The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America

Composition

If Reformation were come thus neer, I should hope Composition were not farre off: When hearts meet in God, they will soon meet in Gods wayes, and upon Gods termes. But to avoid prolixity, which steales upon me; For Composition, I shall compose halfe a dozen distichs concerning these kind of Wars; wishing I could sing asleep these odious stirres at least on some part, with a dull Ode. He is no Cobler that cannot sing, nor no good Cobler that can sing well:

Wee heare that Majestas Imperii hath challenged Salus Populi into the field; the one fighting for Prerogatives, the other defending Liberties: Were I a Constable bigge enough, I would set one of them by the heeles to keep both their hands quiet; I meane onely in a paire of stocks, made of sound reason, handsomely fitted for the legges of their Understanding.

If Salus Populi began, surely it was not that Salus Populi which I left in England: That Salus Populi was as mannerly a Salus Populi as need bee: if I bee not much deceived, that Salus Populi suffer'd its nose to be held to the Grindstone, till it was almost ground to the grisles; and yet grew never the sharper for ought I could discerne; What was, before the world was made, I leave to better Antiquaries then myselfe; but I thinke, since the world began, it was never storied that Salus Populi began with Majestas Imperii, unlesse Majestas Imperii first unharbour'd it, and hunted it to a stand, and then it must either turne head and live, or turn taile and die: but more have been storyed on the other hand than Majestas Imperii is willing to heare: I doubt not but Majestas Imperii knows, that Common-wealths cost as much the making as Crownes; and if they bee well made, would yet outsell an ill-fashioned Crown, in any Market overt, even in Smithfield, if they could be well vouched.

But Preces & Lachrymæ, are the people's weapons: so are Swords and Pistols, when God and Parliaments bid them Arme. Prayers and Teares are good weapons for them that have nothing but knees and eyes; but most men are made with teeth and nailes; onely they must neither scratch for Liberties, nor bite Prerogatives, till they have wept and prayed as God would have them. If Subjects must fight for their Kings against other Kingdomes, when their Kings will; I know no reason, but they may fight against their Kings for their own Kingdomes, when Parliaments say they may and must: but Parliaments must not say they must, till God sayes they may.

I can never beleeve that Majestas Imperii, was ever so simple as to think, that if it extends it self beyond its due Artique at one end, but Salus Populi must Antartique it as farre at the other end, or else the world will be Excentrick, and then it will whirle; and if it once fall a whirling, ten to one, it will whirle them off first, that sit in highest chaires on cushions fill'd with Peacocks feathers; and they are like to stand their ground fastest, that owne not one foot of ground to stand upon. When Kings rise higher than they should, they exhale Subjects higher than they would: if the Primum Mobile should ascend one foot higher than it is, it would hurry all the nether wheeles, and the whole world on fire in 24 houres. No Prince exceeds in Soveraignty, but his Subjects will exceed as farre in some vitious Liberty, to abate their griefe; or some pernicious mutiny, to abate their Prince.

Nor can I beleeve that Crownes trouble Kings Heads, so much as Kings heads trouble Crownes: nor that they are flowers of Crowns that trouble Crowns, but rather some Nettles or Thistles mistaken for flowers.

To speake plainer English, I have wondred these thirty yeares what Kings aile: I have seen in my time, the best part of twenty Christian Kings and Princes; Yet as Christian as they were, some or other were still scuffling for Prerogatives. It must be granted at all hands, that Prærogativæ Regis are necessary Supporters of State: and stately things to stately Kings: but if withall, they be Derogativæ Regno, they are but little things to wise Kings. Equity is as due to People, as Eminency to Princes: Liberty to Subjects, as Royalty to Kings: If they cannot walk together lovingly hand in hand, pari passu, they must cut girdles and part as good friends as they may: Nor must it be taken offensively, that when Kings are haling up their top-gallants, Subjects lay hold on their slablines; the head and body must move alike: it is nothing meet for me to say with Horace,

But I hope I may safely say,

Distracting Nature, calls for distracting Remedies; perturbing policies for disturbing cures: If one Extreame should not constitute its Anti-Extreame, all things would soon be in extremo: if ambitious windes get into Rulers Crownes, rebellious vapours will into Subjects Caps, bee they stopt never so close: Yet the tongues of Times tell us of ten Preter-royall Usurpations, to one contra-civill Rebellion.

Civill Liberties and Proprieties admeasured, to every man to his true suum, are the prima pura principia, propria quarto modo, the sine quibus of humane States, without which, men are but women. Peoples prostrations of these things when they may lawfully helpe it, are prophane prostitutions; ignorant Ideottismes, under naturall noddaries; and just it is that such as undersell them, should not re-inherit them in haste, though they seeke it carefully with teares. And such usurpations by Rulers, are the unnaturalizings of nature, disfranchisements of Freedome, the Neronian nullifyings of Kingdomes: yea, I beleeve the Devill himselfe would turne Round-head, rather then suffer these Columnes of Common-wealths to be slighted: as he is a creature, he feares decreation; as an Angell, dehominations; as a Prince, dis-common-wealthings; as finite, these pen-infinite insolencies, which are the most finite Infinites of misery to men on this side the worlds dissolution: therefore it is, that with Gods leave, he hath sounded an alarm to all the susque deques, pell-mels, one and alls, now harrassing sundry parts of Christendome. It is enough for God to be Infinite, too much for man to bee Indefinite. He that will flye too high a quarry for Absolutenesse, shall stoope as much too low before he remounts his proper pitch: If Jacob will over top his brother out of Gods time and way, he will so hamstring him, that hee shall make legs whether he will or no, at his brothers approach: and such as over-run all humane measure, shall seldome returne to humane mercy: There are sins besides the sin against the Holy Ghost, which shall not be expiated by sacrifice for temporall revenge: I mean when they are boyled up to a full consistence of contumacy and impenitency. Let absolute Demands or Commands be put into one scale, and indefinite refusalls into the other: all the Goldsmiths in Cheapeside, cannot tell which weighs heaviest. Intolerable griefes to Subjects, breed the Iliaca passio in a body politick, which inforces that upwards which should not. I speak these things to excuse, what I may, my Countrymen in the hearts of all that look upon their proceedings.

There is a quadrobulary saying which passes current in the Westerne World, That the Emperour is King of Kings, the Spaniard, King of Men, the French, King of Asses, the King of England, King of Devills. By his leave that first brayed the speech, they are pretty wise Devills and pretty honest; the worse they doe, is to keep their Kings from devillizing, and themselves from Assing: Were I a King (a simple supposall) I would not part with one good English Devill, for some two of the Emperours Kings, nor three of the Spaniards Men, nor foure French Asses; If I did I should thinke my selfe an Asse for my labour. I know nothing that Englishmen want, but true Grace, and honest pride; let them be well furnisht with those two, I feare they would make more Asses, then Spaine can make men, or the Emperour Kings. You will say I am now beyond my latchet; but you would not say so, if you knew how high my latchet will stretch; when I heare a lye with a latchet, that reaches up to his throat that first forged it.

He is a good King that undoes not his Subjects by any one of his unlimited Prerogatives: and they are a good People, that undoe not their Prince, by any one of their unbounded Liberties, be they the very least. I am sure either may, and I am sure neither would be trusted, how good soever. Stories tell us in effect, though not in termes, that over-risen Kings, have been the next evills to the world, unto fallen Angels; and that over-franchised people, are devills with smooth snaffles in their mouthes. A King that lives by Law, lives by love; and he that lives above Law, shall live under hatred doe what he can. Slavery and knavery goe as seldome asunder, as Tyranny and Cruelty.

I have a long while thought it very possible, in a time of Peace, and in some Kings Reigne, for disert Statesmen, to cut an exquisite thred between Kings Prerogatives, and Subjects Liberties of all sorts, so as Cæsar might have his due, and People their share, without such sharpe disputes. Good Casuists would case it, and case it, part it, and part it; now it, and then it, punctually. Aquinas, Suarez, or Valentia, would have done it long ere this, had they not beene Popish, I might have said knavish; for, if they be so any where, it is in their Tractates of Priviledges. Our Common Law doth well, but it must doe better before things doe as they should. There are some Maximes in Law, that would be taught to speake a little more mannerly, or else well Anti-Maxim'd: we say, the King can doe a Subject no wrong; why may wee not say, the Parliament can doe the King no wrong? We say, Nullum tempus occurrit Regi in taking wrong; why may wee not say, Nullum tempus succurrit Regi in doing wrong? which I doubt will prove as good a Canon if well examined.

Authority must have power to make and keep people honest; People, honesty to obey Authority; both, a joynt-Councell to keep both safe. Morall Lawes, Royall Prerogatives, Popular Liberties, are not of Mans making or giving, but Gods: Man is but to measure them out by Gods Rule: which if mans wisdome cannot reach, Mans experience must mend: And these Essentialls, must not be Ephorized or Tribuned by one or a few Mens discretion, but lineally sanctioned by Supreame Councels. In pro-re-nascent occurrences, which cannot be foreseen; Diets, Parliaments, Senates, or accountable Commissions, must have power to consult and execute against intersilient dangers and flagitious crimes prohibited by the light of Nature: Yet it were good if States would let People know so much beforehand, by some safe woven manifesto, that grosse Delinquents may tell no tales of Anchors and Buoyes, nor palliate their presumptions with pretence of ignorance. I know no difference in these Essentialls, between Monarchies, Aristocracies, or Democracies; the rule will be found par-rationall, say Schoolmen and Pretorians what they will. And in all, the best Standard to measure Prerogatives, is the Ploughstaffe; to measure Liberties, the Scepter: if the tearms were a little altered into Loyall Prerogatives and Royall Liberties, then we should be sure to have Royall Kings and Loyall Subjects.

But Progenitors have had them for four and twenty predecessions: that would be spoken in the Norman tongue or Cimbrian, not in the English or Scottish: When a Conquerour turnes Christian, Christianity turns Conquerour: if they had had them time out of minde of man, before Adam was made, it is not a pin to the point in foro rectæ rationis: Justice and Equity were before time, and will be after it: Time hath neither Politicks nor Ethicks, good nor evill in it; it is an empty thing, as empty as a New-English purse, and emptier it cannot bee: a man may break his neck in time, and in a lesse time then he can heale it.

But here is the deadly pang, it must now be taken by force and dint of sword: I confesse it is a deadly pang to a Spirit made all of flesh, but not to a mortified heart: it is good to let God have his will as hee please, when we have not reason to let him have it as we should; remembring, that hitherto he hath taken order, that ill Prerogatives gotten by the Sword, should in time be fetcht home by the Dagger, if nothing else will doe it: Yet I trust there is both day and means to intervent this bargaine. But if they should; if God will make both King and Kingdome the better by it, what should either lose? I am sure there is no great cause for either to make great brags.

I confesse, he that parts with such pearles to be paid in old iron, had need to be pityed more by his faithfull friends, than he is like to be by his false flatterers. My heart is surcharged, I can no longer forbear.

My Dearest Lord, and my more than dearest King, I most humbly beseech you upon mine aged knees, that you would please to arme your minde with patience of proofe, and to intrench your selfe as deep as you can, in your wonted Royall meeknesse; for I am resolved to display my unfurled soule in your very face, and to storme you with volyes of Love and Loyalty. You owe the meanest true Subject you have, a close account of these open Warres: they are no Arcana imperii. Then give mee leave to inquire of your Majesty, what you make in fields of blood, when you should be amidst your Parliament of peace: What you doe sculking in the suburbs of Hell, when your Royall Pallaces stand desolate, through your absence? What moves you to take up Armes against your faithfull Subjects, when your Armes should bee embracing your mournfull Queen? What incenses your heart to make so many widdowes and Orphans, and among the rest your owne? Doth it become you, the King of the stateliest Island the world hath, to forsake your Throne, and take up the Manufacture of cutting your Subjects throats, for no other sin, but for Deifying you so over-much, that you cannot be quiet in your Spirit, till they have pluckt you downe as over-low? Doe your three Kingdomes so trouble you, that they must all three be set on fire at once, that when you have done, you may probably runne away by their light into utter darknesse? Doe your three Crownes sit so heavy on your head, that you will break the backs of the three bodies that set them on, and helpt you beare them so honourably? Have your three Lamb-like flocks so molested you, that you must deliver them up to the ravening teeth of evening Wolves? Are you so angry with those that never gave you just cause to be angry, but by their too much feare to anger you at all, when you gave them cause enough? Are you so weary of Peace, that you will never be weary of Warre? Are you so willing to warre at home, who were so unwilling to warre abroad, where and when you should? Are you so weary of being a good King, that you will leave your selfe never a good Subject? Have you peace of Conscience, in inforcing many of your Subjects to fight for you against their Conscience? Are you provided with Answers at the great Tribunall, for the destruction of so many thousands, whereof every man was as good a man as your Self, qua man?

Is it not a most unworthy part for you to bee running away from your Subjects in a day of battel, upon whose Pikes you may come safe with your naked breast and welcome? Is it honourable for you to be flying on horses, from those that would esteeme it their greatest honour, to beare you on their humble shoulders to your Chaire of Estate, and set you down upon a Cushion stuffed with their hearts? Is it your prudence to be inraged with your best friends, for adventuring their lives to rescue you from your worst enemies? Were I a King, pardon the supposall, I would hang that Subject by the head, that would not take me by the heels, and dragge me to my Court, when he sees me shifting for life in the ruined Countrey, if nothing else would doe it; And I would honour their very heels, that would take me by the very head, and teach me, by all just meanes, to King it better, when they saw me un-Kinging my selfe and Kingdome: Doe you not know Sir, that, as when your people are sicke of the Kings-evill, God hath given you a gift to heale them? so when your selfe are sicke of it, God hath given the Parliament a gift to heale you: Hath your Subjects love been so great to you, that you will spend it all, and leave your children little or none? Are you so exasperated against wise Scotland, that you will make England your foole or foot-stoole? Is your fathers Sonne growne more Orthodox, then his most Orthodox father, when he told his Sonne, that a King was for a kingdome, and not a kingdome for a King? parallell to that of the Apostle; the husband is but by the wife, but the wife of the husband.

Is Majestas Imperii growne so kickish, that it cannot stand quiet with Salus Populi, unlesse it be fettered? Are you well advised, in trampling your Subjects so under your feet, that they can finde no place to be safe in, but over your head: Are you so inexorably offended with your Parliament, for suffering you to returne as you did, when you came into their house as you did, that you will be avenged on all whom they represent? Will you follow your very worst Councell so far, as to provoke your very best, to take better counsell than ever they did? If your Majesty be not Popish, as you professe, and I am very willing to beleeve, why doe you put the Parliament to resume the Sacrament of the Altar, or Consubstantions in saying, the King and Parliament, the King and Parliament? breaking your simple Subjects braines to understand such mysticall Parleenment? I question much, whether they were not better speake plainer English, then such Latine as the Angels can hardly construe, and God happily loves not to perse; I can as well admit an ubiquitary King as another, if a King be abroad in any good affaire; but if a King be at home and will circumscribe himselfe at Oxford, and proscribe or discribe his Parliament at Westminster, if that Parliament will prescribe what they ought, without such paradoxing, I should think God would subscribe a Le Dieu le veult readily enough.

Is your Advisera such a Suavamen to you, that hath been such a Gravamen to Religion and Peace? Shall the chiefe bearing wombe of your Kingdome, be ever so constituted, that it cannot be delivered of its owne deliverance, in what pangs soever it be, without the will of one man-midwife, and such a man as will come and not come, but as he list: nor bring a Parliament to bed of a well-begotten Liberty without an entire Subsidy? Doe not your Majesty being a Schollar, know, that it was a truth long before it was spoken, that Mundus est unus aut nullus, that there is Principum purum unum, which unites the world and all that is in it; where that is broken, things fall asunder, that whatsoever is duable or triable, is fryable.

Is the Militia of your Kingdome, such an orient flower of your Crowne, which all good Herbalists judge but a meere nettle, while it is in any one mans hand living? May not you as well challenge the absolute disposall of all the wealth of the Kingdome as of all the strength of your Kingdome? Can you put any difference? unlesse it bee this, that mens hearts and bones are within their skins, more proper and intrinsecall, their lands and cattell more externall: dare you not concredit the Militia, with those to whom you may betrust your heart, better then your owne breast? Will they ever harme you with the Militia, that have no manner of malitia against you, but for mis-imploying the Militia against them by the malitia of your ill Counsellours? What good will the Militia doe you when you have wasted the Realme of all the best Milites it hath? May not your Majesty see through a paire of Spectacles, glazed with inch-board; that while you have your Advisera in one hand, and the Militia in the other, you have the neckes of your Subjects under your feet, but not your heart in your owne hand? doe you not know that malum est, posse malum?

Hath Episcopacy beene such a religious Jewell in your State, that you will sell all or most of your Coronets, Caps of honour, and blue Garters, for six and twenty cloth Caps? and your Barons Cloakes, for so many Rockets, whereof usually twenty have had scarce good manners enough to keepe the other six sweet? Is no Bishop no King, such an oraculous Truth, that you will pawne your Crowne and life upon it? if you will, God may make it true indeed on your part: Had you rather part with all, then lose a few superfluous tumours, to pare off your monstrousnesse? Will you be so covetous, as to get more then you ought, by losing more then you need? Have you not driven good Subjects enough abroad, but you will also slaughter them that stay at home? Will you take such an ill course, that no prayers can fasten that good upon you we desier? Is there not some worse root than all these growing in your Spirit, bringing forth all this bitter fruit? against which you should take up Arms, rather then against your harmlesse Subjects? Doe you not foresee, into what importable head-tearings and heart-searchings you will be ingulfed, when the Parliament shall give you a mate, though but a Stale? Methinkes it should breake your heart, to see such a one as I, presume so much upon your clemency and too much upon your Majesty, which your Selfe have so eclipsed by the interposall of your Selfe between your Selfe and your Selfe, that it hath not ray's enough left to dazle downe the height of my affections to the awe of my Judgement.

Tres-Royall Sir, I once againe beseech you, with teares dropping from my hoary head, to cover your Selfe as close as you may, with the best shield of goodnesse you have: I have somewhat more to say, which may happily trouble not your Selfe, but your followers, more than what is already said. There lived in your Realme and Reigne two whom I may well tearme Prophets, both now in a better Kingdome; whereof one foretold two things concerning your Majesty, of these very proceedings, long before they began; which being done and past shall bee buried in silence: the other made this prediction about the same time.