Mr. Recorders Speech TO THE LORD PROTECTOR UPON Wednesday the eighth of FEBRU. 1653. BEING The day of His Highness' entertainment IN LONDON.  
LONDON, Printed by R.I. for Matthew Walbancke, and are to be sold at his shops at Grayes-Inne-Gates, 1653.   

Mr. Recorder's SPEECH To the Lord PROTECTOR, Upon Wednesday the eight of February 1653. being the day of His Highness' Entertainment in LONDON.  
MAy it please Your Highness, my Lord Protector, it hath been observed by some, That when Samuel offered Sacrifice, he therefore reserved the Shoulders for Saul, that he might know what was the weight of Government: The consideration of which made Maximilian affirm, That none who knew how heavy Diadems were, would stoop to take them up. Governors are like the Heavenly Bodies, much in Veneration, but never in rest; and how can it otherwise be expected, when they are not made for themselves, or their own glory, but for the safety and good of Mankind? as in the Natural, so in the Civil World, great things being ordained to serve the less: We see the Sun by its Beams, serving the eye of the meanest Fly, as well as of the greatest Potentate. The Supremacy of Salus Populi, was the conclusion of the Twelve Tables, and will be a Prevalent Maxim until the end of the World.  
By thus much, My Lord, You may perceive the dark side of this Leading Cloud of Government; but if God vouchsafe assistance from those Shoulders, upon which the Government is laid, and put under his Everlasting Arms, You will see the bright side also, and thence receive Encouragement: This Support he is pleased to give, by letting Rulers know he is the Author of their Power, and that from him they are to expect their Rule. The Designation of Government, as to Forms and Persons, is an Humane Institution, and mutable, as things that are made; but Government itself, abstractively considered in its pure Original, is of a Divine Offspring, and can with no less difficulty be shaken, than those Vestigia's which being as Relations tell us, upon the tops of some Mountains, above the Clouds, can be disordered by Wind and Tempest. And for the Rule, the Word, or Reason of God in the Divine Understanding, is the Eternal Law of all things. But this being too deep a Well for Man's Bucket to draw out of, it pleased his infinite Goodness to let fall a Rivulet from this Source into the Creature; which leaving an impression in man's understanding, we call, The Law of Nature: But man having this honour, presently became of no understanding; his mind being clouded with passions and sins, had soon need of superadded helps, which God gave him, by those other Laws fit for Government, and still gives a Spirit for the framing such Municipal Laws, as are according to his Will, and suitable to the good of the People. But when this was done, the best Laws without a Government, were no other than as the Sword behind the Ephod; and therefore Moses in his time, and other Governors in their time, must be as Walking Laws, and Administrators of Justice.  
We may conclude, My Lord, Your Highness hath Experimented both these Encouragements, as being the Spectator of some, and the Subject of other great Revolutions which have happened in this Age, and Land of Wonders: And not only know, That the Most High rules in the Kingdoms of Men, disposing them to whom he pleaseth; but also, That it's not sufficient with the Princes of the Nations, to exercise dominion, which is the common Image of God, except there be also a share in the peculiar Image of his Righteousness and Holiness; they being Gods indeed, and after a peculiar manner, to whom the Reason, or Word of God so comes.  
My Lord, There is one help more in Government, which God is pleased often to add to the rest, which is the giving in of the Affections of the People. The solemnity of this day, wherein the Citizens of this great City appear in their several Companies, as so many Cities within the City, speaks much to this; they leave it to other Nations to salute their Rulers and Victorious Commanders with the names of Caesares and Imperatores; and after Triumphs, to erect for them their Arcus Triumphales: But if I mistake not, their end, this day, is not any such outward Pomp or Glory, but that those who have been delivered together, might rejoice together; and to express their Desires, That the Civil Sword might be as prosperous for Public Ends, in the Hand where it is placed, as the Military Sword hath been in the same Hand.  
This City seldom goes alone in Public Actions: it was anciently called by Stephanides, The heart of the Nation; and if the Heart be in a Politic consideration, as it is in the natural, it will communicate life and spirits into the other Members, by which means the whole Body may unanimously contribute their desires and endeavours to oppose the common Enemy, and after all our distractions, see the Nation established upon the firm Basis of Peace and Righteousness, which is the end of Government and shall be the end of my further troubling Your Highness.  
FINIS.