Mistress PARLIAMENT Brought to Bed of a Monstrous Child of Reformation. With her 7 Years Teeming, bitter Pangs, and hard Travail, that she hath undergone in bringing forth her firstborn, (Being a Precious Babe of Grace.)  
With the cruelty of Mistress London her Midwife; and great Affection of Mrs. Synod her Nurse, Mrs. Schism, Mrs. Privilege, Mrs. Ordinance, Mrs. Universal Toleration, and Mrs. Leveller her Gossips.  

Ring the Bells backwards; lusty bonfires make  
Of purest straw that from pissed beds you take;  
Your music be the shrieking of a Cart,  
And your shrill Songs, sound sweeter than a—  
For joy that Mistress Parliament's brought a bed;  
Pray see the Issue of her Maidenhead:  
'Tis but 3 halfpences in: The Sight will please ye.  
And of your Grief and melancholy ease you.   
BY Mercurius Melancholicus:  
Printed in the Year of the Saints fear. 1648.   

Mrs. PARLIAMENT BROUGHT TO BID Of the Precious Babe of REFORMATION.  

The Parliament in strong labour is,  
pray Women come away,  
Lest Reformation we do miss,  
alack and well-aday.   

Call Mistress London the Midwife,  
call Mistress Lentall too,  
That if the First can't save her life  
the last may see her go.   

Bid Rainsborough to Rigg his Sips  
with all convenient speed,  
Lest Gregory do fit his slips,  
and then we Saints must bleed.   

Blow, blow strong Winds, lend one stiff blast,  
and send her quick to hell,  
Our miseries then shall soon be passed,  
and our sick land be well.   Enter Mrs. Synod, an old dry Nurse. 
RIde, run, go, with all celerity, and fetch hither Mistress London the Midwife; tell her that Mrs. Parliament desires her to come away presently, for she is in strong labour, and hath most miserable pangs and throws that come thick upon her; pray heavens she hath not taken some fright; I heard her the other day complain of a Scotchman, and of an Irishman, and a Welshmen; Well, well, 'twas ill done, I'll besworne, to fright a Gentlewoman of her quality and breeding, one that came of so ancient and Honourable a Family too, as the Parliaments of England? Who is it almost that has not known the Parliaments to be as honourable as ever was any Family in England (next the King, God bless him) and hath done as much good for the Kingdom: and now to be despised by every sause-boxe boy, and lose fellow to make Rhymes as they call them, and sing-songs of her, making of her a Whore, and no better than the arrantest Strumpet that ever went upon two shoes, telling her, that she hath imprisoned her Husband, and prostituted her body to a very Eunuch, that had nothing to help himself withal; and since, hath followed the Camp, & became an Amunition-W, and turned up her tail to every lousy Ill-dependent Rascal in the Army; Sir Thomas himself, and king Cromwall too, a very Town-Bull, and committed flat fornication with Broom-men, Tinkers, and Channell-rakers, and hath learned to murder, Rob, take Purses, pick pockets; but she is not the first Woman that hath done amiss, These are but slips occasioned by the weakness of her sex; I'll in and make her a Spiritual Caudle to comfort her weak back; for I promise you, I doubt that she will have but an ill bargain on't. Mrs. Parliament; why Mrs. Parliament I say; how do ye Mrs. Parliament; Will ye have a little Strong-waters, or a Caudle to comfort ye?  Mr. Parl. 
Oh sick, sick; I must cast Nurse; pray reach me a bowl: 〉 hawe 〉hawe. 〉 ....  Nurse. 
Well said Mistress, fetch it up; up with it: Heaven bless me! What is't that looks so red Mistress?  Mrs. Parl. 
Oh 'tis Blood, innocent blood, that hath lain in clods congealed at my stomach this full 7 years; hark how loud it cries for vengeance? I never felt it before I came to Strafford, only once since, at Canterbury; O Tomkins, O chaloner, Burley, etc. too well I understand that you suffered by my cruelty unjust deaths. 〈 awe. 〉  Nurse. 
'Tis well 'tis up; cast again Mistress.  Mrs. Parl. 
I will Nurse. 〈 awe, awe. 〉 Oh, Oh, my heart is burst.  Nurse. 
Lord Mistress, What is't that looks so yellow? is it Choler?  Mrs. Parl. 
No Nurse, 'tis Gold, accursed gold; For the love of this I sold my God, my King, my Soul, committed Sacrilege, murder, and all manner of mischief. Awe ...  Nurse. 
What's this Mrs. that looks like Paper?  Mrs. Par. 
Oh Nurse, those are Ordinances, Votes, and Declarations; Pray hold my back hard Nurse, my heart will shiver to pieces else. awe, awe, sick sick.  Nurse. 
What's this that comes so strongly up? Foh, how it stinks all the Kingdom over.  Mrs. Parl. 
Oh Nurse! This is the accursed Declaration against my King, wherein He is so falsely flandered and reproached; Pray fling some hot Embers on't, and make all the haste you can to call Mrs. Sedition, Mrs. Schism, Mrs. Toleration, and Mrs. Leveller, tell them, That if they come not presently, I shall miscarry of the sweet Babe of Reformation, that hath cost England so much money, blood and sweat.  Nurs. 
I am gone: Here's the Midwise forsooth, mistress London.  Mrs. Par. 
Oh mistress London, help me now or I die; never did Parliament endure such bitter pangs; Oh, oh; I am ready to departed.  Mrs. Lon. 
Depart in the Devil's Name if thou wilt; thou shalt have no help of mind; I come to laugh at thy sorrow, more than to help thee; thou hast had too much of my help already, and that hath emboldened thee the more to play the Strumpet with security, and to prostitute thy Members to all manner of Wickedness and Uncleanness: No, languish still, till thou hast brought forth the bastard Jssue of thy own Lust thy own self, which was begot in obscenity, and shall be brought forth in iniquity for me; and may it prove as monstrous in its birth, and as fatal to itself, as it hath been ominous to others.  
As soon she had made an end of speaking, in came rushing Mrs. Privilege, Mrs. Ordinance, Mrs. Schism, Mrs. Sedition, and Mrs. Toleration, who presently fell about their business; one held her hands, another her back, and a third her members▪ She being in this grievous agony (having no hopes to scape with life) desired Mrs. Truth to indite a bill to have her prayed for; and that it be speedily sent by the Lord Mayjor to the several Congregations within every their respective Parishes for her safe Deliverance, which most accurately she penned in form of a Declaration, in these word following.  

The Declaration of Mrs. Parliament, lying very weak, and in most grievous pangs of childbearing; and cannot be delivered.  
WHatsoever dangers are threatened or feared, either by the great perplexity I am at this present in (or by reason of my manifold sins that now in my weakness lie heavy upon my Conscience,) yet I have assurance, that if I confess and forsake them, I shall find mercy;  
Therefore I confess and acknowledge (though not from the bottom of my heart) that for the space of these 7. Years I have been a most cruel murderer, not only of bodies but of souls; that I have perjured myself, first by my Oath of Allegiance, and secondly by my Solemn Covenant, wherein (as in Hos. 1. 9) I have spoken words swearing falsely in making a Covenant; And now judgement spingeth up (against me) like Hemlock in the furrows of the field; that I have most traitorously betrayed, and imprisoned my lawful King, the Anointed of the Lord; that I have corrupted his Laws, and turned judgement to wormwood; that I have made God's House and the King's House a Den of thiefs; that I have loved wickedness, and practised it; that no fear hath dehorted me from doing any thing (but justice) that I have Rob both God, and the King, and have not feared the one, nor honoured the other▪ that I have used all manner of Juggle, Cozenage, Contradictions, and Equivocations; that my Religion hath been Rebellion, Murder, and Rapine; that I have, not only coveted, but (by the instigation of the Devil, and against the Laws of our Sovereign Lord King CHARLES) taken Stole and forceably carried away the Goods and Chattels of many thousands of his Majesty's Loyal and obedient subjects; that I have made this Canaan of all happiness, a Golgotha, and field of Blood, and yoked my fellow subjects to the pride, tyranny and Opression of my own Lust, and Ambition; in stead of Reforming I have Deformed, and in stead of repairing I have pulled down; Which hath occasioned all these miseries to fall upon me; My greatest grief of all being, that I know I have committed all this, and much more, but cannot Repent for the same; therefore the several Ministers within the Cities of London and Westminster▪ and the late Lines of Communications, are desired upon the seventh day of May, (being Rogation Sunday) if I shall not be delivered before, to keep a Day of Humiliation, and Prating, that the heavy judgements that so inevitably threaten me, may be diverted: That so I may still Rule Reign and Tyrannize over you, Parliament everlasting, Impositions, Assessments and Taxations without end.  
Amen. Your despised Friend, Mrs. TRUTH.   
But in the time this was witing, Mistress Parliament grew still worse and worse, and the good Wives made account she hand been drawing on, therefore Mistress Privilege stepped unto her and spoke as followeth.  
Mrs. Pri. Dear Daughter, I perceive by thy Pulse beating, and by so much blood coming in thy face, that thou art not long lived; and it is a question whether the child thou now art in travel with, ever come forth in its right shape, or live to receive its Christendom; and although I have been the supporter and upholder of thee this 7 years' day, and Privileged thee in all thy Actions, though contrary to Truth▪ Religion, Law or Reason, yet I cannot privilege thee from Dissolution; Therefore I desire thee to make thy Peace with God, and thy Conscience, which I perceive is much troubled; next I advise thee to restore all that thou hast fraudulently taken away, either from God, thy King, or thy Neighbour, and to repent of thy Perjury and blod-shed, and hearty bewail thyself for the same, deliver thy Lord and Master out of Prison, and preserve him from the treacherous designs of Fairfax, Cromell, Ireton, Hammond, Rainsbrough, joys, etc. (setting the first aside, who is neither fish, nor flesh, nor good red herring) a company of Schismatticall, broken, Rakehells, Mechanics, and lose fellows, that will have no Rule for their lives or Actions and yet must be Lords of Misrule, and have the Persons and Estates of a freebron People at the mercy of their hellish wills; O Mrs. Parliament, here is Mrs. Schism, and Mrs. Sedition hath too much misled thee, and hath brought thee to all this shame and ignominy that is now justly fallen upon thee, and disgraced both thee, and thy Honourable House for ever, and how ugly will it appear in the Chronicles of after times? The Commons House of Parliament (that should be the Fountain of Justice) a Common Bawdy house, to prostitute her members to all manner of uncleanness, Murder, Theft, Treason etc. that should be the members of Christ, pure, holy and undefiled, and blameless before God and man, which is now hateful and odious to both; that whosoever, (whether Minister or other) doth but speak truth, or tell you of your faults, must be worried to the death by your Bloodhounds, and Walkers bitch jone Ruggles, and the rest of the damned crew of Jailers, Pursuivants, Roagus and Judass, that care not whom they betray for money:—  
Whilst she was speaking▪ the room was strangely overspread with darkness, the candles went out of themselves, and there was smelled noisome smells, and heard terrible thunderings, intermixed with wawling of Cats, howling of Dogs, and barking of Wolves against the windows flew ill-boding screetch-Owles, Ravens and other ominous Birds of night, that struck a great terror to the hearers; at the same time Mrs. Parliament, was miraculously delivered of a Monster of a deformed shape, without a head great goggle eyes, bloody hands growing out of both sides of its devouring paunch, under the belly hung a large bag, and the feet are like the feet of a Bear; if you purpose to see it, you must make haste; for it is now ready to adjourn to a new Plantation.  
God save the King.  
FINIS.