various successions of ages high account has bin made of this Officer his dignity will thence receive some addition In King Johns raign when things were much out of order an agreement was that certain great persons should be intrusted to inspect the actions of that King and secure the peace of the Nation The Major of London was one in Rich. the seconds time when Persons of all ranks were to be rated according to their degree The Lord Maior was put at 4 l. the rate of an Earl and every Alderman at 40 s. the rate of a Baron and when Rich. the first in Captivity was to be ransomed the Lord Maior was one of the five Trustees for dispose of the monies levied to redeem him Yea when the death of Qu. Elizabeth and King James his absence here had made a kind of Interstitium in Government and it was thought fit by the great men of the Realm who being Officers by Commission abated by the death of their appointer to make a publication of their fidelity to King James and to notifie to the Nation whom they should expect and ought to pray for as their Lord and Master To this publication solemnly proclaimed the first subscriber was Ro. Lee Maior and after him John Cantuar Tho. Egerton C. Sigill Tho. Buckhurst Treasurer and so in order the rest of the great men as no doubt conceiving the Lord Maior the most fixed and conspicuous Magistrate in revolutions and changes And as the Maior hath been thus honoured with high esteem and had for a long time the reward of Knighthood if not a Knight before at the expiration of his yearly office so have also the Sherifs and Aldermen his Peers as it were For the Maior Sheriffs and Aldermen are by the Stat. of 11 Ed. 3. c. 10. said to have the Government of the City bin reckoned non inter milites gaudentes milites histriones as Bartholus termes some Qui non sunt nobiles but deservers of Knight-hood upon that accompt that Salust gives of Pompey who did cum alacribus saltu cum velocibus cursu cum validis valide certare Thus did 1â— of them obtain Knight-hood from E. 4. William Walworth and five more from R. 2. Eastfield and others from H. 6. Horn â—ate Astrey from H. 7. and others of them have bin made councellors to their Princes so was Feilding to H. 6. and Ed. 4. William Fitzwilliams and Sir John Allen to H. 8. Yea and the Grandfather of that Virgin Lady and the mirrour of her Sex Queen Elizabeth the once glorious Mistress of these Islands Sir Jeffry Bullen descended from the famous House of Norfolk was in Anno 1457. Lord Maior of London And then is said to have to wife one of the Daughters and Heires of Thomas Baron of Hoo and Hastings Knight of the honourable Order of the Garter Further as to the Maior Aldermen and Sheriffs of London all Citizens these largesses of bounty have been expressed so has time and common approbation admitted other Members of the City into title of Gentility as well as Grandees in Law or Schools For as to those that either have held the place or fined for Aldermen the title Esquire is given So to all Citizens of London though in the City the addition of their mystery is most usual yet the title Gentleman where natively they are not such for there are many of both base and noble Origen is by the national courtesie given to such of them as are of creditable professions and fortunes which civility and grateful goodness of the royal Government of this Nation has been repayed by the City in all ages No part of the Land affording more brave free and well advised spirits then here have bin born bred and provided for To spring from a thriving younger Brother who has an elder Brothers fortune when he has prodigally wasted it Or to be the first of a Stock whose rise is not by blood and baseness is no lesse honourable then to descend from Hercules and want the noble qualities of his Issue And yet London alwayes had and yet has more defiances from the Issue of her Citizens the more is the pity and their shame then from all persons of high blood and honourable Ancestry Yea though she has had many profitable Offices to give by which many have lived plentifully and raised great Estates and had good Opportunities of requiting her by publication of her lustre and renown yet none of them that I know of have publiquely done it Bale and Pits indeed mention one Robert Bale or Balaeus Senior a Citizen born who did omnem suam operam omne studium eo dirigere ut ejus splendorem magis magisque illustraret But the works that he is said to write for Londons honour are lost Nor does London encourage any of her own to appear this way in publique for her many Monuments of antique honour and order undoubtedly she has which neither any abroad nor she her self knowes of That Sword of Goliah is wrapped up in a repertory of secrecie lying by the walls as a meet companion for dust and Cobwebs O London Thou hast ever been the glory but the envy the Oxe that has been muzled yet ever hast trod out the Corn of profit to the Nations advantage Thou hast bin the Candle that hast lightned others out of the dark of obscurity into the morning brightness and yet hast bin condemned as dulsighted to the perception of thine own interest and the glory that attends the due and devout improvement of it Men say thy purse predominates thy Councel and when they look upon thy wit they wonder at thy wealth This is thy censure from thy detractors but for all these speeches of anger and mordacity London has bin I hope yet will be London flowrish with that crowning mercy of orderly and peaceable Government when her enemies shall be cloathed with shame Gods blessing and the River of Thames are such demesnes about this Capital City as will supply her maugre the ill will of all her Opponents Thy name O beloved City has bin too much acclamated thy officiousness to general good too much anciently owned to suffer a final and total infamy for some demeritings Let thine accusers first prove themselves innocent before they cast the stones of punishment on thee And while thou hast the merit of thy predecessors valour of thy Magistrates bounty of thy Citizens riches and of their posterities flourishing in all parts of the Nation who are not lesse fortun'd and bred in points of honour then becomes the Condition of Gentry keep thy spirits about thee to recriminate thy reproaches and if thou couldst keep thy purse and match within thy self those that revile thee would soon be deeply in debt and hopeless how to rid themselves from danger For it is the honey drops of thy Wealth which enlightneth the eyes of many well descended
A DISCOURSE AND DEFENCE OF ARMS and ARMORY SHEWING The Nature and Rises of Arms and Honour in ENGLAND from the CAMP the COURT the CITY VNDER The two later of which are contained Universities and Inns of Court By EDWARD WATERHOUSE Esq Doctores bonos secutus est qui sola bona quae honesta mala tantum quae turpia potentiam Nobilitatem caeteraque extra animum neque bonis neque malis annumerant Tacitus Hist. l. 4. de Helvidio Prisco {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Menander LONDON Printed by T. R. for Samuel Mearne in Little Britain 1660. TO The honest Ingenious AND Generous READER IF this Discourse be of a dull and discoloured complexion thorough the noncirculation of ingenious blood in its veyns and arteries I do really request thee to impute it to that grief and sickness which immediately succeeding my never to be forgotten wound by the death of the best of friends and relations that ever I on earth had or ever I on earth hereafter expect to have has by a malignity of operation on me ever since indisposed me to such expressions of quickness and variety as perhaps my health would have to thy greater content afforded thee But since it is the good pleasure of God to charg the Fields of our worldly serenity with Crosses latent and patent which when sanctified are by Heavenly Heralds who can best blazon the intendments of divine providences accounted good bearings it becomes us to accept his chastisement with submission and improve his Instruction with Christian prudence For this tract it is small and so I intended it and if it were sweet and its lines to wise eyes as the notes of a good composure melodious to musical eares It would not displease me to be short for that is true of writing which Agellius writes of speaking Nunquam tacet quem morbus tenet loquendi But such as it is I hope thou wilt accept and hereafter if God spare my life and recruit my broken regiment of health if thy candor interpret this and me aright for in earnest I have no cold zeal to Religion Order Learning Honour to whose Josephs sheaf I would if I could make every sheaf do obeysance I shall imploy my remaining forces of strength to dissipate that rebel sadness which by heading a dissolute crew of ill humours has bin imbodied to my annoyance and as God shall assist me with success against that turbulent Enemy present thee with further expressions of my service to thee yet ever remembring that of Apulejus Et cum dicto opus est impigre dicere cum tacito opus est libenter â—acere E. WATERHOUS London 1. of March 1659 60. A Discourse and Defence OF ARMES AND ARMORIE THERE is no Art so unbefriended no skill so despicable but finds some tongue to owne some Pen to plead for it even the Craftsmens Diana is mentioned Acts 19. to have more Stentorian voyces for her among the Ephesians then the Doctrine of Christ in the Apostolique mouths of S. Paul and his Companions had And no wonder for the world of men are more led by opinion then reason sensuality then judgment as that old Poet said {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Few there are that understand to those many that admire few admire what is indeed truely admirable There is a principle of policy so ingrafted into our new Creed Fortunam magis providentiam quam amicitiam justitiam sequi That no man almost thinks any man or thing estimable but what is successfull and in the Scripture phrase Laden with thick clay as if there were no foundation for happiness no merit of honour like that of worldlings gain and worldly prosperity This makes Arts sink with their encouragements and artists tonguety'd at their injuries least vindications should be mistaken for plots and apologies for treasons Indeed were Artists of Catalines spirit Pravissimi ingenii ad delendam patriam conjuravit as Eutropius writes of him there were great cause to eye their addresses with jealousie and answer their offers with silence but when they are sober learned and usefull to let them be Mossed over with the scurfe of neglect and to suffer the Canker of contempt to dislustre their transparencies and not clear it off with the Oyle and Whiting of Candor argues us of this age to be no good Samaritanes On all subjects some have written in these times of trouble and on this of Armes which ordinarily we call Heraldry but fewer God wot then have been provoked to it by the indignity cast upon the Art and the professors of it while men of name and fortune have patronized things that have no direct aspect on peace order and Nationall civility There has scarse been any have owned this Lady which is the Image of Order and as it were the Magna Charta of Oeconomique regulation and thence of politique distinction Contemnunt nostri Martes haec talia naenias ludos ea habeant puerorum as Lipsius his words are Yea there are yet those further who not through rustick hardiness but of pure zeal as they think though I think deludedly make the author of Order God himself no respecter of persons that is no favourer of distinctions of men or of any degrees of inferiority and superiority the chief end of the practice of Arms and procedure of honour amongst men and that which is the right eye in the body of Heraldry I am no Champion to defie these Goliahs which come forth in this quarrell to revile not onely past ages and renouned Nations who admired and practised order in the method they discredit it but also this Nation of England when it was as Livy once said of Rome Maximi secundum deorum opes Imperii Yet so far as their confidence to deform the beauty of Order makes them treacherous to the well-being of this Nation I dare avow my self their Antagonist The Romans were in their time the most renowned people for prowess their professed enemy Taxiles acknowledged {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} yet Historians make their seven hundred years prosperity in which they almost had a triumphall victory for every year debtor to their discipline Ideo praevaluerunt adversus multitudinem Gallorum proceritates Germanorum vires Hispanorum dolos Afrorum ob retentam disciplinam saith Sarisburiensis And the same doth also Trogus Pompeius write of Alexander The symmetry and exact order of which well advised dispensation continuing brought Nations of as great power as themselvs into subjection and expatiated the glory of their valor almost thorowout the Continent And therefore as those fiery spirits amongst them who introduced their civill Wars in which the first instituted Government by Patritians men of the Upper house and Lords of the Rule according to the fundamentall sanction was suppressed as to its splendor and allayed by admitting a Plebeian coordinateness which in time exauctorated the Senate and
power to erect Baronies and other Titles within their limits which they did and granted them over to hold as freely of them as they themselves held of the Crown thus also grew from the Houses of Albany Vere Strange Vfford many Noble Families in Norfolk and so others in other parts of the Nation Hence probably came in the Titles of Knight Esq Yeomen which were at first badges of personal service domestique relation for though miles which we render Knight be understood generally to import a choyce person quasi ex millibus Electus One of a thousand as we say A brave person picked out of a multitude and furnished with a noble Horse chosen out of many clad in Armour and Cooperizons tricked and adorned with Gold which some think is the reason they are termed Equites aurati as others conclude them so named from their guilt Sword and Spurs Though I say Miles be acknowledged as a Noble Dignity And the great Orders of Majesty in the World be those of Knighthood yet anciently it was a name of service not onely in order to Tenure the greatest Estates of England being in Knights service to which I suppose Upton has an eye in those words Miles est quasi servus Reipublicae but also in regard of attendance on the body of some Lord Peer or great Person on Horseback who from being his Aâ—mour-bearer was stiled Knight or in Saxon Cnicht of this fort were Knights Bannerets who are by mistake written Barronets but they were not inheritable but of personal Office of these there are many Parliament Records cited by Sir Edw. Cook 2 Instit. p. 667. on the Statute of Additions which is as much as a lusty young man a Servitor and Minister not accounting himself adorned with rich Clothes precious Jewels and Carpet toyes sed in scuto divulso fracta galea gladio hebete facie vulnerata as Vigetius his words are These Knights are called by Bracton Radcnichts Gallants bound by Tenure and service to attend their Lords on Horseback as Esquires did on foot Hence the phrase Esquires of the body an Office well known in the Court ut pote qui antiquitus militem a latere insequendâ— arma ejus ut commilito fedissimus tulerit saith Mr. Mills Therefore Gentlemen or Esquires which differ little in antiquity are both called Scutiferi and Armigeri and till Edward the fourths time Lords if not Knights were but stiled Armigeri bearers of the Arms of their Chiefs in which regard a King is called Jovis Armiger by Cerda and by them dignified to bear Arms in their own right it being usual in elder times for great men both of the Clergy and Laity to give honour not onely that of Arms bearing but also Knight-hood as is noted by the learned Selden though of late it be onely restrained by Law to Soveraigns and their Deputies or to Supremes in their respective Dominions After as this Nation grew more setled men of vertuous ambitions sought to deliver themselves from dependencies and service addicting themselves to such studies imployments and courses of life as they judged most conducing to their speedy emancipation and peace proving no shambles of youth the increase of their number necessitated a more then ordinary Industry And the brave Spirits which were monopoliz'd by Great men and which breath'd out their lusty blood in Warres became diffused into all quarters and conditions the Court the City the Law the Schools as well as the Warres and the Houses of great men shared them amongst them and by these grew thrift requested and the effects of it reached great Honours and Purchases So that as great men of fortune and favour rose by Industry and Gods blessing upon it as either were of the Original Brittish Or of the dignified Norman race Yea and in few years the Lands Arms Honours and fortunes of the Normans severe Lords of the Nation came with their Children in Mariage to those honest English Gentlemen who were once their unfortunate vassals Or to their Issue whom time and national change had made freemen Thus besides many others I read of the ancient Family of Fitzhugh Lords of the Castle of Ravenswich before the Conquest that they continued still their Splendor to the time of H. 7. per connubia cum haeredibus duarum familiarum Normannicarum Forneaux Marmion The consideration of the advantage industry accomodates the Nation with and the justice of returning laborious Ingenuity a just reward as it has made the common Law of England disfavour perpetuities of Lands in infinitum on Families as tending to the Eclipse of Industry since if Lands may be entailed on all of a Line then those Families that have Land must necessarily alwayes have it and no others ever after purchase it which seems contrary to the pleasure of God who appoints worldly revolutions giving and taking away at his pleasure so also doth not the Law of Arms in England favour engrossing Arms to the Gentry of one Age and not of another but still leaves a latitude of admission to all men of merit whom the supreme Power either immediately or mediately shall think fit to dignifie with Arms Provided such Emblems and Badges of Honour be not injurious to those that bear the bearings through mistake given them with greater right For Princes as well as meaner men may erre by misinformation and justly recall their grants as a punishment to the insolent falshood of their deluders And in other mens cases the rule of Law is determined by Baldus si quis assumit arma seu Insignia alterius qui eis longo tempore usus fuerat tenetur poena falsi And this the Officers of Arms who are ever privy to the transactions of these things are well to look to For though no man of Honour ought to have an evil eye because Gods is good but give suffrage to approbation of rewards of vertue even to persons of mean and base Origen like the Flavia Gens of whom Suetonius writes obscura illa quidem ac sine majorum imaginibus sed tamen Reipub. nequaquam paenitenda for as much as the vertues men express are the gifts of God who often exalts men of low degree as Saul David Praemislaus Tamberlayn Tullus Hostilius Theodosius Servius Archelaus Marius Valentinian Telephantes Bonosus Chongius and multitudes of such like in all Ages and Countries who being above the vulgar nay above their own Births and Parentage Ought to have and have had a great share in the honour and esteem of men and Nations though I say no man of wit and worth denies these their right to Arms yet men of blood and honour who have not attainted their stocks by disloyalty will be ever impatient to have their rights given to others while they have right and possession of their Arms and Badges of Gentility and battel was allow'd for tryal of right in this Case between Harding and Saint Lowe
ready tongue to serve every Clyent that would fee him made a Serjeant Attorney Solicitor Justices of the Benches sometimes Lord Chancellor President Treasuror all advances to honour and gain such an One was Henry Audley in Hen. 3. time who had vast Lands given him by the King Lacy Earl of Ulster and sundry others and of whom Mr. Cambden sayes He was doubtless either a man of rare vertue Or a gracious favourite or a great Lawyer Or all joyntly This the Court gave rise to many younger Children who born of noble Families and of good beauty and grace of beheaviour were here trained and by the favour of the two great Luminaries in that Tyssued Firmament bestowed in mariage to persons of honour endowed with ample presents and promises of favour promoted to great offices of profit and income dignified with honours of familical as well as personal splendor In a word no man has come to and continued in the Court a worthy man and servant but he had preferment in a Courtly order and as corresponded with the Opinion of desert there had of him unless he were one so transparent Omnibus inducturus caliginem that Jewels in his presence abated to Chrystalls And Gold became nothing above a sediment of faeculency In this case Envy may retard the speed to advance and infect Princely ears with prejudices which are often ruinous before revealed and the fucus and falsity of them detected but otherwise the Court of a Prince was a visible step to Glory and a Tyring-Roome out of which have come into the Theatre of view royally clad in the Robes of favour not only the Minions Parasites and favourites of Princes as high in their Masters love as Merit or Flattery could make them Such as Lupus Earl of Chester with the Conqueror Brewier Baron of Odcomb to R. 1. Hubert de Burg. to H. 3. Peirs Gaveston to E. 2. Delapool Earl of Suffolk to H. 4. Brandon and Cromwell to H. 8. and many since But also infinite others who there have grown noble rich and happy in the ordinary account of felicity so that its felicity caused the Lillies and Dazies to outglitter as it were Solomon in all his royalty If soft rayment and cloths of state had bin badges of regality they might have been judged almost as many Kings as men For therefore doth the Law of Nations fix rule in the Sun the noblest representation of the light and lustre of Soveraignty Quia in curia sua sunt esse debent praenotabiliores homines mundi in quacunque facultate And as the Court of the Supreme so the Inns of Court with their appurtenances have been generous Academies of noble and brave spirits for though therein have been admitted of late years many men of the first head who either have had fortunate Fathers or friends or have been bred Clerks and transplanted themselves from the Inns of Chancery thither which I mention not as their reproach or diminution having my self known very brave ingenious persons and noble Students of this mould who profiting to good purpose have by that Limbique from the simples of their Origen extracted many Cordials to dying glory and given such doses of Aquavitae as has fetcht their dead Ancestry to a new and better life yet anciently no man was capable of an entry there but a Gentleman of Arms and Blood and Mr. Fern sayes he has seen an Alphabet about the end of Henry the fifths time in which were the Names and Arms of the House and Family of all those who were members of an Inn of Court who exceeded not the number of 60 all Gentlemen of perfect descents and Fortescue tells us that in H. 6sht time the Inns of Court had in them 200 or near and because the expenses of living there was at least to every man 20 marks a year ipsi nobilium filii tantum in hospitiis illis leges addiscunt A notable means both to preserve a royal race of wits and a generous emanation of them in stout and resolute profession of the Law to the defence of Justice and right for there is the Athens of Law in it Reverend Judges and Grave Serjeants sage Apprentices learned Barristers ingenious and florid Students viri omnium horarum who though they come thither to study and with presumptions of the ayming at further and future advantage by the Law which they are thought to read in order to practise yet are not tethered or limited but give themselves a latitude of following that which is most congenial to them and has the directest line to accomplishment and generous politure As all faces are not alike but all have figurations of the Creators power and wisdom visible in them so are not souls and addictions of one and the same peece Nor is there a uniformity in the expressions delights and sameness of the Objects In some there is more ballast then sail in others more fire then earth and accordingly are the objects of their complacency These Inns of Court are fitted for all Here the plod and studious Cato may read Littleton till he be in Little tune for ought but musing and the more facetious and planetary spark meet with quick tasted and more delicious choyce and well Cook'd learning to busie him and if to any other art or to all other arts Gentlemen of an equilibrious soul are addicted they may here have opportunity to buy Authours that treat of all subjects and converse with proficients in all Sciences For London is near and that being the Metropolis of the Nation has a daily flux reflux of persons and things to and from it which is the reason why I suppose these Inns of Chancery and Court are if not in yet very near London as the cause of the building of London is said by Dunthorn Book to be The River of Thames for as the River gives advantage to Trade so doth London to study practise and all other Gentile Embehshment Hence is it that these Inns of Court have been the Schools of Civility and Chivalry as well as Law For the Country Gallant is here first principled to his after improvement Here by reading both Books and Men Here by knowing wisdom and folly He after becomes a Luminary in the Countrey Firmament An Oracle of the Justice Bench a worthy representative to Parliament and here his Juvenility acquires him such a weapon-skill and confidence as ever after renders him though retired to a Country privacy disdain a baffle or be deservedly censured for estrangement to a noble bodily beheaviour and deportment And therefore it was wont ever to be a commendable addition to any man to call him an Inns of Court man for such were never accounted lesse then honourably accomplish'd their Revels Masques and Solemnities of Gallantry and Entertainment were ample Orators of their compt breedings It is true indeed these Societies were instituted for Nurseries of Law and Hosteleys of the Students and
which though she is the Object of many mens contempt and censure yet has such constellations of beauty order and importance in her as render her a considerable poyâ—e and an interest of influence on all the Nation I have not so perfrict a forehead to justifie London in all her demeanors nor am I so deluded by love that I cannot see her division and the fatal Issues that are menaced by it let the world have their freedoms to judge her distempers far be it from me to take offence at their just exceptions nor can knowing men justifie her where where she has acted unjustifiably But let not London be rashly judged and condemned as guilty before her charge be duly and legally proved let not the gravity of her Citizens be blasted for the intemperance of violent parties in her who use her name as their credentials to renown and terme their actions by the name of Londons actions when as they are in no sober sense Londons nor are what those Phaetons of fury do to be charged on London but with regard to the deluge of necessity which prevailing carries all before it and has had a similarity of Empire on all the Nation and hurried every part into a paroxism next door to Anarchy and dissolution Allow her then but some proportions of candor and she will appear not unworthy their value and my veneration which I would here testifie by some short notes upon Her as the Epitome of this our English Government in the legal and most acceptable representation of it London is the England of England a City famous for her antiquity prius condita quam illa a Remo Romulo according to Stephanides called nova Troja because modelled instar modum veteris Trojae So Jeffry Monmouth Ab. Westmo computes it about the 2855 year of the world Knighton about the time of Ely and Samuel famous it has been for its Trade and frequentation of forraigners to her which Tacitus hints when he sayes Copia negotiatorum commeatu maxime celebre Bede termes it multorum populorum emporium terra marique venientium This London having all those three priviledges which Thucydides requires to a free City that it be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} use its own Laws it s own Judgements it s own Magistrates having Citizens in her like those of Tyre {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the honorable of the earth as the phrase is Isa. c. 23. v. 8. hath ever been highly accounted of as a pregnant rise to growing Honour and Nobility For it has of old bin acknowledged Camera Regis and the Citizens freemen of the same termed by Hen. 1. Barones which terme signifies viri fortes or according to Bracton robur belli and M. Paris adds they were so called propter virtutis dignitatem civium antiquam libertatem thus H. 3. stiles them all his time as appears not onely in his Charter Anno 9. but in M. Paris p. 749 863 974 c. The like is storyed in Malmsbury Londinenses sunt quasi Optimates pro magnitudine Civitatis in Anglia and a little after Non decere ut Londinenses qui praecipui habebantur in Anglia sicut Proceres c. And if any honour result from the place of birth and residence to the person born or resident as all the Doctors agree Nobilitas causatur ex loco quoniam civis ex urbe splendida oriundus nobilis est as the rule is and as Cassanaeus alleageth many instances and if that Custom of allowing those quasi nobiles and entitling them Barones qui hahent jurisdictionem in suis oppidis castellis as the Neapolitans hold it be good Authority The Citizens of London qua such ought not to be depraeciated or suffer degradation from that esteem and regard which upon the premises considered is thought to be due to them Let no man envy London its old deserved Honour it obtained it when and kept it while it had it upon as brave termes as any place before it It valiantly resisted the brutish Dane when of old he assaulted it And after in King Etheldreds raign a second time besieged by them sed a Civibus probe defensa and when Swayn had mastered all and made the then King flie Soli Londinenses Regem legitimum intra maenia tutantes portas occuserunt To these add their loyalties to H. 1 to Rich. 2d in disclosing Ferrars Treason their discomfiting Wat Tyler resisting the Bastard Fawconbridge in Edward the fourths time and Cade in Henry the sixths time yea by the Statute of 6 R. 2 c. 12. which admitted all to pardon who adhered to the Kentish and Essex or other commotion except certain persons of which there were three Citizens of London the reason of whose punishment in being excepted is there rendred For that one of them did first and principally let William Walworth late Maior of London and certain other the Kings faithful people to shut the Gates of the said City against the Commonalty of Kent and Essex then traiterously in the said Insurrection assembled that they should have none entry into the saâ—d City and to defend the same City from all Traitors And the other two were arraigned of that that they should have bin the first and chief Councellours of the said Traytors that they should come and enter the said City and leaders of the same Traytors within the said City By which words of the Statute it appeared that the Parliament then accounted the City their Jewel which was not to be touched but by the soft and gentle hands of good men and true And as the City in general have performed acceptable service to its Supremes so have those their great and magnificent Masters dignified the Officers of it with signal expresses of honour making the Maior who is a Freeman though the head and noblest part of it a kind of Vice-Roy allowing triumphal Solemnities and resemblances of and allusions to those of a Coronation at his inauguration furnishing him with Ensigns of supreme power within his limits as Sword Mace Cap of maintenance all which boren before him remember me of Cassiodorus his words to the Senate Sume magâ—sterii infulas dignitatis usurus omnibus privilegiis quae tuos habuisse constiterit decessores with a great Councel grand priviledges and accepting him not onely as their Deputy in Government but as a noble Tenurer to whom a chief Office of Honour belongs of right at Coronations For in the Register of the Officers of the Coronation in Rich. the seconds time thus it is written Major Londini clamabit officium Pincernae debite executus est habens cyphum aureum in manu dextra These with other such like favours argue the Lord Maior to be highly accounted of and when consideration is had that not onely in one time but in the
pay and Ranzovius their General was necessitated as he declared to bear with them more then he ought or otherwise would but it was thought He had a divident in the plunder of those merciless inquisitors and his fate was to be a sacrifice to their insolence 'T is an ill chosen thrift to meditate that an Opportunity of our own glory which God intrusts us with to inaugurate his if men promoted by God to purposes of universall good degenerate and interpret his providences to be Prefaces to their own advantage God either meets with such by his â—errors in their Conscience or by countermining their Councel and making their device of none effect Ferdinand King of Arragon was a wise and politique Prince making havock of his Conscience and Honour to make his Sonne the greatest Monarch in the World But vain Prince He lived to see his darling Sonne die before him and that in the flower of his age and his Wife great with child die together with her untimely birth and both buried together Gods Ulysses's must stop their eares against this worlds Syren notes for if once they lean to an earthly requiem and look upon the forbidden fruit with delight to and desire of it then farewel God Religion Honour Conscience all these are Physicians of no value to him that is thus distempered in his brains and so dementated that he may be ruined and that unlamented Cossi was a brave Commander in Ottoman the first his Army having for a time large rewards and quiet abidance given him but Ottoman knowing he was by profession a Christian though God knowes a loose one and in no sort valiant for the truth sent for him to come to the Court pretending he had some service for him but with intent when he had him there to make him turn Turk Or have him murthered Cossi understanding the Emperours drift to keep in his favour and preserve his own life turned Turk Men must have not so much Sauls Armour as Davids faith that would overcome Goliah like temptations No Coat of Mail like to confidence in God no Weapons of Offence like to those little smooth stones we gather out of the brook of self-distrust He that fears himself annihilates Satans plot and gives a call of faith which brings in comfortable ayd for the Lord is nigh unto them that call upon him And therefore Interest in God is the best Sanctuary in dubious and deceitful times 't is the noblest subterfuge that we can fly to and the safest harbour we can anchor in when the World as it were is on fire about our eares and we are burning in it and when storms and commotions menace overthrow and dissolution of all There is a famous story of a Sorceress in Scotland called the wise Wife of Keith who in Anno 1591. being apprehended as a Sorceress upon examination confessed that Bothwel a notable Traytor had moved her to enquire what should become of the then King how long he should-raign and what should happen after his death and that the evil spirit with whom she confederated having undertook to make away the King after failer of performance being challenged by her for so failing said it was not in his power speaking words which she apprehended to be Il est homme de Dieu He is a man of God for though God has given the Prince of the ayre a large Territory yet has he kept the Paramount soveraignty to himself that is the security we have from him that is our enemy whose enmity is â—ersans circa totum genus humanum that God sayes to his proud rage hitherto shalt thou come and no further Et in tuto haereditas ponitur quae Deo custode servatur And therefore if God have any delight in us he will draw our hearts off from worldly objects and intend them on his glory concerned highly in the welfare of Religion I say Religion such as St. James calls pure Reâ—igion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the fatherless and the Widows in their affliction and to â—eep himself unspotted of the world For Religion thus qualited is a beauty meriting the best Jewels this world can purchase her 't is the Pearl worth all Merchants wealth the prize worth all combatants hazard a blessing compensating all devotion Though it be giving ones body to be burned 'T was Royal Divinity that a Noble mouth once in this Nation uttered That soul is not worthy of the Heavens Joyes whose body cannot endure one blow of the Hangman Next to Gods preservation of his own honour the Authour is an humble Orator to God for his merciful defence of this Nations honour which is in a great measure decayed and of ill report abroad it was once said of England Regnum Angliae Regnum Dei But how O thou Lucifer of our honour art thou fallen from Heaven and hast exchanged thy morning clarity for night-shades and dresses of dismal aspect jam non Lucifer sed noctiferet mortifer once O beloved Countrey thou wast like Capernaum the envy and glory of Nations now thy widow-hood and old age deformity make thee unacceptable Thou wast once as a City united within it self but now thy differences have begotten hostilities which spur and switch to ruine ecce in regione nostra Hipponensi quoniam eam Barbari non attigerunt clericorum Donatistarum Circumcellionum latrocinia sic vastavit Ecclesias ut Barbarorum Jortasse facta mitiora sunt was St. Augustines complaint to Victorian and I pray God England has not cause to say that what forraign enemies could not bring about to her ruine homebred enmity is like to do Discord is the Port at which in vasion and conquest enters the Goths came into Spain and Narbon ruina videlicet Romani status frequenti mutatione Principum animati and if England would escape those harasses she has formerly suffered by she must avoid division and adhere to wise worthy and legal settlements while the Egyptians kept to the constitutions of the Gods and their Heroes to speak after Diodorus they did well and were oracular to the world but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} when Macedonians were their Lords {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} then what was thought well setled became null and Egypt grew base and contemptible My prayer is that England may live in Gods sight that is in Job his words that it was with us as in times past in the dayes when God preserved us when his Candle shined upon our heads and when by his light we walked thorow darkness but I have no hope to see this till Religion be more our practice then prattle till meeknesse and moderation one of the most beauteous fruits of reformation be ingratiated with us O did men know the high notes of supernal Musick and superspherical harmony that are in the souls of peace makers they would never leave off prayers