wherein, I hope, you will find some things to your content, nothing to the contrary; which leaving to the acceptance of your good favour, with my further service to your command, I humbly rest, Your Worship's devoted, to be commanded, NICHOLAS BRETON. TO THE READER. AM sure that if you read through this book, you other, mend that is amiss, and all will be well. I name you not, for I know you not; but I will wish the best, because the worst is too bad: I hope there will nobody be angry, except it be with himself, for somewhat that he finds out of order; if it be so, the hope is the greater, the bad will be no worse: yet the world being at such a pass, that living creatures are scarcely known from pictures till they move, nor wise men from fools till they speak, nor artists from bunglers till they work, I will only wish the worthy their worth, and the contrary what may mend their condition; and for myself but pardon for my presumption, writing upon the natures of more worth than I am worthy to write of, and favourable acceptation of no worthy intention of reprehension, by the least thought of malicious disposition. So leaving my book to your best like, with my better labours to the like effect, in hope to find you among the Worthies, I rest, At your command, if worthy, N. B. THE GOOD AND THE BAD; OR, DESCRIPTION OF THE WORTHIES AND UNWORTHIES OF THIS AGE. A WORTHY KING. WORTHY king is a figure of God, in the nature of government: he is the chief of men, and the church's champion, nature's honour, and earth's majesty is the director of law, and the strength of the same, the sword of justice and the sceptre of mercy, the glass of the glass of grace, and the eye of honour, the terror of treason, and the life of loyalty. His command is general, and his power absolute, his frown a death, and his favour a life, his charge is his subjects, his care their safety, his pleasure their peace, and his joy their love; he is not to be paralleled, because he is without equality, and the prerogative of his crown must not be contradicted: he is the Lord's anointed, and therefore must not be touched; and the head of a public body, and therefore must be preserved. He is a scourge of sin, and a blessing of grace; God's vicegerent over his people, and under him supreme governor his safety must be his council's care, his health his subjects' prayer, his pleasure his peers' comfort, and his content his kingdom's gladness: his presence must be reverenced, his person attended, his court adorned, and his state maintained; his bosom must not be searched, his will not disobeyed, his wants not unsupplied, nor his place unregarded. In sum, he is more than a man, though not a God, and next under God to be honoured above man. AN UNWORTHY KING. where tyranny in AN unworthy king is the usurper of power, authority loseth the glory of majesty, while the fear of terror frighteth love from obedience: for when the lion plays the wolf, the lamb dies with the ewe. He is a messenger of worth to be the scourge of sin, or the trial of patience, in the hearts of the religious: he is a warrant of woe, in the execution of his fury, and in his best temper, a doubt of grace; he is a dispeopler of his kingdom, and a prey to his enemies, an undelightful friend, and a tormentor of himself: he knows no God, but makes an idol of nature, and useth reason but to the ruin of sense: his care is but his will, his pleasure but his ease, his exercise but sin, and his delight but inhuman; his heaven is his pleasure, and his gold is his God: his presence is terrible, his countenance horrible, his words uncomfortable, and his actions intolerable. In sum, he is the foil of a crown, the disgrace of a court, the trouble of a council, and the plague of a kingdom. A WORTHY QUEEN. A WORTHY queen is the figure of a king, who under God in his grace, hath a great power over his people. She is the chief of |