Look to it London, Threatened to be fired by Wilde-fire-zeal, Schismatical-faction, & Militant-mammon.  
Discovered July 15. 1648. in a Discourse with one Croply and Hide, by one John Dias, one of Captain Whaleys Regiment: Extant in a printed Schedule, here verbatim Inserted and Commented.  
The Preface to the Premonition.  
AT my first approach to this City out of the Country, I was saluted with this which Dias hath vented against the King, Kingdom and City; which perusing, I was in a great suspense, and my thoughts cast in dubious scales what to think of it: Charity that is candid, and not rashly credulous, caused me to conceit that it was but some mere fiction or chimaera, invented like many idle Pamphlets, coined news, feigned Passages and Declarations, like beggar's passports made under a hedge, and as the Piae frauds, the lying legends of Monks and Friars, divulged by our vulgar Mercuries, to squeeze moneys from the gulled credulities of Plebeians: withal, when I heard that some Catilinarians, Church and State-firebrands, did employ their Agents, as the devils working-tools, to coin and mint out of Pluto's forge lewd and loud lies, scandals and satirical invectives, only to sow the seeds of division, and cast their Atae's brands and balls betwixt King and Parliament, camp and city, to render them still in a further distance, I conjectured this pay-squib to be of that nature: so giving no more credit to it then to Aesop's Fables, or a Canterbury tale, I slighted it  
But two days after discoursing with one, what he thought of the truth of it, he gave this hint, that one accidentally meeting with the Copy, printed and published it; and that there came two men, [which in probability were Croply and Hide, the subscribers to it] who were very inquisitive after the said Publisher, being in some passion that it was divulged without their consent; adding withal, that he need not to have printed it in corners, nor to have vented it in huggermugger; since all the passages in it were true, as they would confirm by their oaths: This passage gave me some light into the reality of it, and was some inducement unto me, to think it was not altogether fabulous. Yet, notwithstanding all this, my charity was of so large a size, that I thought it was but one Doctor Dulmen opinion, the Ignis Fatuus, or Brutum Fulmen of one Bragadochian soldier; the fools bolt soon shot, of one John Dias, whose tongue ran wrong Bias. Hence I thought it as unworthy of my genius to answer it, as for an Eagle to stoop to a Fly, or an Elephant to a Mouse: but besides the urge and solicit of some judicious friends, who spurred me on to give some critical observations of the fiery and factious passages in this spleenitive and zeal-drunk discourse: hoping the best, that the most and the best in the Army had neither head, hand, nor heart in these destructive Menaces sprinkled now in Print: yet fearing the worst, that this Di-ass in presenti, had some birds in the Army of his own bloody feather, who sung his notes; (in which I was the more grounded by paralleling the particulars here with some things in this nature which 〈◊〉 Martialists vented even to myself not many 〈…〉 As also knowing that oft a man may know by the Market-folk how the Market rules; and that the nature of many wolves may be seen in one: since also abundans cautela non nocet, abundant circumspection never did hurt; no more than preventing physic against a feared disease: I thought good by a warning piece with powder, ere the threatened bullet be felt, or the match, fire and salt-peter unsavorily finelt, to awaken secure Troynovant to a cautelous watching of their own Sinon's within them, confederate with armed Greeks without, ere the flames be kindled in their houses, which here break as a sulphureous Aetna out of the mouth of this monsieur Malignant, whose tongue, fired by Hell, is a world of wickedness. Hereupon, ex tempore, as the Printer can depose, without any other book or manuscript then a naked room, in a declarative descant on this plain and vain song, I porcupined my pen to run at Tilt with this Junior Donquixot, this City-firing orlando furioso, acting the parts here on a paper-stage of an Hercules surens, and mad Ajax, or at least of Sir Henry Hotspur, and Sir Ferdinando Flash, who here vents his mind with his wind: which windy bladder I thus pen-prick in this subsequent synopsis, and survey of every black and bloody word in his mouths shop, from the warehouse of his Canniballized heart.  
First, he declared, The Resolution of the Army was to fight for themselves.  
[The Resolution.] It's an excellent spirit to be resolute in a good cause: as Daniel resolved not to pollute himself with the King's meat; Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, not to bow to the King's image, more than some ex moliori luto; that would not so much as bow to an English Baal, an Altar. So Luther is resolute to go to Worms, if every tile on their houses were a devil; though he should suffer as much as Jerom of Prague and John Huss at the inconstant Counsel at Constance. But to be resolute in a bad cause, like some Popish Pseudomartyrs, and the French Byron, whose great spirit would not submit to the mercy of the French King, no more than Cato of Utica to Caesar's pardon; or Cleopatra to grace Augustus his triumph: this savours either of swollen pride, or perverse self-will, or main folly, and childish simplicity to hold a candle in the hand till it burn the singers; or a hardy wasp till she sting.  
[To fight for themselves:] In which though many acute and nasuted Critics are not deceived, thinking no better of it at the first than Noah of his son, nec de eo melius speravi; yet many that did conside more in them, that they had fought like second Joshuahs', and gideon's, and david's, and Jonathans', the Lords battles, and not their own, at least like the best Paganish Patriots, pro aris & focis, for Religion and the peace and safety of the Kingdom, reading now that all their streams run homeward for themselves and their own ends, they cry quant â de spe, de re decidi, we are souly deceived in them: if it be true (as perhaps it is not) which this soul mouth blatters, but I hope they do not, dare verba (et verbera,) feed us as fools and children with fair words, and delude us as Zeuxis deluded hungry birds with painted grapes; or as Faustus and Apollonius their guests with painted dishes: if it proves thus, all is not gold that glisters: and in men's hearts are many odd corners (against all that should oppose them) whether King, Parliament, Church, State, Senate, Synod, or Godhimself. I scarce believe they be such Junior Caesars with Romanized Resolves, and their Facta est alea, to hoist fails against all surging waves: or second Hannibal's, to cut the ways to their own ends through Flints and Rocks with fire and vinegar; yea to cut with Alexander's sword all Gordian knots of difficulties and dangers; though I know withal how virulent and violent self-love is, and self-will, how headstrong boiling passions and perturbations, like Bellerophon's horses unbridled with Minerva's bit, of solid wisdom.  
[They resolved not to be governed by a King:] No more did those sons of Belial who despised Saul, and brought him no presents, 1 Sam. 11. nor those that said, To your Tents, O Israel, what have we to do with the son of Jesse, 2 Sam. 20. Nor those in the Psalmist, who said, Let us break their bonds and cast their cords from us, whom the King of Zion threatens to crush as a potter's vessel, Psa. 2.  
[Not to be governed] Kit after kind, its natural for all, both birds, bruits and beasts, as well as wild men, to desire licentious liberty; (like Popery and frenzy) it runs in a blood: 2. withal they sympathise with their predecessors in Saint Peter and Judas; these makers of Sects speak evil of dignities and despise government. The devil is semper idem, no changeling in his ways and ends, he acts still the same parts in all ages, only the scenes, stage, and persons being changed: he hath had always his Levellers, who made no difference betwixt high and low, superior and inferior in Church and State, who have vilified, yea nulled both Moses and Aaron, Magistracy and Ministry, and have pleaded for, and practised an Anarchy, an Ataxy, a Platonical and an Anabaptistical community. Oh this government! how degenerate and unregenerate Nature snuffs at it, as the wild Onager in Job snuffs up the wind! how every mad colt wrathfully champs the kerbing bit, and would cast his rider! how glad would the frogs be rid of their storks, that theymight croak what poisoned stuff they pleased, in every corner  
[Not to be governed by a King,] But like the Arabians and Tartars, and the Nomads, and the Troglodytes, and those about Mount Caucasus, to wander, and rave, and rake, and ramble, and scramble at pleasure without controu: for had they a King they could not lick their fingers, nor feather their silver wings, nor build their nests on high, nor set up a Dagon, a morstrum horrendum, a hotchpotch of all Religions, called Liberty of Conscience, for the Turks Koran, the Jewish Thalmud, the Papal Mitre and Mass, yea for Simon Magus and his Helena, Montanus and his Priscilla; for Bohemian naked Adamites, Belgic Familists and Enthusiasts, German David Georgians, Arminians, Photinians, and who not, even quicunque vult, as likely to agree together in one Land, as so many cocks in one pit, or the heads of the serpent Amphisbena, one fight against another.  
[No King,] But an Aristocracy, or Democracy of that beast with many heads, the multitude, (ruling at best by their Tribunes:) no Monarchy, no King, which all Nations, as well as the Israclites, have ever desired; yea, which the bees subject themselves unto in their Amazonian and Platonical Commonwealth.  
[No King,] Oh quam multos Dominos habet qui unum non habet: how many Kings shall we have, if not one King! In a Turkish Tyranny, every lust will be a Lord Dane; every Sect, Schism and Heresy, a domineering King: as when there was no King in Israel: every man will believe, say, and do, ad libitum & placitum, what he pleaseth: the strongest, like birds and beasts of prey, feed on the weakest; as Pikes in a pond on the lesser Fry: But if their Resolution be (as the present acts of their Leaders and Governors now speak their intentions) that they will have no evil-counselled King, spurred on at this instant, without any modification, by his Junior Achitophel's and Court-Hamans; as a Lion grated, batted, and incensed, with a wrathful paw, to tear his best Patriots, and all that have opposed, not him, but his ill-counselled late postures and passages: If they desire the Lion spurred on to be rampant, to be piously patiented and passant: and so making an Act of Oblivion of real or imaginary affronts, writ in dust, or drowned in Leth, to rule merely for and not against the Lion of the Tribe of judah; in this we shall be still more beholden to the (formerly well improved) prudence, prowess, and piety of the General, & his worthiest Commilitones, not regarding the brayings of this dull Ass, and of some other lesser blatrant Beasts of the Forest, who would have the Lion still in his grate, and to be no King: as if the Heavens and our Horizon should have no sun, and the body should be Cyclopical, and Polyphemized without eyes, yea without a head.  
And that nothing vexed them more than the Parl'aments recalling their Declarations of making no more Addresses to the King.  
Vexed them more.] Good men are vexed with the sins and sufferings of themselves, and of others, as was David, Psalm 119. Lot, 2 Pet. 2. jeremiah, Chap. 9 1. and others: but to be vexed for well doing, and to be enraged, as Unicorns and Turkicocks, at the fight of red Stammels, at what is legal, or will admit of a good construction, is, for men to fight with their own shadows, or as Donquixot with Rams, and windmills for Giants, or as enraged Ajax with herds of sheep, for Ulysses: Vexation and sorrow be good for nothing but sin.  
The Parliaments recalling their Declarations.] Is not he well studied in the Statutes, that knows not how many Parliamentary Acts have been repealed in every King's Reign? 2. Are their acts like the decrees of the Medes and Persians; yea, as God's decree, not to be recalled. 3. Have not the learnedest Synods and Counsels erred? As that of Lateran, of Chalcedon, and lately at Trent, with many more? are all Counsels with these four which S. Gregory so honoured, to be equalised with the four Evangelists? 4. Are our Patritians Gods or Angels? are they not men? and so subjected, errare, decipi, to humane frailties, like Elias, Iames 5? may they not humani aliquld pati, as well as the best of mere men, be in some things erroneous, as the clear Sun and Moon are subjected to their cloudings and eclipsings? 5. Is not an inconvenience better than a mischief? better to recall an Error, then to persist in it: better to be Epimetheus, afterwise, than not wise, since errare humanum, preserverare diabolicum, at all? as it's said of the English and French, that they are wise afterwards; and of the Spaniards and Italians, wise before: yet beg him for a fool that is wise, neither before nor after, that like him who hath bad cards, and bad casting at dice, (which is now a high Courts Case,) doth not help it as he may in after-play.  
Sixthly, Though Inconstancy, to wove and unweave, like Penelope, to act and react, and recall, be a brand or a blot in many men of great parts and great spirits, changing their minds every day, as Nero his suits, as though they were nought but changeable taffeta; yet may not wise men change their Resolutions, as David did, resolving to march against Nabal, 1 Sam. 25. as Hares and Hedgehogs change their forms, as the winds of cross occasions blow? If I resolve a journey, yet being informed, that there is Leo in via, a Lion in the way, a French Assassinate, Italian Bandits, or a plundering Nimrodian, to cut my throat for my purse, may I not recall my resolves for travelling that way?  
Seventhly, Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas, Can the wisest man foresee the issues and events of all good causes? Whether preaching will soften a Josiah like wax, or Sunlike obdurate a Pharaoh like clay, for breaking; as ex malis moribus bonae leges, good Laws proceed from evil manners: so who knows what evil consequences may come of good acts, like bad stomaches, which turn good meat into evil humours?  
Eightly, As David himself said, he was in a great strait, 2 Sam, 24. the best and wisest of men may sometimes be in such straits, so sail betwixt a Scylla and Charybdis, two contrary Rocks, that all their wit and policy cannot evade their dashing, if not splitting, yea oft shipwrecking, of credit, conscience, or both: The body Political, (like the body natural, labouring of a dropsy, and a yellow or black Jaundice both at once, from contrary causes,) may be so diversifiedly diseased, that the best state-Physitian knows not how to cure the one, but he endangers killing, by increasing the other, the salve proving also oft more dangerous than the fore; as to him who cut off his toes to cure the raging Gout: All these may be applied to Parliamentary Actings, and reactings, and repealing, so oft; like Mariners, now hoisting up sails in calms, present or hoped, now pulling them down, yea cutting down the main mast, and every man pumping for life, in tempestuous storms.  
And being asked, why they did not declare, he answered, that yet it was no time.  
No time,] Omne tempus habet, Every thing hath a time for mirth, or for mourning, for solace, or sorrow, Eccles. 3. only there is no time for sinning; which like snow in June, and rain in Harvest, is still out of time, and as harsh music out of tune too; though every time is not fit for every truth to be brosched, (as pearls unfit for swine, and holy things for dogs,) yet there is not time for Gusmans' cheats, and Jesuitical Equivocations, or for Judas his treacherous kiss, or Joabs' embracing stab; no time to be watched for mischief, as Wolves and Lions for their preys: And indeed this wrtching a time, for base or bloody ends, favours strongly of an Esau's spirit, who plumps and fat's his spleen with the hoped time of his Father's death, & then he will wreak his wrath on his supplanting Brother, Gen. 27. and on Cain, the murderer's spirit, 1 John 3. 13. who watched his time to butcher innocent Abel, Gen. 4. Yea, it sympathizeth with all wicked ones, who watch their times (as the Adulterer the twilight, the silent Serpent his opportunity to sting, and the birding Cat the bushed sparrow,) how to execute their pestilent devises: as the Papist s hoped a time, after the death of Queen Elizabeth, that all would be their own; then up Moah, and to the spoil: In the mean time, rebus sic stantibus, as the case stood, they have liberty of conscience from the Pope (the only Monopoliser of that Mongrel,) to be religious Hermaphrodites, Papists, Protestants, either, or neither, as stood best for their own ends, by pens, pikes, fires, or faggots: See your faces in the glass of that Tyrant, that lies lutking, and couchant for a time, to be rampant. Psalm 10.  
Shortly, he did not doubt but all would be their own.  
Shortly.] This shortly may prove a short or a long lie: as some sluggish servants presently, oft proves a present lie; as Christ's Flesh held really in the Sacrament by Papists, is a reall-lye.  
Shortly.] How his lips water at the golden prey, which he, and such as he, have gulpht down and devoured in their hopes, as the Fox's lips water at the grapes and pullein, and the Cats at the fish, which they have not yet catcht; and indeed (as when the Pope gave Ireland to Tyrone,) if he could conquer it, all the craft is in the catching; win gold and wear it: But as a long man said of a short cloak which he borrwoed, he would make it long enough ere he restored it; so this fellow, that is one of the Hastings, in his hot desires, may perhaps dance attendance long enough, and cool his toes, like the schriech-owl, ere he see them effected; his music with silver strings may be so long in tuning, as may turn him all into frets, for all his shortly.  
He did not doubt.] Indeed the strongest faith, even of an Abraham, a Sarah, Gen. 17. a Zachariah, Luke 1. a David, when he dissembled a madness, 1 Sam. 21. a Thomas Didimus, john 20. and of the Apostles themselves, hath been mixed with doubtings; as cold with heat in lukewarm water, and darkness with light, in the twilight; which doubting is like sore lips in a sickness; a bad thing in itself, yet a good sign of health; and it's the strongest faith that rests and confides in God, in the greatest exigents, as did Abraham, hoping against hope, Rom. 4. and Asa, 2 Chron. 16. and jehosophat, 2 Chron. 20. and David, 1 Sam. 30. 6. But to be confident in evil, as Witches, Conjuerers, and Necromancers, give the Devil a faith, who, is God's Ape, promiseth them his assistance; and as the Collier was wished to give the Romish Church an implicit faith, and to pin his soul on the Pope's sleeve, to carry it to Heaven or to Hell: This bold and brazenfaced folly and presumption builds but as on an Irish Bog, and ditcheth the soul in the lowest Hell.  
He did not doubt but all would be their own.] But, festina lente, he may first fast all the turkish Lents, ere he feast in Apollo's with a Lucullus. Cursed Cows have short horns: jezabel did not doubt but to take off the head of Elias, 1 Kings 21. but the dogs shall first eat her for Carrion: Benhadab in his drink doubts not but to take the forces of Israel alive, but his hopes were strangled in these Halters, which his Courtiers wore about their necks, as their best Tiffany. 1 Kings 20. Saul doubts not but to take David intrentcht, as in a trap, 1 Sam. 23. And that railing Rabshekah, and blasphemous Senacherib, doubt not but to swallow up Hezekiah and his people, as the Whale did jonas; but God had a hook in both their noses, 2 Kings 19 Goliath doubts not but to give David's flesh to the fowls of the air, but David, with a slinged stone, dasheth all these hopes, with his brains out of his foolish head, 1 Sam. 17. So the Spanish Armado, in the year 88, christened invincible, by the Nun of Lisbon, (the Devil being the Godfather, and Pride the Godmother,) hoped to make England a Chaos of confusion; and Fernesius the Prince of Perma doubted not but to ride his horse up to the saddle in the blood of the Lutherans; but God so sought for the Protestants, yea the winds and the waves, as once for Honorius, as the Red Sea once against Pharaoh, the Stars, and the River Kishon against Sisera, halistones from Heaven against the Amalakites, and Hornets against the Canaanites, that all these felt and found what it was to fight against God, to kick against the prick, and to reckon without their Host, as this fond Braggadocheo sells the Fox skin before he be catcht, and reckons his chickens before they be harcht.  
All would be their own.] All their own? What will not part serve? as some Gentleman pay their debts, by a kind of Synecdoche, called pars pro toto, a part for the whole; will he and his outstrip the Pope, that great Participle, who takes part from the Clergy, part from the Secular, and part from both? Will these Harpies play sweepstake, and take all, both stock and thwatch, harvest and glean; all from Courts, Carts, and Crown; from City and Country, from Church and State? All? both Gold and Government, Power and Pelf; Will they as Cormorants devour all before them? as the Goths and Vandals, when they over ran Italy and Lombary; will they swallow up all as flap Dragons? God's part and all? Will they rob Altars make with Pompey Temples Stables for Horses? shave off Esculapius golden beard: reave the toulouse gold: rake not only (as the Spaniards with the Indians, and the Romans with the jews) into the guts of the living; but as Darius, once, into the sepulchers of the dead for gold: Oh will these Catepillers eat all the green things of the Land, as the Egyptian Locusts, called Monks and Friars oft in this our Albion, our Terra florida: Will they monopolise all? and leave neither the Clergies part, the tenth; nor the widow's part, the thirds. Will they rob the spittle and shear the Ape? Will they make a mad medley of the dog's hair and the wool of a Baboon? Oh, sure, however such as are the botts and glanders in the Army, the achan's in the Camp, seed on such base and sordid projects, as Scarabean fleas on dunghills; who mayfor all their gaping jaws miss their fat morsels, as Aesop's dog missed the substance for a snatched shadow; and as Ixion embraced a Cloud for juno; their brag being a good dog, yet catching nothing: yet I am persuaded, the noble and generous spirits in the Army, yea still in my old phrase the best and the most, are as far from such dunghill thoughts, and from stooping to such base Lures, that if Satan or his organs did but dart them into their hearts, they would pump them out again, as Mariners waters out of their ships; yea cast them out as new wines poison out of the barrels, and the seas their froth to the shores: God forbidden we should condemn all the Disciples for some judasses': or all professors for some Ananiasses and Sapphiraes'.  
But still to follow them and to overtake them as the Hound the Fox in slow running: Commeating further; [That if the Army should thus declare, the City and Kingdom would rise] as Dias was told.  
[Would rise,] Else they had an asinine patience; a sleepish simplicity without any mixture of serpentine calidity, to lie still in a ditch till the ravens pluck their pelts, and pulled out their eyes; yea their right eyes, as Naash the Ammonite projected to those of jabes Gilead, 1 Sam. 11. since nature teacheth the worm turn again if she be trod on, the crows to chatter, and wrens to wrangle if their nests be pulled down; else where were the old English valour, if cowed and overawed (as the Britain's once) with a Danish, a Popish, an Egyptian yoke: some being fit to be abused, yea to sleep to Mecanas, like a sawning Courtier, a timorous Traveller, and a Coriatized odcomb, to receive injuries and give thanks; but an Englishman, rightly bred, is not fit to be abused: though a grated Lion may perhaps be plucked by the beard, yet its dangerous to anger his whelps abroad, and to provoke them too far, if by any fair and square way of Truce or Treaty they may be appeased. [He answered,] Anser is Latin for a Goose.  
[They regarded not the City,] But the City hath both regarded and rewarded them; and is she now shaken off, as the spaniel shakes off the water when he hath used it to swim to his desired duck? Have they climbed their own ends by her, and will they now throw her by like broken Ladders? Have they no more need of her men, nor of her moneys? (the nerves and sinews of War.) Nor of her Ammunition which they carry away in Cart-loads full of kindness? even many a man that makes Matrimony a matter of money, regards the silver feathers, if not the flesh of the bird which he takes into his nest: but this is not commune malum.  
[But could fire it at pleasure,] At pleasure: Oh Gunpowder spirits, Jesuited Ignatians, who would conclude all in ferio, in ferro & flamma: as the Spanish inquisition, and Bonner once, and Gardner (all are not guilty of this: those who are gracious in the Army are also grateful,) in their invincible arguments of fire and faggot: When james and john would have fetched fire from heaven to burn the Samaritans, Christ told them they knew not of what spirit they were, Luk. 9 But without being at cost with a. Herald, we may derive some spirits from the torrid Zone; from the pedigree and hot line of Thais, that hot harlotrcausing Alexander to burn Persepolis; of the mad Greeks firing Troy (fired first by the lust of Paris;) of Nero firing Rome, and singing funeral Elegies to it, as to second Troy; of the Tartars firing the great city Moscow; of Faux the firebrand (in his devilish intention and invention) of a Parliament. But to proceed where they exceed, [Fire the City,] Alas it's fired already! First, by wild fire Sects and Schisms, flaming like a sulphureous Aetna, unquenchable as the coals of Jumper, yea well nigh as hellfire, either by the milk of the Word, or the waters of the sanctuary, still fuellized by zealous ignorance and arrogance: the divisions of Reuben being great thoughts of heart, judges 5. Most blinded Sectaries, rather breaking like Oaks (chief Heretics, like Arrius, Nestorius, Anastasius, Valens, Martion, Manes, and others, who all came to tragical ends,) then bowing like Reeds, shutting their eyes against the Sun of truth. Secondly, fired by wildfire wrath and spleen, burning and raging inwardly, like fire close smothered, in divided hearts, breaking out into fiery factions and fractions in houses and families amongst those that are nearest united in the bonds of blood, marriage, nature, consanguinity and affinity.  
Withal the phrase of firing the City, makes me start back, as Moses from his rod turned serpent, makes my hand stupid, et vox faucibus haret, and my tongue speechless, as if I had seen a fiery-eyed Wolf, and it speaks demonstratively to me, that there is no sin so gross, so grievous, so heinous, so horrible, but a graceless and godless man, an unregenerate man out of Christ may commit it. The murdering not only of a brother, with Cain and Absalon, but of a mother as Nero did Agrippina: the killing of a father perpetrated by the two sons of Senacherib, 2 King. 19 the imprisoning of a father, as the Duke of Geldria his aged Sire: Rebellion against a father as Absalon against David; murdering of their own children, as did Manlius Brutus, Progne and Medea: Firing of Temples, as Erostratus the Temple of Diana: Assassinating Kings, as Ravillack and Jaques Clemens, the two French Henry's: ripping up the bowels of women with child, as Hazael, 2 King. 8. and our Irish Rebels: yea roasting some at lingering fires, as the same Rebels did Mr Watson a Preacher: and here, as you see, some threatening to fire one of the most glorious Cities in Christendom: what worse acts could the Sodomites do if they were here on earth: yea what worse could the devil himself do, if he were visibly in the shape of man?  
Withal see this surious sin of Firing aggravated, cui bono, to what end, what good doth it but only to fuellize revenge, which the Italians make the sweetest thing tinder the Sun, as in that fiery faction in Jerusalem betwixt Simeon and Jehochonan, in damnable spleen they fired a magazine of 20 years' provision of corn, only to plague the City and themselves, conquered by this means by the belly more than the blade: so homo homini lupus & daemon, one man so is a wolf, yea a devil to another, in doing mischief only, and doing themselves no good, against the dictate both of Reason and Religion.  
Moreover consider this fellows phrase, in firing the City at pleasure.  
[At pleasure,] Oh the further aggravation of sin! its pleasure to a carnal heart, as carrion to a dog or vulture, mire to a swine, and filthy mud to a frog: that which is the sorrow and vexation of a gracious heart, to a combating Paul, Rom. 7. to a mournful Jeremy throughout his Lamentations, yea to a tenderhearted David, Psa. 6. & 38. is a pleasure and a pastime to a graceless wretch; even as Samson a holy Nuzarite is a mocking-stock to the Philistines, Judg. 16 Isaac to Hagar and Ishmael, Gen. 21. Holy David to Michal, 2 Sam. 6. Lot to the Sodomites, Gen. 19 Paul as a babbler to the Athenians, Act. 19 and Christ himself both in his Sermons and Sufferings to the carnal Jews, Mat. 19 etc. 27. Yea here you see is a pasquil madcap that joins the firing of a City and pleasure both in oneline: as if he would warm his hands in the flaming, as now his heart in the conceited kindling of such a fire. But it's a pastime to a fool to do mischief, and the seat of the scorner being height of sin, Psa. 1. 1. there wants nothing but a cushion to that seat, which is damnation, unless speedy conversion prevent subversion. Lastly, premoniti premuniti, forewarned, let Troynovant be fore-armed, to be cautelous, to take heed how she entertains or retains any such brands into her City as would burn her: any such hotspurs (though blind and bloody Zealots) as would fire her: any such snakes into her bosom as would deadly sting her: any such mice into her bowels as would destroy her: in plain terms, if she discover let her discard any such spirit or spirits as would betray her, as Zopirus did Babylon, Sinon Troy, York Devoutree to the Spaniards: for my part had I but a suspicion of such a sojourner in my house as would cut my throat or my child's, or any way by treachery abuse me, as Paris did Menelaus; or by cruelty, as the two young Lacedæmonians the daughter of Schedasus, they should not nestle under my roofe one night longer: But in this case I prescribe nothing, for that were to teach Eagles to fly and Dolphins to swim; the City is so punctually wise, even by experiments. I need not light my candle to their sun: withal far be it from me to put any jealousies and panic fears into their heads and hearts, either of the fame-worthy General, whose actions have hitherto spoke him both just and noble, or of the Army in general, who were fair-conditioned even when the ball was at their foot to have pludered with more opportunity than perhaps they may have again; yea and with more power too as possessors of the Tower. But when I consider again the fearful Tragedies in Antioch, Gaza, Alexandria, Olyscopon, and else where, yea in Belgia, in the Rustic Wars of Munstsr, and John à Leiden, which have been acted and writ by Historians rather with blood then ink, by blind zeal, bloody superstition, and factious Schism and Heresy, paraleling our new Seekers, Shakers', Lay-preachers, Leaveners, Enthusiasts, Familists, Anabaptists, with their predecessors, their Cozen-Germanes in now ruinated Germany, and with our Norfolk Ket, Hacket, Jack Cade, Tiler, Straw, and other firebrands of Rebellion at home: I cannot but dicere & praedicere, prophesy truly (though perhaps like Chelcas and Cassandra, not believed) if ever London be passive in blood or goods in this age, it will be, not by foreign power (for Seleuchus his rods cannot be broken so long as they are fast tied and bundled together) but by the factions and fractions of her own homebred, inbred Heresies (like a diamond cut in its own dust) by her present regnant sins, ripening her ruin with other Nations, chief her present distractions, hastening and hurrying on her destructions, Quod omen avertat Deus! Meliora spero, pejora timeo: Et serò sapiunt Phryges': serò medicina paratur: which to prevent what you may after repent, though I may be thought in politicals to be out of my element, even piscis in arido, and as unfit to council you, as once Phorimo Hannibal, Yet, si quid mea carmina possun●, if my wishes were not in vain, I could desire, that as you have a care in electing & selecting of your Majors, much more the Rectors of your Militia, lest Militia turn into Malitia: (plus in duce quàm in exercitu.) The Athenians had a great care to trust none with the keys of the City but Solon, a wise and just man, for a Pagan: Oh for a Solon to this City ● Si non Sinon: all is not gold that glisters: many a nut with a fair shell is deaf, rotten and wormeaten: for my part, give me the nut called the brown leamin, as most solid, massy, and ponderous, found in the kernel, and hardest to be cracked in the shell. If any be suspected, much more detected, in place and grace, with you to be lose in the haste, to shrink like some Western cloth in the wetting, to side with Sectaries, to list whom he list, even Church and State-firing Schismatics; admit not such a rash phaeton to sit as regent: such withal as the sons of Brutus, who would keep in, or bring in, any proud and pernicious Tarquins, are to be expulsed: The very Geese and Ganders are not so unwise as to choose the Fox for their Governor, pereat unus; non unitas: Its better many Gangreend or rotten Members to be cut off, than the whole City infected: In this case, above any of Merlin's or mother Shipton's Prophecies, the Proverb may be verified, foolish pity spoils the City.  
[It was likewise inquired how the General had performed his word with the King and Kingdom, in re-establishing the King, and restoring the Kingdom to Peace; he answered, the General never intended any such thing.  
Did he never intent it? Did he ever acquaint this Dias with his intentions? Sure if he had, after the courtesy of the French King to Scoggan, he had been fit to be of his Privy, then of his Cabinet Council; for you see he is rimarum plenus, a leaking vessel full of holes; he keeps Council as well as Scoggans wise, or Fabius once the divulged secrets of Augustus Caesar; he reveals what he knows of the Army, and of his General, and perhaps ten times more: (it being the Devil's Arithmetic to make lies by addition, as un just plunderers steal by substraction; and the family of Love or Lust spawn bastards by multiplication:) Sure though this Soldier be no Ephestion, yet a seal had need be set on his lips.  
He did never intent it.] Into his secrets let not my soul enter; perhaps, primum in intention ultimum in executione, what was first in intention, may be at last in ex cution: He that reads Shepherds Jubilee in his encomium, were he as snakishly envious against his wel-deserving, as ever any emulating Serpen s against the famous Themist ocles, Alcibiad s, Miltiades, the two Scipios, or any other renowned Martialists, cannot but say, that he hath done much fame worthy, and that God hath done much by him; yet pace tanti viti, to interpose my opinion, if not judgement, had be brought his King to an interview and personal Treaty with his Parliament, which was so projected, and so strongly still expected, as the most probable means of a settled Peace, (as Discussions bring forth truth and unity, as the repercussions of the steel and flint bring forth fire:) I say, when the ball was at his foot (as perhaps it may be again, or is) to have brought his Prince to his Peers, and as a moderate Cassander, to set the strings that were out of tune, to those that were in tune, in an Harmonious diapason; he had then, as wise men think, joined Ulysses his head to. Ajax hand, policy to prowess, as a pearl in gold, and for ever aeternized his name, like Augustus, the late famous Sweed; yea he had been held to England, as Camillus and Fabius to Rome, the restorer of her to a new life; yea the Atlas mainly propping a declining state.  
Both saith Dias, he did never intent it.] His General is much beholden to him, to brand him, to blow hot and cold, as the Satyr's Host with one breath, yea to sympathise with Pope Alexander, and his good son Caesar Borgia, the one of them never speaking as he thought, the other never thinking as he spoke, (their words and works like Germans lips, as the phrase is, being nine mile a sunder,) these two, the old Fox, and the young Cub, being Matchavils, perfect patterns, and Ideas of his right moulded politic Prince; which Matchavil many Polypragmatests have studied, more than Moses.  
And that for the Personal Treaty, the Army would not suffer it.] More is the pity, that now Gowns must give place to Guns; that cedant arma togae, is held no true Syntaxis, at least a Pseudodox, not an Orthodox Tenet; that Achilles armour is judged from Ulysses to rash Ajax, though less worthy; yea, that any free Parliament should be limited, bounded and obstructed, like those that are in a ship, or in a Coach, who must go either as the wooden Sea-horse, and the Land Chariot carrieth them them, or if they leap out of the first, they endanger drowning, or out of the second, a neck or a leg breaking, or bruising. Can the Council of Trent be held a free Council, or rather a Conventicle, who (as learned and judicious Doctor Brent, in his worthy book in folio, hath turned the inside of it outward,) did not, nay durst not decree any thing, but what they had from their Popes? as the moon her borrowed light from the Sun; from whence the Sarcasm was, that the Holy Ghost was ever brought to them from Rome, as a Bee in a box: But why would not, or will not, the Army suffer this Treaty?  
[Because the City would think they gained the honour of it.]  
Would think.] Hath this Momus any windows to look into the hearts of the Citizens, what they think? Will he enter into a praemunire against God, to be Cardiognoses, the searcher of hearts? Must any Joseph be above Pharaoh in the throne? He measures the City by his own Last, and makes conclusions, yea confusions from the delusions of his own thoughts; as we say in Yorkshire, just as the fool thinketh, so the Bell clinketh, Come again Whittington; as for the City, as there be many things, que non nisi per acta landantur, which are not praiseworthy till finished: So I persuade myself, the City would be glad at their hearts, of such a Treaty to be the husband as would marry with Peace, as once the white Rose with the red, in a blessed Union, after many bloody Combustions; yea, there be millions of Mephibosheths, who prefer the King's safe reducing to his Crown, Peers and People, above their own lives and liberties, and would bless God for any one that should be that happy Instrument to effect it; even as a sincere Preacher with Paul's spirit is glad howsoever that the Gospel is preached, without emulation of the Organ of the conversion of souls: as if a man be pulled out of the pit as Joseph, or out of the dungeon with Jeremiah; or as a brand out of the fire, what makes matter who he be, whether friend or foe, that doth the good work? Let the Army do the great work, the great duty, and let them on God's Name receive the great Dignity, the City will yield them the Bucklers the great Honours of Patres Patria, the Patriots of their Country: Onus et bonos, officium et beneficium shall both be theirs: But let us trace him further.  
He would not have the City to have the honour of bringing the King to a Treaty, but the Army.  
Oh what a contesting is here about Honour? as the seven Cities once about Homer: the Lady Honora, and that pale-faced Pecunia, like the Corinthian Lais, is Courted of all in Cities, Courts and Camps; all would shine in the Orb of Honour; most in any place or office, would like Caesar have no equals; or like Pompey no Superiors; all would be aut Casares, antony's nihil Caesar's or nothing, Kings even of molehills: How innate it is to the nature of all, especially of Artists and Martialists, to emulate rather the Honours and Dignities, then imitate the deserts of others! as Themistocles cannot sleep for the envied Trophies of Miltiades, and Alexander weeps at the Tomb of Achilles, so famoused by the Muse of a Homer. O doxa, doxa, oh glory, glory, cries the Orator, how dost thou boil in the hearts of men? Oh how the honour of men hath been, and is aimed at by such Soldiers as Dias, and his camped fellows, more than the Glory of God? Immensum gloria calcar babet: Oh what a spur hath this vainglory, to be the subject of a story! This is the whetstone to the Decians, Horatians, Scipios, Codrus, Timoleon, Anstogiton, Scevola, and millions more of all other Heriock acts, not so much undergone for the love of their Country, as for the lust of vainglory: For this purchase Hannibal makes his way through the Alps, Cesar pitcheth so main battles, the three Herod's, our Richard the third, and thousand more, swim to Crowns through Hecatombs and Seas of blood: the Egyptian Kings build their Pyramids, Absalon rears a Pillar, and every man doth something, from the Court to the Cart, for this airy bubble, this windy blather, this vulgar vote, this Plebeian puff, called honour. Some in the Army you see (if Dias be not Monsieur Mendax,) will cross the public good of a Kingdom in reducing the King, rather than the City should monopolise this poor punctilio of honour from them, on which they stand so much; as on their tiptoes; as many Victories have been obstructed, many Battles lost, many Armies routed, yea often Expeditions of Christian Princes against the Turk annihilated, (as I could bring in a Cloud of Histories,) merely by the wildfire Emulations of commanders about the Honours of several services: Oh that as jordan was turned bickward, we could turn the stream of our boundless ambitions after humane Honours, merely to the Honour and Glory of God: then in a good Cause should the swords of our Martialists, like the swords of jonathan and Saul. return gloriously with the blood of the slain, if, with David and Jashuah, they sought the Lords battles and not their own, sought his honour, not their own.  
[And that the Parliament did vote the Personal Treaty only to delude the people.] But how knows he this? hath he some Mephistophiles like Faustus, some familiar spirit, as some Italian, in a ring; some devil, like Cornelius Agrippa in the form of a dog: or some lylng spirits like Ahabs' prophets, to acquaint him with this; or is it his own mad imagination (or, as the Countryman mis. called it, madg-mason;) but till he prove this, what slit deserves the scandalising tongue of this reviling Shimei, this railing Rabshekah: if scandalum magnatum, in slandering one noble man, be so penal, what is it for this whelp of Cerberus, to by't with his Theonine teeth a whole Parliament; for this malevolent to cast his soul aspersions on so many selected Senators throughout the Kingdom? but men's tongues are now more than ever their own: what Law, yea what Lord can control them, Psa. 12. this were to tame Panthers, and to shackle the Hellespont  
[He likewise said, He should (or hoped) to see the City on fire shortly.]  
Yet more fire, more ire: still the same Arminian Dragon spitting fire! At dabit Deus his quoque funem: God will cast on such a spirit lightning and thunder, storm and tempest, fire and hail, Psa. II. Satia te sanguine quem satisti. Nestorius' tongue that fired that world was scorched in his mouth: Valens that fired so many Christians, was at last fired by the Goths.  
[But he hopes to see it fired.] His is such a hope as will never help him to heaven; it will melt as snow to dirt, and perish with himself, as an embryo, or the grass on the house top, which withereth. Oh the poor hopes of the wicked (like the Romanized Religion) founded in blood and watered with blood!  
[He further said, That if the King's revenue were ten times so much the more, in were the better for them, for the Crown Land would make many of the Soldier's Gentlemen.] And so indeed it would make not only Jack, but Jackie too, a Gentleman, if he had the conscience to purse it.  
Lastly, this windy-bags venting, That if they conquer us, we shall be their slaves, even slaves to such as he, as Sicilian Lords once were opposed by their servants, Soepe bilem, soepeque risum vestri movere tumultus: the humour of this fellow personating that bragging Thraso in Terence, and Peripolinices in Plautias, and of Bragavacheo in Spencer's Fairy Queen; I know not whether I should laugh at him, pity him, or be angry with him. Thus having in this Rhapsody gathered some grapes of political observances from his thorns, and some gold of good counsels from his dross, I sheathe my pen from running any further Tilt with the pike of his tongue, having unhorssed (though not un-assed) him enough already, for abusing, as a bold Buffoon, even his own Army, as well as King, Kingdom and Parliament.   

Imprimatur,  
John Downame; July. the 26. 1648.   
FINIS.