were stollen for food and Theeves newly brought to Goales were torn in peices and devoured hall alive by such as had continued longer there and the bloody-flux Tho. dela More Tho. Walsingh and other diseases that arose from unwholsome dyet destroyed so many that the living were scarce able to bury the dead And in the reigne of Richard 2. how lamentable were the effects that were brought forth by that potent insurrection in Kent Essex Surrey Suffolk Norfolke Cambridgeshire and Huntingtonshire for Manumission Historyes report that instead of reforming the Common-wealth havock was made of the Common-wealth the Laws were so neer to be overthrown that that Idoll of Clowns Stow. Hollingshead Wat. Tyler threatned that hee would have all the Lawes of the Kingdome come out of his own mouth great men were in so little security that bloody hands were layd upon the most eminent persons in the Kingdome and their heads cut off and fixed upon poles being so placed that they might kisse Speed Stow. Hollingshead and whisper in one anothers eare and a generall intention to kill all persons of quality and to set up petty Tyrannies in the Nation the Kings person was damnably conspired against and the Kings Mother unsufferably abused the stately Priory of Saint Iohns without Smithfield was burnt to ashes Sir Walter Lee in his speech to St. Albans men and the goodly Pallace of the Savoy with all the riches therein consumed writings rowles and records defaced and such a generall ruin brought upon the Kingdome before this War was ceasrd that there was neither Grasse nor Corn old nor new within five miles space of London Yee see I have layd before you the miseries of former times would it not grieve you to behold againe such Tragedyes Take ye pleasures in disasters Can the ruin of your Nation affect you Thinke of these things betimes lest after thoughts be like recovering physick to a dead creature We are not far from destruction the want of Trading the unseasonable Harvest the Kingdom drayned of Meanes besides a thousand other calamities afflicting the Age by these last Wars forespeaks approaching misery What house is not full of anguish What corner of the Land is not replenished with groans and fight How few are there that are not weary of these unsupportable burthens How few that doe not desire Peace Will yee not heare the complaints of your Countrymen despise ye the sobbes of your fellow-Professours Will it be honour to you to leave a people desolate Will it bee comfort to you to conclude in a waste Think what curses will follow you if ye continue these sorrowes lay to heart the troubled soules ye will have upon your death-beds it ye be authors of un-Christian designes When there are some hopes then of â—nhappy agreement do not ye slake the hopes or disturbe the agreement Do you yeeld for the King condescends doe ye neglect your own desires for he stands not too much upon his own he nor expresse you a true self-denyal for he hath resigned up his own will he speaketh for Peace doe you eccho after him and say we will have Peace I beseech you therefore by all the English blood which runs in your veines by all the prickles of Conscience left in your Protestant soules by all the reliques of pitty which ye feele towards a perishing Nation that ye take downe the Standards that yee frill up the Colours that yee cast out of your hands the Pistols and Pole-axes Oh shed no more blood but staunch the dropping veines braine not the slender numbers which are left but preserve the remnant thinke when yee have murthered enough tremble to be the Headsman of the Nation Let all rage and rancour spight and spoyle be layd aside and eye one another like freinds embrace like Christians bring Vnity againe into a divided Nation blesse the Age and crown the Land with Peace Da Pacem Domine FINIS
ENGLANDS HAZZARD I Know it is dangerous for any man in a point of such consequence to take upon him to be a Counsellor much more a Teacher he generally makes himselfe but a Foole which would seem wiser than the Times a ripe Age likes not to bee directed lest it should be out-witted true Principles will not be listened to against received Grounds No persons may shew their desires or reading but the reward will be censure or ruine Yet in a publike Danger it is hard to keep silence hee that bewrayeth not his affection to remedy generall Ruthes may seem to want a brest Therefore when Church and Kingdom are in a Combustion I will bring my dreeping bucket though I be scorched in seeking to quench the Flames The cause seemeth now to be a matter of Blood for the whole Kingdome is upon the Challenge and not only the Souldier playes his mortall prizes but the Parliament is turned into a Counsaile of War Committees of Greevances are become Committees of Variances and instead of enacting of Statutes we have executing of Martiall-Law whilst the oppressions of the Common-wealth ought to be Reformed the whole Kingdome is made an oppression and for Iustice against private Tyrants we meet with a spight against the King Now Lords of Mannors torment their Tennants or Iustices insult over the poore Countrymen and a thousand other crying injuryes are now no seasonable considerations but al the busie thoughts are intent about the Crown-quarrell as if they which ought to enjoy no Peace should rest quiet and He which should be secure must onely be molested Oh how do all the true Malefactours triumph in villany when He should be free from any mortall barre is the onely person arraigned I culpable persons feare not the Sword of the Iustice when the sword of violence is drawn out against the King Deere Soveraign that your miseries must priviledge all other mens lawlesse demeanours and that you must weep to make them sing yet this is the whirle of the Times not they but You are humbled not Vice but Majesty is punished the Kingdome is combined to suppresse if not to destroy their naturall Soveraign Oh that your injuries could be as easily redressed as they can be lamented or that your sorrows could be as timely ended as they are passionately felt but it is Aesculapius his finger that must heale this Malady for when the whole Common-wealth is turned into a Mutiny and they which should be Your Peace-makers are turned the Patrones of the Discontent it is a hard compromising such a difference Doubtlesse our breach is like the Sea and we may rather expect to see all under water than to see the bankes repayred Our sufferings already have been incredible but wee must not think upon what we have endured but on the extremities which are behind We have yet some face of a Nation amongst us but we may ere long seek for England in England and see our deer Kingdom lest a Colony for Strangers Oh how pretious is a Native like to be how many will the sword leave to draw breath in their own ayre We shall fight so long for Priviledges till we shall scarce have Countrymen to enjoy them and stand so eagerly for Rights of Parliament till we have scarce a Senate-house left Have not many Nations thus un-Kingdomed themselves Hath not England formerly thus cut her own throat If we be acquainted with Historyes let us take heed that we be not made a History there need not many yeeres to effect this a short time may bring it forth Oh that we could prevent misery rather than hasten it on or chaine up the the wild Beast before we be made a prey Where are our Pilots which were wont to direct the Ship in a storme Where are our Watchmen which were wont to preserve the City before a City be made a heape Can Ship-wrack or Devastation be pleasure or honour to the Pilots or Watchmen Is there nothing to calme this troubled aire Nothing if Fury blow like a Whirlewind but set aside Fury and the gusts are downe the the Tempests gone if Religion carry any incentive with it or Scripture had not lost its wonted reverence our Distractions were growing to an end yea we had felt the last of misery For can a King can be resisted What one syllable of Scripture witnesses it by full and cleare authority No precepts are wanting onely presidents are insisted upon as if God would have his evident Laws overthrown with particular examples God may dispence with the whole Bible but it is not for us to remit the vigour of one Law without a speciall toleration from Gods one mouth It is in vaine then for to shelter themselves under the instances of David Ieroboam Iehu c. except we can plead their warrant aswell as their example but these examples excepted what ground or rule is there in the whole Scripture to countenance the resistance Calvin that condemns the attempt of private persons in assaulting Superiours what one testimony of Scripture doth he bring to authorize the opposition by the states of a Kingdom No we must trust his own opinion for not one sound proofe doth he alledge out of the whole Bible to justifie the act Hugo Grotius which disalloweth the resistance both of private persons and inferiour Magistrates and hath nothing but the point of necessity to support the languishing cause yet can he not bring one instance of Scripture for this particular cause to colour this proceeding besides those helplesse examples which I told you of before And if necessity might be admitted as a lawful excuse for the violating of the fift Comāndement why upon the supposition of the like necessity might not men make a breach of all the other Commandements as having more Gods or worshipping of Idols or committing uncleanness when the remedy is wanting or bearing false witnesse when a mans estate or life is endangered Necessity therefore is but our greater triall not a despensation for disobedience The strong proofs then that those learned Writers bring for Obedience in general are enough to confirme subjection and the weake Arguments that they use to erect resistance with are enough to settle Conscience that the Designe is unsetled yea I was never made a stronger subject nor a weaker Rebell then by considering how they are not able which hold the contrary opinion to pull downe that which themselves have built up Resistance then is no religious Act because the maintainers of it sayle in that which should give the greatest strength to the Cause the approbation of Scripture But if a King can be resisted yet can such a King No they which are most tenacious of the point yet let goe their Hold-fast if the King be not soyled with the height of wickednesse to make him the fit object of Resistance but what malicious eye can spy out such steynes in the intemerate brow of our pure Prince No he is the lu tre of the
Throne the Triumph of Monarchy His Royall Blood hath no contagion of vulgar errours but is the true Soveraigne of Innocency When was the scepter borne with such an undefiled hand or the Crown worne with so many bright gemmes shining in it No he hath honoured the Throne with more conspicuous graces and eminent Vertues then any Prince hath done for these may yeares he being the pride of Humility the sober palate of Temperance the pure loynes of Chastity the soft bowells of Mercy and Clemency the warded knee of Devotion a sworne Protestant a vowed Protectour of the Liberties of his Subjects ambitious of Peace and one that would strike the weapons out of his enemies hands with an Act of Oblivion Oh that such a Prince should be affronted much more assaulted No methinks the Soldier should rather disarme himself crampe a March suffer violent death then maligne such a Soveraigne for if any King upon earth can be resisted yet can such a King If this continue what will be the issue ye may judge by the present condition The Tenant is not onely ready to surrender up his Lease nor the Merchant to turne Bankrupt nor the Churches to stand empty without an Incumbent the Country is not only consumed with monthly Contributions Excises free Loans free Benevolences free Quarters the Gentry are not onely abased by having underlings take the command of the Country out of their hands by taking their Horses Armor every thing that delights the eye from them or by taking away their Persons and muring them up in Prisons the Poor are not onely ready to murmur and rage and starve but the whole Nation is ready to draw upon it selfe and to give it self the bloody stab The opposing of Princes hath in former times been fatall to this Nation yea the Kingdome hath scarce suffered so much by all the miseries that hath lighted upon it as it hath done by civil Wars In the Reign of William the Conqueror when the English men that had submitted to his Government Rebelled against him Rog. Wendov Poli. Chron. Hen Huntingd. Ypod. Neystr Mat. West 2. Mat. Paris Will. Maâ—msb Polydor. Virg. it did not only change his courteouâ— usage of them into extreame severity in escheating their Lands abhorring their persons so that he would not suffer any English Scholler to come to promotion driving some into exile forcing others to live in woods like Outlaws cutting off the hands of some and the heads of others but the Kingdome was brought to that miserable desolation that the Highwayes lay un-occupyed through frequent robberies coÌ„mitted and all was wasted from Wales to the mouth of Wye and the Land from Durham to York lay nine years untilled so that for the want of ordinary sustenance the Northern people were enforced to eat the flesh of men Hâ—venden Ypod. Neystr Huntington l. 8. Malmsb Nov. l. 2. p. 105. Gervas Dâ—robornensis In the R igne of King Stephen when the great Ones fell to their accusations as no Rebellion was ever without pretence of Reason and iustice they charging him with the violating of his Oath touching Forrests and other Immunities of the Church and yet indeed as the History saith the pleading of Church and Common-wealth were but publique colours for private grudges their onely quarrell being a secret spight that because they had set him up hee would deny them any thing as the command of certaine Lordshipâ— and Castâ—es which they expected what outrages were committed in the Nation Every year heaped on new calamities to the ruine of the Nation thousand Families were decayed whole Counties depopulated and so many mens Estates confiscated to the Crown that they generally went by the name of the Disinherited yea as the height of misery by the calling in of the Scots the wombs of women were ripped up infants tossed upon the pikes of Speares the Priests slain at the Altar and the slain in a most inhumane manner dismembred In the Reign of K. Iohn we find the estate of the Land most deplorable Lib. S. Alb. in vit Guliel Abbat not only by assaylings surprisings burnings spoylings disinheritings which were exercised by Fathers setting against their Sons Brothers against Brothers kinsmen and allies against their neerest friends but especially by câ—lling in the French Dolphin Lewis who after he had gotten a little command in the Land despised the Englishmen bestowing all their Townes and places of Command upon his own Cavallery Rog de W. S. for when Fitz-Walter demanded but Hertford Castle as his ancient right an Answer was given him by Lewis according to the advice of all his French Nobility that Englishmen were not worthy to have such places intrusted to their charges who were the betrayers of their naturall Lord yea Milun upon his death-bed confessed that if ever Prince Lewis had the Crown of England set on his head Ypod. Neyâ—tr he would condemne into perpetuall Exile all them that then as Traitors against their Soveraign adhered to him against King Iohn Mat. Paris hist. maj and that he would extirpate all their Kindred By one and another the distresses of the times were so grievous that the Kingdom as one saith was like a generall shambles or place of infernall torture In the Reigne of Henry 3. To soon as the Kingdome grew discontented every man dared whatsoever his own audaciousnesse did suggest Mat. Westminst or others connivency permitted insomuch that Foulke de Brent and other Nobles plucked from the K. most of his Crown-Land without any other right than that which the equity of Tumults gave them yea though the Land had been sufficiently plagued with forraign Power yet an ordinary Citizen Fabian even Constantine Fitz. Arnulph whose Sedition infected all to whom War was beneficiall Paris and Peace banefull would have set up a Lewis againe in London crying in the open streets Mountjoy Mountjoy God for us and our Lord Lewis Yea such was the thraldom of those times through the spight of the Barons against Hubert de Burgo that afterwards Iudgements were committed to the unjust Paris Wendover Lawes to Out-laws Peace to Wranglers and Iustice to Wrong-doers And in conclusion through the bloody Battels that were fought all was made a booty and put to fire and sword from the Marches of Wales to Shrewsbury insomuch that such a greevous Famine happened Wendover Parisiens that persons were enforced to pluck the eares of Corne whilst they were greene in the field In the Reigne of Edward 2. when the Earles of Arundell Warwick Lancaster and Warren made a wofull rent with the King and would not assist him in his Warres against the Scots not only they which were left to keep the Marches instead of valliant Champions proved petty Chapmen but such grievous depopulations were committed for foure yeares together that there was scarce bread enough to bee found for the Kings table and the common people in generall eat horses and dogs yea men and children