with the grounds and reasons at large which induc'd him to it that the Parliaments wisdom might take a more present care of the whole matter rather than the glory of such a work should perish for want of a right understanding And if it may seem to any Person of that Honorable House too great a favor for me to have my Articles made good I shall humbly pray no more than that their Justice may protect my Mineral adventures at Rowpits upon the Forest of Mendip and other deserted places and to defend my Feoffees in trust who have resolved to make a true trial of my Lords Philosophy in that affair since most Men reputed me not well in my wits for attempting the seeming impossibility of recovering their drowned conditions otherwise those publick spirits will doubtlesse inevitably suffer From whence God lead your Lordship by the hand and all others that will take the pains to read the ensuing Treatise for then my Genius invites me to believe I shall have their unanimons consent to an irrevocable Act like the Medes and Persians which is and shall be the Prayer of Your most Humble Servant Tho. Bushel Right Honorable GRatitude having obliged my Soul to serve such a surviving Friend as your Lordship hath ever been to the memory of my Lord Bacons Philosophy and now finding general fame to give out that the vicissitude of State Affairs are become dubious ever since the French Embassie and other unbyassed occurrences were made publick I held it my duty to tender the conception of your humble Servant how to manage a safe retreat for your Lordships perpetual Honor which is in a word my Lord to get the start of some mens understand compliance by casting the faculties of your divine part upon the Heroick nature of your Princes clemency and with the same sense of your Lordships unparalleld language in the publick Senate to lead the judicious to the like obedience rather than the effusion of more bâ—ood should be spilt by the dangerous consequence of a forein Invasion and then it were impossible if such an Act of gallantry proceeding from those pious Principles might spring from your Lordships undaunted Spirit but that it must meet with the splendor of a Princes favor and mercy in their greatest glory I write not this my Lord from my own head but that I have often heard my Lord Bacon discourse the like upon the same Subject and that the way to out-viâ—… Princes rage in hiâ— conceived wrong by a politick prud nce was to blunt the edge of his revengeful Sword with such an opportune submission as might add to his greater Honor in pardoning the crime than punishing the offence and especially when his Conscience must bear him witnesse he is restored to three Kingdoms by such a stratagem from the wisdom of your Lâ—rdshâ—ps and might in time by the same scales know the persons that betrayed his Cabinet Counsels which were a work without compare and as miraculous as meritorious before God and Man for my Lord his Royal Father would frequently aver that it was below his nature to take revenge upon an open Enemy but th se which betrayed the secrets of his trust he could not tell what to say in the punishment of them unlesse God should direct his heart but must leave such to the stroak of divine Iustice In a word my Lord I have nothing to do with Court-holy-water nor State Policy but through Providence and your Honors assistance to Crown my old Master the Lord Viscount Verulam King of Philosophy for his unparalleld knowledg in Mineral discoveries and to support thereby the magnificent Monument of his Atlantis above those that endeavour to lay his Honor in the dust without the participant purse of any person than the breath of such Senators as should proceed from your Lordships abilities and therefore I shall humbly beg pardon for this bold Address and remain as obliged Your Lordships ever devoted Servant Thomas Bushell Mr. Bushel's Mineral Overtures Right Honourable ACcording to your commands I do here present your Lordships with a brief Narrative of the Lord Chancellor BACONS directions to my self for the management of his Mineral experiments in case his own Death should stop his intended progresse therein before he could practically discover the true generation and spreading qualities of Minerals I being then his Menial Servant King IAMES having already promised to grant his Lordship all his own discoveries of Mines Royal and also of any drowned Lands or deserted works by him to be recovered within the space of Forty years paying him the fifth according to the usual custome of the King of Spain in his Mines of the West-Indies and of other Princes after the expiration of fourteen years first granted gratis towards the great â—arge of his new Invention to facilitate the obtaining the Mineral Riches of this Land occasioned by a learned Speech his Lordship hath lately made to his Majesty Count GUNDAMORE and divers of the Nobility being present concerning the rise and magnificent growth of the China Trade wherein by a perfect demonstration he made it appear that the invention of one man by his help ng the Defects of Nature with the Materials of Art and the patience of three Ages industrie to bring its concoction to perfection became the great Revenew of that Empire and hath been for this thousand years the only honour of that people as well as their livelyhood and Patrimony In which he seriously protested That his utmost ambition in the affairs of this world affected no greater glory than to leave the real fruits of his best service to his Soveraign Honour to his Name his written Works to Posterity and by such Treasures as his own Industry should raise out of his Mineral expeâ—iments to accomplish the noble Design and Fabrick of his SOLOMONS House described in his new Atlantis annexed to his Naâ—ural Historie seeing that the Corporation of the Mines Royal instituteâ— by his Majesty consisting of Lords and Gentlemen of qualâ—ty produced but wâ—ak or very small advanâ—ages to the Revenew of the Crown or the publick good although his Lordship did then really bâ—lieve it very possible for himself if qualified thereto by his Râ—gal Power to bâ—ing it so to passe in one Age that the barrenest Mountains in this Nâ—tion should produce such store of Treasure by their Royal vâ—ins as we need not envie the King of Spain's felicity in his Potozi or any other Mines in America thereupon by way of similitude added this That as a State whose present dimensions were but small might happily serve as a foundation for an ample Monarch if all regard of private propriety were laid aside and every Member thereof would diligently devote his particular care to the publick benefit even so it mighâ— happen in the advancement of the discoveries of those Mineral Riches supposed to lie hid in the bosomes of the most barren Mountains when the whole industry of the many several persons
this passage between my self and the Beggar he called to mind a Treatment I had given him and divers of his Nobility at my Grotto in Oxfordshire 33. years ago where one by my appointment in the habit of one of those Philosophical Hermits before mentioned in the 28 page of my Lords Atlantis addressed himself to his Majesty by this ensuing speech ascending out of the ground as a prophetick preludium to the practical discovery of Mineral Treasures and all mysterious Arts for I must tell you the third year following I gave him a collation of his own coined Silver newly discover'd out of his barren mountains wherby the utmost grandure of humane Empire might be compleated by such true Hermits if persued in the like nature commanded me to ask my Lord Say whether it might not be possible to have his restraint limited to that place and not to return to the said Castle any more giving such of the Nobility as were his friends engaged as Security that he should not go out of the Precincts of that Grotto nor intermeddle with any State-affairs until themselves found it expedient for the general good But this being denied made me decline the recesses of that solitude And now gentle Reader since that Lord in his wisdom conceived it necessary to limit the aforesaid Practice according to the Dictates of his own Theory I refer my self to your judicious censure although I confess my simplicity is so great that I cannot arrogate any thing of â—nowledge to my self which may seem to lessen the merits of that unparallel'd Lord but am like the Mule that bears his Masters Treasure or a Porter that carries a Letter yet knows not the worth of its contents The Moral whereof is this That the Poor mans Tale may be heard as well as the Rich and that self-will'd persons of self-intereâ—… may not sway the judgement of a whole state from trying the Divine Mysteries of that Lords Philosophy lest his Overtrres penned by his Pupils observation in this foregoing Treatise for setting the Poor on work easing the Subjects Tax and giving the Tenth of what Treasure-trove shall be discovered by such Art or of Drowned Lands recovered from the Sea without prejudice to any should prove witnesses against us in the next age to the perpetual shame and dishonour of this I write not this Gentle Reader to ingratiate my self into your good opinion for releasing me from imprisonment or to be restored to the possession of my Estate according to Articles lest a Critick oâ— self-ended person should carp at the same and report I had trapan'd the Judgement of a State under the notion of this Treasure although I am assured that the Parliament and the then Lord General will find their Honours as much imprisoned as my person when they shall read their own Articles signed by their General and confirmed by themselves which makes me not remove my body by a Habeas Corpus to the upper Bench or Fleet as others in my condition do for I find the major part of my just Creditors are satisfied at the s ght of my sufferings as well as the others are pleased that I do suffer from their severe cruelties and I pray God the rest of their Estates and reputation do not consume and come to nothing since they have brought me to this sad condition for I assure you some of them that were actors in ruining my credit by detraction and had wrested my Estate from me by getting the possession in those times of War and pleading Outlawries to my Bills of Equity came to my Bed-side when they were sick to death told me before my servants that they could not dye with a quiet Conscience until they had asked me forgiveness and so revealed the Plots of others that had a hand in my ruine whâ—…h hath reduced me to a contended mind in the middest of discontent But that which grieves my Soul is I fear my Ghost will walk when I am dead in those shades of Mineral obscurities to see so matchless a design of my Lord Bacons Atlantis that is Translated into all Languages for its exquisite contrivancy his Mineral Philosophy that was consigned to support its Fabrick should suffer shipwrack through self-interest when meer Providence in these revolutions and junctures of time hath brought it so far to light as I dare ingage my life that out of those drowned works I have now in hand and many others prescribed by that Lord I may in the effecting this great Work for my Countries good vie with the wisdom of a State the valour of an Army and the City purses if Justice permit me to enjoy what Providence shall produce out of those works provided no other follow the way of my Lords Mineral experiments and become my corrival in the deserted works So that Gentle Reader I have no more to write but to end as I begun with the Lord Gondomar's to King James who said they had a Spanish Proverb That that man which sought by the ruine of his native Countrey to erect a Trophy of honour to his own name more than to Gods glory was in his conception cursed his Mother bewitcht and himself nurst with a Tyger Inferring that the hands of publick persons imployed to Noble actions are his vicegerents upon Earth in making the world their Heir without ends of their own and so become the truest Stewards of those Talents which his gracious Providence hath committed to their trust Your faithful friend and humble Servant T. B. The Hermits Speech when he ascended out of the ground as the King and some of his Nobility entred Mr. Bushels Rock VVITH bended knees thus Humbly do I pray You blessed powers that glorifie this day And to my frozen lips have utterance given Speak O speak the Commands you bring from Heaven For by times Embleme that since Noahs flood I thus have grasp'd my Soul hath understood The world no farther journey hath to sail Than is betwixt the Serpents head and tail If then before the Earths great funeral Most glorious SIR you hit her come to call The Inmates of this solitary place To strict accompt for Heaven sake daign the grace To lend your patience and a Gentle ear To what I ought to speak and you may hear A Prodigal profuse in vast expence That nothing studied but to please his sense Trimming a glorious outside whil'st within He cherisht nought but propagating sin That multipli'd so fast there was no place Allow'd for vertue or for saving grace God of his mercy pleased was at last A glorious Eye upon his Soul to cast Which being so near a final rack as now His onely care his study is but how He may redeem the years he lost in sin And live as he to live now did begin What followed next must be conceiv'd of course Confession contrition and remorse These guides to Heaven he happily persu'd View'd his past life and that again review'd And to that end he
when in his own preordinate time he is pleased to reveal his inscrutable Judgments which so far exceed humane comprehension yet this we know that the Devil makes it his main businesse to abuse mankind and to prevent or destroy whatever tends to his good and this appears in that he is so averse and unwilling to make known such Treasures as are hid even to his own devoted Servants lest when they can keep them no longer they should dedicate them to Pious uses and so the good should in Processe of time come to be partakers of them I make no question but Balaam who while he lived was a notorious Sorcerer did cordialy desire to dye the death of the Righteous and though he was willing enough to have cursed Gods Israel to get som of Balaacks Gold yet it is full as probable he would have purchast some of their Prayers at his death with the wages of unrighteousnesse and give me leave to tell you that my ever-honoured Lord the Noblest Philosopher of his time was wont to say often That he believed that such hidden Treasures as well as those of Mineral discoveries being freely devoted by Religious Princes to holy and charitable uses and ends and to none but such and accordingly by them granted only to persons of known integrity abhorring all self-interest and aiming solely at the Glory of God in promoting great designs for the publick good of his Church and People may and will most probably be recovered by Persons so qualified as hath been already hinted For as God at first created all things for the lawfull use of man so whatever we find written in his Word he hath revealed to the self-same purpose though he hath neither dated the time nor yet always clearly directed the manner but leavs us as Creatures whom he hath endued with Reason to proceed as just occasion shall be afforded we read in the Gospel that Christ chargeth us to seek with a gracious Promise That we shall find and to seeking he annexeth knocking with the like Promise That it shall be opened unto us Now who sees not that there never was more need both of industrious seeking and of importunate knocking by honest and holy endeavours thâ—n there is at this day when the sad consequences of the â—ate Civiâ— war have driven so many whole families which formerly flourisht to seek their daily bread from the hands of such as had been their underlings and to knock aloud at the Gates of such as oppressed them to keep them from starving for want of that Almes which they were wont to distribute Therefore I humbly conceive in such an Article of necessity as this any lawfull course whereby such poor Souls may be compleatly relieved without any charge at all to the publick will now be most gratefull and acceptable to all good men And this very consideration hath beyond all other motives encouraged me in this Exigence and juncture of time to reveal my incomparably-great Lord and Masters most reserved Cabal for as his strongest Obligation to my Gratitude he would in a good mood and in his greatest recesse privately impart to me That the highest Perfection and Elucidations of humane â—…ason do but rove at Metaphysical Notions and that most Philosophical speculations are both obscure and uncertain did not Divine Contemplation rap us with the Apostle into the third Heaven and beam into us a glimpse of that supernatural light wherewith the intellectual Angels themselves are illuminated to which he added that the superficial discernments of Philosophy incline a man to Atheism but the intrinsecal and through-discovery of the grounds of the same confirm him in the solid fundamentals of true Religion for said he our corporeal substance is too much of kin to the brute Animals but our Souls are so many sparks or beamlings of that eternal lâ—ght which is the fountain of the Sun from whence all visible light doth stream A d further that had not the All wise Creator appointed a tutelar Aâ—gel to every man as his Guardian and Conductor through this vale of misery then that Arch-enemy the Prince of this world or some of his subordinate legionary Spirits would deal far worse with each of us than ever he did with Job himself and as an argument of his inveterate rancour and virulent policy he more than once asserted that this great Impostor and Spirit of delusion hath suggested and raised innumerable errors and contagious Heresies out of the different opinions of the greatest Fathers of the Primitive Church to the end that he might thereby scandalize Religion it self and make it seem but a stalking-horse and to be esteemed but an umbrella for self-interest and hypocritical Machiavilians and he sometimes modestly intimated to me that since I was not then fix'd and not sufficiently arm'd against such potent temptations the best way I could take both to avoid such delusions and also to improve my Contemplations to my eternal advantage was to retire my self from all popular parts of the world to uâ—frequented solitudes and there after my first fruits offer'd in an ingenuous confession of all my sins and unfeigned sorrow testified in my serious endeavour to forsake them all and wholly to resign my self to my Creators will which though it should conclude me a vessel of dishonour yet like the humble clay in the hands of this great Potter I should not dare to dispute his Decree but that I should submissively acknowledge that his Omnipotence cannot erre in the dispensations of his Mercies or distributions of his Justice and righteous Judgements and that if the Almighty should recall and pardon me and confirm me in the hopes of his undeserved mercy and think me fit to be put again into the dispatch of any temporal affairs which may tend to his glory and the publick good that then I should use all possible diligence to find out in the three Kingdoms or in the whole race of man-kind such a number of men capable of my Lordâ— Character as in effect Abraham interceded for who by their righteousness at least in Gods acceptation might have made an attonement for condemn'd Sodom and having found but a few such that then I should not need to doubt of accomplishing all his Philosophical designs portrayed in his New Atlantis or his Cabalistick Theory concredited only to me in the management of the same and he hop'd by this way to reduce in time all Errors Schisms and Heresies in Religion to the Orthodox Faith according to the un-erring Canon of Sacred Scripture So great an estimation and reverend an opinion had my great Lord and Master of the prevalent and operative sanctity of those truly humble Persons whom he appointed as the Hermits and Hospitallers of his Solomons House by the Energy of whose divinely-sublimed Souls and inspired Intellectuals he not only suppos'd but propos'd that all his Philosophical seeming miracles should take their wish'd effect now far soever they transcend all that the antient Magi or the
Johns and the Lord Say have vouchsafed to approve of it for a general good My Lord these sufferings in my Reputation Life and Fortune by this imprâ—sonment I was resolved to submit unto in a silent patience But some of my distressed friends fearing the deep wounds in my head from that unhappy Arrest might prove to be mortal have occasioned this my Adresse upon a confident hope that the Parliaments Wisdom will not deny a favor of such just concernment to your Lordships Merits and the Lord Viscount Sayes if their more weighty affairs can but permit them leasure to pry into that Politick Act of State whereby Garrisons were acquired for great sums and then it is conceived your Lordships care in securing Lundy Isle will redound to your greater Honour when they shall consider that much Piracy might have been committed in that place without controul which was surrendred through your Prudencies without any other condition than one person to be protected until the possession of his estate were restored to satisfie the just debts of Your Lordships most humble Servant Thomas Bushell April 18. 1659. His Majesties Answer to Mr. Bushel concerning the Surrender of Lundy BUSHEL WE have perused thy Letter in which We find thy care to answer the Trust We at first reposed in thee Now since the place is inconsiderable in it selâ— and yet may be of gâ—eat advantage unto you in respect of your Mines We do hereby give you leave to use your discretion in it with this Caution That you take example by Our Selves and be not over-credulous of vain promises which hath made Us great only in Our Sufferings and will not discharge your Debts From Newcastle 14 July 1646. Mr. Bushels Articles upon his Surrender of the Isle of Lundy The Propositions Articles Conditions Ingagements and Agreements made concluded and assented unto the Tenth of September in the year 1647. between his Excellency Sir Thomas Fairfax Knight Lord General and the Lord Viscount Say and Seal of the one part and Thomas Bushel Esq Governour of the Islâ—nd of Lundy for the Kings Majesty of the other part in perfuance of several Orders of the Committee of both Kingdoms and an Order or Ordinance of the Lords and Commons in Parliament as followeth FIrst It is agreed that the said Mr. Bushel shall Surrender and Deliver up the said Island unto the said Lord Say or unto such person as he shall appoint and all Ammunition and Magazin there And that in consideration thereof The Delinquency of the said Mr. Bushel shall be taken off and all Sequestration in respect thereof discharged and he the said Mr. Bushel shall be restored unto his Estate and such right as he or his Assigns had in the Mines of Devon Cornwal and Wales before these troubles and all the persons with him in the Island and not being persons of quality shall be pardoned of their Delinquency and suffered to live quietly at home not acting any thing contrary to the Authority of Parliament Secondly that Mr. Bushel shall be protected from Arrest until he obtain the possession of his said Estate THO. FAIRFAX The Lord Fairfax Letter to the Speaker of the Parliament Master Speaker I Cannot but be sensible of any thing that reflects on the Honour of the Parliament as on my self who for theâ—r service have granted Articles to several persons as importancy of affairs required and particularly to your Petitioner Mr. Bushel but of late there hath been some obstruction in due execution of them to the prejudice of such as cast themselves on your protection which Mr. Bushel more readily did in hope of performance of those Articles made upon his surrender of the Isle of Lundy with the Lord Say and my self on the behalf of the Parliament then concived most reasonable as his papers herewith do expresse therefore intreat at your first opportunity you would acquaint the Honorable House with the contents of my humble desires which is that they would make good Mr. Bushels Articles and be pleased to recompence his great sufferings with their timely assistance that he may be better enabled to satisfie his Creditors which he cannot do but by persute of such Mineral discoveries as Art and Experience hath taught him which will not only be their advantage in securing those debts but render him more capable of doing considerable service to the Common-wealth And in so just an Act you will preserve the Justice and Honour of the Parliament and his who hath ever been Your most humble Servant T. Fairfax Bath 29 July 1659 To the Right Honorable WILLIAM LENTHAL Speaker to the PARLIAMENT Right Honorable MY old Master the Lord Chancellor Bacon would often say That the magnificence of a Parliament consisted much in the presence of their Prince and that the reflection of his Royal Affection was as a foil to render them as Diamonds of greater value in their Countries service If those natural flaws of Self-interest were not frequently known to become a motive to make them forfeit their Trust and subvert their Obedience which invited that Lords observation to reflect upon such a Model of new Laws as no forc'd power should be able to take away the Regality of Soveraign Rights nor their Prerogative have a Medium to intrench upon the privilege of their Subjects and that his Philosophy should be the sole revenue to support the Magi of so magnificent a Machine without any other imposition on the people than its attendance upon Providence and to change the temper of loose and avaritious minds into Moral and Divine vertues But that Lord being commanded by King James to write the life of Henry the seventh and his great imployments in State affairs were the divertisements which retarded his inclination to that study and left only the Essay of his Mineral Philosophy to support his Solomons House described in his New Atlantis as a rest whereby the successe of his other experiments might be judged And now most Honored Sir you having reâ—eived the Lord Fairfax his Letter to the Parliament in answer of mine touching the making good my Articles as also to recompence my great sufferings hath made me so presume on your Lordship as to beseech you to patronize this publication of my proceedings and the rather for that I perceive by the weekly Occurrence Your Honor hath sent a Letter of thanks to the Lord Fairfax in the Name of the whole House for his late opportune service done to the Honorable Parliamenr which hath emboldned me the more to put your Honor in mind of a result of the said Lords Letter directed to your self and dated the 29 of July last lest the interpretation of your Honors Letter should be held in the Diary of a Complement when the Lord Fairfax his Letter is laid aside which concerns his and the Parliaments Honor to make good and because his Lordship did me the favor to send me a true Copy of what was writ I have made bold humbly to present you
friends and the Angels of Heaven to rejoyce for I verily believe the true compunction of your hearts will more facilitate the penetration of our Rocky Addits than the strokes of your hands And to encourage and asist you therein I shall provide such holy and Orthodox Instructors for you that by your conscientious observance of their moral and divine Lectures as well as their examples you shall with much alacrity be able to overcome all the obstacles of this great work For they will voluntarily participate with you in all things that thereby they may cheerfully lead you into Christs own fold And therefore consult with your Consciences and they will doubtlesse dictate to your memories that the best way to pilot your sad souls bodies lives and reputations from tempestuous storms of worldly vanities into a safe harbor is with humble hearts to take this Mineral calling upon you and to think speak and deport your selves towards God in it as if all the world did behold you and to live and converse with man as in the immediate sight of our divine Creator and then we shall rejoyce in enjoying one another for as I desire the Almighty not to forgive me my sins nor receive my soul if I have any other ends than what hath been exprest so I desire none of you to remove your selves to this harmlesse and laborious calling unless your resolutions be firm to those ends which may crown your industry otherwise we must be forc'd in obedience to our trust to return you bak to the Judge of your first condemnation and pray that the All-Disposer may call you by some other means to repentance which shall be the constant and fervent Petition of Your most Compassionate Friend Thomas Bushel To my Fellow-Prisoners for Debt in Mind or Body DEarly beloved Brethren in Bonds I could heartily rejoice if we were so onely for Christs sake for then our patience therein would render us happy in his mercy Yet since the inhumanity of our Creditors through the power of the Laws usurps that revenge which is onely God's in justice let us with all humility submit our selves to his permissive will for the evil of punishment is his My honourable Master the late Lord Chancellor Bacon was wont to tell me That as Gentry bought nothing at Market so Imprisonment paid no Debts but those of the Penal Laws and that he did verily believe the fraudulent Contracts of most Creditors begot the disability of their Debtors satisfaction I shall refer to your own Consciences the respective cause of your several restraints Mine own is like that of the adventurous Merchant who having sent all his own Stock in several Vessels to far distant Factories through the various dangers of the Deep is constrained to take upon Trust at home till the return of his Cargazoons according to their success proclaim him happy or bankrupt and if I had ever any other design in borrowing let my Redeemer exclude me from the general pardon of his precious merits who came not to call the just but sinners to repentance assuring us that the blessed Angels rejoice more at the conversion of one true Penitent than the integrity of ninety nine righteous from whence we may conclude 't is ninety nine to one odds that there are very few sincere Converts But my beloved Fellow-sufferers since now the Supreme Power of this Common-wealth doth as I hear intend like S. Peters good Angel to open the doors of your Prisons by the wisdom of their mercies I earnestly exhort you to mark the first day of your unexpected Jubile with a white stone or red letter in commemoration of so happy a deliverance lest God consume your lives with new afflictions and troubles alwayes remembring his glory and your eternity And then take the grave admonition for your Cure as the Mirror of my honoured Master prescribed to me which was To deny all my treacherous Senses their most delighting Objects I fed on nothing that pleased my appetite looking willingly on nothing which I formerly liked nor accompanied any creature that affected my concupiscence But frequented devious wayes and solitary groves and at last found out a desolate Island in the Irish seas where three years I sadly lamented the errours of my youth mingling the waters which I drank with the brine of mine eyes and did sparingly eat the bread of affliction as it had been ashes These were my first steps towards Gods Mercy-seat in a most unfeigned contrition for the Treason I committed against his Eternal Majesty And surely he was not displeased therewith for out of this depâ—h of desolation he graciously called me to the publick servicâ— of my Countrey in the innocent way of a Miner and how I have proceeded therein with intention chiefly to glorifie him this annexed Treatise will give you an account But there the inhumanity of my Creditors stopt me yet I am confident so soon as the Republique affairs will permit the Honourable Parliament will enlarge me in order to my Mineral service and their own Articles as they have done you in mercy And then I say if any of you either for a present subsistence or a penitential way to expiate your former errours or to reclaim your affections or in hope to raise your lost fortunes and enable you to pay your honest Debts will sweat with me in the way of this hopeful vertuous and Philosophical labour you shall eat bread with me so long as you please whereby at last we may obtain such Mineral blessings from the Lord of Bounty that we in true charity may be able to cast our bread upon the waters by relieving many distressed Penitents whose sins have brought them to want bread and whose age or sickness hath taken away their ability to work And here I think 't is proper to give you the Epitome of my Lords Design for the regulating his Solomons House or Academy He proposes six principal Officers of State to succeeding times as Trustees six exquisite lucre-hating Philosophers to bring his Theorie into experimental practice are to be handsomly maintained upon a sacred oath to be true to the trust of his Philosophical secrets Convicted men adventurous Voluntiers are to be chief instruments of the Mineral work and are to be cloathed in good Canvas or Welsh Cottons their food Bisket Beef Pease and Bacon thrice a week the other days White-meat Oyl and Roots their Drink of allowance for the most part is to be Water but they shall not be barr'd Beer or Ale in orderly proportion they are to lie on Mats unlesse they rather choose a clean Plank Lots and Delves shall be assigned to them in which if God bless their honest diligence they shall comfortably participate whereby at last they may make themselves free if a true and constant penitence be their heavenly guide for impenitence barricadoes the Gates of Heaven faster against us than our Sins For as true Contrition makes our hearts grateful sacrifices to God so
Royal Trismegistus himself ever effected or but so much as aim'd at in their stupendious undertakings for these are the men said he must evidence unto us by perspicuous and perfect demonstration those glorious Ideaes which the divine Plato so long before Christs time most learnedly discoursed of Now Courteous Reader Let me tell you that my great Masters modesty and confidence were alike strange and unparallel'd for I speak it upon my own knowledge that when his magnificent Master King Iames of happy memory offer'd him the whole benefit of his Mineral discoveries together with his forfeited Estates of Capital Offendors for a considerable time towards the erecting and maintaining of my Lords Philosophical College mentioned before My Lord like a right and royal Philosopher returned his humble thanks with this Hâ—roick Answer That he had no ends at all upon his Majesties Exchequer either to drain that or to enrich himself but his only aim was to eternize his Majesties Name and Fame by doing such a glorious work as could not be effected in the Reign of any of his Royal Predecessors and for the compleating whereof he craved no other aid and supply but only the profits of such drown'd and utterly-deserted Mineral works as his own Philosophical industry should recover unlesse his Majesty would be pleased to add thereunto such supposed Treasure a Trover as the Art and Industry of all former Ages could never attain unto and to help him herein he desired no other Pioneers but only such penitent persons as being convicted of petty Felonies were condemned for want of Clergy except such Voluntiers as being convicted by their own consciences came into the work with truely-contrite spirits and truly-mortified affections and were willing to vow Voluntary poverty before they were admitted and his reason was if my memory fail me not That Gods providence is all-sufficient to carry on with successe any vertuous undertaking where patient industry simple obedience and humble self-denyal are the principal Agents Religious men the only Surveyors not byassed by interest their diet temperance and the produâ—tion of the whole solely dedicated to his Honour and Service Neither would my Lord admit of any Partners or Co-adjutors in this design But as Princes cannot endure any Competitors and Lovers will brook no Corrivals so it was my Lords only ambition to have no Auxiliaries that should share with him in the honour of his Philosophical discoveries that so he might gratefully ascribe and attribute the whole invention perfection and emolument thereof to the Omnipotent and only-wise Architect of the Universe Now all the premises being laid together I humbly refer to your grave and serious consideration which are more fully set down in my Abridgment of my Lord Bacons Mineral Theory and when to your admiration the mystick propositions therein discoursed of shall be successefully experimented and perfected by such inconsiderable instruments and dis-regarded humble ones then what carnal reason now looks upon as impossible I hope all sober men will acknowledge to be feasible and be brought not only to confesse that all self-seeking worldy wisdom is foolishness with God but also that such matchless precedents of Gods incomprehensible mercy and bounty have not only plausibly perswaded but even powerfully compelled them to be cordially asisting in their several places and to the utmost of their power by removing all such rubs and Remoras as do any way obstruct or retard the persuing and prosecuting of that which by Gods blessing may in short time be improved to so publick a benefit and in this assurance I Rest The Humblest of your Lordships Servants THOMAS BUSHELL Mr. BVSHEL'S LETTER To the Right Honourable the LORD FAIRFAX Touching his Articles of VVar. Right Honourable BY the inclosed Remonstrance you will discern the readinesse of my industry to do my Countrey service and by my Articles of War how much your Lordship and my Lord Say and Seal are ingaged in Honor to see them ratified and therefore I shall not need to put your Lordship in mind of more than what proceeds from your quick-sighted Genius and springs from the veins of your Noble Blood especially when the fidelity of performance on my part as a private Gentleman shall be ballanced and scanned by your own wisdom For my Lord I held my Articles of War made by such persons of quality and from the Authority of Parliament more impregnable than the strongest Garison And why I should be made the only Trophe of Misfortune by being rendred thus into a Prison upon an Arrest through my confidenâ—e of your engagements to protect me when by my publâ—ck Actions the Honour of a Parliament and your own interests are bound to make them good I know not neither do I see the Equity or Justice of it For it is impossible your Lordships should conceive my judgment so weak I having the late Kings Monitory Letter a true Copy whereof is here under-written when you shall consider the great Debts I have contracted for him and my self as to part from so Tenable a place as Lundy without my Estate restored to enable me to pay them or my Person protected till I got the possession but much rather have died in the place than be exposed to a loathsom prison by the common rigor of Bayliffs and Serjeants unlesse it be decreed by the Eternal Power that future Ages shall find on Record there was a time when a Writ procured by a Mechanick Fellow did baffle an Ordinance of Parliament impowering their General and one of the greatest Peers of the Realm to Treat with me concerning that Garrison In a word my Lord solid judgments do conceive that my Person cannot suffer more by imprisonment than your Honours in the censure of all States for suffering it I write not this my Lord to free my self from prison untill pay the utmost farthing of any just debt I ow either for the late King or upon my own score if both your engaged Honours are not concerned in my Restraint but only crave liberty to persue those Mines which Providence hath in all probability designed to pay such patient Creditors Orphans and Widâ—ws as never laid any other action upon me than their daily Prayers For my Lord the fears of not enjoying when brought to perfection do far transcend any doubts I have of recovering Mineral Riches out of the hardest Rocks and since Divine bounty was pleased to confer such hidden Treasures upon a Heathen King Isa 45.3 it were a sin of a high nature in me that professe Christianity to suspect a lesser successe when the All-seeing Eye well knows my designed end is no more than the love of gratitude to persue those Philosophical Notions described in the Lord Bacons New Atlantis for magnifying the God of Nature in his secret works of Nature And therefore I could wish and humbly pray That the Noblenesse of your Spirit might be the corner stone of such a Fabrick to posterity since the Lord Chief Justice St.