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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96748	Epistolium-vagum-prosa-metricum: or, An epistle at randome, in prose and metre. To be delivered, to all whom it may concern; but, was first intended only, for two or three of the authors friends in authority (if he hath so many left) to mediate in Parliament, the redress of his destructive grievances; in the expression whereof, many particulars of publick concernment are interwoven. The author, is George Wither Esq; who, in writing this address, being transported beyond the sense of his personal sufferings, discovers by a poetical rapture, that whereon the peace of these nations depends; and, what is, and what vvill be, their sad condition; as also, what new-purgatories, and fiery-tryals, they are likely to pass, if God's mercy, prevents not: which that they may endeavour to obtain, their old remembrancer gives them, once more, a fore-warning; resolving, this shall be his last time, of sounding them an alarm.	Wither, George, 1588-1667.	1659 (1659)	Wing W3156; Thomason E763_6; ESTC R204085	47,030	31

have borrowed 100. 200. 300 l. yea 600 l. in one place for several years upon my single bond as will yet appear by the bonds cancelled am now doubtful whether my security will pass alone for 10 l. And I believe that they who perhaps to disparage me in another kinde report I have Lands to the yearly value of 1000 l. which is a great deal more then twice so much as I ever yet had will not better my credit by that fame as to borrowing at this time and though it do not Poverty when the Commonwealth is poor will to me be more honour then to be rich considering how I am impoverished Not many men have so unfeignedly told the world heretofore their outward Condition as I have declared mine when it was requisite nor discovered their inside more sincerely by publishing their thoughts to his own hazard for an advantage to his Country But most are such dissemblers that they believe not one another If men think I now dissemble and am as rich as report hath made me perhaps whilst I am here at London solliciting my Cause they will steal away my onely Son and Daughter in hope they will prove rich marriages which nevertheless I am resolved to adventure as also how the Militia in Hamshire out of which I am by Providence if not by some other means omitted will proportion my burthen to other mens I hope well of their impartiality but if as I am informed they have imposed upon me the setting forth of two Horses I shall be scarce found able at this time to provide them Bridles and some of my Country-men may as justly be charged with a whole Troop according to which proportion if a Militia be armed in all other Counties Charles Stuart were better stay at Bruxells then come hither though Spain France and the Emperour should assist him How this revealing of my Poverty will obstruct my Credit as to borrowing hereafter to relieve my necessities and how it may hinder the advance of my Children in Marriage the prudence of the world would have advised me to consider But I regard neither her Counsel nor her Practise If Marriages according to our Proverb be made in Heaven and if as I believe and have had experience of it good Husbands and Wives are Gods gift and at his disposal by an extraordinary Providence I will trust to his providing them Spouses and Portions and whatsoever my future want shall be do purpose to deceive no man by making my Estate seem better then it is though they be not of that minde who obstruct the establishing of Registers to prevent fraud When I was much poorer then at present I am GOD raised me up a Friend who knowing by what means I was necessitated and how unlikely I was to repay him brought nevertheless unto me without my asking ought without obliging me by a note under my hand and without so much as requiring a promise of repayment 500 l. by parcels at several times during the continuance of my wants And the same GOD who thereunto inclined him without any earthly relation is my GOD at this day and will be so for ever Herein consists that which keeps up my spirit at this present notwithstanding the long neglect of my Oppressions and the Wants it hath brought upon me and though the Parliaments late leaving me out of Publick Employments hath occasioned me to be suspected by their Friends as not well-affected thereunto to be he laughed at by the Commonwealths open Enemies and as much hated as heretofore because they well enough know my continuing faithfulness to her Interest Though it may cause me to be jeered by Newters to be slighted by my debauched Neighbours to be the sooner stript of what is yet left by Creditors and Publicans and to be made lyable to the fury of every Armed-party into whose hands I may possibly fall during these times of Insurrection notwithstanding all this now likely to come upon me I neither distrustfully repine at what I suffer though I use the best means I can to remove it nor fear what may come hereafter because GOD is my Refuge If it were not so which way should I turn my self to find comfort My Estate is like a Candle burnt within the Socket Age hath somewhat abated my strength Friends and Acquaintance like such as Poverty produceth stand afar off my Comforters are like Job's my Enemies are malitious and increase my dearest Relations have nothing to contribute but Téars or Complaints to the afflicting of my heart with unprofitable pity and though I have looked for Helpers not one appears but He who never fails those that trust in him and he also otherwhile hides himself because of my transgressions till I am ready to cry out Oh God my God why hast thou forsaken me and then he discovers himself again and smiles on me But what is this to the world though he be so gracious that I have no cause to murmur at his permitting me to be harshly used nor do repine at that permission I will nevertheless not forbear to declare how the world deals with me though she calls it murmuring But some will perhaps object that I cannot be so necessitated as I pretend for it is evident that I have such and such a visible Estate I confess I have an Estate visible afar off partly in Reversion and partly incumbred but it is not Tangible as to my necessary occasions Like Tantalus I have an appearance of food at my upper lip and water to the Chinne but not in possession more then I have declared and those false appearances of plenty make them who know not how it is really with me and know how long I have subsisted in a seeming good condition since I had cause to complain think me a male-contented murmurer which is none of the least disparagements rather justly reprovable for complaining without need then to be pitied which Unchristian prejudice hath not a little encreased the Cause and prolonged the justness of my complaints I have yet a visible Estate but a great part of it lies like an Orphans portion in the hands of a powerful unconscionable Guardian who makes use of it for his own occasions and leaves him to beggery and starving The Residue of my Livelyhood I possess as Bees do their honey when the Combs Cells are so broken and masht together in the Hive which standeth sound in outward view that instead of being nourished by it they lye intangled and sprawling out their lives smothered in the midst of their plenty and am in a worse condition then the poor perfecuted Protestants in Piedmont and other places for whose relief Contributions were of late largely and charitably made pray GOD they were as sincerely disposed of yet I am likely to be ere long in a more sad estate for they being driven from all they had by their Enemies retained their Liberty which I am likely to lose they had their reputation increased by

Tyrants play COME come LORD JESU quickly come away I begin this Wandring-Epistle with respect to my present temporal condition onely without having the least thought of the preceding Catastrophe But as it heretofore befel Sampson and hath oft befallen many of Gods servants in their Frailties with the Philistines he must first have occasion given by an outward injury before he could be rowzed up to execute GOD's Vengeance upon the Enemies of his Country so before my Dull Flesh could be capable of admitting that publick-spirit to come upon me which might sufficiently emholden me to declare what is at this time necessary to be offered to my Country-mens Consideration she must be first reduced to a great straight by the hazard of her too much beloved temporal Concernments And as Expositors upon the Psalms affirm of the Prophet DAVID it hath now happened unto me VVhilst he as they conceive was contemplating and complaining of those his personal Persecutions and Afflictions wherein he was a Type of the MESSIAS he was suddenly transported above the sense of his own Sufferings into Raptures prophetically expressing the persecutions and passions of his and our REDEEMER In like manner I whose present outward Estate much resembles this Commonwealths confused needy and hazardous Condition as I have heretofore particularly demonstrated having a purpose as aforesaid to express my personal Grievances onely in order to a timely Redress was carried by a Poetical Rapture into an unpremeditated Apprehension of what may possibly come to pass and neerly relates to this Republicks well or ill being as the pre-conditioned means of her welfare shall be neglected or performed and to touch also upon some Particulars of a higher concernment even upon such as relate to the Kingdome of CHRIST and his Saints with a Hint upon somewhat thereto pertinent which being misapprehended by many who wait for that Kingdome may occasion trouble to themselves and others not without infringement of the Civil-peace and dishonour to that spiritual Kingdome which we pray for if they be not wary of those carnal delusions which the Enemy thereof seeks to mingle with their dim Notions of that mysterious Monarchy to make them thereby somewhat instrumental to prolong his Empire in the mystical Babylon The latter part of this Discourse was on a suddain dictated to me in the Language of the Muses therefore though Verse be so much grown out of esteem and fashon more then it was when I first began to versifie that amongst most men it is in as little esteem as I my self am and so untuneably accented by most Readers that in reading them they mar the sense and make worse Musick then a Smiths File or scraping of Trenchers Nevertheless I have inserted them as they were received from my Inspirer as pertinent both to my Cause and to them who should assume it into Consideration Farewell who thou art into whose hands this will come I know not But if thou shalt accept it and make use thereof according to my reasonable Requests thou art one of those to whom it was originally intended by thy Servant in all reasonable services Geo. Wither August 10. 1659. EPIPHONEMA THe more I muse the more I may Till night ends in eternal day For ev'ry hour brings forth new things From whence new matter dayly springs Whereof I shall but speak in vain Whilst my Corruptions do remain But when I must depart to Him Who nor begun nor ends in Time And hence quite out of sight am gone My words will more be thought upon Or they when recknings are set right Will help make measure and full weight Ensuing times will useful make them Tho I in scoff call'd Prophet spake them And when of nothing I have need They paradventure or their seed Who in my life-time have undone me Will dead bestow a Grave upon me As they that issuing from their wombs Who slew them built the Prophets tombs A POST-SCRIPT DUring the Interval betwixt the last Assembly called a Parliament and the restoring of this I became so sensible of that sad condition whereinto we were generally brought that I was stupified as to all endeavourings concerning my own Estate and thought they would be as little effectual as to go about to repair a Lodging in a House every part whereof was in a flame the foundations ruined and the Superstructures ready to fall Therefore knowing it to be every mans duty to do what he could to preserve the Common-interest I expelled selfness as much as possibly out of my thought for a few days and examining mine own heart what expedients it could offer thereunto I apprehended that the first step toward preventing what I feared would be a right understanding of that much mistaken Cause which hath been lately carried on through many Labyrinths Turnings and Returnings until most men had quite lost the true Notion of that for which they first contended insomuch that some Obliquely and some other Diametrically opposed it to the engaging of many thousands into Factions destructive both to the Publick and to their own private safety and welfare I perceived likewise that some had honestly but imperfectly and some so maliciously stated our Good old Cause as they termed it in scoff that it made men abhor it who had formerly thereto adhered and to occasion those mutinous and seditious Conspiracies which are newly broken forth into Rebellion likely to joyn a Foraign Invasion to Domestick Insurrections which in hope to prevent I stated the said Cause according to my understanding before the Restauration of this Parliament with an addition of some Preparatory conceptions which I thought useful toward such a settlement as that whereof our late Innovations and Changes had for the present made us most capable And I so fitted as I conceived my illustration of our just Cause with simple expressions suitable to their capacities whose right understanding thereof is most needful that I thought it might have much conduced to the quieting their spirits whose misapprehensions only and not a malevolent wilfulness had made them to be verbally or actively opposers of their own Interest For without imposing upon them any Magisterial Authorities of whose validity they can have no certain knowledge as they usually do who seek to inslave mens Consciences no less then their Bodies and Estates by frighting them with Laws made either without their assent or with a constrained assent by those Tyrants who had usurped upon their just Rights I deduced their claim from the Original thereof evidencing it by such Principles and Reasons only as the Common people may be Judges of and by bringing to their remembrance such Truths and transactions to evince the justness of their Cause as are for the most part known unto themselves especially as they have relation to the late King and those who succeeded him in his Tyranny This I resolved to publish till the Resurrection of this Parliament at which time I thought it would neither be so needfully nor so warrantably done in regard there then appeared a lawful visible power able enough to prosecute that work without my Notions though perhaps their humility would and their Prudence might have made some of them serviceable and upon that supposition I was once again minded to communicate my Conceptions aforementioned in publick since their Restauration together with my PROTECTORIA which is a Collection of such Addresses and other Writings as I had composed in relation to the Protectors whilst they were in being as not impertinent to the facilitating of their work without the doors of their House But I have already contributed so much of my Estate toward publick services and so much is detained from me that I was not able to print it at my own cost and I not then purposing to be known Author thereof lest it might have the less esteem no other man to my knowledge would put himself to that charge Moreover here hath been ever since such a multitude of single sheets and Pamphlets daily fluttering about every mans ears busying their eyes and filling their Pockets that my Papers would probably have been obscured among them And I have also in this Epistle bound my self from publishing any more hereafter of this nature except upon a Conscientious accompt or by the command of my Superiours Therefore if any of my Writings last mentioned or any other but such as have been formerly printed or by command and as aforesaid do come forth by their procurement who have or shall have Copies of them Let not the Trouble or discontent which thereby may be occasioned be imputed unto me I will add but this Corollary My sins have justly deserved that God should permit me to be oppressed Therefore though with penitence I have made use of this Epistle among other means for deliverance I trust not thereupon nor upon any thing which I can say or do or which any other man can say or do for me but in Gods free mercies only and if he will not deliver me I will not be delivered Geo. Wither FINIS Faults Escaped In the last line of the Title-page for turn read cure page 14. line 28. for the same read some

Oliver Cromwel to usurp it by a Stratagem for a Correction due to our sins and for our extraordinary Experiments both by his Probation our Own and other mens in things of highest concernment I endeavoured during that Permission in my Place and according to my qualifications and by a Compliance so far forth as was warrantable to preserve the Common-peace to continue a claim on the Peoples behalf of their just interest to divert him from accepting of that whereof he was ambitious and whereto he aspired whilst he pretended the contrary though with some hazards to my self both in relation to him who well enough perceived my intention and of my reputation also with many of them who misjudged thereof and to prosecute likewise a means of my deliverance from those my personal Oppressions whereof I still have cause to complain And my Conscience perswading it was both lawful and my duty to make tryal of that Power I omitted no honest Course or Opportunity to signifie my Grievances that I might obtain remedy But I laboured with no more success then if I had petitioned to the Dead For neither by him who usurped the Throne though by many References he pretended to do me Justice nor by any of his Assemblies called Parliaments though I continually attended them nor by his Council nor by his Successour could I procure so much toward the obtaining of common Justice as to have one Petition taken into serious Consideration yea though I was always faithful as I think my self bound in conscience to be to that Power which GOD permitteth for the time being to reign over us Therefore this Parliament which he violently interrupted being now again by GOD's Mercy restored and the Distractions and Necessities of this Commonwealth rendring it so difficult as aforesaid to get admittance for private Petitions that I am yet without Relief and likely to be quite destroyed as to my outward well-being before this Parliament will in the ordinary course without some extraordinary means take cognizance of my sad Cause I am resolved by this Expedient and the Preparatories which I think therewith useful to make tryal once more for ever whether or no there be in this Nation as I yet hope there is that Righteousness and Mercy which establisheth Governments and which is likely to restore our lost Liberties and free us from present Burthens and future Oppressions And this Tryal if it prove but as effectual as my last Expedients to the two late Protectors presented unto them a little before the death of the first and the removal of the last will shortly though it produce not what I reasonably expect put an end at least to those vain hopes which every day increase my Consumption and which have already almost every way consumed me by long chargeable Sollicitations and numerous Petitions hitherto taken into mens hands and pockets but not into their hearts But lest my Petition Narrative and Preparatives afore-mentioned which are the Foundation of this Epistle may not herewith come to your hands and so the true state of my Case be to you in some considerable Circumstances unknown I will here insert a Copy of my Petition intended to this Parliament To the PARLIAMENT of the COMMONWEALTH of England The Humble Petition of Geo. Wither Esq Sheweth THat this Petitioners Demands and Accompts being stated upon Oath by the Committee for Accompts c. they were afterward re-examined a trouble rarely if ever imposed upon any other by two Committees of Parliament successively to wit the Committee of the Navy and a Select Committee The said Committee of the Navy reported by Col. Thompson that 3438 l. 18 s. 4 d. was then due to this Petitioner beside some Demands then respited That Report not being brought into the House until about six months after in which time the best part of a million was to this Petitioners damage charged in Course before it the sum of 1681 l. 15 s. 8 d. c. part of the said 3438 l. was charged upon the Excise in Course March 22. 1647. but without allowance of any Interest though 700 l. thereof for which this Petitioner paid interest was by him ingaged for and disbursed for the State and though likewise the rest of the said 1681 l. was also made immediately payable unto him by Warrants or Orders about four years before and due for service under the same Commander at the same times and in the same places for which his fellow-souldiers had either present payment in ready money or interest allowed This being made evident it was ordered Decemb. 25. 1648 that 300 l. more should be charged upon the Excise in consideration of Expences and Interest before that day laid out for the said 700 l. and that Interest of 8 l. per Cent. should be paid every six months both for the said 300 l. and 700 l. out of the Excise also from that time until the said 300 l. and 700 l. should be discharged To this Order the Concurrence of the Lords was desired but about a week after and before that Concurrence could be obtained this Parliament took away the House of Lords and this Petitioner could never after get Principal or Interest or the said Order to be allowed The remainder of the said 3438 l. was the same March 1647. made payable out of discoveries at Haberdashers-Hall and afterward by another Order out of Compositions at Goldsmiths-Hall which not being effectual this Petitioner after many tedious and chargeable Sollicitations petitioned again and then this Parliament referred the whole Cause and the finding out means for this Petitioners satisfaction to the said Select Committee who found 3958 l. 15 s. 8 d. to be then due and declared that they thought fit it should be thus paid viz. that the said 1681 l. should stand charged upon the Excise as formerly and that interest should be paid for that whole sum as in equity it ought after the rate aforesaid from the 22 of Septemb. then last past until the Principal were paid and that for the rest of the said 3958 l. 15 s. 8 d. there should be settled upon this Petitioner and his heirs Lands by them nominated as they were valued in the Sequestrators Books whose yearly valuation was 240 l. No Result appearing upon this Report in a long time after this Petitioner once again petitioned and upon the 2 of January 1650 instead of the satisfaction last mentioned it was ordered that the said 1681 l. 15 s. 8 d. part of the said 3958 l. should stand charged upon the Exoise as before but without mentioning any interest whether intended or not if not intended then both the money lent and the residue having been due above 16 years yet payable but in Course which hath been stopped above seven years without any certain termination of the said stop is likely to be a payment amounting to many thousand pounds less then nothing and the payment which the Petitioner hath for the Remainder is worse For

great part of them with a blinde and preposterous zeal to their Country rather then any malice the eunto and considering that many of them are not only seduced by the subtile Arguments and insinuations of seeming friends who intended one thing whilst they pretended another but also really believed in their own hearts they had a good cause and that the miscarriages which they saw and the misconstitutions from which they conceived them to spring did oblige them to vindicate their own and the whole Nations rights and freedoms from that intrenchment which in their judgement seemed to be made upon them they may be objects of Pity in some measure God incline them whom it concerns to be just as he is just and merciful as he is merciful according to that proportion whereof man is capable I will now again proceed with what I have more to say concerning my particular Cause The Parliament is I confess much more streightned at this present then formerly as well in time as in the want of many other things needful by reason of that condition whereto their Obstructers and Interrupters have brought this Republick in which respect I have hitherto forborn to be over-importunate for my relief and would have waited until it had been at better leasure and better able to redress my Grievances but I can now subsist no longer and evidently perceive also that I must break in upon it if I will be heard before it be too late For procrastinations so multiply oppressions instead of giving opportunities to diminish them that this Parliament as it hath heretofore thereto happened and to many other may suddenly and unexpectedly be ended before I shall be heard and that their Leasure and Treasure never will be more nor their troubles fewer then they are unless there be a more impartial distribution of Burthens and a more charitable regard to those private mens Oppressions who have been always faithful to the Publick Interest and are now consumed by their free contributions and by the want of that which hath been kept and exacted from them against their wills If they believe GOD to be just and not like some among themselves how can they expect a blessing upon their consultations and endeavours whilst they permit them to perish by withholding their means of Livelihood who voluntarily engaged both life and livelihood for their preservation and whilst they suffer those who first served them in their greatest need to be quite forgotten as to things which may concern their weal and safety or to be last remembred except it be by those only who watch for opportunities to destroy or disgrace them Such there be even among those who should be more mindful of Gods justice upon themselves and of his late superlative mercy to them and us in restoring their lost Power and in vouchsafing to make them his Probationers once more These I would not fear to distinguish from others by Name if I had warrant for it and as good proofs to ascertain their mischievous and malicious condition to other men as I have to assure my self of it Such we have discovered to have been among them heretofore and such to be there now they themselves will discover ere long and perhaps I could offer to the consideration of such as these that concerning their own persons and families which they think unknown to the world that would make them afraid there is a GOD though he be not yet in their Creed These are the Achans which trouble our Israel Among these is that Jack on all sides that turns with every winde that Politick would befool'd with pride and over-weening and that Love corrupted with dissimulation and avarice by whom many proceedings relating both to publick and private Justice are obstructed and whose Tables are made a snare oft-times to the falsifying of this old saying in barbarous Latine usual among some Lawers Esculenta poculenta non sunt Bribamenta Such as these have added indignities to my oppressions procuring me to be disgracefully put out of that Commission wherein I have faithfully served my Country many years to preserve the peace thereof according to my understanding and as opportunity was offered and they have seemed to rank me among Malignants and persons disaffected to the Commonwealth by causing me to be left out of the Militia in Hampshire where my Family is setled and where it as much concern'd me to be Active in preserving my own interest and safety together with the Common-peace as any Gentleman in that Country and I may speak it without arrogance I have as well deserved to be therewith trusted and made my trustiness so well known both to the friends and enemies of this Commonwealth that I am sure the last will remember it when it may do me a mischief though the first shall forget it when it may do me good This Affront had it concerned my personal safety and Reputation only though that is not to be neglected I would have disdained to take notice of it at this time had I not cause to be jealous it tends further then to my personal disadvantage and that I was not omitted by forgetfulness or mistake but by design They could not justly put me out of the Commission of peace who till then served in three Counties as a Commissioner in regard I was never charged with any Delinquency Nor because I had not a visible estate there befitting such a Commissioner for they saw an appearance of it and if there be any Justice in this Commonwealth it will be hereafter as competent a subsistence for me as I desire or as may make me capable of that dignity Nor was it because I am a non-resident in that County for my Family hath been setled there above two years and I have there acted by that Commission when I was in the Country which was five or six times in the year and if I had not been resident non-residence is not a just cause to leave any Gentleman out of the Commission who was inserted and hath a habitation in the County for then most persons named in the Front of the Commission should be left out to the disservice of the Commonwealth which is put to no more cost then of so much room in a piece of parchment as will contain their names and if they come into the Shire but once in two or three years an occasion may happen whereby some necessary piece of service may at that time be done worth the cost which had else been omitted And that I was not omitted or exploded by any forgetfulness or mistake it thus appears There are four Gentlemen in that County with my self besides another lately in Commission and now left out also who bear both my Christen and Surnames two of which never being so authorized before are impowred since my Omission one of them in the Militia the other both in the Militia and Commission of peace distinguished by their places of habitation and doubtless

shall sanctifie In Fastings or Thanksgivings whether he Can pleased with those sacrifices be Which cost us nothing but to spend a day And formally to pass some hours away In Emptiness or Fulness or to hear Those sins reprov'd which we will not forbear Yet not to leave behind us till the morrow One symptome of true thankfulness or sorrow Had it not then been fit to lay aside Some part of what in Vanity and Pride Hath been consum'd their sufferings to relieve VVho cannot from the Publick purse receive VVhat is their due until GOD shall restore Abilities to make that Pittance more Consider since among you there are some VVho do believe a Kingdome is to come VVhereof CHRIST must be King whether or no Your Government should not be modell'd so That when the People shall Elect by Voyce Double Trustees GOD should by lot make choyce Of which him pleaseth VVhen that we have had Our Option wherefore should not His be made So 't was when Isr'el first a King enjoy'd And when the first Apostleship was voyd Who would not be content to stand or fall VVith what would so indifferent be to all Or not submit to him who will become Do what we can the Giver of our Doom Or who will this oppose but they who doubt GOD will in his Elections leave them out More might be said But you know how to draw The Body of a Lyon by the Paw If these things you consider and shall do Your best endeavour to conform thereto This I am sure of though I cannot tell VVhat will be done that all they shall do well VVhose Consciences unfeignedly attest That they to do all well have done their best How pleasing this will prove well know I not But how I might have pleased well I wot If I had flattered those men in their waies VVho whatsoev'r they merit look for praise If Pillows to their Elbowes I had sow'd Sooth'd up the Covetous fawn'd on the Proud And been like many other so ripe-witted My Poems with their humours to have fitted Had I another been not he I am None knowing what I was or whence I came Then had as I did thirty years ago Foretold what should be and what see they do Accordingly fufill'd and then had got By that success which often faileth not Amongst the People such a reputation As they who seem to speak by Revelation It may be I had been a Saint esteem'd As Madmen are in Turky or now seem'd Less despicable or else my predictions Had been as well regarded as those Fictions Or foolish lying Prophesies by which Impostors this deluded age bewitch If I on that advantage had made known Some Crotchets or Chimera's of mine own For selfish ends or had I then pretended To some new-light such Novelties commended To his age as are pleasing at this day Or had I which I could as well as they VVho practise it put on the tempting Dress Of seeming zeal and formal-holiness Forborn to speak what few men love to hear Not bid them leave what no man can forbear And in those things complide which most affect I might have been the Father of some Sect Yea so should have been favoured perchance As to have got some temporal advance For few men could my heart therewith comply Had better means for such a cheat then I. But these were not my Aims I have gain'd As much as I had hope to have attain'd And having fully prov'd what is in men VVill henceforth lay by my displeasing Pen Not doubting but this Letter will effect As much as whilst I live I must expect I now have writ enough to that intent VVhich first I had yea much more then I ment VVhen I began this and thereby make known A Cause more worthy heeding then mine own Wherein if I prevail hereby no more Then by what I have written heretofore I shall believe th' effect would be much less Hereafter should I any more express The Preface last year to my SALT on SALT Fore-warned and I think it not my fault If none regard it that to us this year Effects of dreadful Thunders would appear And so it comes to pass yet little heeded Save as things which have casually succeeded I 'll therefore henceforth let them credit give To what they dream and I do not believe Enough is here writ to make most of those That shall be Knaves or Fools to be my Foes And where can I live unless God shall please Where I can long be safe from some of these But in their presence he my Table spreads My Soul nor their Power nor their Malice dreads He heretofore hath me defended from Their Purposes and will for time to come In that which most concerns me though men may Take Life Estate and outward things away I have already said and Writ enough For men prophane and Hypocrites to scoff Therefore henceforth let each man do the thing That likes him as when Isr'el had no king Let him that will be wilful have his will Let him that 's filthy so continue still Until another to supply my room Shall with a more prevailing Spirit come Look to thy self Oh BRITAIN I will here No more be thy despis'd REMEMBRANCER For as those who when they neglects did meet Were bid to shake the dust from off their feet I am excus'd and 't is not my belief That I am bound to preach unto the Deaf And cast away my Pearls as I have done Where they and I shall still be trampled on My Soul is clear from any blood of thine GOD grant thou mayst as guiltless be of mine Thine own and other mens and at thy need Speed better in thy suits then yet I speed I will no more affright thee with Alarms By my Predictions of approaching harms As in times past nor add to thy offence By minding thee of thine impenitence Nor seem to play the Fool to make those wise Who will not see wherein their safety lies But cease to meddle in those Publick-matters Which thy False Prophets and Prognosticaters Have puzzell'd But to him a suitor be VVho from what 's threatned can deliver thee To works of this kind here I fix a bound This is the last time wherein I will sound My Trumpet to these Nations or make known Ought which concerns thy matters or mine own In publick wise or in a private way Save as my Neighbours either do or may Unless I from within have such a Call As cannot safely be dispens'd withal Or else an outward Call from those who may Command me if they think that I can say VVhat to the Publick welfare will relate But there is little likelyhood of that And therefore I intend to spare my breath To vent my Thoughts in private till my death Oh! that I fail not of my expectations In this dark Den of cruel habitations By outward or by inward perturbations To take thy Kingdom Wherein at this day Thine enemies and mine the