The true Portraiture of the Right Honourable ISAAC PENNINGTON Lord Major of the City of London A TRVE DECLARATION And just COMMENDATION OF THE Great and Incomparable care of the Right Honourable ISAAC PENNINGTON Lord Major of the City of LONDON in advancing and promoting the Bulwarkes and Fortifications about the City and Suburbs With a Vindication of his Honour from all the malicious aspersions of Malignants Est major quam cui possâ—t ventosa nocere Turba malignorum Published and presented to his Honour by W. S. London Printed for R. Harper and are to be sold at â—is Shop in Smithfield 1643. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE Isaack Pennington Lord Major of the most Famous City of London Right Honourable YOur Honor being the chiefest Treasurer of the Weal-publicke of this City I amongst the subscriptions and contributions of well affected persons have in this Booke like the Widow offered into your Treasury but only two mites of Service and Duty and for it doe most humbly pray your gracious favour and your Honours good acceptance I know it will appeare strange unto some who if they dislike my industry and distaste my zeale I esteem them only tanquam pedarios sensores trampling on the truth of the Cause and carrying their eyes in their heeles and not in their heads kicking and spurning at all zealous and well affected Patriots But those malignant humours are so farre from me and my intents that in publishing this booke I have scattered abroad the fire of my zeale to shew it selfe in its owne shine and placed my happinesse in your Honours approving my endeavours I have verily cast into your Treasury as much as I could and for my part doe judge it every mans part to depart from all where hee oweth all that is for the good and safety of the Common-wealth and the City which to advance your Honour hath and doth most Religiously and stoutly endeavour To this I can only adde my dayly prayers and will still power them forth to the God of all glory and mercy that his manifold and dayly blessings may be multiplied upon your Honour for your great viligilancy and care over this great City in these imminent times of Danger while I desire your approbation of this testimony of my zeale to your Honour and presume to subscribe myselfe your Honours most humble servant W. S. My Lord THE happy maintaining of truth in His Majesties Dominions is the great and most honourable employment of all Subjects but especially of those unto whom the good of the Subject is in a more peculiar manner intrusted that are so many Patres Patriae so many Fathers of their Countrey to dispose and defend the Rights Priviledges and Interests of their Countrey and the liberties of the Subject such are the two honourable Houses of Parliament and all Magistrates who ought to comply with His Majesty so farre as His Majesty doth comply with truth and truth is defined to be conformitas rei cum intellectu the conformity of any thing with the understanding Now in matters of Religion the will of God is the object of the understanding so that if the intellect or understanding be not rightly informed and conformed to Gods revealed will and word that Religion is false and erronious and such are the Idolatrous opinions of the Papists being conformed only to the will of humane traditions and inventions altogether repugnant to the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles And if the Delinquents who now swarme in Armes about the King have by force and evill counsell raised an unhappy division under fair pretences of Religion which they intend to overthrow and will maintaine Idolatry to be truth the violation of all Lawes divine and humane to be truth sint omnia protinus alba let all things even blacke it selfe be called white But if these Delinquents and Malignants did in the first place sow private seeds of dissention betweene the King and His Parliament in vulgus spargere semina and afterward disperst them amongst the vulgar people if they by pernicious counsell drew first His Majesties affection then His Person away from the Parliament then banded themselves into a great Army against the Parliament against the Subject and most especially against the Protestant Religion whose ruine they had formerly contrived and finding that all their intentions were by divine providence blowne away like the venemous worke of the Spider in publicum exitiosi nihil spei nisi per discordias habent tamen Deus Rex pretiosa nomina praet exuntur they are Tacitus his words with little alteration these men destructive to the Common-wealth had no hope to bring about their Idolatrous and wicked intents but by pretending those pretious names of God and the King as standing in their defence when indeed they oppose both seeing none can stand for God and the King truly and lawfully unlesse he stand also for the good of the Subject of the maintenance of the Protestant Religion Truth doth not consist in any duality of good and evill of right and wrong of reall and counterfeit of verball and substantiall but like a dye throwne by the hand of adversity or powerfull opposition doth alwaies set upon a square it is one and the same still like it selfe and therefore indeed it is good because it is alwaies one thus with God who is all goodnesse there is no shadow of alteration or changing but the Divel and his workes are multiplicia fallacia and therefore malignantia so the malignants of these times give out that they fight for God but indeed their meaning is fallacious for they intend being delinquents to keepe themselves from the censure of the Law they would erect againe their superstitious Idolatry and make the land groane againe under monopolies and arbitrary taxations they would enjoy the liberty of their owne wicked dissolutenesse and would have no reformation of Religion lest they should be compelled to a conformation thereunto and therefore stand neither for God nor the King but for their own manifold private ends and are malignants to God the King and the whole State of the Kingdome The question being thus stated between the malignants and those who stand for the maintenance of the true Gospel and the King as farre as he stands for the truth and is conformable thereunto it doth appeare how and by whom the Kingdome is now distracted the truth sheweth it selfe we are conformable to God first seeking his glory and then the honour of the King who cannot be the Kinst of malignants and true Protestants and therefore we are true obedient subjects unto his Majesty in endeavouring to divide those evill counsellours from him and to bring the King and his Subjects to a religious unity consisting of many parts as the Laws divine and humane the just priviledge of the Subject by a free and legall government together with the priviledges of Parliament all which these malignants endeavour utterly to subvert and destroy Et si
hoc in arido quid in vindi If this be done ex facto by the children of this world unto an evill and malignant end may not his Majesties great Councell the Parliament fas est ab hoste doceri ex jure for the undoubted good of the children of light and the honour of his Majesty defend the true Protestant Religion the Kings lawfull Power the just liberties of the Subject and the priviledges of Parliament and may not Magistrates your Honour being the chiefe moderator and governour of this honourable City comply with the Parliament in standing for the glory of God the defence of the King and the maintenance of divine and humane Rights It is most certaine that this honourable Citie of London though much distracted and disquieted hath in her greatest feares and jealousies Anchora fluctuanti Civitati the Anchor of your Honours wisedome to keep the Citie though tost on the waves of dissention fast to the faith of Christ alter optimus Tiphis another and an excellent governour and chief Master of the Cities ship so that as Lelius for wisedome Metellus for piety Aristides for justice were all commended in Roman Histories so the ancient images of excellent men were but paternes and resemblances of mans contracted and compleat vertues united in your Honour being the Atlas of the Citie bearing the weight and management of all civill affaires on your Honours shoulders And therefore though magnanimity only was attributed to Cyrus onely modesty to Agesilaus onely wisedome to Themistocles skill to Philip and boldnesse to Brasidus yet Alexander as Plutarch reporteth was furnished and full fraught with all these So your honourable Lordship is known to be magnanimous in standing for the defence of the true religion modest and courteous towards delinquents and offenders mercifull and compassionate to the distressed wise and judicious both in politicke and divine matters and couragiously bold maugre all opposition to stand in defence of the true Protestant Religion the policie of the Citie wherof you are the governour and not only Major but Optimus and yet such is your Honours magnanimous patience that you are put or diverted from your resolutions by the left handed and popular voice your honour can as Tacitus saith aequo animo laceratam ferre existimationem your Honour can oppose the malignitie of the times with an invincible patience and magnanimity knowing that the aim of your desires is the truth and glory of God But what doe I speake of passive vertue Your actions carry in them the most lively portraiture of an able honest minde and though your Honour may thinke nec ille te novit qui laudavit nec tu illum yet we should be all ashamed quasi canes latratu accipere quem non agnoscimus to bark at those we doe not know yet what Schollar nay what Plebeian can bee ignorant of your great care and vigilancie for the Citie for though they watch in vain if God keep not the Citie yet the eyes of the Cities have been infallible witnesses of your good propension and inclination to the safety of the Citie so that wee may say Come and see the legible characters of the honourable Maiors fidelity love and loyalty to the Citie in taking order by direction from the great Councell of the Honourable Parliament for the building of those great strong and serviceable fortifications neere and about the Citie of London Speque fideque inquit Majora videbis The Protestant faith and the goodnesse of the cause now undertaken promiseth greater workes For Causa jubet superos meliora sperare secundas And here I wish that I had as many eyes as Argus to discover the great cost bestowed upon these workes they are raised to a great height according to the best advantages of Geometricall proportions there is earth heaped upon earth compacted together according to the dimensions of Art so that every Fortification pondere tuta suo est is strong by the weight and worth of the work My Lord I will not here set before you the absolute Modell of these fortifications which are well enough knowne unto your Lordship and how many emergent reasons to magnifie and praise your Lordship for your fidelious care of the City My Lord actions are acknowledged to be the essence of vertue wherein it consists these workes proceed from the mighty working of Gods Spirit in your heart from your piety and constant resolution to defend the Protestant Religion and your constancie in opposing those malignants that would destroy the King the Kingdome and the Parliament your Honour nay all the Citie if they could get accesse or make an in rode thereinto But your Honour hath in these dangerous times when ruine and destruction doth threaten the Kingdome and especially the Citie when the true Protestant Religion is deserted by many and scandalized by other Malignants your Honour doth not respect the opposition of Man though dressed with the flourish and pomp of Majesticall words and yet herein lies your greatest that you ascribe all praise unto God the Lord of Hoasts which worketh with wonderfull wisedome and bringeth excellent things to passe Religion is not unlike the soule in the body of man for in the whole Common-wealth it is or should be wholly and every part thereof tota in toto tota in qualibet parte it hath shewed your Honour the way for common good and it should direct all the parts of the Common-wealth to bee compliable for the good of the Common-wealth and not to hang backward when any matter of cost or charge propounded for the defence and fortification of the Citie for all such are Hostes intra muros enemies within the walls Every Magistrate especially Maiors of Cities are to reduce the Citie into one Monarchicall government to take care of it pace quam bello for a wise man is a rich man a very King and an Emperour and ought to take care of the people under his charge as if the King himselfe were present For Monarchy hath severall parts subordinate thereunto whose ends are the same namely to distribute justice both in reward and punishment unto the deserving to see the Lawes executed and by them to keep the subject from wrong or molestation But if Lawes are silent and a Citie as this of London be threatned by a malignant party as it is now so that En ecce venit Rex cum siccariis behold the King and his Cavaliers are comming is the daily voice and imagination of the people then the Maior as your Honour hath most piously done ought to fortifie the walls of Jerusalem to look that strength may bee provided to oppose the enemy And herein your care and vigilancy have declared themselves Your Honour hath heard how other Cities and great Townes have been plundered by the malignant party and how earnestly they demonstrate their cruelty upon the famous City of London but your Honour hath taken advice of the Parliament a way to oblige posterity
unto your Honour For though we have indeed none that fighteth for us but thou O God yet these Bulworkes and Fortifications made round about the Citie shall glorifie your Name to posterity shall make your honour to bee accounted the Defender of true Religion and the preserver of the whole body of this Citie Men women and children shall and are glad to see such fortifications raised for the defence of the Citie and doe blesse your Honour for your great care of the City The Sleepers in Sardos Arist Phys when they awaked thought they had passed no time but we shall be more drowsie and sottish then they if wee now open not our eyes to acknowledge how happy wee are in your Lordships care and vigilancy over the Citie and therefore I may say by a British Palingenesia as Hypolitus was called Virbius so your Honour may be stiled Londini civitatis Vlysses Themistocles or by any other name famous for loving and providing for the securitie and safety of the City wherein they were governours The Citie doth acknowledge it selfe to have been happy in many great Benefactors some whereof have erected Schooles and endowed them for the propagation of good literature Others have made their bounty flow out of Aquaducts and Conduits Some have founded Hospitalls for maimed impotent people and given them large revenews but what hath their ends of their actions been To be accounted famous and munificent hiding their sins under the roof of an hospitall and it may be these great and glorious workes were but splendida peccata shining sinnes But your Lordship moved onely with a right godly affection to the cause of Religion hath provided for the safety and protection of this honourable Citie of London These out-workes speak your love to the Cities good and preservation to the true essence of Religion to the Parliament and the whole Kingdome and Estate so that it may be said Major es quam cui posâ—it maligna nâ—cere Turba Xenophon calleth Magistrates the Kings eyes the Kings cares shoulders feet and hands not because they should see nothing but what the King pleases and like and approve of that or that they should heare nothing but the evill counsell of malignants or that they should catch and snatch one from the other or carry fire in the one hand and water in the other or with the one to offer a gift and with the other a stab to whom the King pleases altera manu panem altera lapidem but that Magistrates eyes eares shoulders feet and hands should be mutuall helpers one to the other for the common good and publicke service of the whole State and herein your Honour hath shewed your selfe an excellent Magistrate complying with the Parliament in all matters that concerne the publicke administration of the Common-weale so that you have lookt upon the present state of this Citie and Religion with the cleare eye of justice you have heard of the great pressures which the countrey hath endured by the cruelty of the Cavaliers you have to the discouragement of malignants on the shoulders of fortitude bore and suffered their false aspersions and aequo animo lacer atam ferre existimationens is as Tacitus saith the true note and property of a wise man and your honour hath in your present Magistracie walked uprightly having clean and pure hands nay strong hands for your Honour hath been the chiefest raiser and promoter of the workes and fortifications round about the Citie of London you saw the times were dangerous and that the Kings Cavaliers gâ—ped after nothing more then to get London and make it a prey to the supplying of their necessities This made the Parliament and your Lordship to take order for the fortification of the Citie to prevent the malice of our enemies who marching under the name of the King would destroy both the Citie and the Kingdome Nature witty in policie hath given to all creatures a naturall instinct to fortifie and preserve themselves ad conservationem specierum the earth hath mountaines to keep off the fierce invasions of the North wind the Heavens are fortified 〈◊〉 so that no malignant vapours can ascend higher then the midle region and man is fortified by his inward vertues and spirituall graces nurus adherens esto uil consoire sibi your Lordship is thus fortified in your owne person but this City which is the heart of the Kingdome is by your Lordships care and vigilancy fortified with warlike workes whereby your great care and love to the City doth most evidently appeare Even from the beginning of this cruell Civill Warre your Honour being armed with the compleat armour of Righteousnesse have cheerfully stood in defence of the City and the true Protestant Religion and the whole State wherein the Parliament and your Honour have procceded with an invincible constancie and magnanimity for in magnis rebus 〈◊〉 nunquam tentes aut perfice matters of State are not slightly to be intended but perfected and I beleeve that all the honourable Members of the Houses thinke every one of themselves are employed consulere de Religione incommunem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 salutem and how can this be better manifested then by fortifying the City on every side with Bulwarks and fortifications and it is the Cities happinesse now it these great times of danger that the Parliament and your Honour have so carefully provided for the Cities safety which thing pleased wel Marcus Furius Camillus Dictator of Rome who seeing all the Senate and Subjects of Rome not onely accord in the common execution of each office for common good of all but willingly and lovingly both highest and meanest to provide for the security of the City which he said was happy si tales vires in Magistratu habeat in salutem Civitatis tam concordibus junctos animis the saying of Camillus is now verified concerning the City of London the Parliament and your Honour together with all well affected Subjects in the City have complied together to fortifie this famous City from the imminent danger of the enemy and more especially the City must looke on your Honour as the rationale propugnaculum Civitatis who by counsell advice and wisdome are a rationall fortification to this City defending it by your piety and true profession of the Gospel for God often passeth over the punishment of the wicked for the righteous sake and moreover you have together with the Parliament provided for the generall security of the City that children which shall be borne hereafter may as soone as they get their tongues pray for your Honour for should the enemy get entrance into this City there would be nothing but ruine and desolation in the streets thereof while men women and children were sacrificed to the fury of the sword your Honour therefore deserveth the Cities unfained approbation and praise for raising and advancing those praise-worthy workes and fortifications round about the City of London if they regard their children wives or any thing that is deare unto them they must blesse your Lordship who by your pious provision for the City and your pious profession of the true Protestant Religion doe shine like the Sunne in his sphere of the City and are therein the high treasurer of the Weale-publicke your authority being beautified with justice in executing Lawes with wisdome for determining right with mercy and compassion for releeving the distressed and this is the glorious abundant treasure of your honourable minde which God hath fortified with graces and illuminated with understanding for the common good and benefit of this honourable City FINIS