BRADSHAW'S GHOST: BEING A DIALOGUE Between the said GHOST, AND AN APPARITION OF THE LATE KING CHARLES.  
Wherein are laid down several Transactions that did occur in the many Passages of his life, never known before.  Patent atri Janua Ditis. 
Printed in the Year, 1659.   

Bradshaw's Ghost.  
AFter the fleeting current of many trancient years, Truth, the daughter of Time, began to show herself, and by making new discoveries of old passages, so pulled off that visor of hypocrisy, which had too long been worn, that one might discover the true physiognomy, and as it were digito monstrare, point out with the finger, the ass ennobled with the lion's skin; for, the Republican state-holders' had no sooner got into the Saddle, but they began to ride in a full career: the old Proverb in them was truly verified, Set a Beggar on Horseback, and he will ride to the devil; and so might they, if they had not been stopped; for, that State-monster, Bradshaw, for the better modelling of what was yet but in Embrio into a form, was mounted on the wings of ambitious malice, and put into an office of the greatest trust and profit in the Nation: But if (according to the vulgar opinion) Agues be spirits, then was Bradshaw possessed, and the devil being entered, he was now fit for what might in any manner be put upon him; and here, for a while, he lords it, till his mongrel Masters now tottering in t●e Saddle, were by the Soldiery, those Sons of Valour, quite dismounted, and consequently returned to their first original, which was to be Terrae filii.  
This purgation wrought so strongly, that White-Hall began to smell; for the Members defiled themselves so, that in every corner you would have sworn had been Atkins: But Bradshaw being exceeding costive, the devil owing him a shame, and now intending to pay it him home, the physic wrought not, but lay grumbling in the gizzard, till what with that, and the strength of conceit, he turned up his heels, and like a Jade, yielded the Crow a pudding.  
Long had not these two companions the Soul and Body been parted, ere his Ghost began to appear, and pacing up and down the dismal shades of the more frightful night, so terrifying the guilty consciences of his late Associates, was at last encountered, to its own terror, by the Apparition of the late K. Charles, which upon the sudden meeting thus accosted him.  Ch. 
And what art thou (bold fiend) that thus darest trouble these forbidden lodgings, forbidden (I say) to the steps of such too curious, and more bold than welcome Guests: speak, speak, I say, whence art thou?  Br. 
I am (quoth it) the Ghost of Bradshaw, now condemned with unwearied walking, to trace this loathed place, to get a part, wherein was once my ambition, though now too dearly & too late repented.  Ch. 
But tell me (fiend) what was the cause, in life, of your inveterate hate against me?  Br. 
To speak the truth, I hated not your person, but your state, and that your lofty eye did never cast a glance upon my shrub-like growth, I setting a value on myself, and supposing you ought with Alexander to have given honour, such as befitted a Prince's gift, though by me wholly undeserved.  Ch. 
Was that the cause indeed? know you not that Providence guides the hand of blind Fortune, and though we would, we cannot give beyond our alotment? but surely, there were other motives that induced you to after actings, when you and your Complices first drew the Sword, you threw away the scaherd: such crimes as yours as great in this attempt, so still must be carried on by acting greater; for, but to slack the hand, is as it were to lose the day: but pray reveal the progress of those furious acts, which in a maze have put the world, and by their various changes almost reduced all into a Chaos?  Br. 
When first the sound of War was noised abroad, it was considered by what means to steal the hearts of the People, no cloak was thought so fitting as that of Religion; nor any bait so apt to be caught at, as that of liberty: whereupon an alteration in the one, and a breach upon the other was proclaimed: we did trace Jeroboam in the like case; the meanest of the People we extolled and applauded, whose ignorance of what they would have, increased their fury: 'twas therefore closely insinuated, that some great ones must be removed, else the Work would meet with many dangerous oppositions, I need not relate the course was taken for perfecting the design; who were engaged, who discarded, who checked, who countenanced: Reformation was pretended by all, intended by few, for it is more than probable, that the Sword is an ill instrument for such a work: but the work was begun, and it must be done; yet I verily suppose, much of the evils that have happened, might have been prevented, if you had notbeen so pitiful.  Ch. 
Truly I repent me not however of it, although long before my death, I was told by a great man in my kingdom, when I had with pity dismissed some active persons against me, which I was advised to try by a council of War; well (said he) you may gain the kingdom of Heaven by these doings; but if ever you get the kingdom of England, I never saw the like: how true I have found these words, I am sure you, and all the world know.  Br. 
That was it I was coming to; for had you kept the rain of government in your hands with some strictness, no one had dared to supervise you: or, if after the War begun, you had driven Jehu-like, you might like him, even but drawing a bow at a venture, have smitten your enemies in the joints of their harness, and yourself still have sat regnant in the Chariot.  Ch. 
But upon what account did you enter the stage, and how at last did you arrive at that height of impudence, that you, of a whole reduced people, durst undertake to sit as my judge? upon what principles did thy seared conscience lay her foundation? or with what peace did it ever think to enjoy any thing so injuriously, and without all right gotten?  Br. 
When now the Cause began to thrive, and things did succeed, even beyond expectation, Felix & prosperum nefas virtus vocatur: all Opposers becoming now Delinquents, and their sequestered Estates without control filling the new-made Treasuries, I struck in for something, and by application to some of the Grandees of the then leading faction, insinuated myself, as a Pleader at the bars of their licentious Committees, wherein I soon became a great Proficient, for I argued down learning, and endeavoured to subvert even the very foundation thereof, the universities: whereby, and such other the like practices, I was now thought a fitting ground for any impression; hereupon I became acquainted with many Leaders, and in particular, with that sink of sin and forge of Satan, Nich: Machiavel's elder brother in their heathenish Policies, old Noll, him we looked upon as Soloriens, and all his actions as fitting Precepts for a State to be ruled by: this man hammering in his head how to bring that to pass, which he so egregiously afterward effected, by a counterfeit of zeal gained an opinion of godly; and under that notion his intended villainies passed the vote without any serious examination. How he did court you into a trap, yourself I believe is too sensible; and because he could not himself, he undermined your most intimate friends to betray you: what force could at that time have manacled you, if you had not run into Caresbrook Goal; and there too he was like to have been outwitted, for had you in that personal Treaty granted at first what you conceded and yielded to at last, you had taken Time by the forelock, and in all probability had still been King; but, Post est occasio calva: which he knowing, and not willing to hazard his design any more, gets you into his clutches.  Ch. 
But was it his intention at that time to use me as he did afterwards?  Br. 
Yes truly was it, for then was the High Court of Justice a framing, and myself at last after much debating, chosen President thereof.  Ch. 
But how did you think to look me your King in the face? with what spirit were you possessed? or what inducements had you to move you thereto?  Br. 
I knew an act of that height must be carried on with that undaunted courage, and when my sentence was past, and you laid aside, I knew honour and wealth would both attend me.  Ch. 
But what should you have done, if I had pleaded as you urged me?  
Why the thing had been still the same; Cromwell himself said, there was a fatal necessity, that either You or He must die. Nec Caesar superiorem nec Pompeius pacem: he joined both humours in his own person, for he could brook neither superior nor equal. All things now thus fitted, and resolved on, I endeavoured to still my conscience into a belief of the legality of my fact, and to that purpose I did light on a passage that pleased me, and the more for that it was out of our own Chronicles; the passage was this: In a Parliament time there was a certain head of Wax made by Negromancy (as it was reported) which head at an hour appointed to speak, uttered these words following, at three times, and then ceased to speak any more: the words are these. First, The Head shall be cut off. 2. The Head shall be lift up aloft. And, 3. The feet shall be lift up aloft above the Head. This happened in the time of that Parliament that was called, The merciless Parliament, not long before that which was called, The Parliament that wrought wonders. By this thing was my wickedness heightened, and I so confirmed in my audaciousness, that I counted it a small matter to imbrue my hands in the sacred blood of my King. After that fatal business, I began to lord it over my brethren, and forgot the turf from whence I sprang: thus continuing for some time, at last I was arrested by conscience, sera venit sed certa venit vindicta. Oh the terrors of a guilty conscience! how oft, in ghastly visions have my thoughts presented before me your headless person, whose springs of blood have threatened an innundation both to my soul and body? then have I weighed the calm though provoked Majesty that sat on your brow, scorning fear, and disdaining the terrors of an enforced death, rather than make a breach o●those principles, wherein God and Nature had tutore you, than is my soul torn in pieces with amazement and feels in itself the everlasting torments of a reprobated soul, and to add to my griefs, and heap up the measure of my woes, I was cashiered out of employments, and by him, for whom I had ventured so much, and even hazarded that soul which was once purchased at a dearer rate.  Ch. 
Why? were you turned out of office? what might be the reason, and who the person or persons that so either disaffected or feared you?  Br. 
Even the same that I formerly spoke of Cromwell and his crew of bloodsuckers, for afterwards when his devilish ambition aspired to grasp the sceptre into his single hand, and I was consulted with, how the same might with most applause be brought about, I declared, and told him freely, that if he had such a thought to usurp the government, he and (by his means we) had committed the most horrid Treason that ever was heard of, to which he answered, his resolution was fixed and he would go through what ever happened, and so he did; for shortly after he thrust out of doors those Quacksalvers of State, which for 14 years before had sat and hatched nothing but mischief, and from henceforwards I was discarded, and he played absolutely Rex; and now began a grand dispute between Liberty and Tyranny (almost as hot as in your time) for they are incompatible and cannot meet together, or if they do, they last not; every one seeks his own perfection, which depending upon the destruction of another, they seek it there. It seems strange to the People that they should be free, and yet serve, but is more strange ●o the Tyrant that he should be chief Lord and not ●ommand, for whilst by violence Liberty is taken away it enforceth withal a violent Government; for to ●ive quietly, it behooves either to be totally free or totally tied to servitude. Now Noll, according to old Nick's rule of ingratitude, having pulled down the steps by which he rose, was at first followed by many, because he conferred on them authority, but before his end he was hated by them, because he incesed them by bereaving them of it; he would not endure the Parliament which himself called, and because they took him as a Companion, whom they accepted as their Prince, he would make them slaves, whom he took for assistant Officers: thus they grew into factions, till at last, after one of his Daughters had died frantic and another lived Pockified, himself in a furious storm and tempest of wind was hurried away, whether to Heaven or to Hell I will not judge, though probably the latter place was best deserved.  Ch. 
'Tis an approved rule among moral men, Turpe est doctori cum culpa redarguit ipsum, my reign was thought bad, though like Solomons it abounded in gold and goodness, but my Successors little finger was heavier than my loins, Coldius accusat gracchoes, catilina Cethegum, I was accused for evil councillors; but these like Catiline made a conjuration against the commonwealth, and caroused to its confusion in boles of blood, O Tempora! O Mores! but what succeeded after him?  Br. 
The people yet contriving in their frenzy, set up an Idol after their own imagination: The people gave their earrings, & ecce evenit vitatus iste. Squire Dick mounts the Stage, but like a young player daunted with that he was not accustomed, he forgets his part, and so after a little pause, and a turn or two, with a general hiss, exit, leaving his stink behind him.  Ch. 
Why? was He forced to relinquish his ill gotten rule, and to retain to a private life?  Br. 
Yea verily, and a good shift too, he had Hobson's choice, so or nothing: and after him returns the many headed Hydra endeavouring with the bear to lick themselves into a model, and to that purpose, enter Hieronimo, with the good Old Cause, like the man in the Moon with a bundle of bushes at his back.  Ch. 
The Good Old Cause, what was that? bid those Phaeton-like drivers return to the first principles they had before their rebellion.  Br. 
Alas! no such matter, but now as they formerly Martyred you, now they were to drive out another; and here I became useful again, now I was looked upon, saluted, exalted, and Offices bestowed upon me; once more I made my self cocksure: but see how fickle is our fortune, and how vain are our hopes, even in the height of our rising, we were suddenly overthrown, and all our greatness vanished into air. And as to the thing called the Good Old Cause, it is no other than the Quarrel at first begun with you, and now newnamed, nicknamed, or indeed rather rebaptised, but it was not long reverenced either for its age, or goodness, but like an old almanac laid aside as useless, and this was it that broke my heart, the air of a commonwealth, with the profit arising thereby, might have lengthened my life, but to see Mars triumphant, and yet ourselves cashiered, would it not even vex a Saint? I took pleasure in nothing, not in Deans and Chapters Lands, though enriched by them, nor in my high-builded nest, whereby I trample on Churches, for, for the Cause, the Good Old Cause; my heart did bleed: and what with that, the loss of my employments, and the certainty of never enjoying the like again, made me like Achitophel retire and die, and oh that now I might find that so much controverted Purgatory, but ah ex inferno nulla est redemptio, I had not ever grace enough to repent, and therefore now must my Ghost wander restless up and down, for in hell I find no company; the fact that I did was so unparalleled, that it is with me as the Preacher said once it was with the Jesuits, there was a little Hell prepared for them on purpose; lest they should breed confusion among all the rest: so I find there is not only a little Hell, but peculiar torments, for such heaven-daring regicides, for Pluto himself is afraid to be condemned and unthroned, if I might be admitted at large in Hell.  Ch. 
Then stay thou there (foul fiend) & when men see A time to murder Kings they'll send for thee.  
The End.