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 second Transcendental Ascent.

MOses was permitted, and commanded by God, to nominate one for his Suc∣cessor, that had a very near relation to him, his own houshold Servant, his Mini∣ster, or Menial Attendant in his Family; for so was Joshua, as we find in several places of holy Scripture:* 1.1 as first in the Book of Num∣bers: And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his young men, answered and said, &c. Then,* 1.2 It came to passe that the Lord spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses Minister, saying, &c.

The Parallel.

We do not finde in any part of Holy Writ, that the great Patriarch Moses, had any son capable of this great Charge, to succeed him, in the Government of Gods people: There

is indeed, mention of the Circumcision of one, but never any thing more spoken of him; So it is to be presumed, that either he had none living, or at least, as we said before, not capable of so great a Charge.

God Almighty in the mean time, brings this high favour and prerogative, as near to him, as possibly might be, next to the nomi∣nation of a son, which (as it seems) by hu∣mane collection, then could not be.

In the mean time, it may be worth our while, to sit and consider the Transcendency of Divine Favour, and Priviledge, that our great Protector, and second Moses, had in this particular, above his Prototype the first; whilst he has been, as we have seen, permitted, and directed, by God, to nominate his own son; nay, his Eldest son to succeed him in the So∣veraign Charge, the other being commanded to choose, but his Menial Servant, and Mini∣ster, and that was a Divine favour too. Here∣in, I say, our second Moses has out stript his pattern; and our Parallel here must over-ballance the Ascent it self, For so much as a son, and an Eldest son, ought to be above a Servant, in the respect, and reputation, of any Father of a Family, so much more of favour, and indulgency extraordinary, found our glo∣rious Protector, and second Moses, from the hands of God, than that great Patriarch him∣self, his first dear Favourite, the former Moses did.

O stupendious transcendencies of Divine

love! O happy Priviledges of a Prince, and Prerogatives unexpressible! O Soveraigne Favours of Heaven, undeniable! What man living is there now upon the face of the Earth, that can dispute, whether it be not a most sublime instance of the Almighties affections, to any Fathers, it being granted (which I hope will not be denied) that he is the Soveraign Mover, and Architect of our lives and for∣tunes; when he is pleased to propagate their greatnesse, and glories to their children? it being doubtlesse the greatest temporal dis∣pensation, that men of honour can be cap∣able of upon Earth, to have a flourishing Po∣sterity given them by God, which may make them eternally to live in the memory of men, by those most lively images of their ver∣tues.

It has been, we know, observed by the ver∣tuous in all Ages, that those Princes and great Persons, that have lived any way sordidly, or viciously, fatting themselves with the blood and sweat of the poor, or have establisht any Tyrannies in the World, have neither been fruitful, nor fortunate, in their Posterites: and as Nature has ever shewed it self to be scanty in the propagation of beasts of prey, as Wolves and other creatures, designed onely for spoil, and no other use, which would o∣therwise soon bring the earth into desolation: So Almighty God, by a secret oeconomy of his Divine Providence, permitteth not the Princes, or Potentates, who have made them∣selves

disturbers of the Publick peace, and in∣fringers of Laws, both Divine and Humane, (whereof they ought to be Protectors) should make the brutishnesse of their savage souls, to survive them in their Posterities.

Now, not to go far from home for an ex∣ample, nor yet much distant from the present Age; I shall produce for an instance, of this great truth, a late Prince of our own, that was Henry the Eighth, who whilst he lived, made all Laws his slaves, and his passions his Ma∣sters, as unquestionable a Tyrant, as ever breathed, who left three children, that all suc∣cessively sate in the Throne after him, yet none of them had the power to propagate any issue to perpetuate him, nor yet so much as to erect a Tomb for him; and he can to this day, boast of no other Monument to record his me∣mory to the World, but the same which he left behind him,* 1.3 who did make his ambitious brag of the burning of Diana's Temple: and which is most to our present purpose, though hinted before, again to be noted; after his death, as if the Lord would explicate his own indignation, and with his dreadful hand had, written upon the walls of his Palace, Mane, Thekel, Pharez, as his Divine Judgement a∣gainst him, and all his posterity; all his then hopeful and very glorious stem, and branches, were soon withered away or cut off, without any issue at all, and the Crown and Scepter was so, quickly translated to another Name and Nation, quite contrary to the Tyrants

intentions, and the projects both of his will, and Statute.

Then what has been the Catastrophe, or sad issue of that Family too, for treading in his most unfortunate foot-steps, we of this Age, have fully seen; for no one of them, that I know of yet, has died a natural death, and the last prince we had of that Line, lost his whole head-ship of the Church, with his Pre∣rogative and Soveraignty over Laws, so much desired and contended for, in those dayes, up∣on a pitiful Scaffold, erected before the Porch of that Palace, where his impious Predecessor, that Henry the Eighth, the first of all Kings in∣habited, and his body by a strange provi∣dence, without any forefight or contrivance of man at all, was carried to Windsor, and there deposited in the same Vault with him. Then look upon his disastrous issue, and we shall finde, his whole posterity too, has been so ex∣terminated here, that there is not so much as the print of a foot-step of them left to be seen amongst us.

This one instance, I say, that we have star∣ted, so near our own doors, though it might serve for all; for as the judicious Spaniard tells us, En los casos raros,* 1.4 uno solo exemplo haze experiencia, In such rare occasions, one ex∣ample is enough to prescribe, and to make ex∣perience: and the acute Philip de Commines,* 1.5 observes, That the example of one sole acci∣dent, is enough sometimes to make men wise: yet I could alledge a thousand more to this

purpose, if the necessity of our main businesse would permit: but I must hasten.

Now, on the contrary, observe how Ec∣clesiasticus prophesies,* 1.6 With the seed of the righteous shall continually remain a good inhe∣ritance, and their children are within the Cove∣nant:* 1.7 Their seed stands fast, and their children for their sakes:* 1.8 Their seed shall remain for ever, and their glory shall not be blotted out. And we have as clearly found in our experience, that all those Princes, and great Persons, who have arranged themselves, within the lists of Sanctity, Modesty, and the observation of Laws, the Lord hath as it were, immortaliz'd their bloods, in their happy Posterities, as we do now see it made good, in this our precious Parallel, and might in many thousands more of Royal, Princely, Noble, and Illustrious Fa∣milies besides, which I have as little liberty at present to produce: so shall refer to every Readers more particular observation: whilst I that write, and every temperate person, I hope, that reades, shall rest abundantly satis∣fied in the point, that it was a most irrefra∣gable favour of God Almighties towards us, as well as his late most Serene Highnesse, to give him leave, and to direct him, to establish his Throne in the best of his own blood, and to leave a Prince behind him, to govern us, that he was certain, was so much of his own heavenly make, that he can never degenerate from those his high, holy, and most heroick vertues; as we may see more at large, in the succeeding Ascent, and Parallel.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Num. 11.28.
• * 1.2

  Josh. 1.1.
• * 1.3

  Erostratus.
• * 1.4

  Anton. Perez.
• * 1.5

  Phil. de Com.
• * 1.6

  Eccles. 44.11.
• * 1.7

  Ver. 12.
• * 1.8

  Ver. 13.