the death witness Saint PAUL who did all this insomuch that Saint PETER at last calls him Our beloved brother PAUL 2 Pet. 3. 15. Wherefore nowithstanding they have so violently persecuted your Royal FATHER to the death most glorious Soveraign upon their repentance receive your Subjects in love and mercy as your FATHER hath commanded you who went beyond any one Martyr because of his power and dignity and therefore his sufferings were greater and are morefull of glory which is to you an unspeakable joy full of glory through Jesus Christ who did enable him To the Son JESUS CHRIST be all Glory and Praise for ever and ever Amen In long-Ally at the entrance of Crown Court in Black-fryers March 23. 1654. Your faithful Servant in the LORD Arise Evans To the Reader Beloved THese things had been out in print before the last Christmass but that I had Visions to the contrary which shewed me that the King's party then had high hopes to prevail another way so that these things then would have been rejected but now I hope they are satisfied and see no good can come to them that way and that they will look upon this to be the most probable and the most excellent way for the King to come in and that this for that end comes out seasonably now and the Lord send his presence and blessing with it to his glory and our comfort So be it To the ROYALISTS Reloved YOU see in my little book called Voice of Michael the Arch-angel what Lines I have presented to his Highness the Lord PROTECTOR to shew him how God is for us And I believe and so doth his Highness give credit by all that I can gather from his deportment toward me He believeth also that what I shewed him came to pass On last Saint Michael's â—ay was the appearance of God for you and since the Almighty hath appeared for us insomuch now that his Majesty CHARLES STEWARD upon good terms may come to his Throne when he please And God forbid but that the QUEEN DUKE of York DUKE of Glocester and all the late KING's Children should come in upon the same Agreement and be highly honoured by this Nation if her Majesty leave Idolatrous Superstition and all other sins attending Courts in our days behinde her which the Lord of Heaven and Earth that beareth rule in this Nation cannot a bide I know nothing that hinders the KING at this time but a seeking of his Kingdom and shewing himself willing to agree with his Highness the Lord PROTECTOR and his Party Then let us praise God to whom onely be the glory of our Salvation by Jesus Christ and truely as you see by the above said book I have not spared them but roughly shewed them the Truth which albeit his Highness received not in wrath but as it is a sharp loving reproof to his and their honour be it spoken they received it with all readiness mildness meekness and clemency shewing to a discerning eye a willingness in them to perform what is required on their part provided that they have an Agreement suitable to their Worth and Valour of which Demands in reason they ought not to be denied by his Majesty CHARLES STEWARD Therefore having through God's assistance brought it to this pass left I should be unfaithful I shall God willing now speak a word of reproof unto you of the KING's party and chiefly to you who have not hitherto changed your habit of sin and cause of your misery yet you would have the Kingdom come with all haste and some of you are so violent that nothing will satisfie you but blood and treading down of such parties and especially upon such and such men as you fancy to be guilty you would have no mercy shewed And in all these things you are mistaken for they are so willing to do righteously and to have peace that they please God thereby And therefore neither you nor all Europe shall not be able to bring them down by force Truly let me tell you I think it is in vain for any to fight with these men in the field I know none that did attempt to fight them which got any thing by them but the humbling of their high and lofty Spirits And his Majesty the late KING was sensible of it and knew that he had chosen the wrong people for his Souldiers when he said of them Sect. 26. pag. 209. of his Book as followeth For the Army which is so far excusable as they act according to Souldiers principles and interest demanding pay and indempnity I think it necessary in order to the publick peace that they should be satisfied as far as is just no man being more prone to consider them then my self And though they fought against me yet I cannot but so far esteem that valour and gallaâ—try they have sometimes shewed as to wish I may never want such men to maintain my Self my Laws and my Kingdoms in such a peace as wherein they may enjoy their share and portion as much as any men And truly the King had great reason to wish such a wish when he had considered the carriage of both Armies for as the King's Army were generally given to swearing drunkenness whoredom with other such vain sinful lusts which to maintain such a course of life no small means will serve turn so that to maintain such lusts they wronged the Countries where they came which Countries observing the different dealing of both Armies and that the KING's Army made them who afore were really for the King to abominate such doings so that they all did joyne with the PARLIAMENT's Party against the KING which thing proved both his and his Armies ruine and indeed the ruine of all his Party Besides such men were the worst men for Souldiers as could be imagined for when they should be watching and alwayes in readiness one party was with their whores another drunk a third gaming a fourth plundering a fifth swearing and fighting one with another which things are destructive to an Army who should sanctifie themselves specially at such times Deut. 24. 9. but when they were got together though they would fight most gallantly at a single duel or at an Ale-house yet such men are never good in the field specially when they come to encounter with a people whom they think do seek the Lord and fear him and live civilly then the fear of God's wrath and of death commonly makes them run away or else their ambitious Commanders strive for honour till time be past when indeed they should go on by lot Judg. 1. 1 2 3. and if they chance to do an exploit they too soon fall a plundering that seldom but at the last they come to lose all again These things the late KING understood and experience did witness it to him But the PARLIAMENT-Souldiers were men of another temper and though of divers Opinions yet they went out of zeal in rage and fury to fight against
Prophets have a holy unction from him that is holy and an anointing that is of God alone 1 Job 2. 20 27. It is not fit to cast such holy things before fierce unfaithful men of common understanding which by our Saviour Christ's account though they be learned are as dogs or swine that know not such things nor the worth of them Matth. 7. 6. but I thought better of you before whom I have shewed my pearl else I had not done it Gentlemen If you cannot speak well of him that speaks well of you and seeks your welfare how will you come to speak well of him that speaks evil of you and if you cannot do good for good how will you come to do good for evil Rom. 12. 20 21. I have not spoken evil of your learning and why should you despise mine you know it is said Quench not the spirit Despise not prophecying 1 Thess. 5. 19 20. And it is said Beware lest any man spoil you through Philosophy and vain deceit Col. 2. 8. you square the Scriptures understand them by such rules of learning but the Prophets have another rule to construe them right which rule your Philosophers never knew Therefore Prophets need not come to you for help to unfold the mysteries of the holy Scripture but rather ye ought to magnifie Gods wisdom and deny your own carnal wisdom when you see a thing opened by a mean man and made clear which all your prudent men could not do 1 Cor. 1. 19 27 28. 1 Cor. 2. 9 10 13 14. I do admire at the haughtiness and loftiness of some peoples Spirits who would not onely seem to be mightily for King Charles but also are as violent against the Protector I am sure they are none of the Kings Friends he hath too many such proud arrogant ones on his side which are zealous for his honour that undid his Father and will never do him good except they understand themselves better then hitherto they have done I pray is it an impossible thing to be and an unreasonable thing to believe that King Charles and the Protector should agree and that the way to do it should be by a match between the King and one of the Protector's Daughters they being vertuous Ladies both beautiful and personable brought up in as good education and parts as Europe can afford being not inferiour if considered in all parts to any Ladies in Christendome nor less worthy of a Princely bed then the best of them except ye judge them that are most wanton and are puffed up with their vain beauty or painting which have the least of the fear of God in them to be most worthy of such enjoyments And truely for descent of Blood I believe if it were well examined we should finde that his Highness comes of as good a Royal Stock as any Prince came of though for a long time it hath been under a Cloud and not so esteemed even the very same as King Charles is of the ancient British Kings and not much if any thing inferiour to him in that Line And the hope of the Britains hath been ever since they were brought under the Saxons that one should be exalted sttangely out of that Stock to do great things and we have many Sayings and Proverbs of instruction or rather Prophesie to that purpose which I believe are now verified in his Highness one is thus Husbus i deng is y dâ—n obbo radd i mau i wriddin that is in English The man in his time will manifest of what root or degree he is descended But his Highness doth not glory in flesh and blood as the prodigals do of their blood and gentility though he sheweth it in actions to pull down such high spirits that are mor fore Vice then Virtue and he doth it with more tonderness then they would do to him if they had him under which sheweth he is of a right Princely vein for a Clown and a Coward is cruel and will have no mercy on his enemies if once he gets them in his power But however suppose his Highness were not of so great a Blood if that Charles Stewards house should descend as it did hitherto and Oliver Cromwel's house ascend as it doth within a few Generations to come it would not be counted then a bad match for the best of the Stewarts to match with the chief Cromwel's Daughter Therefore I say Why should you be so contrary to the King's welfare as I heard some say That they would rather see the King lose all and perish then so to undervalue himself as to be married with Cromwel's Daughter Truely I doubt such proud Spirits must down and the King's best way is not to hear them for if the late King were now alive to see these things now as they are brought about he would counsel his Son to marry his Highnes's Daughter and so to make peace And if the late King's words be rightly considered his wishes to have the Army for him saith no less for what more probable way is it for the King to gain the Army to him then to joyne in affinity with the Captain-General thereof I think this is the sence of the Speech of his Majesty's Father as true as if he was now living to declare it for he was a wise foreseeing Man that saw this Army was invincible And I cannot finde in all the late King's Book where he doth give way for his Son this King to avenge his blood but rather that he forgive all and exhorteth him to forgive all that are willing to come to an agreement with him and truely it is not onely perfect Christianity but it is also his greatest Policy to do so Yet many say That if the King should match with his Highness's Daughter he would be in scorn among all the Princes in Christendom Alass he is more in scorn among them now as he is for what do the Princes do for to restore him If they send him a little maintenance for a time they are soon weary of him and account of him but as a poor man that craveth Alms. We know how the Papists scorn and slight their poor brethren if they be contrary to them in their Religion and do nothing for them but rather do what they can against them even to the taking away of their lives And it is God's mercy to King Charles and that Family that he hath escaped among them all this while with his life being he is one that they fear if he be set up may come to ruine their Religion Therefore if once the KING's Majesty were joyned with his Highness the Lord Protector what need had the King to care for any Prince in the World I believe they would all tremble at his presence for God hath provided him an army that if once he were in the head of it all the World could not parallel nor shew such another because his Army doth consist of civil wise politick
raise you above the meditating of any revenge or executing your anger upon the many the more conscious you shall be to your people the more prone you will be to expect all love and loyalty from them and to inflict no punishment upon them for former miscarriages You will have more inward complacency in pardoning one then in punishing a thousand And again saith he for those that repent of any defects in their duty toward me as I freely forgive them in the word of a Christian King so I believe you will finde them truely zealous to repay with interest that loyalty and love to you which was due to me c. And dear Soveraign many such exhortations to press you to offer a free pardon to all and not to seek to be revenged on any ye have in his Book and last Speech to you Now I say If a Subject had been murthered and that his sonshould forgive all the murtherers yet the Law hath a power in it to put them to death for their actings in murthering his Father notwithstanding his son's remittance because his son is not a competent Judge in the cause But in a King in whom is the life of the Law it is not so for in any Case and especially his own Case he may forgive what he will and that must stand for Law because he is a compleat Judge so that his word by the Law is made to be above the Law as we see in Cases of Remittance for after that many have been cast to die by the Law the King's pardon hath saved them and whosoever denieth this denieth the King's Prerogative Royal. Again I say There is a distinction between Martyring and Murthering for a Martyr offereth himself for the defence of the Truth of God as our Savicur saith John 10. 17 18. He layeth down his life none properly can be said to take it from him because he hath power to lay it down and to take it up again else he is not a Martyr but the life of him that is murthered is violently taken from him that though he would live upon any terms he may not live and he cannot help it And your Royal Father understanding this did not say at his death nor as you have it in his Speech to you that he was murthered but said that he was martyred Therefore he that saith he was murthered doth not onely deny him to be a Martyr but doth also denie both his power and pardon and belyeth him for he did never pardon any for wilful murther yet pardoneth all these men being his own enemies looking not on them as his murthereres but as they wilfully yet ignorantly did slay him and he would have you to pardon them in like manner Your Royal Father following Christ Jesus in it who as he was a King and a pattern to all Kings for the future times had an eye to his Perogative Royal thus that he gives order to his Apostles concerning them that had put him to death that if they did repent his blood should not be required of them and we see Peter proceeds with them accordingly for after he had shewed the Jews how they had slain the Lord Jesus until they were pricked in their hearts and made to cry out to the Apostles saying Men and brethren what shall we do Peter doth not say Tou must die for it but saith Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of the Lord Jesus for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the holy Ghost Act. 2. 37 38. yet by the Jews Laws such offenders were to die without mercy Levit. 24. 17 18. and if it had been the will of Christ Peter had power enough to put them to death as we see Ananias and Sapphira were slain by the word of his mouth Acts 5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10. but herein is Christ's pardon or Perogative Royal seen Most Royal Soveraign That Text 2 Chron. 25. 3. which many urge in this Case is no president for you to follow first Because Joash was murthered 2 King 12. 20. Secondly Because we read not that King Joash gave any such charge to his son as your Royal Father gave you to shew that he forgives all his enemies and would have you to forgive them freely if they repent and come to agreement with you Thirdly We read not of the repentance of them that slew King Joash therefore it was but just for his son Amaziah to put them to death And it behoves your Majesty if there be any defects in your Father's Speech to rectifie it by the word of Christ and let not any wrest it to a wrong sence contrary to his minde for I am sure he meant to imitate his Saviour notwithstanding he might fail in expressing his minde through the frailty of flesh and blood following the customes of former Kings whose conditions did not reach unto him yet I know none that came neerer to Christ in word and deed then he did Therefore do you follow the best as he did and take Peter's doings Acts 2. 37 38. for your president and so you will honour your Father for if you do not offer mercy to all freely without exceptions and receivs all that will accept of your pardon preferring and securing them for the time to come you wrong your self and disobey and dishonour your Royal Father more then any ever yet did by taking from him that power to forgive all which power as he saith all his enemies could not take from him for in the well managing of that power lieth all your happiness and of your peoples God did appoint three several Voices to be heard of men and obeyed upon pain of his displeasure The first Voice was that of Moses and Joshua to the children of Israel and because they did not obey it all that generation fell in the wilderness Heb. 3. 16 17 18 19. The second Voice was that of John Baptist and Jesus Christ to the Jews and because they did not obey it Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jews which lieth desolate to this day Heb. 4. 1 2 3. The third Voice is this Voice even the Voice of your Royal Father to your Majesty and for not obeying it you and your people have suffered hitherto and this Voice is signified Heb. 4. 7. and therefore I beseech your Majesty obey it now And as Peter took the first spouse of Christ after his resurrection out of those that had put him to death so I see no way left for you to obtain your three Kingdomes but by joyning your Royal Self to his Highness the Lord Protector and his Counsel and to prevent all jealousies make one of his Daughters partaker of your Royal Crown for you see the people dare not rise against him for you this is evident by the last appearance for you in most places of the heart of England which if the generality of the people that are well-affected to
be angry that he came not to them and between them they then set out a pamphlet abusing that Scripture 2 Sam. 19. 41 42 43. and taking it for a cloak to dislemble with the good innocent King wherein forsooth the English Presbyters took upon them to be Israel and the Scotch Presbyters took upon them to be Judah making as though according to the Text they strove who should be most forward in their love to bring home the King Shall not such Hypocrites be punished But in their bringing of him home the one proved to be more like Jezebel 1 King 21 7 8 9 10. then Israel and the other more like Judas Matth. 26. 14 15 16 47 48 49. then Juda for so they brought him to his long home and delivered him to Pilate And as the Pilate of our time had not the honesty to wash his hands from his blood so the other had not the honesty to take his blood upon them as by right it is Matth. 28. 24 25. and hath been required to the purpose of the Scotch Presbyters Therefore sure their English Brethren shall not escape though they be the cunningest Hypocrites on the earth the Scribes and Pharisees were but Fools in comparison to them for hypocrisic Yet God forbid that I should say All that go under the name of Presbyterians are so guilty of the Kings blood though they all be sufficient Hypocrites in other Cases but certain it is that a party of them contrived the way to bring the King to his end how many they were in number God onely knoweth and it is too a hard a thing for man to finde them out because all are perjured persons that are to witness it all honest men were excluded from that secret so that they can witness nothing Therefore I would not have the King to punish any of them for his Fathers blood but refer it to God for the evil name and shame they got by it and the guilt that lieth upon their conscience with the voice of his blood that followeth them withersoever they go is a greater punishment to them then all the torture the King can devise to put them to for if he punish them then it mitigates and lesseneth the aforesaid punishment And truely he cannot punish the guilty but he must also destroy the innocent for they were so link'd together in the work that if the Case of the King's blood come to be tried I believe the most guilty will escape best for they will say and swear and hire others to swear any thing and use all means to cast it upon the innocent Therefore I say let the King forgive all or none truely I am sure by a Vision that I had he must forgive all or none and if he forgive none I know not how he will ever come to enjoy his Kingdom We have a continual noise of Plots among us I am perswaded most men are more inclinable to that bloody way then to the way of peace yet these Plotters are so foolish in the managing of their Plots that their designs are discovered before they are laid The Presbyterians were not so in their Plots against the Church and the late King as not long since I heard a Sectary say That he knew of that Plot thirty eight yeers agone but said we had no drunkards nor tell-tales among us they covered their Plots with religious pretences they were so circumspect that they would not be seen in Taverns and Ale-houses left they should be suspected and they held it unlawful to fight against the King or for Religion but when at last they got strength they fought against both until they brought their Plot to effect yet you know how soon they lost that pre-eminence which so long with many Prayers was in getting God gave them their request but sent leanness into their soul Psal. 106. 15. that they are not the better but now much in a worse condition then when they began to plot Therefore let all the Plotters take the Presbyterians for an example and see what fruit they had for their long plottings and contrivings to shed blood and what they are like to have hereafter is to be lamented by them I am sorry to see men given to bloody Plots I am perswaded many care not what mony they spend to bring in the King that way yet I believe they are none of them that be in favour with him but such as think to gain his favour thereby are most ambitious and forward in these Plots Let them take heed they run a great hazard to little purpose for I am sure one man with his Prayer and Pen he having but one hundred pound to set him forward Eccles. 10. 19. shall do more good to bring in the King in peace then a thousand Plotters should do to bring him in after their manner though they had a thousand pound a peece to set them forward For my own part I have neglected my outward calling and done what I could spending my time and what I could get in writing and printing for the King these three yeers and now being brought low every way my best Friends forsaking me my outward calling failing for I was hindered in it because I gave my self to write and am yet hindered and lose my time with people that come to me dayly to be satisfied with Words but my Wife and Children will not be satisfied without bread and I must provide for them or deny the Christian Faith 1 Tim. 5. 8. Therefore expect not much more from me except God send me means which yet I know not of It is true Divers Persons of Quality paid me royally for my former Books else I had not been able to subsift And many came to keep me in talk not considering my time but thought I had my Books for nothing for they would have them at so small a rate and not onely so but many poor people had them for nothing though when my number was gone and I wanted Books I had paid dear to the Book-seller for them Therefore what I got from the one I spent upon the other Loath I was to offend any by denying them my company which many times came a great way to see me being also willing that the poor honest-hearted should should have freely what I had as well as others which paid me well Yet had any done to me as that most honourable Earl of Pembrook did to Matthew coker they might have been offended who for a less service then I have done for the King's Party when he was in distress the said Earl did send him a hundred pound But alass all that I had from them for Books these three yeers did not amount to half a hundred pound yet God be praised I live though poorly and men do expect great matters from me though by no means will they be obedient to God's word upon which the promise of happiness is grounded which Word in all my books I have
alwayes set before them shewing that except they would believe repent and amend their lives God would not perform to them what I had said And therefore they ought not to blame me because the King came not in bnt rather to blame themselves for that they did not turn wholly to God which if they had done so God in mercy to them had brought in the King and would have setled all things in Church and State afore now I have not eaten the bread of idleness all this time my labour is beyond expression for I have taken more pains these three yeers then a dayly thresher whose morsel is sweet unto him and his rest pleasant but this sort of labour takes a man from all outward comforts for such a man delighteth in his sore labour so that Christ Moses and Eliah eat nothing in forty dayes as you see Exod. 34. 28. 1 King 19. 8. Matth. 4. 12. Therefore though natural men know it not the labour is great and of so much value that if men should give all they have to such a labourer it would not balance his desert I speak not this for my self because I look not for any reward from you for I believe God will reward me but having experience in the work I know the time doth not afford to the faithful labourer encouragement and that reward which he merits else the work that I began had been more foreward then now it is Wherefore ye ought to consider them Many are offended with me because I set a time for the King's coming into England I wonder what they lost by it if some being covetous to get have laid wagers upon it who advised them to do it I never read of but one wager laid in all the Scripture Judges 14. 12 13 17. but Sampson that laid the wager lost it through his own folly in telling his minde as the now-Plotters were spoiled because they could not keep their own secrets and they that won the wager got nothing by it for Sampson made them pay dear for it Judg. 14. 19. Judg. 15. And was it not meet that these men now should lose to teach them that they should not wantonly dally with secret things in those presumptuous profane ways and gambols they should have been wiser before they laid any thing upon it And take notice that when I first set down the time for the King's coming in in the yeer 1653. I told them plainly for any to understand it that if they did not leave their profaneness the King would not come in according to my saying and that God would alter the appointed time of the King's coming in as he did in the time of Moses alter it forty yeers Numb. 14. 34. as you have it in the Postscript of my Book called The Ecche And all the prophecies of God are conditional for when God sends a Prophet to pronounce destruction to a people and sets a time for it if upon it they repent and amend their evil wayes they shall not be destroyed at that time And when God sends a Prophet to bring good tidings of deliverance to a people that are in captivity for their sins and sets a time for their deliverance if that people upon it do not repent and amend their evil wayes they shall not be delivered at that time Jer. 18. 7 8 9 10 yet though God remove the decree for a longer time Micah 7. 11. that which the Lords Prophet hath spoken whether it be of mercy or justice it shall surely come to pass as we see in the case of Nineveh it was destroyed according to the saying of Jonas though not in the time God at first alotted for it Tobit 14. 4 8 15. and Israel came to Canaan though not at the first time that God had alotted for them Numb. 13. 2. Deut. 9. 23. Joshua 21. 43 44 45. And you of the King's Party I say pray Beloved take notice of the manner of God's fulling his promises to his people when they will not leave their sins Jeremiah prophefied that the Jews should be delivered out of their captivity in Babylon after seventy yeers was expired and his word was fulfilled in part for in the first yeer of Cyrus there was a Decree made for their freedom 2 Chron. 36. 20 21 22 23. Ezra 1. and according to it they came to Jerusalem and laid the Foundation of the Temple Ezra 3. 10 11. but they had many great sins among them Ezra 9. 1 2 3 4. Nehem. 5. Nehem. 13. 15 16 17 18. as we also have Therfore you shall finde that they were notperfectly delivered until the second yeer of Darius Ezra 4. 23 24. for the adversaries of Judah and of Benjamin wrote against them to Ahasuerus and Artaxerxes Kings of Persia and got Commissions to suppress them by force of Arms 1 Esdras 2. 30. Ezra 4. and also you shall finde 2 King 17. 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32. Ezra 4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. 2 King 19. 37. that these adversaries that then hindred the freedom of the Jews were such people as hinder you now for they were absolute Independants of divers Religions and all feared the Lord as now these fear the Lord but they served their several Gods 2 King 17. 29 30 31 32. And as the men of Babylon made Succoth-Benoth their God and the men of Cuth made Nergal their God and the men of Hamath Ashima their God and the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartake their God and the Sepharvites burnt their their children to Adrammelech and Anammelech the Gods of Sepharvaim and they made themselves Priests of the lowest of the people so in like manner our Sectaries have their several Demi-Gods as the Prsbyters have Fairfax Knox Waller Love Calamy with many other the Independents Harrison Feak Vavasor Powel Rogers Simpson the Levelers Lilburn and the like yea there is not any Sect but fansie to themselves Gods or Leaders and make to themselves Priests of the lower sort which have neither Religion Reason Eloquence Learning or any other Ingenuity in them at all but a proud ignorant sort of zeal being in all things like the adversaries of Judah for as it is said of them 2 King 17. 33. they feared the Lord but yet it is said vers. 34. that they feared not the Lord because they worshipped him not according to the Law that God had prescribed for Jacob whom he named Israel so now the Presbyterians Independents Levelers or Brownists may be said to fear the Lord and yet not truely because they do not worship him according to the law that God hath prescribed for us as in the Communion-Book vulgarly called The Book of Common-Prayer And to shew you a mystery of hope the Jews were hindred for the time of three Kings Ezra 4. 5 6 7. of which three Artaxerxes reigned thirty two yeers Nehem. 13. 6. Yet the Holy Spirit speaking of the same matter tells us that they were hindred but two yeers