were there among them Prophets of another sex some also Prophetesses Miriam Deborah Huldah and Types of our Savior Christ I will not dispute here the reason thereof in them but great cause there is that this Disease should be common to both sexes First because it is laid upon us by the Lord as a Punishment and so indifferently to lye upon both sexes in regard of their parents sin Secondly to premonish us how the Afflictions and Calamities should lye hard upon women as well as men But yet as the Prophets and Prophetesses both aimed at a Christ to come who was a male who sometime by ceremony was designed to be such as in the Paschal lamb enjoyned to be a male of the flock so did and do both males and females in this childes Disease point out unto us a Son of a King a King to be our Deliverer Now it remains that I give the like account concerning the Struma as it is healed by the touch of the hand of the French King Which healing in such manner Guido Tagautius and Laurentius specially French Authors do averr and Sennertus a famous and very judicious Physician of Germany acknowledgeth in his Cure of the Struma but unjustly ascribeth the work by a Divine Dispensation to the French King only Of which briefly As those calamities and corrupt sores which shall be removed and healed by King Charles II in the kingdom of England in such manner must certainly the putrid sores and bruises and wounds be healed in the Kingdom of France For the Disease is one in both Kingdomes the Form of healing the same by the Touch and the Healers of like Dignity being Kings as to shew unto us these things shall be accomplished by the hands of a King But as in these fore-named things there is a Parity in the healing of the Kings-evil by the King of England and French King so is there a Difference in the qualifications of the first Healers For the First Healer of the Kings of France was not the Son of a Martyr as was our Soveraign but the French Stories tell us how Clovis the First of that name and Fifth King of France who reigned about the year of our Lord 500. had first of the Kings of that Kingdom this gift of healing the Struma which since we call the Kings-evil bestowed upon him And what was this King The Story tels us That he was first a Heathen and an Idolater and being afterward converted to the Christian faith then this great gift of healing the Struma was from the Mercy and Power of God bestowed upon him which hath continued thorow the several families of their Kings unto them all even to this day This King Clovis therefore who first cured this Evil in France is to be the Type according to the Example in England of him that is to be the Antitype in France to do all those fore-named things which are prefigured thereby after which time also no King of France shall be able to heal in such a manner the foresaid Malady Whereupon I conclude When the French King or King of France from being such a one as King Clovis was becomes and is turned ro such a Christian indeed as he was after stiled then at that time by such a King of France shall the wounds bruises and putrid soars of that distressed Kingdom be healed I need not here be large but by what hath already been said will the Judicious Reader understand that I mean the corruptions of Religion and Justice and by such a King who is of the Reformed Religion which dependeth for salvation only upon Christ the Head Nevertheless to determine what Person individually shall be that King who shall there perform that great and incredible work by what is contained in the Type is not so easie a thing because the Antitype if what I assert be granted doth not declare what that man shall be nor at what time it shall be done For if the Antitype must necessarily answer to the Type may some say as the Type is of a single Person who first was an Ethnick and afterward became a Christian so ought the Person which shall perform these great matters be a single Person who from a false religion shall be converted to the true To which objections I make this Answer That although it be not clearly contained in the Type when and by what Person or Persons King or Kings of France these works shall be brought to pass yet other circumstances there are pertaining thereunto which help to signifie both Time and Person For Almighty God when he is pleased to work deliverances for his people is wont sooner or later to express the Time when such mercies shall be wrought and who shall be the Deliverer That nothing may be wanting to the comfort of the Lords people and that his children may follow and cleave unto those that are so appointed to be their deliverers That the children of Abraham should be no longer servants in Egypt but that in the Fourth Generation they should come out from thence it was foretold Abraham Gen. 15. and that Aaron and Moses should bring them out of Egypt God called them by name Exo. 6. 26. The abiding of the Jews in Chaldea was determined to be for 70 years and their Deliverer Cyrus by name exprest Therefore it is not without precedent when God hath appointed Salvation and a Saviour to name the Time and Person as well as the thing But where it is laid down for a Rule That the Antitype must be a single Person as well as the Type this I deny Because the Type of a single Person may prefigure One or More according to the nature of the things Adam a single Person was the Type of all man-kinde The Image of one mans Person seen by Nebuchadnezzar was a Type of the several Princes of the four ensuing Monarchies So the meaning of the Healing of the Struma by King Clevis when of a Heathen he turned a Christian is to this effect When a King of France from the false shall be of the true Reformed Religion then shall by such a King these evils of that Kingdom be taken away Which may be affirmed both when the same Person is converted and when another King of the true Religion comes in the room of a former of the false Having therefore this liberty to place the Antitype of King Clovis either on Two Kings or else on One as need requires I here place it upon Two and of all Kings upon King Levis the 14 and King CHARLES II our reigning Soveraign the later of which by being inthron'd King of France God our Mighty and Merciful Lord will enable and encline to do those great things For as the Things fore-named shall most certainly be brought to passe by a King of France the Lord hath left the rest touching the Time when and the Performer who to be collected from probable Arguments Which probable Arguments are all for and none
by which not only our late Soveraign but divers of his Innocent Subjects have had their blood spilt to the defiling and making guilty too many of this our land Our great Oppressions and Oppressors are parallel to those there named in the Prophet And as they were promised deliverance but that afar off and not yet accomplished so are we and ours near at hand through the Mercy of God toward those that fear him by the administration of our Good King V. 16. Wash you make you clean saith the Prophet put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil V. 17. Learn to do well seek judgement relieve the oppressed judge the fatherless pleade for the widow Have not our Sins been such as that the Cause of the Oppressed the Poor the Fatherless and the Widow hath not so much as come before those which sate in Parliament a Court of the utmost redress Or if peradventute by unwearied labour and violent importunity they have prevailed so far as to be heard have they judged the cause of the Poor and Fatherlesse and not perverted their Judgement and have they pleaded for the widow and not wrested her cause to please and favour the rich man Who is ignorant that they have not so done And thus complaineth the good Prophet V. 23. Thy Princes are rebellious and companions of theeves every one loveth gifts and followeth after rewards they judge not the fatherless neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them Our great Governors also were Companions of Theeves because they suffered us without all remorse to be robbed or spoiled no great matter of whom and yet farther because they took bribes by doing whereof they become Thieves fellows in that they require gifts as a Thief doth a Travellers purse or else we and our cause shall fall under them Of which sort of gifts though given secretly and in the bosome some have come to light notwithstanding and of the rest we may definitively pronounce They were Receivers and Expecters of Bribes because then them no greater Respecters of Persons in Judgement to be found as we learn from Solomon Pro. 28. 21. To have respect of persons is not good because for a piece of bread that man will transgress May we not likewise say properly with the Prophet ver 21. How is the faithful City become an harlot it was full of judgement righteousness lodged in it but now murderers The hypocritical service of God which the Jews performed consisting in outward and formal worship how like was it to our wonted frequent Praying Fasting and Thanks-giving and the most strict enjoyning of rest on the Sabbath For the Lord took no pleasure neither in those because not proceeding from syncerity nor in the outward hypocritical worship of the Jews saying v. 13. Bring no more vain oblations incense is an abomination unto me the New Moons and Sabbaths the calling of Assemblies I cannot away with it is iniquity even the solemn Meeting And for the reason for which God did despise all this was not the cause of the Jews and ours here in England all one expressed v. 15. Your hands are bloods that is defiled and polluted with innocent blood To which people for their great sins their heavy punishment the Prophet expresseth v. 7. Your Countrey is desolate your Cities are burnt with fire your Land strangers devour in your presence and it is desolate as overthrown by strangers Part of this hath been fulfilled upon the Nation of the English in Fire Sword and Famine in the Kingdom of Ireland by the bloody Irish and the other part in England when we were devoured by friends and foes in a consuming war of our own nation and our neighbours as if we were eaten up by strangers All which sins of these sinfull Jews of which the Lord complains as well of the great as of the small and the negligence of those which should have applied the remedies and the general despair none hoping for amendment the Prophet doth Allegorically describe in the nature of a spreading disease from head to foot and seizing upon the vital parts For thus speaks the Prophet v. 6. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it but wounds and bruises and putrifying fores they have not been closed Heb. crushed neither bound up nor mollified with ointment and before ver 5. The whole or every head is sick and the whole or every heart faint Yet to put them in comfort in such a hopeless condition of sin and sorrow when he had before told them in the same verse Why should ye be stricken any more ye will revolt more and more he foretelleth them of better times and a change from all their wickedness and afflictions by sending them good Magistrates and taking away wicked men in the following verses Ver. 24. Therefore saith the Lord the Lord of hosts the mighty One of Israel Ah I will ease me of mine adversaries and avenge me of mine enemies Ver. 25. And I will turn my hand upon thee and purely purge away thy drosse and take away thy tinn Ver. 26. And I will restore thy Judges as at the first and thy Counsellors as at the beginning afterward thou shalt be called the City of righteousnesse the faithfull City In which part of the Prophecy as the Jews estate runs parallel to England as I have shewn and as under the Type of a disease in the same Chapter the Prophet describes allegorically their sins and sufferings so hath the Lord God miraculously by two Diseases of the body of man described unto us mystically the people of England and such as resemble the Diseases set down in the Text our sins and our calamities And as by Isaiah are described the instruments of their wo under the notion of a disease no lesse are the Authors of our miseries comprehended in the mystery of the fore-named diseases and over and above what Person shall be our deliverer Observe that it is there said ver 5. Every Head is sick and every Heart faint and v. 6. From the sole of the Foot even unto the Head there is no soundnesse in it but wounds and bruises and putrifying or corrupt sores Like unto this Disease are those Two Maladies one whereof is called the Rekets the other the Kings evil They are thus alike the Rekets is a disease of the head yea of every head for it is not that disease if it be without that Symptome any time the Kings-evil is a noysome infirmity full of bruises or hollow apostemated swellings and sores which run with filthy mattur But that I may perswade my Reader that these Two Diseases may signifie somewhat more then what all diseases do Gods just displeasure against and punishment of sin I shall shew examples of diseases in Holy Scripture which do plainly confirm what I here affirm of these One of these diseases is mentioned Exo. 9. ver 8. And the Lord said unto
Disease do pourtray unto us their cunning fraud combinations injustice cruelty with the rest of their eminent Sins In the Disease it self let us first consider the Pathognomik and most constant Signe and Symptome thereof which is the HEAD OVER-GREAT For the understanding whereof if we call to minde that in Holy Scripture a HEAD is a GOVERNOR or person chief in rule as where the Princes of the Tribes are stiled the Heads of the children of Israel Numb 13. 4. and when the Husband is named Head of the wife Eph. 5. 23. for Head in both Testaments is near seventy times set for the chief and for Rulers and that it is proper not only to the Hebrew but to the Greek and Latine nations and to our own language to call Magistrates and Rulers our Heads we will not I hope deny but that it is fitly enough exprest by the OVER-GREATNESS of the HEAD describing the OVER-GREATNESS of such men by assuming unto themselves and growing to so great POWER to have been the most certain and unremoveable cause of our late afflictions For much power is called great power where the Angels are stiled Greater in Power 2 Pet. 2. 11. By the Greatness of the head therefore is very aptly set out unto us the taking and gaining too-much power to have been the first and great cause of the misery which we have undergone from those which were set over us In the next place the SOBER GRAVITY of the FACE of such children comes to be examined and we may joyn thereunto the more then ordinary WIT and UNDERSTANDING found in such children far beyond what is found in others of that age This argues in what sense and signification head is to be taken that is in no other than as a HEAD of WISEDOME Counseil and GRAVITY this last being a discreet behaviour of a man such as may serve for the begetting of awe and reverence in inferiors that their governors be not despised and this is exprest in and mesnaged very much by the SADNESS of the COUNTENANCE Eccles 7. 5. Anger is better then laughter for by a sad look the heart is made better And whereas it is observed that the NOSES of such which are troubled with this Malady are UNPURGED remaining dry without distillation of Rheum which in other children abounds this is to let us understand that these our swelling heads which thus ruled over us although they seemed to cleanse themselves by removing Malignants which they named PURGING of the HOUSE again and again from sitting among them yet did not these Heads PURGE THEMSELVES from nor yet cast out from among them Malignity and Malignants but did notwithstanding retein in themselves their sins and vices such as least become a Court of Justice Oppression and Delay among many other less scandalous sins PURGING in the Scripture is casting away the FILTH of SIN 2 Tim. 2. 21. If any man saith Paul therefore purge himself from these he shall be a vessel unto honor From the Nose I come unto the TEETH which in such children become all ROTTEN and FALL out or else beyond the custome in other yong children they for a great space TOOTHE NOT. The Signification whereof that we may understand we are to consider that the TEETH are those Bones which God hath given unto us for grinding and CHEWING MEAT by which the body is nourished We likewise knowing that PREACHING of Gods word is termed FEEDING of Gods flock because thereby is administred unto the hearers FOOD for their SOULS for it keeps the soul by that profitable knowledge knowledge being hungred after by the soul as meat by the body from eternal death to everlasting life in feeding upon Christ by faith Well therefore may those PASTORS which prepare by breaking it after grinding in their mindes and hearts the Bread which came down from Heaven contained in the Holy Word be accounted and be typified by TEETH in which sense the same are to be understood Cant. 4. 2. Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep that are even shorn which come up from the washing which all of them bear twins and Chap. 6. 5. Thy teeth are as a flock of sheep which go up from the washing whereof every one beareth twins and there is not one barren among them The TEETH of the CHILDE of GOD whereof the King is Head are the PREACHERS the ROTTEN TEETH are to be expounded such Ministers which being CORRUPT and UNSOUND in their LIVES DOCTRINE and FAITH unto all which the Holy Ghost in Scripture gives such names have been removed from the Church But NOT-TOOTHING and LATE-TOOTHING doth imply that SOUND PREACHERS which should painfully skilfully and uprightly prepare nourishment for the Body of Christ which is his Church should here in England be MUCH and LONG WANTING withdrawing and hiding themselves leaving the mouth empty as it were those places where they should be fixed as it hath proved most true also in the event because of unlawful oaths and engagements against their Sovereign to be laid upon them which with a good conscience they could not submit unto and for the like un just causes The ARM BONES of such children as labour of the REKETS turn CROOKED the Mystery whereof we shall finde by Scripture phrase ARMES in Gods Word noteth sundry times military Forces and ARMIES and this not without just reason in a fleshly arm men put their confidence and the strength thereof for by the strength of their arm they yield their sword for offence and defence The Armes of the wicked shall be broken saith David Psa 37. 17. and in armed men the strength multitude and valor of them Princes place their confidence In this sence Armes are to be taken where God speaking by his Propher and foretelling the destruction of the king of Egypts forces by the King of Babylons army nameth the forces and armies of them boâ—â— Armes Ezek. 30. 22. I will break his Pharaohs Arme and ver 24. And I will strengthen the arm of the King of Babylon Now let us search in the same place for the meaning of this word CROOKED Here we may finde that whensoever men once INTIRE and as it were STRAIGHT which figure in the limbs is the just and proper shape shall become by what means soever BOWED from their former STRAIGHTNESS and turn to be worse they are for this declining accounted and reputed CROOKED For which cause the Israelites are intitled a crooked generation Deut. 32. 5. and for the same cause the people of the Jews are by S. Paul who formerly had walked in the ways of the Lord uprightly which the Gentiles had not done meant where he saith Phil. 2. 15. In the midst of a naughty and crooked generation Hereby the Almighty and Just Lord by inflicting such CROOKED ARMES upon our children doth not only punish us mediately in the persons of them but would have us to be premonisht that by the Signe of CROOKED ARMES he was for our sins sending against us
against our Gracious Soveraign and by designing his Majesty the Time and Person are both made known For it is not probable that from the present French King such fruit shall proceed by his conversion to the Reformed Religion or so easing the burthens of his Subjects having seized already lately on Aurange and Marseilles two great receptacles for those of the Religion and their ancient Liberties and who still threatneth Geneva Now here I must take leave to assume liberty to draw an Argument from that which is not yet fullfilled but begun only accounting it as already done For thus doth S. Paul from the certain conversion of the Jews which was then to be but neither in his time nor to this day fulfilled Rom. 11. perswade the Christians not to despise that people but account them as brethren And the Holy Ghost assuring us of the burning of the City of Rome a thing not yet accomplished adviseth the people of God to leave that City lest they should perish with it Revel 18. 4. Thus I having already declared and by the fore-going reasons proved that K. Charles II will perform by Gods Grace undoubtedly in England all the promised matters do by probable conjecture infer that it shall in France be performed by him also For to do such great matters is not every day seen None of all the Kings of France since King Clovis nor French Kings have cured the putrid sores of that Kingdom None of the 27. Kings and Queens of England from the Confessor have done that till now Nor is it probable that any of the French Kings there educated would be of the Reformed Religion And as much unlikely it is that any of those Kings should take away all the Corruption in Justice and Manners But since it must be done how probable may it seem that it can be done by none else but by him who hath done the like in England and may do the same in France unto which Kingdom he hath a most just Title So much for my first Argument Secondly It is not likely that God will honour him who hath not the right as him who hath the just Title to that Crown with so glorious a work in that place For the Crown of France by just Title is devolved upon our Gracious Soveraign from Edward III King of England in right of his mother Queen Isabella She was daughter unto Philip the Fair King of France which Philip had three sons successively Kings of France viz. Lodowik Hutin Philip the Tall and Charles the Fair all which dying without issue Isabella their only sister remaining alive was married unto Edward II King of England by whom she had issue Edward III to whom our Royal Soveraign is the next heir by descent from him Against whose right the French do only pretend the Salique Law by which no daughter of France is admitted to the Crown but when and by what sufficient authority there enacted their Lawyers give us no satisfaction And the Reasons why the Person is not so expresly designed for France as here before for England are of moment 1. Because by setting us to enquire after that Prince who shall work so great a happiness to that Kingdom we are thereby driven to finde out the causes for which most probably God may give as He hath formerly given Kingdoms to Princes and extraordinary possessions to others Princes such an opportunity and blessing we may thereby light upon the very Person For God hath made all things for his own Glory and all men but specially Princes induing them for that purpose with great power and those which suffer great things for his sake and stand for him and love his people he seldome sends them away without some ample recompence in this life Yet it was needful that the King whom the Lord had appointed for the happiness of England should be more clearly discovered as it hath pleased God to do touching our Royall Soveraign For who could conjecture that a Prince who had been so exceedingly enraged by the wickedness of some should be so merciful as to spare his cruel enemies and to be so loving and merciful to his people so tender toward those whose consciences cannot admit that for fear of man which their sincere love to God made them to deny if God had not more expresly shewn King CHARLES II to be that Good Prince For which cause the King which shall be the Deliverer of France is more obscurely figured because he is already discovered in the Type of Englands Helper 2. Because the assurance of what shall be by our Soveraign done in France to Gods people there which cannot be until he rule there as King shall appear unto his Royal Majesty when God shall move his Heart to begin in England first so that the Lord would have him to hasten that great weighty and heroick work Now let us look back to the causes which the Lord seemeth to have respect unto in making King CHARLES so happy and see if we can finde like Examples Observe his unjust and cruel sufferings Shall a Prince who after the murther of his Royal Father under the pretence of Justice by the most unjust Judges which ever sate in Judgement and by feigned Holiness was banished with the whole Royal Family as malefactors and the King himself made a Traytor and his precious life hunted after shall his Innocence with the rest of that Royal house against none of whom the least crime or cause was objected only make his people happy May a King who hath suffered such wrongs and done such excellent things for God and his people expect no blessing but a bare restitution God owes no man any thing but what we receive is of gift yet the Lord Almighty hath not wont but in such cases to shew his acceptance and make recompence Nebuchadrezzar for fighting against the City of Tyre which rejoyced at the captivity of the Jews when they were carried unto Rabylon received the Kingdom of Egypt as a reward of his labor Ezek. 29. ver 18. Son of man Nebuchad-rezzar King of Babylon caused his Army to serve a great service against Tyrus every head was made bald and every shoulder was peeled yet had he no wages nor his army for Tyrus for the service which he served against it Ver. 19. Therefore thus saith the Lord God Behold I will give the land of Egypt unto Nebuchad-rezzar King of Babylon and he shall take her multitude and take her spoil and take her prey and it shall be the wages for his army Ver. 20. I have given him the land of Egypt for his labor wherewith he served against it because they wrought for me saith the Lord God And did not the Lord bestow upon Queen Elizabeth of blessed memory for her imprisonment for maintaining of Gods true Religion for resisting the Spaniard befriending the French against the League and protecting the Neatherlands the Kingdom of Ireland For what of that Kingdom had all her
Lord was wont to send them Prophets in evil and sinful times Prophets so inspired with his Spirit that they knew infallibly and did shew unto that people most certainly what things both good and bad and how they should befal them that their oppressors and the wicked might not live secure nor the oppressed and righteous be discouraged But in a short time after our Saviours Ascension such Prophets which were thus miraculously instructed ceased to be among men By which difference of the times those from these it might at first seem either that God loves not the Christians so tenderly as formerly he did the children of Israel or at least that the Christians now adays have no need of such forewarnings as the children of Israel were wont to have Divine and miraculous premonitions were so usuall to them that they accounted it and complained of it as an affliction when they wanted them This appeareth true from the words of Asaph a man left in Judea when the rest were carried into Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar complaining of the want of a Prophet and Signes which they were formerly accustomed unto to declare and foretell how long their captivity after the present destruction of the City and Temple was yet to last For thus he speaketh Psa 74. 9. We see not our Signes there is no more any Prophet neither is there among us any that knoweth how long Albeit Jeremiah the Prophet had formerly prophesied unto them of 70 years captivity and Daniel and Ezekiel were both now in Chaldea and did prophesie Whereby it appeareth as I said that Asaph was left in the land and that he speaketh of the remainder of the Jews which were left in the same place with him and lastly that this Psalm was written after the carrying away of Jeremiah into Egypt Concerning the difference of those old times before our Saviours coming from these although we should grant it true and we must grant it to be so in some kind touching Prophets yet is the Assumption false to conclude from thence That God loves not the Christians so tenderly as formerly he did the children of Israel for how little soever the Lord loveth any of his children he accounteth and nameth them his Jewels and is as tender of them as of the apple of his eye who spared not his onely and beloved Son but gave him to dye for the least of them all But this is an inestimably greater favour then to premonish and forewarn them of that which is to come a thing which he hath done even to his greatest enemy the devil though for a different end from that for which he forewarns his children letting him know his secret counsel touching Saul and his Sons For did not the Lord reveal unto Satan that Saul and his three sons should be slain even as it came to pass and the Spirit told Saul the day following 1 Sam. 27. 19. And while we consider that the Lord is unchangeable in his love For he is not a man that he should repent this cannot be the cause want of Gods love that Christians are without divining Prophets In the second place as little reason is there to say That we which are Christians have no need of forewarnings of our suffering nor of our deliverance As if the oppressions in Egypt were more than under the Pope and these not seven-fold greater then those as the burning in a fiery furnace or in fire than making and burning of brick by and in such a place or the thraldome of the body greater then of the soul or the length of the captivity under Pharaoh which lasted not in all two hundred and fifteen years more tedious then under Antichrist who began to reign above a thousand years agoe Whereupon neither of these two Causes being to be admitted want of love from the Lord toward his people and no need of Premonitions and likewise necessarily admitting and confessing it to be truth Fully illuminated and infallibly inspired Prophets have not been found and are not now to be expected much after our Saviours leaving the earth it behoveth us to enquire after the reason of this thing Of which by Gods grace I find there are Two Causes 1. Why we may not look for such Prophets in these times which are fully illuminated and infallible is the End and the consideration thereof for which such Prophets were sent by Almighty God for the information of his people which being accomplished and come and past that which points to that end is not necessary any longer Such Prophets were instituted to be forerunning Types and Figures of Christ thereby to signifie that there was a Prophet to come after them like unto themselves but greater who should fully and infallibly know the Lords mind and counsels For thus saith Moses of our Saviour who was to be exhibited in the flesh and making himself the Type of Christ Deut. 18. 15. The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee of thy brethren like unto me unto him ye shall hearken In respect of whom some though not all of the Prophets had power at some not at all times to work certain Miracles and alluding to this it is said The Prophets were unto John 2. Prophets were more fully enlightned before our Saviours coming than in these times there can be found any for another cause even for their sakes to whom their Prophecies and Messages were sent that is because of the people The Prophets were sent principally to call men to repentance thus speaketh the Lord Jerem. 7. 25. Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day I have even sent unto you all my servants the Prophets daily rising up early and sending them V. 26. Yet they hearkened not unto me nor inclined their ear but hardened their neck they did worse then their fathers The different condition of the people therefore is a second cause why the old Prophets were more enlightned and infallible then the Prophets or Preachers which now are for so are Preachers called by the Apostle Paul or necessarily are required to be In those old times the understanding of the people of Israel concerning God and heavenly things was very small witnesse the Apostles themselves who were conversant with Christ when Peter reproved our Saviour speaking of his suffering death telling his Master that this should not befall him that he should not dye Yea the Lord threatens his people blindeness of mind and stupidity of understanding greater then formerly they had by the mouth of Isaiah calling it fatness of heart for fat is insensible For which cause if the Prophets should not have shewn before their eyes great and wonderfull matters they would not have beleeved and if such Prophets had not also had extraordinary knowledge they would have wanted a guide if they had not also been indued with infallibility the people would certainly have fallen into errours And notwithstanding
consist in two things 1. In a more full evident and more infallible Discovery of Gods secrets unto those old Prophets for the Causes which have been alledged 2. In causing the Prophets to whom such Visions came to understand them either instantly and at first sight of them or if not with the sight of them immediatly yet at least after Fasting and Prayer all concurring nevertheless to declare that the Revelation of them came immediatly from God and was not helpt then forward with Study and Labour For the first Difference although S. Paul acknowledgeth that he with the rest of his brethren knew in part and prophesied in part yet is that so to be understood as with relation to the more perfect knowledge and revealing Gods mysteries in the life to come and partly that we should know that neither S. Paul himself nor the Prophets before him did partake of all Gods minde and counsel The Apostle knew not certainly whether a beleeving husband having an unbeleeving wife yet content to dwell with him ought or ought not to put her away 1 Cor. 7. 12. But for what he did know and the necessary things which were to be known he and the rest of the Prophets may be said according to Christs promise to his Disciples to have all things shewn unto them Touching the second Difference it is evident that Ezekiels Vision which he saw Ezek. 1. 1. was immediatly understood by him For the heavens saith the Prophet were opened and I saw Visions of God and v. 3. And the hand of the Lord was there upon him which is in that very place the illuminating Spirit of God was upon me Unto Daniel the words of the Angel are Dan. 9. 23. At the beginning of thy supplication the commandment came forth and I am come to shew thee for thou art greatly beloved therefore understand the matter and consider the Vision This you see was granted upon supplication but in these later times as it is first the Lords gift to set us to consider those Visions which he sends it is next the Lords blessing upon our labor and study or running to and fro in making us understand them Nor are such Visions sent immediately or conveyed mediately unto us in these days understood at the first instant as then they were nor much of such Visions to be understood although in their own nature capable of being understood until a certain time come I shall not need to use any other testimony hereof then that of Daniel Dan. 12. 9. And he said Go thy way Daniel for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end But whether now adays God hath sent Visions and Signes of things to come and what he intends to bring upon the earth or to acknowledge our Blessed Saviours words true that there shall be Signes c. or rather that they are not now to be expected but nearer the end of the world let us hear the words of that wise heathen man Cicero whether it be found true by experience that God hath sent forewarnings unto the world of what matters of great moment he intends to do For to do so in behalf of his great love to his children and their necessities is most reasonable Thus writeth Cicero in his first book De Divinatione Vetus opinio est jam usque ab heroicis ducta temporibus eaque populi Romani omnium gentium firmata consensu versari quandam inter homines Divinationem quam Graeci 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appellant id est praesensionem scientiam rerum futurarum It is saith he an old opinion derived from those long-past forgotten times of the antient Heroes that there is such a kind of Divination to be found among men as is the foreknowledge and foresight of things ensuing which the Greeks name Prophecy This the Philosopher proving not from the bare opinion of one or two nor of all nations which in such a case were little worth but the opinion being grounded upon the particular and concurring observations and experiments of all is to be esteemed an argument of great moment For the same Author in the same book a little after addeth Gentem quidem nullam video neque tam humanam atque doctam neque tam immanem atque barbaram quae non significari futura à quibusdam intelligi praedicique posse censeat Which is I can finde no Nation neither civil and learned nor savage and barbarous which is not of this opinion That future things are not only foreshewn but that some there be which can understand them and foretell what shall come This observation and opinion grounded thereon of all nations I shall confirm by the Judgement of an Authour a Papist in Profession yet in his opinion a very Atheist who instructing Princes in all kinde of wicked Arts which may serve to advance their greatnesse even to the mocking of Almighty God by making a semblance of Religion to delude the people is forced to confess though unwillingly and against himself that Troubles and Wars are ordinarily and miraculously foreshewn to such whom it concerneth to know them Machiavil is that man who in his first book and 36. Chapter of his Discourses upon Livy writes in the Italian tongue what sounds thus in English Great Troubles which are to befall Cities and Provinces are usually foretold and this is done either by certain Signes and Tokens or else by the Presages of men Then afterward he proceedeth in this manner As I shall willingly confess the Cause I am ignorant of so that notwithstanding the thing is true it cannot be denied by examples which may be produced both in former and later times but I must acknowledge that all great Troubles which have befallen any City or Countrey have been commonly foreshewn and premonstrated either by Presagers or some Revelation or by Prodigies and Signes in heaven Who lastly in the same place is driven to acknowledge that these Premonitions and Forewarnings do proceed from a knowing and Loving Nature in naming and describing of which Machiavil goes no farther then the Heathen which taught him calling them Spirits and Intelligences Unless haply saith he in the said Chapter the air be full of Spirits and Intelligences which foreseeing things which are to ensue and grieving at mens adversities do by such forerunning Signes make them known to men that they may make timely preparation and defense against them Next among those which profess Christianity whether they be of the Church of Rome or of the Reformed Religion it is a received opinion on both sides That God doth give miraculous Forewarnings in these days I shall not need name more then those three great lights of the Reformed Protestant Profession Orthodox Judicious and Learned Calvin Perkins and Ussher which every one acknowledge what I have said touching miraculous Admonitions the first in his Comment upon Mebuchadnezzars dream the second where he adviseth to examine when a man pretendeth
six Prophets sent unto them and in the time of miserable afflictions Now although I cannot but acknowledge that I have not heard almost of any Prophet of future events in these times who hath not been a deceiver or deceived or who hath used any lawful way to expound Divine Visions saving Interpreters of Holy Scripture whose rules if men would follow them and adjoyn fasting and prayer after the Prophet Daniels example in the like cases they would some of them using the right means undoubtedly attain the desired end For it maketh no difference but there is still the same way of interpreting Visions sent from God and enrolled in Scripture or sent from him and presented before our eyes yet so as what I laid down before as a rule be remembred what the old Prophets understood in an instant or soon after and fully we have it not given to us to finde out but by labour and by degrees and using fasting and prayer as common to both not to perfection Whereunto let this be added because Christian people are according to promise more enlightened in their understandings then those of old times those Prophecies and Visions which are now to be interpreted are by those that hear them expounded to be examined in the ballance of right reason agreeable to the Holy Word when most of the old Visions were to be credited because a Prophet pronounced them who could not lye For this was appointed to be the touchstone of a Prophet the certainty of his predictions in the event Deut. 18. 22. When a Prophet speaketh saith the Lord in the name of the Lord if the thing follow not nor come to pass that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken but the Prophet hath spoken it presumptuously thou shalt not be afraid of him Now let us see since the Lord hath used in evil and wicked times to send among his people Admonitions and Forewarnings also of their sorrows like as of their deliverances their captivity in Egypt and going out their going into Babylon and their return and when there is no cause imaginable why he should not do the like unto us in England if God hath not by immediate and wonderful Messages from himself warned us of our sins and forewarned us of our afflictions and what will be the end of them For the calamities which the children of God have suffered in these Three Kingdomes of England Scotland and Ireland are so great as like and equal to them never any Nation upon whom the Name of God hath been called hath undergone by whomsoever considering that monstrous and universal Massacre in Ireland as the chief part and the general Injustice and Hypocrisie in England and sufferings from our own brethren who profest so frequently love pity and compassion toward us a treachery which we never suspected the next If therefore the Lord is wont to foreshew great troubles is it improbable that he hath forewarned his dear children of the greatest which ever befell the Church of God And if all injustice be a sin and oppression a crying sin is it unlikely that the greatest Injustice and Murther that ever was committed all circumstances considered since the crucifixion of our Saviour Jesus Christ the Murther of our Innocent Soveraign Lord King CHARLES the first and the revenge thereof should be also foreshewn us Nor is what I speak concerning Gods foreshewing of matters concerning the Church so strange a Doctrine and incredible but that divers Reverend and Learned men have observed the Portents and applied the Events unto the Signes when they have plainly seen them fulfilled among the rest and above others the Magdeburg Century Writers have done it carefully collecting the Signes and Portents which befell in every age and while others say That Signes are interpreted when they are fulfilled implying thereby that they were of that nature that they were capable of being expounded before their fulfilling Whensoever such miraculous Signes are expounded though after their events God procureth unto himself the praise of his Providence Fore-knowledge Power and Truth c. but if we neglect to consider such Signes we deprive our selves of our own mercy by neglecting those comforts which the Lord of tender mercies sends expresly to support his fainting children under the rod of their enemies For but consider if the Signes which are sent by him to premonish if as it is in Job man regardeth not we do not unthankfully frustrate the end I say and scope for which they were sent As for the end and issue of these evils in this and in the two other counited Kingdoms as he hath dealt with other nations it is not improbable but he hath in his great and endless Mercy so dealt with us signifying together with their calamities how he would farther and at last shew himself toward them The Lord unto the servitude which the Israelites were to endure in a land which was not theirs 400 years doth annex this comfortable news and the issue of their captivity and in a Vision that in the fourth generation they should come out thence and with great substance Gen. 15. and by Moses did promise them the possession of the land of Canaan On the contrary he hath unto the pomp pleasures and delicacies of the City of Rome foretold and foreshewn the burning and devastation thereof and that it shall never be built again by the Type of a Milstone cast into the Sea by an Angel and saying Rev. 18. 25. Thus with violence shall that great City Babylon be thrown down and shall be found no more at all Wherefore it is full as likely that Almighty God with our Sins and Sorrows hath foreshewn whether he will utterly forsake England and cast us off or with our true repentance which he will give us take away our long continued miseries Listen now O Reader I bring you glad glad tidings from a far Countrey as cold water to thy thirsty soul but according to the sense of the holy Proverb that i such news as have been expected these twenty years but hitherto in vain and therefore almost despaired after so many changes and frustrated expectations said to be from a far Countrey when they are long in coming as if from far and so in great danger of miscarrying because I tell you what is much feared And this is sent thee O England from thy merciful God by the hands of him from whom considering the crimes of too many undeserved in respect of so many frustrations of hopes and promises made by all others much feared even by our Gracious Lord King CHARLES through the Power and Mercy of God Almighty restoring him unto his just and undoubted Right and Inheritance of his Three Kingdomes and for the sakes of that small number who have mourned and do mourn for all the abominations of this Kingdome so long continued and who have continually sought the Lord to give us our True and Lawful Soveraign whom blessed be the Lord we now
Moses and unto Aaron Take to you handfuls of the ashes of the furnace and let Moses sprinkle it toward the Heaven in the sight of Pharaoh V. 9. And it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man and upon beast throughout all the land of Egypt V. 10. And they took ashes of the furnace and stood before Pharaoh and Moses sprinkled it up toward Heaven and it became a boyl breaking forth with blains upon man and upon beast V. 11. And the Magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boyles for the boyl was upon the Magicians and upon all the Egyptians This plague of a noisome and grievous sore named before in Exodus a boyle breaking forth with blains upon man and upon beast by reason of which neither the Magicians nor Egyptians could stand before Moses is in a Vision shewn unto John in this manner Rev. 16. 2. And the first Angel went and poured out his vial upon the earth and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the Beast and them which worshiped his Image The disease in the Story written by Moses and the Vision thereof in the principal matters shewed unto John did in brief portend and foreshew That in a place a part of Spiritual Egypt which is Rome a certain man should take the ashes of the furnace Henry VIII which was himself and advancing dust and ashes toward Heaven in the Popes place by the Oath of Supreme Head of the Church which should so fall upon the men of knowledge and others void of wisedom Clergy and Laity that it should beget boiles and blains that is be lothsome and troublesome For while the Clergy who had sworn to the Pope were compel'd to swear the same to K. Henry they as men troubled with sore boiles knew not which way to turn themselves to finde rest if they sware to K. Henry they wounded their consciences if they denied it they suffered death And as bodies full of boiles and botches are lothsome to be lookt upon so this oath when it was taken could not but make them odious to those that knew it was done out of fear not from their hearts So could not the Magicians stand before Moses nor those Clergy men but all that well could hid themselves or fled For the Vial fell upon those which had the Mark of the Beast and them which worshiped his Image By the Mark is to be understood the Signe of the Cross because a Saltier Crosse in this form X is the Mark of the Beast which is the Pope noting numerically among the Greeks six hundred being the round Number of his Name which in full is DCLXVI And those that worshiped the Image of that Peast are those which adore the Hoste or Sacrament of the Altar Because the Bread and Wine hallowed by superstitious Consecration from the Priests mouth is made to have life and to become of those Elements a living Christ Soul and body It is called the Image of the Beast because found out by the Pope and established by him under the name of the Sacrament of the Altar who is that Beast in the Apocalyps as is elsewhere abundantly proved and this is the sense of these words Rev. 13 15. And he had power to give life unto the Image of the Beast That the Bishop of Rome should give life unto dead creatures of Bread and Wine making them a living Christ by his authority So much briefly for the First Disease which was Portentous The Second follows and this is the Leprosie which as it was in some respect a punishment of sin particularly the Leprosie of Miriam Numb 12. and of Gehazi 2 King 5. 27. and that of K. Azariah 2 King 15. 5. and it was called the Plague of Leprosie and simply the Plague sundry times Lev. 13. and 14. for the Malady was Painful and Loathsome and the cause of solitary habitation to the Leper so for the kinde and Nature of it this disease was such an extraordinary Messenger of God as which did contain in it a figure of the Pollution and Odiousnesse of Sin the diffusive nature thereof with the Punishment and the Deliverer from the guilt and punishment also a Person which should free us from both the Son of God Christ Jesus Leprosie was then in the highest when the Disease was as white as Snow such a Leper was Gehazi in the place above-named and thus was Moses's hand leprous as snow Exod. 4. 6. It seized likewise upon sundry parts of the body and sometime the whole as the head forehead beard and sometime garments of skin and of wollen and linnen and divers times houses In which cases and in such parts of the body the Leproste was either a bright spot with white hair growing in it deeper then the skin and spreading or a white rising in the skin turning the hair white or in some case yellowish thin hair and where appeared quick raw flesh in the rising in mens bodies or a white reddish sore in a bald head or forehead In garments if there did appear a greenish or reddish spot and spreading The Leprosie in a house were hollow strakes greenish or reddish appearing deeper then the wall and spreading See of all thls Lev. 13. and 14. The uncleanness of sin defiling the soul was signified when the Leper having a covering upon his upper lip his clothes rent and his head bare was to cry twise Unclean Unclean to note defilement of his soul by sin and his body by Leprosie Lev. 13. 45 46. The Leprosie in the garments and in the house judged by the colour deepness and spreading did insinuate the spreading contagion and from without and outward senses the inward motion thereof into the heart and affections and by example as our garments are carried and worn outwardly and in our houses as spreading in a family among our servants children and betwixt husband and wife The Separation and living apart of the Leper noteth That the society of the wicked is to be avoided and the above-named Levitical Law is applied unto the company of sinners 2 Cor. 6. 17. Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you The pain and torment of the Leprosie consisteth in itching and burning the later whereof is to be gathered from Moses Lev. 13. 24. of both which some kinde of lepers found at this day do tell us and Writers do declare That which among the Israelites was white as snow and burning figureth the pains of Hell on the right hand as it were and the Duration and Perpetuity of Hell Torments as on the left hand For the snowy whiteness is the whiteness of salt and one is very like the other and it hath this whiteness to signifie salt not snow unto us Burning is signified by salt in two respects 1. Because saltness
is the effect and fruit of burning as we see in ashes of wood 2. for that salt whether it be taken inwardly or applied outwardly causeth a sense of burning We use to say As salt as fire understanding so salt as if we were burnt with it as with fire Touching the continuance of the Pains of Hell Salt signifieth that also for the property of salt is to keep from corruption and decaying In which sense the phrase of Holy Scripture is a Covenant of salt signifying a Covenant which is never to be broken but to endure for ever The Lake of Sodom the moniment of Gods vengeance upon those sinsul Cities Sodom and Gomorrha and the Cities about them is used by the Holy Ghost as a Type of Hell the place and condition of the damned and called the Lake of Fire burning with Brimstone Rev. 19. 20. because in that lake called the Dead Sea and Asphaltitis is found much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Latine Bitumen which by the Poet Ovid is shewn to be a matter apt to take fire and unquenchable though by him distinguisht from Brimstone and is a pitchy substance known to Apothecaries although in some place it is by the Interpreters of the Bible called Slime Gen. 14. 10. it is called by another Hebrew word and by a Greek word so interpreting it Brimstone Deut. 29. 23. and in the above-named place in the Revelation Ovids words make it of the nature of Brimstone notwithstanding Metamorph. Book 14. Lurida supponunt faecundo Sulphura fonti Incenduntque cavas fumante Bitumine venas Blew-burning Brimstone's cast into the Spring And smoaking Earth-pitch fires the veins within This place as it is a Figure of Hell in respect of the matter of unquenchable fire contained in it being a remainder of that Brimstone which being kindled fell from Heaven and destroyed those Cities and so likewise was it a Type of Hell in relation to the saltnesse of that Lake called also the Salt-sea being so exceeding salt that no living creature is found therein as it were painting unto us the Duration of their Torments and their bodies preserved from Corruption All the qualities of this Lake for which it is by God Almighty constituted a Modle of Hell are not necessarily to be reckoned up but some of them are sufficient to have been exprest to instruct and direct us while the other are not mentioned that we may take pains to search after them For thus we finde in an expression of that Lake Brimstone sometimes left out of the description and only Fire mentioned Rev. 20. 14. And death and hell were cast into the Lake of Fire But of the Saltnesse of that place and as to a Punishment it is confirmed Deut. 29. 23. And that the whole land thereof is Brimstone and Salt and Burning that it is not sowen nor beareth nor any grasse groweth therein like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrha Admah and Zeboim which the Lord overthrew in his anger and in his wrath I might take a view of some other things pertaining to this disease of the Leprosie wherein some other matters are pointed at but what I have already spoken will be enough to denote what it typifies in the Nature of Sin and the Punishment But the great thing which was intended by this strange disease and for which cause it was sent and when that was come ceased to be any more and the chief Scope unto which the Leprosie by the Wisedom of the Lord aimed was his Son Christ Jesus which was then to come the Leprosie the Shadow Christ the Substance And as when the Body comes the Shadow thereof gives place in like manner when our Lord and Saviour had suffered the pains of death for the sins of the world and made us clean being our High-priest from our uncleannesse so many as he ordained to eternal life whom he pronounced clean as a good and skilful Priest saying Joh. 13. 10. You are clean but not all then afterward began the Leprosie quickly after his death to depart For the chief thing which was signified by the Leprosie was now come and the Mystery sulfilled our Priest was come and made us clean For now no such Leprosie found in Palestina nor any where among the nation of the Jews And the Ceremonies and Rites used in cleansing the Leper do point out our Saviour and what he did and suffered for us In the Cleansing of a House healed of the Leprosie use was made of two living Birds Cedar-wood Scarlet and Hyssop one of which birds was to be killed over running water in an earthen vessel and dipping the living bird the Cedar-wood Scarlet and Hyssope in the blood of the slain bird and in the running water and sprinkling the House seven times it is said Lev. 14. 52. that with all the fore-named things the Priest shall cleanse the House and ver 53. But he shall let go the living bird out of the city into the open fields and make an atonement for the House and it shall be clean Who to whom God hath given but an ordinary understanding willl not acknowledge here that the shedding of the blood of one bird and the other let fly into running water and in an earthen vessel into running water as to go into the Sea whither all running water is carried and all rivers run to be conveyed all the world over for from thence come all fountains did signifie so much touching the shedding of our Saviours blood for all the world Or who can then doubt that the receiving of it in an earthen vessel did betoken our Saviours taking our flesh upon him whose bodies as his being originally from the earth are called earthen vessels Nor can we gainsay the flying away of the other bird one of the same kinde did declare our Saviours resurrection and ascension into Heaven as birds are called fowls of Heaven It will certainly be granted that the Cedar signified two things his Cross as it is a tree on which he suffered death and the excellency of his person above all other men as the Cedar in loftinesse excelleth all trees And eminent men are metaphorically by the Prophet called Cedars Ezek. 17. 3. 22 31. and by the Holy Penman 2 King 14. 9. The Scarlet being lambs wool so died figured his innocent patient and bloody death But the Hyssope a low shrub growing upon the wall as Scripture calleth it and in a relation of Solomons History of Trees is opposed unto the Cedar the lowest to the highest and in the Ceremonials appointed in cleansing the leprous House being joyned to the Cedar pointeth at our Saviour Jesus Christ in his humility who humbled himself to take our trail nature upon him yea the form of a servant descending from heaven and disrobing himself of his transcendent glory With this dipt in blood of the Paschal Lamb were the lintels and two side-posts of the Israelites doors to be sprinkled for ever Exod. 12. 22 23 24. And a sponge filled with
not so they are not only Persecutors of the Church themselves but all their subjects follow their Princes example a great part therefore of such matters which the Lord is pleased to premonish his people of whether good or evil is joyned with the Persons and Princes which shall be principal authors of such things This is manifest in Nebuchadnezzars first and second Vision and in many of Daniels wherein are foreshewn the different estates of the Four Monarchies in respect of their Princes and by Ezekiel chap. 1. in the Vision of the Four living Creatures with four Faces applied distinctly unto the Church how those Princes of the Four Monarchies should exercise their authority toward the Jews their Subjects and Captives Insomuch that not only Josias was fore-named who should be a Pious and Excellent Prince unto the Jews near three hundred years before his birth but Cyrus also a heathen Prince who should be Gods Shepherd to help and cherish his people many years before he was born pointing and shewing them as with the finger a King who contrary to the nature of other Princes should send them home freely out of their captivity assisting them in whatsoever they could desire So it is not without example that a Prince should be designed by name if otherwise by some way equivalent to a name it will be the same thing to some great work some ages before he was Now having laid a strong foundation as I suppose for what follows concerning the Matter which I have before affirmed to have been comprehended in the two forenamed Diseases the REKETS and KINGS-EVIL I come at length to make good my assertion by making it by Gods grace appear to a judicious and competent Reader to be altogether true And first of all it will be needful that I describe unto you the Disease at large with the necessary circumstances thereunto belonging The Description of the REKETS THe REKETS is a Disease so strange and which is therefore to be wondred at that it was not heard of in our fathers times but began in our memory and not many years ago and in that part of the Kingdom according to the report of the most diligent Searchers and learned Writers thereof the Authors De Rachitide which is most healthful either Dorset or Somersetshire not in London nor in a Marish countrey Neither did this New Disease arise from contagion at first nor doth it now as the Venereous doth For no Countrey was found infected with this malady until England was seizing upon young infants not in the womb not until nine ot ten moneths of age lest any man should suspect it might arise from the infection of their parents Nor doth this Malady accrue by default of the nurse nor by evil attendance for it layeth hold wheresoever it pleaseth Almighty God on rich and poor even where greatest care is had and spareth as often such as are much or altogether neglected To finde out the Cause of which disease the Physicians have most diligently lookt about from one Cause to another so much and so far as to the stars but seldome higher till at the length they acknowledge They lose themselves And now I proceed to the DESCRIPTION of the REKETS at the full from the First and Pathognomik Signe thereof through each degree unto the utmost extent of the same not as it is in every single Patient affected with the REKETS but taken collected and put together from all and every childes Symptomes which is troubled therewith The REKETS is a disease laying hold on yong children about nine or ten moneths old in which the Childes HEAD is always OVER-GREAT for when other Symptomes are wanting which notwithstanding is seldome or never that One is never absent while the REKETS are present I proceed to the other Signes all of which are rarely missing together or if haply onely in the beginning of the sicknesse With the Head the FACE of the childe hath an appearance of SOBER GRAVITY much differing therein from the looks of other children The NOSE which is the ordinary Purging place of the Head and Brain is dry without distillation of Rheum in those children and is UNPURG'D Those children which lye under this Infirmity are of much more WIT and UNDERSTANDING then others of so small age The TEETH of them if they were first sound turn all ROTTEN and fall away or else they TOOTH very LATE The ARM-BONES become CROOKED The WRIST-JOYNTS and ANCLE-JOYNTS grow KNOPPY called DOUBLE-JOYNTS The FLESH of the whole BODY is PINED The BELLY appears OVERGROWN The RIBS toward the Breast are found VERY THICK and the EXTUBERANCIES named KNOTS The SHIN-BONES of these children RISE very HIGH and appear SHARP HIGH in the MIDDLE and DECLINING ABOVE and BENEATH Their THIGH-BONES and LEG-BONES are CROOKED The BREAST like in shape for sharpness to the BREAST of a FOWLE and KEELE of a SHIP The use of their FEET although when they were yonger they could walk is TAKEN AWAY Lastly not onely their stature by the bending of their Leg and Thigh-bones is shortened but their GROWTH is HINDRED The REMEDIES vulgarly commended against the REKETS I Shall not have any thing to do here with those various Remedies which have been invented against this disease Nor indeed is it easie to set down the greatest part of them many of which and of the best of that sort are compiled in that Learned Treatise De Rachitide But I shall reckon up such Remedies as as are Empirical and go current among the people universally nothing depending upon Reason and Experience together as others do although these also have had their influence upon and gotten credit I know not for what cause among the learned also Of this sort are Three in Number 1. REMEDY is SWINGING such children from side to side TOSSING them UP and DOWN and Turning them TOPSEY TURVEY 2. LIFTING the sick children up by the ARMS 3. Letting them BLOOD BEHINDE the EARE So much at present for the DESCRIPTION of the REKETS and REMEDIES I come now to the other Disease called the KINGS-EVIL the REKETS answering to EVERY SICK HEAD the KINGS-EVIL to the WOUNDS BRUISES and PUTRIFYING SORES described in the fore-named place by Isaiah Which later Disease is not wonderful in it self I confesse for what nation is there which is not and hath not been troubled with that disease which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Latines Struma and Scrofulae but how many nations are there whose Kings have such a Divine vertue given unto them that with the Touch of their Hands they can heal this Evil beside the KINGS and QUEENS of ENGLAND and the FRENCH KING This power God hath bestowed neither upon any Prince nor private person beside Which cure is performed at this time by our ROYALL SOVERAIGNS HANDS he truly acknowledging in the rite of healing GOD to be the AUTHOR thereof in these words I TOUCH and GOD HEALS For as the former Disease the REKETS is a
last words of Ailredus Ammirantibus qui aderant tantam c. declaring that those which saw this cure performed by the King were thereupon amazed seeing so strange an effect do argue that this kinde of cure was not performed by any other King before nor by himself until this time And to this Prince Tagautius a French Writer ascribes the first cure of this disease in such manner in England Institution Chirurg lib. 1. In the next place let us consider the Nature of the Kings-evil which is a Malady most like to the Disease in Isaiah spoken of before consisting in Bruises and putrified and corrupt Sores and to this we may joyn the other part of the Description in Wounds also For what are those apostemous Swellings in this Disease but of the nature of Bruises which contain corrupt blood or 〈◊〉 in them And nothing more common in the Disease then Corrupt and Mattury Ulcers And wounds are properly taken for solution of continuity as Physicians call it without sanics or corruption and from an outward cause so the word here expounded wounds signifies such a solution of continuity and is a part of the disease of that state not of sin but of suffering from cruel men and unjust as in this disease of the Kings-evil where the swellings if the bones be rotten or the corruption cannot otherwise easily break out are oftentimes wounded by the Chirurgians knife Thirdly We are to consider more accurately the Person to whom the Lord first gave this great Gift of Healing the Kings-evil First in respect of his DIGNITY and DESCENT Secondly in regard of his ORDER and PLACE of SUCCESSION Thirdly in the addition of his new SIR NAME Fourthly In respect of his ADVENTURES For all which in few words this may suffice First he was by his DIGNITY King of England and by his DESCENT King Edward III before the Conquest was the natural and legitimate son of Egelred which Egelred was the son of King Edgar and yonger brother unto King Edward II who for that he was innocently murdered by the counsel of his Stepmother as is supposed Queen Alfrith after that he had reigned King a very short time was sirnamed the Martyr according to Ailredus in the said History pag 409. speaking thus Aâ—â—rat interim boati regis martyris Edwardi hujas nostre pricipis patrui praeclara solemnitas qui ab impiis sine culpâ percâ—â—ptus creditur innocentiae martyriâ— coronatus that is to say It was upon the great Feast day of S. Edward King and Martyr Uncle to our Soveraign that now is who for that he was causlesly murdered by wicked 〈◊〉 is beleeved to have received the crown of martyrdome for his innocence Thus much for this K. Edwards DIGNITY and DESCENT who first of our English Kings healed the KINGS-EVIL Secondly for what concerns this King Edward in his ORDER and PLACE of SUCCESSION he being the brothers son as was abovesaid to Edward the Martyr was notwithstanding the Fifth King in ORDER and COURSE of reigning from the former Edward taking both terms inclusively and accounting those Kings which reigned together for one and by the name of one of which Holy Scripture affords us more then one example Thus Edward the Martyr the First Egelred the Second Edmund Ironside the Third Hardicanutus the Fourth Edward the Confessor the Fifth Thirdly for his new SIRNAME the CONFESSOR that he was ordinarily called Edward the Confessor and for his HOLINESSE witnesseth Henry Knighton Canon of Leicester in his first book ch 8. De Eventibus Anglia Iste supradictus rex sanctus Confessor dictus est Edwardus III saith he that is This holy King Edward III was named the Confessor Whereunto adde the words of the Chronicle attributed unto John Brompton Abbot of Jereval pag. 956. of the Edition 1652. Iste rex Edwardus ab infantiâ deum diligens bonas consuetudines suas primarias pro honore terreno non commutavit fed cunctis diebus magis ac magis omni sanctitate casitute humilitate munditiâ Deum sanctam Ecclesiam dilexit panperesque ob amorem Dei tanquam fratres suos charos habuit dilectos nos largis elecmosynis aperto corde voluntate bona saepe respexit plures in Angliâ statuit leges bonas quae pro majari parte adhac in regno tenentur Which in English is This King Edward the Confessor from his childehood fearing God did not change his wonted goodnesse for earthly honour but daily encreased in all kinde of sanctity chastity humility and purity loving God and holy Church and such was his love toward God that he loved the poor tenderly accounting them his brethren and bestowing large and continuall almes upon them in singlenesse of heart and true affection and enacted more good laws in England then were before which for the most part are of force in the kingdome at this day Fourthly In what pertains to King Edward the CONFESSORS ADVENTURES he was by reason of an Usurper forced to shift for himself and to live as a banished man in Normandy for so writes Ailredus De Sancto Edwardo Confessore ac Virgine pag. 366. in the forenamed Volume of Historians Edwardus frater Edmundi filius Edelredi qui in Normanniâ exulabat that is Edward the brother of Edmund Ironside who lived in Normandy in Banishment From which place of his exile he was sent for by the testimony of the History called John Bromptons Abbot of Jerevall not written but set out by him Edwardus à Normanniâ vocatus King Edward saith the Historian was sent for out of Normandy But how welcome the King was and to whom Let us hear the words of Ailredus in the place aforesaid Veniens igitur in Angliam Edwardus ab universo clero populo cum maximâ exultatione suscipitur But when King Edward came into England saith he he was welcomed by all the Clergy and People of the land with all expressions of joy and some of the reasons of that great and universal gladness are in the same place exprest by the same Ailredus in this manner Homo mansuetus magis pace quà m armis regnum protegens habebat animum irae victorem avaritia contemptorem superbiae expertem which is He was a milde Prince who defended his Kingdom more by peace then by war of such a frame of minde that he could bridle his anger hated covetousness and was void of all prids Now I shall by Gods grace shew unto you in what manner it hath pleased Almighty God out of these Two Diseases the REKETS and KINGS-EVIL to foreshew unto us our Publike SINS and MISERIES and the AUTHORS of them and DELIVERANCE from them in One and the SINS we have been publikely guilty of and our MISERIES which we have within these twenty years undergone with the PERSON who shall by GODS mercy deliver and set us free from these long and miserable afflictions in the Other KING CHARLES II our DELIVERER Of which
Two Diseases I will and may affirm justly That if it be probable that the Lord hath been wont to foretell Great Troubles to Nations and Kingdomes and the issue of them and if it be certainly true that in all respects no Nation under Heaven upon whom the Name of God or Christ hath been called hath felt such miseries and so great in so short a space as the English have done in the last twenty years unless they have been predicted by the REKETS and KINGS-EVIL there was never of these great things any Divine Forewarning mentioned in any History Much less was any Prediction like to these but such as did quickly vanish after their appearance in a moment as it were or if any have been of longer continuance their matter and argument hath not been so copious But these Two Diseases the REKETS and KINGS-EVIL have been stable and constant the eldest of which in the Prodigious Healing thereof hath continued six hundred years The former of which as the Leprosie in time of the Law was to typifie the Great Cleanser Christ Jesus our spiritual King who was anointed with oyl of Grace above his fellows and as the Balm of Gilead and Pool of Bethesda were made to foreshew that Merciful Physician who with his blood should heal our sins and miseries and wash us from impurity was determined to shew Gods Providence Power Justiee and Mercy to poor England by the Hand and Government of his anointed Servant K. CHARLES II. Whose Person I say is with the other evils designed in the second Disease the KINGS-EVIL He is that Physician to cure those wounds and putrified sores which our State-Physicians as they have been often called have made and caused The things which are foreshewn are in General our Sins and our Calamities 2. The Authors those that have caused our miseries and 3. he which shall be our Deliverer The method of this discovery is plain for the Persons which have been and shall be the Authors of these contrary effects are plainly described as if it were by their names these in the one this in the other Disease The Sins and Calamities which some have been guilty of and which almost all have suffered are shewn unto us as under the Allegory and Type of Diseases in so plain a manner as that the Diseases are nothing else but in every part and circumstance living pictures of what we have done and suffered and but Metaphorical names of the very things And either they are the very pictures and likeness of the things which I would have them signifie and in this respect we give their natural signification or else they are Metaphorical expressions of such things and bear some good proportion unto the things which I shew they typisie Which Metaphors are not wrested and strained but easie and taken from Holy Scripture and used here in that signification in which they are there used Nor is there any Trope or Figure which is less hard to be understood nor more usual in our mother tongue or the Latine Greek or Hebrew tongues then Metaphors insomuch that for using of names to certain things we do not only commonly but by necessity borrow the names of other things that is use Metaphors Such are these expressions in ordinary and familiar use To be in high or low place that is to be honorable or without honor and it is taken from places high and low in a Physical notion so to be poor when there is little flesh upon any creature is borrowed from that word which properly signifies want of things necessary but is made to signifie being lean c. The SIGNIFICATION of the REKETS in each particular FIrst of all let us examine the Name of REKETS and therein shall we finde the names of those men which have caused our miseries The word Regentes is a Latine word signifying those that are Rulers and Governors whether in the highest or in a lower degree indifferently from rego to rule from which Latine word Regentes is derived a French word and English given to such a Person which exerciseth Regal authority though not a King as the Queen wife to the French King is by courtesie called Queen Regent to distinguish her from the Queen mother as if she had regal authority and like to the King The Vice-royâ— of Scotland are called Regents of Scotland This is the thing Governors taking upon them Regall authority not being Kings and under Kings are meant by this word REKETS with no greater alteration of letters but the very same which hath been found in our English tongue elsewhere For of Regents leaving out the letter n is made Regets as of Tenent which signifieth an opinion maintained by a man is made Tenet signifying the very same thing the letter n being omitted there also both which words we know are used promiscuously at this day And both Regent and Tenent Participles of the present tense and this from Teneo Then in Regets the letter g is turned into k and of Regets is made REKETS which change is also found in our English tongue Ghaucer in the Shipmans Prologue no. 13. saith His barge was called the Maudelain For that vessel which the Poet there and Barclay in his Poeme called The Ship of fools in sundry places calleth a barge we at this day do name as is well known a barke with the like mutation of g into k For the calling of it as we do REKETS pronouncing of it as if it were written with i in the first syllable there is little difference in the sound whether it be written with e or i for the letter i there sounds not full but like the sound of e insomuch that sometimes e is pronounced like as we would have i pronounced in RIKETS written with an i Thus is the letter e ordinarily pronounced in end metre Peter c. and in Devonshire well puteus is uttered as if the vowel and the word were the same with will voluntas Thus in the Name of this Disease are in the first place discovered those men who were the AUTHORS of our late CALAMITIES for according to the Name of the Disease they were not Kings but such as took upon them REGAL AUTHORITY For the Disease is not exprest by a word of the singular number REKET but plurally REKETS since not one single person but many were the causes of our miseries And in this Name the Cause is put for the effect for that those men were the cause of our evils the evils are called by the Names of such who were the Causes of them The Effects of Original Sin are called the Old man in relation to Adam who was the fountain thereof Regeneration and Holiness called the New man directing unto Christ Jesus the worker of it in Holy Scripture by a Metonymy of the Cause put for the Effect Thus our unjust and usurping High Governors being by the Name of the Disease marked out unto us the Nature and Symptomes of the
called the seventh from Adam Jude 14. in which place son is to be understood For Henry VII is the First Margarite his daughter Q to James IV. King of Scotland the Second James V the third Mary Q. of Scotland his daughter the Fourth James VI King of Great Britain the fifth King Charles I the sixth K. Charles II the seventh And this is a good Argument to prove that King Charles II the seventh of a sea earth is not to be understood so to cure the Kings-evil as in a literal sence which some of these and more of his Predecessors have done but in some speciall and mystical way as I have declared And this computation agrees in another account if we reckon by the daughter of Queen Margarite and her issue for Queen Margarite daughter to King Henry VII first married to King James IV had issue James V after married to Archibald Douglas Earl of Angus by him had issue Margarite As King Henry VII the first Margarite Queen to King James IV the second Margarite her daughter by Archibald Earl of Angus and Wife to Matthew Stuart Earl of Lenoix the third Henry Lord Darley her son husband to Mary Queen of Scotland the fourth King James his son King of Great Britain the fifth King Charles I the sixth King Charles II the seventh For which cause I do humbly beseech the Kings Majesty that a Law may be enacted by the King and his Parliament for the deserved punishment of such diabolical impostures as this is which is frequently committed in this land by seventh sons taking upon them the Royal Prerogative of our Kings with the touch of their hands to cure the Kings-evil For the practice here of tends much to the dishonour of God and of our good King and to the delusion of his Majesties Subjects But one thing more touching the Rekets must not be forgotten that is to say the time when that Disease first seized upon Children in this Kingdome and had that name of Rekets given unto it It was the third year after our Royall Soveraigns Nativity or the next unto it when the weekly Bill of Mortality mentioned one to have been buried of the Rekets in the Moneth of May and no mention thereof in any of the said Bils before that time As I have found by search in the Parish Clerks Register kept in their Hall For as the time when Darius took the Babylonian Kingdom is exprest Dan. 5. 31. to be when he was about threescore and two years old that the Jews might observe as judiciously H. Broughton hath noted upon that place that at the time they were carried into captivity which was about the time of Darius his birth the Jews might then know the Lord had a Deliverer born for them So the Nation of England may learn Gods special care that he did not send them the Disease of the Rekets till He was born who should free them from the Miserie 's signifyed thereby and from the Disease it self Hitherto of the Kings-Evil as it pertaineth to the King and Kingdom of England Whereas I said The sins and calamities of this Nation with the Causers of them were pointed at by the Name and Disease of the Rekets and not the Name of our Deliverer but in the other the Kings-Evil yet notwithstanding it doth appear who shall be our Deliverer albeit not in the Name of the Disease or the Symptomes of the Rekets yet in the quality of the Persons which are troubled therewith The Patients so afflicted are Children and no other partly but not principally that we might be left without all pretence of any other inferior cause but be constrained to look up to the Hand which hath smitten us and yet we will not but in despight of reason seek about after this and that cause most vainly Again partly it is to let us understand that the afflictions foreshewn thereby should fall upon the childe of God Thirdly and principally the Rekets is laid on children that by the quality of the person afflicted by it it being the childs disease we may understand him that shall free us from it and what is signified thereby As it is called the Kings-evil not because it is caused by or laid upon but cured by the King So is it called and to be called the Childes disease because a childe shall heal it Surely you will ask me What childe We finde in Holy Scripture that our Saviour hath called himself barely by the name of the Son If the Son shall make you free saith our Savior you shall be free indeed And since we finde that God doth communicate his own Name to Princes calling them Gods and hence it seems to have been first used among Princes to name themselves in the plural number though single by the word we and us imitating as it were the Lord Almighty who is One and Three he doth seem to express by this word the childes Disease the Disease of the childe above all other children the childe a son of the King After which manner the son and daughter of the King of Spain is called infante and infanta that is the son and daughter childe as being well enough exprest alone to understand what son and daughter is meant thereby So when we say the childes Diseases 〈◊〉 may be well understood that Disease which the Childe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above all children that is the Kings son shall heal In which expression of childe is also shewn first that our King shall be when this is done a childe albeit not according to the vulgar use of the word in our English tongue yet according to the signification of that word which in the Hebrew signifieth sometimes a childe in years else where a yong man although not very properly by the Translators rendred also a childe where in Daniel it signifieth a yong man calling the three companions of Daniel three children that he shall then be yong in years How great a matter of comfort is hereby administred unto us that are the people of the land that the Lord is so pleased that the King shall not differ the making us a happy nation to his old age but go about it and perfect the Lords work while he is yong Secondly here is an Argument of Almighty Gods great Power and Mercy that he should frame his Majesties heart to clemency as not to suffer him although his Royal Father was murthered to break out in cruel and unjust revenge It is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes And lest any man should thus object This Disease of the Rekets is common to women children as well as to men as that it should not seem thereby to point at a cure to be performed by the King in regard of the sex as to be performed by the son more than the daughter of a King let him take a view of those great Types of our Savior the Prophets whereof although the most part were men yet