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.

Of all the cruel unkindnesses in the World, there are none that pierce so to the quick, or are so deeply sensible to a Noble nature, as those which it receives from persons whom it has obliged.

Indeed, we find that those ungrateful re∣turns of injuries, for favours received, do bring astonishment even to the gates of Hea∣ven it self; which caused the Almighty Fa∣ther, to sigh out those lamentable complaints, by the mouth of the Prophet Hieremy:* 1.1 How comes it to passe, that my beloved hath committed so many outrages, so many misdemeanours in my house? as much as to say, Have I then, O my beloved, lodged thee in my Temple, have I nour∣ished and bred thee up from thy Cradle, with my Fatherly hand, and cherisht thee in my bosome;

now to betray my honour, and thus to defile the glory of my Altars?* 1.2 So the Royal Prophet tells us, that he could have born any thing from an enemy, or a stranger; but from one that he trusted, or from an intimate familiar, and bosom-friend, to receive an injury, or un∣worthy return, was beyond his power to bear with patience: and the truth is, it were e∣nough to stagger the greatest Saint: Yet this was our first Moses his miserable condition, as we have seen, and shall find it fully parallel'd in our second.

Now it is manifest, that it is our Heavenly Fathers constant course, to put his children to the full proof and exercise of their vertues, to instruct them to the highest pitch, to be as near imitators, as they may be, of his own Di∣vine vertues; who does nothing but good to ungrateful man, and receives nothing but ill from him; as we shewed at large in our last Ascent. And such trials as those, are que∣stionlesse very necessary for his servants; for it is undoubted, that his most practised ser∣vants, a very Moses himself, would putrifie in long prosperities, as in a dead Sea, which pro∣duceth nothing: so that the All-wise God, out of great kindnesse, to his most dear ser∣vants, does sometimes strike such blows as these, that they, as Jonathan, may have their eyes still open, and suck in honey from the very end of the Rod, that scourgeth them, and in the severe chastisement of a father, finde the consolation of true children. O what a

goodly Theater, is a good conscience! and what a beautiful Arcenal it is, to have the Armes of vertue still in a readinesse, as our first and second Moses have had against all essayes? whom no unkindnesse of unthank∣ful friends, or conspiracies of ungracious ene∣mies, could ever startle from their sweet, and serene repose.

Now, that we may make good our Parallel, we must reflect a little upon the barbarous in∣gratitude, that his late Highnesse has met with∣all, from Persons of other obligations, and Princes too of our Assembly. And truly, who would not have thought, after so many wonderful Deliverances, by the hand of our second Moses, as we have seen, and the beat∣ing down of all open oppositions, to the de∣struction of the common enemy; but that our miseries should have had an end, and our glorious Captain-General some rest? But yet I must say, with a sigh, and to the eternal ex∣probration of some persons, late in power, that we found no other, but aliud ex alio malum, one mischief to follow upon the very heels of another. How many malignant parties of our own have gone about to disturb that happy peace, purchased with the price of so much blood? and no stone left unstirred, to throw us into a second, and a third, and (may be) into more confusions, and greater than the former, and that by some of our Elders too, as I have said, and Princes of the Assembly? Nay, our religious brethren of Scotland too, must

be set on foot again by them, to make their Covenant a stalking-horse for Rebellion, and to renew a war in all probability, more cruen∣tous and dangerous, than the former: But our most Renowned second Moses, being born upon the wings of that Providence, which ne∣ver failed him, made a most happy, and quick dispatch, of that work; putting an end to all those Kirk enchantments, both here, and there, for the present, and I hope for ever. And yet after all this, that by the gracious providence of God, and his Highnesses great care and prudence, all means of making head, and imbodying themselves again, was taken from them: I should be infinite to tell, how often those of that leven, have shewed their venemous teeth, against his Highnesse, his hap∣py, and most godly designs, to disturb him a∣gain, and our peace. Nay, some of those, that have had the greatest share in his High∣nesse his Successes, I mean, some of those El∣ders, and Princes, of the Assembly, most un∣grateful, undutiful persons, that durst with the Atlantes of old, shute their malitious arrows against the Sun, and cast stones at him, that gave them bread: nay, some of them too, when they could not bow Heaven to their pur∣poses, would endeavour to stir up Hell against him, confound elements, and mingle stars with the dust of the earth, to come to the end of their most exorbitant pretensions: But the Lord, who alwayes took him to his most espe∣cial care, set him so far above theirs, and the

Divels malice, that hurt him they could not, though themselves they might, like the Basi∣lisk, with the repercussion of their own poison: The fagot smoaks onely when it begins to burn, but when the flame has once got the upper hand, there will be then no smoak at all.

Natural Philosophy informes us, that the Rain-bow in the Heavens, is not easily to be form'd at Noon, in the heats of Summer; be∣cause the Sun being then vigorus in his alti∣tude, dissipates and wastes those Clouds: So our second Moses, being mounted, as he was, to the highest pitch of Heroick vertue, dispel∣led all opposition. Malice it self could nei∣ther find Bow nor Arrow to reach him; but burst it self with its own venemous intention: so did all calumny crack it self before the truth of his vertue, which darted resplendent flashes into all eyes. We know it's said of old, that fe∣licitatis umbra invidia, There are no shadows without light, nor is there any envy without some gift of God. No man thinks it strange that Cantharides should fix themselves upon Roses; it is certain, that vermin will not be satisfied, but with the fairest and the sweetest flowers. But that which seems most strange to me, and truly it is not a little admirable, that men heretofore so honoured for wisdom, and good affections to the Publick, should run so stark mad with malice, as to go about so ex∣travagant a businesse, as to swim against the stream with the silly frog, hoping to stop the

flood, and constant current of the Rhodanus or Danubius; or with the foolish fly, soare up to Heaven, to fix her feet upon, and stay the course of the primum mobile: but by this time, I believe, they are all more amazed than bridled geese, and look as ghastly as dead men, four dayes after their Funerals, taken from their graves: and indeed, our second Moses, never made more reckoning of such as those, than of so many angry hens, that have indeed the eyes of dogs, but the hearts of hares. It would be an endlesse piece of work, to enumerate the infinite plots, conspiracies, treasons, and asassinats, contrived and pra∣cticed upon his sacred Person; but he secure∣ly slept in the arms of the ever-waking provi∣dence, and could not but be confident in spite of all the malice of men and Devils, but he that had so raised him to, would still preserve him in, his most illustrious state and condition.

I shall onely take leave to expostulate a little with those persons, and so conclude this Paral∣lel. Are you not ashamed yet of your in∣gratitude, you children of the Scottish Belial? Had you had one drop of true English blood in your bodies, you would have been readier to spend that for him, than to take his from him. What, you would be all Kings? we remember indeed, too lately, that you were so; and you would have a perpetual seat in Par∣liament too, as you once thought you had got? and truly, it is great pity, but it were so again, especially being so good Patriots as you have

been? I wonder truly, that then you did not vote your selves to be immortal too. Let any temperate and knowing man in England now be Judge, whether when you sate so, with all your power and splendor about you, so loudly proclaiming your selves such Magni∣fical members, you did not stink in the nostrils of all the people? Who generally lookt upon you then, but as busie Apes upon a house top? and as a smoke in the socket of a greasy can∣dlestick?* 1.3 for such (as the Learned Bernard tells us) are all dignified persons without merit: and so accordingly, his Highnesse sacred wisdom, spied you out, and amongst the rest of his most incomparable Heroick A∣ctions, which he has engraven with a Pen of Adamant, to consecrate to all Posterity, he then sent you out in your own snuff, the stench whereof, is not yet, nor will be, I believe, in the next Age, extinguisht.

Thus we see, the Moon may seem for a time to darken the Sun, when it is eclipsed; but yet she daily renders the tribute of her light: So all the malice in the World, that has made a shew to darken his Highnesse for some time, cannot at all obscure, but must encrease his praises, by its slanders, as it did advance his repose by its oppositions, and augment his Crowns by his humiliation. Nay, my Lord being of nothing so ambitious, as to be like his Great Master Moses, has traced the steps of that his great Archetype, to the very height of all charity, towards these his most violent,

and undeserved adversaries, and all their Complices. Have we not seen him, like that his first Master, frequently prostrating himself at the foot of the Tabernacle, praying, and almost binding up the hands of God, to stay the course of his vengeance, against those that persecuted him even to the Tabernacle; nay, would take into himself likewise, a piece of Reverend Aaron for his Pattern, standing in the Majesty of his Priestly habit, with the In∣censory and Sacrifice in hand, to appease the anger of God against his persecutors, when Heaven was all on fire over their heads, and the Earth became a devouring gulph under their feet, to swallow them up. Our most Renowned Lord Protector, could never be lesse than a Moses to them, though they did continue never so much to be a Corah, Dathan, and Abiram, unto him: So we shall proceed from those wretched injuries, he received from ungrateful men, to those Noble, Princely, and high exaltations, that he alwayes found within his Mosaick self.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Hieremy.
• * 1.2

  David.
• * 1.3

  Bern. lib. 1. de Consid. cap. 7.