A Plea for PREROGATIVE: OR, Give Caesar his due. Being the Wheele of Fortune turn'd round: Or, The World turned topsie-turvie. Wherein is described the true Subjects loyalty to maintain his Majesties Prerogative and priviledges of Parliament.
By Thorny Ayl [...]: alias, Iohn Tayler.
Malice, Disloyalty, War and Sects aspire,
Religion, Peace, Obedience are ith mire.
Religion, Peace, Obedience, Love, no doubt,
Though they be l
[...]t, the Wheele will turne about.
London, printed for T. Bankes. 1642.
A Plea for PREROGATIVE: OR, Give Caesar his due.
THE
Divel's horne-mad, Religion here should florish,
Or
England constantly the Truth should nourish:
And He (contriving with the
Romish Sect)
They soon a hellish stratagem project,
That with a strange blast of a
Powder-blow,
Into the Ayre the
Parliament to throw,
And with a whirle-winde terrour to appall
Gods Word profest, the Court, the State and all
Records, Lawes, Statutes, Grants, Decrees and Charters,
Men, women, children (piece-meale torne in quarters;)
Magnifique Buildings, pompous Monuments;
Illustrious guildings, sumptuous ornaments;
King, Prince, Peeres, Commons, with one puffe should caper,
And (in a moment) turn'd to ayre and vapour.
The Divell and
Rome are all starke mad at this,
That they, their great desired aime should misse,
Devis'd more mischiefes from th'infernall pit,
To make us this deliverance to forget,
And be ingratefull to that power above,
Who this great danger from us did remove,
For
Sathan knowes, that base ingratitude
Doth all, and every damned vice include;
And therefore 'tis the totall of transgressions
To be unthankfull for
Gods gracious blessings:
[Page 2]There's nothing else drawes down th'Almighties hate,
It hath dismembred wretched
Englands state;
Pride, avarice, lust, hath broke our happy peace,
And daily do our sins, and shames increase.
He's a wise man (that without danger) can
Serve
God his
King, and be an honest man;
For (in these dayes) to speak truth and do right,
Is paid with scandall, danger and despight.
Thus vice is entred, vertue is thrust out,
And
Fortunes Wheele is madly turn'd about;
Peace, Love, Religion and
Obedience
Are
vertues of exceeding excellence;
Yet as the
Picture in the
Wheele doth show,
They are turn'd downwards in the spokes below,
Whilst
Malice, War, Sects and
Disloyalty
Are in the upper
spokes, exalted high,
And true
Obedience neuer did refuse,
To give to
God and
Caesar both their dues;
Though she be humble, free from arrogance,
Yet her humility doth her advance:
And though she be trod downe, I make no doubt
But
Fortunes Wheel will shortly turn about:
Disloyalty doth proudly over-top her,
And makes a glistning guilded shew of copper,
Full of corruption, basenesse and deceit,
Deluding and most feigned counterfeit.
Some do complain of
Fortune and blinde chance,
And do their hands and eyes t'wards heaven advance;
And cry, O
God (which madst the glorious
Sun,)
What hath poore
England 'gainst Religion done,
That all her goodnesse topsie turvie lyes,
Derided, jeer'd at, wrong'd by contraries.
[Page 3]Religion was the sacred bond and tye,
The rule and square how men should live and dye;
The ground and sole foundation of the Law;
The good mans sword and shield; the bad mans awe;
Twas one entire in Majesty high stated,
Now broken, fractur'd, rent and dislocated;
Divided into Sects, in pieces shatter'd;
And (like a Beggers cloake) all patch'd and totterd.
And what hath
England done to worke all this?
Nothing at all, but doing all amisse;
Esteeming earths corrupted fa
[...]ing drosse,
And slighting heaven, and true Religions losse.
These are the causes, these for vengeance cals;
This makes high climers to have loest fals,
When men seeke Honour with ambicious guile,
My little wit doth at their follies smile;
That though they seeme most glorious, great and stout;
Yet
Fortunes Wheele will quickly turne about.
The potent Pope and Conclave of that Sect,
Did (and do) daily stratagems project.
The
mungrill Papist, the
Arminian,
The consubstantiall misled Lutheran;
The
Anabaptists, Brownists, Arians,
Scismaticall Disciplinarians.
These, and more Sects of Seperatists beside,
Do from Religion to opinion slide;
And as they from each other disagree,
In various fashions God is serv'd we see.
Th'eternall Word's high Majesty in such
(That man can never honour it too much,)
Is turnd unto the lowest spoke o'th Wheele,
And too too few the overthrow doth feele.
[Page 4]The King, who is the Lords anointed knowne,
Whose Crownes and Kingdomes (under God's
[...]
I will not say't t'oppresse, but true and just
To guide all under his great charge and trust
Though he (next
Christ) imediate power hath;
And his resisters merit heau'ns hot
[...]
Yet this is not remembred, very few
Will render
Caesar what is
Caesars due;
Which is obedience, loyalty and love
(Because his power is from the power above;)
But Church and State, are by the rabble rout
Abus'd; thus
Fortunes wheele is turn'd about.
Religion (true) that ought to be the
[...]ye
From God to man, that man should
[...]
Is made a
stable, a very staulking horse
Wherein each beast doth
[...] a beastly course.
Religion now each ignoramus whirles
Into the fancies of fooles, boyes and girles,
Who dare talke of Misterious
[...]
(Better then
Bishops can) in
[...]
They can finde out
Daniels prophetique meaning,
And from the Bible they have so much gleaning,
That they dare venture with their quirks and quips
To expound Saint
Iohn and his
Apocalips.
Thus they thinke we, and we thinke they are out;
But Fortunes wheele I hope will turne about.
Sects up are mounted, and their impudence
And ignorance hath drove Religion hence;
As once the Papists, in Queene
Maries raigne,
The Protestant profession did disdaine;
When swords and halters, and tormenting flames,
Exiles, imprisonments, and all th'extreames
The Gospell to suppresse by tyran
[...]ize;
And now the Almighty hath this Kingdome grac'd,
That Popish superstition is defac'd:
A crew of new Sects are sprung up of late,
As bad as Papists were to Church and State;
Whose barren knowledge seemes all things to know,
Who would all rule, and learning overthrow;
Whose wisdomes still are in the wane, most dull;
Whose ignorance is alwayes at the full;
Whose good workes are invisible, so good
Not to be seene, felt, heard, or understood:
Of these mad Sects, ther's too too many a wigeon,
That doth despise the Protestant Religion;
And worse then Papists they deride and flout,
But
Fortunes wheele, I guesse, will turne about.
Peace (the same day that Christ rose from the grave)
Was the first gift He his Disciples gave;
And that his
Peace should still with them remain
Ioh. 20.19 26.
He (eight dayes after, gave them
Peace again;
That
Peace which passeth understanding all;
Phil. 4.7.
Is racketed and bandied like a ball:
Warre, strife, contention, mischiefe and
debate
Opposeth
Peace, and seekes to ruinate
Faire
England, by the meanes of men accurst,
Who wrong her most whom she hath bred and nurst.
And now against her Peace th' have madly fought,
But Fortunes wheele I know will turn about.
Love is the Livery, cognizance, and Crest
Christ gives his servants, who are ever blest,
Ioh, 13.35
Th'immortall God, left glorious heaven above,
And was made mortall (O transcendent
Dove!)
And rise, that they might live eternally.
He cald them brethren (so their
lo
[...]es to win)
Heb. 2.1
[...].
And made himselfe like them, in all but sin,
He cals each true beleeving soule his brother
And lov'd us so, cause we should
love each other
But all this love which he bestow'd so free,
Is back repaid with
Malice, as we see:
The Wheele doth shew us how the case doth stand,
Malice and hatred hath the upper hand;
Our words and works do shew we
love him not;
Our
love to one another is forgot;
We say and do the most part to this end
(He that so lov'd us) how we may offend;
And stead of loving one another, as
Our blessed Saviours last Commandment was,
With
malice we would cut each others throats;
Which shewes we do not wear Christs livery coats:
And as Himselfe hath long agoe foretold,
Th'increase of sin makes many mens
love cold.
Thus man his
malice against man doth spout,
God grant the
Wheele may quickly turne about.
Nor shall my
Muse in this taske further run;
I wish the
King and
Parliament had done;
That as his Majesty is knowne to be,
Gods chiefe vicegerent in his soveraignty;
So He with them may All as one combine
To settle things, both Humaine and Divine;
That we may be held free from all offence,
And gaine him hither, and not drive him hence
With Libels, tumults, and a wretched rout,
For which I'le hope the Wheele will turn about.
FINIS.