called the seventh from Adam Jude 14. in which place son is to be understood For Henry VII is the First Margarite his daughter Q to James IV. King of Scotland the Second James V the third Mary Q. of Scotland his daughter the Fourth James VI King of Great Britain the fifth King Charles I the sixth K. Charles II the seventh And this is a good Argument to prove that King Charles II the seventh of a sea earth is not to be understood so to cure the Kings-evil as in a literal sence which some of these and more of his Predecessors have done but in some speciall and mystical way as I have declared And this computation agrees in another account if we reckon by the daughter of Queen Margarite and her issue for Queen Margarite daughter to King Henry VII first married to King James IV had issue James V after married to Archibald Douglas Earl of Angus by him had issue Margarite As King Henry VII the first Margarite Queen to King James IV the second Margarite her daughter by Archibald Earl of Angus and Wife to Matthew Stuart Earl of Lenoix the third Henry Lord Darley her son husband to Mary Queen of Scotland the fourth King James his son King of Great Britain the fifth King Charles I the sixth King Charles II the seventh For which cause I do humbly beseech the Kings Majesty that a Law may be enacted by the King and his Parliament for the deserved punishment of such diabolical impostures as this is which is frequently committed in this land by seventh sons taking upon them the Royal Prerogative of our Kings with the touch of their hands to cure the Kings-evil For the practice here of tends much to the dishonour of God and of our good King and to the delusion of his Majesties Subjects But one thing more touching the Rekets must not be forgotten that is to say the time when that Disease first seized upon Children in this Kingdome and had that name of Rekets given unto it It was the third year after our Royall Soveraigns Nativity or the next unto it when the weekly Bill of Mortality mentioned one to have been buried of the Rekets in the Moneth of May and no mention thereof in any of the said Bils before that time As I have found by search in the Parish Clerks Register kept in their Hall For as the time when Darius took the Babylonian Kingdom is exprest Dan. 5. 31. to be when he was about threescore and two years old that the Jews might observe as judiciously H. Broughton hath noted upon that place that at the time they were carried into captivity which was about the time of Darius his birth the Jews might then know the Lord had a Deliverer born for them So the Nation of England may learn Gods special care that he did not send them the Disease of the Rekets till He was born who should free them from the Miserie 's signifyed thereby and from the Disease it self Hitherto of the Kings-Evil as it pertaineth to the King and Kingdom of England Whereas I said The sins and calamities of this Nation with the Causers of them were pointed at by the Name and Disease of the Rekets and not the Name of our Deliverer but in the other the Kings-Evil yet notwithstanding it doth appear who shall be our Deliverer albeit not in the Name of the Disease or the Symptomes of the Rekets yet in the quality of the Persons which are troubled therewith The Patients so afflicted are Children and no other partly but not principally that we might be left without all pretence of any other inferior cause but be constrained to look up to the Hand which hath smitten us and yet we will not but in despight of reason seek about after this and that cause most vainly Again partly it is to let us understand that the afflictions foreshewn thereby should fall upon the childe of God Thirdly and principally the Rekets is laid on children that by the quality of the person afflicted by it it being the childs disease we may understand him that shall free us from it and what is signified thereby As it is called the Kings-evil not because it is caused by or laid upon but cured by the King So is it called and to be called the Childes disease because a childe shall heal it Surely you will ask me What childe We finde in Holy Scripture that our Saviour hath called himself barely by the name of the Son If the Son shall make you free saith our Savior you shall be free indeed And since we finde that God doth communicate his own Name to Princes calling them Gods and hence it seems to have been first used among Princes to name themselves in the plural number though single by the word we and us imitating as it were the Lord Almighty who is One and Three he doth seem to express by this word the childes Disease the Disease of the childe above all other children the childe a son of the King After which manner the son and daughter of the King of Spain is called infante and infanta that is the son and daughter childe as being well enough exprest alone to understand what son and daughter is meant thereby So when we say the childes Diseases 〈◊〉 may be well understood that Disease which the Childe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 above all children that is the Kings son shall heal In which expression of childe is also shewn first that our King shall be when this is done a childe albeit not according to the vulgar use of the word in our English tongue yet according to the signification of that word which in the Hebrew signifieth sometimes a childe in years else where a yong man although not very properly by the Translators rendred also a childe where in Daniel it signifieth a yong man calling the three companions of Daniel three children that he shall then be yong in years How great a matter of comfort is hereby administred unto us that are the people of the land that the Lord is so pleased that the King shall not differ the making us a happy nation to his old age but go about it and perfect the Lords work while he is yong Secondly here is an Argument of Almighty Gods great Power and Mercy that he should frame his Majesties heart to clemency as not to suffer him although his Royal Father was murthered to break out in cruel and unjust revenge It is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes And lest any man should thus object This Disease of the Rekets is common to women children as well as to men as that it should not seem thereby to point at a cure to be performed by the King in regard of the sex as to be performed by the son more than the daughter of a King let him take a view of those great Types of our Savior the Prophets whereof although the most part were men yet
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
so intitled in the Writings of Learned men and is so to be accounted for giving Testimony with his blood to that which in the secret thoughts of his heart he judged to be the Truth King Charles II our Gracious Soveraign for better cause then his Predecessor King Edward the Confessor hath deserved that name for his Majesty hath made a Holy and Royal Confession with his mouth Wherefore I most humbly Almighty God in whose hand are the hearts of Kings so to dispose his Majesties heart and I humbly beseech his Majesty to be entreated that he will not suffer such men who have opened their mouths in vows to the Most High God to be enforced either to revoke that which cannot be recalled or being pious skilful and faithful laborers for that cause to be excluded from working in the Lords Harvest And I do with confidence believe that my prayer is heard in heaven and will be upon the earth Whereunto if there be need of more marks which may shew that King Charles II was designed to be the Antitype of Edward the Confessor though the distance of time betwixt them be the space of 600 years or more for Edward the Confessor died about the year 1066. having reigned much about the time of twenty three years See Henry Knighton and John Brompton in Edward the Confessor adde and observe that K. Charles II our Royal Soveraign succeeded his martyred Father CHARLES I after so many Governors and Governments and no more as Edward the Confessor succeeded after Kings the Martyred Edward Moreover two of those one in the Types the other in the Antitypes are strangely of one Name and in the same Order of Governing that is the III. Let us compare them Edward the Martyr I Egelred II Edmund Ironside III Hardicantus IV Edward the Confessor V. The ANTITYPE Charles the Martyr I Common-wealth II Oliver Protector by-named Ironside III Richard Protector IV Charles our Gracious Soveraign Confessor V. Now according to Example in the Balm according to Scripture and reason as that precious oyle ceast to be when Christ had suffered and as the substance being come the shadow goes away and there is no reason to expect a signe when the thing signified thereby is now come I conclude that our Royal Soveraign will be the last of the Kings of this Nation to whom God will give the gift of healing the KINGS-EVIL Now Reader take here notice of the Pride Malice and Subtlety of the Devil and his Emulation of Almighty God who hath so wound himself into the mindes of Impostors and thorow them into the perswasions of the ignorant and rude multitude that the seventh son in order from the first without any daughter born betwixt is able to cure that Disease which we call the KINGS-EVIL And this Imposture is frequently undertaken and performed by stroaking with the hand and the Minister thereof is called a Stroaker This I say is attributed by some to a seventh son by others to a seventh son of a seventh son Which albeit a lye from the father of lies the devil immediatly proceeding doth nevertheless declare the devils knowledge and fore-knowledge of our Royal Soveraign King CHARLES II his virtue And as the Lord will win glory unto himself from all Creatures and all Things for to this purpose they were by him created so will he likewise from Satan and his practices even to illustrate and confirm though against the mindes of the Serpent his Glory and Truth This is the matter the Prerogative which the Lord hath given to the Kings of England and among but far above them to our Dread Soveraign Charles II the devil having a foresight of in his counsell which he giveth to Impostors doth secretly thereby acknowledge and yet defaceth but not wholly by adding somewhat of his own For it is true that a seventh son of a seventh is indued with Power from above not only to cure the bodily malady called the KINGS-EVIL as others have had but to take away the Evil of the Kingdom and is his Royal Prerogative which none of his Predecessors have had This Profession of curing this Malady is held out ordinarily in this form viz. The seventh son without a daughter born betwixt them cures the KINGS-EVIL In which expression the devil as he hath wont to do abuseth the truth three waies 1. By speaking ambiguously as he did use in the Oracle of Apollo leaving it uncertain whether Son be in those words to be taken according to the common acception of the word or otherwise 2. By leaving out some part of the matter which notwithstanding sometimes I have heard used and which serves to discovery of the truth and that is these words of a seventh 3. By adding words thereto wholly false such are without a daughter born betwixt and putting Son after seventh so making it to be of a seventh son Thus did Satan speak doutfully when he told our first parents They should be as God or Gods knowing good and evil The word there signifying God and also damned Spirits and knowing good and evil to be interpreted both knowledge of speculation and knowledge of feeling joy and sorrow the later of which Adam and Eve felt as did those lost Angels As for leaving out part of the truth the Devil was guilty thereof when speaking unto our Saviour to fast himself down from a pinnacle of the Temple he used this expression Mat. 4. 6. If thou be the Son of God cast thy self down For it is written He shall give his Angels charge concerning thee and in their hands they shall bear thee up lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone in which words taken out of Psa 91. 11 12 these words are left out by the devil to keep thee in all thy waies Lastly by adding words the devil corrupteth the truth which he did when he spake unto Saul unto the truth which he spake in part by aujoyning lies 1 Sam. 28. And the Lord hath done by him saith the devil concerning David truly as he spake by me which was false for the Lord spake not so by the Devil but by the true Samuel What I affirmed before That a seventh son of a seventh shall cure the KINGS-EVIL and to be understood in such manner as abovesaid of the Person of King Charles II doth thus appear Account all the Descents from father to son that is in a right line from King Henry VII to our Dread Soveraign now reigning taking and including both terms we shall finde them to be seven so that our Soveraign last in order is the seventh son of a seventh understand Henry For it is common in Scripture not to call the grandchildren sons only as Josiah is said Matth. 1. 11. to have begotten Jeconiah but those which after many generations have come out of the loins of a man by the name of sons to such a one as the children of Israel of Esau But more nearly to our purpose Enoch is