the King their Father Which Question I conceive may be as truly resolved that they have not For first there is nothing so fairly written and so deeply impress'd in Nature as Obedience You may see it in every creature every brute beast will teach you the obedience due from children to their parents and the soveraignty of the parents over their children Vipers indeed will destroy their parent but it is a monster in Nature and therefore not imitable by any but those of a viperous brood Behold the natural love and obedience of the pious Storks towards their parents who feed their feeble and impotent parents when they are old as they fed them being young And lest Obedience should lose a reward the Aeâ—yptians so esteemed this bird that they laid a great penalty on him that should kill it You may read of many beasts and fowls that with bloudie strokes will beat away and banish their young from them But so great is the natural love allegeance of their young that as if it had been high-treason for them so to doe they will not so much as resist their parents but flie from them teaching every subject his true obedience towards his Soveraign and that in this case only when the Soveraign would unjustly punish him it is most honourable and the greatest argument of a valiant man to run away Would not it be a most hideous and detestable thing for a son to murder his own Father Nay suppose the Father should draw his sword at his Son would that be a just ground for him presently to run in upon his Father and stab him surely I think every mans nature will teach him to speak better things than these and to be so far from approving it that he will account nothing more horrible and worthie of so much punishment Pater quamvis legum contemptor quamvis impius sit tamen pater est Patri vel matri nullo modo contradicere debemus dicant faciant quae volunt saith Origenes We ought to contradict our Father or Mother by no means let them say or doe what they please for be they good or bad they are our Father and Mother But behold a greater than thy Father is here It is thy King whose Sword commandeth fear whose Crown importeth honour whose Scepter requireth obedience whose Throne exacteth reverence whose Person is sacred his Function divine and his Royal Charge calleth for all our praiers O quam te mâ—morem virgo namoue haud tibi vultus Mortalis nec vox hominem sonat O Dea certe O King with what terms of honour shall I style thee Is it lawfull to call thee a Man The
nisi qui se pronunciavit esse justitiam If any of us offend the King thou mayest correct us but if thou shalt exceed who shall correct thee we may speak unto thee and if thou wilt thou mayest hear us But if thou wilt not none can condemn thee but he who is Justice it self Therefore every one should endeavour to be that true obedient described by St. Bernard Verus Obediens non attendit quale sit quod praecipitur hoc solo contentus quia praecipitur He that is truly obedient regardeth not what is commanded being content only with this that it is commanded We should be as diligent to obey and preserve our King as the apple our eye and take asmuch delight in him as we do in the light for he is worth ten thousand of us Therefore the Israelites would not let David their King adventure himself in the war against his rebellious Son and their reason was Thou art worth ten thousand of us so in the war against the Philistines They swear Thou shalt no more go out with us because they esteemed him as the light of the Kingdom and say 2 Sam. 18.31 That thou quench not the light of Israel if he should miscarry they accounted themselves to be but in darkeness And if we were true Israelites indeed in whom there was no guile we should have the same estimation of our dread Soveraign nulli pietate secundus who is a second David But suppose he was as he is not a Tyrant were it not better for us to serve one hard yet honourable Master than a hundred domineering yet base â—red Tyrants Si pereo manibus hominum periisse juâ—abit If we must be killed and made slaves of let the King who is our superiour do it and not our servants who have no greater pedigree than anâ—ient servants and no other cause of their promotion than their wickedness Praestat timere unum â—uam multos It is better to fear one than many Better one woolf than many to put our lives in continual hazard It is a Maxime in Law that the King shall have the estates and protection of their persons who are non compos mentis Ideots c. May not the King then justly and with good title by this rule challenge both our estates and our persons Surely he may for if we were not worse than mad men and fools we should never expel a gracious and merciful Soveraign and subject our selves to a company of the Lord knows what A monster without head or tayl more wonderful than Chimaera they would and they would not they themselves cannot tell what to make of themselves neither can any man tell where to have them like empty clouds and foggy mists they are blown about with every winde But it is to be feared that the Devil will catch them at the long run who now drink bloud like sponges and only know how to be wicked oppressing both Law and Religion Did the King demand Ship-mony as by the Law in extraordinary cases he might and was he condemned and vilifyed as unjust and a breaker of the peoples liberty What are they then who against all Law and Equity take away all that we have only to satisfy their own ambitions Atheistical appetites and to maintain themselves in their most wicked devillish and incomparable villanies Did the King demand five treacherous Members of the Parliament whom the Law would have condemned guilty of high Treason And was he adjudged an Enemy to Parliaments and an Infringer of their freedoms What are they then to be adjudged who do what they list hang or draw our Members and persons and play with Parliaments as Children do with Rattles or as Butchers their slaughtering axes throw them away when they have done with them and dismount and thrust out that * what do you call it * Quondam Parl. which first gave them their being O viperous brood who destroy that viper which ingendred them But since by the Law of the Land Mad men shall not be punished for committing of Felony or Murther Lest we being mad-men and fools as I have said before should murther our King and think to excuse our selves by pleading non compos mentis Let me tell you that though one that is not of his right mind shall not be punished if he commit Felony Murther petite Treason c. Yet if he kill or offer to kill the King it is high Treason and he shall suffer punishment as other Traytors ought to do let Cook the Oracle of the Law give the reason li. 4. fo 124. Car le Roy Est Caput salus Reipublicae a Capite bona valetudo transit in omnes pur cest cause lour persons sont cy sacred que nul doit a eux offer violence mes il est Reus criminis laesae Majestatis pereat unus ne pereant omnes For the King is the head saith he health of the Commonwealth upon whom the safety of all doth depend and for this cause the Kings person is so sacred that no man can offer violence to the King but he is guilty of high Treason for which he shall die For it is better that one perish than all And since it lyeth in my way this will I speak for the credit of the Common laws of our Realm That though the Law of God the Civil Law and all other Laws do as it were strive to excel each other in maintaining and defending the Prerogative of Kings yet doth not our Common Law which is founded on the Law of God come behind any of them For I should want words to expresse and Paper to contain the many privileges and just immunities which the Law giveth its Soveraign the King and if the Judges had been as just to execute the Law as Dunn the Hangman is The head and feet had still injoyed their proper Functions and there would as there ought still have been a difference betwixt the Servant and the Master the Subject and the Soveraign But silent leges inter arma our law-books like broken Vessels are laid aside and our Laws like Cobwebs are not taken notice of except it be to wipe sweep them away that the Corruption of one thing is the perfection of another is a rule in Philosophy And do not the Sophistical Philosophers of our times prove and approve this rule by practice who perfect themselves by the ruine of the Laws The Sword is their pruning-hook by which they lop others to make themselves grow the better they bait all their designs with Liberty and Rellgion and so catch the people into Hell when they think to go to Heaven The principal end of Government is the advancement of Godâ— honour but these men make the safety of the people the sole and only end of Government only that they might murther their King the Shepheard make a prey of the sheep his subjects and so feed the cruel appetite of themselves the
own stipendaries and cast out of the pack as an unprofitable Member He incouraged the Souldiers to fight against the King dedicated his Volumes to their chief Commanders loaded them with high Commendations and incomparable praises and made them believe that they could do God no better service than to go on vigorously in their Rebellion So that it may be truly said that his paper pellets did more harm than the roaring Guns or cutting Swords He laboured night and day to glorifie and vindicate the Parliament in their wicked proceedings at home and as his books will manifest he spared many hours from his natural rest to promote the unnatural Warrs abroad Yet now nec invideo he prosecuteth them with reproaches as much as he did then with praises himself being become hatefull to them all verifying the Proverb of Solomon cap. 24.24 He that saith unto the wicked thou art righteous him shall the people curse Nations shall abhorre him Therefore I once more advise him as a friend to write a book of Retractations The Lord be merciful unto us the men of our times would make one believe that there never was a King in the World Nay they would seem to make the Kings so highly esteemed of by God all the Prophets and Apostles in Scripture but meer white walls the empty shadows of the people and the Bible but a bundle of Fables as if God never took no more notice of a King than of an ordinary Porter How Judas sirnamed the Long Parliament betrayed and murthered Charles the first The best of all Kings and contrary to all Law and Religion and the common interest of the people Banish Charles the 2d our only lawful King and Governour The mystery of their iniquity laid open and that they are the greatest and most wicked Tyrants that ever dwelt upon the face of the Earth and the Child which is unborn will rue the day of their untimely birth Of what persons a Parliament consisteth No Parliament without the King The Original institution of Parliaments and that the House of Commons which now make themselves Kings over King and people were but as of yesterday have no legal power but what is derived from the King and never were intrusted with any power from the people much lesse with the Soveraignty which they now Tyrannically usurpe The Kings Soveraignty over Parliament and people copiously proved King Charles his Title to the Crown of England To him only belongeth the Militia the power of chusing Judges Privy Counsellors and other great Officers c. He is head in Ecclesiastical causes and our sole Legislator Our Ancestors alwayes found and accounted Monarchy to be the best of Governments and most profitable for us yet these 40 or 50. Tyrants contrary to all Antiquity and common sense and feeling sit and vote Monarchy dangerous and burthensome That all persons put to death since the murther of Charles the Martyr by the power of our new States-men have been murthered and their Judges Murtherers and so it will continue until they receive their power and authority from Charles the 2d and that we shall never enjoy peace or plenty until our King be restored to his Kingdoms which a pack of Tyrants and Traytors not the People keep from him How the Law abhorreth to offer violence to the King and how these Rebels transgresse all Laws both of God and Man to uphold themselves in their unparallel'd Villanies A History which commandeth the serious contemplation of our age and worthy of the observation of all the people in the World and of all future Generations not that they might imitate but detest and loath these Perfidious and Rebellious transactions Perlege deinde scies HAving sufficiently prov'd out of our Law books that by the Common Law of the Realm the King hath the Soveraign power over Parliament and People and ought not to be questioned for his actions by any of his Subjects taken either distributively or collectively in one intire body because he hath no Superiour on Earth but God Almighty Let us now take a brief view of the Statutes and Acts of Parliament which have from Age to Age confirmed what I have said as an undoubted inviolable and indisputable truth And since there are those amongst us who talk much of a power in the Parliament as they call the two Houses which they pretend to be above and Superiour to the King Let us examine what this high and mighty Creature is whence and when it had its original what is its true natural and legal power and of what persons it doth consist The Kings high Court of Parliament consisteth of the Kings Majesty sitting there as in his Royal politick capacity and of the three Estates of the Realm viz. 1 Of the Lords spiritual Arch-Bishops and Bishops being in number 24 who sit there by succession in respect of their Counties or Baronies parcell of their Bishopricks which they hold also in their politick capacity 2. The Lords temporal Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts and Barons who sit there by reason of their Dignities which they hold by descent or creation being in number 106. And every one of these when the King vouchsafeth to hold a Parliament hath a Writ of Summons The third Estate is the Commons of the Realm which are divided into three parts viz. into Knights of Shires or Counties Citizens out of Cities and Burgesses out of Borroughs All which the King commandeth his Sheriffs to cause to come to his Parliament being respectively Elected by the Shires or Counties Cities and Burroughs and in number 493. It is called Parliament because every Member of the Court should sincerely and discreetly Parler la ment for the general good of the Common-wealth This Court of Parliament is the most high and absolute the supremest and most antient in the Realm it Maketh Enlargeth Diminisheth Abrogateth Repealeth and Reviveth Laws Statutes Acts and Ordinances concerning matters Ecclesiastical Capital Criminal Common Civil Martial Maritine c. to be short so transcendent is the power and jurisdiction of the Parliament as it cannot be confined either for Causes or Persons within any bounds Of this Court it is truly said Si antiquitatem spectes est vetustissima si dignitatem est honoratissima si jurisdictionem est capacissima Yet notwithstanding this Almighty power as I may say of the Parliament do but cut off the Kings head or any ways take away the King and it is nothing Then a petty Court of Pypowders hath more power and jurisdiction than that The King is the Soul of the Parliament and without him it is but Putre Cadaver a stinking Carcasse for as my Lord Coke observeth of this Court the King is Caput principium et finis And it is a baser and more odious part then the Rump of a Parliament which wanteth all these and as in a natural body when all the Sinews being joyned in the head do joyn their forces together for the strengthening of the body
being done he implores the Gods that his Sons faults might be forgiven for he knew that it was his ignorance that made him so audacious and that at last though too late he would repent it Royal Phoebus likewise prayed that fortune would be more charitable to his hare-brained Son than he was to himself And so with this farewell ascended up into Heaven Inter utrumque tene fortunae caetera mando Quae juvet melius quam tu tibi consulat opto In medio tutissimus ibis Between these drive The rest I leave to fate Who better prove than thou to thy own state A lofty course will Heaven with fire infest A lowly earth the safer mean is best Mourning succeedeth rejoycing many a Sunshiny morning proveth a wet day The Bee carryeth hony in her mouth but a sting in her tail And those things which seem glorious at the first approach do many times prove fatal in the end Horace Quid quisque vitet nunquam homini satis Cautum est in horas Navita Bosphorum Paenus perhorrescit neque ultra Caeca timet aliunde fata Miles sagittas celerem fugam Parthi catenas Parthus Italum Robur Sed improvisa lethi Vis rapuit rapietque gentes No man knows truely what to shun The Punick Seaman fears to run Upon some shelf but doth not dread Another fate over his head The Souldier shafts and Parthian sight The Parthian Chains and Roman might But death had and still will have A thousand backwayes to the grave No sooner had this unhappy Lad obtained his pleasing wish and took the Princely reigns of his Fathers Chariot into his youthfull hands but that he was made sensible of his unadvised temerity Sed leve pondus erat nec quod cognoscere possent Solis equi solitaque jugum gravitate carebat Quod simul ac sensere ruunt tutumque relinquunt Quadrijugi spatium nec quo prius ordine currunt Ipse pavet nec qua commissas flectat habenas Nec scit quà sit iter nec si sciat imperet illis But Phoebus Horses could not feel the fraight The Chariot wanted the accustom'd waight Which when they found the beaten path they shun And straggling out of all subjection run He knows not how to turn nor knows the way Or had he known yet would not they obey When the Horses perceived that their Royal Master was gone and that the Government wanted that regal dignity and weighty Majesty which was wont to awe them they did what and run which way they pleased All of them thinking that as they had more power so they had as much right to be Governours as the raw Statesman who was newly mounted on the Kingly Chariot Which made young Phaeton that he could not tell how to rule neither could they tell how to obey So that that which even now was the object of his desire and greatest cause of his admiration is now become the greatest cause of his misery Now his Fathers instructions like the waters of Tantalus seem sweet but not to be tasted by his palate His preferment is now his greatest torment and by how much the higher he is exalted so much the greater is his punishment Vt vero terras despexit ab aethere summo Infoelix Phaeton penitus penitusque jacentes Palluit subito genua intremuere timore Suntque oculis tenebrae per tantum lumen abortae Et jam mallet equos nunquam tetigisse paternos Jam cognosse genus piget valuisse rogando Jam Meropis dici cupiens Ita fertur ut acta Praecipiti pinus Boreâ cui cuncta remisit Frena suus Rector quam diis votisque reliquit But when from top of all the arched skye Unhappy Phaeton the Earth did eye Pale sudden fear un-nerves his quaking thighes And in so great a light be-nights his eyes He wisht those steeds unknown unknown his birth His suites ungranted now he covets earth Now scorns not to be held of Merops blood Rapt as a ship upon the high-wrought flood By salvage tempests chac'd which in dispair The Pilot leaveth to the Gods and prayer Now he doth not only wish that he had never usurped his Fathers Government but that he had never known his Father He now wisheth that the King had his own again which he through foolishness had deprived him of He wisheth that he had still been a subject to his royal Fathers desires it repents him of his ill-got honour For why he seeth the Chariot wanting its lawfull Soveraign tossed about like a ship with tempests and with the rough waves in the Ocean whose Pilot hath left it and there is no means but prayers to the Gods to save it The Horses rage every one ruling and furiously drawing which way he pleaseth and so through the multitude of lawless Governours the whole Government is like to fall to the ground and bring destruction to all Quidque agat ignarus stupet nec fraena remittit Nec retinere valet nec nomina novit equorum Expatiuntur equi nulloque inhibente per auras Ignotae regionis eunt quaque impetus egit Hac sine lege ruunt Through ignorance he cannot hold the reigns Nor let them go nor knows his Horses names Who like the winds or tempests furiously With uncontrouled error scour the skye Through unknown airy regions and tread The way which their disordered fury led Amazement struck him dumb and what to do â—he is altogether ignorant He wanteth the courage years and wisdome of his Father to curb the unbridled lust of the fiery steeds and the Chariot wanted its wonted ballance He cannot go back neither knoweth he how to go forward He is gone so far that he cannot resign up the Government to the King neither knoweth he how to keep it himself He now findeth that it is better to be a poor subject than a rich usurper The Horses being lawless run whither their violence doth whirry them and he not being their rightfull owner hath no law to guide them O the deplorable condition of that Government where the true Soveraign is an Exul Not only Phaeton but the whole world had like to have been consumed by this Disaster Dissilit omne solum penetratque in tartara rimis Lumen infernum terret cum conjuge regem Et mare contrahitur siccaeque est campus arenae Quod modo pontus erat quoque altum texerat aequor Existunt montes sparsas Cycladas augent Earth Cracks to Hell the hated light descends And frighted Pluto with his Queen offends The Ocean shrinks and leaves a field of sand Where new discover'd Rocks and Mountains stand The Earth groaned and the news of this usurpation was carried down to Hell Which the Devills had no sooner heard but Pluto himself his Wife and all the rest tremble through fear For Pluto thought that those who had dethroned Phoebus might likewise be wicked enough to dethrone him wrest the Government of his Kingdom out
Thou hast let fall a Snake out of thy hands take heed thou take it not up again O happy loss whereby thou hast saved thy soul vengeance belongeth unto God Forgiveness unto thee if thou intendest to be forgiven From this lost occasion take occasion never to have such an occasion of revenge to lose Hath thy friend forsaken thee Better he forsake thee than thee him for then thou hadst been guilty of his fault The loss of his friendship perhaps may make thee seek after Gods friendship which if thou finde thou hast made a good exchange Do thy people hate thee their Soveraign This beast is prompt to injury and slow to duty The Commons love is light and their hatred heavy There is nothing more forcible than the multitude of fools whereas publique fury pricketh forth the rage of every private person and the rage of every private person kindleth the publique frantickness and one of them enforceth another Beware there is nothing more dangerous than to fall into their hands whose will standeth for law and headlong outrage for discretion Art thou contemned Inferiours contemn their superiours thinking by casting dirt upon them they beautify themselves and some men have no other way to patch up their own credits than by picking holes in the credit of others If it be justly thou hast cause I confess to be sorry notwithstanding thou must endure it but if unjustly thou mayst laugh at it For there is nothing more ridiculous nor that hapneth more commonly than for a wise man to be contemned of mad men Dost thou complain that promisses made unto thee are late in performance words are cheaper than deeds Hence learn punctually to perform thy promisses to others nothing more debaseth a gift than an hard graunt and a slow performance bis dat qui cito dat Art thou subject to a Tyrant Thou fearest one he fears many God suffereth him like Pharaoh to scourge thee for thy instruction but for his perdition when he hath done he will burn the rod. Iniqua nunquam regna perpetuo manent Hast thou an unruly proud scholar Pride is an enemy to learning Whip out his arrogance o◠else for wit there will be no entrance If thou art not able to remove his pride from him remove him from thee Hale in thy sayles and go to shore Thou nourishest up a Serpent and tillest a venemous plant yea thy utter enemy Dost thou suffer an hard Father A hard Father maketh a soft and gentle Son correction is thy profit and chiding is thy gain remember that he is thy Father and thou art his Son It is his duty to chastise thee and thy duty to obey him he that spareth the rod spilleth the child Hast thou a rebellious Son If thou wast the cause thank thy self If thou wast his pattern consider what thy Father suffered by thee Amend him if thou canst if not love him because he is thy Son If not for that cause then for that he is a man if thou canst not love him pitty him as severity belongeth to a Father even so doth compassion Hast thou a malapert wife thou hast an evil thing Chastise her if chastisement will avail but if it be in vain arm thy self with patience and endeavour to love her There is nothing more comfortable than to do that willingly to which one is constrained levius fit patientia Quicquid corrigi est nefas Hath thy dying Mother forsaken thee She hath not forsaken thee but is gone before thee Thou hast yet another Mother who will not forsake thee if thou wouldest from the first thou canst and unto the second shalt thou return The first gave thee house roomth the space of a few months the other shall give thee lodging the space of many years the one of these gave thee thy body the other shall take it away but as from the first so from the second shalt thou arise Dost thou weep for the death of thy son If thou wouldest have wept at his death thou shoulst also have wept at his birth for then he began to dye but now he hath done Thou knewest thou shouldest get a mortal Son and dost thou now repent it he stept before thee happy wert thou if thou hadst stept before him Is thy friend dead bury him in thy remembrance and so shall he live with thee for ever O happy friendship which continued untill the end Hadst thou lost him by any other means than by death then hadst thou not lost a friend but a false opinion of friendship Dost thou mourn because thou didst narrowly escape shipwrack Rejoyce rather that thou didst escape and hereafter since thou art an earthly creature learn to keep the earth and rather to affect Heaven than the Sea though thou dost suffer shipwrack both of thy body and goods in thy voyage to Heaven yet if thy sould do safely arrive thou shalt have no cause to mourn Did thy harvest miss and thy land lye barren one year Let the barrenness of thy land put thee in minde of the barrenness of thy soul if thou sowest but one seed and reapest not ten fold for it thou mournest God soweth much and reapeth nothing what shall he do It is the plenty of thy fins which causeth the barrenness of thy land Dost thou dwell in a narrow little house great Princes have been born in small cottages thy heavenly Soul dwelleth in a little house of clay think upon the narrowness of thy grave and thy house will seem very large Art thou shut up in an unworthy prison death will set thee free and we are all Prisoners till then· Better is an unworthy prison than unworthy liberty and happier is the innocent prisoner than the corrupt Judge who put him there Dost thou fear thou shalt lose the victory thou art half conquered already fear is always an evil guest of the minde but a much more worse companion in warr There is no greater incouragement to an army than a fearful enemy Hast thou lost a Tyranny O happy loss O happy people where Tyrants are dismounted and Thrones lawfully established Prosperity enters when Tyranny hath it's Exit It is a burden to the Commonwealth most grievous to the Tyrants dangerous to no good man profitable hurtful to many odious unto all men and comfortable only in it's brevity for violenta nemo imperia continuit diu Have thy subjects betrayd thee Not subjects but Rebels They have undone themselves by doing thee out of thy Kingdom They have betrayed thee but cast away themselves pricked thee but they are wounded and in spoiling thee have slain themselves For perchance thou hast lost thy Kingdome or thy wealth but they have lost their souls their fame the quietness of Conscience and the company of all good men The Sun shineth not upon a more wicked thing than is a Traytor whose filthyness is such that they which need his craft abhorre the craftesman and others which would be notorious in other sins shunne
with all Religions but be sure to lead the Van in the most prevalent it matters not whether it be true or false let them look to that who intend to obtain eternal advantages of it we look no further than to enjoy the temporal A Bird in the hand is worth two in the bush It is the greatest obstacle to generous actions not to personate that Religion which will serve ones purpose best be it Canonical or Apocrypha and doubtless that Religion which brings the greatest profit and largest incomes is the most sacred and most consonant to Scripture But why should I blur my paper with the Description of this deceitfull Parliament the Theory whereof is become practical almost in every City Let us therefore lament at the funeral of our Laws and Religion and throw one sprig of rosemary into the grave where all our Rights Libertyes are buried That Son giveth cause of suspition of his Legitimation who will not mourn at his Mothers death And surely he was never a true born Son of the Church or Law that will not shed a tear when they are both fell to ruin Some though very few good Eleazors amongst us have lost their heads and lives for our Laws and Religion And although I am not worthy to dye a Martyr for them Haud equidem tali me dignor honore Yet whilst I live it living tears shall fall from mine eyes for them For Qâ—is talia fan do Mrmidonum Dolopumve aut duri miles Vlyssis Temperet a lacrymis Who what Puritan Independent Anabaptist Presbyterian Quaker c. Or Red-coat as bad though not worse than any of them can restrain his Adamantine heart from grief and his eyes from tears when he considers the deplorable conditions which they have brought upon our Kingdom Who as it now plainly appeareth had no other quarrel against King than because they were not Kings themselves nor no other reason against Episcopacy than because each of them was not a Bishop They could never yet produce any argument sufficient unless the sword to prove that King or Bishop was not Jure Divino And now behold what the sword hath brought them unto I remember Cadmus sowed the teeth of a Serpent which sprung up armed men who presently destroyed one the other I will not determine that the seed of these men came from a Serpent but sure I am they cannot deny themselves but that they destroy each the other like Cadmus his men They kick the Government of our Kingdom about from one to the other like a foot ball And it will be marvail if some of them do not break their shins a swell as their consciences before the game is ended They make the Government Proteus-like to turn into what shape they please a true Common-wealth indeed being common to so many Rivalls And as the unruly Quadrupedes whirried about the Chariot Phoebus their lawfull Soveraign being absent untill they had set the whole world on fire so it is to be doubted that these headstrong Bears having cast away the rains of true obedience will not leave to wurry us untill they have brought us to utter ruine O England England Hei mihi qualis erat quantum mutatus ab illo How is thy fame besmeared and thy honour laid in the dust Once the envy of the whole world for the glory of thy Laws and Religion now become a by-word and a laughing-stock to all Nations Venit summa dies ineluctabile tempus The Sentence is already past and the decree is gone forth and nothing can avert the wrath of an angry Deity Tantaene animis caelestibus irae Can the Almighty be so passionate We want a Moses and we want an Aaron to intercede and make an attonement for us We want a Jonah to preach repentance And we want the hearts of Nineveh to entertain it We have done worse than to touch the Lords annointed and have killed his Prophets all the day long We have not reverenced his Sanctuary But have made it a den of Theeves and Stable for Beasts not altogether so bad as our selves O God why hast thou cast us off for ever why doth thine anger smoak against the Sheep of thy pasture O deliver not the soul of thy Turtle Dove unto the multitude of the wicked Forget not the Congregation of thy poor for ever Fuimus Trâ—es fuit Ilium ingens Gloria Toucrorum Remember thy old mercy and remember our former estate For though now like People like Priest The Prophets lye and the People would have it so Yet like Bethlehem we have not heretofore been the least amongst the Princes of the World We have had those who have thought it Melius tondere qaam deglubere oves better to trimm us than to flea us and Melius servare unum quam occidere mille better to preserve one than kill a thousand Who have been Tardus ad vindictam ad benevolentiam velox slow to do evill and revenge but swift to do good and reconcile Loving Pax bello potior peace better than war and esteeming it Pro patria mori pulchrum honourable to dye for their Country Which they have done and all Law Religion Justice and Equity with them Cum uno paricidio junxerunt juris divini naturalis juris gentium omnium legum publicarum privatarumque eversionem reipublicae perturbationem libertatis populi oppressionem Senatus abolitionem nobilitatis exterminationem innocentium damnationem peculatum aerarii publici direptionem solennis conventionis infractionem perfidiam jurisjurandi violationem statuum omnium confusionem immo subversionem Tempora mutantur nos mutamur in illis Sal. Therefore let no man be offended if I attend the funeral and say something on the behalf of the deceased It is a Christian duty and none will account it superstition to give an Encomium at burialls where it is due unless those who account it superstition to deserve well themselves De mortuis nil nisi bonum We must say nothing but good of the dead Therefore behold the Monument in these insuing political Aphorisms The Monument of the Laws or Regal and Political Aphorisms whereby the Prerogative of the King and the just liberties of the People are set forth and authorized by the Law of God and the Law of the Land KIngs are Jure Divino by Divine right to be obeyed and not by violent force of subjects to be resisted although they act wickedly Prov. 8.15 By me Kings raign Dan. 2.21 He removeth Kings and setteth up Kings Prov. 16.10 A Divine Sentence is in the lips of the King Prov. 21.1 The Kings heart is in the hand of the Lord. Job 34.18 Is it fit to say to a King thou art wicked and to Princes ye are ungodly Prov. 24.21 Fear thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change Eccl. 8.2 I counsel thee to keep the Kings Commandment Exod. 22.28 Thou shalt not speak evil of thy Prince
there is Ultimum Potentiae so in the politick body when the King and the Lords Spititual and temporal Knights Citizens and Burgesses are all by the Kings command assembled and joyned together under the head the King in consultation for the Common good of the whole Realm there is Ultimum Sapientiae But it was never known in any age that the Members without the head had either power or wisdom and it would be prodigious if our age should produce such a Monster No man can tell the contrary but that our Realm of England hath been Governed by Kings ever since the Creation of the World clear it is by all Historians that ever since we heard of any Government in England it hath been a Royal State and although our Governours have been often changed yet our Government was never turned out of the regal road it is as easy to pull the Sun out of the Firmament and make the Stars to rule the day as it is to abolish Monarchy and establish Aristocracy or Democracy in our Kingdom For that which is bred in the bone will never out of the flesh As Monarchy is the most divine and most natural kind of Government so it is most natural to and esteemed most divine by all true born English men For such is the Courage and so great is the Loftiness of English Spirits that they disdain to be ruled by any but by his sacred Majesty our Soveraign Lord the King For as it was long before King William the Conquerour so did our Government continue still without interruption a Royal Monarchy until the chief Priests and the Scribes and the Elders as they call them of the People to wit Presbiterians Independents Anabaptists Jesuits c. assembled together and consulted that they might take Charles the first whose undeserved sufferings have made him immortal on Earth as well as in Heaven by subtilty and kill him But they said let us not kill him suddenly and openly lest there be an uproar among the people night time is the only day for wickedness The Gunpowder Treason was hatched in darknesse and these Godly Villains thought that the best way to catch their prey was to beat on the dark side of the hedge They cut the Throat of Religion when they seemed to lay a plaister and they murthered their Soveraign when they swore they intended nothing but to make him a Glorious King Then entred Satan into Judas surnamed the House of Commons being one of the two Houses of Parliament And these Judasses went their way and communed with the chief Priests and Captains how they might betray him unto them And they were glad and covenanted to give them mony who then promised and sought opportunity to betray him unto them in the absence of the multitude And since the innocent Birds are oftentimes easier catcht with silent and gentle snares than roaring Guns at first these Judasses thought to betray their Master with kisses courting his Majesty with high-flying Complements of Obedience and that they might make him believe them to be what indeed they were not they made many Oathes Protestations Vows and Covenants that they were his Graces most dutyful Subjects and desired to live no longer than to do his Majesty service But it seems they did but play the Fox speak fair only to get their prey for by these sophistical insinuations they charmed his Majesty and wrested from him divers marks of his Soveraignty they were intrusted with the Navy obteined a Triennial Parliament were acquitted of Ship-mony and other impositions and at length made themselves perpetual for his Majesty passed an Act not to Dissolve them without their consent So that they now wanted nothing but his Majesties life which to obtain they procured by their wickedness the Earl of Strafford's head to be cut off and many other Nobles which stood in their way which props being removed they thought they might with more ease pull down the Soveraignty of the King that these Negroes might make themselves compleat Devils they got the head of the Earl of Strafford others cutoff for committing Treason against the King whose head they afterwards intended to cut off for committing treason against them O incomparable villany What they made a capital offence in others they esteemed more than a Cardinal virtue in themselves It was High Treason in others to think to do the King any harm but it was a high piece of Godlinesse in them to cut off his head The Earl of Strafford must dye as a Traitour because they said he intended to levy warre against the Kings will But these Saints raised Armies to fight against his Majesties own person Levied warre against the King and Kingdome murthered the King and destroyed the whole Realm Yet forsooth they must be canonized as the only true servants of Jesus Christ and all those who speak against them they kill and massacre as if they had committed Treason and Blasphemy against the Almighty Nay the great offence against the Holy Ghost they esteem more pardonable than the least against them And as it now plainly appeareth to the world all their oaths vowes and protestations of obedience to the King and performing of their duty towards him were but preparations for their great wickednesse of murthering the King For as the Gunner when he laboureth to kill the innocent bird walketh gently and treadeth softly holding down his gun as if it was the least of his thoughts to shoot when he mindeth nothing more or as the greedy Huntsman stealeth upon the Hare or Deer looking another way untill he is gotten close by and then letteth out his bloudy hounds to take and kill his prey So these Vipers more wise than Serpents only to do mischief did steal upon the King and undermined him by cutting off his Nobles whom they knew would be true and trusty servants to him and then when they thought they had him within their reach They let fly their doggs the bloudy souldiers for this Judas the House of Commons then having received a band of men and officers from the chief Priests and Pharisees John 18.3 who first set them on work came forth with a great multitude with swords and staves Matth. 26.47 48. to take and kill their Soveraign Now they that betrayed him gave the souldiers a sign saying Whomsoever we have sworn to be the only supreme Governour in all causes and over all persons That same is he hold him fast In that same time said the King to the Multitude Are ye come out as against a thief with swords and staves for to take me I sate daily with you in the Parliament House making many good lawes and ye laid no hold on me But all this was done that their wickednesse might be fulfilled John 18.12 Then the band and the Captain and the Officers of these Jews took the King and led him away to their Council and contrary to all legal proceedings and
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