I Make a tender to your Royall Majesty (and in you, to the high Court of Parliament, and to your whole Kingdome) of an illustrious example of the divine providence, no lesse wonderfull for admiration, then the dis­covery of Gods judgements, made by the Prophet Daniel to King Nebuchodonozar, and Baltassar his sonne; not lesse behoofull for the good and welfare of your selfe, our gracious Queene, your Roy. I Off-spring, and our whole Kingdome (if you will vouchsafe o [...]ppre­hend and make, use of it) then the discovery of the trea­cheries of Bagathan and Th [...]res, and of the pernicious devi­ces of wicked Aman, made by Mardocheus to King Ahas­suerus, was for [...]in and his people.

My course hath beene d [...]ected to your Royall Majesty, by Gods sacred and speciall appointment, ever since your first comming to your Crown, and before, though I never addressed any writing unto you in speciall [...] this m [...]t­ter till now; because I was first to dealt with Roman Ca­tholicks, and afterwards with some of your Iustings, Iudges, and other Officers, and finally to expect in p [...]ence some events of the divine provi [...]ence, succeeding thereupon, that ascending to your R [...]y [...]ll Tribunall by degrees, I [Page 2]might have more ample and speciall matter every way to present, and not appeare emptie handed before you.

Now Gods judgements are growne to a great ripenesse, or (to speake with allusion to our blessed Saviours expres­sion in a like case) The figtree hath budded whereby men may know Summer is nigh. Wherefore, if your Royall Majesty, and the high Court of Parliament, will be plea­sed to make a due enquiry and examination of my course, whereby the matter of fact may bee authentically made knowne; and then cast a serious eye upon the publicke events of the divine providence, which (succeeding in due conformity and consequence this many yeares, and pa­rallel to the approved testimonies of Gods speciall judge­ments in ancient times) are as it were, the great broad Seal of heaven, giving weight and authority to my words, and endeavours; besides that your Majesty may with ease see that there is a supernaturall order of things, taught by supernaturall faith (which one not many yeares since in a publique printed booke dedicated to your Highnesse, hath endeavoured to evacuate) you may moreover with like facility perceive how the sacred decrees of Gods heavenly providence are drawne up, not onely concer­ning the rest of the Christian world, but also especially concerning you and your Kingdome, and by conforming your selfe to his holy will, decline the common mischiefs approaching, which otherwise by no humane meanes can possibly be avoided.

Let not my meannesse (who am but an unworthy instrument, and the least of your Majesties subjects) move your Highnesse, or the grave assembly of Parliament to dispise the offer which I make, but first enquire, and ex­amine diligently (as both Gods Law and mans reason do enquire) and then judge. There are some dangers which [Page 3]can neither be knowne, nor avoyded, unlesse they be first gratiously discovered by some speciall favour and opera­tion of the first cause which is God himselfe, from whom nothing can be hid, and in such cases, though his divine Majestie doth many times imploy men of great wisedome and sanctitie (as he did the Prophet Elizeus to discover to the King of Israel the ambushments set to entrap him by the King of Syria) yet he doth sometimes also, not onely use the most contemptible of men, as instruments to make the greatest potentates acquainted with his wayes, and so enable them to avoid prepared mischiefes, but moreover taketh a brute beast for the like purpose, as in the case of Balaam and his Asse.

Your Majesties great predecessor William the Conque­rour thought it wisedome, in a certain occasion, to hearken to the advertisement even of a naturall foole, as we reade in our Chronicles: and long before his time, Alexander the great gave eare to a woman, who was thought distra­cted, as Curtius the Historian doth testifie; by which hap­pie credulity (God, who is al able to make fooles and mad men speake his wisedome, having discovered his divine knowledge and judgement by meanes of those silly ones) those two great Princes avoyded imminent danger of death, and conserved their lives, and fortunes, for their great succeeding victories. On the otherside, the neglect of timely advertisements, hath brought many great Prin­ces, and amongst the rest, that great Monarch Iulius Cesar to the losse of their Crownes and lives. Hee that will not hearken to God in his gracious signes and forewarnings, must feele his heavy hand when it will be too late to avoid it.

For me I doe not professe my selfe among the number of wise men, and if your Majesty, or the great assembly of State now on foot, please, you may take mee for a foole, [Page 4]or a mad man (provided you acknowledge, that God Al­mighty can by his holy overruling Spirit, make a mad­nesse prodigious, and so use the folly or madnesse of his creature, as an instrument to expresse [...]n act of his divine wisdome, providence and power;) but what ever I bee, foolish or wise, or however your royall Majesty, or the high Court of Parliament shall be pleased to thinke of me, God is wise even in the foole and mad man, and his holy will is to be searcht out in all; which if it had beene duly done more then thirteene yeares agoe (adhering close to the te­stimony of divine and humane Law, implied in the reality of my whole course, with a due inspection of the counter­signes extant even then in the seeds of those heavy events, which have appeared since most plainly to the view of all in their own proper & perfect existence) when before some of your Majesties tribunalls, I did publikely in GODS name, and in vertue of his publicke Lawes, speciall right, and command, with due relation likewise to the Lawes of our Realme, and two of your Royall Maje­sties Proclamations, invite your Royall Highnesse, and your whole Kingdome, to a due enquity of Gods prepared judgements, and of the devices then in hatching to entrap you and your people; not only your Iudges and other per­sons of higher ranke and note, who lye now exposed to the rod of Iustice, might have beene freed from undergo­ing the danger now threatning them; but your Majesty also might with ease and security have prevented those trou­bles, and mischiefes, which turmoile at this present all your Realmes, and threaten a desolation. So much it behoves Princes and States to attend, and examine well, if God almighty dot but make even B [...]laams Asse bray forth some imminent judgements in his holy name. For mischiefs arising from the power of man may by the power of man with Gods ordinary concourse be extinguished or averted: but such as [Page 5]are threatned by God Almighties speciall hand, and power can by no meanes possible be avoided, but by admission, and performance of such conditions, as his Majesty divine is pleased to propose.

I have strove to keepe silence now these many yeers, be­ing loth to medle any more in a cause, which hath cost me so much trouble, and affliction (though I know not why I should be so handled by any for suffering God Almighty to expresse in mee, whether men will have it to have beene by the intermediation of wit or madnesse, a testimony of his divine providence towards his Church, and people) but I dare be silent no longer, being furnished now with such illustrious evidence of fore-pessed events proper to my cause, to confirme my words, and the thing it selfe concer­ning so deeply your Royall Majesty, our gracious Queene, your Royall Off-spring, and our whole Kingdome: lest God Almighty should inflect upon mee the judgement threatned against the Watchman in the thirty third Chap­ter of the Prophe [...] Ezechiel, yet I will forbeare to trouble your Royall Majesty, with the specification of particulars, till I see whether I be thought fit to bee admitted to a free, and indifferent heating, or no. One thing I must crave par­don of your Royall Majesty, and the great Assembly of Parliament; that I addresse my selfe thus to you in print, before I have acquainted you with my case in a more pri­vate way. The reason I have done so is: that seeing every man now prints, what he lists; and my cause hath beene many yeares since publike, and I suffered so much in main­tainance of it under the view of many; I may either by the testimony of some, at least wise of those many, be introdu­ced to a free, and publike audience: or else upon compassi­on be voted, as a foole or madman, to be set free from pri­son, and further trouble (seeing I never appeared in so ma­ny yeares extremities, either furious, seditious, or turbu­lent) [Page 6]and so be committed to the care of my friends, that I may end my old age in peace, and quietnesse; commending you, and your Kingdome, to Gods mercifull providence, care, and protection.

I humbly beseech God Almighty, to blesse, and protect your Royall Majestie, our gracious Queene, your Royall Off-spring, and our whole Kingdome, and grant that you may know his holy will, and faithfully perform the same to the glory of the divine Majesty, and the common com­fort, and good of all.