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Christopher Barker, and another of his name, and, not without probable suspicion, by the consent and connivance of Mr. John Bill (though he was artificially defeated in his expectations of profit) have they not obtained (and now keep in their actual possession) the manuscript copy of the last translation of the Holy Bible in English, attested with the hands of the venerable and learned translators in king James's time, ever since the sixth of March, 1655; and thereupon, by colour of an unlawful and forced entrance in the Stationers Registry, printed and published ever since, for the most part, in several editions of bibles (consisting of great numbers) such egregious blasphemies and damnable erratas, as have corrupted the pure fountain, and rendered God's holy word contemptible to multitudes of the people at home, and a ludibrium to all the adversaries of our religion? Have they not suffocated and suppressed all books containing pious and religious prayers and devotions, to be presented and offered to the Blessed Trinity, for the blessing of heaven upon his majesty's royal person and family, and the church and state, by preventing and obstructing the printing of the Common-Prayer, Primmers, and Psalters, contrary to the statute of 1 queen Elisabeth, c. 2. and other good laws and ordinances, and the ecclesiastical canons of the church of England; unless that they contained prayers for their late protector! And are these small offences to be past and pardoned, or such as shall deserve the favour of indemnity and oblivion? God forbid!

Impunitas peccati præbet ansam peccandi. The not punishing of offences emboldeneth offenders to commit greater enormities with brazen brows, as if they were incorrigible: And, as the proverb saith, He, that saves a thief from the gallows, shall be first robbed himself." Is not the king as the breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, his person sacred, his authority dreadful? And is not all our present and future security and happiness involved in his majesty's preservation and prosperity? And shall his majesty's most apparent and implacable enemies be chiefly entrusted in the great concernments of his state and government, as Newcomb, Hills, and Field are under his titular printers? God forbid. Are there not honest and well affected printers in London, sufficient and able and willing to serve his majesty, but his grandest adversaries must be picked out for his service? And are there not lodgings enough about the city to be had for convenience, but Mr. Christopher Barker and his family must now be entertained at the house of that libidinous and professed adulterer Henry Hills in Aldersgate-street? One that for his heresy in religion (being an anabaptist) and his luxury in conversation (having hypocritically confessed his fact in print, and been imprisoned for his adultery with a taylor's wife in Blackfriars) would scandalise a good christian, and an honest mau, to be in his company. But, it seems, the old confederacy compacted between Barker, Ilills, and Field, by the agitation of Nedham, upon their conversion of the copy of the Bible, cannot yet be forgotten; albeit it tend never so much to the dishonour, disparagement, and prejudice of his majesty's

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affairs? And therefore it is more than time, as is humbly conceived, that as well the establishment of his majesty's office of printer, as also the regulation of the number of printers in England within good rules and limits, were speedily provided for and determined; and not any longer be carelesly and improvidently left and subjected to such extreme mischiefs, and fatal inconveniences. And moreover, it is very fit to be taken into consideration, how much mischief and sedition a press at New England may occasion and disperse, in this juncture of time, if the licentiousness thereof be connived at, and any longer tolerated; whenas we daily see such ventilations of opinions, inclining to factions and seditions, are the common merchandise of the press about the city of London; which, to a sober christian and loyal subject, are plainly destructive both of church and state; which God for his glory unite, preserve, and propagate in the old good order and govern

ment.

Having thus truly represented to publick view the cause of our lamentation, we will never despair of his majesty's seasonable and timely redress; being humbly confident, that, for want of loyal and dutiful information presented to his majesty, many fanaticks and disaffected persons to his person and government, by a little counterfeit conversion and hypocritical subjection, do continue and creep into his majesty's service, in many great places of trust and profit, who, being dyed in grain in the principles of popular liberty, would willingly cast off his majesty's sacred authority, and abandon his person, as they did his royal father's, if God, for our sins, in judgment, should permit them the least opportunity, Quod malum infandum avertat Deus!

But, briefly to conclude, we most humbly submit the necessity of our speedy reformation and redress, upon consideration of the many great miscries and calamities, that have happened not only in England, Scotland, and Ireland, but also in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and other countries and places, by the exorbitant and unlawful exercise of printing in modern times. Which, had the science and use thereof been known in the time of the grand profession of the Donatist and Arian heresies, would have immerged and drowned the whole world in a second deluge of blood and confusion, to its utter destruction, long time since. Yet however, if our mystery be confined within fit and convenient bounds, and not permitted transilire limites, it is and will be of singular use and convenience to his majesty and his dominions : Otherwise, though the art be so exquisite and excellent in itself, yet, by corruption and depravation, it will become the more pernicious and perillous: As the strongest and richest wine, for want of good curing, will turn to the sharpest vinegar; and a little wound or contusion, neglected, will soon mortify and corrupt itself to an immedicable gangrene.

Ignis, ab exiguo nascens, extinguitur undâ ;

Sed postquàm crevit, volitantq; ad sydera flammæ,
Vix putei, fontes, Auvii succurrere possunt.

In English thus:

A little fire to quench is done with ease;
But, when it rages, and the flames increase,
Ponds, fountains, rivers scarce can it surcease.

The application is easily inferred, in reference to the inconvenience of exorbitant and irregular printing in general. And, for his majesty's titular printers Mr. Barker and Mr. Bill, let them consider themselves (as all other wise men will and must do) under this trite and excellent aphorism, to wit, Impossibile est, vel verè admodùm difficile, ut qui ipsa opera non tractant, peritè valeant judicare.

Impossible, or very hard be 'twill,

To judge a work well, wherein th'ave no skill.

If a presentment should be made of the matter of this complaint to any capable inquest in this kingdom, they would indorse it Billa vera, and not return it with an Ignoramus.

All which is most humbly submitted to publick consideration, in hopes of regulation and speedy reformation.

God save the King.

ENGLAND'S JOY:

OK,

A RELATION OF THE MOST REMARKABLE PASSAGES,

FROM HIS MAJESTY'S ARRIVAL AT DOVER,

TO HIS ENTRANCE AT WHITE HALL.

London: Printed by Tho. Creak, 1660. Quarto, containing eight Pages.

BEING

EING come a-board one of the fairest of those ships, which attended at Sluys, for wafting him over from the Hague in Holland; and, therein having taken leave of his sister the princess royal, he set sail for England on Wednesday evening, May 23, 1660. And having, during his abode at sea, given new names to that whole navy (consisting of twenty-six goodly vessels) he arrived at Dover on the Friday following (viz. May the 25th) about two of the clock in the afternoon. Ready on the shore to receive him, stood the Lord General Monk, as also the Earl of Winchelsea, constable of Dover castle, with divers persons of quality on the one hand, and the mayor of Dover, accompanied by his brethren of that corporation on the other, with a rich canopy.

As soon as he had set foot on the shore, the lord general, presenting himself before him on his knee, and kissing his royal hand,

was embraced by his majesty, and received divers gracious expressions of the great sense he had of his loyalty, and in being so instrumental in this his restoration.

There also did the corporation of Dover, and the Earl of Winchelsea, do their duties to him in like sort; all the people making joyful shouts; and the great guns from the ships and castle telling aloud the happy news of this his entrance upon English ground.

From thence, taking coach immediately, with his royal brothers, the Dukes of York and Gloucester, he passed to Barham-down (a great plain lying betwixt Dover and Canterbury) where were drawn up divers gallant troops of horse, consisting of the nobility, knights, and gentlemen of note, clad in very rich apparel, commanded by the Duke of Buckingham, Earls of Oxford, Derby, Northampton, Winchelsea, Litchfield, and the Lord Viscount Mordaunt: As also several foot regiments of the Kentish-men. Being entered the Down on horseback, where multitudes of the country-people stood, making loud shouts, he rode to the head of each troop (they being placed on his left hand, three deep) who, bowing to him, kissed the hilts of their swords, and then flourished them above their heads, with no less acclamations; the trumpets, in the mean time, also ecchoing the like to them.

In the suburb at Canterbury stood the mayor and aldermen of that ancient city, who received him with loud musick, and presented him with a cup of gold, of two-hundred and fifty pounds value. Whence, after a speech made to him by the recorder, he passed to the Lord Camden's house, the mayor carrying the sword before him.

During his stay at Canterbury (which was till Monday morning) he knighted the Lord General Monk, and gave him the ensigns of the most honourable order of the garter: And Garter, principal King at Arms, sent the like unto the Lord Admiral Montague, then a-board the navy, riding in the Downs. There likewise did he knight Sir William Maurice, a member of the house of commons, whom he constituted one of his principal secretaries of state.

From Canterbury he came, on Monday, to Rochester, where the people had hung up, over the midst of the streets, as he rode, many beautiful garlands, curiously made up with costly scarfs and ribbands, decked with spoons and bodkins of silver, and small plate of several sorts; and some with gold chains, in like sort as at Canterbury; each striving to outdoe others in all expressions of joy.

On Tuesday, May the 29th (which happily fell out to be the anniversary of his majesty's birth-day) he set forth of Rochester in his coach; but afterwards took horse on the farther side of Black-heath, on which spacious plain he found divers great and eminent troops of horse, in a most splendid and glorious equipage; and a kind of rural triumph, expressed by the country swains, in a Morrice-dance, with the old musick of taber and

pipe, which was performed with all agility and chearfulness ima. ginable.

And from this heath the troops marched off before him, viz. Major-general Brown's, the Merchant-adventurers, Alderman Robinson's, the Lord Maynard's, the Earls of Norwich, Peterborough, Cleveland, Derby, Duke of Richmond's, and his ma jesty's own life-guard.

In this order proceeding towards London, there were placed in Deptford, on his right hand (as he passed through the town) above an hundred proper maids, clad all alike, in white garments, with scarfs about them; who, having prepared many flaskets covered with fine linnen, and adorned with rich scarfs and ribbands, which flaskets were full of flowers and sweet herbs, strowed the way be fore him as he rode.

From thence, passing on, he came into St. George's Fields in Southwark, where the lord mayor and aldermen of London, in their scarlet, with the recorder, and other city council, waited for him in a large tent, hung with tapestry; in which they had placed a chair of state, with a rich canopy over it. When he came this ther, the lord mayor presented him with the city sword, and the recorder made a speech to him; which being done, he alighted, and went into the tent, where a noble banquet was prepared for him.

From this tent the proceeding was thus ordered, viz. First, the city-marshal to follow in the rear of his majesty's life-guard: next the sheriffs trumpets; then the sheriffs men in scarlet clokes, laced with silver on the capes, carrying javelins in their hands; then divers eminent citizens well mounted, all in black velvet coats, and chains of gold about their necks, and every one his footman, with suit, cassock, and ribbands of the colour of his company; all which were made choice of out of the several companies in this famous city, and so distinguished; and, at the head of each distinction, the ensign of that company.

After these followed the city council+, by two and two, near the aldermen, then certain noblemen and noblemen's sons. Then the king's trumpets, then the heralds at arms.

After them, the Duke of Buckingham; then the Earl of Lindsey, lord high chamberlain of England, and the Lord General Monk; next to them Garter, principal King of Arms; the Lord Mayor on his right hand, bearing the city sword, and a Gentleman Usher on his left, and, on each side of them, the Serjeants at Arms with their maces.

Then the King's Majesty, with his equeries and footmen on each side of him, and, at a little distance on each hand, his royal brothers, the Dukes of York and Gloucester; and, after them, divers of the king's servants, who came with him from beyond sea; and, in the rear of all, those gallant troops, viz. the Duke of Buckingham, Earls of Oxford, Northampton, Winchelsea, Litch

Or arms of the Company painted or embroidered.

† Common Council.

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