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
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
troubled therewith and the significations of them so far as the Lord hath enabled me I have also examined the Name of the Disease and found out the Mystery thereof but although the REKETS be the general name to all degrees and sorts of this Malady yet when the diseased are troubled with such JOYNTS and RIBS as they call DOUBLE this they call the TENT See Arnoldus Bootius in libello De Affectibus Omissis in Cap. De Tabe Pectoreâ If you then ask me What means this Name I answer By a Metonymy of the Adjunct it signifyeth and expresseth Souldiers and Armies For Castra the Latine word by interpretation Tents among the Romans is very often put to express an Army or Armies in the Field where Tents were used as among the Holy Writers Tents are put for Habitations and Houses because in former times the Israelites dwelt in Tents and sometimes Shepberds dwellings because their habitations in the Fields were constantly such But because among us here is no use of Tents but in time of War it must signifie naturally according to its Name and doth confirm that such Joynts were in signification a combining of Generals and Commanders with Souldiers of Parl. with Souldiers and Fortifying by Lands with Soldiers and though by Sea there is no use of Tents yet the Denomination is given to all for the outward likeness of the Types although proper but to Two of them and that not without example as the Crown and Sceptre are used in speech when by them we mean nothing but a Kingdome Thus the Wise God knoweth every word in our Tongues and when men or women give names to things they know not what nor why doth oftentimes so overrule them that they speak the Truth in a Mystery So did the High-Priest not knowing what he spake prophesy of our Saviour The MYSTERY of the THREE GENERAL REMEDIES AFter the Mystery of the REGETS and TENT and of each SYMPTOME thereof the three forenamed Vulgar REMEDIES are not without their Mystery The first Remedy is SWINGING such children from side to side and TOSSING them up and down and TURNING them Topsey Turvey This is ordinarily taken to be and used as a Remedy against that Disease but careful observation and experience teacheth the contrary that it is vain Thus for a Remedy against our evil Regents we were promised when we should change from a Kingdom to a Common-wealth we should have all amended But that then failing we were made to beleeve how such a Protector would indeed perform what others had promised and when he had deceived we must have a piece and the worst piece of a House of Commons to over-rule us who pleaded the Justice of their own cause as the rest did although the people never received Justice from any of them And was not this Tossing England from side to side and up and down When we were sometime under a King and Parliament we were up when we were subject to a Few or One of our Fellow-Subjects we were down At last we were turned Topsey Turvey when the Heels the Souldiers possest the place and RULE of our Superiors the King and Parliament And this was a False Remedy The Second REMEDY is the Lifting up such sick children by the Armes The meaning of which thing will by Gods grace be understood if we remember in what sense I declared to you from Holy Scripture and the reason thereof Armes are to be taken which is in signification of Armies This Remedy Lifting the sick children up by the Armes is a False Remedy and never used with success But it is much to be observed that above all other Remedies which are wont to be applied to such children there are none so much abhorred by them as this for when it is done they will complain and cry out The Mystery hereof is that when the childe of England should be lifted up by the Armes at which time the weight of the body depends upon the Armes that is the Armies and at that time the Armes also are lifted up and lifting up signifieth raising to honor Psal 113. 7. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill ver 8. That he may set him with Princes even with the Princes of his people The poor Patients which were troubled with the Regents would least of all endure and most of all complain against the Tyranny of the Soldiers and Army bearing rule that is the Lifting up by and of the Armes This was fulfilled to the utmost when the Agitators of the Army pluckt and threw out of the Parliament house that Piece remaining and left of the Whole House of Commons and for a short space under the greatest indignation of the people ruled alone The Third REMEDY generally famous but False is the letting of the diseased children Blood Behinde the Ear. And how true it hath been in the Antitype that the Head our Royal Head our Dear Lord the KING should for a pretended cure of our miseries be let blood behinde the Eare that is in the Neck by cutting off his Head to the encrease of our miseries I abhorre to think and much the more because it was plotted and acted by men which were Professors of the austerest religion But let not the Profession of Religion be branded for this cause Were not those that had the chiefest hand in our Lord Christs death one of his Disciples and the Priests Is not he that hath been guilty of so much of the blood of the Saints that the City of Rome is become drunk therewith counted the most Holy Father the Pope and with him the Fathers of the Clergy This is the craft of the old Serpent when he cannot destroy the Church by open enmity to endeavour it by seeming friends But for the real Cure and true REMEDIES of the Disease we call the REKETS as we take it according to the letter it may for good cause be accounted wonderful in that regard also and therein like unto the Leprosie The Leprosie was a Disease not curable by any Art or Power of man For thus answereth Ahab unto the King of Syria who sent unto him desiring that he would heal his servant Naaman of the Leprosie concluding the curing of that Disease to be a Divine work above mans strength 2 King 5. 7. Am I God to kill and to make alive that this man doth send to me to recover a man of his Leprosie To which purpose and more plainly speaketh our Saviour Luk. 4. 27. Many Lepers were in Israel in the time of Elizeus the Prophet and none of them was cleansed saving Naaman the Syrian Even so neither is the malady of the Rekets curable by any Art or Physician upon the Earth although I doubt not all men both Learned and unlearned beleeve the contrary perswaded from what they see that divers children afflicted very much with this Disease at length become found and perfect But although it cannot