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
enjoy to the gladding of our hearts for the establishing of Gods own and true Religion and Justice in the Land and for shewing Mercy to the poor afflicted and oppressed Among which mourners and oppâ—essed the Writer of this Relation is certainly not the least but who hath continually prayed unto our Gracious God to bring us once again our King our good Josiah The Lord is my witness I flatter not for if I should use flattering Titles God would soon take me away This Elihu hath taught me Job 32. 21. But what I judge to be truth and fit to be spoken I here deliver That as Josiah had the praise of being the best of all the Kings of Judah which went before and followed after him 2 Kin. 23. 25. And like unto him was there no king before him that turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might according to all the law of Moses neither after him arose there any like him So shall King CHARLES II. prove unto us the best of Englands Kings and the expresse Antitype unto good Josiah And it is not without example for one eminent person to be Type of the other Antiochus Epiphanes the Greekish King in sundry chief respects for small and single serve not the turn was the Type of the Bishop of Rome For in as many and such nay more ways doth our Soveraign resemble Josiah and how he shall express him more exactly in what of his Majesty in his blessed Government we shall enjoy will follow by Gods assistance in this Discourse Josiah was named three hundred years before he was born and by the name Josiah designed to defile the altar of Bethel by burning mens bones thereon 1 King 13. 2. which was so fulfilled by that King according to the Prophecy 2 King 23. 16. So shall it be made apparent anon in due place that King CHARLES II. was appointed by Almighty God to the great work of reforming Church and State which Josiah also did before him twise three hundred years before his restoring to his Three Kingdoms by a plain description of his Royal Person K. Josiah made a covenant with God both he and his people 2 Chr. 34. 31 32. and he caused them to stand to it and he himself kept it so hath and will our Gracious Soveraign King Josiah was the son of a murthered father so was the precious Innocent bloud of our Royal Soveraigns Father shed King Josiahs Father King Amon was conspired against by his own servants and slain in his own house 2 Chron. 33. 36. In like sort our Soveraigns Father King CHARLES I. was designed to death in his House of Parliament adjudged to death by some of his servants and kill'd at the gate of his own House and all by conspiracy But the People of the land they were the Commons in the Jewish Parliament slew all those which conspired against K. Amon v. 25. So let the Parliament of England imitate them to the full whom they imitated in this part which made Josiah his son king So much in this place touching the great Instrument of Gods glory and our deliverance sent from heaven until I shall proceed to make this my assertion good touching his Royal Majesty our Soveraign I have declared and proved unto you how probable it is that Almighty God had given us warnings and forewarnings of these our evils and the issue and do now proceed in order to declare that it is not only likely so to be but so in truth and in deed But here I shall first admonish those that have read thus far or hear of this Treatise that they prejudge not the thing esteeming it a Fable but to follow the advice of S. Paul who admonisheth us not to despise Prophecy and not to streighten the word in its due signification as if it were only to be understood of preaching knowing that the commandments of God according to the Psalmist are exceeding broad in which breadth many things there are on the right hand commanded as on the left hand forbidden which do not at first sight appear For I cannot but foresee that some will smile at what they reade whom I advise they take heed of contemning that which for ought they or any man living can deny may all prove true which if it do they despise not me the writer but him who sent the Message who hath told us That he will not be mockt Others no doubt unwilling to have these things fall out true because it serves not their particular interesses will shew their teeth not laugh at what I have here written like those Jews which for the like cause censured our Saviours miracles as Diabolical even against their knowledge To these and the like men I say they despise not this but him which sent it As for such men who more favourably will call it pretty and censure the Discourse to be the fruit of a melancholike phansie if it did extend no farther then to touch the person of the Writer as if the argument were not skilfully enough handled and no more all this I say will be easily confest by me but when it pierces to the matter it self as if it were an argument to play withall and not rather as it ought to be thought a Discovery to be admired let every such commender know that God despises such cold praises It was truly spoken by Agellius book 19. c. 3. Turpius esse exiguè atque frigidè laudari quà m insectanter graviter vituperari that is It is more to the disgrace of a man to be sparingly and coldly praised than bitterly and most reproachfully to be reviled But he that will ponder and well consider the things which are delivered shall I trust in God finde the words of reason and soberness and no melancholy nor other humour in them at all The man who is weak of understanding although the book be little yet is it too big for him to swallow such a one is desired to lay it by Let the man of wisedom and judgement reade it with the strictest observation and the Lord give him understanding Now to make what I have promised to appear true in every part that as well our sins and with them our troubles the Lord was pleased before they were in being to make known unto us as that after all our vexations and afflictions we shall be delivered from all those burthens which lye upon us and that by the hand of our Gracious Soveraign whom God preserve CHARLES II. we shall be freed I say and made a happy people and that we only may not be thought to reap the benefit of his Royal Government what Recompence shall accrue from God unto our good King first take a view strictly of Isaiahs Prophecy Chap. 1. In this Chapter you shall finde the same sins to have been committed then by the Jews which we labour under at this day the same Hypocrisie and sin of Murther
our own not Army but ARMIES because in Two places by SEA and LAND which ought to be and were at first straight and INTIRE but started aside and revolted from their former integrity and over-ruled those which gave them their power and put the sword into their hands Which was most conspicuous when by the Army and the bare name thereof no particular accusers once named the principal in the Parliament of such who stood for their King and Countrey were seditiously impeached of high crimes The WRIST-JOYNTS and ANCLE-JOYNTS become KNOPPY and are commonly called DOUBLE-JOYNTS Here the Armes are joyn'd with the Hands in such a firmness that the joynts thereof are of a double strength that is to say of a much greater The HAND is the more noble and principal member is proper to man alone receiveth the WEAPON and WIELDETH it and secondly giveth DIRECTION to come and go and what should be done as the Psalmist expreâ—â—â—th it Psa 123. 2. Behold as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress shewing how by the hand and beck thereof direction is given from masters and such as have as great power unto their servants and those which are under their authority Moreover by this knoppiness of the joynt strength is encreased in that part Which if we take together an Arme and Hand most strongly compacted it designeth most aptly That both the Armes that is Armies by Sea and Land should in an extraordinary manner combine and unite with their chief Commanders and Generals which do receive and mesnage the sword unto whom as into the Hand it was committed Those Generals Major Generals c were the Hands to direct to bid come and go and shew what should be done All the Forces under them receive direction from them and obey their commands It farther signifieth by this unnatural doubling and knoppiness of the joynt above what is by nature necessary and should be that certain of the Generals and chief Commanders would in such a manner unite with the Souldiers as it appears when they so strongly combined with the Armies that neither the Laws of God nor man and oaths of fidelity made by them for the King and Parliament could separate them or divide them in their unlawful combination against them whom they had sworn to obey Beside the Greatnesse of Power the PINED BODY of the patient and the BELLY OVER-GROWN do infer that these our Heads should get unto themselves another kinde of greatness becoming Great in Wealth and Riches while the Body of the Commonwealth pined away and waxed exceeding poor the word poor in our mother tongue signifying properly want of necessaries and metaphorically want of flesh yet so ordinary is this Metaphor that it is even to women and children so common and so well known as if it had been said lean and well may these two be signified by that one word because one is ordinarily an effect of the other But the Common-wealth the Body which is no other in persons then the Mystical Body of Christ our Head ought to have a proportionable nourishment with the Head even as it is in the Mystical Body the Church in spiritual things for of it S. Paul speaketh Eph. 4. 16. that it is fitly joyned from the Head to the Members and maketh encrease of the body to edification So ought the Body of the Commonwealth receive meet and proportionable nourishment with and from the Head The BELLY ought to prepare nourishment for not steal it from the BODY But how contrary hereunto have our Heads robb'd our Body and that which ought to have prepared nourishment for it not consumed it all the Belly growing full and swelling and left England in a starving condition For whatever was pretended by them their Belly was their God The ANCLE-JOYNTS likewise in this Disease grow KNOPPY and are DOUBLE as the former the Mystery will better be discovered when we shall come to examine the nature of the Thigh-bones and Leg-bones and what is the meaning of their being crooked Whereas the RIBS of such diseased children about the ends and toward the breast are found very THICK and therefore named DOUBLE and the extuberancies named KNOTS and by this means as the fore-named Wrist-joynts and Ancle-joynts are made necessarily much stronger thereby then such as are without such a thickness Consider this which follows RIB doth typifie in the REKETS no other thing then what the same word doth signifie in the Holy Text without any forced interpretation application or any other way or manner of straining thereof Consider therefore the words of the Prophet Dan. 7. 5. And behold another Beast a Second was like a Bear and raised up it self on one side and it had Three LIBS in the mouth of it between the teeth thereof and they said thus much unto it Arise devour much flesh Three coasts of the world saith Learned Broughton from the place which before it held West North and South as it is declared Cha. 8. 4. and it is to be expounded of the Persian Monarchy and of the conquests of the Persian Kings In which place it is plain enough that RIB is the mysticall name of a COAST as our English name COASTS is nothing in name and thing properly but RIBS from the Latine For in the utmost parts of Kingdomes and confines of Territories are placed the chiefest forces and strength to defend the inward parts of such Dominions as the RIBS are made of strong bone to defend the Heart and vitall inward parts By the DOUBLING of the RIBS in this Disease is not only foreshewn the doubling of the Forces on the Land-coasts which hath been fullfilled evidently before our eyes in our Castles and Citadels which those Usurpers thought to secure themselves by but specially is signified the great strengthening of the land by an extrordinary great Navy of Ships in which they placed their greatest confidence And it is held for so great an advantage which we of this Nation enjoy above all others the strength and multitude of our Ships that it is almost grown into a Proverb to say The wals of England are wals of wood So significatively the Knops of the RIBS are called KNOTS which is a kinde of fast and sometime indissoluble binding of a thing noting unto us that by thus guarding the Seas with such a multitude of strong Ships they judged they were so fast and so secure that all the world could not undoe them And so much have they boasted The reason farther why Ships are signified by Ribs is because Ribs do much resemble Ships in the crookednesse of their figure Virgil giving an Epithet to Ships calleth them Georgic lib. 1. curvae carina and in Aeneid lib. 6. curvae puppes that is crooked Ships in respect both of their keeles and sides And as the English word RIB is given to Ships so the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is
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