IT was in the dead of a long Winter night, when no eyes were open but Watchmen, and Centinell's, that I was fallen soundly asleep, the Cinq out-Ports were shut up closer then usually, and my sences so treble lock'd, that the Moon, had she descended from her watry Orb, might have don much more to me then she did to Endymion when he lay snoaring upon the brow of Latmus Hill; nay, (be it spoken without prophane­nesse) if a rib had bin taken out of me that night, to have made a new model of a woman, I shold hardly have felt it.

Yet, though the Cousin-german of Death had so strongly seiz'd thus upon the exterior parts of this poore Tabernacle of flesh, my inward were never more actif, and fuller of employ­ments then they were that night.

Me thought my soul made a sallie abroad into the world, and fetch'd a vast compas; she seem'd to soar up and slice the air, to crosse seas, clammer up huge Hills, and never rested till she had arriv'd at the Antipodes: Now som of the most judicious Geometricians and Chorographers hold, that the whole Masse of the Earth being round like the rest of her fellow Elements, ther be places, and poizing parts of the Continent, there be [Page 2] Peninsulas, Promontories and Ilands upon the other face of the Earth that correspond and concenter with all those Regi­ons and Iles that are upon this superficies which we tread; Countries that symbolize with them in qualities, in tempera­ture of air and clime, as well as in nature of soile; The Inhabi­tants also of those places which are so perpendicularly opposit, do sympathize one with another in disposition, complexions and humors, though the Astronomers wold have their East to be our West, and so all things vice versa in point of position, which division of the Heaven is only mans institution.

But to give an account of the strange progres my soule made that night; the first Country she lighted on was a very low flat Countrey, and it was such an odd amphibious Countrey, being so indented up and down with Rivers and armes of the sea, that I made a question whither I shold call it Water or Land; yet though the Sea be invited and usher'd in into som places, he is churlistly pen'd out in som other: so that though he foam and swell, and appeer as high Walls hard by, yet they keep him out, maugre all his roaring and swelling.

As I wandred up and down in this Watry Region, I might behold from a streight long Dike whereon I stood, a strange kind of Forrest, for the trees mov'd up and down; they look'd afar off as if they had bin blasted by thunder; for they had no leafs at all; but making a neerer approach unto them, I found they were a nomberlesse company of Ship Masts, and before them appeer'd a great Town incorporated up and down with [...]msterdam. Water; As I mus'd with my self upon the sight of all this, I concluded, that the Inhabitants of that Countrey were notable industrious peeple, who could give Law so to the angry Ocean, and occupie those places where the great Leviathan should tum­ble and take his pastime in; As my thought ran thus, I met with a man, whom I conjectur'd to be 'twixt a Marchant and a Mariner, his salutation was so homely; the air also was so foggie that me thought it stuck like cobbwebs in his Mustachos; & he [Page 3] was so dull in point of motion, as if his veines had bin filld with buttermilk in lieu of blood: I began to mingle words with him, and to expostulate somthing about that Coun­trey and peeple; and then I found a great deal of downright ci­vilities in him: He told me that They were the only men who did miracles of late yeers; Those innumerable piles of stones you see before you in such comely neat fabriques, is a place (said he) that from a Fish Market in effect is com to be one of the greatest Marts in this part of the world, which hath made her swell thrice bigger then she was 50. yeers ago; and as you be­hold this floating Forrest of Masts before her mole, so if you could see the foundations of her houses, you shold see another great Forrest, being rear'd from under ground upon fair piles of timber, which if they chance to sink in this Marshy soyl, we have an art to scrue them up again. We have for 70. yeers and above without any intermission, except a short-liv'd truce that once was made, wrastled with one of the greatest Potentates up­on Earth, and born up stoutly against him, gramercy our two next neighbour Kings, and their Reason of State, with the advan­tage of our situation. We have fought our selfs into a free State, and now quite out of that ancient alleageance we ow'd him; and though we pay 20. times more in taxes of all sorts then we did to him, yet we are contented: We have turn'd War into a trade, and that which useth to beggar others, hath benefited us: Be­sides, we have bin and are still the rendevous of most disconten­ted Subjects, when by the motions of unquiet consciences in points of Religion, or by the fury of the sword, they are forc'd to quit their own Countreys, who bring their arts of Manufa­cture, and moveables, hither; In so much that our Lombards are full of their goods, and our banks superabound with their gold and silver which they bring hither in specie. To secure our selfs, and cut the Enemy more work, and to engage our Confiderats in a war with him, we have kindled fires in evry corner; and now that they are together by the Eares, we have bin content [Page 5] lately, being long woo'd thereunto, to make a peace with that King to whom we once acknowledged vassalage; which King out of a height of spirit, hath spent 500. times more upon us for our reduction, then all our Countrey is worth; But now he hath bin well contented to renounce and abjure all claimes and rights of Soverainty over us; In so much, that being now without an Enemy, we hope in a short time to be masters of all the comerce in this part of the world, and to eat our Neighbours out of trade in their own Comodities: We fear nothing but that exces of Wealth, and a surfet of ease may make us careles and breed quarrells among our selfs, and that our Generall, be­ing married to a great Kings daughter, may—

Here he suddenly broke the threed of his discourse, and got hastily away, being hal'd by a ship that was sailing hard by.

Hereupon my soul took wing again, and cut her way through that foggy condens'd aire, till she lighted on a fair, spacious, cleare Continent, a generous and rich Soile mantled up and downe with large woods, where, as I rang'd to and fro, I might see divers faire Houses, Townes, Palaces and Castles, looking like so many Carkases, for no humane soule appear'd in them; me thought I felt my heart melting within me in a soft resentment of the case of so gallant a Countrey, and as I stood at amaze, and in a kind of astonishment, a goodly perso­nage makes towards me, whom both for his comportment, and countenance, I perceiv'd to be of a finer mould then that companion I had met withall before: by the trace of his looks I guessed he might be som Nobleman that had bin ruin'd by som disaster: having acosted him with a fitting distance, he be­gan in a Masculin strong winded language full of aspirations and tough collision of Consonants, to tell me as followeth: Sir, I find you are a stranger in this Countrey, because you stand so agast at the devastations of such a fair piece of the Con­tinent, then know Sir, because I beleeve you are curious to carry away with you the causes thereof, that these ruthfull ob­jects [Page 5] which you behold, are the effects of a long lingring war, and of the fury of the Sword, a cruentous civill War that hath rag'd here ubove 30. yeares: one of the grounds of it was the infortunate undertaking of a Prince, who liv'd not far off in an affluence of all earthly felicity; he had the greatest Lady to his wife, the best purse of money, the fairest Stable of horse, and choicest Library of books of any other of his neighbour Princes. But being by desperate and aspiring coun­sells put upon a Kingdome, while he was catching at the sha­dow of a Crowne, he lost the substance of all his own ancient possessions: by the many powerfull alliances he had (which was the cause he was pitched upon) the feud continued long; for among others a Northern King took advantage to rush in, who did a world of mischiefs, but in a few yeers that King and he found their graves in their own ruins neer upon the some time; but now, may heaven have due thanks for it, there is a peace concluded, a peace which hath bin 14. long yeers a moulding, and will I hope, be shortly put in execution; yet 'tis with this fatall disadvantage, that the said Northerne people, besides a masse of ready money we are to give them, are to have firme footing, and a warm nest ever in this Countrey hereafter, so that I fear we shall hear from them too often: upon these words this noble personage fetch'd a deep sigh, but in such a ge [...]erous manner, that he seem'd to breake and check it before it came halfe forth.

Thence my soule taking her flight o're divers huge and hor­rid cacuminous mountaines, at last I found my selfe in a great populous Towne, but her buildings were miserably battered up and downe, she had a world of Palaces, Castles, Convents and goodly Churches: as I stepped out of curiosity into one of them, upon the West side there was a huge Grate, where a creature all in white beckned at me, making my approach to the Grate, I found her to be a Nun, a lovely creature she was, for I could not distinguish which was whiter, her hue or her [Page 6] habit, her vaile o [...] her face, it made me remember (though in a dream my self) that saying, If Dreams and wishes had been tru, there had not been found a tru maid to make a Nun of ever since a Cloyster'd life began first among women; I asked her the reason how so many ugly devastations should befall so beautifull a City, she in a dolorous gentle tone, and ruthfull accents, the tears trickling down her cheeks like so many pearles, (such pearly teares that wold have dissolv'd a Diamond) sobb'd out unto me this speech: Gentle Sir, 'tis far beyond any expressi­ons of mine, and indeed beyond humane imagination to con­ceive the late calamities which have befallen this faire though infortunate City, a pernicious popular Rebellion broke out here upon a sudden into most horrid barbarismes, a Fate that hangs over most rich popular places that swim in luxe and plen­ty; but touching the grounds thereof, one may say that rebel­lion entred into this City, as sin first entred into the world by an apple: For our King now in his great extremities having almost halfe the world banding against him, and putting but a small tax upon a basket of fruit to last only for a time, this fruit-tax did put the peeples teeth so on edge, that it made them gnash against the Government, and rush into Armes; but they are sensible now of their own follies, for I thinke never any place suffered more in so short a time: the civill combustions abroad in other Kingdomes may be said to be but small squibs compar'd to those horrid flakes of fire which have rag'd here, and much adoe we had to keep our Vestall fire free from the fu­ry of it: in lesse then the revolution of a yeer it consum'd a­bove fourscore thousand soules within the walls of this Ci­ty; But 'tis not the first time of forty, that this luxurious foo­lish peeple hath sma [...]ted for their insurrections and insolencies, and that this mad horse hath o'rethrowne his Rider, and drawn a worse upon his back; who instead of a saddle, put a pack­saddle and Panniers upon him: but indeed the voluptuousnesse of this peeple was growne ripe for the judgement of heaven; [Page 7] she was then beginning to expostulat with me about the state of my Countrey, and I had a mighty mind to satisfie her, for I could have corresponded with her in the relation of as strange things, but the Lady Abadesse calling her away, she departed in an instant, obedience seem'd to be there so precise and punctuall.

I steer'd my course thence through a most delicious Countrey to another City that lay in the very bosome of the Sea, she was at first nothing els but a kind of posie made up of dainty green hillocks, tied together by above 400. bridges, and so coagulated into a curious Citie; though she be espous'd to Neptune very solemnly once evry yeer, yet she still reserves her maydenhead, and beares the title of the Virgin Citie in that part of the world; But I found her tug­ging mainly with a huge Giant that wold ravish her; He hath shrewdly set on her skirts, and a great shame it is, that she is not now assisted by her Neighbours, & that they shold be together by the eares when they shold do so necessary a work, considering how that great Giant is their common E­nemy; and hath lately vow'd seven yeers warrs against her; specially considering, that if he comes once to ravish her, he will quickly ruin them; She to her high honor be it spoken) being their only rampart against the incursion of the said Giant, and by consequence their greatest security.

From this Maiden Citie, mee thought, I was in a trice carried over a long gulf, and so through a Midland Sea, into another Kingdome, where I felt the Clime hotter by some Degrees; a rough hew'n soile, for the most part, it was, full of craggie barren hills; but where there were valleys and water enough, the countrey was extraor­dinarily fruitfull, whereby nature (it seems) made her a com­pensation for the sterility of the rest. Yet notwithstanding the hardship of the soyl, I found her full of Abbeys, Mona­steries, Hermitages, Convents, Churches, and other places of devotion; As I rov'd there a while, I encountred a grave [Page 8] man in a long black cloak, by the fashion whereof, and by the brimms of his hat, I perceived him to be a Jesuit; I clos'd with him, and question'd with him about that Coun­trey: He told me the King of that Countrey was the great­est Potentat of that part of the world; and, to draw power to a greater unitie, they of our Order could be well conten­ted, that he were universall Head over Temporalls, because 'tis most probable to be effected by him, as we have already one universall Head over Spiritualls: This is the Monark of the Mines, I mean of Gold and Silver, who furnishes all the world, but most of all his own Enemies with money, which money foments all the warrs in this part of the world: Never did any earthly Monark thrive so much in so short a tract of time; But of late yeers he hath bin illfavou­redly shaken by the revolt and utter defection of two sorts of Subjects, who are now in actuall armes against him on both sides of him at his own doors. There hath bin also a long deadly feud 'twixt the next tramontan Kingdom and him, though the Queen that rules there be his own sister, an unnaturall odious thing: But it seems God Almighty hath a quarrell of late yeers with all earthly Potentats; for in so short a time there never happen'd such strange shocks and revolutions: The great Emperour of Ethiopia hath bin outed, he and all his children by a petty companion: The King of China a greater Emperour then he, hath lost almost all that huge Monarchy by the incursion of the Tartar, who broke ore the Wall upon him; The grand Turk hath bin strangled, with 30. of his Concubines; The Emperur of Mus­covy hath bin content to beg his life of his own vassalls, & to see before his face divers of his chief Officers hack'd to pee­ces, & their heads cut off & steep'd in strong water, to make them burn more bright in the market place. Besides the above mentioned, this King hath also divers Enemies more, yet he bears up against them all indifferently well, though with [Page 9] infinite expence of treasure: and the Church, specially our Society, hath stuck close unto him in these his exigents: whence may be inferr'd, that let men repine as long as they will at the possessions of the Church, they are the best anchors to a State in a storme, and in time of need to preserve it from sinking; besides acts of charity wold be quite lost among men, did not the wealth of the Church keep life in them: Hereupon drawing a huge paire of Beads from under his cloak, he began to aske me of my Religion; I told him I had a long journey to go, so that I could not stay to wait on him longer; so we parted, and me thought I was very glad, to be rid of him so well.

My soule then made another flight over an Assembly of hideous high hills, and lighted under another Clyme, on a rich and copious Countrey resembling the form of a Lo­senge, but me thought, I never saw so many poor peeple in my life; I encountred a Peasan, and asked him what the reason was, that there shold be so much poverty in a Coun­trey where there was so much plenty: Sir, they keep the Commonalty poor in pure policy here; for being a peeple, as the world observes us to be, that are more humerous then others, and that love variety and change, if we were suffered to be pamper'd with wealth, we wold ever and anon rise up in tumults, and so this Kingdome shold never be quiet, but subject to intestine broyles, and so to the hazard of any invasion: But there was of late a devillish Cardinall, whose humour being as sanguin as his habit, and working upon the weaknes of his Master, hath made us not onely poore, but stark beggars, and we are like to continue so by an eternall war, wherein he hath plung'd this poore Kingdom, which war must be maintained with our very vi­tall spirits: but as dejected and indigent as we are, yet upon the death of that ambitious Cardinall, we had risen up a­gainst this, who hath the Vogue now, (with whom he hath [Page 10] left his principles) had not the fearfull example of our next transmarin Western neighbours, and the knowledge we have of a worse kind of slavery, of those endles arbitrary taxes, and horrid confusions they have fool'd themselfs lately into, utterly deterr'd us, though we have twenty times more reason to rise then ever they had: yet our great City hath shew'd her teeth, and gnash'd them ilfavouredly of late, but we find she hath drawn water only for her owne Mill, we fare little the better, yet we hope it will conduce to peace, which hath been so long in agitation. I cannot remember how I parted with that Peasan, but in an instant I was landed upon a large Island, and me thought, 'twas the temperat'st Region I had been in all the while; the heat of the Sun there is as harmles as his light, the evening serenes are as wholsome there, as the morning dew; the Dog-daies as innocuous as any of the two Equinoxes. As I rang'd to and fro that fair Iland, I spied a huge City whose length did far exceed her latitude, but neither for length or latitude did she seem to beare any politicall proportion with that Iland: she look'd, me thought, like the Jesuits hat whom I had met withall before, whose brimms were bigger then the crowne, or like a petticoat, whose fringe was longer then the body. As I did cast my eyes upwards, me thought I discern'd a strange Inscription in the aire which hung just over the midst of that Citie written in such huge visible characters, that any one might have read it, which was this: Woe be to the bloody City.

Hereupon a reverend Bishop presented himselfe to my view, his gray haires, and grave aspect struck in mee an extraordinary reverence of him: so performing those com­plements which were fitting, I asked him of the condition of the pla [...]e, he in a submisse sad tone, with clouds of me­lancholy waving up and downe his lookes, told me; Sir, this Iland was reputed few years since to have been in the [Page 11] completest condition of happinesse of any part on earth, insomuch that she was repin'd at for her prosperity and peace by all her neighbours, who were plung'd in warre round about her, but now she is fallen into as deep a gulf of misery, and servitude, as she was in a height of felicity and freedom before: Touching the grounds of this change, I cannot impute it to any other then to a surfet of happinesse; now there is no surfet so dangerous as that of happines: There are such horrid divisions here, that if they were a foot in hell, they were able to destroy the Kingdom of Satan: truly Sir, there are crep'd in more opinions among us about mat­ters of Religion, then the Pagans had of old of the Summum bonum, which Varro saith were 300. the understandings of poor men were never so puzzled & distracted; a great while there were two opposit powers who swayed here in a kind of equality that people knew not whom to obey, many thou­sands complied with both, as the men of Calecut who adore God and the Devill, ( Tantum Squantum, as it is in the Indian language) the one for love, the other for feare: there is a monstrous kind of wild liberty here that ever was upon earth; that which was complained of as a stalking horse to draw on our miseries at first, is now only in practice, which is meer arbitrary rule; for now both Law, Religion, and Allegiance are here arbitrary: Touching the last, 'tis quite lost, 'tis per­mitted that any one may prate, preach, or print what they will in derogation of their anointed King: which word King was once a Monosyllable of some weight in this Ile, but 'tis as little regarded now as the word Pope (among som) which was also a mighty Monosyllable once among us: the rule of the Law is, that the King can do no wrong, there is a contrary rule now crept in, that the King can receive no wrong; and truly Sir, 'tis a great judgement both upon Prince and peeple, upon the one, that the love of his vassalls shold be so alienated from him; upon the other, that their [Page 12] hearts shold be so poysond, and certainly 'tis the effects of an ill spirit; both the one and the other in all probability tend to the ruine of this Kingdom. I will illustrat this unto you, Sir, by an Apologue as followeth.

There happen'd a shrewd commotion & distemper in the Body Naturall 'twixt the Head and the Members; not one­ly the Noble parts (som of them) but the common inferior organs also banded against him in a high way of unnaturall presumption; The heart, which is the source of life, with the Pericardiū about it, did swell against him; the Liver, which is the shop of sanguification, gather'd ill blood▪ all the humors turn'd to Choler against him; The Arms lift up themselfs against him, neither back, hams or knees wold bow to him, nay the very feet offer'd to kick him; The foure and twenty ribs, the reines, the Hypocondrium, the Diaphragma, the Mise­raie, & Emulgent veins were fil'd with corrupt blood against him: yea the Hypogastrium and the bowells made an intestin war against him. While the feud lasted, it hapned that these tumultuary Members fell out among themselfs; The Hand wold have all the fingers equall, nay the toes wold be of even length, & the rest of the subservient members wold be independent: They grew so foolish, that they wold have the fondament to be where the mouth is, the brest where the back, the belly where the braine, and the yard where the nose, the sholders shold be no more said to be backwards, nor the leggs downwards; A bloody quarrell fell 'twixt the Heart and Liver, which of them receiv'd the first formation, and whither of the two be the chiefest officine of sanguificati­on; which question bred so much gaul 'twixt the Aristotelians & the Galenists; While this Spleen & strange tympany of pride lasted, it cau'sd such an ebullition and heat in the masse of bloud, that it put the Microcosm, the whole Body in a high burning Feaver or Frenzy rather, which in a very short time grew to be a Heptic, and so all perish'd by a fatall consump­tion.

[Page 13]I fear the same fate attends this infortunate Iland, for such as was the condition of that naturall head, this Apolog speaks of, the same is the case of the politic Head and Body of this Iland; Never was Soverain Prince so banded against by his own Subjects, never was the patience of a Prince so put upon the tenter; He is still no lesse then a Captif, his children are in banishment in one Countrey, his Queen in another, the greatest Queen of bloud upon earth; a Queen that brought with her the greatest portion that ever Queen did in treasure; yet in twenty yeers and upwards, her join­ture hath not bin setled as it shold be; nor hath she bin crown'd all this while according to matrimoniall Articles; notwithstanding that, for the comfort of this Nation, and the establishment of the Throne, she hath brought forth so many hopefull Princes.

But now Sir; because I see you are so attentive, and seem to be much mov'd at this Discourse, as I have discover'd un­to you the generall cause of our calamities, which was not onely a satiety, but a surfeit of happinesse, so I will de­scend now to a more particular cause of them; it was a Nor­thern Nation that brought these cataracts of mischief: upon us; and you know the old saying,

Far be it from me to charge the whole Nation herewith; no, but onely some pernicious Instruments that had insinu­ated themselfs, and incorporated among us, and sway'd both in our Court and Counsells: They had a hand in eve­ry Monopoly; they had out of our Exchequer, and Cu­stoms neer upon 400000. Crowns in yeerly Pensions, viis & modis; yet they could not be content, but they must puzzle the peace and policy of this Church and State: and though they are people of differing Intellectualls, differing Lawes, Customes, and Manners unto us, yet for matter of consci­ence [Page 14] they wold bring our necks into their yoak, as if they had a greater talent of reason, & cleerer illuminations, as if they understood Scripture better, and were better acquain­ted with God Almighty then we, who brought them first from Paganisme to Christianity, and also to be reformed Christians: but it seems, matters have little thriven with them; nay the visible hand of heaven hath bin heavily up­on them divers wayes since they did lift their hands against their native King; For notwithstanding the vast summs they had hence, yet is the generality of them as beggarly as ever they were; besides, the Civill Sword hath rag'd there as furiously as here, and did as much execution a­mong them. Moreover the Pestilence hath beene more violent, and sweeping in their chief Town then ever it was since they were a peeple. And now lately ther's the notablest dishonour befaln them that possibly could light upon a Nation, in that 7000. of ours▪ shold upon eeven ground encounter, kill, slay, rout and utterly discomfit thrice as many of theirs, though as well appointed and arm'd as men could be: And truly Sir, the advantages that accru to this Nation are not a few by that exploit; For of late yeers that Nation was cried up abroad to be a more Mar­tiall peeple then we, and to have baffled us in open field in divers traverses: besides, I hope a small matter will pay now their Arrerages here, and elswhere; but principally, I hope they will not be so busie hereafter in our Court and Counsell, as they have been formerly.

Another cause of our calamity is a strange race of peeple sprung up among our selfs, who were confederat with those of the North; they wold make Gods House cleane, and put out the candle of all ancient learning & knowledg; they would sweep it only by the light of an Ignis fatuus: but 'tis visibly found that they have brought much more rubbage into it; and wheras in reforming this house, they shold ra­ther find out the gr [...] that is lost, they go about to take away [Page 15] the mite that's left, and so put Christs Spouse to live on meer almes: true it is, there is a kind of Zeal that burns in them, (& I could wish there were so much piety) but this zeal burns with too much violence and presumption, which is no good symptom of spirituall health, it being a rule, that as the naturall heat, so the spirituall shold be moderat, els it commonly turns to a frenzy: and that is the thing which causeth such a giddines and distraction in their braines; This (proceeding from the suggestions of an ill spirit) puffs them up with so much mentall pride; for the Devill is so [...]nning a Wrastler, that he oftentimes lifts men up to give them the greater fall: they think they have an inerring spirit, and that their Diall must needs go tru, howsoever the Sun goes: they wold make the Gospell, as the Caddies make the Alchoran, to decide all civill temporall matters under the large notion of slander, whereof they to be the Judges, and so in time to hook in all things to their Classis: I believe if these men were dissected when they are dead, there would be a great deale of Quick-silver found in their braines.

But I could pitty the giddinesse of their braines, had they not so much gaules in their breasts, were they not so thir­sting after blood, so full of poison and irreconcileable ma­lice; in so much that it may be very well thought, these men are a kin to that race which sprung out of the Serpents teeth: these are they which have seduced our great Coun­sell, and led this foolish City by the nose to begin and fo­ment this ugly War, insomuch that if those numberlesse bo­dies which have perish'd in these commotions, were cast in­to her streets, and before her doores, many thousand Citi­zens noses wold bleed of pure guilt.

Not to hold you long, these are the men, who have baf­fled [Page 16] common sense, blasted the beams of nature, and offered violence to reason; these are they who have infatuated most of the peeple of this Iland; so that whereas in times past, Tom call'd her the Ile of Angells, she may be term'd now the Ile of Gulls, or more properly the Ile of Doggs, or ra­ther indeed the Ile of Wolfs, there is such a true Lycanthropy com in among us: I am loth to call her the Iland of Devills, though she hath bin branded so abroad.

To conclude Sir, the glory of this Isle is quite blasted; 'tis tru they speake of peace, but while the King speakes to them of it, they make themselfs ready for battell; I much fear, that Ixion-like, we imbrace a cloud for peace, out of which ther will issue out Centaures, and Monsters, as sprung out of that cloud.

Touching that ancient'st holy Order whereof you see me to be; I well hoped, that in regard they pretended to reform things only, they wold not have quite extirpated, but regu­lated only this Order: it had bin enough to brayle our wings, not to have sear'd them: to have lopp'd & prun'd, not to have destroid root & branch of that ancient tree which was plan­ted by the hands of the Apostles themselfs: In fine Sir, we are a lost peeple, 'tis no other Daedalus, but the high Deity of hea­ven can clue us out of this labyrinth of confusions, can extri­cat us out of this maze of miseries: the Philosopher saith, 'tis impossible for man to quadrat a Circle; so 'tis not in the power of man, but of God alone, to make a loyall Subject of a Roundhead: Among other things that strangers report of this Iland, they say that Winter here hath too many teares in his eyes: Helas Sir, 'tis impossible he shold have too many now, to bewaile the lamentable base slavery, that a free-born peeple is com to: and though they are grown so tame as to kisse the rod that whips them, yet their Taskmasters wil not throw it into the fire.

Truly Sir, as my tongue is too feeble to expresse our mise­ries, [Page 17] so the plummet of the best understanding is too short to fadom the depth of them.

With this, the grave Venerable Bishop giving me his be­nediction, fetcht such a sigh, that wold have rended a rock asunder; and suddenly vanish'd (me thought) out of my sight up towards Heaven. I presently after awoke about the dawnings of the day, when one could hardly discern Dog from Wolf; and my soule, my Animula-vagula blan­dula, being re-entred through the Horn gate of sleep into her former mansion, half tyr'd after so long a Peregrination; and having rub'd my eyes, distended my limms, and return'd to a full expergefaction, I began to call my self to account touching those world of objects my fancy had represented unto me that night; and when by way of reminisence I fell to examine and ruminate upon them; Lord, what a masse of Ideas ran in my head! but when I call'd to mind the last Countrey my soule wandred in, me thought I felt my heart like a lump of lead within me, when I considerd how pat every circumstance might be applied to the present con­dition of England: I was meditating with my self what kind of dream this might be; whereupon I thought upon the common division that Philosophers make of dreames, that they are either

• Divine,
• Diabolicall,
• Naturall, or
• Humane.

For the first, they are Visions more properly or Revelations, whereof there are divers examples in the holy Oracles of God, but the puddled cranies of my brain are not roomes clean enough to entertain such: Touching the second kind, which com by the impulses of the Devill, I have heard of divers of them, as when one did rise up out of his sleep, and fetcht a poyniard to stab his bedfellow, which he had don, [Page 18] had he not bin awake; Another went to the next chamber abed to his mother, and wold have ravish'd her; but I thank God this dream of mine was not of that kind? Touching the third species of dreames; which are naturall dreames, they are according to the humor which predominats; if Melancholy sway, we dream of black darksom devious pla­ces; if Phlegm, of waters; if Choler, of frayes, fightings and troubles; if Sanguin predominat, we dream of green fields, gardens, and other pleasant representations; and the Physitian comes often to know the quality of a disease by the nocturnall objects of the patients fancy.

Humane dreams relate to the actions of the day past, or of the day following, & som representations are clear & even; others are amphibious, mongrell, distorted and squalid ob­jects, according to the species of things in troubled matters; and the object is cleer or otherwise, according to the tenui­ty or the grossnes of the vapors which ascend from the ven­tricle up to the brain.

Touching my dream, I think it was of this last kind; for I was discoursing of, and condoling the sad distempers of our times the day before: I pray God som part of it prove not propheticall; for, although the Frenchman sayeth, Son­ges sont Mensonges, dreames are delusions, and that they turn to contraries, yet the Spaniard hath a saying,

Insomuch that some Dreams oftentimes prove tru; as S. Au­stin makes mention of a rich Merchant in Milan, who being dead, one of his Creditors comes to his son to demand such a sum of money which he had lent his father; the son was confident 'twas paid, but not finding the Creditors Receipt, he was impleaded and like to be cast in the Sute, had not his [Page 19] fathers Ghost appeared to him, and directed him to the place where the Acquittance was, which he found the next day accordingly. Galen speaks of one that dreamt he had a wooden leg, and the next day he was taken with a dead Pal­sie in one whole side. Such a Dream was that of William Rufus, when he thought he had felt a cold gust passing through his bowells; and the next day he was slain in the guts, by the glance of an arrow, in new Forrest, a place where he and his Father had committed so many Sacrile­ges. I have read in Artimed [...]rus, of a woman that dreamt she had seen the pictures of three faces in the Moone like her self, and she was brought to bed of three daughters a little after, who all died within the compas of a moneth. Ano­ther dreamt, that Xanthus water ran red, and the next day he fell a spitting of blood.

To this I will add another fore-telling Dream, whereof I have read, which was thus: two young Gentlemen be­ing travelling abroad in strange Countreyes, and being come to a great towne, the one lay far in the Citie, the o­ther in an Hostry without the walls in the Suburbs: he in the City did dream in the dead of night, that his friend which he had left in the Suburbs rush'd into his chamber panting and blowing, being pursued by others; he dreamt so againe, and the third time he might see his friends Ghost appeering at his beds side with blood trickling down his throat, and a Poyniard in his brest, telling him; Dear friend, I am come now to take my last farewell of thee, and if thou rise be­times, thou shalt meet me in the way going to be buried; the next morning his friend going with his Host towards the Inn in the Suburbs where he left his friend, they met with a Cart laden with dung in the way, which being staid and search'd, the dead body was found naked in the dung.

I will conclude with a notable Dreame that Osman the great Turk had, not many yeers since, a few dayes before the [Page 20] was murthered by his Janizaries, 1623. He dreamt, that be­ing mounted upon a huge Camell, he could not make him go, though he switch'd and spur'd him never so much; at last the Camell overthrew him, and being upon the ground, onely the bridle was left in his hand, but the body of the Camell was vanished: the Mufti not being illuminated e­nough to interpret this Dream, a Santon who was a kind of Idiot, told him, the Camell represented the Ottoman Empire, which he not being able to govern, he should be o'erthrown, which two dayes after proved tru.

By these, and a cloud of examples more, we may con­clude, that Dreams are not altogether impertinent, but som­thing may be gathered out of them; though the application and meaning of them be denied to man, unlesse by speciall illumination.

THus have you a rough account of a rambling Noctiva­gation up & down the world: I may boldly say, that nei­ther Sir John Mandevile, or Coryat himself travell'd more in so short a time: whence you see what nimble Postillions the Animal Spirits are; and with what incredible celerity the imagination can crosse the Line, cut the Tropiques, and passe to the other Hemisphere of the world; which shewes, that humane soules have somthing in them of the Almigh­ty, that their faculties have a kind of ubiquitary freedom, though the body be never so under restraint, as the Au­thors is.

The last Countrey that's here aim'd at is knowne alrea­dy; I leave the application of the rest to the discerning Reader, to whom only this Dream is address'd.