THe most probable expedient to discover and obtain the Treasures of these three Kingdoms, that hitherto have layen hid, (and which statu quo were freely granted by King Iames to the Lord St. Albans, towards the erecting and maintenance of that Philosophical College called his Solomons House, described in his new Atlantis, according to that Lords Cabalistick directions, as a way more safe, certain, and innocent, than those of Necromantick Charms, Magne­tick Rods, Inchanted Circles, or the corrupt aids of Avaritious mens Purses) is first to find out (if possible) such a regenerate man, as is of an humble, ingenuous, and refined Soul, a vertuous mind, and a clear intellect; so sensible of, and truly abhorring all worldly va­nity, that he had rather be dissolv'd, than live any other way than that of penitential Devotions for sins of omission and commission, chiefly because they aggravated the tortures of his Saviours Crucifixi­on; let his fastings be mixed with proportionable obedience and self-denial, that his fervent Prayers may ascend as incense, and his humble Addresses as an evening Sacrifice before the Mercy-Seat of that Omnipotent Deity, which inhabits Eternity, till by his indefa­tigable and zealous importunity he hath freely obtained one true grain of lively Faith in his Creators Mercy, and his Redeemers Me­rits; and then, as in Mat. 17. ver. 20. Christ tells his foyled Disci­ples, such a one so fortified and accomplished with Faith, and the inseparable concomitants thereof, Hope and Charity, is not only able to command the rocky Mountains to remove themselves from their mineral Beds, that they may discover their riches for pious uses, but also to compel the stubborn and subterranean spirits (which fre­quently fright the industrious Miners from their innocent labours) to avoid their dismal habitations in the mineral Maeanders, and there­by facilitate their honest indeavours, which their cursed obstruction had too long made frustrate; And further, for the illustrating of Gods Glory, to constrain those wretched fiends (that so frequent­ly fright frail mortals, when they are searching for treasure) to discover all such concealments as the provident care of well-meaning Parents (fallen into dangerous times) hath hid as a Patrimony for their surviving Children, but being suddenly taken out of this world, either by a common calamity, or by the Treachery of some false friends whom th [...]y trusted, were thereby prevented of all possible means for them to reveal the same; and yet who hath not he [...]d, if not observed, that Providence hath so ordered the matter, that not [Page 2] only the Murther and Murtherers have been strangely disclosed, but even some of those laps'd Angels (professed enemies to the good of man-kind) have both used to haunt the places where such Treasures were hid, and also by Alarming the Issue or the Allies of the so de­ceased, with dreadful Noyses, horrid Apparitions, and ghostly Spectrums, they have, if I may so speak, even terrified them into a kind of Sanctimony of life, and put them upon the pursute, by Pray­er, and other holy means, of such a lively Faith, and so undaunted a Resolution, that ere long they have taken heart of Grace, as we say, and with Christian courage, not only questioned, but confronted those formidable Gobblins, and chased them, at least in a seeming flight, to their uncouth habitations, which (as it is probably conjectured) are the Cryptick lodgings of such hidden Treasures, or the fatal Dor­mitories of such unfortunate Persons, as by wilful murther, and Tra­gical violence being hurryed hence in bloody winding-sheets, have been secretly interr'd by their conscious Assassinates, to prevent (what in them lay) the temporal vengeance of impartial Justice? for it cannot be constantly doubted, much less denyed, by the most Atheistical Sceptick, that no sooner the same hidden Treasure is ut­terly lost from the knowledge of mankind, but that the spirit of delu­sion takes its possession; and he who is absolute Monarch of the U­niverse, Father of Spirits (to whom the good Angels are so many Ministers, and the evil ones are subject perforce) can command to do his will, 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 [Page 3] 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, th [...]n there is at this day, when the sad consequences of the [...]ate Civi [...] 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 [...]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 l [...]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 A [...] ­gel to every man, as his Guardian and Conductor, through this [Page 4] 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 u [...]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 Lord [...] 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, [Page 5] 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 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 H [...]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 produ [...]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 [Page 6] 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,

Mr. BƲSHEL'S LETTER To the Right Honourable the LORD FAIRFAX Touching his Articles of VVar.

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 confiden [...]e of your engagements to protect me, when (by my publ [...]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 [Page 8] 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 Wid [...]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. 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 impr [...]sonment, I was resolved to submit unto in a silent patience; But some of my distressed friends fearing the [Page 9] 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

His Majesties Answer to Mr. Bushel, concerning the Surrender of Lundy.

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 sel [...], and yet may be of g [...]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.

The Lord Fairfax Letter to the Speaker of the Parliament.

I Cannot but be sensible of any thing that reflects on the Honour of the Parliament, as on my self, who for the [...]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

To the Right Honorable WILLIAM LENTHAL Speaker to the PARLIAMENT.

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 re [...]eived the Lord Fairfax his Letter to the Parlia­ment, in answer of mine, touching the making good my [Page 12] 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 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

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 b [...]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-vi [...] Princes rage in hi [...] 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 L [...]rdsh [...]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 [Page 14] 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)

Mr. Bushel's Mineral Overtures.

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 [...]arge of his new Invention, to facilitate the obtaining the [Page 15] 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 expe [...]iments, to accomplish the noble Design and Fabrick of his SOLOMONS House, described in his new Atlantis, annexed to his Na [...]ural Historie; seeing that the Corporation of the Mines Royal, institute [...] by his Majesty, consist­ing of Lords and Gentlemen of qual [...]ty, produced but w [...]ak, or very small advan [...]ages to the Revenew of the Crown, or the publick good; although his Lordship did then really b [...]lieve it very possible for him­self (if qualified thereto by his R [...]gal Power) to b [...]ing it so to passe in one Age, that the barrenest Mountains in this N [...]tion should pro­duce such store of Treasure by their Royal v [...]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 migh [...] 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 employed, should be concentrick in that service, and act as the united faculties of one man, their hearts being free from all ends and ambitious thoughts, save such as condu­ced to Gods glory and the Common good. But so soon as his Lordship [Page 16] had vouchsafed to acquaint me concerning his proceed­ings with his Majesty in thi [...] Affair, he bade me call to mind the many fatherly favours which he had conferred upon me, as pious motives to retard my unripe years from hazardous travels; and having professed to his Lordship, that I could not with any content resolve to live in my Native Country, ever since I understood, that younger Brothers by the Law of the Land were not participant in their Fathers Inheri­tance, but that they were by the ways of Vertue and In­dustry, to attend the Almighties bounty, for acquiring such fortunes as primogeniture had conferred upon their el­der Brothers, or otherwise to live in an inferior or servile condition; and then instanced his acceptance of me for his Servant at fifteen y [...]ars of age, upon my own Address; his clearing all my debts three several times, with no smaller sum in the whole than three thousand pound; his preferring me in Mariage to a rich Inheretrix, and thereupon not only allowing me four hundred pounds per annum, but to ballance the consent of her Father in the Match, promised upon his honor to make me the Heir of his knowledge, in Mineral Philosophy, saying, That if th [...]se real expressions of his love could but find the due retaliation of my gratitude, he might then as­sure himself of the hoped Harvest of two lives t [...] one, inferring, that although Fathers are bound to provide for their Children, and worse than Infidels if they do not, yet there is no such injunction upon Masters, in relation to their Servants; and therefore where a Masters pious bounty transcends a Fathers natural love, there that so obliged servant must appear most prodigiously ingratefu [...]l, which shall not with much zeal and faithfulnesse, discharge the duty of a surviving Trust; seriously adding this: Bushel, I must now use you, my intended Instrument, in the pro­secution of my Mineral Designs, as Politick Princes do their neares [...] Servants in their Cabinet Counsels; who putting their Masters con­ceptions into act, if they take well with the people, must own no more of them than the approbation thereof, and the admiration of their Prin­ces wisdom therein; but in the contrary effect (to salve their Prin­ces [Page 17] honour) they must sadly acknowledge the matter wholly their own; an Error in their Cou [...]s [...]ls, and a crime in themselves: So you, if by my Theory you prosper in your practick, must attribu [...] all the honour of the whole work to me; If othe wise, you must gratefully preserve my re­putation, by acknowledging your own m [...]sfortune, in mistaking and misacting my directions and so you shall be sure to gain the Title and Character of a gratefull Servant in ei [...]her event. And upon my se­rious [...]rotesta ion, that I would faithfully obey all his Com­mands, his Lordship advised me, not to follow the practice of our Predecessors, in their tedious and expensive ways of sinking Airy shafts at every forty fathoms, nor to imitate the antient Romans, by di [...]ging Mines through deep and open Trenches; but by cutting Ad­dits into the Mountains at their lowest Level, and by supplying their defect of Air with Pipe and Bellowes, being an invention utterly unknown to former Ag [...]s; And for my first experience, to begin with those five Mountains in Cardiganshire, reported by Sir FRANCIS GODOLPHIN, and a Portugues, to be rich in Silver and Lead. But if I should by my practick part fail in my deeper search, either for want of convenient Air, or a suffici­ent Vein of Ore, his Lordship commanded me to persue his directions in that particular no further; yet if my happy successe should prove his Theory true in this, as also in the several wayes of separating the Me­tal from the Dross, and the Silver from the Lead, that then I should not fail to illustrate the innocent Trade of the poor Miners, by making his Lordship the Patron of their Profession, nor neglect to dedicate the whole profit which Divine Providence should reveal in the one, to find out the Riches of the other, and above all, that I should take special care to elect such honest Agents for the carrying on this inno­cently profitable work, as their vertuous ambitions should aim at no by respect beyond the publick good of their Country, they having a compe­tent salary for their modest maintenance: But these Embrions pro­ving abortive, by the death of that Lord in the Reign of King Iames, were the sad motive which perswaded my pen­sive retirements to a three years solitude, until divine pro­vidence calling me to a more active life, I discovered and per­fected Natures ingenuous designs upon my Rock at Enston in Oxfordshire, by making it such a delightful Grotto, that the [Page 18] same of it invited the late King Charles to a volunrary visit: By which means I not only became known to his Majesty, but also found an apt occasion to discourse the above-mentioned Proposals of the Lord BACONS Philosophy, who so well approved of my Ingenie upon that place, and his Lordships Mineral Model, that he presently promised me the assistance of his Mint, according to the president of other Princes, when I should find silver worth the coyning; and likewise the accommodation of my own Lead so discovered, Custom-free for 21 years, as also my choise of renting the whole Cu­stom of that Commodity at the rate of t [...]e Farmers Books, calculated by the account of seven years Audit, to put the speculations of my Masters Theory into practice. These high favors of the late King conferred on my self, in memo­ry of that Lords eminent abilities, and this his admonition (before the Earl of Dorset) to me at York: That if (in the War then like to ensue) I should not prove real, and active in his service, and cordial in the trust reposed in me by my quondam Lord, I should justly merit the Title and reputation of a Knave; which did then provoke me forwards in my un­dertakings, with a most zealous observation of my obliged fidelity to both, till his Majesty (at Causam) dis-ingaged me in the first, that he might enable me as much as in him lay, to perform the latter, by his gracious letter of permission to surrender Lundy, at my own charge fortified and maintained, (without injury or violence to any) upon such Articles as might take off my delinquency, and restore me to my Estate, and the grants of my Mines, Mints, and Customs, rather than the forementioned design so well digested by my hono­rable Lord, for the general good, should be made fustrate by my incapacity to prosecute; I being the only man made privy to all those his Mineral speculations, and some other of his Philosophical Lucubrations, not yet to be promulged, until my proficiency and successe in the Mines shall enable me thereto; since he, in the depth of his wisdom, thought it not only the harmlessest gain, and greatest good that could befall a Commonwealth, but also found it to be the chiefest [Page 19] study and industry of the most knowing and best bred persons of other Nations, and the highest and most honorable im­provement that this world was capable of; and I protest, as in the presence of God (such a progresse I have alrea­dy made herein) that if I could now command as much wealth as ever the Lydian Croesus did possesse, I would gladly adventure it all in perforating the barren Mountains, to discover the vast Treasures which lie hid in their Rocky entrals, for the good of this Nation, and to leave, after my debts paid, a magnificent Monument in memory of my most deserving Master, by finishing his SOLOMONS House in all its dimensions, and with all the accommodati­ons and endowments thereof, according to his Lordships own Heroick Idea, If the honourable Parliament shall be pleased to ratifie my Articles, I having already by his directi­on cut through five of the 28 Mountains at the lowest Level, which his Lordship and Sir FRANCIS GODOLPHIN did mark out as the most pregnant Hills, for discovering the Beds, and spreading Branches of this Nations Mineral Trea­sures: so that no man of known judgment, but must con­clude the rest to be of the same species, or of richer natures, in their deeper search, both for quantity and quality; and how happy a successe the great God of Nature hath given to my endeavours in this particular, the ensuing Letter sent from Mr. Brodway, a learned and judicious Divine, and one constantly resident amongst the Miners, will better speak, than any Pen whatsoever.

A Letter to Mr. Bushel, relating some strange Accidents, which happened in the Mines.

SUffer my congratulations of your late success at Tallybont to be admit­ted among the rest, who represented the same to your imagination, not so much for the historical report of it, as for speculation on it; So it becomes my quality, for the rest are interessed, I, a looker on▪ Your Addit [Page 20] or great drift of Tallybont, after above 400 fathome in four years dri­ving to come at the chief [...]ast of the old dro [...]ned work of 38 fathome deep, bei [...]g peirced by the water of the old work, June 27. at midnight there bef [...]l two memorable accidents, The four workmen about one in the night (a [...] their manner was) withdrew to take Tobacco within ten fathome of the Addits mouth, lest in the fore-field it should damp the air, which was co [...]ve [...]ed to them by your leaden Pipes with Bellowes. Their smoaky ban­quet was not yet at an end, when they heard a m [...]ghty and fearful noise, which some of them said was thunder. But old Bartholmew Clocker (a well experienced Miner although he left the work without any suspition of so near an approach, resolved suddenly the work is holed, come let us away. No soo [...]er had they gotten the free air, but out gusheth the torrent of water with an incredible fury, such a breach it made in the solid Rock, that it arose a full yards height at the Addits mouth, and drove away a­bove a hundred Tun of the rockie deads, affrighting the people of Tallybont, who heard the noise and felt the water in their houses. I do not remember that I was ever more astonish'd at the prodigiousness of any spectacle, to see what perdition was threatned to the poor men, and they so to escape it. About four hours after, the violence of water being past, Fisher one other of the Miners went in, with more curiosity than wit, to see what effect it had wrought there: and being some sixty fathome in, creeping very low, his candle enkindled a vapour, which came on him with three or four flashes, and he suddainly returning, had his hair burnt off, and his clothes scorched, in which conclusion it gave a crack like the report of a Piece, and in a fierce gust of wind blew out the Candles of three more coming after him. To omit the Philosophical inquisition of natural causes, I account his preservation in as high a degree of wonder as the first, Thus happy are you here when least you think of it, for I find the Subterranean spirits, the supposed Guardians of concealed treasure, as officious for you as if they were in pay with you. But in a st [...]le more proper to my pen, Behold Sir, how dear you are to Providence, which for your sake hath vouchsafed to digress into a Miracle, and such a one a is able to convert the most So­phistical Atheist; whence your piety wi [...]l inferre, that the gracious Authour of this incomparable bounty expects from you some grateful service, as high above ordinary, according to mortal capacity, as this favour hath been extraordinary We are all deeply in the same engagement, and have lear­ned by this experiment, that these Addits or approaches (for that's the sense of the name of old Deluge works) are attempts of desperate hazard. Me thinks those Mounta [...]ns a e as so many pregnant Wombs, and now in labour call for your fortunate hands to deliver them, to the honour of your Royal Master, and perpetuated glory of the Nation.

What should you doubt in an imployment so serenely smiled upon, by the [Page 21] highest both of Heaven and Earth? You use no inchantment, or magneti­cal Rod, to discover the veins, your onely Magick is an ingenious conje­cture of Probabilities, with a chearful and indefatigable Industry, which hath hitherto succeeded beyond Expectation of most, and (peradventure) the Desires of some. But who (as Agricola makes the question) Lib. 1. de R. M. that is not of a nature impoison'd with envy and malitiousness, can bear unfriendly thoughts to him, whose substance is in a manner presented by the hand of God?

I know it would be a motive of very feeble operation, to tell you how Princes and States have raised their Crowns, by descending into such a­bysses as these; with some of whom wanton Antiquity hath been pleased to sport her self, and to play upon the simplicity of many, as Midas, Giges, the Argonauts, Croesus, with the States of Athens, over whose Minerals was that renowned Thucydides a Praefect, as you are here. Of which, Pliny delivers what may be worth your attention, when he sayes of them, That they were in a fruitless soyl, and on the Hills (as these with us) And wheresoever one vein was found, it was not far from another; among which was one called Bebelo, that afforded him 300 pound weight of Sil­ver a day.

These were then the veins which conveyed the blood and spirit of life, through all the Limbs of his victorious Host. And have you not here our Britans Asturia before you? Who knows whether it may not yield a Be­belo? at least a Sneberg or Anneberg? Who hath heretofore dream't of a Mine at Comsom [...]och, or of the happy Lot you lately drew from the Mountains of Kegmian, Tallybont, the Darren, Broom-Floyd, and Cum-mervin? What did the outside of these promise you, more than the coun­tenances of their Neighbours? But the Complaint of learned D. Jourdan may here take place, that much Silver was lost, for want of taking it out of Lead-Oares: for whereas those Oars which are rich in Silver, are commonly hard [...]ff [...]sion, our Mineral men neglect those Oars. No doubt many are concealed, by reason they are Mines Royal.

Where had been the Woods and Forrests yet undestroyed on these bald-headed Promontories, that mig [...]t suffice, had you not taught the Earth to afford you all, and the Valley to meet the barren Hill, by sending in Fewel to give form to the matter? So that here is a rich bequest you leave to poste­rity, I mean your eternizing the Works, by preventing the excess of Water, and defect of Fire. I have no more but to s [...]gnifie my confidence, that as your desires are set on the material Rocks of Wales and Enstone, so will your better affections be firmly grounded upon the Rock Christ Jesus, that no Tempest may be able to shake you, when the sandy Projects of other will [Page 22] be laved to nothing by the Flouds they are built upon: which will give more comfort and satisfaction to you, than can be expressed by your

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 [Page 26] 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.

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 deplorable condition more than mine own, I would present you with a more sola­cious Cordial than that of society in your miseries, which I have humbly petitioned the Honourable Parliament for, and hope I shall obtain to your temporal and eternal advantage. You are therefore first to understand, that when our English Aristotle, Natures best modern Secretary, that excellent Phi­losopher the Lord Chancellour BACON, my ever-ho­noured Master, had compleated his now extant Natural Hi­story of Philosophical Experiments, he then modell'd his Solomons House in his New Atlantis thereto annexed, in which Academy they might be practised, But not by those common wayes (as he was used to say) where even Fools might raise a Py­ramis, Colossus, or Mausoleum to their ridiculous memories, [Page 30] Viz. from the Exchequers of bounteous and magnificent Princes, Piratick depredations, or Monopolous exactions from an opulent people; but rather by a Philosophical Elixar and Chymical extraction, so quaint and admirable, that it seems to convince the Maxim, Out of nothing is made nothing. For he proposed no other means to erect and maintain that stupendious Fabrick and the Magi thereof, who were by him designed thereto by his Theory, than the recovery of the Lost by the help of the Dead. Resolve the Riddle, and find your Cordial; for though it be truly Magical, 'tis not Necromantick.

But not to delay you, I (as your Oedipus) thus open it: The Lost, are drowned and desperately deserted Mineral Works; the Dead, convicted and attainted persons, who are indeed so in Law; and what is lost, is not in nature as to the use and propriety of mankind. Cheer up my Com­rades, I have opened my dark lantern to you, and light is comfortable to the benighted. Now know, that that excel­lent Lord affecting my homebred simplicity, and being am­bitious to raise a Younger brothers fortunes by such Experi­ments, instituted me as his much-favored Pupil in his myste­rious Philosophical way of recovering and searching Mines, by mollifying their hardest Rocks, undermining their Wa­ters, separating their Metals, and carrying Air through the lowest levels of Hills or Mountains, without the vast­nesse of former charge to sink Shafts for Air every twenty Fa­thom. But he suddenly falling from an eminent height, as I by that time had deviated from his grave directions in the secure Paths of Vertue, imposed on me a new task, Which was, not to search the Rocky bosoms of the barren Mountains, but, by a timely retirement to some solitary place where I might seclude my self from the treacherous vanities of the tumultuous world, to explore the deceitful Meanders of my stony Heart, and when Divine grace should have assisted my better Reason in overcoming the rebellious affections of my Sensual appetite, if then the like Providence should call me thence to a more active life in the prosecution of his Mineral documents, I should without any regret of my former penance attend the good hand of God in that design with humble patience; assuredly believing, that [Page 31] since he had supported me in the conquest of my self, he would conduct me through all difficulties, to the accomplishing so great a work for my Countryes good, and his own glory. And according to his counsel and prediction, after I had lived three years as a Re­cluse in a desolate Island in the Irish Seas, only conversing with God in my repentant tears, prayers and contemplati­ons, he miraculously called me thence to an unexpected for­tune, brought me into favor with my Prince, who granted me a Patent for all the Mines Royal, in order to my Lords Proposals, and a Branch of his Royal Mint to coin such Sil­ver as I should extract from all Lead of my own finding; which was not a little, witnesse the many great services I did for that King therewith, notwithstanding my great losses in the late Wars. But as the Times, so we in them are chang'd.

Now here to prevent any that may ask, Why since by my Articles of War I am to be restored to all my former rights, I seek no more from the present State, than an assurance of the deserted Mines of our Territories? I answer, That they will be enough, which is better than more: that then I was no way obnoxious to that government, but in my Soveraigns favor, and he in Peace, now these States look upon me as a pardoned and reconciled Enemy, and their vast expence in the Republick service, permits Delinquents no such allow­ance, therefore I modestly ask the crumbs which they scorn to gather up, and therewith doubt not to perform my under­takings, to the honor of my Country, and my Masters memo­ry. But me thinks I hear our proud first Enemy (that envi­ous spirit of delusion) whisper to some of you, What will your condition of slavery be better here in your native Mines, than in a Forein Plantation, where your friends cannot see your sufferings, nor you their prosperities, to their or your afflictions, because they cannot mitigate yours, nor you participate of theirs, which will be no small abate­ment to your shames, and their sorrows? To this I reply, That as the innocence of the sufferer, not the rigor of the torment makes one a Martyr, so the cause of shame is in the act of the Crime, not in the nature of the Servitude; wheresoever to be suffered; your [Page 32] guilt is known, and accompanies you every where; is it not then better here to expiate it where a safer and easier means is offered, if you intend to lead a new life? Consider the te­diousnesse and dangers of your transportations, through Storms, Enemies, and a sparing salt diet: If you Land safe­ly, 'tis but to be sold like Beasts, and most likely to men of barbarous souls, through whose cruelty you shall gasp out your dolorous lives with excessive labors, and when Hunger shall call for natures recruits, be forced to think the worst imployed horses of your own Country happier than your selves in their natural food; and after all this, if you can outlive your bondage in inriching your taskmasters, the Spa­niard for revenge or avarice may surprize your completed Plantations, and carry you away to consume the sad rem­nant of your miserable days in his Mines, without merit, expiation or hope: but thus you cannot suffer at home, where you may turn your necessities into vertues by a patient and humble submission to Gods will, for all evil of punishment is from him. I propose not this to you as Mineral Pioneers out of any design of advantage to my self, your food, clothes, and materials, will cost me as much as the hired expert Mi­ners; my plot upon you is the only salvation of your souls, and restitution of your liberties, through your contrition and penance, by Christs merits and Gods mercy, with tem­poral rewards of benefit, and expiation, by your industrious discoveries in your allotted portions; which that you may obtain, sacrifise but your sins on the broken altars of your contrite hearts to the Lord of mercies, and you have his own words for your free pardons. O how will your conver­sion and deliverance make your 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 [Page 33] 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

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 [Page 34] 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, 'tis 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 [Page 35] the Treason I committed against his Eternal Majesty: And surely he was not displeased therewith; for out of this dep [...]h of desolation he graciously called me to the publick servic [...] 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 'tis 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 [Page 36] 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 earnest Prayer on her dove-like wings presents them before his Mercies seat, and unfeigned Penitence softly sheaths up the sword of his Iustice. And for your better encouragement, if you come cheerfully into this Philosophical work, you shall also enter into the school of Christ; for I shall provide men ex­cellency qualified in Theology, Morality and Humanity, whose examples as well as doctrines shall direct you in the waies of eternal life, and daily walk hand in hand with you towards Christs paradise, the Saints New Jerusalem.

But me thinks I hear some self-conceited and censorious Critick thus prevaricate upon the whole design: Truly I must professe it seems to my understanding very like a Lunacie in any whatsoever to propose or undertake so magnificent a Fa­brick as the Atlantick Solomons House, without so mu [...]h as Straw to burn, Bricks for its foundation, no Princes Coffers, Monopoly, Smoke-mony, Lottery, Impost or Mart upon the discovery, but to the incredulous, no not so much as a part­ner save Providence in this new way of search for never dis­covered Mines, and recovering desperately deserted Works. To which I answer, first, If your Ancestors in former Ages had been such Scepticks, fire had been for ever concealed in the Flint, and all Metals in their native beds, Thule with the Western Islands and America had been as yet un-discove­red: pray tell me, Is not Divine Providence the dispensator of Gods Omnipotence? which the Eagle-sighted eye of this Philosophical Lords illuminated intellect most perspicuously discovered, and therefore resolved thus to prove it without detriment or hazard to any individual person: Is it not then a God-like imitation? the Lord of the universal World brought all things which never had being, out of nothing; this Lord of universal Philosophy thereby offers mankind that good which never can be useful to him but by this means, which will cost him nothing, the dead in Law to search the dead and barren Mountains, and recover the dead [Page 37] and buried works; for Mineral treasure here is nothing but the dead, and the dead are nothing to the living. But these dead here (to whose lives the Law and Opinion hath set a period) by searching the graves of Minerals, preserve their lives for the present, and in time find their own Resurrection, by a temporal Expiation of their fatal Crimes, though their other hopes prove frustrate: but if the Almighty crowns their labors, observe how glorious it will prove! the Prince or State that shall then Rule, shall receive the first fruits; thou­sands of poor Subjects shall eat the bread of comfort there­by; Offenders shall be purged and freed; Trade shall be in­creased, and Customs augmented; a matchlesse Academy e­rected and maintained; new Arts discovered for the univer­sal good, and honor of the Nation; the honorable Trustees of the whole work shall merit glory, and gain Philosophi­cal recreations; the experimenting Philosophers shall have a competent and comfortable subsistence during life, and af­ter their change their respective Statues erected in the City of Wells; And as the Athenians when they dedicated a lively I­mage to the memory of the antient Philosopher Pherecides, gave it a golden tongue, as a proper Emblem of his excel­lent eloquence, so each of theirs shall hold a significant Character of their peculiar Inventions in their well-propor­tion'd hands. Which word hands, minds me of a saying of my Lords concerning the Convicted, which was, That he did stedfastly believe, that the hands of such whose stony hearts God had pe­netrated by true penitence, would make a more speedy, easie, and successeful progresse in any Mineral work they undertook, than three times the number of the most skilful Miners that work for wages only. For that learned Lord was of opinion, That the Subteran [...]an Spirits did much hinder the perfect discoveries of the richest Mines, somtimes by their apparitions, & often by the mischievous Gambols they plaid there, as by raising Damps, extinguishing the Miners lights, firing the sulphurous matter of the Mine, and scorching the greedy and faithless Workmen. For not only Socrates, Plato, and Ari­stotle are of opinion, that there are multitudes of evil Spirits in the Aery Region, as also in the Waters, and the hollow [Page 40] Concaverns of the Earth; but divers of our more modern learned Writers and Theologians are of the same perswasi­on, as Tho. Aquinas, Gaudentius Merula, Pselius, Bodinus, and St. Agustine, who conceive that God hath permitted their temporal habitations therein, partly for mens tryal, as that of Job, and partly for the punishment of the wicked, as the Demoniack in the 5. of St. Marks Gospel, out of whom Christ cast a whole legion of Devils, and by whose permissi­on they destroyed a numerous Herd of the Gadarens Swine. These were created in the beginning, as Divines conclude out of the 38. of Job, when the Morning-stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy; as may be conjectured by the Archangel Michaels victory over Lucifer and his rebellious Ar­my of ambitious Spirits: And Christ himself tels us in the 10 of Luke, He beheld Satan as Lightning fall from Heaven. What need I say more? That audacious Spirit, who had the impudence to tempt our Saviour, dares continually circle the Earth, still like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may de­vour. But Faith is the best Armor, and fervent Prayer the sharpest sword to vanquish him, who being but so resisted flies from us, and true Contrition and humble Penance con­jures him away. And I pray you who ought to be more cor­dially penitent, than such whom the just Laws and their own consciences having cast into the jaws of death, Gods mercy hath reprieved to expiate their crimes in so innocent and hopefull a work as this, to the good of their afflicted souls, their Countries profit, and his own glory? for Penitence, Reformation, and vertuous Emulation, are the most prevalent En­gines to effect this noble Enterprise; which I had rather decline and utterly relinquish, than use any corrosive or compulso­ry means to constrain any of my penitential brethren to pro­ceed in or accelerate their labours, as the Spaniard doth to his miserable Miners in America, and others in other places.

Now concerning the validity and grandure of this Mysteri­ous Attempt, you are to understand, that the College of our most honoured Physicians, which is the Philosophical [Page 41] Oracle of our Commonwealth, have candidly certified the late Lord Protector Oliver Cromwel, That as the Design was heroick and magnificent, so if it were not prejudiced and ob­structed by the obloquy and sinister contrivance of self-inte­ressed persons, it was like to produce much profit and honor to this our native Country.

In a word, howsoever you value my Invitation to partici­pate in my Mineral profession, neglect not my cordial Counsel in matters of Devotion and sincere Penitence: For 'tis conceived by some truly religious and very learned, that the Penitent only shall recruit the Regiments and glorious Host of the intellectual Angels, by supplying the place of them that fell with Lucifer in his great Rebellion. To which God of his mercy for the Son of his love's sake bring us all in his appointed time, by what several ends he shall think fit, is the prayers of your faithful Friend; as well as to find out by his holy Spirit those free-born Minds of Noble Souls in either sex for my Executors, as will make the World their Heir, and are endowed with such vertuous Actions of Love and Charity, as might eternize the memory of my old Ma­ster, and magnifie the Creators glory in his works of Na­ture; which is and shall be the ambition of

Mr. Bushels Letter to the Miners of Mendyp, and their Answer, with the Juries Order.

UPon the Overtures of my Mineral Discoveries taught me by the Theory of my old Master the Lord Chancellor Bacon's Philoso­phical Conceptions, His Highness the Lord Protector, upon hopes of the like providence in all his other Territories, to ease the Nation of their Taxes, gave me power to try the aforesaid Experiments, since it was conceived by the aforesaid Lord, that great riches lay in the Bowels of our Mother Earth, and underneath the superficies of the most barren Mountains; and in order to such his commands, I have not only published the inclosed declaration for satisfaction to all moderate persons, which have not unbyassed Principles against the honor of their [Page 43] native Country, but also am setting on foot the drowned and deserted works in the naked Promontories of Hingston-Down, Coom Martine in Devon, and Guynop in Cornwal: And being like­wise informed by your fellow Miners, that millions of wealth lie in Row-pits neer Chewton Minery, which yet cannot be recovered from the inundation of water by the greatest Artists of former Ages, I have upon my own deliberation and viewing of the place, thought fit to render you the Experience of my practical endeavours, and with a willing mind to attempt the forelorn hope of their recoveries at my own charge, if I may have the well-wishes of you in general, and the moyety or half, bearing equal charge, when the water is drained; your speedy answer shall make me decline, or prosecute the same with effect, which is the only ambition of

MAnna from Heaven was not more welcome to the Pilgrims of Israel, than the good news your Letter brought to us poor Mi­ners of Mendyp, who now are like Moses in the Mount, which saw the Land of Promise, and yet could not enjoy the propriety there­of; even so fares it now with us: For a month or two of a droughty Summer we behold the appearance of much treasure lying in the veins of those metal Loads, and so soon as we are preparing for Harvest, to reap a mite of its Mineral profit, the inundation of water takes away our present possession, and leaves us exposed to a sad condition, having no other Profession for our livelyhood. But if your goodness and charity will be pleased to extend the interest of your knowledge to drain the Rake called the Broad Rake of Sir Bevis Bul­mars works in Rowpits near Chewton Minery, which is known to [Page 44] be the lowest Level, and Sole of those works, We do herein engage our selves under our hands and Seals, and on the behalf of all others that shall hereafter work in the said Rake, that you and your Assigns shall have the moyety of the whole, paying half the charge; and like­wise procure the Lord of the Soil to do the like, if you please to proceed with speed for the perfecting of the same; and in token of our affection to serve you, we have presumed not only to petition his Highness in your behalf for the better encouragement, but also oblige our selves to tender you the first refusal of all our parts and shares of Oar, paying ready money, and giving us from time to time the same rate as other Merchants shall conceive it to be worth: And so we bid you heartily farewell, resting

The late Kings Letter of Invitation to Mr. Bushel, confirming his procedure in Mineral Discoveries.

TRusty and welbeloved, We having taken into considera­tion your late Relation concerning your proceedings and intentions for the perfecting of that great Work happi­ly by you begun in Our County of Cardigan in Our Principa­lity of Wales, concerning those hopeful Mines by you disco­vered, approving well of your beginnings, proceedings, & in­tentions, We have thought good out of Our Royal disposition, to the encouraging of you and all such as are studious or in­dustrious, to do to Us or Our Commonwealth profitable [Page 49] service, to assure you by these Our Letters, that you shall not onely by Our Protection peaceably enjoy the Contract and Bargain by you made with the Lady Elizabeth Middleton concerning the said Mines, with all things thereunto belong­ing; but also be well assured, that both you, your Agents, Assistants or Coadjutors, shall from time to time have all the furtherance and favour We can vouchsafe to you or them. And for the better encouraging of you to go cheerfully and confidently on with the Works, when your learned Council at the Law shall advise you to pray any further Act or Acts from Us, whereby the Design may be advanc'd, and you and your assistants secured, you shall find Us ready to grant unto you any your lawful desires: And in the mean time these Our Letters shall be a good and sufficient Testimony of Our Royal intentions towards you, and our good wishes to the prosperity of your undertakings. Given at Our Court at Whitehall under Our Signet, the three and twentieth day of February, in the twelfth year of Our Reign.

The Merchants Letter of Barnstaple to Mr. Bushell con­cerning their accommodation of transporting his Lead and Oar gratis, &c.

SInce you have been pleased at your own great charge to discover those deserted Works at Combmartin for the pub­lick good of our Countrey; and whereas you are interes­sed in the Mines of Wales, which furnish you both with Lead and Lead-Oar, These are to request you, to be pleased to make this our Harbour partaker of the Benefits may proceed [Page 50] therein, and what we buy not from you for ready moneys, we shall be ready to transport for you Frait-free instead of Ballast, you rendring it aboard, to all such Ports as our Ves­sels shall commerce withall. In so doing, we suppose the re­sult thereof will more properly conduce to your hopeful proceedings in the said Works of Combmartin, which we wish all happy success, and remain

To our Dread Sovereign Lord the KINGS most Excellent 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 f [...]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 [Page] loyal and most Obedient Subjects, and humble Servant.