ANGLORUM SINGULTUS: OR, THE SOBS OF ENGLAND, Poured out.  
To be presented to His Excellency GENERAL GEORGE MONK.  
London, Printed for D. L. 1660.   

Anglorum Singultus: OR, The Sobs of England poured out: To be presented to his Excellency, General George Monk.  
THe hopes which was generally raised in the spirits of all men, who have any true sense of the bleeding and gasping condition of the three once famous and flourishing Nations, of England, Scotland, and Ireland, have received some Check, by what is published, of the mind and intentions of your Excellency, in relation to the public affairs; yet can we not conceive them utterly blasted, whilst we remember, you are a Christian, an Englishman, and a Gentleman, and one whose Prudence and Policy in the conduct of Affairs both Civil and Military, hath appeared signal and eminent amidst the many stormy violences, which, of late years, have so much, and so often threatened our utter ruin and destruction, both in Church, State, and Commonwealth: Oh let not the Sirens of blood and mischief further charm your ears, and delude your apprehension, by many specious pretences, and beguiling suggestions, come they clothed in what shape or colour soever: But keep those Scintillas divinae facis, those divine faculties of your soul, your Understanding, Reason, and Will, free and untainted from all the enchanting allurements of private interest and Faction; and with the generous soul of a freeborn Native of this Land, look about you, and with true Christian compassion behold the new Chains and Fetters, which the black Operators of mischief are now afresh hammering, upon your Anvil, and with your Tools. It is now complete eleven years, since that fatal and horrid act, that Crimen fulmine dignum, executed by the wicked Instruments of him, from whose dark conclave of Fiends it had its product? You that hitherto have stood free from the gnawing guilt of so direful, grand, and piacular a crime, have so much pity upon your own soul and honour, as not to sully either, with so much contamination, as to enter Counsels, much less Interests, with that bloody crew, of the most diabolical humanity's, which clothed with flesh and blood, ever entered the stage hf this world in any age or place whatsoever, since Adam digged for his first transgression in Paradise. To say nothing of what preceded, but to take a short view and glance towards the dismal wasting, and destructive contingencies, which in those sad eleven years have befallen us, viz. since Decemb. 5. 1648. from which time the first grand Contrivers of all our deplorable miseries, began with bare face, to show their horrid shape; what have we had since that time, but a continued concatination of successive mischiefs, one rushing upon the neck of another, and all under the guilded show of a free Commonwealth; when, of all the true real and essential parts thereof, we have enjoyed not so much as the least glimpse or iota? Was there ever upon earth any state and society of men, who in so few years have endured such, and so many bitter pangs and throws of vicissitudinous thraldom, as we since that tiem have done? What heaving and shooving have we often tremblingly beheld for the Empire and Dominion over us, and in whose hand that iron Rod should be that we poor Vassals were (however) to be scourged with? and when ambition had climbed and even reached the very pinnacle of its aspire, what sudden and stupendious revolutions have afresh assaulted and amazed us? What a deluge of innocent blood (now crying under the Altar) hath been waded through, to grasp, and assert the grandeur for some persons; and what millions of treasures (all rob and extorted from us) have been squandered by every uppermost Power to support its own usurpation and greatness? and we poor hackneyed, spurred and galled people, held under a severe and imperious charge and command to believe, that all this while, we were a free Commonwealth, and had gained that liberty which we were seduced so long, and vigorously to contend for; although the chains of this our cruel bondage lay so hard and heavy upon us, as that they even fretted and eat into our very bowels and vitals: Are we not from hence become the scorn of our neighbour Nations, and without God's infinite mercy very likely to become some of their prey? Was ever poor Church, State, and Commonwealth (twenty years since the wonder and envy of the whole Christian world) reduced by a few of its own members, most of them of meanest birth, and almost all of inconsiderable quality, to such a condition as we are? even the basest, and most vile of all slavery and servitude, that ever was known or heard of among the sons of Christian men? And any thing which but looks like freedom, so utterly banished from us, that it is almost become treason, to name or mention the word (FREE;) not, not in relation to that authority which calls itself supreme; we must not dare speak, much less declare our desires to have a Free Parliament; if so, whips of Steel are providing for us, to tear off that little flesh which yet remains upon our so much bloodied and bruised bones: What the interest and aims of private and particular Factions and persons are, it is, by many sad experiences, become most apparently evident, and no longer to be obscured, under any specious and glossy terms whatsoever, invented only to dazzle and amuse the vulgar and common notions, which have been so often cheated and deluded by them. The true proper and general interest of the People and Nation undoubtedly is, The settling and securing of the ancient and known fundamental Laws of the Land, upon which depends the property and true liberty of every individual member, the reviving and restoring of our languishing and dead Trade, both at home and abroad, which together with our traffic manufactures is by our ruinous disorders frighted from us to our neighbour Nations: To settle and establish Religion, that great and sure bond which fastens our securities all other ways: The procuring (after such fatal storms of feud and animosity amongst us, and something else of a higher nature) a sure, firm and general indemnity for all past actions whatsoever: To have the Government in such hands as may securely settle our foreign allyances, whose particular interest is involved in the public, and butoned by a Title and just possession, which needs not a consuming exorbitant, and all terrifying force, and power to defend and support it. These at present are the chief points of the Nations true interest: And where can these things be treated, debated, and concluded of, with any good fruit or effect, or the least hope thereof, bu● in a full and free Parliament, and the whole Nations convention? What is it, that makes this word (Free) so terrible, and detestable to some persons? is force so pleasing and delightsome to them: why then did they so lately and loudly call and cry out for help and assistance against it? And yet no sooner by the Nations joint concurrence delivered from it, but immediately they fall to put the same in practice upon such their deliverers, and continue it upon them with far more dread and terror than it was in any sort ever exercised upon themselves, in their utmost extremity. Must a small cantel of the substitutes only enjoy freedom, and the residue substituted, being almost ten times their number, together with the whole body of the Nation substituring, be kept under a force? Is freedom only the portion of some few the meanest of the people, and force to be entailed upon all the rest, to all eternity: Or be we in a dream all this while, or so stupidly ignorant, as not to understand, what is force, or what is freedom? Or doth the season or circumstance of time, altar the nature of one and the self same act in omni modo? Is that force in 1653. and the same thing not force in 1648. and 1649? Do those men who thus, as it were sport themselves with our misery, and their own usurped Empire, think that the eyes of God, Angels and men, are all shut, and that none beholds this their grand tyrannical and deluding imposture?  
There hath been, and may be so much truly said, in this and many other particulars, that it seems no less than a kind of wonder, that there should be such a sort of Natives of this Land, endued with reason, and such refined reason, as pretends to the steerage and government of three ancient, potent and flourishing Monarchies, and yet should openly dare to breathe the common air thereof, whilst with severest rigour, they impose such the most indign of all prevarications upon it, and seem to have such confidence in their acts of tyranny and force, that although (if they go on thus) their infamous ruin is so apparent to all sober bystanders, and cannot surely be otherwise to themselves likewise in their own secret thoughts; yet are they so hurried on by that Monster Ambition (Herostratus-like) to put all into a flame rather than suffer their hot and high aspire in the least to chill or take cold, till themselves and their designs drop into ashes and rubbish.  
It is you (Great Sir) who have been long looked upon as the Grand Moderator between these few unparallelled men, and this whole Nation, with all its Dominions, all the Nobility, Body of the Gentry, and Commons of the same; every County, City and Burrow, and indeed every degree and society of men throughout the same; such especially as have at any time been engaged in the late war upon the Parliament account (and not now in arms) hereby jointly as one man Addressing themselves to you, as the only Esculapius to apply a seasonable remedy to this malady of Force, which is the epedemical and contagious disease, that hath so long, and now more than ever corrodes and plague's us, and so much distorts our ease, settlement and quiet: You have brought with you store of medicaments of all sorts, potent Antidotes against the malignity of forcible power, and subtle imposture, nor want you skill and courage seasonably to apply them; we regard not the lying Trump of Fame, which publishes various stories of your being already engaged against us, and come rather to shackle us faster, then lose us from our long endured chains, to pull off our very skins which are already so close clipped by our shearers, rather than to afford us any ease or reluxation from our long endured misery. Much less do we credit that vain and empty whisper of your pretence of title to the Crown, as of the blood of a Plantagenet. These we look upon as inventions, raised by such as to retain us still in slavery, would have us think, that the scorching oil in the frying pan, is more tolerable than the glowing heat of the fire; we are very well acquainted with subtleties of this kind, and are most confidently persuaded, that your prudence and experience is such, that (would Religion and conscience permit in you such an attempt yet) the late ruinous downfall and exposition to general contempt, infamy and scorn of the Person and Family, and almost whole Alliance of such a daring Usurper, is so fresh in memory, and so visibly and apparently acted by Divine Providence in the very summity and height of their glory; that the very thought of such an aspiring, will be most execrable and abhorrent to you: The Government of this Nation and its Dominions, having in that particular much resemblance to the Ark of God, which till it came again into its right appointed place, was but a burden and plague almost to the utter destruction of whosoever durst set upon the retaining of it; witness our many late revolutions, and in them the downfall and sudden precipice of almost all that have in any sort taken upon them its steerage and management: To say nothing of the signal judgements, which have not been infrequently visible amongst us, upon such as have been eminently active in its first unhinging.  
There are many particulars more to be hinted, much too long for this Paper, yet very necessary for your advertisement; so that if freedom of argument in writing, or otherwise, were by your favour and indulgence to be used, without the danger usually in these times attending it: That which is said to be your Letter into the West, would soon clearly appear to you, to be very Paradoxal, and as Hetrogenean to true policy, as detestable to all piety.  
All new by-paths, though somewhat trodden before experience shows us, will certainly lead to no other place but precipice and ruin; for whatsoever is contrariant to the ancient settled foundation, upon which (if duly and without prejudice considered) we are so evenly and so excellently bottomed, though to such as look with false and bribed spectacles; the same may seem plausible, plain and easy of digestion; yet it is almost impossible, but that there must needs be thence a production of the same evils, which have been acted amongst us under several shapes and forms, ever since the year, 1648. And which will as certainly and undoubtedly return and rush in again upon us, and that the same causes cannot in nature but produce the same effects, and this without any difficulty is clearly and infallibly to be demonstrated to each rational and capable apprehension; if pens were permitted that freedom to undeceive, as they are countenanced, nay hired to becloud, corrupt, and ensnare men, that so their chains and bonds of slavery and servitude may appear somewhat necessarily to be continued upon them; and whatsoever tyranny and vassaledge they undergo and feel, they must yet believe (because they are so commanded) that it is liberty and freedom which they enjoy, and that they are Members of a Free-State and Commonwealth.  
The way you are desired to walk in, is not at all obscure; but as it is plain and easy; so is it most open, clear and manifest to all prudent and  men, free from self interest and partiality; such as we doubt not but to find your Excellency; especially (dum res sit integra, with you, and before you drink deeper of the cup of enchantment prepared for you) if you will please but seriouslly to cast your thoughts upon, believe truths, and duly consider the preparations and resolutions abroad: And with the tender bowels of a true English Gentleman to ponder the most earnest and intense desires (almost to rude clamours) at home, of all sorts from the highest to the lowest, and in all parts and places of the Nation; and preserve yourself fortified against the allurements, and not be taken with the seeming bounties, but really empty husks, of those who (though at present you are the darling of their courtship) yet you may be sure, intent no further to honour you, then as it is useful for themselves, nor make use of you longer, than (after their own turn is served) they have an opportunity and power to crush and destroy you; which as is credibly reported, an eminent one amongst them, not long since affirmed in effect to his Friend.  
Providence hath brought it so to pass, that you have now the scale of your future fortunes in your own hands; be wary how you poise them, and look circumspectly to the weight in each scale; and take heed you make not the dross weigh down the gold. It is now undoubtedly in your power to settle firmly and lastingly the peace and quiet of this so long miserably torn and wasted Nation, and that in all probability, without the least drop of blood: A piece of Honour and Christianity, which hitherto hath not been vouchsafed so clearly to any person or power whatsoever, since our fatal and unhappy struggle: Lose not this your happy and glorious opportunity, (as divers others have done theirs, and perished) lest any glimpse thereof never dawn more to you: The cure is so easy (done with a word or two, A Free Parliament) and so natural for the malady and distemper; that surely it would be the greatest of all tyrannical cruelties, to suffer a longer perseverance in denying so certain a remedy for such a sore and desperate evil; you have potent Arguments Sir, and such only they are, which the grand Opposers and our tormentors have used themselves to be convinced by: Oh look upon, and more than seriously consider the rueful and deplorable condition which your poor Mother Nation, without this your intercession, will most unavoidably and desperately be involved in. Think upon her, and her Churches former and ineffable sufferings; and let her not be denied this one boon so necessary to preserve her from final and utter destruction; she (as it were upon her bare and bended knees) begs this from you, her own Son; and that it may be speedy and effectual, not hampered and shackled with (we know not what) absurd and empty previous Votes, made by a handful of inconsiderate and corrupt interessed men, to the infamy, stain, and dishonour of those grave, high and honourable Assemblies, but free and absolute, without any dread, force, restriction, or awe upon it, which really and indeed destroys its very essence, and renders it a mere slavish, captived Conventicle, and no true English Parliament: By which, and no other way or remedy under Heaven, she can hope to obtain any effectual and successful cure; agd which by your means procured for her, shall immortalize your fame and renown, not only through these Nations, but through the whole Christian world, and merit Trophies of honour to be erected to you; and your Name and Posterity by all sorts and degrees of men, be justly magnified and exalted, so that no length of time shall defeat its just merit, but the same remain upon record to all succeeding generations.  
But yet after all these hopes, and expectations of your generous integrity, if you shall, by what allurements whatsoever, be warped and wrested from this undoubted true interest of your own and your Mother Country, and shall comply with that rotten Rump, and Bob-tail of a Parliament, the most base and unworthy for all sinister and corrupt interest and faction that ever entered the walls of any of our English high Assemblies; in so much that never any crew of men, since this Island was first peopled, how vile and bad soever, incurred more than they, such odium, scorn and contempt from all sorts and degrees of persons, from the highest to the lowest, throughout the whole Nation, which may be easily heard and seen, not only in the open streets chanted out in Rhythms and Sonnets, but upon the walls of almost every Alehouse and Tipling-hutch; yet if such be the power of their Rhetoric to persuade, and your faculty to believe and comply, then look to your station, and the Reed you choose to lean on, for you will assuredly find your ground very slippery; and your seeming support, though weak in itself, yet piercing your hands; and although perhaps you may seem to flourish a while, and swallow down great hopes, yet be assured they will never come to good digestion, but must up again: The incensed Nation, though dejected for a time, will again rouse themselves, and never forget the delusion, cheat, and indeed no other than an absolute Tre-pan put upon them, by which so many of them have incurred some hazard and danger, and all from the good hopes they had of your prndence and integrity, and your loyalty and good intentions to the true National interest, which you seemed so much to profess, and plainly asserted the same in your Answer to the City of London's Letter, telling them, that you concurred with them in their Declaration, which in express words was for the obtaining of a Free Parliament; nor can your Myrmidons help you at the long run neither; but you and your posterity will find your name and memory noysomly stink in the nostrils of all good and sober men; and your Exit (at least of honour) in all probability become more speedy than 'tis possible you now deny or imagine, and that in the most abject and contemptible kind of all others your fellow-destroyers and Ruiners of three famous and potent Kingdoms; nor will that be the worst neither. There is an account likewise to be given (a very deadful one) at that impartial bar of the great and general Tribunal, where no martial force, pomp or policy, will at all be prevalent; and where perhaps this very paper, (if slighted by you) may add something to your astonishment and confusion.  
But we yet hope better things from your Excellency, and such as shall be worthy yourself, as you are a Christian, a Gentleman, and an Englishman, and one so eminent, whose lot it is, to be furnished with that power in such a conjuncture of time as this, that if you please but to pronounce the desired word only, all our miseries end, and our chains immediately fall off, which otherwise may be somewhat lasting, upon us; yet such is our hope and confidence in the great Disposer of all things, that we dare in faith and sincerity use the words of Mordecai concerning God's people, recorded by the Holy Ghost, Esther 4.14. Deliverance shall arise from another place, and thou and thy Father's House shall be destroyed, and who knows whether thou art come to this honour for such a time as this? etc.  
But we retire, stand still, and expect, etc.  
FINIS.