All is not GOULD THAT GLISTERS; WITH A Vindication of His Majesty from the scandalous Aspersions concerning former TAXES and SHIP-MONEY.  
WRITTEN To inform the ignorant, to satisfy the unsatisfied, and to stop the mouths of all such as carry two Faces under one Hood.  
Decemb 29 Printed at London, 1648.   

All is not Gold that glisters.  
IF all were Gold that glisters, a  Glow-worm were pure mettle, and Ignis fatuis, the Moonshine in the water, or a Blazing-Star would be made into ingots and wedges, and consequently translated into Coin by out most earned Astronomical Stargazers.  
This old Provetb is so full of my sterie, that it hath matter enough in it to make a History: and as it is mystical, so it is sophistical, metaphorical, and alegoricall, & literally true to a tittle, and an excellent fore-warner and discoverer of dissimulation; a deadly enemy to Liars, Flatterers, jugglers, Traytots, Agitators, Levellers, and a mortal foe to all the pack of Knaves that carry two faces under one hood, or pretend one thing, and intent another; that salutes a man friendly in the front, and wishes him hanged in the rear: of these inconveniences, this Proverb gives you warning; All is not Gold that glisters.  
Cain offered sacrifice, Jezabell fasted, Ahab repent; these made a glistering show of piety; Joab saluted Abner and Amasa, and Judas seemed to kiss lovingly; this was all hypocrisy.  
Thus did the dross and dregs of villainy shine and glister; and thus is King Charles made the most glorious King that ever reigned in England: the corruscancie and fence-blinding refulgency of those golden promises, misguided many thousands of people into a fools paradise, like a false light called William with a wisp, or a Fire-drake, that leads folks out of their way in the night. These glistering promises were no gold, for his Majesty hath too much tried them, and touched them with the touch store of his hard and unexampled Afflictions, whereby he hath found them false, base, and counterfeit, mere rottenness, gilded over on the outsides with the varnish and polishing of adulation and delusions.  
Anti-Jessus rails against Antichrist, and Religion is strangely metamorphoied into snarling; all such as are without the walls of the new manyheaded Reformation, must not live within the Line of Comunication, amongst those spirituall-gifted Creatures, whose opinions do roll and wheel with the various humours of Rhewmatick Enthusiasms, for our longwinded Schismatics are (most of them) tongue-swolne with inspiration. It was a custom amongst the ancient Romans, first to learn to he silent, and after that Lesson was perfect, than they learned to speak: But a generation of tautological Tongue-men, have not yet learned how or when to speak, or hold their peace; these grave ungrammared Thebans, and most learned illiterate Athenians, (with much pumping for wit, and belabouring the cushion) have brought too much gall to the Pulpit, and such store of wormwood to the Press, that hath drenched too many of us in the gall of bitterness, and ensnared us too fast in the bond of iniquity. For as Copernicus imagined that the Terrestrial Globe turned round with a quotidian vertigo, when it was his own giddy brain that put him into that whimsy conceit; so these sorts of Phoolosophers are infected with three strange diseases of body and mind, (namely, Frenzy, Heresy, and jealousy) their mischievous imaginations do hold all such as are not of their Round opinion to be in a dangerous and most desperate condition.  
But the wise man saith, Ecclesiast. 21. That a wise man's tongue is in his heart, but a fool's heart is in his tongue. So I will conclude this point, That he that doth nothing but talk, doth talk nothing.  
What a glorious show of Allegiance and Loyalty did too many of his Majesty's false servants make; but all those fair shows were no better then false shadows: the Assurance of their faithful duty, was like an Obligation sealed with etc. they were only tinseled over with Oaths, Vows, flattering Cringes, and dissembling words & gestures: and yet this kind of scurvy counterfeit Stuffe did make an abominable shameful glistering show at the Court; but that was not Gold that glistered.  
Our Blew-bonnetted bonny Brethren did swear by their Souls, that they waud leeve & day for the guds of the King and Kingdoms: Those Golden Promises did glister to us; for which, our Golden Treasure shined on them abundantly, foolishly, knavishly. We had ungodly false Knaves, and cutthroat Plundering Thiefs and Villains of our own, but our own would not serve our turns; we were so prodigal to waste our Money, to buy and hire thousands of Tatterdemalian, mad Ragamuffin, terrible Termagant Scots: but now our afterwit tells us, that we have as sufficient and able Rascals of our own English breeding, as either Scotland or Hell itself could afford us; so that our Money which we laid out, was merely cast away: for if we consider what they did to deserve it, we shall find, that they did us but little good, and much mischief; all which we could have done ourselves, & so have saved our glistering Gold in our purses. But though we did buy many Scots, yet we did not buy their Religion & Kirk Discipline: for if we could have been content to be Protestants, we would never have been so mad as to have purchased a Presbyterian Church-Government; nor had they any reason, or manners, to presume audaciously to prescribe Religion and Laws to us: Let them keep their Doctrine and Statutes beyond tweed; we have no mind to impose our Rites and Customs upon Scotland, neither will we receive any from them: As much as their Religion hath cost us, we are willing to lose; and we are contented, if they will take it again for half the Money: which they may do with a safe Conscience, for it is not a Groat the worse for our wearing. Yet we would have them to know, that we do not write of, or to the whole Nation; we confess, that there are many thousands Just, Religious, Loyal, and Valiant persons of that Nation, whom we do most entirely love and honour.  
If the most powerful amongst us were the most peaceful, we might then have some hope to see some part of our former happiness: But there are a Generation of Peace-haters, who drive a mighty Golden glistering Trade out of the Ruins and Spoil of their Country, with the blood and slaughter of their Brothers; these Monsters do make Murder to be their May-game, and cutting throats their Pastime.  
The two gre●t Generals, Joab and Abner, when they met together by the Pool of Gibeon, they made but little account of the lives of men, when they made sport with the deaths of 204 at one time, as it is in 2 Sam. 2.13, 14, 15, 16. the words are these.  
And Abaser said unto Joab, Let the young men now arise and play before us; and Joab said, Let them arise.  
Then there arose and went over by number twelve of Benjamin, which pertained to Ishhosheth, the son of Saul, and twelve of the servants of David.  
And they caught every one his fellow by the head, and thrust his sword in his fellow's side, so they fell down together.  
This was the pleasing tragical play before Joab & Abner: and that bloody sport was much like ours, for they were all of one Country, & one Nation, as we are. But the gallants of the●e days are so madly desperate, that the name of Peace in Odious to them; they will daily venture their lives in seeking their deaths, and hazard the loss of Heaven to purchase Hell; their felicity is in Arms & most redoubted Deeds, Wars, dreadful Wars, and politic designs: But all this stir is not to kill Pagans, Heathens, Infidels, jews, surkes, or savage Monsters; these bloody Bicker and surious Slaughters have not been, or are like to be, for the glory of God, or making the King glorious, for the Kingdom's good, for the people's freedom, for the Laws preservation, or the liberty of the Subject; These were the promises that glisteren like Gold, which appears now to be mere dross: for the very contrary calamities to all our forenamed blessings are now upon us; God is blasphemed, in stead of being glorified; his Word profaned, in lieu of obedient reverence; his Church despised and dispersed, in stead of honourable and Christian settlement; his Houses of Prayer pollured and defiled, in stead of repairing and regard; the King hath had a great share of thraldom, & long-lasting captivity, which attends His Majesty in the rooms of Loyalty and Allegiance; the Laws are trampled down, in stead of being kept up in authority; the Subjects right is, that no man can be certain to call any thing his own; and the liberty of the people is bondage and slavery; insomuch, that (as the case stands now) it is a dangerous thing to be rich, for every man's wealth is his crime; a good estate will transforme a man into three shapes in short time: first, to a Delinquent; secondly, to a Malignant; and thirdly, to a Beggar.  
To draw to a conclusion, let us think a little upon the King: let us consider, that disloyalty to him, is disobedience to God; Kings are called Higher Powers, Heads of Tribes, Children of the most High, high Hills, and tall Cedars; and therefore God is to be accounted (amongst us) in the first place, and the King in the second: four ways the King is the Minister of God for the good of his people; first, he is our Natural Good, in the preservation and conservation of life and body, by his sovereign Power in maintaining the Laws; secondly, he is our Moral Good, for that he protects Virtue, and corrects Vice; thirdly, the King is a Civil Good, in his securing our estates and possessions: and fourthly, he is a Spiritual Good, in defending the Faith, and Gods true Religion. All these Goods, good King Charles was, as long as he had Power; and all, and more than all these, would be heaped upon us, if he did but enjoy his right Dignity and Kingly Authority.  
As God is our Almighty invisible King, so (by his grace and favour) the King is our visible God: A King is said to be the Light of Israel; people without a King, are like sheep without a Shepherd, 1 Kings 22, 17. The Crowns, Sceptres, Thrones, and anointings of Kings, are Gods peculiar Rights; and God is Master of the Substance, whosoever is Master of the Ceramonie: And that God that made all men, did make some men to be Kings; amongst whom, our gracious Sovereign Lord, King Charles, is one, and one of the best that ever reigned in England; and absolutely the best, but the worst dealt withal.  
If it were considered how the case stood with him when he came to the Crown, that consideration would give all reasonable men satisfaction, he was hemmed round about with cares and troubles; first, his Father King James (of blessed memory) left him deeply in debt, besides great debts he himself owed; secondly, he had Wars with two mighty Kings, of France and Spain, both at once and the same time; thirdly, the Coffers and Treasury was low, or near empty; fourthly, the King had no Navy at Sea, nor any means to set forth one, and the Ships much out of repair; fifthly, the King had no f●wer then fifteen or sixteen of the Blood Royal to keep and maintain; yet (according as the time was then, and as it is now) without any great Taxes he paid his Father's debts and his own, he secured himself and Kingdoms from soreigne Invasion, he maintained his great charge, and kept a Royal House, as befitted the Majesty of a King of Great Britain and Ireland, he refurnished the Navy, and in that shown his clouded magnificence on the Seas, to the admiration and astonishment of other Nations: for the effecting of which the Ship-Money was laid upon the people, whereof his Majesty had never the value of one penny into his Coffers, but it will be easily proved, that he did lay many thousand pounds to it to increase it, and all was little enough to defrand so great a charge; which Tax was levied for no other end, but for the honour and safety of the Kingdom, and to descend those that have sought to destroy the King for doing so good a work.  
Let us with grief of heart call to mind the happiness which we have lost (which we enjoyed sixteen years) by his gracious government; then we had peace and plenty, no taking prisoner or being taken, uo leading into captivity and no complaining in our streets; a man might then (in those days) not have been ashamed or afraid to be a true Subject and an honest man, he might boldly say (as I now say) God save the King: which good days and times I hope are suddenly coming; and so I close up all with, Vive le Roy.  
FINIS.