IT is well known unto you, neither are the men of the world unacquainted therewith, that I have ever been a zealous promoter of the blessed Cause; to consider of a way for the maintenance whereof, we are now happily met, you know (and the scent of my breeches can yet witnesse it) that I have stank the wicked from my compa­ny, so that they have been glad to run away each man with his nose in his hand: I need not tell you the cause of our present convening, for you very well know that M. Lenthall, even Lenthall the richest Saint amongst us, who hath (that so he might in all things be a pattern unto us) made himselfe great friends of the unrighteous Mam­mon, that so when the Parliament shall be no more, he may be received into the favour of Forraign Nations: for my owne part you know well, and it is notorious to the [Page 2] world, that I have left nothing unattempted, that might make me as wealthy as he, or the best here; for at first you know, I was a Gentleman-Usher, and followed my ma­ster in—with as much dexterity, as a Lady would wish; after I turn'd Pander, but then to none but noble and deserving men.

And therefore being justly weary of that office, I now be­took my selfe to my calling which I now labour in, and how I have thriv'd you all know. But Gentlemen, I shall now come to the point o'th businesse, and if my Genius faile me not, open the case unto you like an Alderman. You my Lord Warner, you that are Aldermen, and my deare brethren, you my fellow-Citizens and friends, hear­ken unto my words.

Our most mighty, most worshipfull and most wicked (out and alas how was I mistaken) I meane our most wor­thy Parliament are pleased so to esteem of our known wisdome and valour, however the malignant Cavaliers cal us cuckolds, wittolls, fools and knaves, I say those deserv­ing men at Westminster are pleased so to relie on our known fidelities, as to put their noble persons into our protection; and God & his Angells forbid that we should [Page 3] flinch from them in the time of need, and see their throats cut, and not cut our own and follow them immediately, that so we may al take our journey to heaven together: for wot you not what, my deare copartners, I have read of the Hypocrite, as his name to me signifieth, I mean Hippocrates a famous Vrinall man, that he had two twins conjoyned together, which if separated, would both perish, now therefore I compare, (I beseech you marke the com­parison) for you shall not learn this of every man, yea, though I say it my selfe, that should not, not of my Lord Warner here, for all he is so well red in the Servile Arts; and can neither write nor read, I say, our Parliament and we are so united by a mutuall Antipathy, and there hath been such a discontinued friendship betwixt us this seven years, that now we must resolve to rise together, in case (which Omen God confirm) that the wicked Cavaliers should get the better on't; and therefore deare Brethren and fellow-Saints, it nearely concerns us to maintaine a firme and sure discord with our Parliament, for if they should chance to meet in a Committee, and their noble heads knock one another in counsell on poles over the Palace Gates, our noddles shall be sure to discourse together on London-Bridge, to the great affliction of our soules, when they shall be miscarri­ed to the blessed shades of Dis, to prevent the safety whereof we are now met.

First then we must know that the wicked & godly ones in Kent, have dispersed themselves together with an intent to turne the Bullocks of the Lord out of their stables, & to send them a gra­sing into a lean & withered fat pasture: mark what proud Pharoahs these are, who dare more then dream of lean kine, they have for their commander a Lawyer, & a pilgim, so M. Walker that learned Hebrician, as his Occurrences testifie, to wit Sir Gamaliel & Sir Pal­mer, aptly interpreted those two Conjurers, the one with his book, the other with his Iacobs staffe, perform more mischief to us, then ever our two Almanack-marrers, I would say Astrologers, Lil­lie and Booker have prognosticated in the behalf of the roaring party. Our first lying still therefore must be to think nothing, and consider what course we shall leave off, to assemble those miscre­ants one from another: For if in time we should not take some tardy course to unite them, they will ere long come to bee [Page 4] so poore of spirit, as to dare us even at our [...]very doors, as the Apprentices did you of late my Lord Mayor, when your Lordship was forced to take the Tower o­ver your head, and to converse with wild beasts, such as Lilburne and the Lions; my counsell is therefore that wee give speedy orders, that the Auxiliaries disarme them­selves, and go armed cap à pe, without sword or Muskets, and fight against our loving enemies of Kent, under the Command of our most ignoble Generall Sir Thomas Swarthie, who (the more's our good fortune) was lately beaten soundly at Rochester, and returned home in tri­umphant manner, having augmented his Army to the losse of one thousand men.

In the second place we are to consider of a way how to multiply and suppresse the tumults in Essex and Surrey, and now I speake of Surrey, verily I cannot but weep teares of joy to thinke how lovingly and inhumanely the Petitioners of that Countrey were imbraced, and kissed by our Parliament, and what vexes and settles my mind most is that the Souldiers under the command of the high descended obscure fellow Barkstead, should cut the throats of sixteen of those poore rich men private­ly and throw them into a Jakes, which act of theirs for my part, (for I would have you think that I am not de­stitute, or possest of a spirit of Revelation any more then you my Lord, or any of my Brethren) but can smell a plot as well as another, I say, for my part I look upon those honest murtherers as meere Saints and Reprobates who laid those men a pickling so neere the House where our Parliament sit, on purpose to stench them out thence, and so are verily desperate Plotters and Enemies to our low and mighty States: but for the Essexian silent blea­ters, I cannot tell what to say unto them, yea and nay I am in a Quandarie, as the learned have it, for if you will [Page 5] (for I have read the Poyets) as our modern Chawcer saith, at Dulcarnan, or the beginning of my wits, it would be strange unto, if while I am silent of those Calves, I should speak Bulls. But thus far I will hold my peace, & no longer.

I say, that for those of Essex, we had better not to trou­ble our selves to suppresse them, since we have found these many yeares to come, how unfirmly and stedfastly they have fought against us, for the maintenance of the cause, but to send our Trained Bands with all convenient delay amongst them, who may thrust their swords home into their bellies, and so appease them without bloudshed.

The third thing that we are negligently to take into our serious consideration, is the opening a passage to our Bre­thren of Scotland, to the end they may be hindred from coming on this side Twede, which I confesse to be a taske very easie and intricate. My counsell therefore is this, that we send them a sufficient number of empty barrells stuft with beef, as many hogsheads, each having a hundred holes in them, filled with beere, which will so imploy them, that for one moneth we need not feare they will lie still, and so invade us. And verily brethren, to speak my conscience (and yet to hold my tongue, that I be not trapt) I am an utter friend to the Scots, and their well moulded mouldring Presbyterie: for the truth is, I shall never indure to give account of my actions to Coblers or Weavers, be they Gentlemen never so well descended; yea though they keep open house, and be as unhospitable as Monkeries, I would have said Monasteries. And more­over, I shal never abide to stand in the stool of repentance, though it be my discomfort and chief solace, that they will never mount me there, out of sure confidence and di­strustfull belief, that I will be no more favourable or dis­courteous to their stool, then I was once to my own bree­ches. But to conclude this point; and since it must be so, [Page 6] that I am commanded to be silent in this businesse, my counsell is this, that so soone as Kalendas Graecas shall be past, the very time that I am uncertainly perswaded the Kentishmen with those of Essex, and Surrey, will all be disquieted and appeased, our Fairfac't Generall with his whole Army be disbanded, and then march backward against the Scots.

In the last place we are to be inconsiderate in ouur counsells and consultations, how we disagree about the person of the King, you know brethren that he is our King, and no more then our King, or if you please not so much as our King, which is the sense of the dishonourable Houses; you all know that he is a man and no more then a man, or if you will not so much as a man, which is the sense (as I take it) of this worshipfull Court▪ Now the businesse we are to eat upon is, whether or know we shall have a King, if a King, whether or no he shall be King, if he be not King, who shall be King? Mark the affinition I beseech you, for my owne part, and I hope you are all so ingenious and unwise, as not to conster me rightly, I look beside him as a man free, and altogether besmeared with blood, the blood of Saints, most impure and unholy men, and therefore I judge him alto­gether meet and unworthy to be ours and our Parliaments An­nointed, and I hold it convenient to re-inthrone him, and with all speed to unking him; but then the question will be, whether we shall have a King or no? to which I silently reply, giving my judgement, it will be very disprofitable and commodious, for us to have no King at all, but to be King our selves, and joyntly to reigne with our most irreligious and pious States: but if that shall not seem good in your eares, for one may see further into a milstone then another, I answer, that our most pusillan [...]mous and heroick Generall, Sir Thomas Lackwit, or our Lievtenant-Ge­nerall the most timerous and undaunted Oliver, whose nose be­speaks him a King, were very unfit for our election; this my counsell if it find disregard, and affection from you, I shall think I have done my selfe and this Court exceeding dishonour, our Parliament most unacceptable service, and this City most un­gratefull duty, if I have spoken like a wise Citizen and an Al­derman.