THE GRAND PLUNDERER: A SUBJECT Never before written; And great pity it is, that so mischievous a subject as this is, should survive in such malignant Times as these are.  
Written by one, who hates not the man, but his manners; and loves his person, but likes not his condition.  
Printed in the year, 1643   

The grand Plunderer.  
Monstrum borrendem ingens cui lumen ademptum He's a horrid, huge monster, deprived of the eye of Equity; for indeed Justice (one of the four Cardinal virtues) is in as much antipathy to him, as day to night, or the glorious splendour of the Sun to cymmerian darkness. 'Tis the property of Justice, suum cuique tribuere, to render to every one his own due and right; but it is this monster's property (or rather his monstrous nature) to take away from us our propriety, those goods which we may jostly lay claim to, and in which we have sole interest: Admirandum est hoc monstrum, this monster is to be admired at, for that he doth desperately ravish from us our right, manu violento, by a violent hand, unae habe at nemo quarit sed oportet habere; by hook, or by crook, per fas, aut nefas, he neither fears nor cares how, or by what unlawful means he comes by it, only so he may have it. He makes no more conscience to swallow up speedily a man's estate at a bit, than our Dutch do to devour nimbly pills of butter, and never purge for it. As his name is formidable, so his nature is dreadful, being of himself physically (namely naturally) a terrible scarrecrow, and horrible vulture to those persons and places, with which he is resident, or wheresever he is present He rejoices at others sorrow, and rises by their fall: He can hardly subsist but by the spoil and ruin of his neighbour, to whom such is his implacable malice and cruel hostility, that for his own ends his endeavour is to make him a sacrifice. He is a bad servant to God, and as ill a Subject to the King, the King of King's vicegerent here on earth. His motto, is Have at all; either totum aut nihil, All, or nothing at all: His dialect like that of the Carthaginean Hannibal, Actum (inquit) nihil est, nisi Paeno milite portes frangimus; nothing is by him performed, unless with a troop of soldiers he batters the gates, and enforce 'em open: And for his actions, I may say of them, as sometimes Catiline the Roman conspirator said of his, The ills that he hath done cannot be safe but by attempting greater. He is truly the Malignam Party 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, by way of eminence, above all others, none so mischievousas he and he more malevolent and ill affected then any: As he is malignus in Corcreto, so he is that party in Abstracto. He is a spirit, but an evil one, for he has no spirit at all unto peace; and that's the reason he delights so much in the rumours and tumors of war: He is a true son of tumult and insurrection, the only Antagonist to peace and union; like the Salamander, he lives by and in the fire of contention: He himself is of himself malus ignis, an evil fire, (as the word malignus signifies no less) the only incendiary and firebrand of unnatural and intestine war; in which horrid time, he consumes and devasts all that he meets with, and like a truculent Tyrant, spare; none whom he may or can oppress. High and low, rich and poor, noble and ignoble, bond and free, all are alike to him. As the Devil himself (that subtle and sly Piscator) of all fish loves soul's best, so the desire of his soul is the heart of your estates; that's the main mark that he aims at; nevertheless all is fish that comes to his net, and then (having once catcht you) he makes money and emolument of the goods so gotten for his own advantage: He cares not who buys 'em (whether a Jew, or a Christian, all's one to him) so he may receive the gain and profit for them. He is altogether composed of sedition, murder, and rapine; with which triple cord of iniquity he is so strongly bound up, that from his impiety he can hardly be dissolved, but is strongly bound up from his impiety he can hardly be dissolved, but ●s firmer tied (and as it were obliged by an unhappy fate) to transgress more and more in an outrageous manner, against God the King, and his Subjects. To plunder is properly predicated of him, ●he more alluding and he himself inclining to those hideous attempts and direful outrages, which in the horrid time by him, as ●orrid are perpetrated and committed. He breaks in violently, and seizes as unmercifully upon the best he can lay his hands on. He invades fi●st by force, where having got entrance, sic volo sic jubeo stat pro ratione voluntas; his will is his Law, and he fears no controlment nor contradiction, assuming to himself an abitrary power and jurisdiction, and by no means will be persuaded to yield conformity to the legislative authority of the Law of this Land.  
Never was there more plundering and pillaging then hath been in these latter times, and is now at this time. What barbarous insolences, inhuman affronts, and never the like heard of villainies have been and are still daily acted both here in England, and also elsewhere in Ireland, in the famous cities and countries of those two once flourishing and renowned (but now tottering, and sick languishing) Kingdoms, the sad history of this unhappy age doth sufficiently testify. In pristine times the Plunderer was termed Damon nocturnus, a Devil that ranged about in the night season. The act of Plundering was then reputed so heinous a crime, that it was accounted no better than Burglary, and that was then opus tenebraruns a work of darkness, and was ashamed to show itself openly to the view of the world, but now in these latter times, he is grown to that frontless impudence, that he is become Damon meridianus, and dares attempt such facinorous actions, even at noonday, as if he had commission and authority to perform them Cumprivilegio. 
— Audax omnia perpeti.  
Gens humana ruit per vetitum nèfas.   
Good God what an age do we live in! what a wilderness of we is this strange world now come to! Vivitur ex rapto, men now a days live by catching and snatching. Terras astrea reliquit, justice hath deserted the earth, and is ascended into heaven. She is not more a pilgrim then a peregrine, and not so much a sojourner as a stranger amongst us. There is little or no divine justice administered, few or no wholesome Laws executed. Courts of judicature lie now vacant, except the supreme Court, and supremest of all Courts, which in regard of the weighty affairs of the state of this Kingdom cannot be silent, Toto Mars savit in orbe. What a havoc hath this bloody hand of War made in the world? The drum every night gives Martial summons, and the Trumpet every day is sounding in our ears. Death hath a long time marched into the field, where two great and powerful Armies have resolutely met, and thousands on both sides unfortunately slain. New forces for this civil, (uncivil) war have been and are raised: both the Armies are at this instant still on foot in the very bowels of this Kingdom, ready every house to fight, so that without God's gracious mercy to this Land and nation, a dreadful desolation like an ominous and imuspicious meteor hovers over our heads. People talk of a cessation of Arms for twenty days, and of a treaty in that time for an accommodation, but for aught I hear, there is little or no hopes of a present pacification; it is to be feared that the Sword (which hath been so long drawn) will not be in haste sheathed, by which there hath already been so much Christian blood spilt, that nothing for satisfaction but it can decide this great contestation between the King, and the Parliament. Who would have thought two years ago, that such times as these would have been? Our progenitors never knew the same, and I pray God succeeding generations may never see the like. Sure this is the iron age, and we that live in it durum genus sumus, we are a hard nation, hardhearted, and iron-like qualified, Misanthropis and Tymonists (men-haters like Timon of Athens) are common every where amongst us. I will not say Homo homini Daemon, Man is to man a Devil, but I may say, Homo homini Lupus. Man is to man a Wolf. Many men do endeavour and aim at nothing more than to devour one another, and that they do two manner of ways; either by the violence of their hands, or by the virulence of their tongues; by exacting oppression in their goods, or by detracting defamation in their good names. In the former manner the Plunderer is injurious against all Law to his brother: Legem tenere se putat nullam divinam, aut humanam, he will not be confined nor conformed to any Law (which should regulate his actions) either divine or humane. Hence it is that he breaks the Law of equity, and of charity; and hence it is that either such an unhappy Ataxic, disorder and confusion in the fabric of this Kingdom, that every one therein is altogether for himsef, for his own ends, and particular advantage; so that there is no love little amity, less unity, lest of all uniformity or unanimity, and no peace at all now amongst us.  
Lucian ingenuously feigns, that Charon was on a time conducted by Mercury to a huge promontory and ample high mountain, that he might there take a full survey of the World; and being asked when he descended from thence upon the earth, what he beheld, he said, he saw the heavens above him like a vast circumference, the earth below him like a small Centre, that appeared to his view no bigger than a black spot; in which he could discern multitudes of men, like so many swarms of bees, of several sorts, and all conditions; the greater he perceived to be like so many Hornets, and they did sting the lesser, than he beheld divers motions and commotions various actions and passions, some running, some riding, others swearing and swaggering; some again struggling and striving, many quarrelling and fight; plundering, and pillaging, killing and slaving, all in a hubbub and hurly-burly, and nothing in the whole universe (worth the seeing) but an universal uproar.  
The moral of this Apologue may be applied to these our times. It doth evidently appear (we may see it without a perspective glass) that in the world there is a general confusion, and like to be a miserable combustion: It is too true (I would to God it were false) that the whole world is up in arms, and at this time in this Kingdom of England as there are Armies of fears abroad, so there are myriads of disasters, distempers and distractions here at home. This unnatural, illegal, civil war (which of all wars is the worst) is the cause of all our woes. Were it not for this there would be no news of towns taken, Lords, Colonel's, Captains, commanders, and so many soldiers slain, so many massacres (as there are) daily acted; were it not for this, there would be no carrying into captivity, nor complaining in our streets; no such plundering and pillaging as now there is amongst us: but in regard of this, no man can be certainly confident of what he hath, for he is certain of nothing but uncertainty: neither is the King of his Kingdom, nor the Peer of his Land, the Knight of his revenue, the Gentleman of his estate, the Citizen of his commodity, nor any Subject of his property. Belli alea est incerta, when once the Die of war is thrown, it is uncertain who shall win, or lose; none can determine or know who shall have the victory, or the overthrow, but the Lord of hosts that great General Commander who alone knows all things.  
Quidjam nisi vota supersunt? What now remains, but that we pray unto the Lord God of our salvation, that he would save and deliver us from the hands of our enemies. Pray we to the God of Peace that he would be pleased to grant us Peace, and that Peace of God which the world cannot give, but which passeth and surpasseth all humane understanding. Pray we to God for our gracious King, that the King of Kings would preserve him from his false friends, and fierce foes; for the Kingdom that God would open their eyes to see, and for all the people that he would open their hearts to consider those things that belong to a temporal, spiritual, and eternal Peace.  
FINIS.