A City-Dog in a Saints Doublet.
WIth what Furies the Rebells were first inspired, and with what madnesse the Citizens of London were possessed, when they first mutually covenanted to rebell against their most gracious King, is now obvious to all men, now that the vizor of their darke projections is pluckt off, and the deformity of their intents pointed at by children; so that they can no longer deceive the Kingdome with shadowes, or feed them with painted meat, unlesse they run the hazard, (I meane both Junto and City) the one party to be haled out by the eares, and carted to Tyburne with violence; and the other to have their throats eut, and their houses fired about their eares, they are (temerity, and not loyalty, perswading them thereto) contented, that their Babell be demolished, and the stones and timber thereof swept into the Sea, least the children of Beliall that should fucceed, should imploy them a second time to the defacing of Gods glorious Worship, the nulling of the fundamentall and knowne Lawes of the Land, the overthrow of Monarchicall Government, (the lively representative of the Government amongst the Angells) and to the murthering, impoverishing and ruining of a free, and if not incens'd by Factionists, of themselves, a calme and quiet people, as by lamentable experience hath been verified amongst us of the English Nation for these seven yeares.
The clouds are dispelled, that have so long hover'd betwixt truth and the peoples eys, and they perceive that the great Law-making Court is quite metamorphosed to Polemicall Committees, and to a Councell of War, who seize on their lives and persons at their pleasures, & who no sooner hear that a man is rich, but he is made capable of death for his goods, who are so far from hearing, much lesse redressing the grievances of the people, that one may go from one Tropick to the other, and crosse the Equinoctiall twenty times ere a Petition tending to the peace of the Kingdome, can be taken into consideration; had the rebellious Devills at Westminster, & the deluded Factionists of the City confined the fire of Reformation in the funnell of the chimney, & appointed some to sweep down the foot, there needed not have been that shooting up of Muskets, whereby the whole house is in danger of burning. I confesse the common people will stil be common people, they will somtime or other shew what they are, and vent their instable passions, & I conclude, that men wil be men while there is a world, & as long as the [Page]Moon hath an influxious power to make impressions upon their humors, they wil be ever greedy and covetous of novelties & mutation, I also very wel know, that Kingdomes, States & Cities & all bodies politike are subject to convulsions, to Calentures and Consumptions, as well as the fraile bodies of men, & must have an evacuation for their corrupt humors, & may perhaps be Phlebotomized; but I would not have the embleme of innocence, the decent garment for the Ministery, called the Surplice, the unquestionable Book of Common-Prayer so perfectly agreeable unto the Word of God, and the same in effect which hath been for more then five hundred years in the Church of Christ, which hath been so hated by the severall Popes, & their Conclaves, & have been so esteemed of by the Martyrs, for instance, M. John Hallien fellow of Kings Colledge in Camebridge, who was Martyr'd in Q. Maries daies, Anno. 1557. & being at the stake amongst many other books that were throwne into the fire unto him, it hapned that the Common-Prayer Book fell between his hands, which he joyfully receiving opened it and read till the smoke and flame suffered him not to read any more, & then he fell to Prayers holding his hands up to heaven, and the book between his arms next his heart, thanking God for that mercy in sending him it; I say, I would not have the Surplice so decent, the Common-Prayer Book so holy, & the other indifferent Ceremonies of the Church, be the occasion of rebellious combustions, & blood-shed, to beat Religion into mens brains with a Poleax, is to offer victims of humane blood an acceptable service to Molech, but not to Messias: but as the excellent Tragedian Webster makes Francisco speak in his white Devill
Thus far permit me serious, now I shall come to my Cozens of the City a second time, & perhaps be too much sportive, ye fools & madmen who envied your own quiet, and like some of your lightheeld wives, when conceived of a — even longed for a mutation of your estates, you have been apt to rebell in all ages on all occasions, but your fore-fathers never mutinied on so slender grounds, as you have done, tell me my fine Wittolls, was it not better to have the Government of the Church by Archbishops and Bishops, then to have no Church at all? or at least, managed by those who know not how to write their names, preach printed Sermons, and who edifie none but your wives after bathings & Sack-possits. Was [Page]it not better to have a King to reign over you, whose clemency you had so ample experience of, who denied you no immunities requisite for you to ask, & convenient for him to grant, then to have a house full of Emperors, who sit from morn till night, and stretch their inventions upon the tenters how to bridle and saddle you, & not be kickt, & to screw money out of your purses, & not have you imagine they hoord it up for themselves, who have made you these seven years their Sumpter-horses to bear their coine, their staires on which they have ascended to the top of their hopes, (though now they have falne from top to bottome, so that their backs are broke) their Bawds, for it is well knowne that some of them have entred into your wives Closets, while you have been calling customers into your shops; are you there Mildmay? I meant not you Sir, for I know you hate lac'd mutton more then Martin doth a Curtezan, what need I tell you of M. Rogers his wife, since you so well know her already? my spruce Cits you must know, that Tom Fairfax hath the Gout, which will hinder his ascent unto a throne, & Nol Cromwell the iron Saint hath taken his progresse into the other world; Poyer hath given him his passe, so that if yours and the Juntoes cursed plot to poison his Majesty with a perfum'd suit of cloaths, or to mingle poison in his usual beveridge, had taken its wished effect, a hundred to one, but you had involved your selves in a new war about the Crowne, each thinking himself worthy to be a King.
To conclude, ye Serpentine Cuckolds of the Common-Councel, & ye cuckolly Serpents of the City, now after all your Rebellions, Treasons & Impietie, after you have sold your selves to do mischief, abused God, King, Kingdome & your selves, bought & paid for your — Treacheries at the price of manie millions, used all waies & means to take away Kingly Government, to kill your King & disinherit his posteritie, to set up a crew of Rebells and mechanicall Traytors in the manner of a State, who suck the heart bloods of the people, and esteem it their chief glorie to be cruell, impious and irreligious, after you have permitted the blood-hounds at Westminster, yea and backt them while they have murthered, Imprisoned and plundered all his Majesties loyall Servants and friends, I say after all this now that you see your Dagon State must fall before the Ark of the Lord his Anointed one, our dread Soveraigne Lord King Charles, now you are contented (since you can neither will nor chuse) that his Majesty be admitted to London with honour, freedome, and safetie. O you Dogs in Saints Doublets, now you are verie tender of his Majesties Person, and are verie scrupulous least his Prerogative be abridged: Curse upon you, do you imagine the Kings heart so flexible, that Iustice will permit him ere to look upon you with a gracious eye?