VI. TRUTH.

I SAW a traveller in a terrible tempest take his seasonable shelter under a fair and thick tree: it afforded him protection for a good time, and secured him from the rain.

But, after that it held up, and was fair round about, he unhappily continued under the tree so long, till the droppings thereof made him soundly wet, and he found more to condemn his weakness than pity his wetting.

A Parliament is known to be the best refuge and sanctuary to shelter us from the tempest of violence and oppression. It is sometimes the sole, and always the surest, remedy in that kind. But alas! the late Parliament lasted so long, that it began to be the grievance of the nation, after that the most and best members thereof were violently excluded.

The remedy turned the malady of the land, and we were in fear to be drowned by the droppings of that tree, if God of his gracious goodness had not put an unexpected period to their power.