Historie & policie re-viewed, in the heroick transactions of His Most Serene Highnesse, Oliver, late Lord Protector; from his cradle, to his tomb: declaring his steps to princely perfection; as they are drawn in lively parallels to the ascents of the great patriarch Moses, in thirty degrees, to the height of honour. / By H.D. Esq.

The Parallel.

I believe, truly, that there is no intelligent Person living, that looks upon this long Story, of our present Ascent, but would take the par∣ticulars of the children of Israels Deliver∣ance, to be throughout Typical of ours, and all the circumstances of effecting it by the first Moses, as plainly to apply themselves, to our glorious second. Can any say, that his late Highnesse has done lesse wonders for us, and our Deliverance, or found the Lord lesse assi∣stant to him, in his miraculous undertakings, than the former? If any such there be, we shall very easily convince them.

True it is, we cannot say literally, that his Highnesse was enforced to bring so many mira∣culous plagues upon our Egyptians; but we all, as well the people of God, as their Task-masters, lay under the perfect moral of all those plagues, before he, like another Hercules A∣lexicacus, did rise up in our Israel, and under∣take, our so great and wonderful Delivery: and so we will now look upon him, march∣ing in a perfect line Parallel, with all those very actions and singular circumstances; I say still in the moral, and will dare to equal him here too, with the former mighty Moses, even in those his most stupendious passages.

And first we may see, how our second Moses,

had no sooner cast his sacred Rod upon the ground, here in England, that is, did vote in open Parliament, to undertake so just and ho∣nourable a War, as that for the redemption of this people, out of their Captivity, then more than Egyptian, but the Magicians of England likewise, that is, the pretended Prelats, and their party, would endeavour to do the like, and, in effect, did so; for they turned their crooked Croziers, into frery Serpents too, raising of men, and arms, to resist our Mosai∣cal Reformation; but the sacred Rod, of our second Moses, as that of the former, has mani∣festly devoured all their bloody and serpentine endeavours. Nay, when rivers of blood, were made to run upon English ground, in our just defence, they would needs, likewise, by their Negromantick malice, make those Rivers to overflow with blood too, for the support of their Tyrannical and usurped power: which that they might the better do too, they would raise their swarms, and infinities of Frogs to follow them, I mean, those croaking and skip∣ping Church-men, that were the truest Trum∣pets of the War, whose Religion onely was interest, and God their gain, so made it their businesse, to cover their pernicious prelatical designs, with the cloak of the Gospel, not care∣ing, so they might, by preaching, infuse their malice into others, to become Cast-awayes themselves; as the Apostle forwarns us of them, and our blessed Saviour too, terming them Wolves in Sheeps cloathing. But yet,

when our glorious second Moses, was pleased to stretch forth his Divine Rod again, and smite the dust of the earth into Lice (sit verbo venia) that is, when he raised from the dust of the earth, those poor, humble, self-denying creatures, that were as much nothing in their own, as in the worlds eye, I mean those in∣comparable Persons, as they have since proved themselves, whom he then new modell'd into an Army; Then those, all the pretended Great ones, were at a gaze; their malice nor magick could do no more.

But yet further, let us observe, and remem∣ber how poor We, suffered under the moral, of all those other plagues of Egypt too, until our sacred second Moses, undertook that mighty Work, has Terris & Templis avertere pestes: Were we not opprest in like manner, with those innumerable armies of Flies, those insolent animals, strange swarms of buzzing Courtiers, that were still begging of their easie Master, some private Boon, or other, to the prejudice of the Publick, putting their fingers in every dish, and picking something out of every mans pocket, or property; and has not our second Moses delivered us likewise from all those? Then for the miraculous plague of Boiles and Blaines, had we not enough of those too, by the malice of our Monopolists, Projectors, and other Encroachers, upon the poor subjects liberties, and properties, which have been truly called in all Ages Ʋlcera Rei Publicae: the Ulcers and Imposthumes of the

Common-wealth? And has not his Highnesse, our second Moses, his sacred Rod, that is, his Sword, most happily, and timely, lanced those sores, and given us a sure and perfect Cure? Then, as for those horrid storms of Hail, Thun∣der, and Fire mingled with water, of which the Earth never saw the like, as the Text tells us; What did they emblematize to us, but those dire ebullitions of Tyranny, over our Religions, liberties and properties, which went not onely about to destroy our present fruits, but to take away all our Natural, and Eternal Rights in them? And has not our glorious second Moses, given us a blessed de∣livery from all that mischief too? Then for those millions of Locusts, that invaded the Land of Egypt; what legions of lewd Lawyers had we, that swarmed amongst us like to Ca∣terpillers indeed, from the unjust Judge, to the sordid Advocate, and from him, to the meanest Clarke? a sort of men, that could ac∣commodate their Laws, like a nose of wax, to all intents and purposes whatsoever, making the sacred Seat of Justice, it self, a stalking-horse to Tyranny; Law to countenance op∣pression, and Truth it self to lye? And has not our second Moses, pretty well delivered us from all those petty-fogging plagues too? Then was there ever any more prodigious darknesse, over the face of a whole Land? so grosse an ignorance of Religion? all Divinity, forsooth, and saving knowledge, being bound up, and roosting it self in a pitiful, lazy, luxu∣rious,

Bishops Rotchet, as in its onely San∣ctuary; I am sure the whole light of the Gos∣pel, was concealed under the ridiculous cover∣ing of their Canonical coats, as they call them, and we kept in more than Egyptian Darknesse, till by the flaming Sword, of our second Mo∣ses, we were restored to that wonderful light, which we lately have, and do still enjoy, un∣der his late Highnesse his, and his Princely sons, Government. Then, for the last plague of all, which was the smiting of the first-born, what can be more parallel to it, than the sa∣vage cruelty, formerly exercised by the Court of Wards, over the heirs of all the Principal Houses of England? who were there doubly smitten, both in their persons, and estates; Their lands pillaged by every poleing Guar∣dian, and themselves sold like slaves, or hor∣ses in a Market, and condemned to what is commonly worse than death, to a wife of ano∣ther mans election. From all these Plagues, and Diabolical inchantments, has not our se∣cond Moses most happily freed us too? and, to crown all his glories, as the former Moses did, Has he not seen a Pharaoh and his Armies drencht in a Red Sea of their own blood?

Now, how impossible it is to conceive, that all this could be brought about, without the miraculous assistance of the Almighty, they can best judge, who have been the witnesses of his great Actions, and know how remarkable his proceedings have been, from the very first undertaking of these Nations Deliverance:

For, first he began but with one poor single Troop, which how instantly grew into a Re∣giment, and that into an Army, and that Ar∣my to give Laws, as it were, to all the World, no man can believe, that has not seen it, or else been taught faith enough, to understand the Cloud, that Elias saw no bigger than a hand, which in a moment, overspread the whole heavens; or that Fountain of Mardochaeus, which, in the beginning, crept on with little noise, through the Meadows, and in an instant, turned into a great River, & that River into Light, & this Light into a Sun, and such a Sun which af∣forded both luster, and water, to all the World. The plain truth is, that the accession of his High∣nesses Forces, as his successes, have been so mi∣raculous, that they appear more like visions, than realities; and, as antiquity can find nothing in the like kind, (unlesse this president of our first Moses) for to equal them: so Posterity will be as much puzled to believe them, as we shall see more at large, in our future Ascents, which treate of the invincible Valour, match∣lesse Prudence, and incomparable Great∣nesse of Military Conduct, in these two our Mosaical Masters.