PArdon, ye Rebels of either house, I aske you forgivenesse, ere I cut your throats, doe you not wonder at it, ile tell you I intend to hang you in effi­gie, till the wisht for time arrive, that the substance supply the shad­dow, and esteeming it no disparage­ment to my function, to bee your executioner, I observe the heads-mans custome for forme sake, and superficially crave your remission:

You had a plot upon the Poppets that should have ador­ned S^t. James his faire, but it took not, for the tap-houses were erected, the mutton-mongers resorted, the Curtezans were jumbled, the good fellowes tipled, and the Oxe was roasted, cum privilegio, tis faire time with you all the yeer long, and therefore no marvell if you envy all others profits, but I hope you will permit your associates of the beloved City to make their mercats this next Bartholmew Faire, you know the matter is between you and them, as betweene the letcher and his whore, what he put in at the mouth goes out at the — so what they gaine by their trades inrich­eth your purses, I have a strong faith that you will shut up shop [...] Westminster for one day, and having laid aside the grand affaires of cheating, and murthering the people spend some certaine houres in recreation, I am of the opinion, that it will much solace your tired spirits, whet your wits to invent strange and unheard of stratagems, and quicken your greedy desire of rule, I am confident you will come, and in certaine assurance thereof have provided you, a Piggs head, and a Poppet-play, heark in your ears.

'Tis a Pig of one of these sowes, into whom your patron Pluto got, when he hurried a whole heard violently into the sea, it shall be roasted before the hot fire of Ambition, tur­ned about by the Scismatick Sedition, basted by the Patri­arck Hypocrisie, the sawce shall be prepared by the fat cook Sacriledge, it shall be usherd by the grave verger Policy, and serv'd up by a penitent Skelleton, called, Too late to Re­pent, after you have sufficiently eaten to your content, I have devized a Poppet play, tis thus:

The Sceane is England, the Actors are all Parliament-men, you may know them by their robes, and the fearfull characters written in their faces, they are attended by whole troopes of Committee-Cannibals, Excise-men, Messengers or, Pettifoggers, Rogues, and R [...]scals, their [...] will be [Page 4]to work upon the giddy spirits of the people, and to inveigh their floating braines, that the present Government, burthen­some Aristocraticall cruell and tyrannous, they will under­hand deale with them by their agents earnestly to petition, that failing to threaten the ruine of their King and his po­sterity, unlesse he presently yeeld his assent, for the satisfa­ction of their desires, the King beholding the evils of their intents, for the preservation of his own, his Queen, and chil­drens lives, leaves his chief Metropolis, and betakes himself to a place of safety, his Parliament inwardly glad at his de­parture, petition the people to petition them that the Go­vernment of the Church be alter'd that a most incompara­ble Statesman, and a most unworthy pillar of the Church be put to death, which is performed, the one prophesieth, and the other preacheth at the scaffold, or place of execution, this bloody businesse over, they proceed to take away the fundamentall lawes of the land, Root and branch, their King perceiving their treacheries, declareth against them, dubbing them with the due epithites of Rebels and Traytors, the people deluded by their pretences, crie up their cause as the cause of Gods, Armies are by them immodiately levied, a cuckoldly Lord chosen for their General, and all the land turned into a confusion, their pious Prince (constrained thereto for his own safety) raiseth forces to oppose them, the chief gentry of the land side with them, he fights with the Rebels for the space of seven yeares, (to the exceeding decay of his people, and to his great grief of Soule) yet at last might [according to the proverb] overcomes right, he is totally subdued, and forced to flie for shelter amongst his owne Countreymen, they unworthily desert him, and return him into his enemies hand for money, they clap him up close prisoner, and like base villaines, make a mock at his misery, he is beaten and receiveth a black eye, of his jailor, a slave, (whom ere this play conclude) I present unto you [Page 5]torne to pieces by dogs, in the meane time the earth is made drunke with the blood of Innocents prodigally shed by command of the Rebels, all order and discipline is taken away, the ministers of God are murthered and silenced, and mechanick Scums, viz. Tailers, weavers, and mopmakers, take upon them the sacred function of the ministery, and in­fect the people, with nonsense, blasphemy, and Treason, while the Rebels squeeze out the hearts bloods of the poore Communality, by taxations, excise, contributions, loanes, plunders, and free-quarter, and fatten themselves inmischief wallowing in all excesse of riot, impoverishing the nation, and cramming their own bags till they strut againe, and in hope to take away Monarchicall Government, and to make themselves [...] State, they vote they will settle the kingdome without their King, neither make any addresses to him, or receive any message from him, the people perceiving into what a bondage they are brought become as zealous haters as before they were lovers of the Rebels, they begin to cogi­tate the happy dayes they enjoyed under the [...]r most gracious King, and curse themselves that ere they rebelled against him, resolving to pull downe these tyrants, whom they had advanced, and [if it be possible] to recover their King, lost lawes and liberties, they generally rise, threatning ven­geance against their bloody oppressors, who to deferre their punishment, vote that they will treat with their King, the people see it, and laugh at their gullery, and perfidious hy­pocrisie, they fetch their King to London, with all honour and due respects, ceaze on the Rebels, and clap them in the dungeon, restore their King to his rights, and surrender them to the gallowes, this is the plot of the play I intend to pre­sent you with, the Poppets are set on screwes, and have their motion by a crabbed fellow, called, the Crittick observer, they are presented by Fame, and their severall morions ex­plained by truth.

I am not without hopes, but Tom Fairfax will make a shift to halt to this Faire, to make merry with your memberships, I have provi­ded the trayterous foole a rattle, which I will thus bestow upon him.

Nor are the Synodicall simplicians (I hope so Stoicall, but they will be pleased also, to accompany your grand Re­belships in this invitation, come be not nice, wee know, yee hypocrites, that you have fat whores, as well as larded benefices, and prefer your God belly, before the Almighty Iehovah, you knew well enough that the outing of the Bi­shops from their Sees, would prove your entrance into wealthy livings, while those who formerly injoyed them, whose learning and Loyalty pronounceth them worthy of honours and profits, wander about the kingdome like for­lorne wretches, languish in prison or beg their dayly bread of men, I have a thing within me, whispers you will come, against which time, I have provided you halfe a bushell of such Nuts as these to crack:

The first will prove a terror to your teeth, tis this, whether or no th [...]r [...]wout the whole Booke of God, there be any warrant, any one president or colourable example, that a Subject [without the hazard of Soule] may rise in actuall Rebellion against his [Page 7]Soveraigne, upon any pretence, or for the attaining of any end [tend it nere so much to the glory of God, and his Countries welfare [and whether the Rebels at Westminster, who have pretended both yet have performed neither, are not lyable, there­fore to punishment here, and hereafter?

Whether your selves ought to be censured even to agravation, for convening your selves together in opposition to the Bishops Government, yea, whether you ought not to haue your ears naild for perjury, in that you have, [contrary to your oathes taken at the time of your commencement, and when you received Or­ders] beene the principall authors of the Bishops ejectment, and the stirrers up of the people against the Book of Cōmon-Prayer, with the decent rites, and necessary Ceremonies of the Church?

Thirdly, Whether hee that feares not God, can honour the King, (I meane knowingly, and as a Christian ought) and whe­ther hee that honours the King [in order aforesaid] can be o­ther thou a fearer of God.

But (for that I know) the black Saints of the Army are not at leasure to leave Colchester as yet, I shall not expect their company at the Faire, but as a tender of my love, I send them this Ballad, which I would have them sing, to the tune of a Song, J writ some yeares since called, I would if I could.

My tame wittols of the City, I am certainly assured to have store of you at this Faire, with your Faire wives in your wooden houses, and for you, for that I find now that you begin somewhat to bee reformed cleane contrary to the intents of your Reformers, after you have wearied your selves in iniquity you are now sat down to count your gains & find you have accrewed nothing but iron in your wounds and gunpowder in your nostrils, having exchanged your li­berty for slavery, your King for Tyrants, your God for Be­sial, and your honour for shame, I say since I see you have now found your error, and resolve no longer to be ridden & exhausted, I shall bestow upon you these pair of knives.

They are exceedingly well temper'd and of an exquisite forme, fashioned by a most accomplisht Artist, call'd, Self Preservation, with one of them I should have you to cut holes in the skins of those desperate and bloody Sectaries of the Army, as also of those under the conduct of the Trea­cherous Saint Skippon, all whom are ingaged by oath to rob and plunder you, in case you shall not joyn with them in their damnable intents, for the deposing the King, for extir­pating the Nobility, for the setting up of a boundles Inde­pendency, & for the attaining a parrity without nomination.

With the other I would have you to salute the Rebels of the lower House, as Ioab did Abner, and to be of the same mind that Ireton once was of [when the Army and you were at difference] to purge and purge, and never leave purging the Houses, till you quite roote out all the Regecides, and bloody destroyers there.