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
so he left me Having assigned a value of about two thousand Duckets for a Bounty to me and my fellows For they give great Largesses where they come upon all occasions The Impressa of Mr. Bushels Golden Medal FRA BACON VICECO S CT ALBAN ANGLIAE CANCELL DEVS EST QVI CLAVSA RECLVDIT THO BVSHELL THe Lord St Alban's Atlantis is a Magazine of compendious but sublime documents to inrich a Common-wealth with universal Notions as far above a vulgar capacity as the Empyreal Heavens are the Earth for which cause himself stiled it his Solomons house or six daies work But the way to advance a proportionable Revenue proposed by his Philosophical Theory to accomplish the vast design of such a Magnificent Structure without a Princes Purse will seem as abstruse to some acute apprehensions as the immortal descent of the Soul to animate the Embryon in the Womb yet if any responsible persons are incredulous of Mr. Bushell's proceedings to perfect the said Lords Philosophical Theory in Mineral discoveries according to his undertakings let them or any other that have heretofore given him credit upon the late Kings score or his own repair to the assurance Office at the Royal Exchange where they shall have tendered by Friends of his Medals of Gold by way of Mart to raise 1000 l. per week according to the tenor of a Bill exprest at large in his Abridgement of the Lord Chancellor Bacon's mineral Prosecutions so soon as it is setled in Parliament for their encouragement and himself hath liberty to attend Providence in the successe FINIS Post-Script to the Judicious Reader READER IF thou hast perused the foregoing Treatise of the Isle of Bensalem wherein the Philosophical Father of Solomons House doth perfectly demonstrate my Heroick Masters the Lord Chancellour Bacons design for the benefit of mankind then give me leave to tell thee how far that illustrious Lord proceeded in the practical part of such his Philosophical Notions and when and where they had their first rise as well as their first Eclipse their first rise as I have heard him say was from the noble nature of the Earl of Essex's affection and so they were clouded by his fall although he bequeathed to that Lord upon his presenting him with a secret curiosity of Nature whereby to know the season of every hour of the year by a Philosophical Glass placed with a small proportion of Water in his Chamber Twitnam Park and its Garden of Paradise to study in But the sudden change of his Royal Mistresses countenance acting so Tragical a part upon his only friend and her once dearest Favourite he likewise yielded his Law-studies as lost despairing of any preferment from the present State as by many of his Letters in his Book of Remains appears so that he retired to his Philosophy for some few months from whence he presented the then rising Sun Prince Henry with an experiment of his second Collections to know the heart of Man by a sympathizing stone made of several mixtures and usher'd in the conceit with this ensuing discourse Most Royal Sir Since you are by birth the Prince of our Country and your vertues the happy pledge to our posterity and that the seigniory of Greatnesse is ever attended more with flatterers than faithfull Friends and loyal Subjects and therefore needeth more helps to discern and prie into the hearts of the People than private persons Give me leave noble Sir as small Rivulets run to the vast Ocean to pay their tribute so let me have the honour to shew your Highnesse the Operative quality of these two triangular stones as the first fruits of my Philosophy to imitate the pathetical motion of the Load-stone and Iron although made up by the Compounds of Meteors as Star-shot jelly and other like magical ingredients with the reflected beams of the Sun on purpose that the warmth distilled unto them through the moist heat of the hand might discover the affection of the heart by a vis ble sign of their attraction and appetite to each other like the hand of a Watch within ten minutes after they are laid upon a marble Table or the Theatre of a Looking-glasse I write not this as a feigned story but as a real truth for I was never quiet in mind till I had procured those Jewels of my Lords Philosophy from Mr. Archy Prim-Rose the Princes Page But the sudden death of that Prince give new cause of sorrow to the whole Nation as well as to that Lord whereupon his Lordship dedicated his Advancement of Learning to his Brother Charles the surviving Prince and to his prudent Father King Iames his Novum Organum who so much approved of his transcendent knowledge and singular eloquence as in his Royal Wisdome he made him Lord Chancellor during life and Lord Protector during his absence in his Scotish Progresse and though this eminent greatnesse gave many advantages to envious tongues yet when his Lordship had revealed the most mysterous parts of his Philosophy to his Master the King and delivered him his opinion concerning the disposition of Mr. Suttons charity exprest also in his Remains he thereby so indulged his Majesties Genius as he prevailed with him to call a Parliament chiefly for his Majesties own pressing occasions and to confirm this Academy of learning in his way of Mining by an Act of State upon hopes of perfecting all other expencefull tryals by the said Revenue and to that purpose his Lordship had prepared the heads of a Speech to the said Parliament which were as followeth My Lords and Gentlemen the King my Royal Master was lately graciously pleased to move some discourse to me concerning Mr. Suttons Hospital and such like worthy foundations of memorable piety which humbly seconded by my self drew his Majesty into a serious consideration of the Mineral Treasures of his own Territories and the practical discoveries of them by way of my Philosophical Theory which he then so well resented that afterwards upon a mature digestion of my whole design he commanded me to let your Lordships understand how great an inclination he hath to farther such a hopeful work for the Honor of his own Dominions and the publick good as the most probable means to relieve all the poor thereof without any other stock or benevolence than that which divine bounty should confer on their own industries and honest labors in recovering all such drowned Mineral works as have been or shall be therefore deserted And my Lords all that is now desired from his Majesty and your Lordship is no more than a gracious Act of this present Parliament to authorise them therein adding a mercy to a munificence which is the persons of such strong and able petty Felons who in true penitence for their Crimes shall implore his Majesties mercy and permission to expiate their offences by their assiduous labors in so innocent and hopeful a work For by this unchâ—rgeable way my Lords have I proposed to erect the Academical fabrick
good and honour of their native Countrey and which in a manner is presented unto them by the hands of God May it please your Lordships VVE in all humbleness make bold to certifie your Honours that Mr. Bushels way of Mineral proceed to undermine the waters of drowned and deserted Works is as we humbly conceive of such high concernment for the honour and profit of this Nation as we confidently believe before our Lady day next he will crown his labours with store of hidden Treasure out of the Works now in Rowpits and be inabled though at present poor in purse to put on all his others Works of the West without any Partnership but Providence to assist his Industry for the service of his Countrey in those particulars Valent. Trime Steward of Chewton Liberty wherein Rowpits is Alexander Jet Christ Wright Ja. Middleham Rob. Hill John Ford. Ralph Conyers Hen. Baron Valent. Powel Tho. Nixton Rich. Frier senior Rich. Frier junior Robert Hole Richard Vigor Wil. Smith Mayor Tho. White Recorder Tho. Salmon Justice William Wâ—lrond George Bampsield Tho. Coward Wil. Morgan Esquires Mr. Bushels Petition to the late King To the KINGS most excellent Majesty The Humble Petition of THOMAS BUSHEL your Majesties Servant Most humbly sheweth THat whereas your Royal Father of ever blessed memory who was truly stiled the King of Peace and mirror of Mercy to the sparing of life blood was graciously pleased for saving the lives of such malefactors as were condemned to death by the Law for Petty Felonies being such as were not any scandal to the Church or State nor had imbrewed their hands in blood to admit their transportation to the East-India and Virginia Companies for furtherance of their Plantations In which action doubtlesse Hâ— did also cast his eyes upon the warrantable proceedings and presidents of other most famous Princes in the like kind as the late Queen Elizabeth who built certain Gallies of purpose for imployment of such kind of offenders of strong and able bodies as might attend her memorable designs at Sea especially upon all sudden and resolute enterprizes it being the usual course of other Christian Princes as the K ng of Spain both for the supply of his Gallies against the Turks and Moors and especially for the enlargement of his Indian Mines of Gold Silver Quicksilver and the like and his conquests of Molocco Goa Ormus and other rich and populous Islands The King of France for hâ—s Gaâ—lies at Marsellis The State of Venice The Duke of Florence who by such kind of saved Offenders built Ligorn one of the most famous Sea-ports within the Straights In all which States and Services divers of these Malefactors by good encouragements have sought not so much by surviving as by their incredible labours eff cting matters otherwise held invincible to obliturate their former ignominies by merit of rewards And whereas in this your Majesties populous Kingdom too many such offendors are most untimely cut off in their best abilities of service so is there within the pale of this your Kingdom and without any occasion of Sea or forein service means of imployment for such persons to redeem their lost reputation by indeavouring to do faithful service for their Countries honour and the Kingdoms good in that happy work begun by Your Sacred Majesty for the better discovery of Your Silver Mines His most humble sute therefore is that You would be pleased out of all these weighty considerations and beneficial consequences tending so much to your Honor Crown and Dignity and good of the Commonwealth to grant Your Majesties Commission if it may be thought fit by the advice of Your High and Honorable Court of Parliament for the choosing of such several persons out of the Prisons of this Your Kingdome as are and shall be condemned for small offences and of able serviceable bodies by the approbation of Your Judges and shall implore Your Majesties mercy to be imployed by Your said Subject in the Works of Your Mines-Royal they giving security for their good behaviour with such limitation of time and allowance for their sustentation as to Your Majesties said High Court of Parliament shall be thought fit that by their dutiful and laborious performance therein they may afterwards come into the happinesse of Your Majesties pardon of Grace for their former offences And Your Petitioner shall ever rest c. The Speech of the late Bishop of Worcester near his death to Mr. Bushel concerning the two rich Mines by him discovered Mr. Bushel YOur own eyes see how near I am to the dwelling of death by my gray hairs which are the true Records of fourscore and fourteen years of age next my limbs which have no more strength than those that are lapp'd in the Sepulchre of their winding sheet only my Intellectual parts are yet preserved to ascribe God the glory and to disclose the secrets of two rich Mines the one holding some quantity of Gold worth the extracting the other in Silver worth the Refining to your trust and fidelity with a confidence that your charity cannot conceive me guilty of betraying your judgement with an imaginary treasure when my Soul and Body are so near the approach of death as I must suddainly give an account in the other World besides I have taken upon me the calling of a spiritual profession and have this day received the Sacrament as a pledge of my redemption which I trust are sufficient motives to believe truth from a dying mans tongue who hath no other end than that the hopefulnesse of such riches may not be buried by my dissolution but that the honour and profit thereof might redownd to his Majesty and his Royal posterity as a living and loyal remembrance of his Princely favours to mee and mine Mr. Bushel's Invitation by Letter to Condemned men for Petty-Felonies to work in the Mines of their own Country rather than be banish'd to Slavery in Forein parts FEllow-sufferers in restraint although upon different accounts for you have sought death by the errours of your lives I an Imprisonment by a licentious Prodigality But I hope your Consciences like faithful Mirrors have presented to the eye of your afflicted souls the deformities of your several Crimes as mine hath to my serious consideration my manifold transgressions We have no City of refuge in these our sad perplexities the impartial doom of our Laws hath banished you from the Land of the living unlesse its mercy exile you from the Land of your nativity by a ten years absence to a sordid slavery in some torrid Island whose Climat Air Diet and manner of labour will prove very irksom unto you But the implacable revenge of some of my Creditors doth endeavour to bury me alive in this house of woe when God knows I was plung'd in my Mineral inundations with care and pains to pay them their just debts by the help of Providence But dear Brethren Friends and Companions in Bonds to assure you that I commiserate your
in the treâ—sures of Ledd and to free other works of greater moment from their contagious damps that now lie deserted on purpose that the overplus of their revenew proceeding from such a deplorable condition and raised by the hand of Providence and Industry might go as Mr. Bushell did likewise aver upon the word of a Gentleman to charitable uses of discovering richer Metals exprest in his late Remonstrance to his Highness as well as by his late Will and Testament for the first fruits thereof to ledd the Tower and School in the Church of Wells Wee of the grand Jury do likewise make this Order and Decree That if any misdemeanor as aforesaid shall be proved to be done against the said Tho. Bushell his Agents Servants or works such are not only to be banished the occupation upon Mendyp but we do humbly implore his Highness to send them to the Mines of Iamaica that they may not infect others nor bring by their exorbitant courses more scandal upon the whole profession of a Miners innocent calling since we are satisfied in our consciences that the way of Mr. Bushell's Mineral proceedings will in this Age bring wonderfull things to pass and be admired in the next for the glory of the Nation And especially when as the said Tho. Bushell doth aver that he will transport all his rich Western Mines lying upon the Sea-side which are or shall be discovered in Wales Devon Cornwall and Ireland unto the Port or Haven at Up-hill to receive their true separations according to the Lord Chancellour Bacons Philosophy and so to be minted in the adjacent City of Wells for satisfying all returns as well as to pay the Miner with his own Coyn and without any further salary than in one place to pay the whole of that Commerce Io Radford Foreman of the Mineral Grand Jury there with his fellows Walter Webb Richard Frank. Richard Adams Iohn Phelps Thomas Younge William Dowgling Alexander Cuer William Hopkins Ionas Lexstond Iohn House Richard Ayrer To our Dread Sovereign Lord the KINGS most Excellent MAJESTIE May it please your Majestie WE do most humbly and thankfully acknowledge that your Majesties vouchsafing to this your Principality the trust of a branch of your Royal Mint is an honour that neither our Ancestors nor our selves durst wish for and we do as humbly and as thankfully acknowledge and confesse that by it you have not only honoured us more than any of your Royal predecessors but have thereby offered us the means to enrich our selves to the making of us happier than our Fathers in freeing us fâ—om the cares and fears that hindred us from diving into these Mountains that promise a masse of Treasure For be pleased to know that before your Majestie vouchsafed unto us this great favour we were fearfull to adventure far into the Mountains because we had far to send before we could make the Silver current that we should at charge recover Nor was our care of carriage and recarriage the least hinderance to our proceedings from all which by your Majesties goodnesse and the endeavours of your industrious and faithfull Servant Thomas Bushel we are happily freed for which favour we whose names are hereunto subscribed in the behalf of all the Inhabitants of this your Principality of WALES do render all humble and hearty thanks and for them and our selves do hereby promise to Your Sacred Majestie that we will do our utmost endeavours to find out that Treasure which we believe God and Nature from the Creation hath preserved for your Majesties use that thereby we may approve our selves your Majesties loyal and most Obedient Subjects and humble Servant Thomas Milward Knight Chief Justice of Chester Marmaduke LLoyd Knight Richard Price K. Baronet James Price Knight Sampson Eure Knight Iohn Lewis Knight Timothy Turner Esq L. Littleton Esq Walter LLoyd Esq Thomas Price Esq Robert Corbet Esq Evan Gwin Esq Morgan Herbert Esq John Vaughan Esq Vincent Corbet Esq Humfrey Green Esq Iohn LLoyd Esq David LLoyd ap Reighnald Esq Thomas Phillips Esq Iohn Edmund Esq Hugh LLoyd Gent. David Rees Gent. Iohn Bowen Gent. William Watkin Gent. Iohn Meredith Gent. Iames Kegitt Gent. Die Sabbati 14. Aug. 1641. WHereas this House hath been informed that Thomas Bushell Esquire undertaker of his Majesties Mines-Royal in the County of Cardigan by his great charge and industry in cutting Addits hath gained His Majesties old drowned and forsaken works or Tallybont and other works and made new discoveries of Royal-Mines there which are already very considerable And whereas divers persons of qual ty encouraged by his Majesties Letters to them directed do intend to adventure great sums of mony in the said works which in time if well incouraged may prove of great consequence both for Honour and Profit to His Majesty and the Kingdom And whereas also it appeareth unto this House by divers Affidavits and Certificates of credit that some persons ill-affected to these Honourable and Publick services who in time may receive deserved punishments have disturbed the possession of the said Tho. Bushell in some of his Majesties Mines-Royal and Edifices appertaining to the Royal-works and have plucked up divers plumps cast in the Rubbish drowned and so much as in them did lye destroyed the said work so as it hath been a labour of four years night and day to recover the same And that also the said Tho. Bushell hath been disturbed in the getting of Turf and Peat for the service of his Majesties works being an invention of his own very commendable and commodious for the preserving of Wood which hath been heretofore by the former Undertakers much wasted in those parts Now for the remedy of the said Mischiefs and that the said Tho. Bushell and his Assigns and such persons as are or shall be Undertakers and Adventurers with him in the said service may receive all due incouragement and assistance in those chargeable undertakings It is ordered by the Lords in the Upper House of Parliament now assembled That the Speaker of this House in the Name and by the Authority of the same shall direct His Letters unto the Iudges of Assize and Iustices of the Peace of the said County of Cardigan Requiring them that they do in all lawfull things endeavour to advance and encourage the said service in his Majesties Royal Mines and assist the said Tho. Bushell and other Undertakers in all things so far as lawfully they may both for the continuance of his lawfull Possessions and and the quiet and peaceable working of the said Mines untill he shall be evicted by due course of Law as also for getting and working of Turf and Peat according to his Legal right upon his Majesties Wastes and other places lawfull and all other lawfull accommodations of necessary passages and other Legal things which may any waies advance His Majesties service in the said Royal Mines JO. BROWN Cler. Parliament The Miners contemplative Prayer in his solitary Delves which is conceived requisite to
of this Islands Solomons-House modeled in my new Atlantis And I can hope my Lords that my midnight studies to make our Countryes flourish and out-vie European neighbours in mysterious and beneficent Arts have not so ingratefully affected your noble intellects that you will delay or resist his Majesties desires and my humble Petition in this benevolent yea magnificent affair since your honorable posterities may be inriched thereby and my ends are only to make the world my Heir and the learned Fathers of my Solomons-House the successive and sworn Trustees in the dispensation of this great service for Gods glory my Princes magnifice this Parliaments honor our Countryes general good and the propagation of my own memory And I may assure your Lordships that all my proposals in order to this great Architype seemed so rational and feisable to my Royal Soveragin our Christian Solomon that I thereby prevailed with his Majesty to call this Honourable Parliament to confirm and impower me in my own way of Mining by an Act of the same after his Majesties more weighty affairs were considered in your wisdomes both which he desires your Lordships and you Gentlemen that are chosen as the Patriots of your respective Countries to take speedy care of which done I shall not then doubt the happy issue of my undertakings in this design whereby concealed Treasures which now seem utterly lost to mankind shall be confined to so universal a piety and brought into use by the industry of converted Penitents whose wretched Carcases the impartial Laws have or shall dedicate as untimely feasts to the worms of the earth in whose wombe those deserted Mineral riches must ever lie buried as lost abortments unless those be made the active Midwives to deliver them For my Lords I humbly conceive them to be the fittest of all men to effect this great work for the ends and causes which I have before exprest All which my Lords I humbly refer to your grave and solid Judgments to conclude of together with such other assistances to this frame as your own oraculous wisdom shall intimate for the magnifying our Creator in his inscrutable providence and admirable works of Nature But before this could be accomâ—lished to his own content there arose such complaints against his Lordship and the then Favorite at Court that for some dayes put the King to this Quere whether he should permit the Favorite of his affection or the Oracle of his Counsel to sink in his service whereupon his Lordship was sent for by the King who after some discourse gave him this positive advice to submit himself to his House of Peers and that upon his Princely word he would then restore him again if they in their honors should not be sensible of his merits Now though my Lord foresaw his approaching ruine and told his Majesty there was little hopes of mercy in a multitude when his Enemies were to give fire if he did not plead for himself yet such was his obedience to him from whom he had his being that he resolv'd his Majesties will should be his only Law and so took leave of him with these words Those that will strike at your Chancellor its much to be feared will strike at your Crown and wish'd that as he was then the first so he might be the last of Sacrifices Soon after according to his Majesties commands he wrote a submissive letter to the House and sent me to my Lord Windsor to know the result which I was loath at my return to acquaint him with for alas his Soveraigns favour was not in so high a measure but he like the Phoenix must be sacrifized in flames of his own raising and so perish'd like Icarus in that his lofty design the great revenue of his Office being lost and his Titles of Honour saved but by the Bishops Votes whereto he replied That he was only bound to thank his Clergy the thunder of which fatal sentence did much perplex my troubled thoughts as well as others to see that famous Lord who procured his Majesty to call this Parliament must be the first subject of their revengeful wrath and that so unparalleld a Master should be thus brought upon the publick stage for the foolish miscarriages of his own servants whereof with grief of heart I confess my self to be one Yet shortly after the King dissolved the Parliament but never restored that matchless Lord to his place which made him then to wish the many years he had spent in State-policy and Law-study had been solely devoted to true Philosophy for said he the one at best doth but comprehend mans frailty in its greatest splendor but the other the mysterious knowledge of all things created in the six dayes work Wherefore considering his fatherlike favors to my undeservings exprest in my confession to the honorable Council and knowing the Library he left to the world viz. His great work intituled Instauratio Magna an admirable piece containing First de Augmentis Scientiarum or his advancement of Learning in nine Books written in Latine and dedicated to King Charls then Prince of Wales Secondly Novum organum sive Judica vera de interpretatione naturae written in Latine and dedicated to King James Thirdly Sylva Sylvarum or his Natural History his New Atlantis his History of Life and Death historia ventorum all dedicated to King Charles by D. Rawley sometimes his Lordships Chaplain Sermones fideles sive interioria rerum otherwise called his Essays dedicated to the Duke of Buckingham De sapientia veterum or the wisdom of the Antients dedicated to the Earl of Salisbury Lord Treasurer and Chancellour of the University of Cambridge and to the University a double dedication which was afterwards translated by Sir Arthur Gorges and dedicated to the Queen of Bohemia Dialogus de Bello Sacro dedicated to Lancelot Andrews Bishop of Winchester The History of Henry the Seventh dedicated to K. Charls His Elements of the Law Resuscitatio certain excellent Discourses Letters and the like being his Remains set forth by the said Doctor Rawley A Manual of Devotions intituled Comfortable Crums of refreshment by Prayers Meditations Consolations and Ejaculations with a confession of Faith published by the aforesaid worthy and faithfull Doctor Rawley Doctor in Divinity and one of his Majesties Chaplains I willingly then betook my self to that penance of solitude imposed me by his Lordships Fatherly advice as is exprest in my Letter to my fellow Prisoners for Debt before I should dare to attempt any of his Mineral â—rust formerly consign'd me by the favour of his affection as doth more at large appear in my humble Remonstrance to the Honourable Council the which for three years I strictly kept as if obliged by a Religious Vow from whence I was grown so sensible of other mens suffering restraint for Conscience sake as I procured the liberty of many Jesuite Priests Anabaptists Brownists Familists of love Adamites and one of the Rosie-Crucians whose humility and
undermining those loads of Metal and separating their qualities and yet not then neither but by the help of those six Philosophers mentioned in the fore-going Treatise after they are settled to that service sworn to secrecy and taking his Theorical directions also to be considered in their own practices for how have the wisest men saith he consumed vast Estates through their covetous desires to be great in the transmuting of Metals and the knowledge of the sympathy of minds at a distance aswell as curing of wounds with having but sight of the weapon that hurt the pâ—rty for saith he repentance cannot then follow nor thy ignorance be blamed when providence bears the purse and such prudence waits with industry to try the successe of the secrets of nature out of the bountifulnesse of her own Coffers so discovered Thirdly That no money should enchant my heart to take a partner be I never so poor unlesse I find his heart inclined to magnifie the Creators glory and make the poor maâ—s box the Heir of his Stewardship aswell as my self for else saith he thou dost distrust in pâ—ovidence and so the others money will be but thy ruine at lâ—st like a house divided which cannot stand Fourthly That I should be careful to prefer such poor fatherlesse Children that intend to sacrifize the flower of their youth to the service of God and resolve so to continue to their death for the good of others aswell as themselves Fifthly To be cautious of having any thing to do with a Miner that is an habitual drunkard sweaâ—er or lyar for his custom of sinning may infeâ—t many others and it is contrary to all divine Philosophy to seek to magniâ—ie Gods Glory with such Creatures when no hopes of a blessing can follow their actions Sixthly Have a câ—re saith that Lord you place such a person to be Steward of your Mines uâ—der ground whose remorse for sin makes him so sensible of sorrow and hame for his errors as that he desires to live in contrition wiâ—hin the caverns of rocks and not to behold other light than of a candle to labor and help his contemplation in such an Abyss foâ— that Loâ—d was wont to say the blind once restored to sight illuminates the Creators mercy more than any other Creature and is of my own experience the best Philosophical step to the mortification of the mind by attracting the defects of us mortals that are prone to such habitual errors Seventhly saith he do not punish any offendor by the superior Officer but as shall be judged by a Jury of penitential souls of their own Tribe for saith he if civil usage cannot make the heart strike the blow aswell as the hand severity should never force a builder of his Solomons house since it is barbarous for a Christian to behold the Image of God used like a Dog Eighthly He wished me not to search after new Mines untill I knew the Meanders windings and depths of the old with the natures of the Quarries they lodge in by the way of that direction he gave me for otherwise he said I should verifie the old Proverb to look for a needle in a bottle of Hay having no probable rules to guide me but my own will which could not prosper nor be coherent with Gods word untill I denied my self that privilege yet in the mean time that I should make some publick Declaration from a place certain to relieve the poor of all such parishes where Spars and shades of Mines are found through ploughing the barren grounds or by ditchers labours when notice be given thereof to be wrought at my own charge But be sure said he have a care that you come into no mans ground although you have power from the King and Parliament untill you have acquainted him of your intended adventures for the common good and of the poor of the parish at your own charge for leave is said to be light and do as you would be done by yet if he will neither work himself nor give his consent to you paying double trespass as the next Justice of peace shall judge go by his door for thou hast done thy duty when thou hast aquainted the supreme power wherein the remora lieth that the poor are not relieved nor the riches of the Common-wealth discovered Ninethly That no Grant should go under my hand if I gained the whole power of that trust but with such restrictions limitations and provisoeâ— as he had left me in charge for by that means men would buckle to their work and go faster on with their discoveries when thou hast the honour of pre-emption of he place from the King and State Tenthly That I should be cautelous of not coveting riches nor mindfull of vain-glorious pleasures but above all not to disquiet my Conscience with the ingratitude of any wicked acts for the mystery of divine Philosophy will not admit of any of those to have a share in such a blessing But Gentle Reader fearing there might be a grand Inquest to sit upon that Lords unparallel'd judgement for trusting this transcendent Mineral work to my weak capacity and decline his nearest kindred as well as the greatest Scholars I shall unfold the riddle of his conception and leave the resolution for your wisdome to judge of And yet I must be forced before I enter upon such a Subject to observe the rule of that great Ambassador the Lord Gundamor who was known never to move any weighty affairs of his Master the King of Spain to King Iames but what he usher'd in with some Spanish story and left the application to the prudency of his Princely consideration from whence if it may not be thought tedious or troublesome I shall tell you a true English passage which sprang from the saying of my Lord Bacon That he conceived civil courtesies were seldom conferred on suffering persons but that they ever wore the badge of contempt and were the scorn of the rich and scarcely pittyed of the poor the application being alluded by his Lordship to my own prodigal expences and observing his precepts as oracles I took it so much to heart that in the prime of my youth and flourishing fortune in his affection I forced my will to change the Scene of Court pleasure in his service to a Cottagers habit and low condition lest I should be surprized with the frowns of indigent fortune to my greater shame before such a preparaâ—ion might be had to incounter those storms that are incident to such natural causes and so meet them half way by affecting the low condition of a Fishermans life and his honest calling as a step to greater perfection to know my self From whence after some few months spent in this humble way of life to read the Histories of those great Princes and most magnificent Commanders which had surfited with all inconstant pleasures and vain glorious pomp voluntarily descended from their Crowns and Conquests into the deserts of so desolate