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
should be the Lords Christ our King so doth the REKETS point at the Lords Anointed to be the Healer thereof our King But my Reader peradventure will say This being all granted to be true and that all this must be performed by a King yet it still remaineth doubtfull by what King all these things shall be wrought The resolving of which doubt by necessity brings me to examine the other strange Disease the KINGS-EVIL These two Diseases do portend and foreshew one and the same thing the greatness of our calamities Both and that we shall be delivered from them through the mighty Hand of the most merciful God For is it not a very wonderfull thing and above the thoughts of man among all other Infirmities of the REKETS perfectly cured in like manner to see and consider the crooked bones of Arms and Legs to become straight of their own accord Albeit the Wise-man saith Eccles 1. 15. That which is crooked cannot be made straight Touching the cure of the Struma no man of judgement can deny the Hand of God therein Which Two Maladies as in part they do agree so do they also thus differ the REKETS beside the Disease sheweth who should be the Authors of our evils under the name of the Disease the KINGS-EVIL who should cure us with the Title of his Dignity Again the REKETS explaineth Fully what the KINGS-EVIL delivereth more Briefly and this is to be done by one Person our Dread Soveraign who by the Grace of God given unto him as he healeth the Bruises and Putrified Sores of those whom he toucheth will take away the Falsness of Doctrine and Blasphemy in Religion Injustice Oppression in the State and wicked living from all Which may well be signified by corruption and putrid Ulcers by a Metaphorical name because these things proceed from a Diseased Soul are loathsome and odious to God and man and stink in their nostrils To prove therefore King CHARLES II and no other to be that King which shall perform those great things in England it will be necessary to shew this unto you by Example of the Leprosie and thereof who was or were the First Cleansers and who the last that so in like manner Who he was who first cured the KINGS-EVIL being known we may know the last and he that was presaged thereby The First Cleanser of the Leper was the Priest as appears in Lev. 14. But the Person foreshewn thereby was our Saviour Christ a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech From which Example of the Leprosie two Rules are to be laid down 1. That the Type and Antitype be both alike 2. That there be as much and more in the Antitype than in the Type in the most perfect Antitype As in the Precedent of the Leprosie The Type and Antitype were Both to be Priests and not so only I speak of the Persons but lest it might be thought that any of the Priests the Sons of Aaron succeeding the First Cleanser before Christ might be the Person prefigured therefore a more excellent Priest was to be still expected not such an one as offered up Buls and Goats like the Typical Priests but himself once for all According to which two Rules our Dear Lord King CHARLES II is the Antitype unto the First Curer of the KINGS-EVIL But because Christ had many Types of himself which being put together did so describe him that no man might mistake him when he was come for he was not fully prefigured by Priests but partly by Prophets by their foretelling their raising the dead as Elias and Elisha did c. by Solomons wisedom Jonas's being in the Fishes belly c. But our Lord the King having no such Types of him beside the First healer of the KINGS-EVIL as our Saviour had therefore his whole Type is pourtrayed in Edward the Confessor Secondly it will follow that more must be in the Cure of our Soveraign the Antitype then was in King Edward the Type from the second Rule lest some other of the Kings of England might be thought Edwards Antitype but in the outward and bodily cure they are alike and equal therefore that more in the Antitype must be of those fore-named things signified thereby I now will shew you according to the First Rule a Full Equality betwixt King Edward and King Charles so that no other King but King Charles II can be the parallel to his Royal Predecessor King Edward the Confessor King Edward was banished his Countrey so was our Liege Lord King Charles King Edward was sent for to come and govern thus was our Dread Soveraign humbly entreated by Both his Houses of Parliament to Assume the Government of his Kingdomes and was sent for And how welcome our King was unto the Clergy who expected restitution into their places and to all Ministers which before expected to be deprived of all maintenance as they were threatned and how far above the welcome of King Edward the Confessor to his who felt and feared no such evil the different reasons will plainly determine And with what gladness of heart his Subjects received King Charles after their intolerable oppressions and never otherwise likely to be removed no man can doubt nor can tongue express but their Presents their Triumphs their Attendance their incessant Shouts and Acclamations as in a continued Street from Dover to London of yong and old to see their King do plainly testifie But above all King Edward the Confessor was the Son of Edward the Martyr even so our Gracious K. Charles the Confessor was Son to King Charles the Martyr And lest it trouble my Reader to imagine how Edward the Confessor may be called the son of Edward the Martyr since in property of speech and by general consent he is not the Son but Nephew and brothers son to Edward the Martyr All this notwithstanding Edward the Confessor by the Phrase of Holy Scripture which we for the most part follow and ought to follow in this Divine interpretation is the Son of Edward the Martyr For we reade 1 Chro 3 16. And the sons of Joakim Jeconiah his son Zedekiah his son when indeed and in nature Zedekiah was not the son but the uncle of Jeconiah but cause Zedekiah was Jeconiahs Successor he is called his son as by the same rule Edward the Confessor being Successor to Edward the Martyr is called Edward the Martyrs Son And yet a farther reason thereof common to both is That in orderly and legal Succession the son of either ought to have succeeded his Father that is of Jeconiah and Edward the Martyr Here likewise is brought in the second Rule in some part Edward was stiled the Martyr only as it is declared because he was murdered innocently Edward was sir-named the Confessor because he was a Pious and Charitable man and enacted good Laws But for far better cause is our Royal Soveraign King Charles I named the Martyr which name his Majesty took unto himself is
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
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
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
our own not Army but ARMIES because in Two places by SEA and LAND which ought to be and were at first straight and INTIRE but started aside and revolted from their former integrity and over-ruled those which gave them their power and put the sword into their hands Which was most conspicuous when by the Army and the bare name thereof no particular accusers once named the principal in the Parliament of such who stood for their King and Countrey were seditiously impeached of high crimes The WRIST-JOYNTS and ANCLE-JOYNTS become KNOPPY and are commonly called DOUBLE-JOYNTS Here the Armes are joyn'd with the Hands in such a firmness that the joynts thereof are of a double strength that is to say of a much greater The HAND is the more noble and principal member is proper to man alone receiveth the WEAPON and WIELDETH it and secondly giveth DIRECTION to come and go and what should be done as the Psalmist expreâ—â—â—th it Psa 123. 2. Behold as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress shewing how by the hand and beck thereof direction is given from masters and such as have as great power unto their servants and those which are under their authority Moreover by this knoppiness of the joynt strength is encreased in that part Which if we take together an Arme and Hand most strongly compacted it designeth most aptly That both the Armes that is Armies by Sea and Land should in an extraordinary manner combine and unite with their chief Commanders and Generals which do receive and mesnage the sword unto whom as into the Hand it was committed Those Generals Major Generals c were the Hands to direct to bid come and go and shew what should be done All the Forces under them receive direction from them and obey their commands It farther signifieth by this unnatural doubling and knoppiness of the joynt above what is by nature necessary and should be that certain of the Generals and chief Commanders would in such a manner unite with the Souldiers as it appears when they so strongly combined with the Armies that neither the Laws of God nor man and oaths of fidelity made by them for the King and Parliament could separate them or divide them in their unlawful combination against them whom they had sworn to obey Beside the Greatnesse of Power the PINED BODY of the patient and the BELLY OVER-GROWN do infer that these our Heads should get unto themselves another kinde of greatness becoming Great in Wealth and Riches while the Body of the Commonwealth pined away and waxed exceeding poor the word poor in our mother tongue signifying properly want of necessaries and metaphorically want of flesh yet so ordinary is this Metaphor that it is even to women and children so common and so well known as if it had been said lean and well may these two be signified by that one word because one is ordinarily an effect of the other But the Common-wealth the Body which is no other in persons then the Mystical Body of Christ our Head ought to have a proportionable nourishment with the Head even as it is in the Mystical Body the Church in spiritual things for of it S. Paul speaketh Eph. 4. 16. that it is fitly joyned from the Head to the Members and maketh encrease of the body to edification So ought the Body of the Commonwealth receive meet and proportionable nourishment with and from the Head The BELLY ought to prepare nourishment for not steal it from the BODY But how contrary hereunto have our Heads robb'd our Body and that which ought to have prepared nourishment for it not consumed it all the Belly growing full and swelling and left England in a starving condition For whatever was pretended by them their Belly was their God The ANCLE-JOYNTS likewise in this Disease grow KNOPPY and are DOUBLE as the former the Mystery will better be discovered when we shall come to examine the nature of the Thigh-bones and Leg-bones and what is the meaning of their being crooked Whereas the RIBS of such diseased children about the ends and toward the breast are found very THICK and therefore named DOUBLE and the extuberancies named KNOTS and by this means as the fore-named Wrist-joynts and Ancle-joynts are made necessarily much stronger thereby then such as are without such a thickness Consider this which follows RIB doth typifie in the REKETS no other thing then what the same word doth signifie in the Holy Text without any forced interpretation application or any other way or manner of straining thereof Consider therefore the words of the Prophet Dan. 7. 5. And behold another Beast a Second was like a Bear and raised up it self on one side and it had Three LIBS in the mouth of it between the teeth thereof and they said thus much unto it Arise devour much flesh Three coasts of the world saith Learned Broughton from the place which before it held West North and South as it is declared Cha. 8. 4. and it is to be expounded of the Persian Monarchy and of the conquests of the Persian Kings In which place it is plain enough that RIB is the mysticall name of a COAST as our English name COASTS is nothing in name and thing properly but RIBS from the Latine For in the utmost parts of Kingdomes and confines of Territories are placed the chiefest forces and strength to defend the inward parts of such Dominions as the RIBS are made of strong bone to defend the Heart and vitall inward parts By the DOUBLING of the RIBS in this Disease is not only foreshewn the doubling of the Forces on the Land-coasts which hath been fullfilled evidently before our eyes in our Castles and Citadels which those Usurpers thought to secure themselves by but specially is signified the great strengthening of the land by an extrordinary great Navy of Ships in which they placed their greatest confidence And it is held for so great an advantage which we of this Nation enjoy above all others the strength and multitude of our Ships that it is almost grown into a Proverb to say The wals of England are wals of wood So significatively the Knops of the RIBS are called KNOTS which is a kinde of fast and sometime indissoluble binding of a thing noting unto us that by thus guarding the Seas with such a multitude of strong Ships they judged they were so fast and so secure that all the world could not undoe them And so much have they boasted The reason farther why Ships are signified by Ribs is because Ribs do much resemble Ships in the crookednesse of their figure Virgil giving an Epithet to Ships calleth them Georgic lib. 1. curvae carina and in Aeneid lib. 6. curvae puppes that is crooked Ships in respect both of their keeles and sides And as the English word RIB is given to Ships so the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is
be denied that many children have recovered from the Rekets to a soundness in every part yet is the conclusion false To assert thereupon That this Disease hath been so cured by Physical Medicines And the seeming contradiction is thus reconciled to the truth by example of the Leprosie No Leper was cleansed saving Naaman the Syrian saith our Saviour in the place abovesaid yet we read under the Law a Prescription of the Rites and Ceremonies to be used in Cleansing of Lepers under this Title Lev. 14 2. This shall be the Law of the Leper in the day of his cleansing Moreover it is acknowledged by the words of Almighty God that in the Legal times Lepers were cleansed ver 3. And the Priest shall go forth out of the Camp saith the Lord to Moses and the Priest shall look and behold if the plague of Leprosie be healed in the Leper Hence by comparing the words in Moses with the speech of our Saviour Christ the one acknowledging Lepers to have been healed and the Form thereupon of their cleansing prescribed the other denying any then to have been cleansed but Naaman the Syrian we are taught to finde aneasie way out of this appearing Labyrinth and which doth exactly fit the cure of the REKETS by looking up to God by whose hand we must know many untoucht by man were healed although by mans Art and Power until our Saviour came no Leper was cured It is most apparent to our eyes that very many children labouring under the REKETS have recovered in their Limbs Ribs Heads and Body but such as enjoy this mercy are not made partakers thereof by Physical helps For we deceive our selves while we think whatsoever is applied to such children in such a time in which it pleaseth the Lord to be in healing them to be the very causes of their recovery As it cometh to pass that such medicines which are applied unto persons sick of Agues or Toothe-ache although most of them are known to be of no force against those griefs at all if in the use of such Applications the Agues and Tooth-ache leave such Patients which ever almost sooner or later go away of themselves are famed for most approved Helps against the said Diseases Whence ariseth such a multitude of False Remedies against those and other Griefs And if it be peradventure of little credit most confidently to protest mine own experience which here I do of the Remedies against the Rekets were it a Naturall Disease and such as those which write of it report it to be applied by me before the Lord gave me this knowledge to have been without the least success let the anxious Reader consider and weigh that some have been healed without the least Application of Natural means others have died of that disease others have retained the Symptomes still against all use of means Of the First kinde of whom Almighty God is pleased blessed be his Name to make my little Son a welcome Example Wherefore by the way I advise every man in the fear of the Lord and for the foregoing Reasons to abstain from Humane help in the REKETS as the Jews did most religiously in their Leprosie and to implore Divine assistance by Prayer and Fasting For as in the Leprosie when our Saviour was come and performed his work he came about of our Redemption first leprous persons were healed afterward all Leprosie vanished so when He our Gracious K. CHARLES II who now is come hath performed the work he is come to do of Reformation the Disease of the REKETS will be heard of no more in the Land But this may not be expected from our Royal Soveraign now at his first coming into his Kingdom until that shall be accomplished which undoubtedly by Gods grace will be for till the things typified are come the Types will remain Thus the Leprosie and the cure thereof did so designe our Saviour the Physician of Soul and Body and so point at him as it were with the finger that unto the Baptist who sent to know of him whether he were the Messias he gave no other answer but bid them tell John that the Lepers were cleansed c. yet notwithstanding was not the Leprosie taken away till after his Passion when the Type was fulfilled His Royal Majesty shall take away the Disease of the Rekets in two kindes First the Typified Rekets and each Symptome thereof removing from us that which he hath put his Royal Hand to already the Pining of our even famished Body the Common-wealth so that betwixt the Head and Body there shall be a due and meet Proportion By whose Gracious Favour neither the Doubling of the Joynts of Armies with their Generals and Commanders nor of the Parliament with their Substitutes not the Ribs doubled in multiplying Ships to guard our Seas or Garrisons to fortisie our Land-Coasts These will not be needful The Lord will restore unto us as he promised the Jews by his Prophet our Judges as at the first and our Counsellors both Houses of Parliament as in the beginning The Two Legs Houses of Parliament shall be no more crooked and unjust but upright The Breast-plate Armour and Ships in great number shall be put off and layd by and liberty shall not fly away The Childe of England shall be healed of all her Maladies Her teeth shall no more hide themselves yea the sound teeth of Orthodox and unblameable Preachers shall fill their empty places The subordinate Heads of the People shall purge their own corruption In such manner as when our Saviour did cleanse the Lepers he did signifie thereby the taking away of sin Secondly God Almighty hath ordained our Lord King CHARLES II to take away the Typical Rekets even the Bodily Disease it self And as our Saviour cured Both the Typified leprosie of sin and Punishment by his Suffering and the Typicall in Persons first and took the Leprosie away at last and He and none but He could do it so King CHARLES II first taking away the signified Disease by his Gracious Goodness and Wisedom shall take the Bodily Rekets quite away when this work is done which the LORD hasten And his Majesty hath given us a great Essay thereof already in his Gracious Assent to the Disbanding the Army in his Edicts against Drunkenness and Rioting c. To conclude concerning the REKETS As the Leprosie was such a Disease which infected no other Nation but the children of Israel excepting Naaman the Syrian intimating thereby that Christ should by his Death cleanse the Leprosie of the sins of the Gentiles and seems by Tacitus the Historians words to be imputed to them and no other Nation beside although he falsly concludes that for such a Disease they were drove out of Egypt So is the REKETS the proper Disease unto the Nations of England Scotland and Ireland and to the Kings Dominions and to no other people beside unless living in his Majesties Kingdoms And as the Leprosie did portend the Physician thereof