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book_n	call_v	see_v	year_n	1,596	5	4.4881	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A74924	A Faithfull searching home vvord, intended for the view of the remaining members of the former old Parliament in the time of their late second sitting at Westminster. Shewing the reasonableness and justness of their first dissolution, as also the dangerous rock they formerly split upon, that so they might learn to beware for the future: But being a second time dissolved upon the like account, as so many fruitless trees twic dead plucked up by the roots. It is now presented to the officers of the army as another looking-glass wherein they may plainly see, how woefully they also have dissembled, dealt treacherously, deceitfully and wickedly both with God and man, in having so greatly apostatized from, rejected, trodden under foot, persecuted, Judas-like betrayed, and as it were crucified and kept down in the grave (as the soldiers formerly did Christ) that blessed cause and those good principles, they once so highly pretended to own ... Together with an other seasonable word by way of counsel and proposal to the aforesaid officers of the armies of England, Scotland, and Ireland. All which, is also to be seen, and read of all men loving righteousness, that thereby they may (with the army) better know how to chuse the good, refute the evil, and rightly steer their course, and bend their spirits in the future, for the exaltation of Christ, his cause, and interest, and against all the apostacy and treachery, though never so refined, that may further appear in this gloomy, dark, overturning day.		1659 (1659)	Wing F285; Thomason E774_1; ESTC R207286	59,601	45

of the same nature which you say you gave to them but are still resolved to deal treacherously and deceitfully as they did with the Cause and People of God and to go on acting by the very same carnall selfish spirit and policy as before calling to your assistance chiefly those very Persons that were the first Contrivers Promoters and Abetters of the la●e and present Apostacy whom the Lord hath had and doubtless yet hath a controversie with and would not no nor without eminent repentance will not own nor give favour in the eyes of his faithful People but rather more cause them to stink in their nostrils and are as unwilling and backward as a Bear to come to the stake to call the forementioned faithful Persons turned out of the Little Parliament and others of that publique spirit into Power for fear they will do their work too thorowly But go on as long as you will and be as Politique in your Shifts and Contrivances to uphold your carnal Interests and to keep them out as ever you can yet assure your selves the Lord who loveth righteousness and hateth iniquity and every deceitful practice and takes the wrong you have done to them and therein to his Cause as if done unto himself and hath already begun to call you to an account and to punish you for the same will never cease disappointing overturning and sending streights upon you till you acknowledge your iniquity in that very thing and well if you escape so too which so far as I yet understand you have not done to this very day And that you may the better weigh and consider what I say herein read the following Scriptures Isa 26.11 Lord when thy hand is lifted up they will not see but they shal see and be ashamed for their envy at the people the fire of thine enemies shall destroy them Also Isa 33.1 Woe to thee that spoilest and thou wast not spoiled and dealest treacherously and they dealt not treacherously with thee when thou shalt cease to spoil thou shalt be spoiled c. comp Rom. 1.31 32. and Rom. 2.3 Think not because you are a professing people and the Lord hath so many times appeared for you covering your heads in the day of battel and likewise given you houses full of good things which you filled not Deut. 6.11 that you shall alwayes have his presence and salvation with and about you though you commit iniquity and go on therein without repentance but rather consider what he saith to Israel of old who had sinned and back-slidden from him as you have done Amos 3.2 You onely have I known of all the Families of the Earth therefore will I punish you for all your iniquities Oh how greatly hath the blessed Name Cause Wayes and People of God suffered been reproached set at nought and blasphemed by your as well as by the late Old Parliaments evil mannagement of the Affairs under your hand from the first beginning of your Apostacy or turning the honest Members left behinde in the Little Parliament out of the Power to this very day How is the Enemy encouraged to lift up themselves in the hopes and expectations that they shall once more have a day to advance their Carnal Popish Superstitious wicked Interest and to tread down the Cause and People of God under their feet What might not you have done by this time for the Advancement of the Cause of God and his People not onely in our own but in other Nations had you kept growing up in the light spirit and practice of those good Principles you once so greatly pretended to own and had not through unbelief and a self-seeking self-exalting spirit so treacherously and wickedly departed from them Yea how far might we have been gotten on of our journney towards Zion had you pressed forward according to what above nine years since you * See Declar. Heathen-like called August 1. 1650. by it self or in p. 18 19. of a Book called the Fifth-Monarchy declared to the Scots wherein you say It is our prayer daily that those that fear the Lord in England and Scotland may become one in the hand of the Lord and joyn together in the Advancement of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and throwing down and trampling upon the Seat of the Beast why should not Scotland as well as England rejoyce to see the Horns of the Beast cut off that we may joyn together to hate the Whore and burn her flesh with fire as also that the Lord was about to put on the Saitns beautiful garments and to make them a praise in the Earth And likewise above six years since to the Little Parliament page 43 44 of the forementioned Book that you thought something was as the door that you were at the threshold and therefore it became you and them to life up your heads and to encourage your selves in the Lord looking upon your selves to be either the Stone it self or at least to have had somewhat of the spirit of it and that your Call of the Little Parliament was a fruit and an effect of the Stones smiting saying That some of you thought it your duty to endeavour that way not vainly looking on that Prophesie Dan. 2.44 and the Kingdom shall not be delivered to another people and that it was set upon your hearts and upon all the faithfull in the Land it may be it was not your duty to deliver it over to any other people and that that Scripture might then be fulfilling unto you Also that we were at the edge of the Promises and Prophesies and did think that God was bringing the Jews home to their station from the Isles of the Sea as once he led Israel thorow the Red Sea And although there were neither Promise for this or Prophesie we should be coveting after the best things and therefore if you were to chuse the meanest Officer in the Army or Commonwealth you would chuse a godly man that had Principles especially where trust is to be committed for you knew where to have a man of Principles and wisht that all our Magistrates were so chosen c. Wherein you speak as highly for the Work Kingdom and Interest of Christ as can almost be spoken by any in this or indeed in any other day on this side the eminent fulfilling of the Promises and Prophesies relating thereunto Now what great things might have been done towards the Calling home of the Jews Also what a glorious Presence and Salvation from the Lord might we have had upon and about us to the amazement terrour and silencing of the Enemy both at home and abroad according to Psal 48. so as they would not have dared to lift up their heads or have wagged their tongues against us as now they do Yea how many poor creatures might according to Esther 8.17 Zech. 8.22 23. have been won over to own and love the Cause and Interest of Christ that now are either turn'd Atheists or

Isa 60.22 I the Lord will hasten it in his time And could believe no other but that those late wonderfull Revolutions and Overturnings did loudly call upon them to be looking out that way and to be considering what was next to be done by them in order to a further going on with the Lord as Instruments of his pleasure in the bringing forth these things And knowing very well that the Lord eminently owned his people and his presence was wonderfully with them whilest there was a zealous pressing after Righteousness and strong endeavours used by some among you and in the Army to get the most godly faithful men into all places of Trust in the Army Navy and elsewhere who would brow beat and punish wickedness and countenance and endeavour to promote goodness and good men and that nothing prosper'd and went on to purpose till this blessed course and way was taken Witness the Victory obtained by the Eastern Association Sectarian so called Horsemen chiefly and Foot at Marston Moor against Prince Rupert and his Army Also after the New Moddel at Naseby Fight Afterwards in the West Then at Preston in Lanckashire against Duke Hamilton and the Scottish Army The subduing of Ireland and Scotland The Fleet also beating the Dutch and so on till the last Battel at Worcester They were very much carried forth to desire and endeavour that all things for the future might run in that channel without which they were considently perswaded as well they might that the Lords former presence would not be with our Councels and Forces as it was before but would forsake them Now there being at that time a Corrupt Malignant Neutral Presbyterian party among you in the House as there hath been all along and was to the very day of your Second Dissolution who were unsuitable to the work you were called to do and that knew not * Let the Army beware of this Joseph but rather closed with wicked men and enemies they did so oppose and hinder that the Righteousness and Justice and putting faithful men into places of Trust so greatly desired and promised could not be effected as it ought to be Insomuch that when the late General Cromwel came from Worcester several persons eminent for Godliness of the Congregations in and about London and others came to him Desiring that he would employ his utmost endeavours to get you to improve the great Mercies and Victories which the Lord had bestowed upon us as also to answer the expectations of his people in doing the good things promised In answer to which he replied beside other as bad expressions of you That there was no more hopes of drawing on the Parliament thereunto meaning you then was of making a bar of iron become a Lute string and desired that they with the Congregations to which they did relate would seek unto the Lord to know his pleasure in what was to be done and to let him know what upon such seeking should be set upon their hearts whereof you shall hear more afterward And would likewise say of you at other times that there was not above five or six of you in the House which more plainly appeared in your second sitting that had either a heart or minde to do any good thing which words were occasioned by several other good people who came to him for help complaining That they had waited upon you day after day till their hearts aked their legs were weary and they almost undone and could get little or nothing from you but a company of fair promises Others saying That when you did any thing for them it was for the most part so long first that they had almost as good have been without it And was it not too much so in your second sitting Many also were the complaints of the Countrey people and others against you upon the same account some of them saying That you were a company of corrupt self-seeking persons that minded your own Interest more then any thing else which they said was manifested by giving and receiving gifts to and from one another out of the Spoils of the Enemy that ought to have been brought into the Lords Treasury for the discharging of Publick Debts and the further carrying on of his work withall And that you preferr'd your Kindred Relations Friends Servants and Flatterers whether wise men or fools honest men or knaves into places of Trust and so it was in your second sitting witness Nedham and others contrary to the Qualifications so much pretended to in that day wherefore you being acted by such a corrupt self-seeking spirit little or no good at all could be expected from you All which being too sadly known to the forementioned good people of the several Congregations they proposed to the General c. as being the result of what was set uptheir hearts after seeking the Lord. That a short time of six moneths or thereabouts might be put to your sitting and that in the interim care might be taken for the Qualifications of persons to be elected to succeed in the Government which might be furnished by the Lord for the further carrying on of his work which you had not enough of * Were you not as short of spirit for the work in your second sitting as before spirit nor it seems of honesty to go on in withal And to say the truth upon this account among other the like things that might be mentioned was there a general out-cry amongst most of the friends of the Cause in the three Nations for a New Representative as so called in that day and for your Dissolution the Generall as you have heard by himself together with the Officers of the Army as well as others complaining of you and both privately and publiquely among themselves and elsewhere breathing out their desires for your Dissolution and that such faithful persons might come into the Power as would indeed bring forth the good things promised as may more plainly appear in a Letter sent by the Officers of the Army in England to Lieutenant General Fleetwood in Ireland after you were dissolved shewing the reasons thereof signed by Major General Lambert Major Generall Disbrow Commissary Generall Whaly Major General Harrison Collonel Saunders Collonel Hacker Collonel Rich Captain Farley Major Packer Major Wiggan and others As also in a Speech made by General Cromwel in his own and in the names of the Officers of the Army to the Members of the Little Parliament in the Council Chamber before their Sitting likewise shewing the grounds and necessity of their dissolving you and by way of encouragement to them to sit in both which are several Particulars laid to your Charge with which whosoever shall compare your late spirit and actions it will very plainly appear that you were rather worse in your late second sitting then in the time of your first I shall first begin with the * Both the Letter and Speech may be seen in a Book called

The Fifth Monarchy or Kingdom of Christ in Opposition to the Beasts Sold at the Crown in Popeshead Alley Letter wherein are five of the Particulars of your Charge See that Book page 22. First They complain of your evil mannagement of the Affairs that were under your hand 2. That the then dangerous remedy of dissolving you was not used till all other ways had been by the Army assayed and by you rejected 3. That after four years expectation from you since the change of the Government to wit from Kingship to a Commonwealth they found no * Was it not so again in this your second sitting Indeed you were very expert in laying Burthens and Taxes upon the people But what Righteousness and Justice did you bring forth Or what yokes lying either upon the Consciences or Bodies of the good people did you take away Or what hath the Officers of the Army who thus complain of you and dissolved you for not doing these good things done herein to this very day but strive to advance and settle themselves performance by you of those good things that tended to the settlement of the Commonwealth in Peace and Righteousness 4. They say They were abundantly satisfied from the long experience they had of you that as you were then constituted you were so far from being the Instruments of perfecting the Work of the Lord that the whole Cause was in great danger to perish under your hands for which there hath been so vast an expence of Blood and Treasure and therefore after seeking the face of God and taking counsel with one another it was generally apprehended that the onely way left to preserve the Cause was to prevent your sitting by a speedy dissolving you and laying the Government upon the shoulders of such men as might hopefully give the People the fruit of all their Labour and Blood and encourage good men to be still willing to hazard their lives against the Common Enemy which as things then stood many had little heart to do 5. That it was in their hearts to seek those good things in such a way as that you might have had the honour of it but you had not then a heart to incline to the Motion made in order thereunto but rather endeavoured a hasty inconsiderate passing of an Act for a New Representative though the General and Officers at a meeting with many of your Members did abundantly demonstrate the evident danger of it yet did you the next day so earnestly and precipitantly persist in it as necessitated them to put you to that suddain dissolution Thus far the Letter They also say in the Speech by way of charge against you see page 29 30 31. of the forementioned Book wherein are twelve Particulars 1. That when the General and the Officers of the Army came from Worcester they expected that you having such a History to look back unto a God that appeared for you so eminently so visibly the mercies that God had shewed the expectations that were in the hearts of all good men would have prompted you that were in Authority to have done those good things which might by honest men have been judged a Return fit for such a God and worthy of such Mercies and a discharge of duty to those for whom all these Mercies had been shewed to wit the true interest of the three Nations And likewise say They came fully bent in their hearts and thoughts to desire and use all fair and lawful means they could with you to have had the Nation reap the fruit of all that Blood and Treasure that had been expended in this Cause and had many thirstings in their spirits to finde out wayes and means wherein they might be any wayes instrumental to help it forward and that they did from time to time solicite you to that purpose and when they saw nothing could be done they reminded you by a Petition but had no return at all all the satisfaction they could get from you was but a few words And finding the People * It hath since appear'd that the Armies strivings and thirstings to have had the Nation better'd by all the expence of Blood and Treasure hath onely been to greaten and enrich themselves and studying how to get the peoples money to be upheld therein whereby they are looked upon as cheating self-seeking unfruitfull persons as well as your selves neither of you both having either honour or repute but are a stink unto all honest men do bring down judgements upon the Nation put all things into confusion yet neither they nor you the honesty or goodness to lay these things to heart to this very day but Lambert Disbrow Berry-like go on to advance your selves though the Nation perish dissatisfied in every corner and bringing home to their doors the Non-performance of those things that had been promised and were of due to be performed judging themselves concern'd they say they endevoured as became honest Men to keep up the Reputation of honest men in the world it seems you would not and therefore had divers times endeavoured to obtain a Meeting with divers of your Members and in those Meetings did in all faithfulness and sincerity beseech you that you would be mindeful of your duty and of the discharge of your Trust to God and man and that they had at the least ten or twelve Meetings begging and beseeching you that of your own accords you would do those good things that had been promised that so it might appear you did not do them by any suggestion from the Army but of your own ingenuities that so you might have the reputation and good opinion of the people to the utmost also declared plainly to you that the Issue of not doing those good things would be the judgement and displeasure of God against you the dissatisfaction of the people and the putting things into confusion yet they could not prevail with you and that you laid them not to heart 2. That you would not hear of a New Representative till such time as the Army came to their close considerations what to do and then you began to take it to heart and seem'd exceeding willing to put it on but not with that integrity and caution as would have saved the Cause and Interest that you and they had been so long engaged in and that your intendment and design in all you did at that time was onely to recruit the House the better to perpetuate your selves several of the Officers having divers times been spoken to by you to give way thereto which was so unreasonable a thing as they not onely had a perpetual aversation to but did abominate the thoughts of and alwayes declared their dissatisfaction with and judgements against it 3. That though you were unwilling to hear of a * It was just thus with you in your second sitting for though you seem'd exceeding willing to hear of Proposalls from the Friends of the Cause in order

he As the effect of that memorable Year 1648. was to lay the foundation of bringing Delinquents to punishment so it was of the Change of the Government although it be true if we had time to speak the carriages of some in Trust in most eminent Trust was such as would have frustrated to us the hopes of all our undertakings had not God miraculously prevented I mean by that closure that would have beèn endeavoured with the King whereby we should have put into his hand all that Cause and Interest we had opposed and had nothing to have secured us but a little piece of paper c. Which clearly confirms what I have said that the Lord blest us with success in our Councils and Forces as there was a sincere spirit acting for the Cause and Interest of Christ in that day and no otherwise his free grace onely excepted For when you were dissolved and the Little Parliament called there was a greater presence of God with them a terrour upon the enemy both at home and abroad especially upon the Lawyers National Clergy and all other corrupt Interests as also the hearts of most of the true friends to the Cause more rejoycing then in the time of your sitting But I let that pass and shall in the next place in some measure discover the mystery of iniquity that lay in the bottom and was working in Transactions after you were dissolved wherein lies the corrupt fountain or spring though unseen by most people from whence the late Apostacy had its rise which so caused the forementioned presence of the Lord to depart from our Councills and Forces and exposed us to the reproach and scorn of our enemies both at home and abroad and also occasioned the late distractions and divisions as between the true so the true and false professours amongst us and is as it were the pin and hinge on which all the confusion and dark apprehensions of things have had their dependance and moving from that time to this very day and is as follows For after you were dissolved and the Little Parliament were about to be chosen besides what was spoken to your selves and was desired of you by the General and Officers of the Army to wit That you would divolve your trust over to Persons of Honour and Integrity that were well known men well affected to Religion and the Interest of the Nation c. He also declared in the presence of Major Gen. Lambert Sir Gilbert Pickering Major Gen. Harrison Mr. Cradock Mr. Lockyer and others who were in a private consultation about that choice That if there were one man more faithful to the Saints and more suited to the work then another and that had not been left behinde in former dispensatious by the blessing of God he should be chosen and that Relations and all others not thus qualified should be rejected and that from this Scripture which was then mentioned by the party to whom these words were spoken to wit Hosea 11.12 Ephraim compasseth me about with lies and the House of Israel with deceit but Judah yet ruleth with God and is faithful with the Saints The first part of which Scripture he and his Officers applied to you in the forementioned Speech to the Little Parliament page 38. of that Book viz. That like Ephraim and Israel you had compassed God about with lies and deceit to wit with your Fastings and Thanksgivings and other exercises yet did not do the good you were call'd for which they had all cause to lament of but the Little Parliament were called by God to be faithfull with the Saints who were somewhat instrumentall in their Call and to be just ruling in the fear of God c. Which principle was more publickly though hypocritically declared by them in that Speech page 41. of the forementioned Book sayes he to them I confess I did never look to see such a day as this it may be nor you when Jesus Christ shall be so * If Christ indeed be King of Nations as well as of Saints as surely he is and as the Officers of the Army have both here and elsewhere acknowledged him to be and the Little Parliament was called to act upon his foundation and to do all things in his Name upon an avowed account as their Judge King and Law-giver as these their words import And the Lord by his eminent presence with and refreshing the spirits of such as were faithful among them as also rejoycing the hearts of his faithful people and striking a terror upon the enemy whilest they were sitting and endeavoured to be acting according to that blessed spirit and principle gave testimony thereunto and the Spirit of the Lord and his faithful people grieved and his presence as also their prayers withdrawn and the Nation almost ruined since they were rejected and the Lord so wonderfully overturned and blasted the designs of whatever had enmity to and was set up after it and seems by those his overturning dispensations not to be pleased till those who have dealt thus treacherously return to the real practice of this their declared principle and to own that Spirit they have so rejected Then whosoever it is that shall be either laying or building upon any other foundation or be promoting any persons into power on this side of it though never so refined do set down short of what the Lord in that day had brought us unto and are in the apostacy still and must be overturned as well as your selves and all others that have gone before them own'd as he is this day and in this world Jesus Christ is owned this day by you all and you own him by your willingness in appearing here and you manifest this as far as poor creatures can to be a day of the power of Christ by your willingness I know you remember that Scripture Psal 110.3 The people shall be willing in the day of thy power God doth manifest it to be a day of the power of Jesus Christ Having through so much Blood and Trials as have been upon these Nations made this to be one of the great Issues thereof to have a People called to the Supreme Authority upon such an avowed account God hath owned his Son by this and you by your willingness do own Jesus Christ c. I confess I did never look to see such a sight as this We have not allowed our selves in the Choice of one person of whom we had not this good hope that there was faith in Jesus Christ and love to all the Saints and thus God hath owned you and by your comming together have you owned him c. And towards the latter end of that Speech Book page 43. he further saith unto them Truly seeing things are so that you are at the edge of the Promises and Prophesies at least if there were neither promise for this nor prophesie you are to be coveting after the best things endeavouring after the best things and

that so they might hot hinder your corrupt design of advancing and perpetuating your selves And just so was it in the last Free Parliament so called summoned by his Son Richard your late Protector chosen as was his Fathers by the Clergy and * And this also you did contrary to your former declared Spirit and Principle in your Speech to the Little Parliament See Book pag. 42. where you acknowledge that the whole Bulk of the People of this Nation were not fit to chuse or be chosen Rulers till the Spirit was more poured forth and they thereby brought to own the Interest of Jesus Christ spirit of the Nation most of whom were enemies to and opposers of the Cause of God and his People and what endeavours you used by writing Letters and sending your Emissaries and Agents to the several Burroughs and Corporations to get your Kindred Relations Servants Flatterers and mercenaries whether wise men or fools honest men or knaves to be chosen for that end and to keep the faithful friends of the Cause from being chosen another evil complain'd of in the Old Parliament and yet how the Lord blasted you in all your vain hopes and expectations from them and for the preservation of your selves and the honest Interest you were still necessitated to dissolve them you very well know in all which you not onely dealt deceitfully treacherously and wickedly with your former honest Principles but doubtless did worse then the Old Parliament would have done and the great kindness you pretended to shew unto the good People in dissolving them doth not in the least excuse your great evil in laying such a wicked Foundation as necessitated you to call such unworthy Persons to be building upon it And I appeal to any honest faithful unbyast person to judge whether your late unbelieving treacherous carriage since the second Dissolution of the Old Parliament in framing your new Council of Safety so called mostly with those very Persons that were the promoters abettors of the late Apostacy as also casting several faithful friends of the Cause out of the City Militia and placing in their stead such as Alderman Tichborn Alderman Pack Alderman Viner Alderman Atkins Alderman Foot Alderman Chiverton and others who have likewise bowed the knee unto and abetted the aforesaid wickedness doth not declare you notwithstanding your many late Prayers Tears Fastings shews of Repentance and also Professions of your sincere intentions to return to own and advance the Cause of Jesus Christ to be still acted by the very same if not a worse spirit then before Fourthly Did the Old Parliament in their second Sitting so carry it as if the Interest of the People of God was grown cheap with them and not laid to heart and discountenanced their business that came before them to the discountenancing of them and countenancing the Malignant Party and as if they never intended good to the people of God So did you and worse For you stood by and upheld your Old Protector whilest he confirmed a former wicked Ordinance and therewith all those cursed Popish Oppressive Laws contrary to Scripture or Reason for imprisoning the Lords People taking away their goods and forcing trebble dammages from them for non-payment of Tythes and this out of an unbelieving carnal design to quiet the National Clergy and draw them to your Interest though known enemies to the Cause of Christ which hath been is and ought further to be carried on in these Nations whereby several poor Families of the Lords people have been almost ruined and undone and how they were many times discountenanced and overthrown in their business by reason of your countenancing and abetting those corrupt Interests you very well know Did the Old Parliament do evilly in their late Sitting in keeping Mr. Sympson out of Bishopsgate so long and so unwillingly voting his readmission at last as also in being so negligent and backward in doing right to Mr. Feake in restoring him to the Meeting-house by Newgate Market where he formerly preached and was placed by their Order and afterward unrighteously turned out by the late Apostacy As also in voting Major General Harrison uncapable of future publick employment So did you For after the Old and Little Parliament were dissolved you first turned Mr. Sympson and Mr. Feake out of those places and cast them into prisons for their faithfulness to the Cause of Christ and your forementioned honest Principles and witnessing against your back-sliding from them and suffered if not ordered Mr. Lee Mr. Jenkins and others who are known enemies to the Cause to come into their places and there continued them keeping the others out till the late Sitting of the Old Parliament who though long first restored Mr. Sympson but Mr. Peake if there be a keeping close to the former honest spirit and orders thereupon was and is unrighteously kept out both by them and you to this very day And how you likewise took Maj. Gen. Harrison's Commission from him or otherwise put him by his Command in the Army as also inhumanely and unworthily sent him to Prisons and Banishment upon the same account with the former and to this very day endeavour all you can to keep him and other faithful friends out of Publick Employment unless they comply with your selfish corrupt practises and own you as indeed returned from your Apostacy when it is not so you very well know which with many other things of this kinde that might be mentioned declares plainly that the interest of the people of God is grown cheap with you and not laid to heart and their business discountenanced to the countenance of the Malignant Party and that you intend good to the people of God no further then your own interest and safety will stand therewith and therein also are worse then the Old Parliament Fifthly Did the Old Parliament manifest their Spirit and Complexion to be corrupt by their backwardness in proceeding to regulate the Law which was then and to this day is so much groaned under as that many moneths together you say was not sufficient to pass over one word called incumberances So did you and worse by many degrees For when the forementioned honest Party of the Little Parliament had voted a new Body or Moddel of the Law for the speedy ending of Law Suits with little charge as also the abolishing and taking away the then and now corrupt oppressive Court of Chancery wherein was depending twenty three thousand Causes where some had lain five some ten some twenty some thirty years and more to the undoing of many families and had appointed a Committee for the bringing of Sir John Lenthal Chief Jaylor of the Vpper Bench Prison and all other corrupt persons imployed in Publick Trust to an account for the evil management of their Trust and had made some good progress therein to the suspending or casting the aforesaid Sir John Lenthal out of his place among other good things they were doing for

on in the hardness wichedness and slavish fearfulness of your hearts and spirits and through the advice and perswasion of Philip Nye Tho. Goodwin Dean Owen so called and the forementioned Ineendiaries upon carnal politique considerations be still upholding carnal Interests and the Old Corrupt Oppressive Customs and Practises relating either to Magistracy or Ministery that hath no warrant in Scripture which hath brought all the divisions confusion and miseries upon the Nation and the better to carry on this your wicked design shall continue in your rejecting the true spirit of your forementioned honest Principles in those faithfull Persons turn'd out of the Little Parliament and in others with them who as was said before are spirited and principled if any to bring forth good to the Nation and shall rather proceed to moddel your future Councels with Malignants Neuters Presbyters or unconverted Apostate Protectorians such as Tichbern Lawrence Strickland Whitleck Clark and others of that spirit be it known unto you you are Apostates still though the form you come under in the outward appearance be never so specious and the Protestations and Declarations you make and set forth be never so glorious and taking upon the people and the faithful Friends of the Cause if they intend to retain their former integrity and faithfulness both to the Lord and it cannot dare not own or touch with you but according to Numb 16.21.26 must separate and stand at a distance from you as before lest they be consumed in all your sins And although by your more refined Machevilian Devices and the many Professors yea Pastors and Members of Churches you may gain thereby to your Interest as also by the strength of your Armies and Navies you may think to bear up and to stout it out a little longer against the Lord his Cause and his faithful Remnant and the very spirit of your former honest Principles yet know that when you have done all you possibly can do to uphold your selves therein the spirit of the Lord in his forementioned faithful Remnant as it hath already begun to do will according to Isa 28.17 further overflow and look into your hidling place and see your sin as if written in your foreheads and to have a lye in your right hand and so will go on to abhor and blow upon you and by degrees will bring you down as your old and late Protectors with their Parliaments and the late Old Parliament and so shall you become as a shameful spewing a by-word and a reproach not onely in our own but the Nations round about us If God be God as surely he is and Righteousness be Righteousness and the Scriptures are the dictates of his Blessed Spirit and he ever had a glorious Cause on foot in England leading us out of Babylonish and Antichristian Bondage towards that glorious freedom and liberty that the Saints who have the first fruits of the Spirit and the whole creation groans travelleth in pain for and waits to be delivered into and shall eminently be when Zion shall fully be delivered Antichrist destroyed the Jews called and our Lord Jesus Christ and his Saints according to Isa 32.1 2. shall Reign and Rule in Righteousness in the world all which as is mentioned in pag. 2. of this Book shall certainly be fulfilled in the latter dayes it must be so unless the Lord be more merciful to you then ordinarily he is to others that have sinned against and back-slidden from him as you have done which you have no reason to expect he being so much concern'd for the recovery of his Name and Glory to do some eminent remarkable thing against such a perfidious hypocritically Apostate professing Generation as you have been and are that thereby he not onely may keep the feet of his faithful witness-bearing people from slipping and encourage them to fear and trust in him for the future but that also all others may hear and fear and do no more so wickedly And that the Common Enemy may not have the least encouragement from what I have said to believe that now all shall be their own and that the Lords lifted up hand against you is in order thereunto I further declare my present apprehensions are that although the Lord may make use of them as his Rod to rebuke and scourge you not onely for not bringing forth that good but also contrary to your Declarations doing worse things your selves then for which you sought with and beheaded their King as also cast out and banished his Posterity yet the Lord hath a people in this Nation whom he hitherto hath kept and I trust will keep faithful to the end to his Blessed Cause and those good Principles you have so treacherously departed from whom he will by his Almighty Power and Providence so preserve out of their hands that they shall never be able to overcome or have their wills upon them but they shall go on in the power of his Spirit Isa 59 19. and Mal. 4.2 3. with life power and an undaunted spirit in that blessed Work and Cause that for some years together hath with such wonderful success been carried on against them Neither do I see in the midst of all the confusions distractions fears and straits you are encompassed with the least ground to believe that the Lord will cast away the Cause and Interest of his Son to make way for a carnal Man and that wicked Generation whom he hath so many times subdued as the people of his Curse to bear Rule in this Nation and therein send us back to Egypt or Babylon any more but rather is thereby removing that which stands in the way and hinders his faithful people from going to Zion Wherefore if the Lord hath so punisht you a professing People who in the outward shew may be said to be the green tree and caused you thus to fall before the spirit of his Cause and faithful people and so to disappoint and bring to nought all that you contrive and act against them then how shall they who are a wicked Generation who should they prosper would set up wickedness by a Law and may truly be termed the dry tree be able to prevail against them And if you who by your profession are called a righteous people scarcely be saved where shall they who may be said to be the ungodly and sinners appear The present dispensations that are upon you gives not the least ground to believe that they shall bear rule any more therefore let them set their hearts at rest Surely the Lord would never give his people that light faith and communion with himself and such tastes of sweetness in their spirits in that Communion in the discovery Isa 33.17 18. of the glory that according to the Promises and Prophesies is to be revealed in the latter dayes and so much love to his Cause and Work that hath been formerly and is yet on foot though not so visible as once it was leading thereunto and so owned their Testimony against you in bringing you down for opposing of them or shewen us all these things as the wife of Manoah said to him Judges 13.23 if he intended to cast them away or deliver them up either into your or the common enemies hand Would the Lord who stiles himself a faithfull promise Covenant keeping God and that cannot lye ever bid his people Isa 62.6 7. not to keep silence and give him no rest till he establish and make Jerusalem a praise in the earth if he did not really intend to do so or have begun to put on the Saints Beautiful Garments and to make them a praise in the earth not for their righteousness or Goodness but for his own Names sake As also plagued Israel of Old for not pressing forward but endeavouring to go back to Egypt and will not he who hath a fulness of the spirit and love to his work and all power in his hand to do it and hath already laid the Foundation of Zions welfare carry it on and lay the top-stone also Surely he will And the Rage and Tumults of the Carnal Apprentices and others at this day for the bringing in Charles Stuart and saying They will lose their lives every one of them rather then they will have such men to Rule as will take away the corrupt Customs and Practices that are among them is an eminent hint to me that the very Day of the setting Christ and his Saints upon his holy Hill of Zion is at hand yea so upon us that none can put it off and being so fully satisfied in my Spirit it is so I shall conclude with the following Scriptures Esther 6.13 And Zeresh Hamans wife and his wise-men said unto him If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews before whom thou hast begun to fall thou shalt not prevail against him but shalt surely fall before him Psal 2. Why do the Heathen rage and the People imagine a vain thing The Kings of the Earth set themselves and the Rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his Anointed saying Let us break their Bonds assunder c. THE END

judgement that for the saving of the Cause there was an absolute necessity to pass upon you and also how most of the good people in the Army Navy and Churches c. in the three Nations did both approve of and rejoyce therein And to say the truth there was but very few compared with the others who might then truly be said were Friends to the Cause that were dissatisfied whose dissatisfactions were not meerly because you were dissolved and the other chosen in your stead for they also complain'd of you and desired a New Representative as well as others but that it was done in such a manner as in their then apprehensions not onely made way for the General to take the Power himself but also tended to pluck up by the very roots the old way of chusing Rulers by the whole Bulk or Body of the people which they called and formerly was so the Legall Foundations which was then in their judgements and still is of some of them who understand no better how to follow the Lord in his overturning dispensations the onely legal and best way for the choice of Rulers So that all things considered setting aside the forementioned dissatisfactions of some which was onely as to the manner but not to the matter of your being dissolved which signifies little or nothing at all as to the clearing of you it plainly appears that for your unfaithfulness in and unfitness for your stewardship and not thoroughly improving the Talent which was then committed to you for God and his People you were both by his Providence and their Approbation and Consent justly laid aside Insomuch that if the now true friends of the Cause had either Light and suitable thereunto a sincere upright courageous single and lively Spirit for Christ and Righteousness as they ought to have and as the Saints shall have when the Law shall go forth of Zion to follow the Lord in his Overturning dispensations who as he hath formerly and in our Day so hath promised for the future safely to lead his People on in his work in wayes they have not gone with their feet Isa 41.2 And to bring the blinde by a way they know not and lead them in paths that they have not known c. Isa 42.16 Would lay aside the excrementitious outside shell or notion of things relating to a further carrying on of the Cause in its purity to wit the spirit of the Nation or whole body of the People which the Lord by a continued series of providential Dispensations because of the malignity of their spirits against his Cause and People hath one time after another cast out and witnessed against and on the other hand would look into the very spirit kernel and substance of things relating thereunto to wit the spirit of the good People who have gone on with the Lord in his work to this very day who desired consented and approved of your being then laid aside you were really clearly deservedly and justly cast out and to say the truth had not from that time to the very day of your second Call nor have not now the least ●●ght to sit again upon the former account which I am perswaded the Lord in due time will make manifest notwithstanding through the short-sightedness though I trust simplicity of some friends who desired and were instrumental therein you might be called to sit a second time and possibly by your selves it is apprehended that there we went out of the way at first and therefore must there begin again But if I know any thing of the minde of God as I trust through his Grace I do by the observations that I have made of his footsteps in the carrying on of his work hitherto amongst us you are all mistaken and I know you will finde it so which I doubt not but clearly to manifest in that which follows For although we had many Deliverances and Victories and the Lord eminently blest us with success and our dread was upon our Enemies both at home and abroad whilest you were sitting especially towards the latter end yet be it known unto you it was not purely for your sakes considered as you were a Parliament in the Bulk but as there was a sincere single honest spirit according to their then light acting for Christ his Cause and Interest in some among You in the Army and also in the Nation which I conceive will be granted by every discerning person who was upon the place and made observation of things and which the late General Cromwell and his then Officers do also acknowledge in the forementioned Speech to the Little Parliament Page 27. of that Book in the following words Sayes he After divers turnings of Affairs it pleased God much about the midst of the War to winnow the Forces of this Nation and to put them into the hands of men of other Principles then those that did engage at the first c. Those strange windings and turnings of Providence those very great appearances of God in crossing the designs of men to wit Hollis Stapleton and the men of that spirit among you and in the Army that he might raise up a contemptible company of men not verst in Military Affairs nor having much natural propencity to them through the owning a * If the General and Officers of the Army had kept close to the practice of this honest Principle those Officers he hath left behinde him and their pretended faithful brethren lately imprisoned in Scotland had not been served such a Monckish treacherous trick as now they are but they that deal treacherously with their Principles as also stand by and assist whilest their Brethren are imprisoned for their faithfulness thereunto it is just with the Lord to suffer or appoint others to deal treacherously with them Principle of Godlines which so soon as it came to be owned and the state of Affairs put upon that foot of Account how God blest them and all their undertakings by the raising up of that most improbable despicable contemptible means for that we must for ever own you very well known c. He goes on Page 27 28. The issues of those successes that God was pleased to give this Nation were very great things brought about besides the Dints that were upon those Nations and places where they were carried on even in the Civil Affairs to the bringing Offenders to Justice the state of this Government to the Name at least of a Commonwealth the searching and sifting of all Places and Persons the King removed and brought to Justice and many great ones with him The House of Commons the Representative of the People of England winnowed sifted and brought to a handful c. All which great things were instrumentally brought forth by the honest Party after the many strivings and contendings with a Malignant Rigid Presbyterian Neutral Corrupt Party among you as the then General and Officers also confess in Page 28. of that Book Sayes