Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	good_a	great_a	king_n	5,512	5	3.6764	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66752	Ecchoes from the sixth trumpet. The first part reverberated by a review of neglected remembrances, abreviating [sic] precautions and predictions heretofore published at several times, upon sundry occasions, to forewarn what the future effects of divine justice would be, as soon as our sinnes were full ripe,if not prevented by timely repentance : most part of the predictions have been already seen or heard verified, both by the author yet living, and by many others, who observed at what times, in what manner, upon what persons, and in what places they were literally or mystically fulfilled : collected out of the said authors printed books, who conscienciously [sic] observed on what divine prophesies the said predictions were grounded, as also God's late frequent intermixture of judgments and mercies, to reclaim this generation.	Wither, George, 1588-1667.	1666 (1666)	Wing W3155; ESTC R38724	102,560	226

withdraw They who of thy Grandure stood in aw Shall say in scorn Is this the Valiant Nation Which had throughout the World sush Reputation By Victories on Land Alas are these The men who were once Master of the Seas And grew so powerful yea that petty Nation Which seem'd scarce worthy of thine indignation Shal slight thee too and all thy former fame Will be forgot or mention'd to thy shame Mark how GOD's Plagues were doubled on the Jews When they his mild corrections did abuse Mark what at last upon their Land was sent And look thou for the self-same punishment Lest he in anger unto us protest That we shall never come into his rest For we have followed them in all their sin Such and so many have our Warnings been And if GOD still prolong not his compassion To us belong the self-same Desolation Then wo shall be to them that heretofore By joining house to house expeld the po're And Field have unto Field incorporated Till Villages were nigh depolulated For desolate their dwellings will be made The Lord shall in their bowels sheath his blade And they who have by their oppressive wiles Erected Palaces and costly piles Shall see the stones and timbers in the wall Arise against them and for vengeance call Then wo shall be to them that early rise To eat and drink to play and wantonni●● Still adding sin to sin They the distress Shall feel of hunger thirst and nakedness And be the servile slaves of them that are Their Foes as to their lusts they captives were Then wo to them who darkness more have lov'd Then light and wholsom counsel disapprov'd For they shall wander in a crooked path Which neither light nor end nor comfort hath Then wo to them who have corrupted bin To justifie the wicked in their sin Or for a bribe the Righteous to condemn For as the Chaff a Wind shall scatter them Their bodies on the Dunghil shall be cast Their finest flow're be dust their substance wast And all the gawdy Titles they have worn Shall but augment their sorrow shame and scorn Then wo to them who when they were afraid Of mischiefs threatned sought unlawful aid Or setting GOD's protection quite aside On their own strength and wisdom have reli'de For he their foolish hopes will bring to nought Till all they fear shall be upon them brought And all their wit and strength shall not suffice To heave that burthen off which on them lies Because fore-warnings they do neither heed Or mind till GOD to execution doth proceed And of his long-forbearance careless are Till in consuming fire he shall appear Yet we still set far off the evil day In dull security we pass away Our precious time and with vain hopes and toyes Build up a trust which every puff destroyes And therefore still when healing is expected New and unlook'd for troubles are effected We wisht for Parliaments and them we made Our GOD for all the hopes that many had The mischiefs which we feared to prevent Was by the wisdom of a Parliament Well Parliaments we had and what in being Succeeded hath but greater disagreeing With greater Grievances then heretofore And reason good for we depended more On second causes then on him who sends What to our evil or well-being tends Know then that should our Parliaments agree According to our wish should our Kings be So gracious as to condescend to all Which to the Publike Weal propose they shall Ev'n that Agreement till our sins we leave Shall make us but secure and help to weave A Snare by whose fine threads we shall be caught Before we see the mîschiefs thereby wrought Whilst for self-Interests we chiefly seek By Parliaments the King shall do the like Yea till in mutual Aides we can agree And our endeavourings unfeigned be In labouring for a Christian Reformation Each meeting shall beget a new vexation In the 191 folio and in many following leaves the Prevarications of persons in several other Callings having been mentioned the Author added this and much more in relation to the Clergy Nor came the Priests and Prophets much behind The worst of these but passe them in some kind For though a learned Clergy now thou hast And knowledge is here lately much encreast Though ' likewise I believe thou hast in thee Some Pastors from a just reproof as free As any Nation hath yet thou hast more Prevaricators now then heretofore A heap of Teachers entertain'd thou hast Resembling empty vapours or a blast That breaths no comfort What GOD never meant They preach for Truth and run e're they are sent The Peoples wounds they salve with pleasing speech When there 's no peace at all of peace they preach Or like Dumb Dogs consume their time in sleep And some so look that they affright the sheep Like hungry Curres they alwayes gormundize Yet never can their appetite suffize In bribing and in hunting for Promotion More is their zeal and much more their Devotion Then to discharge their Duty They delight In flat'ries and the fawningst Parasite In all the Courts of Europe cannot prate More heath'nishly or more insinuate Then some of these c. There is no Avarice that theirs exceeds No Malice that a Mischief sooner breeds No Pride so surly as the Clergy-pride Except among the Beggars when they cri'de They who a few years past would half have broke Their Kindred to have purchas'd them a Cloke And in poor thred-bare Cassocks came to preach Beneath an Vnder-Curate and to teach The Children of a Farmer for their meat And scarcely worthy seem'd so much to get Ev'n some of these have so well acted out Their parts of seeming honestly-devout And have so quaintly humoured and pleased The present times that they at last have seized On what they aim'd at and now over-pe're Their Heads by whom they first advanced were And if you mark how proudly now they bear Their lofty heads how insolent they are How barb'rously ingrateful unto those By whom they from the Dunghil first arose How they at least neglect if not contemn Their old Friends and betwixt themselves them What distances they set unto their Kin How harsh and how ill-natur'd they have been How peevish they are grown and how unquiet How choice in their Attendance and their Diet If it were well observed with what strain Of Pride and Loftiness they entertain Their Brethren of the Clergy when they are By their own Officers call'd to appear Before their Lordships with what Pope-like phrase They seek to terrifie and to amaze Their humble Suppliants how on those they play Who their Superiors were the other day Were these things heeded with some passages Which name I could as worthy heed as these A man would hardly think that these had been Those Priests whom they a while before had seen So beggarly and so expos'd to scorn But that they had at least been Prelates born Few could have else thought that these men

circumference of its own Sphear Predictions expressed in ambiguous Terms and having neither certain signification or dependance upon ought following or preceding are ignorantly insisted upon as pertinent to those Persons or Places whereto they had probably no relation Such are many groundless Figments cry'd about the Streets and pickt out of Gypsie-like Prognostications to the abusing of ignorant people Such are also the ridiculous Welsh Impostors entituled Taliefen the Fiction termed the Panther-Prophesie and Mother Shiptons Prophesies so called are thought considerable by some who suppose themselves no fools and hereby Predictions and Premonitions grounded upon sound Reason and Divine Truth are unheeded or neglected However there is and shall be a Remnant preserved who can distinguish between serious and trivial Precautions and to them that which is here collected will at some times be of good use though the Author be yet in contempt and in a suffering-condition Let those therefore into whose hands these come be pleased to accept and improve them as they find cause giving praise to God who vouchsafeth timely fore-warnings to all Places Persons and Societies in every Age and Memorials of that which brings on Confusion and destruction to the glorifying of his Righteousness to the shame of presumptuous Transgressors and to make future times more cautious speaking as well by the simple and mean as by the wise and honourable in terms fitted unto every capacity as also in such various Modes as might rouze them up out of security And now of late seeing both dreadful and calm Voices have been long slighted or neglected he hath spoken to us by all the Elements yea by Pestilence Warr furious Hurricano's and devouring Fire joined together in a terrible Consort To which is added a concurrent Presage in the hearts of most men portending a general Ruine by their agreeing in that fear how differing soever their Affections and Judgments be in other things and doubtless a final execution of Judgment is not far off in regard their grand Affairs in most places begin to resemble the Constitution of that Senate whereof it was said That all the rest of the Senators were ordered according to the pleasure of one among them he governed by his Wife she by her Childs Nurse and the Nurse by her Nursing According to our vulgar Computation this is the Thousandth six hundred sixty and sixth year after our Saviour's Birth and will questionless be a signal year according to the pre-conjectures of many yet not extend to the total extirpation of his Malignant Kingdom whose Reign is to end in the 666th year after he was compleatly enthroned upon the Seat of that BEAST which was to continue a Thousand years in a declining estate until the Mystery of Iniquity should be raised out of it to the full height which time though they heeded it not was mystically fore-declared in their own Numerals which in an orderly conjunction according to their simple valuation extends no further than to make MDCLXVI comprehending the whole term limited to the Fourth Monarchy with what should arise out of it from the highest exaltation both of the First and Second Beast The highest pitch of the First the Author believeth as he hath frequently hinted in his Writings published upon several occasions was even then at full when the Lord of Life was crucified under that Power for till then it flourished The number of years comprehending the Heathenish and Papal Antichristian Tyrany being MDCLXVI in the whole was not to be reckoned as beginning immediately after Christs birth but after his crucifying or ascension allotting the greatest Numeral M to wit a Thousand years to the said First Beast and DCLXVI years to the Second Beast that being the number of the Name or Power of that Mystical Man of Sin whose Reign will probably determine in or about the Three or four and thirtieth year yet to come if Chronologers have truly informed us of the times past and History rightly stated the Progress of the Second Beast to the height of his Power that we may know from what year to begin that number But this is certain though nor the year nor the day can be precisely known he hath not long to reign for all predictions will ere long end in one and as it was said a little before the Flood GOD will not much longer strive with Flesh but for the sakes of his Elect shorten the time of Antichrist which might else have been lengthned out to the end of 6000 years after the Creation but that his fury will hasten his own destruction This 66 th year shall be a preparative thereunto though the Romanists insult as if the Saints have mistaken the time of their Visitation for the late Execution of Judgment by devouring Fire the like whereof considering it was not accompanied with the Sword was never or very seldom heard of since the consuming of Sodom and Gomarrah as are also other Epidemical Judgments prosecuted upon those of GOD's own House not to destroy but to purge it When their fierce Trial hath consumed the Hay Stubble and Wooden Structures which they have erected when self-love hypocrisie the Reliques of Idolatry and such other Babylonish Corruptions as of old or newly crept in are purged out when the abominable Pride Idleness and Excess which have here abounded to the parallelling of Sodom considering what they wanted of what we had are consumed which nothing can burn up except such irresistable Fires as that of late or somewhat thereto equivalent and when the Saints have drunk so much of this bitter Cup as will suffice to cleanse them Then shall the Scarlet Whore and her vaunting Confederates swallow down the Dreggs finding themselves deceived in the expectation of those Consequents which their Emissaries have predicted in silly Rimes dispersed since the said Fire to insinuate that the Executions now in Act will be destructive to them onely who are departed out of their Babylon and protested against it For though the purifying of Gods Family is thereby principally intended the same Judgments will have concurrent effects from year to year toward the compleating of that which will be the final Doom of Rome's Babylon when 666 years as aforesaid are determined after their Mysterie of Iniquity was at height This Author believes That the Saints last Purgatory is now commencing and that it is made signal by the Fire which in this year hath eclipsed the glory and defaced the Beauty of London which is to our Israel of GOD the same which Jerusalem in Palestine was to his Israel at that time London was the greatest the most famous and the most potent of all the Cities wherein the Protestant Religion was visibly professed in opposition to the Papacy and among other considerable circumstances that Mercy whereby the execution of Divine Justice was managed during this years Visitation hitherto do manifest that they have a special relation to Gods Inheritance The most Magnificent and the Noblest part of this Ancient

will encrease thy sorrow and thy shame And thus it shall be kindled when the times Are nigh at worst and thy loud-crying Crimes Almost full ripe the Devil shall begin To bring strange Crotchets and Opinions in Among thy Teachers which will breed dis-union And interrupt the visible Communion Of thy establisht Churches In the steed Of zealous Pastors who their Flocks did feed There shall arise within thee by degrees A Clergy that will more desire to fleeze Then feed their Flocks A Clergy it shall be Divided in it self and they shall thee Divide among them into several Factions Which will both rend and fill thee with distractions All of those in appearance will pretend GOD's glory and to have one pious end But under colour of sincere Devotion Their chief aim will be temporal promotion Which will among themselves Dissentions make Wherein all sorts of people shall partake As to the Persons or the Cause they stand Inclin'd through every quarter of the Land One part of these will for Preferment strive By raising up the King's Prerogative Above it self They shall perswade Him to More then by Law or Conscience he may do And say GOD warrants it His Righteous Laws They shall pervert to justifie their Cause With blushless impudency they shall dare Ascrîbe to Monarchs things which proper are To none but Christ and mix their flatteries With such like Attributes and Blasphemies As Heathens did to make their Kings believe That whomsoever they oppress and grieve They do no wrong and that one though oppressed Should seek by their own Laws to be redressed Such Counsel shall thy foolish Kings provoke To cast upon thee Rhehoboam's yoak And they not caring or not taking heed How ill that misadvised King did speed Shall multiply the causes of distraction And then shall of those Priests the other Faction Bestir themselves They will in outward shows Those whom I last have mentioned oppose But in their aimes agree with lowly zeal An envious pride of heart they shall conceal And as the former to the King will teach Meer Tyranny so shall the other preach Rebellion to the People and then strain The Word of God Sedition to maintain Oh! therefore be thou watchful and when here Those Lambs with Dragons Voices do appear Repent thy sins or take it for a token That such a Bulwark of thy Peace is broken As if it be not soon repaired all The grandure of thy Glory down will fall Beware then of those Prophets who will strive Betwixt thy Prince and People to contrive A Breach and what event soever come Thy due Allegiance never start thou from For their Oppressions though we may withstand By pleading Laws or Customes not a hand Must move against him but the hand of GOD Who makes the King a Bulwark or a Rod As pleaseth him Oh take therefore good heed Ye Subjects and ye Kings what may succeed By those Impostors of the last beware Ye Subjects for their Counsels wicked are And though they promise Liberty and Peace Your Thraldom and your troubles they encrease Shun oh ye Kings the first for they advise What will your Crowns and Honours prejudice When you suppose their Prophesies befriend you They shall but unto Ramoth Gillead send you Where you shall perish and poor Micha's word Though disesteem'd more safety will afford This Author hath been censured as having deviated from his Principle expressed in the last foregoing Caveat when upon their Command he took up Arms with the Long-Parliament But he declared by the Motto in his Cornet Pro lege Rege grege that he purposed nothing contrary thereunto or against the King and he is also sufficiently vindicated from that aspersion by what he long since published to justifie both his actings and intentions under that Power which was called and authorized both by King and people to regulate and settle their joint and distinct Interests After that and the rest of the foregoing Precautions and Predictions the said Author having considered this Nation and how it had parallel'd the Jews heretofore he proceeded to declare what would follow thereupon if they parallel'd them also in their final obstinacy fol. 269. p. 2. What here is mentioned if thou shalt heed Oh BRITAN in those times that will succeed It may prevent much loss and make thee shun Those mischiefs whereby Kingdoms are undone But to thy other sins if thou shalt add Rebellion as false Prophets will perswade When that time comes wherein thou likewise shalt In thy profession as to GOD-ward halt Then will thy King and People scourge each other For their offences till both fall together By weakning of their Pow'r and making way To their ends who expect that fatal day Then shall disorder every where abound Justice or Piety be rarely found Each man shall to his neighbour be a thorn By whom he shall be either scratcht or torn Thy Princes will to little condescend Save for accomplishing their own self-end Either in multiplying of their Treasures Or satiating of their fleshly pleasures Few Causes will without a bribe be tri'de Few Friends will in each other dare confide The Parents and their Children shall despise Hate or neglect each other She that lies Within her Husbands bosome shall betray him They who the People should protect shall slay them Old Age shall honor'd be by few or none The Poor shall by the rich be trod upon Such Insolencies almost every where Shall acted be that good and bad shall fear In thee to dwell and wise men to assume The Magistracy when that time is come GOD shall then call and whistle from afar Those hither who the most malicious are Of all thine Adversaries they shall from Their dwellings like a whirlwind on thee come Sharp shall their Arrows be and strong their Bow To thee their faces will as dreadful show As roaring Lyons They on thee like thunder Shall furiously break in and tread thee under Their Iron feet They shall devour thy bread And with thy Flocks both clothed be and fed Their Children they shall carry from their own To Countreys which their Fathers have not known And thither shall such mischiefs them pursue That they who seek the Pit-fall to eschue Shall in a snare be taken them who shall Escape the Sword a Serpent in the wall Shall sting to death and tho they have the hap To shun a hundred Plagues they shall not scape But with new dangers be still chas't about Until they shall be wholly rooted out The Plow-man shall be then afraid to fow Artificers their labour shall forgo The Merchant-man shall cross the Seas no more Except to flye hence to another shore The stoutest heart shall fear the wisest then Shall know themselves to be but foolish men And they who built and planted by oppression Shall leave their gettings to their Foes possession And yet GOD will chastise thee seven times more With seven times greater Plagues then heretofore For thy Allies their Friendship shall

This Nation shall be by Election sent For those Grand Jurors are now chosen forth Of them whose Gifts Estates Degree or Birth Hath rankt them with the best yea out of those Excepting onely open active Foes To this Republick who have been suspected Meer Neuters or else persons disaffected As well as from among them whose true zeal Hath kept them constant to this Commonweal That they who heartily well minded are Themselves henceforward some way might endear Thereto and thereby for the future stand Enroll'd among the Patriots of this Land Endow'd with all their Liberties and freed From those Distinguishments which either breed Or nourish secret hatred to th' encrease Of Quarrels and diminishment of Peace And who can tell what Providence by these Though diffring in their Judgments will now please To make Effectual for the preservation Or settlement of Peace throughout this Nation When things are acted by a moderate Expostulation in a joint Debate Where ev'ry one may freely speak his thought And when it is consid'red as it ought That no man can of safety be assur'd Until the Publick Safety be secur'd We know that diffring Simples put together So qualifie and so correct each other Though some are poysonous that they purge away Malignant Humours which would else de●●roy The life of man so they who formerly Did in their singular Capacity And private Judgments sometimes act or speak What did at least endanger if not break The Common Peace may when they gath'red are Into one fellowship be helpful there To benefit their Countrey ten times more ' Then they have been or could be heretofore Yea as the fat Lime and the barren Sand When they well mixed are do make a band To bind together rough or hewed stone Which neither of them could have done alone Ev'n so by them who are Dissenters now Our Publick Buildings may the firmer grow When they into One Structure shall be fixt Well qualifi'd and rationally mixt This peradventure may some good presage To them who are convened to engage Within a higher Orb or shortly must Become our Trustees in a greater Trust For he who hath consid'red it believes That if those Petty Representatives By loving Prudence shall prepare a way Thereto as in good likelihood they may That Nobler Body which to its perfection Are for the most part rais'd by their Election Might be so modaliz'd and temper'd so That Discords into Sympathies would grow And all our Fears and Dangers in the close Quite vanish to the terror of our Foes It may be thus and will be thus if yet Mens Wilfulness hath left them any Wit For why should they who now may be at rest Run hazards to advance their Interest Whom nothing else can satisfie but Pow'r All others at their pleasure to devour And spoilers of their own Estates become To make a Fortune for they know not whom Or seek to have that Game afresh begun By which all may be lost and nothing won I hope they shall be wiser and that we In this Expedient shall so wary be That whatsoever others may intend We shall endeavour to promote that End We ought to prosecute and at the last Our Anchor in a peaceful Harbour cast I wish it heartily and since I see Wishings are vain where no endeavours be That those whom it concerns provoke I may To seek this blessing and to help make way To that I wish for I compos'd this Spell Let him who mov'd me to it speed it well And make it so consider'd by this Nation Before things grow beyond consideration That Words which to their safety do pertain May not be alwayes spoke to them in vain For they are fools who still pursue a Course Which makes a sickly being to be worse And they are also little less then mad Who would exchange a good one for a bad Or put in hazard a possessed Lot In hope to get what never can be got A Si quis or Queries with other Verses annexed Imprinted in the Year 1648. HEre should have been inserted Collections our of an Address entituled A Speech without door but it is quite lost The following Si quis presented to the Members of Parl●ament in their single Capacities related to the Author 's particular Interest and was composed in an unusual mode in hope it might have inclined some of them to provoke the rest to take notice of that which had been often presented unto them in an usual and more serious manner Much may be thereby collected to evidence how most Parliament men stood affected as to the Execution of Justice about that time This was laid down at the Parliament door That day in which Victorious Cromwel sent His first Express to your great wonderment Of Hamilton's Defeat which whilst a Scot Then living liveth will not be forgot Ev'n on that day before your feet I spread A sad Petition humbly prefaced By these ensuing lines He that is prostrate on the floor Lies there whence he can fall no lower So does this Orator of your Petitions he hath oft convey'd Into your hands yet finds no aid These therefore at your feet are laid There let them not neglected lye Nor unregarded pass them by But view them with a gracious eye And let our Parents not provoke Their Children till offence be took By which their patience may be broke Consider those who lye below For you shall reap what you do sow And find such Mercy as you sow Refresh their Spirits who are sad As GOD this day hath made you glad By those good tydings you have had Among the rest this Beadsman hear Who feels the wants which they but fear Who dread the effects of this moist year And blame him not that thus he shows His Cause as well in Verse as Prose And in a path untrodden goes For scarce Earth Water Air or Fire Enjoyes he or wherewith to hire That Pittance Nature doth require And men in danger to be drown'd Lay hold on any trifle found To reconveigh them safe aground Then this annexed Paper view And let him favour'd be of you As that which he avers is true Or if for what he here prefers His Suit there stand Competitors Let it be neither his nor theirs But as most equitable it appears To my Petition fixt I for your view Left this upon the Pavement and withdrew In hope some kind hand would have been extended To take it up that it might be commended To free debate But six dayes now are gone And GOD since then the Mercy lately shown Hath more then doubled on you yet here I Still at your door unheard unheeded lye And have as yet not so much favour'd bin As to be told who took my Paper in Of private Scrutenies grown therefore weary I have in publike now set up this Query Your House receiving notice twelve months since Of my long suffring and my Indigence Occasion'd in your Service thought it fit To some Selected Members to commit The

present Plagues arise The Contents of the Fourth Canto Whilst here the Author doth recite His Musings after Naseby Fight The Voice returns and doth begin To tell us what must usher in Exiled Peace Then told are we How kept our Vows and Covenants be How we Reform and Fast and Pray What Thanklesness we do repay What must in general be done What by each individual one What Course both King and People take Ere they their Peace with GOD shall make What he expecteth from these Nations From Cities Towns and Corporations And ev'ry House in some degree Before true Peace will setled be Carmen Expostulatorium Imprinted 1647. THis was intended to prevent the engaging these Nations into a Second Warre when the dividing of the City and Army was then by some endeavoured and likely to be effected The same Precautions are at this day pertinent to consideration and are therefore here abreviated Though I have written heretofore in vain And may do now yet I will write again In hope that what by Reason and by Rime Was not effected may be done in Time And that although my pains be lost to some It shall not fruitless unto all become Hark! how the Drums beat the Trumpets are Sounding Alarams to a Second Warre Before the first is done and whilst yet green The wounds upon your bodies may be seen Behold that which was coming long ago Draws now so near that none shall need foreshow What at the last will thereupon ensue For we without a Glass may plainly view Such things in kenning that unless our GOD To them shall please to set a period Or make some such diversion as no man Conjecture of by any Symptome can An Vniversal Plague will on us seize Instead of Remedies for our Disease How then can I in time of need withhold That which my Conscience tells me should be told Why should I keep those Premonitions back Which I conceive my Friends at this time lack A poor mans Counsel once as we hear say Did save a City so perhaps this may Excuse me therefore if much grieved at Your rash proceedings I expostulate Concerning that whereby it seems to me The War may now again renewed be Renowned Citizens what do you mean To make your City the unhappy Scoene Whereon there shall in probability Be acted now the bloodiest Tragedy That e're this Island saw are you grown mad And is there no Physician to be had For this distemp'rature but must it here Be Cuckow-moon or Dog-dayes all the year Have you no Drugs that may lost wits restore Can Patience Herbagrace nor H●lebore Nor any other Simple or Confection Work out that noysome humour and infection Which hath besotted you till ye grow fit For Bedlam where are no such mad men yet Page 3 it thus follows Have you not yet discover'd who be they That cheat you and for whom this Game you play By your divisions And when others find Their falshood for you will you still be blind Or wink as careless of the things you heed Till by long winking you grow blind indeed c. Cannot you yet discover through the mist Those Juglings which the Spawn of Antichrist False Priests and lying Prophets practise now To raise themselves and work your overthrow Nor with what impudence they publish lyes Their bitter jeerings and their blasphemies To make new breaches or to widen those Which Love and Prudency begun to close And which ere this time closed up had been Had they not cast untemp'red dirt between Page the Fourth Is it a time your Quarrels to renew When all is hazarded that 's dear to you Observe ye not Three Factions like to them Which were the ruine of Jerusalem At strife within your Walls Do you not see What spightful sparklings in their eyes there be How sharply they against each other whet Their sland'rous tongues how grinningly they set Their gnashing teeth Observe ye not how they With Pens dipt in black poyson do assay To re-ingage you and with cursed words Provoke the reinsheathing of your Swords That ev'ry Son and Father Friend and Brother May sheath them in the heart of one another c. Have you concluded never to retire In your Career till all is on a Fire And you and yours lye sprawling in the plashes Of your own blood or in your Cities ashes Or till you see this goodly stately Frame The work of many Ages in a Flame Have you so often heard it said from him Whose true Presages no men will contemn But Reprobates what miserable Fate Attends that House that City and that State Which is divided Have his Prophesies So often been fulfill'd before your eyes And are they at this day so likely too To be ere long fulfilled upon you And yet will you a New Division run As if you studied how to be undone Or as if you resolv'd to keep that path Which to avoid your GOD forewarn●d ●ou hath After many other Expostulations and neglected Precautions tending to their Welfare and which are now as pertinent to us the Author thus proceeds again p. 13. What makes you and our Army now to be So jealous of each other as we see But that Self-love and Pride which you and they Pursue in others and because each day You more and more in manners grow like them Whose guiltiness you rail at and condemn For most of those among you who pretend To Reformation do but seek to mend Some faults in other men that they to make Themselves thereby may an advantage take When zealously they labour to remove A Tyrant it proceeds but from Self-love That they may by possessing of his Room As active in like Tyrannies become As 't were not probable that we should see Suppressed Tyrants ev'ry day to be Outvi'de by their Successors and outgone By those who blamed most what they had done 'T is not because you seek the Publick Good That you renew this Warre for letting blood Especially now when the Dog-star reigns So near unto the heart and in those veins Now likely to be op'ned seems to me Not Physick but meer Butchery to be 'T is not for GOD that you do now promove This Quarrel for you know that GOD is Love And when he doth engage us in a War It alwayes evidently doth appear How it conduceth to the preservation Of Amity and Vnion in a Nation And that we cannot otherwayes avoid The Consequence of being quite destroy'd With all that 's dear unto us But in this Of such a Common Good no Sign there is c. All your Contentions rather do arise From fleshly Lusts and carnal vanities Then from the Cause pretended and there 's none Will doubt it if you wilfully go on In bloodshed not endeavouring for Grace By making Fury give Discretion place 'T is not the errors or the imperfections Of your Opinions but of your Affections Which heighten Discord and a will to please Backsliding Demas and Diotrophes Which hath surpris'd you 'T

whilst it shall continue thus Who knows what will become of us Ask those who now of Peace do dream Who shall procure the same for them Since many are become their Foes Whom they to be their Champions chose Since they our Substance have bestown To make new Fortunes of their own And Publike Injuries encrease To gain themselves a private Peace Yea since the People doubtings have What to refuse or what to crave Do still irresolute abide Long constant unto neither side Not in themselves resolved are Whether they would have Peace or War Or whether readmit they shall Charles to be King or not at all For doubtless if thus matters go As many now much fear they do A wise man needs not break his brain To search what Peace we shall obtain Since whilst thus blind and mad we be What will ensue a Fool may see Yet lest you may be fooled more Then either now or heretofore Observe the Commons if of them None serve two Masters at a time Nay whether none among them be Who Servants are this day to Three And false to all observe of those Whom we for Publike service chose How many fail the Peoples Trust To private persons how unjust They are how little good effect The King or People can expect Concerning Peace while such as they The Cunning Ambodexters play Ask them who sit to take Accounts To what their two years pains amounts Or what the Commonwealth it betters When they have found who are her debtors If when their falshood shall be known And published throughout the Town A Cheating Shark may outface them Who justly have convicted him And be employed as before Or else where he may cheat us more Ask if they have not pow'r to call As well the great Thieves as the small To give accompt those whom we hear Cumprivilegio as it were Have plundered at an easie rate Coin Jewels Houshold-stuff and Plate And if you find they have not leave To question all men who deceive The Publike Trust know we are yet For Peace with Righteousness unfit Then mark what Favours many have Who sought this Nation to enslave How some exposed are to scorn Who of this War the brunt have born And having heedfully survay'd How Good with Evil is repay'd Mind well the Doctrine and the Vse And what that may at last produce Enquire moreover how you find To works of Mercy men enclin'd How honest Causes are prefer'd How griev'd Petitioners are heard How Offices conferred be Whether some have not two or three Who for the Publike neither spent Nor gave nor hazarded nor lent When many better men had none Who in your service were undone Observe those Pensions how you share Which for Relief allotted are How little best deservers get How many of them not a whit How often ill how seldom well Rewards and Punishments you deal Which are the Pillars whereon stand The Peace and Honour of the Land Observe if when we spend a day In praises or to fast and pray If more Hypocrisie therein Then true Devotion hath not bin● If Preaching tend not more to strife Then to sound Doctrine or good Life If more we seek not to fulfil Our sensual humours and our will Then to perform a Thank-oblation Or duties of Humiliation Or if the Worship we profess Be not an Outside Holiness No deeper rooted then the tongue Or fruits that fade as soon as sprung For as it proveth when you see These things to tryal brought shall be You may without much failing guess What likelihood there is of Peace An ear an eye sometimes too have ye Upon the Army and the Navy An eye severely to behold An ear to hear what hath been told Of some who much entrusted were With Stores Arms and Provisions there Or had Commissions to Array To furnish fortifie and pay Ships Forts or Men and those in chief Employ'd for Ireland's first relief And your first Armies ev'n when all Did lye at stake and seem to call For faithful stout and honest men Observe how they discharged then The Trust repos'd how some were made Commanders Pay and Titles had But scarce a Man How others now Defraud the Publike and if you As Fame reports among them find Deceit in this accursed kind Excuse not them yea though at last Acts of Oblivion should be past For open Foes no Grace provide For men untrue to their own side Lest as your Peace they have defer'd They marr it likewise afterward For where employed such are found When Peace is made 't will not be sound Enquire if you can tell of whom To make Enquiry what 's become Of all the Publike Protestations Engag'd for private Reparations What of that Vow which did profess A mutual Aid in all distress What of the self-denying Vote Which goodly Hopes in us begot What of those Orders whereupon Some trusted till they were undone What of the Publike Faith in which We thought our selves exceeding rich Though all were lost so that remain'd Inviolated and unstain'd Enquire I say throughout the Land In what condition these now stand For when of these you have obtain'd That Certainty which may be gain'd It will undoubtedly appear What we may either hope or fear Enquire yet further lest you may Expect perhaps a Sun-shine day And meet a Storm in what good mind That sort of People you shall find Ycleep'd the Clergy for the stem Of our late Troubles was in them Their Factions Avarice and Pride Did first of all these Isles divide From them at first the Fire-brands came That set this Empire in a flame When 't was nigh quench'd again they blew Those coals which did the flame renew The Nations they did re-engage The Peoples vexed minds enrage By feigned Wiles and false pretences Abusing tender Consciences The Course long since by them begun Is to this day continued on And therefore take this Truth for me For you shall find it Truth to be That till you see these much estrang'd From what they are their posture ehang'd Till they shall better their Conditions Confine● themselves to their Commissions Leave off to jangle fool and fiddle With what they should not intermeddle And be as pious and as wise As they are outwardly precise Or as those few among them are For whose sakes GOD abates this War Nor King nor Peers the Commons neither Nor these united altogether Shall able be that Peace to make Which their Contentions will not shake Make one Enquiry more to see And search what most of those men be On whose Endeavours you depend To bring our troubles to an end Mark how their Duties they attend In private how their time they spend What Company they most frequent What matters give them best content What by their neighbors they were thought Till they obtained what they sought And to what purpose they employ The Pow'r and Places they enjoy Then cast an eye upon the Rabble And taking view if you be able Of all together great