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
done to the Lawyers National Clergy Cardinal Mazarine and other corrupt Interests in the Nation and it is to be fear'd that to please and keep the rude multitude quiet that so you may go on in your way or to draw trade to the City you suffer wicked Stage-Playes which were once supprest to be in use again if a right spirit of Magistracy were among you these things would not date to shew themselves but these practises will not cure you of your wound no more then King Jareb and the Assyrian cured them For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion and as a young lion to the House of Judah even I will tear and go away I will take away and none shall rescue him I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offence and seek my face in their affliction they will seek me early Hosea 5. These with many other Scriptures of this nature doth witness the truth of what hath been asserted wherefore it concerns you to consider and to look about you Sixthly And if yet the Lord shall so far love own and honour you as to change your spirits and cause you willingly to stoop to this then their and your next work and oh that it were so now is to endeavour all you can according to your former declared principles denying your selves in your kindred and relations if not rightly qualified to let no man pass into any command or place of trust in the Army Navy or Commonwealth but faithfull persons fearing God and of approved integrity and have love to all the Saints that so wickedness may be supprest and punished righteousness encouraged and the Lord engaged to be present with bless and prosper you in all your future undertakings for the preservation and advancement of his Cause and people as in former dayes Your thus maintaining purity love and unity between persons both in the Civil and Military Power and being as it were of one heart and soul upon the account of righteousness and in a spirit of self-denyal meekness and zeal growing up together in every day and generation in the light spirit and things relating to the Cause and Work of Christ in the world towards the forementioned perfection that shall be in the Saints in the latter dayes according to Micah 4.2 Isa 32.1 2. will so revive the Cause and encourage the former honest lively spirit that seemed to be among you and through grace is yet alive in a Little Remnant or else we had been as Sodom as will not onely cause the Lord to be in the midst of us but also to rejoyce over us with joy and singing and to rest in his love as he will more eminently do over his faithfull people in the latter dayes Zeph. 3.17 and cause our terrour upon our enemies to be greater then ever it was before and surely honest men may think it is high time for you who have power in your hands and profess to be Saints and to be now as ever equally endeared to the good Old Cause throughly to deny your selves and not suffer the Cause and the Nation to be lost and ruined for want of a little honesty but rather to be doing what you possibly can do to bring things into the posture that hath been laid before you for that it so plainly appears both by the Scriptures and the late Revolutions and outgoings of the Lord in the midst of us together with the present fearfulness that hath possest you and according to Isa 33.14 shall more eminently fall upon the Sinners and Hypocrites that pretend to be of Zion in the latter dayes there is nothing less then your hearkening unto and following the forementioned counsel that hath been given you will save you and the Nation from the further ruine and destruction that is coming upon you And for your encouragement that the Lord will receive you graciously and pass by all that you have done against him in case it be in the purpose of your hearts in reality thus to come unto him consider that he stiles himself The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity transgression and sin and will by no means clear the guilty c. Exod. 34.6 7. Also the case of the Prodigal who went from his Father and came not again till all was spent and he brought to eat husks and so must return or perish as soon as ever it was in his heart and accordingly did so to arise and go to his Father and acknowledge his sin unto him the Text sayes Luke 15.20 But when he was yet a great way off his father saw him and had compassion and run and fell on his neck and kissed him and instead of upbraiding and punishing him commands the best Robe be put on him a gold Ring on his hand and shooes on his feet as also the fatted Calf to be killed to eat drink and be merry and if you return as he did I hope you will finde no elder Brethren to repine at it And so David Psal 32.3 4 5 6. Sayes he When I kept silence my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long for day and night thy hand was heavy upon me my moisture was turn'd into the drought of summer I acknowledged my sin unto thee and mine iniquity have I not hid Now this is that I minde sayes he I said I will confess my transgression unto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin for this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found When Josephs Brethren acknowledged the evil they did unto him and begged pardon for the same instead of being revenged upon them it is said And Joseph wept when they spake unto him and said Fear you not I will nourish you and your little ones and he comforted them and spake kindely to them Gen. 50.17 21. Now if there be so much pitty and compassion in men to those that trespass against them there is so in the Lord much more Also Jer. 3.22 and Hosea 14 4.5 6 7. I will heal their back-slidings I will love them freely for mine anger is turned away from him I will be as the dew unto Israel he shall grow as the Lilly his Branches shall spread and his beauty shall be as the Olive-tree and his smell as Lebanon They that dwell under his shaddow shall return revive as the corn and grow as the vine c. These among other Scriptures shews the readiness that is in the Lord to forgive the iniquities of and to be gracious to a repenting returning and back-sliding people and oh that this goodness of his might powerfully and kindely work upon your hearts to acknowledge your iniquity deny your self-interests and to return unto him But if notwithstanding all that I have said I trust in faithfulness to the Lord and you you shall yet continue to go
A Faithfull Searching HOME WORD 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 Rocks 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 twice Dead plucked up by the Roots Is now presented to the Officers of the Army as another Looking-Glass wherein they may plainly see how wofully 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 and have done the same yea worse things themselves then for which the late King was Beheaded and they pretendedly Dissolved the late Old Parliament a first and second time and have been Pharaoh Edom and Moab-like the onely main Hinderers of the Lords Faithfull People from going to Zion which hath so pulled down the late and present Judgements which have been and yet are lying upon these Nations Together with another 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 the better know how to chuse the Good refuse 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 Isa 24.16 From the utmost parts of the Earth have we heard Songs even Glory to the Righteous But I said My leanness my leanness woe unto me the Treacherous Dealers to wit the late Old Parliament have dealt treacherously Yea the Treacherous Dealers viz. the Officers of the Army have dealt very treacherously Printed in the first Year of the Army 's endeavouring to deal treacherously with the Faithful Friends of the Cause a second time after their first and second Dissolution of the late long Parliament 1659. A Faithful Searching Home Word intended for the view of the remaining Members of the former Long Parliament in the time of their late Second Sitting at VVestminster shewing the Reasonableness and Justness of their first Dissolution as also the dangerous Rocks they formerly split upon that so they might learn to beware for the future c. YOu may remember when in the day of your former sitting as the Peoples Representors and a faithful Party among you were according to their then light going on in the Lords work taking away the Tyrannical Antichristian heavy Yokes which the King and his Prelates laid upon the Bodies and Consciences of the good people of this Nation and also the Army together with your selves gave them hopes that you would endeavour to take away all the remaining Oppressions that then were or in the future should be found lying upon them and would bring forth Righteousness to them as by many Declarations may appear which was then hath been all along yet is and in every Generation for time to come but above all when the Kingdom of Jesus Christ shall most visibly appear and be set up in the world will be the Cause of God and his People that by the good Providence of the Lord as also through the many Prayers Petitions and Strivings of the honest Party in the Nation Army and among your Selves to and with the Lord and You and against the common enemy very great and wonderful things were successively one time after another brought about and done amongst us towards the ease of the people viz. the late King brought to Justice and other great ones with him his Monarchy House of Lords together with his own and the aforesaid Tyranny of his Lords Spiritual and Temporal so called and of other corrupt persons with much of the Oppression then lying upon us taken away How the Lord blest you with success in your Councels and Forces both by Land and Sea and you also had the love and prayers of the good people and what a terrour of you was upon the Enemy both at home and abroad whilest some who were faithful among You and the honest part of the Army were in the zealous prosecution of these things and afterwards declared for the Destruction of Antichrist and the Advancement of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and appeared to be growing up into the Light Spirit and were doing the things relating and leading thereunto you very well know The Enemy being every where totally subdued and the three Nations of England Scotland and Ireland with all the Territories thereunto belonging in our hands the Dutch Fleet also beaten at sea and they thereby almost brought as it were upon their knees in the doing whereof the appearances and salvation of the Lord with and about his poor unworthy people were so very wonderful and glorious that the faith and expectations of many or most of them who went along with him to that day especially towards the latter end whrlest these things were doing were very much raised and that from Scripture grounds to be eying the Promises and Prophesies relating to the Deliverance of Zion The Destruction of Babylon and Antichrist The Call of the Jews The Advancement of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ all which shall certainly be fulfilled in the latter dayes Among other see the following Scriptures First The deliverance of Zion Psal 48. Psal 69.35 36. Psal 87.5 Psal 102.13 to 22. Psal 132.13 to the end Isa 2.2 3 4. Isa 4.5 6. Isa 33.20 Isa 35.9 10. Isa 46.13 Isa 51.3 5. to 11. Isa 52. Isa 60. Isa 62.4 8 9 11 12. Isa 65.19 21. to 25. Micha 4.2 3 4 10. to 13. Obadiah verse 17 18 21. Zeph. 3.13 15 17. to 20. Zech. 2.7 to 13. Zech. 8.3 to 8. Zech. 9.15 16. Zech. 12.2 3 4. to 9. Secondly The Destruction of Babylon and Antichrist Isa 47. Jer. 50. Jer. 51.2 Thess 2.8 9 10. compared with Rev. 18. Thirdly The Call of the Jews Jer. 23.3 7 8. Jer. 30.3 10 11. Jer. 31.8 9 11 12.23.28 Ezek. 36.24 to the end Ezek. 37.21 22. Amos 9.14 15. Zeph. 3.19 20. Isa 66.20 to the end Fourthly The Kingdom of Christ Psal 72.1 8. to 17. Isa 9.6 7. Isa 32.1 Jer. 23.5 6. Jer. 30.9 Jer. 33.15 16. Ezek. 37.24 25. Dan. 7.13 14 27. Obadiah verse 21. Zech. 9.9 10. Zech. 14.9 Luke 1.32 33. Luke 22.29 30. John 18.37 1 Tim. 6.14 15. Rev. 2.26 27. Rev. 11.15 Rev. 19.13 14 15 16. Ezek. 21.27 And that these Scriptures shall certainly be fulfilled see Jer. 33 20 21 25 26. compared with
as I have said elsewhere If I were to chuse the meanest Officer in the Army or Commonwealth I would chuse a godly man that hath Principles especially where Trust is to be committed for I know where to have a man of Principles I believe if any of you should chuse a servant you would do so and I would all our Magistrates were so chosen that may be some effects of this it is our duty to chuse men that fear the Lord to praise the Lord yea such as the Lord forms for himself and he expects not praises from others c. In all which are good words spoken and principles laid down as if he and his Officers fully intended to persevere in the practice of them but may not the true Friends of the Cause to the great grief and sadness of their spirits say of them as the Lord concerning Israel of old Deut. 5.28 29. They have well said all that they have spoken but oh that their hearts and tougues had gone together that there had been indeed such a heart in them as in sincerity to have kept to the real practice of those blessed principles then had it been well with them and with the poor Nation upon that account But notwithstanding these golden words and pretences the Lord my self and others knows that there was at the same time yea some time before these words were spoken as in the seed of the serpent against the seed of the woman or in the spirit of Saul and his followers against the spirit of David and his followers so a spirit of enmity and hatred secretly lodging in the breasts of the then General Major Gen. Lambert Major Gen. Disbrow Sir Gilbert Pickering Coll. Whaly Coll. Goff Dean Owen so called and others against several of those honest men who were afterwards turned out of the Little Parliament who were faithful Friends to the Cause of God and indeed above others and that upon Scripture grounds for the Advancement of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and most suited to those good things which the General and Officers in the foregoing Speech do seem so much to press after whose principles they seemingly most owned and whose assistance they greatly desired pretending to be of one heart with them in the dissolving of you and choice of the other yet for no other cause then their pressing to be acting up to these principles in reality and power was this enmity against them which will afterwards appear so plainly as he that runs may read it For notwithstanding the forementioned pretences and promises of chusing none but what were faithful with the Saints and most suited to the work yet was there such persons who were of a contrary spirit and principle purposely chosen and packt together viz. Coll. Montague Coll. Barton Coll. Mathews Sir William Roberts Alderman Tichborn and others and those the greater number as that when the forementioned good things came to be done and the remaining more refined oppressions which lay upon the good people and others to be taken away they did so oppose and hinder the honest party in the House that very little or nothing at all could be done for them the General Ma. Gen. Lambert and the forementioned persons secretly owning of and holding a Correspondency with this corrupt Party all the while which was such unheard of juggling deceit and wickedness that when I most seriously and thorowly set my self to consider of it I cannot but cry out with a holy detestation and abhorrency in my spirit both of it and them and say Oh! the Hypocrisie Treachery Villany Wickedness and abominable unrighteousness that lies hid in the bottom of the late and present Apostacy and that surely the Lord who loveth righteousness and hates iniquity and every false way will not let so great and not to be parallel'd wickedness pass unpunisht without some more eminent publick repentance for the same then hath yet been * If this wretched envious spirit did not yet remain would they since your second Dissolution have been so forward to take into their New Council Lawrence Strickland Tichborn Hewson Clark and others of that corrupt part of the Litttle Parliament who left the House and went to deliver up their pretended power to the General upon which he was made Protector and promoted and abetted the late Apostacy and do what they can as it were to stave and keep off the faithful Friends of the Cause who are well known to be men of integrity and well affected to the Interest of the Nation which your not endeavouring to divolve the Trust in your hands upon was one of the great grounds why they pretendedly dissolved you The Lord who wil not be mocked nor his faithful people whom both you and they have cheated and dealt unrighteously and hypocritically with all will not long bear such wicked actions at their hands manifested by them and it will be well for them if the aforesaid enmity to the true spirit of their forementioned profest and declared principles and to these very persons and others like them who through grace in some measure are endued therewith doth not yet remain untaken away for herein in a great measure will lye the contest for the future for either this hypocritical self-seeking treacherous envious spirit in the remaining Officers of the Army that have now power in their hands must be put away and they really united to what they have so greatly profest and declared and what they have so pretended to dissolve you for nor doing of which they have not been to this very day or else there will be no peace from the Lord and his faithful people with them and all their shrowding themselves under your wasting decaying wing had you been sitting or under a power that is more refined then you if short of the spirit they have so rejected and as it were crucified and endeavoured to keep down in the grave as the Souldiers did Christ in the dayes of his Humiliation can save them from the wrath of God and the Lamb and his faithful followers I shall now return to speak a little further how and for what cause it was that the forementioned presence of the Lord departed from and went not forth to own and prosper the Councells and Forces of this Nation as before As I said before when you were dissolved and the Little Parliament called upon the avowed account of the Son of God and to be acting upon his foundation as he is King of Nations and to do all things in his Name as their and our King Judge and Law-giver Isa 33.22 as you may see by the forementioned Speech they were called to do and the persons of the aforesaid honest spirit and principle who for some time till the fish was caught and the bird taken were seemingly owned were labouring as it were in the very fire to bring forth in reallity what the General and his Officers so pretended to in words and to own
thus the business stands between the Officers of the Army and that honest Party of that Little Parliament to this very day In doing which wicked action and therein discountenancing persecuting yea what in them lay as it were crucifying this honest Spirit in these persons who were bringing forth the forementioned good things which the Army so greatly promised declared and pretended to fight for and which you were dissolved for not doing of And the General thus setting up himself upon the Monarchical or Beast-like Foundation so contrary to former Declarations and as it were upon the ruines of the very spirit and principles which he and his Officers but a little before had so greatly pretended to own and be of themselves and also doing the very same yea worse things then for which the late King was beheaded and which they also condemned in you as also Persecuting Imprisoning and Banishing some of the forementioned faithful Friends of the Little Parliament and others of the Lords people and blaspheming the Spirit of the Lord in them saying They were acted by a giddy headed rash fanatick devillish Spirit and this for no other cause then their faithfulness to the Lord in pressing after the good things according to their forementioned declared Principles and opposing the General and his Officers backsliding from them and doing things so diametrically contrary thereunto therein falsifying their Trust and building again what they formerly had destroyed and declared against the Army and all the forementioned corrupt Interests with several Independent and * The good things they desired in those Addresses doth no more excuse their evil in addressing and thereby abetting that Tyrannical Beast-like Government then the Devils bringing Scripture in his mouth excused his wickedness in tempting of Christ some Baptized Churches by their Power Addresses and otherwayes in the mean while countenancing encouraging abetting and upholding them therein by all which the blessed Cause and work of Christ was very greatly stopt and hindered the Spirit of the Lord and his People grieved Now since these with many other wicked things that might be mentioned came to be done by that professing hypocritical generation the forementioned glorious presence that was formerly with you the Little Parliament and their Councils and Forces was withdrawn the courage of the enemy heightned the corrupt Interests before mentioned lifting up their heads and rejoycing according to Rev. 11.10 The Nations abroad contemn and scorn us the lively fresh spirit for the work and Cause of Christ which seem'd formerly to be in the Army very much choaked and lost the hearts and prayers of the remaining faithful Friends of the Cause which were formerly with and for them now grieved and engaged against them by all which the state and condition of this poor Nation was and is very greatly impaired our Land Forces wasted and consumed at Hispaniola Jamaica Mardike Flanders and elsewhere our Shipping lessened and diminished our Stores and Provisions for Sea and Land expended and very much consumed and but very very little or no profit our Magazines emptied Treasures wasted Trade in a very great measure lost and decayed as Tradesmen of all sorts and Shopkeepers many of whom are broken and are breaking every day finde by such sad and woful experience as they never did before nor in the memory of man was the lke ever known or heard of though Mr. Nye Tho Goodwin Dean Owen so called and the Officers and Messengers of above one hundred Congregations in England could tell their late Protector that they and the Nation had not eaten the Bread of Adversity nor drunk the Water of Affliction but had served God in the abundance of all things Very great new debts contracted little of old being satisfied all which sad effects with others that might be mentioned as was said before he that hath but half an eye or that runs may read is the bitter fruit of the Apostacy Treachery and Crucifying the Spirit of the Lord in the Members turned out of the Little Parliament who were bringing forth that Justice and Righteousness which the Army and good People of the three Nations were so greatly engaged in and was no other then what the faithfull Friends of the Cause are calling for in this day and will give the Lord nor them no rest till they do obtain All things going thus contrary to the sinful desires and vain expectations of the upholders and abbettors of this great Apostacy notwithstanding the many helps they had to carry it on yet as if they had been left by the Lord to studdy and procure their further destruction they not onely afresh imprison the Lords faithful people for witnessing against them but also suffer others of them to be haled before Magistrates cast into prisons forced to pay trebble dammages their goods to be seized upon and ten times more taken away then their pretended due came to for not paying of Tythes and this greatly approved of by the then General his Officers and all his worthy Addressors upholding him therein who was once the head of the Sectaries out of a carnal design to draw in the Presbyterian Cleargy to stand by his Interest who since the New Moddel and beheading the late King to this very day it is well known have been enemies to and opposers of the Lords Work and Cause that hath been and is yet further to be carryed on in these Nations Though he and his Officers not long before had as good as acknowledged in the forementioned Speech to the Little Parliament See Book page 40. 41. that the now Ministry of England as to their then and present standing derived it self and succession through the Papacy and therefore a false succession and none to be the true succession but what was through the Spirit given in that measure the Spirit is given which sayes he Christians are well able to discerne and do And yet for all this contrary to Scripture or Reason forced them to pay such Ministers as they judged were not onely destitute of a work of Grace in their hearts much less of the Spirit for that work but also derived their succession through the Papacy wherein with other things of this nature that might be mentioned it appeared their tenderness was forgotten to the Lords people under several forms as much as yours and that the cause of the people of God was despised by them Thus were things going on one the one hand and some of the Lords faithful people called Sectaries Anabaptists and Fifth Monarchy men by their Faith Prayers Appeals Prophesyings and Testimony against the Apostacy and Abettors of it counterworking and pulling down on the other which honest faithful spirit in them to the Lord his Cause and interest can will never leave working nor overturning till our Lord Jesus Christ comes whose right it is This remnant of witnessing Sectaries so called get ground all the designs and stratagems made use of to quell them and to uphold and strengthen the
other things declares plainly you would have dealt as deceitfully in the business of the Representative you were lately about had you not been dissolved a second time But I forbear to mention any further at present though very much more might be spoken in manifestation that your spirit in your second Sitting was worse in every particular then in the time of your first deceitfully with the General and the Officers of the Army in saying you would endeavour to suspend proceeedings with the Representative the next day till you had a further Conference with them and yet for all this did you that very day proceed with all the eagerness you could and had almost finished it and brought it to that issue with that haste that it had never been before unsafely and dishonestly leaving out the things that did necessarily relate to due Qualifications and resolved to make it a paper Bill not to ingross it that so in a cheating manner you might make the quicker dispatch of it thus to have thrown away all the Liberties of the Nation into the hands that never bled for it and therefore for the preservation of the Cause they say they thought it their duty not to suffer it and upon this the House was dissolved Thus far is charged upon you in the forementioned Speech to the Little Parliament This we tell you speaking to the Little Parliament that so you may know that what hath been done in dissolving this Parliament was as necessary as the preservation of this Cause and that necessity that led us to do that hath brought us to this issue of exercising an extraordinary way and course to draw your selves together upon this account that you are men who know the Lord and have made observations of his marvellous dispensations and may be trusted with the Cause c. In which words of the General and Officers of the Army to the Little Parliament thus laid before you is given a perfect Character and Description of the then and may it not too truly be said the late frame of your Spirits and what you would not do as to a more thorow carrying on his Work and Cause as also what with all haste you were doing against it with several other things too truly laid to your Charge contained in this Speech and that upon the accompt of these things you were dissolved Now what ever the design of the then General Major Gen. Lambert and some other of his Machevilian politick Officers and Assistants was in dissolving and thus casting durt upon you the Lord and themselves best knows who doubtless in his own time will and hath begun to do already discover and bring all the hidden works of darkness and secret wicked things to light yet there then was and as by after actions also did appear very evident grounds to believe and say it chiefly was to make way and as a stirrup to get into the Power themselves and therefore though it was unrighteously and wickedly done as to them yet doubtless as just and righteous in the sight of God considering the forementioned evils laid to your charge as was formerly the sifting and purging your House to hinder the personal Treaty and upon other accounts or beheading the late King and casting out his Monarchy for his Tyranny and dissolving the last Parliament as enemies to and opposers of the Cause of God and his people that so your selves or better then you might come into their places both of which according to mans Law and the old almost ruined Constitutions of this Nation are judged lawful Powers as well as your selves And although it be granted there was a deceitfull treacherous spirit which lay like a serpent under the grass in the bottom of this action in some of the Army who pretended to be either the stone it self mentioned * See page 43 of the forementioned Book Dan. 2.44 or at least to have had somewhat of the spirit of it So was there likewise at the same time an honest single sincere spirit among some of the Army the Navy the Churches and good people of the Nation who were indeed for the work and will erelong be found had then and yet have the true spirit of the stone in some measure both planted and abiding in them who did very much approve of and rejoyce in your being dissolved and that upon the forementioned too true account given by the General and Officers of the Army as is manifested in the latter end of the forementioned Speech to the Little Parliament page 45. of that Book in the following words Sayes he All that I have to say in my own and in the names of my Fellow Officers who have joyned with me in this work that we shall commend you to the Grace of God and to the guidance of his Spirit having thus far served you or rather our Lord Jesus Christ in it we as we hope and shall be ready in our stations according as the Providence of God shall lead us to be subservient to the work of God and the Authority which we reckon God hath set over us And although we have no formal thing to present you with to which the hands and outward visible expressions of the hearts of the Officers of the three Nations are set yet we may say for them and we may say also with confidence that our Brethren at Sea with whom neither in Scotland nor Ireland nor at Sea hath any Artifice been used to perswade their approbation to this work yet we can say that their consent and affections hath flowed into us beyond our expectations and we may say with all confidence that we have had their approbation and full consent ☞ unsought indeed to the other work to wit in dissolving of you so that you have their hearts and affections in this and not onely they but we have very many papers from the * Whatever Churches or other Persons they were that closed with former Declarations or thus freely sent in their papers or otherwise spake in approbation of your first Dissolution for not doing the good things promised as also approved of the Call of the Little Parliament in order to the doing of them and yet afterward closed with and abetted the Protectoral Government which was raised up upon the ruines of the honest part of the Little Parliament on purpose to hinder their doing those good things have turn'd their backs upon the Cause of Christ as well as the Army and ought to repent of their great evil in so doing as well as they Churches of God thorowout the Nation wonderfully both approving what hath beene done in removing obstacles that is in removing of you and approving what we have done in this very thing to wit in calling the Little Parliament In all which together with the forementioned particulars of your Charge contain'd in that Speech and Letter is set forth the matter of fact that was against you together with the righteous
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
presence of the Lord that was with the Councels and Forces of this Nation is by reason of the late and present Apostacy almost clean departed and we as it were upon our last legs and do well understand some of them at least who are more clear-sighted that it is not barely the name of a Commonwealth Government and a people of a low dull spirit and understanding exercised therein who like so many heavy listless horses put into their gears must either draw or be whipt to it as most of you were in the time of your first Sitting and to the day of your late dissolution But the Righteousness and Justice thereof executed and brought forth with an excellent lively fresh spirit by an humble gracious willing people who have the concernments and wellfare of the Nation upon their hearts more then their own and are tender unto and faithful with all the Saints anointed thereunto by the Lords Spirit which once the Army so greatly pretended to own that will save and exalt these sinking Nations and do see that thither we must come or we perish and therefore if you would not speedily put to your helping hand in this crisis of danger to bring this in but would from time to time as in the time of your first Sitting either continue your selves with your old spirit or not before your rising so provide as to keep out Cavaleers Neuters Presbyters and the late New Court Party from coming into Power for the future as there was very little likelihood you would so many among you having Apostatized from your former Acts Votes and Declarations and fell in with the Protectorall Government nay voted for Kingship again and therein dealt treacherously with the Cause of Jesus Christ and your own Principles as well as the Army you could not expect any other from them and the Army if their hearts were sincere and upright with God indeed as they lately pretended to be but that they would take care to do it themselves though as formerly a desperate disease had a desperate cure And it seems for this very cause among others it was that you were so lately dissolved a second time whereby it very plainly appears that your late call to the Power was not a dispensation from the Lord to manifest we went out of the way in your first dissolution but onely that the necessity and justness thereof might more plainly appear not onely to your selves but to the satisfaction of some friends of the Cause that could not otherwise be satisfied but by the late tryal of your spirits a second time As also that you might be instrumental as the righteous judgement of the Lord upon them to take away the Power Government Splendor and Greatness of that family which was so hypocritically unrighteously and wickedly raised up upon your and the honest part of the little Parliaments ruines though in the outward pretence and shew for better ends and this your work being done to be removed again as before that so a second trial might be upon the spirits of the Army to see whether according to their former and late pretences they would indeed be so honest having so greatly mist it hitherto * The Lord hath one time after another since the Army rejected their profest spirit and principles in casting out the honest part of the Little Parliament as upon Pharaoh of old who would not let Israel go to Canaan Exod. Chap. 7. to Chap. 12. so blasted their designs and thereby plagued and brought them down as they are necessitated for their own preservation to send unto and call upon the faithful Remnant as did Pharaoh to Moses to pray for advise with and come into their assistance as if he would force them to let them go and doubtless will never let them rest till they acknowledge their iniquity and return to walk with more refinedness according to their former honest Principles and thereby Pharaoh-like hindered the Lords faithfull people from going to Zion as to bring in better and more suitable persons then your selves whom they had so greatly complained of into the Government of the Nation to carry on with life and power the blessed Cause and Work of the Lord for the future which both you and they notwithstanding your many high professions have so greatly opposed and dealt treacherously withal I might have been more large in comparing your spirit and actions in your late second Sitting with the forementioned Particulars charged upon you by the Officers of the Army as the grounds and reasons of your first Dissolution and have shewn more fully wherein you were rather worse then in the time of your first Sitting but it being more properly the Armies work to do it for their further vindication who have in the Generall done something therein already in their Plea they set forth for your late Dissolution I shall leave it to them or to some other persons who were more upon the place and could better observe you then my self who had little heart to come where you were upon the forementioned account and shall conclude with I hope a Seasonable Word by way of Counsel and Proposal to the Officers of the Army themselves of whom the true Friends of the Cause have to this day too great reason to say having had such sad and woful experience of their Adulteries from their former honest principles neighings and going a whoring after the accursed thing to wit the Monarchical Tyrannical Power Pomp and Greatness and their great lewdness and abominations therein committed yea greater then for which the late King was beheaded and they also pretended to dissolve you a first and second time and yet like the Whore Prov. 30.20 wipe their mouths as if they had done no wckiedness But are now as ever equally endeared to the Good Old Cause and utter enemies to all Tyranny and Oppression when as the Lord and his people yea the carnal people of the Nation knows it is not so As the Lord concerning Jerusalem of old Jer. 13.27 O Army Army will you not be honest sincere upright deny your self-Interest and Greatness and he in reality what you have so greatly profest Will you not return from whence you are fallen and so truly be said to repent must you needs ruine the Nation by your continuing to go on in your Apostacy and Wickedness will you not be clean when shall it once be A Seasonable Word by way of Counsel and Proposal to the Officers of the Armies of England Scotland and Ireland YOu may by reading over the foregoing Word to the Remaining Members of the Long Parliament lately sitting at Westminster whom you have now dissolved a second time as it concerns you so to do take notice of almost all the most considerable circumstances relating to the Blessed Cause and Work of Christ that you and the good people of this Nation have been so long engaged in and upon what account it was that the Lord so
the ease of the people you turned them out on purpose to hinder them from bringing what they had so voted and were going on to do unto perfection And after this illegally and dishonestly imprisoned and banished some of the aforesaid honest Members of the Little Parliament and others of the faithful friends of the Cause without any thing laid to their charge seeing the face of an accuser or bringing them to a legal Tryal which is worse then was done in the Kings dayes As also sent Alderman Chiverton then Lord Major now one of your Commissioners for the City Militia and Alderman Robbinson the then Sheriff two reputed Malignants with their Malignant City Marshals the acquaintance and confederates of the late Mall Cutpurse and her Crew to hale others of the forementioned friends of the Cause from their Meeting-place in Colemanstreet when they were seeking the Lord and pleading for his Righteous Cause and witnessing against your Apostacy from it and to cast them in prisons to make them give over and afterward set the then Chief Justice Glyn one of the Eleven Members formerly impeached by your selves of Treason as also Alderman Tichborne and others of your now new Council of Safety and Commissioners of the Militia to try and pass Sentence upon them who though the Jury had cleared them yet to satisfie your lust and please you for their own advantage they illegally laid Fines upon * viz. Cornet Day and John Clark two of them and kept them in Newgate above half a year after at great charges and when the judgements and overturning dispensations of the Lord came upon you and took away the light of your Eyes breath of your Nostrils and struck your head from off your Shoulders and they durst keep them no longer they turned them out saying nothing unto them which wicked action among other things of this kinde that might be mentioned declares plainly That the Cause even among your selves as well as among the Old Parliament was almost in every thing going to the ground yea the Cause of the people of God a despised thing with you Likewise unrighteously decimated the Estates of the Cavaleers when by your carnal unbelieveing selfish Act of Oblivion they would not be drawn to your Interest As also carryed it in so insolent high and arbitrary a manner that almost no Lawyer durst plead in a Cause against you for fear of being cast into prison Revived and upheld Monopolyes so greatly complained of in the late Kings dayes not onely in Merchandise and other things but also upon the Scriptures so that some Bibles were not to be had without paying ten or eighteen pence a piece more then they were formerly sold for Suppressed the printing Presses against all who wrote in vindication of that Blessed Cause and those good Principles you once so highly pretended to own and assert and against your Judas = like Treachery and Back-sliding from them and is another evil that your selves formerly * See Book called the Looking-glass page 19.20 complained of in the Old Parliament also stood by and abetted your Kingling or Humble Petition and Advice Parliament Mostly made up of Sons Kindred Servants and Sallary-men to trappan and like so many evening Wolves ravening the prey cunningly to steal upon and take away one whole years rent from the people for all such new houses as they had built within ten miles round the City of London upon new Foundations to the almost if not altogether ruine and undoing of many of them the better to uphold your new Court Pride Pomp and Luxury which persons of a self-denying sincere honest publick spirit would greatly abhor to do All which with many other evil practises of yours relating to the late and present abhord Apostacy that might be mentioned which I leave to the lately dissolved Members of the Old Parliament for the lessening their evil if compared with yours to make a more full discovery of it plainly appears that not onely in every one of those particulars which you have so charged upon them as the reasons of their first and second Dissolution but also then for which you fought with brought to Justice and beheaded the late King you have by far done worse your selves and therein overpassed the deeds of the wicked which treacherous dealing of yours with wickedly departing from Judas-like betraying and as it were crucifying and keeping down in the grave that blessed Cause of Christ his faithful people and those good Principles you once so greatly pretended to own thereby standing in the way and hindering the faithful Friends of the Cause from going to Zion is the chief cause of all those losses miseries disappointments and judgements which hath been from the Lord upon you and the Nation as upon Pharaoh of old who would not let Israel go to Canaan from that time to this very day and hath occasioned the enemy both at home and abroad as also the Carnal Episcopal Atheisticall Apprentices of the City of London whom the Lord for the malignity and opposition of their spirits to his Cause and People hath so many times disappointed and subdued as the people of his curse to misapprehend and say it is onely because the Government by King and Bishops is taken away with other blinde stuff of that nature and that it will never be well until they be restored again thereby casting dirt upon and as much as in them lies making null and void all those wonderfull and glorious Appearances Deliverances and Victories which the Lord from time to time hath shewen and given to his People both against them and it as if all had been onely by Chance Fortune or Common Providences or as among Papists Turks and Heathens and to threaten once more to put it to the trial whether it be not so and how far the Lord may make use of them as his Rod to rebuke and scourge you and all your Cycophant Addressors who have sided with abetted and not witnessed against your wickedness as also the poor Nation may likewise suffer in the common calamity for your sakes together with their own iniquities and opposition of their spirits to the Cause and People of God the Lord who will not be mocked nor dealt treacherously withal by you as you have mocked and dealt treacherously with his people onely knows For how can you rationally or honestly expect any other but that a consumption and destruction from the Almighty is determined and will unavoidably come upon you unless you speedily and thorowly repent and return from your Apostacy And yet too too much is it to be feared that notwithstanding this as also all the wholesome advice admonition and reproof that by speaking writing printing and therein line upon line that from time to time hath in all singleness and plainness been laid before you in order thereunto you lay it not to heart nor intend to act according to it no more then the Old Parliament did the Counsel and Advice
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 laâ—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
else remain in the hardness wickedness and opposition of their hearts and spirits thereunto had you not declined but as was said before kept growing up in your then light as also in the frame of your spirits and actions towards that perfection that shall be in the Lords faithful People when the Righteousness of Zion shall go forth as brightness and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth and he make Jerusalem a praise in the Earth Isa 62.1 6 7. which is our duty not onely to be praying for but pressing after as well as after that perfection of light and holiness in the inward man that shall be in that day or at the Resurrection of the dead Saints when our Lord Jesus Christ shall come and all the Saints with him Zech. 4.5 comp 1 Cor. 15.23 Rev. 20.4 and how we were growing up into this Righteousness and the People according to Hosea 14.7 began to return from their oppression revive as the corn and grow as the vine and this glorious Presence and Salvation was dawning and breaking in upon us when the honest spirit which you have so rejected was encouraged and acting in the Authority of this Nation as hath been already mentioned you very well know But our too sad experience tells us that the Lord hath now cause rather to complain and say according to Isa 1.4.21 22 23. Ah sinful Nation a people laden with iniquity a seed of evil doers children that are corrupters they have forsaken the Lord they have provoked the Holy One of Israel How is the faithfull City become an Harlot it was full of judgement righteousness lodged in it but now murtherers Thy silver is become dross thy wine mixt with water thy Princes are rebellious and companions of thieves every one loveth gifts and followeth after rewards they judge not the fatherless neither doth the cause of the widdow come unto them and upon this account we have cause to lament and complain according to Lam. 2.15 16. All our enemies have opened their months against us they hiss and gnash their teeth they say we have swallowed them up certainly this is the day that we looked for we have found we have seen it comp with Job Chap. 29. Chap. 30. and this is the very state and condition that the Cause and people of God and the Nation which had once a beauty and glory upon them is brought into at this day by reason of your Apostacy Now in regard it is thus with you and the poor Nation for your sakes as it is and things are under so ill sense abroad to use your own words to the Old Parliament and the issue like to be the further displeasure and judgements of the Lord against you the dissatisfaction and sadning the hearts of his faithful people and putting all things into greater Confusion if you continue to steer your course as formerly which so far as I can yet see or hear you are resolved to do though the Cause Your selves and the Nation perish and although you therein so carry it as to give the Lord and his Faithfull People just cause to say of you as of Ephraim of old Hosea 4.17 The Army is joyned to Idols let them alone Yet considering on the other hand that he likewise calls to such a back-sliding people as you are to return unto him and upon their return hath graciously promised he will heal their back-sliding and love them freely Jer. 3.22 comp Hos 14.4 And not knowing though you have gone on so long in the hardness of your hearts but he may yet pour out a spirit of grace and supplication upon you and give you to look upon his Cause and Faithfull Remnant whom you have so rejected and as it were Pierced and Crucified and to mourn and be in bitterness for the same as one is in bitterness for his first-born as also to return to the real practice of your forementioned honest Principles it being better with you then then now and to cause Judgement so visibly to return unto Righteousness as that all the upright in heart may follow it and be encouraged to venture their Lives with you as formerly against the Common Enemy which as things now stand they cannot but be very unwilling to do And likewise having though I have so searched to the quick and spoken plainly a desire to be merciful as my heavenly Father is merciful and to be instrumental so far as he shall assist to pluck you out of this deep ditch you have plunged your selves into and that whether you will hear or whether you will forbear you may be left without excuse As also that I may discharge my love and duty towards the Blessed Cause of Christ the Saints and the Land of my Nativity I shall in all sincerity and faithfulness lay before you what according to my present Light and Vnderstanding will if any thing recover the forementioned Cause the Saints Your selves and this almost ruined Nation out of that sad and perishing condition that by reason of your Apostacy and treacherous dealing with your former honest principles they are brought into and will engage the forementioned Glorious Presence and Salvation of the Lord to be with and about us as in former dayes in order to which though in and of my self I am very unworthy and unable to advise in a business of so high and weighty a concernment as this is I counsel and propose as followeth First endeavour to be humbled for repent of and to turn from every particular personal sin and iniquity that you have been in the committing of for if you or I or any other regard iniquity in our hearts or wilfully live in the practise of any known sin the Lord will not hear our prayers nor accept of any thing we do for him wherein his Name and Glory is concerned Psal 66.18 Prov. 15.8 9. Isa 1.11 to 20. Therefore if there be any such thing as false musters or Dead pay or wherein soever wrong hath been done or sin committed do so no more As also restore back to those of whom you have bought Debenters at cheap rates somewhat proportionable to your great gains thereby if they be living and if dead then to the Widdows Children or Kindred related to them that are left behinde them As also to be sure to promise nothing to any for the future either of a publick or private nature but what is in the power of your hand to do and have a real intention thorowly and speedily to perform and herein be growing up into that holy frame mentioned Zeph. 3.13 The Remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity nor speak lies neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouths c. And what I say to you in this particular I say to my self and to all others fearing the Lord for the People whom the Lord will delight to use in his Work must be a sincere upright self-denying holy people therefore let us not hide our
iniquities but rather say to the Lord according to Job 34.32 That which I see not teach thou me if I have done iniquity I will do no more Secondly Be also humbled for repent of suppress and put away for the time to come All the Pride of Apparel c. Luxury Gaming and whatever else is sinful and of an evil report that is committed in your Families by your selves Wives Children Servants and Relations according to Job 11.13 14. comp with Chap. 22.23 If thou prepare thine heart and stretch out thine hand towards him if iniquity be in thy hand put it far away and let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles c. And endeavour all you can for the future to get such as fear the Lord to attend upon you for it is not onely your duty but declared Principle to the Little Parliament so to do See page 43. of the forementioned Book Let not their failings infirmities and too many times neglect of duty hinder you from doing yours if you can get them there is little good to be expected from you whoever you are though your knowledge and profession be never so high whilest you are careless and slight in this particular Thirdly Be also deeply humbled for and repent of your forementioned great Apostacy from rejecting of treacherous dealing with the Cause of Jesus Christ and your forementioned honest Principles and all your persecuting Imprisoning and Banishing of your Brethren for their faithfulness thereunto and for all other your great evils and miscarriages therein committed whereby the Name of the Lord and the Profession of the Gospel hath been and is so much reproached and dishonoured and his Blessed Cause and Work so greatly stopped and hindered The hearts of his faithful people grieved and hath brought so much poverty and misery upon this Nation and return in the sincerity and uprightness of your hearts to revive and promote the aforesaid Blessed Cause and those good Principles from whence you have so greatly departed and resolve in the strength of the Lord to return no more to folly And that this your repentance and thorow returning may so appear to all the faithful Friends of the Cause as to put them past all doubts and fears of your deceiving them any more for the time to come First Cast off the Counsel of St. Johns Lisle Whitlock Philip Nye Tho. Goodwin Dean Owen so called and all other the like Incendaries the Heads of the corrupt Lawyers and Clergy unless you finde they have really and thorowly repented of their great evil in being so instrumental to help turn and keep your then General and you aside into these crooked paths after the first Dissolution of the Old and choice and turning out of the Little Parliament as also see them singly and sincerely pressing you to come up to the practise of your former Declarations and to the owning of that spirit those principles and persons which you once so greatly seemed to own but afterwards through the enmity of your spirits and their wicked Counsel and Advice as greatly and wickedly rejected For if they remain as they were Owen c. according to Lam. 2.14 Are the Prophets that have seen vain and foolish things for you and have not discovered your iniquity to turn away the judgements that are fallen upon you but have and do see for you false burthens and causes of banishment Secondly Send by way of intreaty it being your duty so to do according to Matth. 5.24.25 having so greatly wronged them for those faithfull persons whom you have so rejected and turned out of the Little Parliament whose Garments have not since been defiled with the late and present Apostacy or if they have are known to have throughly repented of the same with others of that publick spirit to come unto you who if any in the Nation yea I may say in the world will the Lord assisting bring forth the good things promised and have been so long expected for the good of the Nation And when you have so done Thirdly Acknowledge your great sin and iniquity to them First for rejecting and casting them out of your hearts and afterwards out of that Little Parliament on purpose to hinder them from doing that good for the people which you pretendedly dissolved the Old Parliament for not doing of and called them to do which were no other then what you will finde the true friends of the Cause will neither give you nor any other that for the future may come into the Government of the Nation rest do what you can to uphold your own and other carnal Interests in opposition thereunto yea the Lord no rest till they do obtain And when you have in the singleness of your hearts thus acknowledged your iniquity to them and desired mercy for the same as Gen. 50.16 to 20. Josephs Brethren did to him I hope they will have so much both of the spirit of the Father of the Prodigal though brought to your Husks and of the spirit of Joseph to his Brethren as to be willing to go forth in their spirits to meet this in you and weepingly to joy and rejoyce over you as also to pardon and pass by all the wrongs and injuries that you have done unto them and therein to the Cause of God and his people But if this be not in your hearts to do they must remain where they are keeping the same distance from you as before lest they go before they are sent and so come off with loss and disappointments in their own spirits as to you as my self and others have done since you so deceivingly Declared that you were now as ever equally endeared to the good Old Cause c. when it was not so Fourthly With the Advice and Consent of the faithfull friends of the Cause both in City and Countrey it being usurpation in you and acting arbitrarily to do any thing without them Deliver up with limitations not to impose upon the consciences of any in matters of Faith and Worship and in all things else that are against the safety of the Whole the Power Authority and Government of the Nation into their hands for by what hath been said both by you my self and others in this and other Papers and keeping close to the spirit of them under Christ their right it is and take heed of mixing them as in the time of their first Sitting with persons of a contrary spirit and principle on purpose to hinder them from doing the good they are called to do and thereby designedly and wickedly give your selves a second feigned necessity of turning them out and setting up another Single Person or Protector upon their ruines as you did before but rather encourage and strengthen them all you can in the bringing forth this good and suppressing the evil for that it is onely the bringing forth of righteousness and breaking off all yokes of oppression that will save and exalt this sinking Nation Prov. 14.34 Isa
1.17 to 20. 5. These persons thus called together having more light faith and communion with God then formerly they had in the work of the latter dayes and that they are called unto as I conceive they have and laying Jesus Christ the Foundation on which they intend to Build as also consulting with and managing all their Affairs according to the Scriptures as is their judgement founded upon the same Deut. 17 18 19 20. Deut. 4.6 7 8. 2 Tim. 3.16 and not onely theirs but of most of the Friends of the Cause as also assented to by your selves and all the Great Lawyers and all others present at the * Sir Thomas Widdrington having presented your Protector with a Robe afterwards delivered him a Bible and among other expressions said It is a Book of Books and besides other things it conteins in it both Precepts and Examples for good Government Alexander so highly valued the Books of his Master Aristotle and other great Princes other Books that they have laid them every night under their Pillows these are all but Legends and Romances to this one Book a Book to be had alwayes in remembrance I finde it said in part of this Book which I shall desire to read and it is this Deut 17.18 19 20. And it shall be when he sitteth upon the Throne of his Kingdom that he shall write a Copy of this Law in a Book out of that which is before the Priestt and Levites and it shall be with him and he shall read therein all the dayes of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord his God and to keep all the words of this Law and those statutes to do them that his heart be not lifted up above his Brothren and that he turn not aside from the Commandment to the right hand or to the left to the end he may prolong his dayes in his Kingdom he and his Children in the midst of Israel In which words you acknowledge that the Scriptures ought to be the foundation of both the Government and Laws of this Nation which though after this you decline from and therein adde Apostacy to Apostacy yet do justifie all others that shall go on therein and proceed according to Scripture Quualifications for the choice of Rulers according to Exod. 18.21 Hosea 11.12 Speech made by Sir Thomas Widdrington then Speaker of your Petition and Advice Parliament at the second Inauguration of your late General in the Protectorall Government is the duty of all Gods Magistrates to do Having also the concernments and welfare of the Nation upon their hearts more then their own will I hope whilest they are Sitting carry it so self-denyingly graciously and uprightly and with such tenderness towards all fearing the Lord esteeming none because of this or that judgement further then their sincerity and faithfulness to the Cause and Interest of Christ appears and will endeavour to do all things both at home and in other Nations so for the honour of him who is their and our Judge King and Lawgiver as also your own and the Nations real good and likewise with the approbation and consent of the faithful Friends of the Cause to carefully provide for the future well Government of the Nation by the hands of other faithfull Persons against they rise as you will have no occasion if your hearts be sincere and upright with God indeed and have grace to deny your selves to maintain any enmity in your spirits towards them so as to despise reject and turn them out as you did before but will rather encourage rejoyce in and bless God for them And whatsoever your politique shifts and devices may be to avoid it hither you must come at last for without this be done let the foundation you lay as to future Governments and the Persons you call to build thereon in the outward appearance be never so pure or so much for Christ yet it is and you will finde it so but a false Conception a Bed too short a Covering too narrow a Plaister that though it may skin over will not thorowly heal the wound that your Apostacy and treacherous dealing with your Principles hath made upon you for the first foremenoned Cause of the Lords displeasure against you must be taken away or else no sound cure can be expected neither indeed would such as are faithful had they a true understanding of things and did seriously weigh and consider what hath been already and might further be said in this business dare to come in and assist you till this work were done for fear lest the House that in the simplicity of their hearts they would be building should fall upon their heads and the Lords thus dealing with you is no other then according to the usual method he goes in in matters of this nature Prov. 28.13 He that covereth his sin shall not prosper but he that confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall have mercy Remember what became of Cain who retain'd his wicked spirit after he slew his Brother Abel Gen. 4. to verse 14. Of the Ongregation of Israel who out of such a spirit as you are acted by would have stoned Caleb and Joshua for opposing their going back into Egypt and pressing them to go on the Canaan Numb 14.23.32.43 Of Corah Dathan and Abiram and the two hundred and fifty famous renowned Princes of the Congregation and the people joyning with them in opposing the spirit of the Lord in Moses and Aaron upon the account with the former and how all these remaining in the wickedness of their spirits in opposition to the spirit of the work of the Lord in his little Remnant in that day must not prosper but their Carkasses fall in the wilderness dye of the Plague fall before their enemy the ground open and swallow Korah and his company up alive Numbers 16.2.31 32. Josephs Brethren who out of the wickedness and enmity of their spirits towards him cunningly endeavoured all they could to make him away and sold him into Egypt must lay aside their enmity and own and acknowledge their iniquity therein to him and beg pardon for the same or else no peace or prosperity for them could be expected Gen. 50.17 to 21. Ephraim and Israel having committed whoredom Begot strange Children Revolted from and Dealt treacherously against the Lord as you have done and the Lord having rebuked them and threatned that they should fall in their iniquity that he would be as a moth and rottenness to them as he hath hitherto been to you yet they went on and the Text sayes would not frame their doings to turn unto their God because the spirit of whoredoms was in the midst of them as it is with you but instead of returning to the Lord in a right manner as to the very thing wherein they had displeased him It is said When Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah saw his wound then went Ephraim to the Assyrian and sent to King Jareb as you have
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