and Indulgence yet notwithstanding I shall alwayes heartily pray for the continual peace Prosperity and flourishing Estate of your Metropolitan City and in particular for all your Tenants and present Inhabitants many whereof are my worthy Friends and Acquaintance of your Royal Exchange but I will assure you if you will please to pardon my present presumption in so much tiring your patience in perusal of this Memorial I shall never trouble you nor my self nor any succeding Committee upon this or the like Account So committing you all to the constant and continual Care Conduct and Protection of the most High wishing that all your Debates and Consultations henceforward may be agreeable and consonant unto that which is a Spark and Ray of that Divine Beauty and Lustre who is the Sourse and Fountain of all Rectitude and Perfection viz. Reason and that all your future Proceedings and Transactions here in this lower and Terrestrial Sphear may be according to the orderly constant and regular Motions of the Coelestial Bodies in the Superiour Orb And that all your Edicts henceforward may be like the Laws and Statutes of Heaven it self to all the Sons and Daughters of Men of most sovereign and saving Use and of universal Benefit and Advantage unto all those who shall or may be concerned in them but more especially and in particular at this present conjuncture unto all the present Inhabitants de futuro for all those who shall there actually succeed within the walls of your Royal Exchange for these and these onely are the Men which must repair sustain uphold defend and keep up the future Credit Reputation and Honour of the said place And now to conclude all in a short Parable for Parables many times and in some Cases have taken as deep an Impression if not more than a plainer Demonstration to be perused by you at your leisures I fear I have already too much intrenched upon your Patience in the perusal of this present Memorial And we will call it The Parable of the Leasees Leaguer and a Description of the Sub and Outward Pawn Tenants Camp So that Whereas I do perceive that these Civil and Intestine Divisions Wars Animosities and Contentions among the contesting Parties the Domestick Inhabitants of your Pallace Royal are still like to continue many Summers Campagne for the Drums do yet daily sound in my ears and ad arma ad arma insonuit buccina for new Voluntiers whereby to re-inforce their Armies unless you Right Honourable and you Right Worshipfull who are the proper and onely Mediators in this Case by reason you can turn the scales at any time do interpose by your Power Grandeur and Authority and to declare who have been and are still the Aggressors For it seems they have all referr'd themselves and will acquiesce in your Determinations as appears by their several humble Petitions unto you in that behalf So that London this famous City of London being the most convenient and commodious is the place assigned for the Congress of all the Plenipotentiaries from their several Principals upon that Account And if wishes would avail or turn any thing to Account I could here make it my cordial Option that this were the place also assigned for the Congress of the Deputies Ambassadors and Plenipotentiaries of all those contesting Parties which are at present at so great a variance among the Princes of Christendome and that his Majesty of Great Britain Heavens prosper and preserve him were the sole Moderator and Umpire in all their Cases and because I did perceive that by reason of the remote distance that is at present between the Moderators and these Persons before mentioned And here for Illustrations sake we will now draw our Scene Colen and all the Sub-Tenants and Outward Pawn-Tenants encamped and intrenched about the said City Suburbs and parts adjacent thereof and that inasmuch as they had already extremely suffered and might do much more in their so honest and just Design and for want of giving their Ambassadours and by them their Moderators the true State and Information of their Case And although at present they have a very numerous Army and a large Train of Artillery and a most Noble Valiant Courageous and well disciplin'd Army and have their Out-works their deep Trenches their Sconces their Pallizadoes their Pioneers their Counterscarps their Engineers their Scouts abroad their strong Centinels upon their Frontiers their advantageous Posts and are also expert in the terms of Art when they are drawn up into Battalia as their Wheelings their Serings their Facings their Flankings their Doublings and their Front and Rear Division and their Center in such an excellent Order and the like whereby they do render themselves worthy the Appellation of what they truly are viz. The legitimate Sons of Mars But yet notwithstanding for all this they are in Quotidian Jeopardy and in great danger of being besieged and sterved out by their Enemies in their present Intrenchments and should they draw forth and come to a pitch'd Battel by reason of their most potent Assailants which lie also intrenched round about them that they have so many and such powerfull Confederates and having such great store of Ammunition and in a Countrey where they have great store of Forage for their Cavalry and plenty of Provision for their Infantry in the which they are at present but at a very low ebbe they dare not run the hazard of a total Engagement unless they were certain that their Guardian Angels which are the worthy Members of the Grand Committee would appear and fight for them for fear they should be totally routed and should be constrained to quit the Field and to yield upon dishonourable terms Whereupon during this present conjuncture being unwilling to stand Neuter though peradventure I might have made some considerable advantage thereby at length upon serious consultation I betook my self unto the weakest as having the best Cause and so I hope I shall do the same dum spiritus hos reget Artus and the most innocent side And thereupon being oftentimes in their Leaguer and fearing that their Enemies might be too hard for them as to matter of Intelligence I did at last resolve to imbarque my self whereby to give you the best Information I could of their present state and condition in the good Ship called the Happy Adventure and Bon Resolution and having weighed my Anchors and hoised up my Sails I committed my self to the mercy of the Ocean and although I met with many a blustring storm many cross Winds many dark nights and here and there at Sea a Ship upon the wrack yet having a good cause a tight Vessel a Stout Valiant Sober and well experienced Captain a skilful Pilot a rough hewen Boatswain a few stout and couragious Seamen we did though through much difficulty and hard labour and many times were constrained to pump hard for our own preservation work our Vessel through them all And although in our Voyage we did many times Sail by the Ports and stronge Forts of our Enemies and under their Castle-Walls and within the reach of their Mortar pieces and their whole and demi Canons yet still when we did apprehend any real danger clapping immediately up and bearing in our Top-Mast head the antient Leasees colours viz. Leasees for 21 years we passed them all along undiscovered Neither did we make a Noverint universi or put up any Bills before our departure whereby to procure any lading for we tooke in none save only ballast and some good provision for our intended Voyage just as the Masters of Ships do upon the Royal Exchange viz. That such a Ship now riding at Anchor in such a Bay within the River Rhine and within such a time is ready to depart and bound God willing for the Port of London the danger of the Seas only excepted as having business of grand importance with the grand and Sub-Committee for Gresham affairs sitting at Mercers Chappel within the said City now this might have marred all for then they would have sent their privateers and issued out Letters of Mart against us and had they taken us in our expedition they had seized upon our Cargo and all our concerns which would have been as bad as if we had been all blown up into the air by some unexpected accident of fire falling into our Powder room but our Men being all obliged to secrecy We came all clear along 〈…〉 making the Lands end we took in a skilful Pilot from the Trinity-House for the better security of our vessel through the Channel till at length by a brisk and prosperous gale with all our Sails spread our Standard at stern and our Streamers abroad we made our joyful and so long wished for Port of London and thus having brought our good Ship into her desired harbour we will now cast out our Anchors only my Anchora spei I will still keep within my own breast and take some refreshments and will now freely with most humble service present the said good Ship with all her Masts Sails Rigging Guns Mortar-Peices Cables and Anchors her whole Cargo and all things whatsoever thereunto appertaining unless your Noble and Generous minds will please to defray the charge of the ballast within her and of some of the ordinary Seamen that were employed and intertained upon this expedition to your most Worthy Selves and Remain Right Honourable and Right Worshipful Your most Obedient most Obliged and most Faithful Servant to be Commanded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 FINIS POSTSCRIPT Ad Candidum Lectorem Authoris scripti si vis Cognoscere Nomen Quaerito in his literis Lector amande scias DEHNKRVY c.
these Sub-tenants I do verily believe that many of them are but in a mean and low Condition And the truth of it is what with the Rent for their Houses what with the Charge for their Families what with the loss in Braded Wares what with the Alteration of Fashions but only this is an Age of Wonders or else one might well stand amazed and be astonished at the most prodigious Humour and strange fickleness of the Age upon this very Account what with desperate Debts and what with bad Trading they need not have wrack Land-lords if possibly to be avoyded for furious Lievtenants to bring up the Rear unless Trading should thereupon flow in upon them like a mighty flood in order to their more speedy and sometimes most certain Ruine And when men are in Durance Bondage and Slavery for them to use all fair and probable Means whereby to Redeem themselves out of the said Captivity I think this is no Sin nor Offence either to God or Man But the ancient Leasees will not admit nor by no means swallow this down for Orthodox Doctrine and will say That those who go about and are Instrumental in destroying of their Tenant-rights and their interest in future Leases the which with the Locks Shackles and Fetters which they have put upon them they do think are as good both to them and their Heirs as Land of Inheritance do deserve to be severely and exemplarily chastised But whether the ancient Leasees or the poor Sub-tenants Doctrine in this particular be true or false Sub Judice lis est And now to proceed to my Third and last Enterprize viz. To the Outward Pawn-tenants And as I have placed the ancient Leasees in the front of the Battel that so they may lead the Van and because I humbly conceive they have been the Duces omnium malorum of all these late Animosities I have thereupon thought good to put them into the Forlorn Hope and peradventure upon that Account if they should chance to meet with a brisk Rencounter before the Grand Committee it is probable they may come off with broken Pates or which is worse with the loss of several of their limbs that is with the loss of some branches of their future and wrack-rented Revenues so I have placed the Sub-tenants in the Center hoping thereby being now shrowded under your safeguard and protection there they may be safe and secure enough from the Annoyance and danger of the Enemy And now as to your Outward Pawn-tenants although they come last in Order yet they stand in the Second place of Honour whereupon I am resolved to make these my Noble Lievtenants and do not question but they may prove valiant Champions to bring up the Rear These are the men therefore Right Honourable and Right Worshipful who came lately out of the Land of Egypt pray pardon the similitude and all others of the like nature as being added only by way of illustration and were redeemed from their Captivity therein by your most valiant and noble hands in hopes that in a short time you would have placed them in a Land flowing with Milk Honey but so it is may it please your good Lordship and Worships that by the inauspicious influence of some superior Planets being predominant or by some other unlucky interposition for they know not where certainly to fix it although I could here give a shrewd guess as to the true cause and reason thereof they do find themselves still in the Wilderness and are at this time in their Journey no farther than the waters of Marah and as for their daily sustenance they cry out for help help and it is you Right Honourable and you Right Worshipfull and you onely that can work a Miracle for them or else in a short time they say they shall famish in this barren Wilderness for want of Bread they mean for want of Trading by reason of the Inconveniences of their present station But yet once again these are the Men Right Honourable and Right Worshipfull which have listed themselves under your Protection these are the Men that have marched under your Conduct and have obeyed your Commands these are the men that have fought your Battles that is vindicated your Honour upon all Occasions in building this most stately and most magnificent Structure of the Royal Exchange and of your building double Pawns therein These are the Men who have kept possession of your Shops although to some of them a most apparent loss and disadvantage witness in particular by name Mr. William Rutland junior when others of a more pusillanimous and faint-hearted spirit upon their first entrance into the Battle did immediately quit the field returning again to their Garlick and Onions and left their fellow-souldiers to shift for themselves and yet notwithstanding maugre all the reproach and contempt that have been cast upon your Outward Pawns such as By-Walks Turn-again-lanes Back-side of Mother Browns Barn and the like but you may guess from whence these Appellations came and to what end designed have still stoutly held out although so strongly begirt with such strong and potent Assailants in hopes that relief would come in its proper season and that must be when you are possessed with a clear understanding of the right of their Case and of the reason of things and then surely you are Obliged in Honour considering all these precedent Circumstances to rally up your Forces to raise the siege and to relieve your Garrison and that with all Expedition lest that they should be so put to their shifts as that they could not hold out much longer but must be forced to surrender up your Fort Royall upon dishonourable terms and so in conclusion be made Prisoners of War And this may now commodiously be done for it lies within your power de facto at present to effect the same by answering their Expectations by satisfying their Desires by granting their Petitions and by hearkning to their Proposals whenever they shall make Application unto you wherein your publick Interest shall be concerned as well as their own Conveniency and Accommodation But inasmuch as these Outward Pawn-tenants have at this day a Petition before you with Reasons annexed thereunto wherein they have stated their own present Case and I cannot imagine who can state their own Case or shew where their shooes pinch them better than themselves unto their said Petition and Reasons therefore I shall at present most humbly refer you And in the mean time inasmuch as in my Introduction I gave you a hint that I would not conceal any thing from you either for fear or favour as material to my present purpose or necessary for your Information give me leave then in pursuance thereof here to represent unto you some of their private Whisperings and present Sentiments when they do usually meet together upon these publick Concerns the which being duly weighed considered and digested among your worthy selves for ought I know it may
admirable Effects unto all Creatures both Animal and Inanimal whatsoever upon the face of the whole Earth and the nearer and nearer it doth approach unto us within our Horizon the more vigour strength and power it doth still retain in order to the accomplishment of all those Noble Ends and Purposes for the which it was first created and by reason of his powerfull Influence over the whole Earth he doth never rest Day nor Night untill such time as he hath enriched the same with a plentifull Crop and all things therein contained with a Green thriving and flourishing Condition so that from hence by the wise Disposer of all things under the Sun we have the Spring and the Fall we have Summer and Winter Seed-time and Harvest and all things that may conduce unto our present and future Happiness whatsoever And this is a true Representation and Similitude of Life and Death as to things Temporal Mortality Resurrection and Immortality as to things Spiritual and Eternal And so in like manner in respect of the other most glorious and Nocturnal Light this vast Elementary moist and liquid Body of the Moon which as Astrologers do say is above three hundred times bigger than the whole Terrestrial Universe and hath so powerfull an Influence upon the vast Ocean so that as we see by daily Experience as she increases in Grandeur Neptune himself is also constrained to move forward and to give way and to increase also and so gradually till she comes to her full strength then the Surges and Billowes of the Sea do arise to that height as many times it overflowes the banks of the main Ocean and this is that which we call our Spring-tides So that we see this vast and liquid Body like as Fire doth produce Fire and Water by the help of an Engine doth draw up Water by its secret and attractive virtue infused thereinto by an Almighty power commands the very Ocean it self and likewise sets bounds and limits to the proud waves and surges thereof which many times are much higher than the Land by its most powerfull strength influence and operation And this is a more than probable Argument to be given for the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea which hath startled and stumbled so many Persons who have been upon the Quest to find out the true Cause and Reason thereof And these two Instances alone together with the Rainbow being taken in which will make up a Trinity of Celestial Attestators are enough to confute those purblind and blear-ey'd Masters of Reason who can see no further than their dim-sighted corporeal Eyes will permit them the proudest and stoutest Atheist in the world And they may as well say that they made themselves and were the primary Cause of their own Beings as to say all these things and many more which would bee too tedious here to insert were first produced by the power strength and vigour onely of Natures Operation For how can these men tell that if Nature alone did produce them Nature might not some time or other reduce them again unto their first Principles or else into some other Form and Fashion for Nature sometimes hath its prodigious and monstrous Births And how could they tell that the Rainbow Gods established Covenant with Mankind should continue and appear in the Heavens for so many Generations But all these things are so fixed and determined by the most High that they cannot do otherwise than they are appointed and if the Sun stand still or go backwards at any time it is in Obedience to the Command of the Supreme Creator I pray pardon this small digression of mine in regard as I was entring thereupon some of the Atheistical notions did so boldly accost me that I could do no less then give them a broad side on purpose to send them back again into the Land of forgetfulness that so they might no more rise up in pride vain-glory and presumption in denying the good Providence and Wisdom of Almighty God in these and the like cases but to proceed as by way of similitude in these two instances as to those ends and purposes now mentioned so I say in like manner as to this most Famous and most renowned City of London so long as you have peace within your Walls Prosperity within your Borders Plenty within your Streets Health within your Pallaces no Forreign nor Domestique jarrs to obstruct your Trade at home nor your Negotiations abroad especially among your Merchants which are the great wheeles or springs in a Watch that sets all the little wheels in their orderly motions Mercy and Truth meeting together Righteousness and Peace embracing each other I say by the powerful influence of all these precedent circumstances being met and joyned together it is almost impossible but that your City of London unless our heaven provoking sins from time to time interveneing shall forbid the banes should continue in a thriving and flourishing condition and thereupon how many thousand pounds come flowing yearly like the overflowing of the River Nilus into the Chamber of London and at this insensible vast and most Noble revenue the Citizens of London and the Inhabitants thereof are not in the least measure offended but do rather rejoyce and wish you much joy thereof and much good may you do with it and they would be glad with all their hearts every Mothers child of them to arrive at the same pitch of honour as to come to be Lord Major Mr. Alderman Mr. Sheriff Mr. Common-Councel-Man and the like And now and then to open a vein in the body Politick for the preservation of the whole is as requisite and necessary as somtimes to open a vein in the body natural whereby to remove some impediment and obstruction in the circulation of the blood that so afterwards in its perambulation it may run with more strength and vigor and return again unto its former and regular proceedings And I may truly say of this antient and Renowned City of London and it reaches all cases persons and places whatsoever according to the Poet. Donec eris foelix multos numerabis amicos Tempora si fuerint nubila solus eris Ovid And thus have I done with my main and principal design which were my primary intentions and resolutions in the publication hereof And although this small piece is not adorned with all those goodly and excellent properties as might be expected from a person of more than ordinary and Scholastick improvement upon any matter or Subject whatsoever as he should undertake which are these viz. 1. To speak modestly and in the words of truth and Sobriety 2. To speak pertinent to the matter in hand without too many circumlocutions and florid expressions before he comes to the point and therein also to be very succinct 3. To back all his positions and assertions with the prevailing and powerfull arguments of solid and substantial reason that so all persons may be constrained to acquiesce in her