PARABLES Reflecting upon the Times, Newly Past, and yet Present;  
By P: D: The Writer of the Problems lately printed,  
And now recommended to the attentive reading, serious consideration, and devout meditation OF ALL The Generals, Officers, & Soldiers, that have been employed on either side in the late unnatural WAR; More especially of His Excellency, the Lord Fairfax, and those of his victorious ARMY.  
Behold, because the Lord God of your Fathers was wroth with Judah, he hath delivered them into your hand, and ye have slain them in a rage that reacheth up unto heaven.  
And now ye purpose to keep under the children of Judah and Jerusalem for bondmen, and bondwomen unto you: but are there not with you, even with you, sins against the Lord your God? 2 Chron. 28.9, & 10.  Quam fortia sunt verba recta! 
nouemb: 13 Printed in the year. MDCXLVIII.   

Parables reflecting upon the Times.  
1. Whether if a loving husband have a jealous conceit that his Wife hath a mind to usurp authority over him, or in his affairs, beyond that which he thinketh fit, or would be for his honour to allow her, in respect of the custom of the Country where they live, though he believe she affecteth this power in her intendment for his good, yet whether he be bound to yield to her therein? Or if he be not so tame, as to think it his duty to be obedient to her for quietness sake, nor she so obedient to him, as to defist from seeking to have her will therein (as he imagineth) whether he may thereupon take occasion to abridge her of that interest either in his affections, or counsels by the way of advice, and of gentle persuasion, or in such his domestic, or other affairs as are proper for her managing; and whether he be like to be better served by trusting servants, rather than his wife, in such things of course belonging to her care?  
2. Whether uncertain fears, and jealousies of the highest nature between man, and wife, and peradventure not altogether without some appearing cause, be a sufficient ground either for their withdrawing themselves from one another's company, or for their continuing to live apart? And whether the devisers, bearers, receivers, spreaders, countenancers, and whisperers of uncharitable surmises and false tales between them, and all other promoters of such jealousies, and furtherers of such separation, or discontinuance, be not guilty of all the evil consequences of both?  
3. Whether if a new married man, and his wife living in their Father's house, should happen to fall out so fare, as to come to blows, upon no other quarrel but such his uncertain fears, and jealousies of her affecting superiority, and their Father's servants appointed to wait on them, in stead of parting them, should take part, some with their young Master, some with their young Mistress, and some of those servants should chance to lose their life on both sides, whether all the slain should not be guilty of their own, and of their fellow's deaths? And whether such servants remaining alive, as should still persuade, and urge the young people to try out the Mastery; or such as from the beginning ever persuaded to peace, and did what in them was to prevent this unnatural fray; or after it came to blood, at last repenting their having had any hand therein, became thereupon the more effectual solicitors, and importuners for a reconcilement, be like to have more blame, or thanks given from the good Gentleman their old Master, when he shall come to take notice of this matter, or of the young folk themselves, if once they come to be cordially kind again?  
4. Whether a Lady of unspotted chastity, and unblemished reputation, having a jealous husband, and having been informed that she had been slandered in the point of her Loyalty to him, by some crafty parasite, or officious servant of his, aught to think herself much beholding to any friend, or servant of hers, that hearing thereof, should challenge such parasite, or servant of her husbands into the field, thereby putting the before unquestioned fame of her integrity upon the uncertain chance of the issue of a duel? And whether a faithful husband having a jealous wife, and having found out the evil instruments of much discontent between them upon that occasion, but having found withal, that being persons highly in her favour, she would by no means endure to have them questioned for it, should be obliged to such friends or servants, as out of their zeal to his service should attempt to fright them from being about her? And whether it be not more counsellable for both the said parties, to wait for seasonable opportunities to remove such make-bates at leisure; admitting the informations against them to be certain? And whether how certain soever either of the parties may think the informations, and how wise soever both of them may be, yet they may not have been abused therein by the wily practices of cunning persons?  
5. Whether such high disagreements and brawls between man and wife upon ungrounded jealousies be not ever great sins, as well as great afflictions, and commonly the punishment of former sins, either against one another, or with one another, in having agreed to displease God in some things, either to please, or at least not to displease one another? And whether an Oath ought not to be accepted for the clearing of such jealousies, if there be no certain proof that there is a cause for them? And whether if that be not found a sufficient remedy, any other will, but their confessing their faults one to another, forgiving one another, praying for one another, burying all harsh passages in oblivion without repartition, and beginning the world anew with the good old Scottish Proverb; Let bygans be bygans? And whether any good man can be against such an agreement between parties so yoked together, that neither of them can be happy without the other, nor till they be both agreed to go quietly one way, and to put their shoulders together to the drawing of that load, which will otherwise be found too heavy for them?  
6. Whether if in such an unnatural fray between husband and wife, it should happen that the woman should give the man a fall, and having gotten him under her, should threaten never to let him rise again, unless he would give it her under his hand, that he would thence forward be content she should wear the breeches, and yet after long holding him down should find him the most resolved man under the Sun, never to dishonour himself so fare as to yield thereunto: Whether I say in this case, it could be possible for her to make any greater advantage of the fortune of the day, than in a noble fashion to tell him, that having made an experiment of his wisdom and courage, she now found, and acknowledged him to be worthy to be her Lord, and would from thenceforth yield all due obedience to him? And whether this were not like to prove the strongest tye upon her husband, lifted up by the same hand that threw him to the ground, to bury all that had passed between them in perpetual oblivion? And whether he should not be, and be reputed, the most unworthy man in the world, if from that day forward he should not use her with all the respect due to a Lady of so brave a spirit, and allow her a much greater part in his affairs, than he could well have done with his honour, if there never had been any such contest between them?  
And now if any man shall ask the meaning of these Parables, he may find them expounded to his hand in the considerations dedicated to the City, in the year 1642; Where he may also be showed the use to be made of them in these words:— And because experience hath taught me, that the rarity and greatness of affairs, and accidents of State, doth I know not how dazzle the eyes of men unaccustomed, and unacquainted with the judging and handling of them, and that the best way to dispel this mist, is to look on such things and courses which are usual in common life, and by them to take the right proportions, and measure, and way of managing of the other less known, my first endeavour shall be to find out such a parallel for the business now in hand. And as I know no comparison doth run better, or more fit than that of a man, and his wife, with the King, and his Parliament; so I would our present distempers were not too like the condition of a woman, and her husband, first parted upon jealousy, and other discontents between them, and then not knowing how with credit to come together again, when the great increase of both their discomforts, occasioned by their separation, hath sufficiently disposed them unto it. For in this case, which is of too common knowledge, if through the working of their own good nature, or the solicitation of others, they shall take a resolution to make haste to meet again at one great step, by passing over all that hath passed between them in silence, it is a hundred to one, that once within a month, or a year or two, some new falling out upon old reckon will happen between them, and then this second breach will be harder to make up then the former. On the other side, if they shall resolve to live asunder till satisfaction shall be given for every cause of distaste, and till every ground of difference between them shall be fully reconciled, by the going of friends, or sending of papers between them the adventure is no less, that pickthank tale-bearers, and such other persons, as either are gainers by their being at odds, or in danger by their reconcilement, will give so many cunning interruptions to the length of such a Negotiation, that one of their lives will be ended before the Treaty be concluded. In this case therefore it hath ever been found best to go a middle way by compounding all the principal grounds of their separation before their return into the same house, and to leave the rest to be agreed between themselves, which after they have had a new taste of the contentment of living as they ought together, will easily be done in that field, where all quarrels between husband and wife should be fought our. In imitation of which proceeding, approved by many experiments, let us first inquire after the Original grounds of the present wide differences between the King and his Parliament, and then, after the most probable expedients, to agree them.—  
And now if after all this, any man shall desire me to speak plainly without any Parable, I have done that also in the Problems mentioned in the Title, where he may find the original Controversy between the King, and the Parliament, as I humbly conceive, rightly stated, and then a Practical application made of those Problems in the Project for an equitable, and lasting Peace. Which two pieces are like needle and thread, and I will presume to wish, though I can hardly hope, might be employed to the drawing up of the wide rents in this miserably torn Church and State.  Arist. Polit. Lib. 1. cap. 8. Cum vero tres Oeconomicae disciplinae partes sint; una herilis; altera conjugalis; tertia paterna: Etenim paterfamilias uxori & biberis, utrisque velut ingenuis imperat; non eadem tamen imperii genere, sed uxori politicâ, Liberis regiâ authoritate. Sen. Trag. in Agamemn: Victor timere quid potest? Quòd non timet. 
FINIS.