the bringing of all things in Earth to answer the minde of God as is done in Heaven A thing not done at once nor presently but by degrees nor to be perfected but by the appearance of Jesus Christ as he lets down the spiritual knowledge and revelation of himself unto us in the opening of the Scriptures We are to be preparing and occupying our Measures and Talents till he come and put the finishing hand to Crown his own work 3. To direct us in the Way of serving this Cause That we go not forth headily and rashly presumptuously and self-confidently in our own wit will wisdom or rage there hath been too much of this but humbly waiting upon God watching and looking up to him what door he opens what way he leads what means he puts into our hands and not to be troubled if we cannot see to the end of our way distinctly but from step to step If we be brought to an obedient following of him our way shall be as the encreasing light growing to perfect day This was the way God perswaded the Parliament unto at first we had never else taken down Bishops not being provided of a Discipline in their room but God carryed us over this Objection then And so this was the way the Army professed themselves to be lead in and they prospered wonderfully Those were the days of innocency and simplicity though much weakness and childishness and God may upbraid us with that time as once he did Israel Jer. 2. I remember thee the kindness of thy youth in the day of thy espousals when thou followedst me in a Land that was not sowed When thou knewest not how thou shouldst live but hadst every meal from Heaven Israel was holinesse to the Lord c. And this is a great thing we have Covenanted and engaged to the Lord. It is no new thing ye are exhorted to but the Vowes of God are upon us The Lord hath had livery and seizin of us we have lived upon him and he hath found us in a Desert Land and hath borne us upon Eagles wings and why should it not be so again To conclude let us consider what a Name and a Praise we began to be made in the Earth What people were like England a People saved by the Lord Shall we begin in the Spirit and seek to be made perfect in the flesh Shall we that have been assisted and carryed forth to assert the Cause of God against the corrupt usurpations of the World when they had so long prescription a King of ancient Descent that had such a fouundation of the National Constitution the Laws an Army to stand upon the Spirit of the world in its vigour to maintain and uphold them Shall we that did not then shrink but wrought our Cause through the fire and through Seas of blood shall we now after we have conquered all these real difficulties be afraid of a thing of nought of the shaddows of our own unbelieving fears that have no foundation or bottome of reason or righteousnesse or consent or constitution to urge themselves upon us Where is the King of whose frown ye should be afraid Where 's his Power Where 's his Army What is become of the Great men and Mighty men Who shall hurt you if ye be followers of that that is good If any be stept up into their places and shall offer to oppose the Canse of God ye need not wish for weaker Adversaries for they will be self-condemned They stand upon a Bogg which will swallow them up having no righteous foundation And for your Comfort let me add this one Word The World ye are to grapple with hath lost a great strength of late It s very Heart-strings are broke This I must say for Him that is gone It was He that bare up this old ruinous Frame which in likelihood had fallen before this if His Parts His Courage His Religion had not supported it Whether He did well or ill in it judge ye Indeed it broke him at length and he fainted under the weight of it but He was a strong Buttresse to it when it was sinking in the time of the little Assembly The Law and the Clergy had then crackt if he had not put thereto his shoulder I am not against the Honest Interest of the Ministery or Law if that Interest be publique if it be the Interest of Righteousnesse and of the Spirit I call them old and rotten in the corrupt State of them wherein at present they stand But I say while that Prop of them lasted there was no attempting against them for God had given him to be a prolonging of days unto them And as he that stood in the way did lett the revealing of the Man of sin till he was taken out of the way so the Spirit of God in his poor Witnesses had not full play against this old and corrupt State of things while that Great Spirit acted the Defence of them A Word to the Reader to remove Prejudice MY ayme is to give my witnesse against the Present Apostacy whether this Generation will hear or whether they will forbear I have believed therefore have I spoken These things are not ministred but with some Faith that God will appear and revive this Cause and his poor people and as I know not which way so I am not Solicitous I would be loath to blow the Coals of another Intestine War But better our Peace be interrupted then Truth perish which is more our Life than the blood that runs in our Veynes I know it must be not by Might nor Power but by the Spirit that our deliverance is wrought whether in War or Peace I should hope the present Vsurpations should be too much self-condemned in the Practisers of them to bear a quarrel and that if we knew once but how to Value our Cause and the ground we are upon our Opposites would quickly rebate their Courage seeing the day is so farre risen I am not against Monarchy as an unlawful Government we find it owned of God and honoured to be a Type of the Reign of Christ but I am upon this Dilemma withall the Promoters of it here Either we did well and were guided by a divine hand in taking it down or not If not why do we not ask the World mercy and restore the old Family again If we were directed by God to remove it let us see the same divine hand leading to the restoring it else What a scandal is it to our Cause to build again the things we destroyed That God leads us not to it appears 1. Because his people consent not in it and Governments for the forme of them are to be founded upon Consent The people that adhered and are yet faithful to this Cause have not onely their Interest among others but Paramount to the rest of the Nation 2. Our Condition calls not for unnecessary charge Taxes lye heavy on the Commoners The poor of the
THE CAUSE of GOD And of these NATIONS Sought out and drawn forth from the Rubbish of the Lusts and Interests of Men and lifted up into sight and view for all the upright in heart to follow it Wherein is shewed What our Cause was What opportunity we had for it How miserably it has been deserted What was the Cause of that desertion The spiritual Judgment that is already upon the Desertors With a Word of encouragement to all the faithful and persevering friends of it Isa 59.19 When the Enemy shall come in like a flood the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a Standard against him London Printed Anno Dom. 1659. To all the Honest-hearted of the Land who though through weaknesse they have staggered yet have not wickedly departed from the Cause of God and the Nation GOD hath pardoned your sins You have had your temptations and weaknesses and God hath chastend and afflicted you for them You have borne your shame you have turned away from God rejoyced in a thing of nought Therefore God hath withdrawn from you his presence and blessing and your Renown is much perished You have minded the enriching of your selves the making your Families and Names Great Therefore hath God set up a greatness over you to afflict you You would be so wise and so in the fashion of the World and of the Nations so afraid of the meanness of Christ and of the Spirit that I think ye have had enough of a Lordly Spirit and yet in the name of Christ too bringing you under God hath payd you in your own Coine Ye would ride upon horses and upon the swift therefore they that have pursued you have been swift Glorifie God in his Judgements Confesse him and sanctifie his Name Are ye willing to be delivered Or do ye affect bondage still Will ye be boared for perpetual slaves Will ye yet accept of the Government of Christ Are ye weary and heavy laden Will ye put into a good harbour The Lord opens his Arms to you He waits that he may be gracious He hath hid love under all this dispensation These winds and waves have been but to waft you over into his own Bosome It is one of his Ordinances In the world you shall have tribulation But he is wherever he was and the Cause is and lives All ye that are the Natural children of it Come own your Mother Jerusalem which is above is free which is the Mother of us all and ye are free and nothing can inthral you no Bonds no Yokes no Temptations no allurements can hold you in that that is unrighteous Ye can not rest till ye come to your own Land till ye see the New Heavens and the New Earth wherein Righteousness dwells Of whatsoever Kindred Nation Tribe or Tongue ye are no Form can or shall imprison you long or hold the truth in unrighteousness I know ye have your several Lights and discernings gradually differing But ye are one and agree perfectly in the true Ground and Reason of your life Ye would have Truth and Righteousnesse take place that is Ye would have Christ reign For Truth and Righteousnesse are but so many Names of Him and he would have ye happy and free every way free in your Persons free in your Estates free inwardly free outwardly for the Earth is his as well as Heaven He made it and that not in Vain He made it to be inhabited Sin and unrighteousness hath desolated it The fruit of the Earth shall be excellent and comely when the Branch of the Lord is beautiful and glorious for his escaped Remnant He hath married you and calls you by Name You are the true English race those that are against you are strangers and forreigners Aliens from their own Countrey Therefore when I call you English-men it is as much as if I call'd you Israelites Ye are but a Remnant yet ye are the seed and hopes of the Land God hath winnowed and sifted the Nation those that were not of you are fallen off from you It is your advantage that you know them you shall not want their Numbers nor need you fear their Multitude for the whole Multitudes that gather against you shall be as the Dream of a night Vision God is arisen to judge them ye shall need to do nothing against them but to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. Their Mighty men are fallen their strength is perished the anointing is ceased and departed from them Your Cause is risen I feel it is risen The Witnesses thereof begin to stand upon their feet The Interest of this short discourse is First to awaken you and to point out unto you the Cause of all our Breakin gs since that signal Witness given from Heaven to our Cause There was much Darkness wrath foolishness selfishness mingled with our zeal Love Righteousness in the managing of the Cause which was to be pared and pruned off burnt up and separated from us and the fire hath seized upon it There was also a mixt multitude with us as there was with Israel when they came up from Egypt who had not a stedfast Spirit nor a right aim Children in whom was no faith which were to be made manifest and to be knockt off These their buits have caught them and they are at their journeys end they will be left hehind and that is not the worst that awaits them While yon had to deal with the open and declared Enemy ye were still successful against them but these false brethren have betrayed you and your Cause Trust them no more nor that Spirit It is your great advantage that you now know the depths of Satan you have seen Satan transforming himself into an Angel of light the Man of sin working in all deceiveablenesse of unrighteousnesse in praying preaching weeping c. You cannot be cousened any more with these Where the Life the Seed the Nature is it will recover it self and this Discourse may be serviceable to awaken and call it forth out of that Caprivity wherein it lyes but where is only the Notion the Form the Profession it will wither away more and more Let all that are the Children of this Cause hear this Voice and obey this Call to come out of Babylon and partake no longer in her sins as they would not partake in her Plagues A second aym of this Discourse is to enlarge our apprehensions in the just Extent and Dimensions of our Cause which is not to be restrained or limited by the scant Models of any private thoughts but is to be learned and received from the heavenly patterne as God is pleas'd to let it down and shew it unto us Hence all those Designs will be found too short or narrow of those that would rest in forming these Nations meerely into a Common-wealth or that bound the Work by Civil or Spiritual liberties as they are commonly apprehended The Cause of God in its latitude and adaequate extent is
for very vanity If it be not in this spirit in vain is all the tugging of our friends in Parliament though I would not discourage any honest and righteous spirit to be holding up the bucklers against oppression and slavery upon an honest account Yet I fear me nay I see and I see with joy that the day is gone down upon the head of man in his highest Activity wherein he boasts himself The Princes of Zoan are become fools through our laying too much stresse on them It is another spirit that must bring salvation a spirit that is true indeed that was never false a spirit that cannot lye nor deceive that cannot be corrupted A spirit that hath overcome the World And I hope this spirit is taking the work into his own hand in this day CHAP. VII Containing a brief Recapitulation of some principal Heads and the Conclusion of the whole TO sum up all briefly and clear up more distinctly what hath bin in general hinted Whosoever is able rightly to discern past affaires will see there was a double Cause set on foot amongst us viz. the Cause of God and the Cause of these Nations which most have had some notion of but few have adequately described or rightly distinguished them only have admitted the Interest of Spiritual as well as Civil liberties But certainly the Cause of God must needs be higher larger of nearer concerr of greater consequence than the Cause of the Nation though that be great as the Soul is more noble than the body and the Creator to be preferred before the Creature The Cause of God like the Heavens waters with its dew cherishes with its influence embraces in its Arms and bosome the Natural Rights and Liberties of men as its Earth and Spouse in a subserviency and usefulness to the illustration of its own bounty and glory The Heavens are independent on the Earth not so the Earth on the Heavens The Cause of God needs not us but we receive all our vigor and blessing from it 2. As there were two Causes so there were two people or sorts of men that were drawn forth to serve them some upon a Natural and Civil account only having a just resentment of the languishing state of their Civil and Natural Rights and Liberties and others upon a higher account as being sensible of the sad condidition we were in as to spirituall affairs by the Ecclesiastical Taskmasters 3. These 2 Causes and their Adherents went hand in hand together in a joynt socious way the cause of God the cause of the Nation The People of God were concerned in both Causes and contributed to both not only their lives and fortunes as we call them in common with the Nation but besides and above them their Faith their Prayers their Comforts their Experiences all their Interest in God and in the Promises for the promoting of both and this not only out of love to themselves and their own particular concerns but in love to the Nation and in duty and faithfulness to God whereby the Cause of the Nation in some sense became to them the Cause of God though always the distinction and subordination preserved The Cause of God consists of two parts the one outward and visible such as is the object of the Natural Man's discerning viz. Freedom from outward violence and persecution in the externall exercise of Religion and the worship and service of God which because of things that relate to God may in a large sense be called the Cause of God but in respect of the Subjects of these Liberties which are all Men or every Nation of men they are but Natural Rights such as every sort of Men and Religions whether true or false do challenge and expect for every Nation will walk in the Name of their God This part of the Cause of God is but as the outward Court which the Gentiles may come into and tread down and is such an Interest as may be playd fast or loose withall by the Owners if they hold it only on the tearms of a Natural Right according as its makes with or against their Ruling worldly Interest or Concerns whether it be profit or honour as hath been too too manifest in these days which hath made so many go back from those Principles in this kind which once they abetted and contended for The other part of the Cause of God is wholly spiritual and so invisible to that Eye that is only natural though ever so enlightned even in the Letter of the Scripture it self and is exprest by the Apostle to consist in the deliverance of the whole Creation from the bondage of Corruption into the glorious liberty of the Children of God It is the delivering up all to God the subjecting of all to him which is the true liberty of the creature and this delivering up to God is not to Him as the head of the first Creation exercising his Rule by natural Light or Principles but as the Head of the New Creation by Christ risen from the dead exercising a far higher and better Rule in the New Creature which though it have for its Subject Matter the same things that are found in the Rule of the Natural or Moral Conscience viz. All External righteousness Religion and worship yet it hath them upon another account that is on other grounds and to other ends and over and besides them it subjects the Mind in all its operations in these to the Law of the Spirit of Life which is in Christ Jesus whereby the Creature is brought forth in newness of operation with Christ not seeking its own glory but the glory of its Head as Christ seeks the glory of his Father And this true spiritual and glorious liberty where it is brought forth in any soul is such an interest as cannot be disposed of or parted with by its possessor or made to serve but disposes of all things in that soul to the service of the Lord seeking alwaies to do the things that please Him not being able to do any thing against the Truth but for the Truth Thus those whom the Son makes free are free indeed and abide in the house for ever and never prove false nor turn their backs upon God or that that is his interest and glory Every other Spirit is corruptible and the Rule and Law of its walking is uncertain and variable may be turned this way or that way as worldly Interest or advantage swayes but though every man be a lyar yet God is true and cannot deny himself and so are they true that are thus born of him and become one Spirit with him by the spiritual slaying and crucifying of that life in them which is subject to chaxges and may be corrupted bribed and bought off from its Allegiance Had all that took upon them the defence of our Cause been of this Spirit we should never have had cause to have complained of the betraying and deserting of it But