honour and Royalty and if his beams be so bright in an eclipse what a glorious Prince will he be when he shines out in his full strength without opposition or interposition Away therefore with your abject indigent needy low-born Princes thimbl-Prince awle-Princes care-Princes yard-wand anvile pestel dyfat brewfat-Princes men that were once not worth a Lordship and yet durst challenge a Kingdome scarce good Cotragers and yet durst nestle in Palaces not able to pay their debts and now sharing Crown land Is it not a foul blemish to see such lay hold on the legislative power and to impose laws and taxes upon three such vast and renowned Kingdomes And on the contrary would it not be the greatest fame and lustre to this Nation to have royal bloud royal qualifications royal benificence and royal authority joyned together yes a supereminency of excellency would happen to this Natioâ— if we could get such a magnificent Prince into the Throne Oh then now ye see the King and his perfections and will ye invite him home with demurres and deliberations suspitions and hesitations detractions and protractions no let him have that Prerogative that hâ—s birth and your oaths the laws of God and the laws of the land do allow him and fetch him home with â—â—gernesse send for him with speed call for him with longing desires pave the way for him with your humble obedience settle him in his Throne with a million of blessings desired to him and expected from him be importunate and impatient till ye do enjoy him stay not till ye be led forth but strive who shall go for most for when a King is wanting what a solitary Kingdome is there if then he hath been compelled away by violence it is but duty to seek unto him to visit again his Native Countrey As it is a miserie to be deprived of him so it were a shame to be the last in bringing him in in bringing him home in bringing him back Wherefore then are ye the last in bringing back the King In conclusion I beseech you all high and low old and young by the brickilnesse that ye have wrought in by the heavy Task masters which ye have lived under by the tempests of sorrows that ye have been dashed vvith by the blevv stripes that are yet to be seen upon your sides by the dangerous state that the Kingdome is now in and by the infinite miseries that are even ready to seiz upon it that ye â—ax weary of other governments and that ye suddenly stop your ears against all inchanting Princes which promise you a free state and yet keep you in chains and tell you of liberties but they are felt only in loads losses and lashes and speak highly of the propagation of the Gospel but plague your poor souls with nothing but the preservation of all Christianity by schisms heresies and blasphemies Oh therefore desire no longer to be adopted children to such Fosterfathers for Step-fathers could not use you worse And again I beseech you by the sweetnesse of peace and the blessing of justice by your civill liberties and the liberty of conscience by the terrour of the bloud that hath bee â—â—hed and to preserve the land from the effusion of more innocent bloud that ye resolutely oppose these incroaching rulers and that ye presently bring back your lawfull King so may the King have his right and the Kingdome may have her peace the Church may become holy and the State may be made happie justice may be restored and trading may flourish your consciences may be pacified and your souls may be saved which that they may be the Lord grant for his mercies sake FINIS
and any man had a cause or suit if they would lay down their grievances at their feet they should have speedy justice done them Absolom would set up Committees enough to redresse the plaints of the people and as Absolom paid his vowes in Hebron so have not we had them that had their religious exercises and strict fasts and as Absolom had Achitophil the Gilonite to promote the work so have not we had them that had dangerous wits Craftmasters Achitophels enough And as the conspiracy grew strong for Absolom so did not multitudes and mutinies and â—actions and seditions grow strong and mightily encreaâ—e for oue male contents And hath not the fright of this rebellion caused as much consternation here as ever it did to Pavid even to leave the Royal Palace and to passe over the river hid on and to go up the mount of Olives weeping and hath not the Kings Court been entred and though not his concubines lain with yet his Royal revenue and Prerogative deftored And hath there not been a Shimei to curse the King and to call him bloudy man and son of Bâ—lial veâ— how numerous and venemous have the Pamphlets and Libels been to defame the King and blast his innocency Thus farre then they do agree as face doth answer face in water onely they differ in this that some of these turbulencies commotions disgusts disgraces happened in the fathers time and some in the sons howsoever the son is still in his flight and doubtful it is when he shall return for what a delaying fluctuating scrupling Nation have we they would and they would not they desire and despair they wish and long and again faint and fear all is ambiguity and suspense Pugnaces Parthi dubium tenuere favorem These warlike Parthians which have been so used to booties and spoils promise but a doubtfull favour to the businesse they have been so used to garboises that they are loath to hear of peace and to cut throats that they are loath to sheath up their swords they act things not according to their duties but their designes not according to their consciences but their conveniencies not according to their judgements but their ambitions they dream more of spoil then restitution and their own profits then the Nations peace and of having their own turns served then the Kings return there may be some candid upright dealing men amongst them which seeing the miseries of their Nation have remorse and shame for what hath been done but for the generality of them triplex Mercurius there seems to be a tripple headed Mercurie amongst them confounded they are in their resolutions Sybilla horrendus canit ambages atque remugit obscuris vera involvens This Sybil is in her trembling variable answers and loweth out of her den with a mixture of truth and obscurity Few men satisfied most men debating and full of ambiguities and perplexities iisdem èliteris Comoedia Tragoedia compenitur out of the same Letters both a Comedy and a Tragedy is compounded ye shall find such strange contraries wrought up together that a man may say as August plus aloes quam mellis there is more aloes then honey in them examine the ingredients and ye shall find this diversity of simples in the compound they acount the Kings return not an absolute requisite thing but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Strabo a necessary evil Scinditur incertum studia in contraria vulgus This same vulgar is divided into several opinions full of divisions and distractions Et libet timeo nec adhuc exacta voluntas Et satis in dubio pectora nostra labant The thing pleaseth and frighteth the will is not compleat but the brest tossed with various conceptions And are there not the like alterations disceptations anxieties amongst a great part of the Nobility Gentry Clergy Merchants and common people in general yes hear them speak if the King should not return what shall become of our oaths protestations exhausted Nation and decayed Trade if the King should return what shall become of the violences offered to the father and the outrages to the son of the settling of our purchases and the confirmation of our preys one Parliament hath granted our conveyances and another may cancel them and wring our new-forged keys out of our hands So that it is hard sailing through the whirlepool here are collateral winds blowing insomuch that though the speech of all Israel be come to the King to bring him home yet Iudab sits in her tents muttering and stunning and doth not stir at all or if that tribe doth move at length it will be the last that appear Wherefore then are ye the last to bring back the King and if he be brought back I doubt there will be bitter heart-burnings why some are emploied and not others in the re-installing of him yea I fear that some seditious Shebah will blow a trumpet and cry to your tents O Israel and that some haughty Ioab will be massacring an Amasa that he should be commissioned to reduce the Countrey to peace rather then his all deserving self I fear some turbulent spectacle or other to dismay the King upon his return yea I suspect some Scotch receptions or English Stratagems the children are apt to strive together in the womb mens hearts will be boiling their heads inventing and their hands fatal But away with all plots and projects suppositions and oppositions minings and counterminings and fervently and faithfully candidly and cordially ingeniously and instantly bring back the King abhorie to be out of the work and be ashamed to be the last wherefore then are ye the last to bring back the King Think what ye have suffered for the want of him what ye may enjoy in the fruition of him oh that ye could b humbled for the driving him away oh that ye could desire his return oh that ye could prepare the highest joy that can be to entertain him oh that ye could be dejected for the expelling him Is it not an errour to chase away a King is it not an heinous sin to put a King to flight are Princes to be contested with and in an armed way resisted no away with this damned popery all sober Protestants defy it let the Vaticane of Rome be stored with poisons and pistols dagges and daggers engineers and canoneers against their lawfull Sovereigns but let not the Reformed Church be such an Armoury The primitive Church I tell you again used no such Armoury in the height of martyrdome though Cities and Castles were filled with Christians and they could have resisted if they would successefully The Scripture doth allow no such artillery doubtlesse if we may not curse the King in our thoughts we may nor crush him with our hands if we may not meddle with them which are given to change we may not change both King and government these three positions are Paradoxes First that the people make a King for the people almost do but
choose him the Ordinance do make him and when he is once constituted a King he is out of the power and constraint of the people he can neither be deposed nor opposed no the Ordinance doth secure him and his priviledges This is for a King by election and hereditary King hath a greater priviledge Secondly that there is a Co ordination with Kings for he which is supreme can have no Co-ordination with hint the best in the land and the greatest representatives at the highest are but grand Counsellers not joint Commanders Was it ever heard that Counsellers were the principall men in an estate Authority and direction are two distinct things All the Members may help in execution of things but still the head doth maintain its honour Thirdly that Kings in point of tyranny idolatry may be repressed and suppressed rejected ejected I hear it but I do not find it Manasses I am sure vomitted both these things for he worshipped the host of heaven made his children pass through the fire to the idol Molech and filled the streets of Jerusalem with blood and yet no Prophet stirred up the people to rebellion against him Is it fit to say to Kings ye are wicked or to Princes ye are ungodly Job 34 18. No though Kings should be wicked or ungodly yet we must not dispossess the Devil with another or cure a Princes sin with a greater crime of our own Therefore against a King there is no rising up Prov. 30.31 when a King was but set up by Prophecy obedience is enjoyned towards him Thou Judah shalt have the Scepter thy brethren shall praise thee thy Fathers children shall bow down before thee thou shalt-be a Lions whelp that shall come down from the spoil thou shalt couch down and who shall rouse thee up Gen. 49.8 9. And how do the Fathers children praise him when they call him enemy to the State how do the Fathers children bow down before him when they stand up against him with spear and poleaxes how do they fulfill that who shall rouse him up when there are those that dare rouse him up and clap him up Are there not mary spirits at this hour and perhaps in this presence so bitter that when there is but a motion of the Kings return they are so opposite to it that they wish never to hear his trumpets blowing nor behold his chariots stirring nor to see his royal face no they had rather that he were smitten with some mortall disease beyond sea or drowned in his passage or slain at his landing then that he should enter the Nation freely to come with pomp and triumph to his Throne We have preached obedience these many years but we have but taught ferrum natare iron to swim or but put our bread as Plato said in frigidum furmum into a cold Oven but let the Viper delight in biting as the old Adage saith and Frogs in croking but let all those who are of these venomous and slate troubling humours express better dispositions Away therefore with all paradoxes and let us once again embrace true Orthodox Divinity that Princes are to be obeyed Let those which hold that Princes may be resisted desist from this cursed opinion for this is but to keep the fire-brand still kindled in the Church And let those which hold that there ought to be no King upon earth but Christ at last be cured of this Lunasie for this is but to pull down lawful Kings and to set up mongrel Princes of their own faction For will not men be aspiring to be Kings amongst the Phanaticks yea there are none of them so humble but if they can they will wear the Crown Arthur hoped to have been a Prince and some say Henry was anointed and was not John of Leyden where this opinion was most rife an actual King and a most bloody one as ever was heard of Oh that men therefore would leave their delusions and be guided by true inspiration Kings there may be and Kings there must be Oh therefore let us acknowledge the calling and submit to him who by the Law of God nature and Nations ought to reign over us Have a reverend opinion of the name of a King and honourable and loyall thoughts to the person of a King yea and principally to your own lawful indubitable and invaluable King though he hath been a long time obscured yet let him come and shine in his proper Horizon though he hath been driven out yet let him be brought back For think that your Countrey will never be happy nor your Church blessed till the Guardian of the Countrey and the Patron of the Church be restored Let others therefore stand upon their tiptoes to defie him but be ye ready to bend your knees and honour him let others be forward to bind his hands but be ye ready to kisse his hand let others go into the gunroom if they can to shoot him back but go ye to the tops of your turrets to see him coming let others wish his absence but do ye pray for his return say oh that the bringing of him back were concluded on oh that the day were dawned when he should set forward oh that our eares might hear that he were upon our shoars and that our eies could set him within our streets oh that the citie were ecchoing to welcome him home oh that his Court-gate were opening to entertain him oh that the Crown Imperial were setting upon his head Walk not with pleasure eat not with contentment sleep not with satisfaction till ye be happy in the sight of his princely face He is the true heir to the Crown and would it not be an unspeakable comfort to see as the Scripture saith the inhertance of the father passe to the son Numb 27.7 We have had too much of Usurpers oh let us desire a Prince lineally descended Blessed art thou O Land when thy King is the son of Nobles He is eminent in vertues and what a blessing were it to us to have a man after Gods own heart made Captain over Israel he hath been honoured in foreign lands and how should our Nation be illustred to enjoy him whom many Countries and Kingdomes have magnified he hath high experience in State affairs and what a glory would it be to us to have such a Prince reigning over us as hath been famed through Christendome for his deep and profound judgement he is merciful and what a joy would it be to us that after we have met with so many bloud-suckers we might rest in the bosome of such a tender-hearted father he is valiant how would the presence of such a puissant Prince fill the Land full of prowesse and make the fear of us and the dread of us to fall upon all Nations he is of a magnificent spirit of princely birth and most princely qualifications that knows not as I hear how to be Prince enough in kindnesse bounty and all manner of acts of