ENGLAND'S HAZZARD.  
I Know it is dangerous for any man in a point of such consequence to take upon him to be a Counsellor, much more a Teacher; he generally makes himself but a Fool; which would seem wiser than the Times; a ripe Age likes not to be directed, lest it should be out-witted; true Principles will not be listened to against received Grounds; No persons may show their desires, or reading, but the reward will be censure, or ruin: Yet in a public Danger it is hard to keep silence, he that bewrayeth not his affection to remedy general Ruthes, may seem to want a breast. Therefore when Church and Kingdom are in a Combustion, I will bring my dripping bucket, though I be scorched in seeking to quench the Flames. The cause seemeth now to be a matter of Blood, for the whole Kingdom is upon the Challenge, and not only the Soldier plays his mortal prizes, but the Parliament is turned into a Counsel of War; Committees of Greevances are become Committees of Variances, and instead of enacting of Statutes, we have executing of martial-law; whilst the oppressions of the Commonwealth ought to be Reform, the whole Kingdom is made an oppression; and for justice against private Tyrants, we meet with a spite against the King: Now Lords of Manors torment their Tenants, or justices insult over the poor Countrymen, and a thousand other crying injuries are now no seasonable considerations, but all the busy thoughts are intent about the Crown-quarrell; as if they which ought to enjoy no Peace should rest quiet, and He which should be secure, must only be molested. Oh how do all the true Malefactors' triumph in villainy, when He should be free from any mortal bar, is the only person arraigned I culpable persons fear not the Sword of the justice, when the sword of violence is drawn out against the King. Dear Sovereign, that your miseries must privilege all other men's lawless demeanours, and that you must weep to make them sing! yet this is the whirl of the Times; not they, but You are humbled; not Vice, but Majesty is punished; the Kingdom is combined to suppress, if not to destroy their natural Sovereign; Oh that your injuries could be as easily redressed, as they can be lamented, or that your sorrows could be as timely ended, as they are passionately felt; but it is Aesculapius his finger that must heal this Malady; for when the whole Commonwealth is turned into a Mutiny, and they which should be Your Peacemakers are turned the Patroness of the Discontent, it is a hard compromising such a difference. Doubtless our breach is like the Sea, and we may rather expect to see all under water, than to see the banks repaired. Our sufferings already have been incredible, but we must not think upon what we have endured, but on the extremities which are behind. We have yet some face of a Nation amongst us, but we may ere long seek for England in England, and see our dear Kingdom lest a Colony for Strangers; Oh how precious is a Native like to be! how many will the sword leave to draw breath in their own air? We shall fight, so long for Privileges, till we shall scarce have Countrymen to enjoy them; and stand so eagerly for Rights of Parliament, till we have scarce a Senate-house left. Have not many Nations thus un-Kingdomed themselves? Hath not England formerly thus cut her own throat? If we be acquainted with Histories, let us take heed that we be not made a History; there need not many years to effect this, a short time may bring it forth. Oh▪ that we could prevent misery, rather than hasten it on, or chain up the the wild Beast, before we be made a prey. Where are our Pilots, which were wont to direct the Ship in a storm? Where are our Watchmen, which were wont to preserve the City, before a City be made a heap? Can Shipwreck, or Devastation be pleasure, or honour to the Pilots, or Watchmen? Is there nothing to calm this troubled air? Nothing, if Fury blow like a Whirlwind, but set aside Fury, and the gusts are down, the the Tempests gone; if Religion carry any incentive with it, or Scripture had not lost its wont reverence, our Distractions were growing to an end, yea we had felt the last of misery: For can a King can be resisted? What one syllable of Scripture witnesses it by full, and clear authority? No, precepts are wanting, only precedents are insisted upon, as if God would have his evident Laws overthrown with particular examples; God may dispense with the whole Bible, but it is not for us to remit the vigour of one Law, without a special toleration from Gods one mouth. It is in vain then for to shelter themselves under the instances of David, jeroboam, jehu, etc. except we can plead their warrant, aswell as their example; but these examples excepted, what ground or rule is there in the whole Scripture to countenance the resistance? Calvin, that condemns the attempt of private persons in assaulting Superiors, what one testimony of Scripture doth he bring to authorise the opposition by the states of a Kingdom? No, we must trust his own opinion, for not one sound proof doth he allege out of the whole Bible to justify the act; Hugo Grotius which disalloweth the resistance both of private persons and inferior Magistrates (and hath nothing but the point of necessity to support the languishing cause) yet can he not bring one instance of Scripture for this particular cause to colour this proceeding, besides those helpless examples which I told you of before. And if necessity might be admitted as a lawful excuse for the violating of the fift Comamndement, why upon the supposition of the like necessity, might not men make a breach of all the other Commandments, as having more Gods, or worshipping of Idols, or committing uncleanness when the remedy is wanting, or bearing false witness when a man's estate, or life is endangered? Necessity therefore is but our greater trial, not a despensation for disobedience. The strong proofs then that those learned Writers bring for Obedience in general are enough to confirm subjection, and the weak Arguments that they use to erect resistance with are enough to settle Conscience, that the Design is unsettled; yea I was never made a stronger subject, nor a weaker Rebel, then by considering how they are not able (which hold the contrary opinion) to pull down that, which themselves have built up.  
Resistance then is no religious Act, because the maintainers of it sail in that, which should give the greatest strength to the Cause, the approbation of Scripture. But if a King can be resisted, yet can such a King? No, they which are most tenacious of the point, yet let go their Holdfast, if the King be not soiled with the height of wickedness to make him the fit object of Resistance; but what malicious eye can spy out such stains in the intemerate brow of our pure Prince? No, he is the lu tre of the Throne, the Triumph of Monarchy; His Royal Blood hath no contagion of vulgar errors, but is the true Sovereign of Innocency; When was the sceptre borne with such an undefiled hand? or the Crown worn with so many bright gems shining in it? No, he hath honoured the Throne with more conspicuous graces, and eminent Virtues, than any Prince hath done for these may years; he being the pride of Humility, the sober palate of Temperance, the pure loins of Chastity, the soft bowels of Mercy and Clemency, the warded knee of Devotion, a sworn Protestant, a vowed Protector of the Liberties of his Subjects, ambitious of Peace, and one that would strike the weapons out of his enemy's hands with an Act of Oblivion. Oh that such a Prince should be affronted, much more assaulted! No, methinks the Soldier should rather disarm himself, cramp a March, suffer violent death, then malign such a Sovereign; for if any King upon earth can be resisted, yet can such a King?  
If this continue, what will be the issue, ye may judge by the present condition. The Tenant is not only ready to surrender up his Lease, nor the Merchant to turn Bankrupt, nor the Churches to stand empty without an Incumbent, the Country is not only consumed with monthly Contributions, Excises, free Loans, free Benevolences, free Quarters, the Gentry are not only abased, by having underlings take the command of the Country out of their hands, by taking their Horses, Armour, every thing that delights the eye from them, or by taking away their Persons, and muring them up in Prisons, the Poor are not only ready to murmur, and rage, and starve, but the whole Nation is ready to draw upon itself, and to give itself the bloody stab.  
The opposing of Princes hath in former times been fatal to this Nation, yea the Kingdom hath scarce suffered so much by all the miseries that hath lighted upon it, as it hath done by civil Wars. In the Reign of William the Conqueror, when the English men that had submitted to his Government Rebelled against him, 
Rog. Wendov. Poli. Chron. Hen Huntingd. Ypod. Neystr. Mat. West. 2. Mat. Paris. Will. Ma●msb. Polydor. Virg.  it did not only change his courteous usage of them into extreme severity, in escheating their Lands, abhorring their persons (so that he would not suffer any English Scholar to come to promotion) driving some into exile, forcing others to live in woods like Outlaws, cutting off the hands of some, and the heads of others, but the Kingdom was brought to that miserable desolation, that the Highways lay unoccupyed through frequent robberies committed, and all was wasted from Wales to the mouth of Wye, and the Land from Durham to York lay nine years untilled, so that for the want of ordinary sustenance, the Northern people were enforced to eat the flesh of men. 
H●venden. Ypod. Neystr. Huntingdon. l. 8. Malmsb. Nou. l. 2. p. 105. Gervas'. D●robornensis.  In the R igne of King Stephen, when the great Ones fell to their accusations (as no Rebellion was ever without pretence of Reason, and justice) they charging him with the violating of his Oath touching Forests, and other Immunities of the Church, and yet indeed (as the History saith) the pleading of Church and Commonwealth, were but public colours for private grudges, their only quarrel being a secret spite, that because they had set him up, he would deny them any thing, as the command of certain Lordship's, and Cast●es which they expected, what outrages were committed in the Nation? Every year heaped on new calamities, to the ruin of the Nation, thousand Families were decayed, whole Counties depopulated, and so many men's Estates confiscated to the Crown, that they generally went by the name of the Disinherited; yea as the height of misery (by the calling in of the Scots) the wombs of women were ripped up, infants tossed upon the pikes of Spears, the Priests slain at the Altar, and the slain (in a most inhuman manner) dismembered. In the Reign of K. john, we find the estate of the Land most deplorable, 
Lib. S. Alb. in vit. Guliel. Abbot.  not only by assayling, surprisings, burn, spoilings, disinheritings which were exercised by Father's setting against their Sons, Brothers against Brothers, kinsmen and allies against their nearest friends, but especially by c●lling in the French Dolphin Lewis, who after he had gotten a little command in the Land, despised the Englishmen, bestowing all their Towns and places of Command upon his own Cavalry; 
Rog de. W. S.  for when Fitz-Walter demanded but Hertford Castle, as his ancient right, an Answer was given him by Lewis according to the advice of all his French Nobility, that Englishmen were not worthy to have such places entrusted to their charges, who were the betrayers of their natural Lord; yea Milun upon his deathbed confessed, that if ever Prince Lewis had the Crown of England set on his head, 
Ypod. Ney●tr.  he would condemn into perpetual Exile all them that then (as Traitors against their Sovereign) adhered to him against King john, 
Mat. Paris. hist. maj.  and that he would extirpate all their Kindred. By one and another the distresses of the times were so grievous, that the Kingdom (as one saith) was like a general shambles, or place of infernal torture. In the Reign of Henry 3. To soon as the Kingdom grew discontented, every man dared whatsoever his own audaciousness did suggest, 
Mat. Westminst.  or others connivency permitted, insomuch that Foulke de Brent, and other Nobles plucked from the K. most of his Crown-Land, without any other right than that which the equity of Tumults gave them; yea though the Land had been sufficiently plagued with foreign Power, yet an ordinary Citizen, 
Fabian.  even Constantine Fitz. Arnulph (whose Sedition infected all, to whom War was beneficial, 
Paris.  and Peace baneful) would have set up a Lewis again in London, crying in the open streets, Mountjoy, Mountjoy, God for us, and our Lord Lewis: Yea such was the thraldom of those times, through the spite of the Barons against Hubert de Burgo, that afterwards judgements were committed to the unjust, 
Paris. Wendover.  Laws to Outlaws, Peace to Wranglers, and justice to Wrong-doers. And in conclusion, through the bloody Battles that were fought, all was made a booty, and put to fire, and sword, from the Marches of Wales to Shrewsbury, insomuch that such a grievous Famine happened, 
Wendover. Parisiens.  that persons were enforced to pluck the ears of Corn whilst they were green in the field. In the Reign of Edward 2. when the Earls of Arundel, Warwick, Lancaster, and Warren made a woeful rent with the King, and would not assist him in his Wars against the Scots, not only they which were left to keep the Marches, instead of valiant Champions proved petty Chapmen; but such grievous depopulations were committed for four years together, that there was scarce bread enough to be found for the King's table, and the common people in general eat horses, and dogs, yea men, and children were stolen for food, and Thiefs newly brought to Goals were torn in pieces and devoured hall alive, by such as had continued longer there; and the bloodyflux, 
Tho. dela More. Tho. Walsingh.  and other diseases that arose from unwholesome diet, destroyed so many, that the living were scarce able to bury the dead. And in the reign of Richard 2. how lamentable were the effects that were brought forth by that potent insurrection in Kent, Essex, Surrey, Suffolk. Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, and Huntingtonshire for Manumission? Histories report, that instead of reforming the Commonwealth, havoc was made of the Commonwealth; the Laws were so near to be overthrown, that that Idol of Clowns, 
Stow. Holinshed.  Wat. Tyler, threatened that he would have all the Laws of the Kingdom come out of his own mouth; great men were in so little security, that bloody hands were laid upon the most eminent persons in the Kingdom, and their heads cut off and fixed upon poles, being so placed that they might kiss, 
Speed. Stow. Holinshed.  and whisper in one another's ear, and a general intention to kill all persons of quality, and to set up petty Tyrannies in the Nation; the King's person was damnably conspired against, and the King's Mother unsufferably abused, the stately Priory of Saint john's without Smithfield was burnt to ashes, 
Sir Walter Lee in his speech to St. Alban men.  and the goodly Palace of the Savoy with all the riches therein consumed, writings, rolls, and records defaced, and such a general ruin brought upon the Kingdom before this War was ceasrd, that there was neither Grass nor Corn, old nor new, within five mile's space of London.  
Ye see I have laid before you the miseries of former times, would it not grieve you to behold again such Tragedies? Take ye pleasures in disasters? Can the ruin of your Nation affect you? Think of these things betimes, lest after thoughts be like recovering physic to a dead creature. We are not far from destruction, the want of Trading, the unseasonable Harvest, the Kingdom drained of Means, besides a thousand other calamities afflicting the Age by these last Wars, forespeaks approaching misery. What house is not full of anguish? What corner of the Land is not replenished with groans and fight? How few are there that are not weary of these unsupportable burdens? How few that do not desire Peace? Will ye not hear the complaints of your Countrymen? despise ye the sobs of your fellow-Professours? Will it be honour to you to leave a people desolate? Will it be comfort to you to conclude in a waste? Think what curses will follow you, if ye continue these sorrows, lay to heart the troubled souls ye will have upon your deathbeds it ye be authors of un-Christian designs. When there are some hopes then of ●nhappy agreement, do not ye slake the hopes, or disturb the agreement. Do you yield, for the King condescends; do ye neglect your own desires, for he stands not too much upon his own he nor; express you a true self-denial, for he hath resigned up his own will; he speaketh for Peace, do you echo after him, and say, we will have Peace. I beseech you therefore by all the English blood which runs in your veins, by all the prickles of Conscience left in your Protestant souls, by all the relics of pity which ye feel towards a perishing Nation, that ye take down the Standards, that ye frill up the Colours, that ye cast out of your hands the Pistols, and Pole-axes. Oh shed no more blood, but staunch the dropping veins; brain not the slender numbers which are left, but preserve the remnant; think when ye have murdered enough, tremble to be the Headsman of the Nation. Let all rage and rancour, spite and spoil be laid aside, and eye one another like friends, embrace like Christians, bring Unity again into a divided Nation: bless the Age, and crown the Land with Peace.  
Da Pacem Domine.   
FINIS.