THE DEVIL, AND the Parliament: OR, THE PARLIAMENT and the Devil.  
A Contestation between them for the precedency.  
Hold, hold, good Parliament, Pluto thy friend,  
Deserts thee now, 'tis Vain for to contend.  
May. 18 London Printed in the Year, 1648.   

THE DEVIL and the PARLIAMENT, OR, The Parliament and the Devil.  the Devil singing. 

I'll aid not more, for I have done,  
The worst that Hell could think upon.  
Therefore good parliament now begun,  
Or you'll come to perdition.   

For all your legends and your lies;  
Your plots, and your conspiracies,  
Your murders and your cruelties,  
Your errors, and impieties.   

Now topsey turvey, ring the knell,  
Come Parliament with me to hell.  
There thee and I will ever devil;  
Thus Rebels, must I pay you well.   
HO, ho, ho, are you angry Mr. Parliament, because I will not longer assist you, I that created you am forbidden by him that created me to act in you any longer, you know what an helper I have been unto you this seven years, by me you first took up Arms against your gracious King, by me deluded the people with a vain hope of Reformation, when your intentions even from the beginning, were for the ruin of the King, Church and Kingdom, by me you entered into Covenant with Death, & hell by; me you have practised all manner of cruelties and oppression, and by me it was that you were prevalent against your Sovereign; he that threw me down from Heaven for conspiring against him, permitted me to be the Patron, and Protector, of your Rebellion, and by my means it was that you had the impious boldness, to imprison your Sovereign Lord King CHARLES, in the Isle of Wight, by me it was, that you Cashiered your Covenant and so became at enmity with the Scots, but not by me, but the Almighty 'tis, that you are now falling from all your greatness, why should you blame me than, as I deserted you; the world can witness I have served faithfully, and been as true a Devil to your trust as Harry Martin, or the Traitor Say. What ho Belphegor, thou hast ever been a willing friend to fly abroad with any, Messenger, sent by the Parliament to cease upon the persons of all those Wrote for the King, whose Pens did stab Rebellion to the heart, who still are constant to their Principles, and dare call Rebels, Rebels, thou often hast accompanied the State spies, those hounds that hunt the Souls of Royalists such as my faithful, and my dearest sons the Sanguine Lewis, and the pale face Leechman, two Rogues, whose like Slavonia ne er bred; fly thou my pretty Devil, and call hither, my fellow Villain Mr. Parliament.  Belphegor. 
I go Sir.  Devil. 
I mean to call a Parliament in Hell, but I shall not need to hunt about my territories to summon Members, from each corporation, the upper House and lower House at Westminster shall be lawmakers for me, I have found that they in policy, exceed me fare, yea Aeacus Minos and Rhad a man thus, and all his powers of Hell, that are beside.  Belphegor. 
Great Sir, I have performed my Embassy, but Mr. Parliament is so employed, he saith, he cannot see your Divellship.  Devil. 
His cannot is his will not; am I grown fearful to him, are we not still all of one house, one counsel, he cannot stand two days if I forsake him, I hope he I not turn honest now at last, and so deceive my expectation, no Devil, no Parliament, is a sure maxim, or is it so, that he himself deludes and hopes to rule without my suffrage, poor fool thou hast experience that without me, thou canst not frame a Declaration, for to amuse the people's minds, that so while they are all astonished, thou mayst with more facility be wicked; thou canst not plunder any man of his goods because he's faithful to his God, and King, and turn his Wife and Children out a begging, except I go before thee, and prepare thy way, nor canst thou murder a Burleigh, Tomkins or a Challenour, a reverend Bishop, or a glorious Statesman, except I enter and possess thy breast, egging thee on to purchase thine own ruin; thy King had ne'er been made a prisoner, or the slave Hammond been his dogged lailer, but that I sat in counsel with the Agitators, who ruled the roast at Windsor; tell me Belphegor what was his excuse?  Belphegor. 
He told me Sir, that he was very busy in plotting how to keep his head on's sholuders how still to keep his name up with the people which he was almost in despair to do, for that the vulgar, now did he deadly hate him and discovered all his plots, and Stratagems, and ready were each day for to devour him alleging he had forfeited his being. and broke all Laws, both Moral and Divine; he also was raging most furiously, for that by letters he hadgiven to know that all Welshmen were in arms against him conducted by one Butler, Poyer and powel, that Barwick and Corlila, were ceased one, by Sir Marmaduke Langdale, and Sir Thomas Glemham and that his brother jocker had deserted him, and is on his March with thirty thousand men, with an intention for to whip him sound because he hath not kept his Covenant; that all the Kingdoms of the earth were banding, and vowed to work his ruin but he commanded me, for to remember his dear love unto you, which I perceive was only seemingly, for to himself he muttered that his distrust of God and trusting you had been his ruin.  Devil. 
Is he so soon reclaimed, I'll soon altar his temper; What ho Attophilax, thou art the strongest Devil hell affords, hast thou to Westminster, there shall thou find my brother Parliament, with his Committees and his Clerks about him, Hunscot, and Lewis, Leechman, and all the Rogues, together in one knot, tell him I needs must speak with him, and consult about those affairs nearly concern us both, if he refuse to come force him along, thou knowest.  Arotphilaz. 
I fly Sir.  Devil. 
Prithee Belphegor, tell me, thou fliest about the earth on all occasions, what is the news amongst mortals.  Belphegor. 
With swift Vellocity, proper to spirits, and aerial forms, I do intrude into all companies, sometimes I am amongst judges when they sit upon the bench, I hear from them, that are male content, sorry but dare not show it (being overawed by your brother Parliament) while they must sit and pass their doom on man, and hung up those for Traitors love the King, only because Traitors, will have it so, I am sometimes amongst Churchmen, or if you will the Synod, who do confess themselves damned Hypocrites, a Convocation called by Rebels, to back their most usurped temporal swords, with that is spiritual, who cell Religion for four shillings a day; frame Directories, Articles, and Catechisms, to fool the people into new opinions, who have reformed no error, but have broached; more than the Ephesian Counsel, who pulled the Bishops out o'th' ' Saddle, that they might mount on horseback, and have cried down Plurality of Live, that they might get by the hand; I am sometimes amongst the rural swains, who mutter as they thrash, that all is naught and that the slaves at Westminster have undone them, have sheared them nearer than their sheep, yet will not bestow so much tar upon them, as will preserve their buttocks from the flies, I have been—  Artophilax, with Mr. Parliament on his back. Devil. 
O my deate friend, what is the reason now that thee and I are thus estranged, we that have been so mightily familiar and have done no hang without joint consent, who mutually aught to affect each other, and both triumph, as ruiners of Nations, without our amity no mischiefs currant, why art thou now averse.  Mr. Parliament. 
I tell thee brother, I am now aspotent, and can without thee be as devilish, as when thyself wert most my friend, I now am my Craftsmaster, and know how, to be as envious bloody, and barbarous, as thou thyself canst possibly invent, I can outdo thee Lucifer my master, and had not the strong arm of Fate, Crushed me too hard now at my height of fortunes, I had been called Apollyon, and not thee.  Devil. 
How foolishly thou arguest, God or the Devil must have power o'er all men, have I raised thee unto this height of glory, while for the sins of England, God hath suffered me to call thee, as a Parliament, and to thee have I given all my power, taught thee to lie, dissemble, & to cheat a Nation of their Birthright; the known Law, have I persuaded the deluded vulgar, to harken to thy poisonous Rhetoric and to believe thou meanest for to Reform, and building on that weak foundation, to bring their Plate, Coune, and all their treasure, and throw it at thy feet; have I infused contentious spirits into them, which stirred them up to Faction, and Rebellion, that so the father hath destroyed his child, and children hand to hand have slain their fathers, so that the ground hath been watered with Blood, as with rain while thou hast lain at home and ta'en thine ease, fed high to strengthen lust, and filled thy bags brim full with gold, extorted from the wretched blinded people, have I constrained the Blue Capt swads of Scotland, to join with thee in a most bloody League, a Covenant which I myself compiled, and put to it my best invention, who aided thee in all thy base attempts, and have I not more thanks for all my pain, yet do thy worst, I needs must have thy soul that is my own, by contract, and 'twas for that that all this while I aided thee.  Mr. Parliament. 
I do acknowledge thee my only Patron all my Thanksgiving days, for several Victeries, were wholly set apart to sing thy Praises, no Indian ever worshipped thy black Deity, with such obsequious hearty adoration as I have done this seven years; all those days I ordained for humiliation, were kept at such times when thy power forsook me, and that I found thou didst not fight in Person, joining with my partakers against the King, and to conclude all Honours, Victories, all the vast Treasure and the numerous mischiefs, that I got, or have performed this 7 years have been wholly by thee, but now I found thy power is limited, and that the Almighty hath ta'en away thy strength, so that my enemies increase upon me, and all men seek to work my fall from East, from West, the gelid Not, and South, inevitable mischiefs come against me, wherefore I would feign divest myself, and would esteem it a chief happiness, if I could to resign my usurped power, as to scape with my life, and with my money, this I have hope to do; and therefore I have Voted for a King, and that the Government of the English Nation, by King, Lords, and Commons as of old, and could I also but escape thy clurches.  Devil. 
O thou most wretched fool, 'tis as impossible for thee toscape the everliving force of Stygian fire, as it is for me once more to visit heaven and thy body is for dogs, thy soul for hell, God will not longer let the English Nation be slave to thy Command, their ancient Discipline must be restored, and they yet once more happy, each of you take a limb my master's Devils, I'll bear the rest myself ho, ho, ho, answer me Belphegor▪ Artophilax answer him.  Artop; 

Sing aloud English Nation,  
your blessed Reformation;   Bel: 

let all be content:  
Devil, to the Devil is sent:    
FINIS.