THe Committee of Safety, and the most Illustrious Council of Officers assembled at Wallingford House, having received the sad and doleful news of Lawsons Revolt from their depraved Designs, were now in a peck of Troubles: Hath he, quoth they, forsaken us in the midst of our adversities, and deserted us in the most unfortunate Juncture of our Calamities? At this they sighed, and looked demurely toward Hea­ven, yet not so, but that a man might perceive such a kinde of malice mixt therewith, as threatned God him­self for not giving a satisfactory answer to the demands of their late publick and private Fasts. From lament­ing they fell to debating, and after they had turn'd over all the leaves of their Imaginations, they could finde but one Receipt to stop the bleeding Wound of their almost perishing Interest: For to revive their dull and drooping spirits, up steps Sir Harry Vane, who opening his mouth, thus bespake the Congregation of Warlike Saints, Quoth he, I did not think, dear Bre­thren, I profess I did not think our late Vice-Admiral would have left us in the Suds (God grant we may scape their scowring) I thought he had been a surer Card, I thought we might have plaid with him securely, and that he would have prov'd a Trump, yea a constant Van Trump unto us, even to the winning of our Game, but it seems it proves otherwise, yet it may be that I [Page 4]may reclaim him for all this; I am sure he ows muc [...] unto me, for when he was but an infant, and knew no­thing of mischief, I suckled him with the sweet milk of State Policy, I brought him into employment, and taught him to climb the shaouds of Preferment, and ha­ving nursed him to full maturity, placed him where he is, But Ahito­phel was mi­staken, and therefore may now go set his house in order. hoping that he would prove unto us the Instru­ment of our salvation; therefore I will go speak with him, and put home his ingratitude to his heart, and if his heart be not over hardned, I may perchance cause him to relent. Oh, quoth Fleetwood, talk not of ingra­titude, and then weeping more bitterly than St Peter, my ingratitude, said he, hath undone me, for I pull'd out my Brother in Law by the ears, for which I could now tear my flesh; what hopes have we to finde him other wise than ingrateful, that were so our selves? But Sir Harry commending the oyliness of his tongue, and his Ulysses-like subtilty, prevail'd with them that he might make a tryal of them both, and was forth with commanded, without delay, to make the utmost proof of his skill in that their time of distress. Now that he might not go alone, there were added to him Major Sa­loway, in whom they imagin'd there was much Oratory, because he once dealt in Raisons, and Mr. Thankful Owen, a Priest of a late Edition, one who having mist the great Harvest wherein Marshal, Nye, and Peters reap'd, is now come into play, thinking to pick up the gleanings of Ephraim, whose business doubtless was to urge Scripture, and with his Christen name to put the Vice-admiral in mind of Sir Harry's former kindnesses; with these went along one Mr. Courtney, famous for nothing, but that he was a chip of the same block. [Page 5]On the 17. instant they went aboard the James, where they found the Vice-Admiral not alone, but having his Assistants with him, Colonel Okey, and Mr. Scot, one able to encounter the subtilties of Sir Harry, well know­ing every chink and cranny of his brain. Then retreat­ing into the great Cabin, they fell to work.

Vice-Admiral, I am come.

I see you are come, but to what pur­pose I know not; had your Lady come, I might have thought she had longed to eat some of our Ship-Beef.

I say Sir, I am come from the Committee of Safety.

No, but you are not; for you are come from the Committee of Danger, or to speak more properly, you are come from the Committee in Dan­ger.

They may thank you for it.

I know no reason I have given them to be so courteous: but I have heard that there is craft in courtesie, which I believe is the reason that you give me this visit.

'Tis the good of the Commonwealth that draws me hither.

Truly I cannot believe it; for you yet bear about you the badge of Kingship, and your Name still wears a Title received from Monarchy.

My wife will not let me leave it off, out of a resolution she has to dye a Lady.

But to board your grand Design: What is your Errand hither? I know you have seen a great Ship before; there was never a one launch'd, but [Page 6]you were invited aboard, when you were a Commis­sioner of the Navy. You got sweetly by that, Sir Harry.

And so may you get too, if you'll be rul'd by me.

Sir, you have put your hand to the Plough, and it is a great sin to draw it back.

Sir, I am not to answer for that sin, let it light on the head of your Major General Dis­borow.

But, Sir, will you not receive money? 'Tis the mark of a Saint not to refuse it.

For what should I receive it? or who should give it me?

Honestly spoke, Sir Harry. I, and my Faction will, so you engage to be­tray your Trust.

'Tis fairly promised; but for ought I see, you have none, I will not say, for your selves; but none to pay your small Army: and for us at Sea, you can hardly allow us Bisket. But would you then have me to betray my Trust, Sir Harry?

Yes, for the good of the Publick: and truly if you do not, I shall not take you for a Saint; for gold will tempt a Saint.

Truly, Sir Harry, though you have an English Nose, yet you have got a Roman Conscience.

But pray Sir Harry make good your Paradox.

That I shall, and with ease. You seem to be unwilling to take money to betray your Trust; now I shall make it out that you may: for, those things we call sins, are no sins, if he that commits them do direct [Page 7]his intention aright. As for example: Should you take money of us, out of a malicious design to betray your Trust, Excellent doctrine. and be revenged upon those that employed you, then it were a sin: but your intention being di­rected to your own advantage and profit, which is a good to your self, and a thing which a man may law­fully seek after, this makes it cease to be a crime. Thus an Incumbent may without any mortal sin, wish the death of him that hath a Pension out of his Living: And a Son may wish the death of his Father, and re­joyce when it happens; provided, it proceed onely from a consideration of the advantage which accrues to him thereby, and not out of any personal hatred.

Truly Sir Harry I have writ many a Sermon in the Abby, but never heard this doctrine before now.

It may be so, Sir, but I have seen it practized before now, and could bring you the example of many professors to prove it.

I have heard you speak, Sir Harry, and the Vice-admiral may doe what he pleases; but if he would be perswaded by me, I should not advise him to run into hell head-long.

Surely, Mr. Scot, I never fear'd any such place; and I thought you had been so much a States-man as not to have fear'd it neither.

Verily, I am perswaded in my spirit, Mr. Law­son, that you ought to obey the Present power, truly I have alwayes obeyed the Present power, and I hope shall as long as I live.

I thank the Lord I can be comformable to my Superiors, when they conform to my interest, and therefore Mr. Vice-admiral, truly I would have you be [Page 8]conformable to them, since they seek to be conformable to you. Certainly if you will not own them, the Lord will own his own cause.

With a to­baco pipe­in [...] mouth For my part, I think out Divisions do but give advantages to the common Enemy, and therefore I would have you make an end of these differences.

Gentlemen, I see here you all speak me fair for your own Interest: 'tis true, your Intelligencer General said, that your Interest would not lie, but he is such a lying fellow himself, that I can neither believe him, nor you neither for his sake. But now I take of Interest, pray tell me what your Interest is.

Our Interest is the good of the Nation.

So says Charls Stewart, but what reason have I to believe you more then him?

'Tis that we have fought for. No Kingship, and the Liberty of the Subject.

What becomes then of the Privi­ledges of Parliament?

My L. Lambert has taken them away, lest they should take away him: You know his son was to marry Lamberts daughter, but we doubt the Match is spoil'd, and truly my Interest is so woven with his, that I cannot safely forsake him.

Why, then you are for a single Per­son?

No! we will have Conservators joyned with him.

Conservators! I understand not the word: and truly, Gentlemen, I am clearly against a Government of Hard Names.

But the word may be explained; they are men elected to preserve the peace of the Nation.

By what power?

By your Council of Officers, according to the Instrument of Government.

What is become of that Instrument?

We did light our Tobacco with it in the Council-Chamber.

And would you be governed by a thing which you have so contemptibly thrown away? Truly, Gentlemen, I see you would have something, but know not what your selves: and therefore, as you may see in print, I do here again declare positively, for the last Parliament, whose subversion you did, and still do so laboriously intend.

That's no Parliament, or, at most, but the Rump of a Parliament.

The better able to sit, Sir Harry.

But they will turn me out; and then people will cry, There goes the Parliament Fart.

'Tis very probable: and I wish that they could so turn you out, that you might leave no stink be­hinde.

Truly, I wonder at you, Vice-Admiral, that you should be for that which all the people hate, The Rump of a Parliament.

Then it seems, good man of Plums, the people do not hate you at all.

Alas, We care not for their hatred: and would you but stick by us with your Navy, then we should have an Army to quell them, and we might then with as much ease ride upon the backs of the peo­ple, as on the backs of our Horses. Besides, it is a sign that you are Episcopal, it being the attribute of a Bishop to love Rumps.

I hope not so, Major; for I love Rumps and Kidneys too, and yet I am no Bishop.

Truly, Major, I finde neither of your Reasons to be thorough-pac'd: for, as to the former, the Gentleman that spoke last, hath given you a suffi­cient answer: and as to the latter, give me leave to tell you, 'tis an ill time to ride the people, for I perceive them to be in a very skittish posture.

Really, Gentlemen, I think this difference might be easily reconciled: For I see the Vice-Admi­ral is for a Parliament; and if so, why may not ano­ther Parliament serve his turn as well as this? there­fore, say I, let us have a new Parliament, and a free one, once more elected. For, to say truth, Vice Ad­miral, should that Parliament sit which you stand for, we are utterly lost: And what harm have we done you, that you should seek our confusion?

What think you of a Parliament of women? Truly Vice-admiral, I am confident they would settle the Ministery, for I finde them very respective to me in particular.

Sir, you speak gravely, but not at all wisely.

Certainly we might bound and confine the Election to such qualifications, that neither you nor we might receive any prejudice by it. For my part I am clearly against Swearers and Whoremongers.

And I am for no Cavaliers.

Nor I for Adulterers.

I am for no Papists.

I would have them all gifted men, and Praise-God Barebones.

You talk, Gentlemen, as if you were to chuse a Parliament in the Kingdom of Christ: for these Ex­ceptions are not to be made on Earth, unless you, Master Owen, can take sinne out of the World. And as for Praise God Barebones, let us have no more of them for they deliver'd up our Liberties before into the hands of a single Person. But, I pray Gen­tlemen, why do ye speak against them whom you call the Rump? What power have you to hinder them? Doth not Sir Arthur increase? and the Vice-Ad­miral stand bravely to his Tackling for it? Then with what impudent faces can you make these Proposals in the low ebbe of your condition? for my part, I think we are as wise as you, and as cunning as you, and as good men as you, and therefore why we may not go­vern as well as you, I know no reason?

Truly, Vice-Admiral, this Gentleman hath spoke well; but the Government is now in our hands, and should there be another. Change, and that so sud­denly, what would our Neighbors, but accuse us for the most light and inconstant Nation of the whole World.

In answer to this, I shall tell ye, that when you put them out, it was force, but if they put you out, you ought in Christi [...]n piety to suffer it: for you must do as you would be done unto. Now since you put the Change upon them, you must not take it ill that they put the Change upon you.

But this is not the way to settle the Na­tion.

And when do you think Lambert will settle it? Surely, he loves himself too well, to settle [Page 12]the Nation before he settle himself; and when he will do that, who can tell, since he must ask Monck leave before he can do it. Or if he should settle it, who will secure us that Sir Harry Vane will not trouble it again? I am sure none of his friends in New-England, for they knew him too well, and were glad they were rid of him.

Had I known you would have been at this lock, I would soon have spoiled your troubling of us now.

But now 'tis past your skill and cun­ning, good Sir Harry.

The worse is my luck, and the better yours, Mr. Vice-Admiral. But give me leave, Sir, to tell you, You are not a little ungrateful.

Accuse not me, Sir Harry, are not you so, and does not all the world know that your Father was so before you?

Is it then Resolved upon the Question, Mr. Vice-Admiral?

'Tis without Question, Sir Harry, and that so stedfastly, that I am not to be moved by the most refined of your language.

Well! I have now been a Statesman this twenty years: And I have been the Anak of many Fa­ctions, but I was never so deserted, as now, before: and by a friend Vice-Admiral? Et tu quo (que) Brute.

'Twas time, Sir Harry, to call for assistance from the Sea, when you, like a State-Phaeton, had put the Nation into such a flame.

Come, come, Mr. Scot, you know what be­longs to Government, and you know what a sweet thing [Page 13]it is to be in Authority, and how sowre a thing it is to leave it: and therefore you cannot blame me for en­devouring by all ways to secure my self and interest.

Really, Sir, we have had experience of your diligence, and give you our hearty thanks; and shall justifie the same to the Commissioners, who, no doubt, will not be backward in rewarding your good service.

Well said, Tom Tell­troth. But were not I more concerned than you or they either, ye might go drive Hogs all of ye, for me.

Come, this high-soaring spirit of yours must stoop. You that walk upon the stilts of Ambi­tion, will fall at one time or other: and truly, I think, you had as good fall now as hereafter.

But Mr. Scot, I have done no harm, I hope you will let me keep my small imployment still; though if you will not, I thank my God, I have made so good use of my time, that I can live with­out it.

Truly, Mr. Scot, I came onely to give the Vice-Admiral a visit; therefore, I trust in the Lord, you will not put me out of my Living: Truly, I will preach for you too, when you are in authority.

I care not a pin for any of ye all, so you will let me have talk enough for my life.

I scorn to beg; yet I believe I shall finde a trick to keep my Head upon my shoulders for all this.

If you do, Sir Harry, 'tis more than three parts of four in the Nation desire to see.

The Debate being thus broke off, they returned to Wallingford-House; The fruitlesness of the Journey was arrived at their ears before; so that when they saw Sir Harry, they look'd all as melancholly as Cars. Quoth he. I can do no good. Then Fleetwood turning his face to the wall, lifted up his voice, and wept. Then one stood up, and said, Let us seek the Lord by fast­ing and prayer. But it was rejected, in regard that Fleetwood looked so thin, that if he should fast one day more, his Soul and Body could not hold together. Whereupon they fell to debate their Agreement, which is now in print: But whether they will get such terms as they require, a little time will make known. How­ever, the people take the Parliament for wise men, and therefore they expect that they should so deal with this Hydra, as not to let one head thereof spring up any more, to violate their Priviledges, or the Nations Rights.