A NOSEGAY FOR THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. Made up of the stinking Flowers of their seven year's labours, gathered out of the Garden of their New Reformation. Fierce judgements now like hemlock springs apace, To root out Rebels and their weedy Race; Your Thistle, May-weed, Darnel-Ordinance Shall now no longer have continuance. Treason shall now expire; Justice and Law Are taking place; will Rebels keep in awe: Loyalty and Truth shall Reign, and chase away All mosty Errors from our clouded day: The * King. Sun shall with his quickening rays give birth, Ana * Queen luna's silver-shine rebless the earth, The * Prince C Morningstar shall mount the azure skies, Till Fame doth echo forth his Victories. That * D. York. Royal Dove inarked on the Sea Shall make you know, what 'tis to disobey. Three Suns appeared at once not long ago, Three Sons shall set a period to our woe. As stars do shoot, so swiftly shall they fall, That now contrive a Ruinr general. Aug: By Mercurius Melancholicus. 15. Printed at the sign of, You may go look. 1648. THE DEDICATION. TO all you zealous snufflers through the Nose, I dedicate this Posy in Verse and Prose, Smell out and spare not, for from thence More savour comes, than your * New Reformation. surreverence; Be you Presbyter or Independent, Rebel or Traitor, 'tis to you I send it; You, whose edifying Noses can smell Plots Betwixt Langdale, and your Brothers Scots, For which Malignant Reprobates do say, You voted have a new Thanksgiving-day: Praise God for this too, turn up your goggle eyes, Then smell to your proud treasonous sacrifice; I offer this too, for your brothers good, Written as your Religion is, in blood Of Innocents' whose sad and dying groans Make the earth tremble, rends the rocks and stones, Piercing the Heavens, doth for swift vengeance call So loud, ere long it will confound you all: Whilst you give thanks for blood and murdering I'll sing, the glories of a gracious King. A Nosegay for the House of Commons. Smell, smell I pray, sirreverence unto the lower House, And if from it there comes a stench, pray take it in your mouth. WAs there ever Garden in this world so soon overrun with stinking and baneful weeds, that not long since flourished with all the choicest flowers both for scent and colour, that Flora watered with pearl drops, and Titan's warming beams gave birth unto, whose roots twined in chaste embraces, as if they sympathized of each others virtue, that Nature herself was prided to walk into the twined Meanders of her curious Mazes; here might you see the Princely Rose [the King] so full of fragrancy, that for its smell and colour, it was the envy of all the world; yet guarded so with its sharp pricking Thorns, [Militia,] that no rude hand durst touch it; there might you see the Lily, [Queen,] whiter than Innocence itself; a fruitful Vine bearing such tender Clusters, as might tempt the Gods to taste; there might you see the Olive-plants, [the Royal Progeny,] placed round about a table, where Kings and Queens did feast, and there might kiss those fruits that their own hands had planted: Here grew hearts ease, there precious Time, guarded with herb of grace, and Winter-savoury, the curious Tulips, Posies, Pinks, and Mary golds, [Nobility and Gentry,] strove to emulate each other, and to excel it sweetness, [Loyalty,] and with their spicy breaths to bloom each other, and beget the blushing heats of love; here grew the Physic herbs, there those for nourishment, that nothing wanted to add perfection to a complete Paradise, that might reblesse the sin scorched earth, caused by our first Parents crimes, and regain the blessing that they lost by disobedience; so set a period to all the thorny cares and weedy troubles that compass weak humanity. In the midst of this Garden stood the Tree of Life, [pure Religion,] for hungry souls to feed on; then stood a Fountain, [Baptism,] in whose Crystal streams, Angels like Swans might bathe their silver wings, so pure and clear, that you might read your name at bottom, so shallow that an infant but of eight days old might wade, and yet an Elephant might swim; next to whose banks was planted by Heavens curious workmanship an Arbour, in the midst whereof was a Table furnished with all delicates, Manna, [Lords Supper,] that God might feast on, the reverend Attendants [Bishops,] wear white robes, the emblems of true innocence, the inscription over the Arbour was, Ho, come every one that thirsteth, buy milk and wine without money; run, run my soul one drop from thence will quench the fire of hell, make thee for ever happy in immortality, and never thirst again On the other side stood an Angel holding a flaming sword [Justice prefigured in King Charles the chief Minister thereof, and to render justice on all offenders,] to kill all venomous and unclean creatures that durst approach this place of happiness. The Angel was as a God to distinguish between good and evil, virtue and vice, the one by him cherished, the other punished; to whose praise you might hear contending Nightingales, and sky mounting Larks [Poets,] warbling out anthems to his earthly Deity; there the two Tuttle-doves of peace and truth to kiss each other, prosperity and plenty danced upon the downy frets of this blessed Albion, the people of which thrice happy Island in their white standard of peace might give this Motto, beati populi, a blessed people, no Island under Heaven so stored with all the chiefest treasures of nature, being for martial achievements not only honourable through the whole world, but famous in the production and government of many glorious Kings and Princes, where peace did spread her silver wings, and Christian unity from the root of unseigned love, did branch itself into the furthest boundaries of this happy Island, that all Neighbouring Nations might participate, and taste the fruit thereof. Now being at the height of all our happiness, surfeiting with excess of blessings, being full of bread we kick the heel against Heaven by our pride, which breaks out into contention, and so by evil and pestiferrous vapours blasts all this happy Island the Garden of the world; nothing visible can be permanent, all things are sublunary and subject to change; who would seven years ago have thought to have seen this flourishing Kingdom embraced in the arms of destruction; here could I break this brittle glass of nature, when I see we are certain in nothing but uncertainties; by times mutability turned and tossed on fortunes angry wheel, unconstant as the Sea, sometimes billowing up, and by and by calm; or like a ship, sometimes floating, sometimes sinking, sometimes running, then wheeling about; the Suns most glorious Body sometimes is Eclipsed; truth may for a time be clouded over, and loyalty in a shade, but shining forth they are more glorious made, and if these glorious creatures suffer, pray what must treason suffer? what must parricide, Sacrilege, blood, theft, and such foul crimes suffer? Good Parliament resolve me, you that have by your cursed rage, ambitious to show your Omnipotency ruined all this happiness, shut in our day of beauty, love, and peace, within the black and dismal clouds of contention, blasted all our Roses and Lilies of happiness, and long enjoyed amity with noisome and pestifferous showers of sanguinolent, and bloody wars: but this as a parhenthesis. The Keeper or chief Lord of this Garden, being of a credulous and tractable nature, committed the care of this Garden to some servants, through whose negligence some weeds sprang up, and a breach was made in the fence [Monopolizers] thiefs entered and stole away some flowers a Lamb or two was missing; the Lord perceiving the negligence of his servants, and their ambition for self-ends, which had caused a murmuring in the people, which he no sooner perceived, but he summoned together all the chief of the Land to advise with him which way this Garden might be weeded, and how this breach might be made up & to help him execute justice on his servants, that had betrayed their trust, and so show himself the most willing in this great work; he began to weed with his own royal hands, plucked up the thistles, the Mayweed, and Darnell that choked the corn [Ship-money, and other monopolies, high Commission, Star-chamber.] and committed the sole care and governance of this Paradise to these unskilful gardiner's, who no sooner were by this royal authority convented, but presently every frog began to swell into an Elephant, to lift up their heels against their head, and to kick at that power that had given them being, and in stead of putting their hands to help him wo●ke, lifted up their hands against him, and forced him to fly for safeguard of his life, and instead of making up the breach, made the breach wider, and instead of pulling up the weeds, sowed seeds of strife and dissension, [fears and jealousies,] when presently in rushes the Wolf, the Tiger [Anababtists and other Sectaries now under Fairfax,] the sly and crafty Fox, [Presbyter,] and the wild Boar, who all conspired the ruin of this most happy vineyard, rooting up the tender Vines, and the fattest Olives, rooted up with their round snouts the rosetree, spoilt the curious knots and borders, made holes through the fence, [broke the laws,] that all manner of unclean beasts entered, rooted up the Arbours, over threw the Tables, [the Commandments] spilt the Manna, mudyed the fountain, [old Ford saints,] and quickly made that which was a Paradise of pleasure, a wilderness of woe, bareness, and famine: that which was the Phoenix of Christendom [London] they made a habitation for Owls and Jackdaws; that which was the paragon of beauty [the Church] now the pattern of deformity, and that which was lately the Crown and pride of all Europe, now to be the scarecrow and scorn of the world. And this hath been the seven year's labours of this blessed Parliament that will hereafter be inroled in the monuments of fame for the most Traitorous that ever was [Treason never went without a just reward.] who instead of curing the national maladies of this Kingdom, have added fresh fuel to their increasing flames, disinthroned and imprisoned their Liege Lord and Sovereign, raised a most dreadful and bloody war, laid more heavy burdens on the people then ever pharoh's taskmasters did on the Israelites, and finally have brought a general ruin and destruction on the whole Kingdom: all this is real truth, so help us God. Now instead of a Postscript, give me leave to speak a word or two to a stioking Kingdom, and a disconsolate City, and he that hath guided my hand in composing this Nosegay, which I know will not be favoury to the Saints; guide your hearts and understandings to that resolution that you shall be instructed unto by one that had he ten thousand lives would ve●●u●e them all for the reestablishing of his Majesty, the freeing him from his abhorred imprisonment, the procuring of a personal Treaty, obtaining of an act of Oblivion, and his Majesty's gracious general Pardon, the Soldiers their arrears, and every man his own, and truth and peace established in the Land, with a favourable regard to tender consciences. Which till this be obtained, let all true subjects keep their money from these pr…ers over our lives and estates, endeavour to preserve and defend his Majesty's Royal person, the power and privilege of Parliament, and the Laws and liberties of the Subject, and by all good ways and means oppose and endeavour to bring to exact trial, all such, as either by plots or conspiracies have done, or shall do any thing to the prejudice of the purity of Religion, the Laws, Liberties, and Peace of the Kingdom. And further withal just and honourable ways endeavour to preserve union and peace betwixt the three Kingdoms; do this and expect a blessing, otherwise assured destruction. The NOSEGAY. A Little Hemp, Hemlock, wormwood, and Rue Would make a Poesy fit for such as you, Rebels, and Traitors, Cutthroats, men of blood, Fit to hang then do the Subject good; Others by fit election, you by Fate Are made the Executioners of State, And not distinguished from the rank of those Who only know you are, not whence you risen; You countenance give to Error and, and curb in, Bold Reprehension, make all truth a sin, L●ve uncontrolled, and in contempt of Law Do kill, do rob, Tyrannize, and over-awe, Yet this your comfort is the more you strive To Ruin us, the better do we thrive, Like Herbs, the more you bruise us, we the better sent, Plain truth can ne'er be stained, but may be shent. FINIS.