MENE TEKEL OR The Council of Officers of the Army Against The Declarations c. of the Army WHEREIN Is flatly proved by the express Words of the Armies Declarations that the Sixth Article of the * May 12. 1659. late Address of the said Council of Officers to the Parliament point-blank changeth the Cause of Liberty of Conscience from the Good Old One to a Bad New One from that which at first and all along the Army engaged in and for and Declared to that which they engaged against MOREOVER That the Imposition therein is agreeable neither to the Armies solemn Declarations and Engagements nor to Liberty of Conscience nor to the Scriptures of Truth but is contrary to them All. DIRECTED To the said Council of Officers for their Convincement AND PUBLISHED For the Information of all who are concern'd in the Cause of Liberty GEO. BISHOP Heù quantum Mutatâ—sab illo For if I build again the things I destroyed I make my self a Transgressor Gal. 2. 18. LONDON Printed and are to be sold by Tho. Brewster at the Three Bibles by Pauls 1659. TO THE COUNCIL OF THE Officers of the Army FRIENDS HAving seen Your late humble Petition and Address to the Parliament and considered the Matter and Language of the Sixth Article I was grieved in my spirit for your sakes to see that ye should be so quickly removed from your Stedfastness to the Good Old Cause contained in your Declarations and engaged in a New as this more than seems to be and I shall shew it you by and by even that of your enemies in opposition to the former and so provoke the Lord to anger against your Selves whose loving kindness hath so tenderly visited you when ye cryed unto him because of your Oppression who heard and delivered you Therefore bear with me whilst in bowels of love I lay before you the one and the other to the end that ye may see your State and be recovered out of the Snare in which ye are taken captive by the subtilty of men who lay in wait to deceive and so repenting the judgment of God which is ready to break forth may be turned from you Ye know Friends that the Good Old Cause was chiefly Liberty of Conscience which being oppressed by the Bishops and that Generation cryed out so loud as raised the first War on the Bishops and Kings part to oppress and keep it under on the Parliaments to defend and deliver it and the Liberties of the Nation which with the Liberty of Conscience were bound up and joyned together as two lovely Twins that cannot be divided but with the mutual Suffering if not the Dissolution of each other The Bishops Yoaks of Wood being taken off some who but now Suffered under them rise up in their steads to oppress Conscience and these prepare other yoaks yoaks of Iron for the necks of their Brethren who Suffered in and with them and together fought for equal Liberty and nothing would serve these who Suffered themselves but yesterday as it were for Conscience but to bring the Consciences of all others to their size the Souls of all to their Diametre or square who differed from them or the Nations must swim in blood and peace be denied them as if the Cause engaged in had been that they might have Liberty and that it was so to be and as of right and the Consciences of all others made their Slaves and Vassals a more arrogant and unsufferable Usurpation in these than the Bishops by how much the more they cryed out against and opposed it in them Hence it came to pass that they so soon divided from the joynt prosecution of the common Cause of Liberty to the hazzard of the publick distinguishing themselves and others into terms and things and endeavouring the setting up their private upon it with such imperious Lordliness as no Age hath pararell'd and when as the most desired peace was trilling down the Mountains of Blood to the weary Inhabitans of these Nations who had tugg'd hard for it through the extremities of War it must all be turned back again and the Bloody issue again opened and the common Enemy joyned with after he was overthrown King and Irish and Scots raised up and assisted for that purpose against those of their Brethren who continued faithful and were blessed of God because they were so blest against their wills and endeavours to the contrary to the overthrowing of the common Enemy and never would they be at rest so strange was their itch at the Consciences of others and so insatiable their desires to be dealing with the Souls of men who yet injoyed the Liberty of their own raising and carrying on War after War till they were all vanquisht and their whole strength together broken down at Worcester which quickly ended the Wars in these Nations Thus Friends briefly as to the Cause or State of the Case in reference to Liberty of Conscience and the publick Contest thereabouts in which how deeply ye were concerned viz. in the former as Puritans Non-conformists and factious Fellows so called and persecuted in common with the rest in the latter as Hereticks and Schismaticks I shall not nor need I further to repeat These things I may well presume are engraven in you in an indeleble Charecter Nor shall I treat how honest men in these Nations joyned with and assisted you for this purpose as in a common Cause wherein they and you were so equally concerned as that One could not fall or miscarry without the dammage or the detriment of the Other how readily they flowed to you whilst that moved you to any extraordinary actions and what grief of heart it occasioned to them and sufferings when ye have at any time swerved therefrom is manifest the things are fresh and but of yesterday the late Revolutions speak them sufficiently but this I shall shew you plainly out of your own Declarations and in your own words how this Article changeth the Cause from the Old to a New from a good Old one to a bad New one from that in which at first and all along ye engaged for and in to another to that against which ye engaged And this I shall endeavour to do with as much brevity as the weight of the Case will admit not clogging ye with a large Recital of all that ye have said in this particular though what ye have taken liberty to speak ye should endure to hear But contracting the proof of what I have laid down to two of your Declarations as my two instances or witnesses viz. The great Remonstrance St. Albans Nov. 16. 1648. and your draught of the Settlement of the Nation Whitehal Jan. 15. 1649. Both drawn up by you and presented this Parliament upon two of the most weighty occasions ye then had met withal and the greatest Subjects The one the the bringing of the King to justice and changing of the Government into that of a free State or Common-wealth
c. are wholly left out And so the words shall not be restrained from their Publike Profession but have due encouragement and equal Protection in the Profession of their Faith and exercise of Religion must necessarily refer onely be so understood unto those of your own profession thus publickly held forth that is to say all such persons as are of our own Profession shall not be restrained from their profession but all such Persons shall have encouragement and equal protection in the profession c. and no others so setting up one Profession of Religion onely and protecting onely such as are of that Profession and this whilest ye are speaking of the fundamentals of the Good Old Cause and the endeavouring the Settlement of this Common-wealth upon such a foundation as may assert establish and secure the liberties of the people in reference unto all as men and Christians and of your full and fixed resolution through the assistance of God effectually even to the hazzard of your lives to endeavour the recovery and security of the same and of the signal Providences wherein the Lord hath owned the Parliament and you their forces both by Sea and Land in asserting that righteous Cause wherein the civil and religious liberties of the People of these Nations are involved so as all open opposition was beaten down before them and of the Discouragements which that publick Spirit which appeared in that work hath received since that time in the late changes of Government And of another raised up drawing back to the same things the Parliament had contended against even to the hazxard of the Essentials of that cause And lastly of your thinking it your Duty upon serious thoughts of heart once more to appear against those back-sliding wayes I say whilest ye are speaking of such things as these in the Preamble to this your profession Are not your eyes yet open Do ye not yet see how ye are deceived and who hath deceived you And how the smoak of the bottomless Pit hath smothered you whilest the coersive or imposing Spirit hath slipt up between your Representation and Deliverance Fifthly The fifth exception is that whereas your Settlement saith so as they abuse not this Liberty to the actual disturbance of the Publick Peace on their parts words honest and good neither limiting the Lord nor stinting his witness nor compelling conscience nor medling with worships things of Religion and conscience but with what is proper to the Magistrate to take cognizance of and to exclude protection viz. Disturbance actual disturbance or disturbance made by overt act or force qualifying it to the Law and speaking plainly that men may certainly know what it makes a transgression of the Publick peace and this on their parts too not on nor by occasion of or under the pretence of them such as shall so abuse the Liberty afforded them shall not be protected I say whereas your Settlement thus saith this article leaves this clause wholly out and adds another altogether strange and forraign and destructive to the Cause of Liberty of Conscience contended for in the Warrs and contained in the Settlement viz. The disturbance of others saith the Article in their way of worships neither saying what disturbance or explaining what shall be understood to be such a disturbance as shall exclude protection nor of what worships for there are many worships used in England and there is but one true worship and the true worshippers who worship God in Spirit and truth whome the Father seeks to worship him and the hour is come wherein the true worshippers worship the Father in Spirit and in truth seek not to man for protection nor qualifying it to the Actual disturbance of the Publick Peace and this on their parts but only to the disturbance of others in their way of worships general words like the bottemless Pit out of which they come so that be the worships what they will or the worshippers or the way of their worships how false invented vile wicked hypocritical soever be the occasion cause or ground witnessing against them never so righteous just and substantial be the command of the Lord never so urgent to bear witness against them If any such witness-bearing be whether in the time or place or out of it whether in Writing Speaking or Printing whether in looking standing still or sitting for it sayes not where nor when nor what nor how but disturbance in the general Term or latitude This as it hath been and the witnesses of God have suffered for as to all these things from this adulterous generation and the humble Petition and Advice hath a Law for most of it even to imprisonment working and whipping if they speak but to a Priest as he is going to or coming from his worship yea at the discretion or rather malice of the Justices for most of them were their enemies on a Civil and Religious account laid it cruelly upon them being given up by your General you in the time of your Degeneration as sheep to the slaughter is now desired by you yea that they be continued under the same slavery and sufferings for it and because of conscience for ever and this in the day of your bewailing of and saying ye desire to take shame to your selves wherein soever ye have back-slidden For in that ye say that all Laws c. to the contrary may be declared null and void those which are according to it are such as must be understood to be by you desired to stand yea as the foundation of the Common-wealth for so ye lay it in this your Address I say this as it hath been so it must be deemed a Desturbance in the construction of the Law aforesaid which ye have thus provided to stand unto which there must be recourse ye having not assigned the particulars wherein yea such a one as cuts off Protection so that the Lord in whom is the breath of your nostrils may not speak may not testifie against Idolatry or Idolators false worships or false worshippers Priests or People for those who shall speak his word and be his witnesses against such worships or worshippers or wayes of worships must have no Protection this is your new Cause and Religion this the fruit of your late Representation and Contrition Sixthly the sixt Exception is that ye say in the conclusion of this Article viz. And that all Laws Statutes Ordinances and Clauses in any Laws Statutes and Ordinances to the contrary may be declared null and void That is to say All Laws Statutes and Ordinances and Clauses in any Laws Statutes and Ordinances for Liberty of Conscience For this profession excluding all Professions from Protection but it self as I have proved cuts off Liberty of Conscience to any other Profession but it self and all Laws c. to the contrary of this profession which so cut off Liberty of Conscience being voided and made null it makes null and void
say to murder And the common Law voids all Statute Laws made against nature and all the Judges cannot make that a Law which is against Nature The Language of those who would desire Liberty for themselves which was once your Case of those who do as they would be done to it is not for that which imposes its own profession with exclusion of all others would not be imposed upon it self And if it be Lawful for a Magistrate as a Magistrate or for one generationn of Men because in Power to meddle with Religion to impose their profession it is lawful for another generation of men as they come into Power to impose their profession And so all the blood and sufferings of the Martyrs and the witnesses of God throughout all generations against the imposed profession of the Men in power in each generation comes to be justified and the generation of the Just to be condemned And the Question as to the Jus Divinum the right is not whether it be in truth but whether there be power Now no Profession can be assured of its Station where one is excluded But must expect to vary according to the mutability of him or them who have power to their will as the dayes of Henry 8. Edward 6. Q. Mary and Q. Elizabeth in this Nation do abundantly witness The Language of this Parliament it was not they held another ballance till they spake after you To conclude The Language of your late Representation April 6. 1659. Upon this sence of your danger it is not for therein ye say that ye have as Members of the Army often solemnly declared not without appeals to God for your sincerity therein that ye did engage in Judgment and Conscience for the just Rights and Liberties Civil and Religious of your Countries and not as a Mercenary Army that ye had been silent so long that ye feared it had been a disadvantage to the Cause and bred though ye hoped groundless jealousies of you in many of your friends and till ye and and all that is dear to you the intrest ye have so long contended for was in danger to be lost That being then under the sense of imminent dangers and necessities awakned ye did in a deep sense of misery and approaching judgment threatned and pursuance of your duty in all humility represent that the Good Old Cause against Tyranny and intollerable oppression in matters Civil and Religious whereupon ye first ingaged and under which the Lord had in such a continued series of Providence given so signal a Testimony and for the carrying on whereof there had been such a plentiful pouring forth of Treasures Prayers Tears and Blood during the late warr in the difficulties and dangers whereof ye also the lively Monuments of Patience and mercy had had your shares was very frequently and publickly dâ—rided and reproached and the implacable adversaries thereof promised themselves to be so far in possession and Masters thereof that they began to appear every where visible among you and to mix themselves in the midst of those places where that cause was wont to receive its chiefest countenance and shelter So that upon the whole ye did evidently see there was but a step betwixt the publick Cause of these nations wherein ye had been so signally blest and owned of God and good men and the death thereof and that it was not likely to expire without a sure presage of the sad Funerals of the dear and never enough valued peace of these your Native Countreys That ye could not but bewail your own great failings and turnings aside and that wherein soever ye had backshidden ye had cause and desired to take shame to your selves That ye were then as ever equally endeared to your Good Old Cause and utter enemies to all Tyranny oppression and disturbance of the publick Peace under what pretences soever And lastly ye desire that there may be such a publick asserting of the Good Old Cause and Justification of all proceedings in prosecution and maintenance thereof and Declaration against its enemies as may for the future deter all Persons from speaking or attempting any thing to the prejudice thereof and of the Persons that have acted in prosecution of it and afford present security to the civil Riligious Rights and Liberties of these Nations and the Peace thereof And that the Liberty of good and well affected people in repairing with freedome to their meetings for the worship of God of late much violated by indicting and imprisoning many of their Persons may be still asserted and vindicated But this sixth Article of your Address cuts of Religious Right viz. Liberty of Conscience and consequently civil for as I have shewed they cannot be separated but where a man suffers in the Liberty of his Conscience he suffers in his person and casts out of Protection such whose Consciences cannot be bounded by your said Profession the people ye mind in this last clause who must witness against false worshippers and worships and the wayes of them the Lord moving even through death it self should that be inflicted As it hath cast away the Cause as soon as ye are delivered from the Emminent Dangers and necessities under the deep sense of which the Honesty in you wrote in your said Representation as hath been rehearst And so all that ye have said returns on your heads and is your own judgment pronounced by your selves and aggravates your condemnation Whose Language is it them Friends I shall tell you and in the fear of God seriously consider it It is the Language of that Spirit which first divided from the Common Cause to set up it self over it as I have shewed in the State of the Case Which cast such from whom it divided and over whom it sought to set up it self out of all places of Trust Military and Civil and persecuted as schismatical Hereticks Which obstructed the passing of the List of Officers for the New Model of the Army in which were some of you so long that the members of this Parliament then called the House of Commons were forced by reason of the danger thereby threatning the overthrow of the Cause to let the members of the other House then called the House of Peers know that if they concurred not they would pass it without them Which made all the obstructions to you in the New Model Which divided ye at Blandford in Dorsetshire upon your first march and sent part of you to relieve Taunton in the West where ye might have been eaten up like as ye were presently besieged and part of ye against Oxford where ye might have been beaten off and part of ye to joyn with the Scots Army as the field Army where ye might have been interposed the Scots retreating towards West-moorland and part of ye to the Isle of Ely in the East where ye might have been surprized which put a lock at South-ham in Warwick-shire upon the feet of that
Commission upon some scruples that were in him it thinking thereby to have broken ye in all which its Priests were chiefly active and consulted and put ye to it early to look to your own House by marching into theirs who were preparing for yours and to pass thorow the sore extremities of wet and weather of want of victuals and provision in a cold naked and Sterile Countrey during the winter season and to attend under these upon the Scots couched in their Fastnesses whilest the Plots in England might have set England in a flame behind ye on which they waited and miserable necessity should in a manner reduce your Souldiers in the midst of ye into little better condition than of dying men which was even effected that then its Army before ye might swallow ye up which it attempted even when all those distresses had even compassed ye about and it so thought it and it was so and then it vaunted it self and spake proudly and sought to come between the passages and ye that ye might not get home into your Countrey And then sought ye at Dunbar where ye were delivered with a wonderful Deliverance My Friends let it never be forgotten nor the wonderful Discovery and breaking of their Plots in England which immediately foreran it and corresponded therewith and were on the Point of execution to have served it Call to mind the former things and let the things that are past come into Remembrance And then held yee there another winter whilest Plots and designs were forming up in England again by Christopher Love and his Brethren the Preists and Confederates and the Cavaleire Party who thought to have attacht those of you in this Nation in the depth of Winter by a general Insurrection which the breaking forth of that of Norfolk hindred before the general Day was come and when they were disappointed thereby wrought yet more subtilly and made all things ready against Spring to have risen up generally as one man Cavaleir and Presbyter to have served M. G. Massies designed invasion of England with a Brigade of Horse which being also discovered and broken put yee upon your attempts on Fife wherein ye being made successful as formerly it slipt into England as its last Refuge whilest ye were engaged at St. Johnstons lay down in Worcester till your long march from Johnstons reached them and ye with your friends in this Nation joyning together soon encompassed them about and gave them and it a total overthrow To conclude which was glad at the late Interruption of the present Parliament and complyed with him that made it and set him up that it might set it self up by him again in a single Person and House of Lords and in all things that it had before endeavoured upon Conscience and the Liberties of the Nation And which by him did set it self up in the late Humble Petition and Advise and other Acts of that Parliament over the Liberties of the Nation and Conscience wherein ye may read the Language of this Article and then he being cut down when he had built again the things that he destroyed so making himself a Transgressor sought to over-run and cut down you who yet stood in its way Trampling on the Cause viz. in asserting a coersive power in them in matters of Religion of Conscience in its intended Declaration for a fast as this Article doth in you where ye may read its Language again even the Language of both to be the same and from one Spirit I say trampling on the Cause and you and the sufferings of truth together shewing what it would do as it had power and who they were it looked upon as its enemies viz. the Truth the Cause and you Israel and Judah were aâ—â—licted together and prepared a Pit for you all which opening its mouth wide to swallow you up and your eyes being opened to see it started ye so that ye cryed to the Lord and confessed and vowed as in your late Representation who heard your Cry and delivered you Now being delivered this Spirit expected no other than to be tumbled into the Pit which it had digged for you which was ready to receive it and to close its mouth upon it unless it could so work as to enter into you a difficult and one would think an impossible thing as things stood and in and by you preserve it self out of it and so set up it self at last through you over all which by wrapping it self in a friends mantle and coming under it viz. the Garment of a Priest who had formerly been your friend ye may guess whom I mean it hath now done raising up it self in you to do that which a man looking upon you as in your former Declarations and enâ—ngagements and your late Representation and hour and deliverance and the sense oâ— them all that was upon you would have thought impossible that ever ye should do and which will lead you further as ye are led by it to do that which if a man should tell you now ye would say are we Dogs thus to do perking its head on and over your shouldiers above the Good Old Cause who had trod that Spirit under foot and was now ready to make of iâ— an utter end and treading under foot the Good Old Cause which on and over your shouldiers and you upon it had stood above it and which by you had trod it under This is a Lamentation and shall be for a Lamentation And yet which of you of this is sensible but so it is after all your victories and apportunities and deliverances over and upon and from this Spirit and its workings and this last especially which was the greatest of all by which this Spirit was given into your hand as appointed by God to utter destruction which would have destroyed ye ye have let go out of your hand the Spirit which God hath appointed to utter destruction Therefore your life or the life of those of ye or him who wrought and hath done it shall go for its life and your or his people for its Its faithfulness in me to tell ye or him so and wo to me if I should not being required of the Lord of whom I have received it However the King of Israel may take it and go to his house heavy and displeased ye know the history Read and apply it to your selves in the case ye who are concerned who have done this thing for it is your Portion and shall assuredly come upon you from the Lord. Yea is not the day from the Lord come upon you already is not your strength your life already gone Are not your Locks already cut off viz. your distinct Consistency in your selves to chuse your General from among your selves to receive your Commissions and Orders from such your General not to disband or divide nor to suffer your selves to be disbanded or divided till you and the just grievance of
viz. for that and the righteousness of it and to this indeed through the favour and presence of God therewith the Parliament hath cause to own and refer the blessing and success that hath accompanied their affairs which accordingly as they have held square and been kept close to this have prospered gloriously and wherein or so oft as this hath been thwarted swerved from or neglected in their mannage have suffered miserable blastings Read your Sentence thus pronounced by your selves and fear before the Lord and bear your shame and cast out the unclean black Spirit that bewitched you into this the Serpent that hath beguiled you least the anger of the Lord and his Jealousie Smoak against you and there be no remedy Thus much of my First instance my Second follows In your * See the Petition of the General and Army presented the Parliament Saturday Jan. 20. 1649. concerning the draught of an agreement of the people for a secure and present peace together with the said agreement Settlement of the People so called by your selves for a secure and present Peace upon grounds of Common Right Freedome and Safety as a fruit of their Labours Hazzards and Sufferings that have engaged in the common Cause as some Price of the Blood spilt and Ballance to the Publick expence and Dammage sustained in the War and as some due Improvement of that success and blessing God hath pleased to give them as are your words in the draught thereof Pag. 7 and in the Declaration thereunto annext Pag. 27. which ye presented this Parliament Jan. 20. 1649. and desired in the Petition wherewithal ye presented it Pag. 5 6. that whether it should be â—ully approved by them and received by the People as then it stood yet it might remain upon Record before them a Perpetual witness of your real intentions and utmost endeavours for a sound and equal Settlement and as a Testimony whereby all men might be assured what ye were willing and ready to acquiess in and their Jealousies satisfied or mouths stopt who were apt to think and say ye had no bottome I say in your said Settlement ye are so far from Assigning any Power at all to the Representatives of the People of Imposing in Matters of Religion or Conscience things Spiritual or Evangelical or granting it in the least to be any part of the Publick interest which had been the Subject of the contest that ye positively exclude and bar them from it for ever For this see what your selves have said and conclude your selves by your selves as it doth without controversie conclude you to have varyed altered changed the Cause Point-blank as I have charged upon ye in this the chiefest and most weighty part of the Publick Interest the main subject of the Contest in these words Settlement Pag. 29. Article 8. ye thus say That the Representatives have and shall be understood to have the supreme Trust in order to the preservation and government of the whole and that their power extend without the consent or concurrence of any other Person or Persons to the enacting and abolishing of Courts of Justice and Publick Offices and to the enacting altering repealing and declaring of Laws and the highest and final Judgment in all natural or civil things but not concerning things Spiritual or Evangelical Than which what can be more Emphatically or more Peremtorily exprest And yet how have ye in your late Humble Petition and Address pray'd the Parliament to take power which they have thereupon yea the Highest and Final Judgment concerning things Spiritual or Evangelical viz. What of the profession of things Evangelical or Spiritual shall be encouraged and protected and what not And this as and upon the Basis of a Government of a Free-State which destroys the nature of it even whilst ye spake thereof without a single Person King-ship or house of Peers who have taken upon them at your Prescription to be Kings and Lords of Conscience for where any take upon them to prescribe Laws and finally to determine what shall be and what not as is done in the case there such assume Superiority or Lord-ship this is irrefragable I say who have taken upon them to be Kings Lords of Conscience of which Christ Jesus is made of God Lord and King the one single and only Law-giver who is able to save and to destroy and hath saved you and others by you from those who had and would further have lorded it over your consciences or have destroyed you and hath destroyed them with a stroke reaching up to Heaven yea even by your hands whose Lording Spirit over Conscience after all these Wars and Desolations and presently upon your cry for your and your Countries Religious Rights or Liberty of Conscience that there was but a step as ye cry out in your * See the Representation April 6. 1659. Representation betwixt it and its Death and the most notable Revolution thereupon and Deliverance hath entred into you and from you into the Parliament into whom neither Swords nor Plots nor force nor Powers of Darkness could drive nor enter it before nor subjugate thereunto acting in and by and through you and them and seeking to bring to pass what it sought before but never could accomplish against Liberty of Conscience but was still even to astonishment and wonder dasht in pieces as often as in any sort of men it sought to attempt it by the Powerful presence and Arme of the Lord in you and them who will as certainly dash you in pieces in whom this Spirit so curst of God before your eyes and cut down by you is got and acts and lives as it hath done all of all sorts in whom it got liv'd and acted against you yea with a heavyer stroke and more furions rebukes because by you he hath executed his dreadful Judgments against such and delivered you from their cruelty and power as oft as ye called upon him in sincerity and truth in the dayes of your distress I say ye will be Dasht in Peeces except ye repent the Mouth of the Lord of Hosts hath spoken it for he is come and his day draweth nigh wherein for the Oppression of the Poor and the Sighing of the Needy I will arise saith the Lord and set him in safety from him that puffeth at him Now let the eye of honesty be open in you and with it see where ye are and whereto your high Priest and Doctor and his Brethren through whom arose this smoak of the bottomless pit hath led you viz. to betray your principle the good Old Cause as soon as ye are delivered thereby endeavouring to hasten the vengeance of God upon your heads For tell me whether ye having thus changed the Cause the Lord owned ye can expect otherwise than that the Lord should dis-own you and change his hard towards you viz. from that to you as his friends to that against you as his enemies Thus
have I undenyably proved out of your own mouths in your own plain express words that ye have changed the Cause from that which ye at first and all along engaged in and for and declared even to that of your Enemies against which ye engaged And here I might end but being desirous out of truth of Love and Tender Compassion to you if by any means ye may see your error and be recovered as I said out of the Snare in which ye are taken I shall yet produce for your further conviction some further passages of that your Settlement against your Address in the Case yea the very Article out of which this New one would seem to be drawn and unto it to allude but is no more it than an Harlot is a chast Spouse though it be got into the Bed of the Husband and hath bedeckt it self with some of the Spouses Apparrel the better to deceive as by comparing the one and the other I shall by and by make to appear Settlement Pag. 24 Art 9. Ye say Concerning Religion we agreeas followeth 1 It is intended that Christian Religion be held forth and recommended as the Publick Profession of the Nation Now Christian Religion or the Religion of the Apostles and Disciples of Christ never limited the holy one of Israel as doth the Religion held forth in that your Article but by the unlimited Spirit it testified against all the Worships whether such as were commanded of God and had their end or not I say all the worships of them even in their times and places who limited the holy one of Israel as the Scriptures testifie as also of the Beatings Tumults Stockings Mockings Whippings and Imprisonments which such received from those who limited as it is at this day and it is to be observed that the word Christian Religion is not to be found in this your new one your new Article nay the Father of it knew that the very sound of the name would quickly cause the vizor to be pluckt off and that by it viz. the Christian the Hopocrisie of this Antichristian would be seen and discovered Settlement Which we desire may by the grace of God be reformed to the greatest purity in Doctrine Worship and Discipline according to the word of God The Scriptures ye mean where such a Religion as of Christ is not to be found but of Idolaters and Antichrists as limits God stints his witness compels conscience with outward force and casts all such out of protection as this your new one doth even all those who by the grace of God are instructed and unto whom the Lord hath spoken with a strong hand and instructed them that they should not walk in the way of this people the way of the false worships and worshippers of this Generation out of which they are come but to reprove and who have and must if the Lord will yet strive with this People reprove and bear witness against them I say the Lord hath spoken to them saying Say ye not a confederesie to all them to whom this people shall say a confederesie neither fear ye their fear nor be afraid sanctifie the Lord of Hosts himself and let him be your fear and let him be your dread and he shall be a sanctuary but for a stone of Stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the Houses of Israel for a gin and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and many among them shall stumble and fall and be broken and be snared and be taken The word of the Lord it is to them and to you and as concerning you in this matter Settlement The instructing of the People whereunto in a publick way so it be not compulsive as also the maintaining of able Teachers for that end for the confutation or discovery of Heresy Error whatsoever is contrary to sound Doctrine is allowed to be provided for by our Representatives The maintainance of which Teachers may be out of a publick Treasury and we desire not by Tythes In your New Cause and Profession there 's not a word of this viz. Able Teachers for the instructing of the People in a publick way so it be not compulsive the maintenance of able Teachers for that end and for the confutation of Heresie Error and whatsoever is contrary to sound Doctrine the maintenance of which Teachers we desire may not be by Tythes And as your Declaration to the said Settlement hath it Pag. 28. The taking away of Tythes the Sore suffering of Gods Witnesses and the Life of that Ministry which speakes in You and in the behalf of Its encouragement countenance and maintaining and putting that maintenance which shall be thought competent for able Teachers to instruct the People into some other way less subject to scruple and contention I say In your New Profession there 's not a word of this Nay the Spirit of it likes not this language it cannot speake it it 's too pure it 's Death to it it knows it not 'T is the voice of the chaste Spouse not of the strange Woman the Harlot whose bed is defiled Settlement 2. That to the publick Profession so held forth none be compelled by penalties or otherwise but onely may be endeavoured to be won by sound Doctrine and the example of a good conversation Pure Language indeed the voice of the Virgin of You in Your Virgin state but not of the Adulteresse of this Your adulterous state which compels by the high penalty of exclusion of Protection to the Bed of whoredomes out of which Protection it is cast as being too chaste and as Judging such a Defilement Now followeth the ARTICLE it self See the COMPARISON Settlement That such as Professe Faith in God by Jesus Christ Address That all persons who profess Faith in God the Father and in Jesus Christ his eternal Son and in the holy Ghost God coequal with the Father the Son God blessed for evermore However differing in Judgement from the Doctrine Worship and Discipline publickly held forth as aforesaid And do acknowledge the holy Scriptures of the Old New Testament to be the revealed or written Word or will of God shall not be restrained from but shall be Protected in the Profession of their Faith and exercise of Religion shall not be restrained from their profession but have due encouragement equal Protection in the profession of their Faith and exercise of Religion according to their Consciences in any place except such as shall be set apart for the publick Worship where we provide not for them unless they have leave  so they abuse not this Liberty to the Civil injury of others or to actuall disturbance of the publick Peace on their Parts whilst they abuse not this Liberty to the Civil injury of others or disturbance of others in their way of Worshipps Exceptions against this Article of Your New Faith First That in the first part of it concerning God the Tearms are more
were written for our learning the Church of God to which the Holy Ghost in Paul spake which is in God than the Heavens can be said to be the word of God which were made and are upholden by the word of his Power for they declare the glory of God Or the Firmament for it sheweth his handy work Or the day for day by day uttereth speech or the night for night unto night sheweth knowledge or all of them for there is no speech nor Language where their voice is not heard their line is gone out through all the Earth and their words to the end of the world which cannot be said of the Scriptures this the Scriptures testifie yea even that the invisible things of him from the Creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and Godhead so that they are saith the Holy Ghost in Paul of those who held the Truth in unrighteousness because that which is to be known of God is manifest in them for God hath shewn it to them without excuse yea that he left not himself without a witness in that he did good and gave us rain from Heaven and fruitful seasons filling our hearts with food and gladness And yet how do ye darken Counsel by words without knowledge words which neither the Scriptures know nor the Spirit of Truth nor do ye your selves understand what ye say and then set it up as the Faith of Gods Elect to be imposed upon all yea upon Gods Elect yea for a Snare for Gods Elect whose Faith never sought to inforce it self otherwise upon any than by commending it self to that of God in every mans Conscience which this of yours doth viz. by the Penalty of exclusion of Protection if it be not Professed and therefore we rejct it and should though it were in the very words of Truth which this of yours is not because coertion in matters of Faith or Conscience in things Spiritual or Evangelical we are sure is out of Truth and comes from him who is out of it to wit the Devil O how would vain man be wise in his wisdom to speak of God who by wisdome knows not God for so it hath pleased the wisdom of God But man is born as the wild Asses colt To conclude this particular How can he be written who is without beginning of Dayes or end of life of whom it is written who can declare his generation How can he be said to be written who is the Son of God the word of God and there is no other without circumscribing him without making him an Image a thing like unto your selves The third Exception against this 6th Article of your Address is that instead of the words however differing in judgment from the Doctrine Worship or Discipline publickly held forth as aforesaid viz. Article 1. where ye say it is intended that Christian Religion be held forth and recommended as the publick Profession in this Nation which we desire may by the grace of God be reformed to the greatest purity in Doctrine Worship and Discipline according to the word of God the instructing of the people whereunto in a publick way so it be not compulsive as also the maintaining of able Teachers for that end and for the confutation and discovery of heresie error whatsoever is contrary to sound Doctrine is allowed to be provided for by our Representatives the maintenance of which Teachers may be out of a publick Treasure and we desire not by Tythes And Article 2. That to the publick Profession so held forth none be compelled by Penalties or otherwise but onely may be endeavoured to be won by sound Doctrine and the example of a good Conversation Which are the immediate preceding Articles to this third of either of which Articles there is not a whisper in this your new Profession I say the third Exception is that instead of the words however differing in judgment from the Doctrine Worship and Discipline publickly held forth as aforesaid shall not be restrained from but shall be protected in the Profession of their Faith and exercise of Religion according to their Consciences These only are inserted viz. Shall not be restrained from their Profession but have due encouragement and equal Protection in the Profession of their Faith and exercise of their Religion which varies the case both as to the matter of the third Artitle of your said Settlement and Cause and plainly shews that the allowance of the Profession of their faith and the exercise of the Religion of such as Profess faith in God by Jesus Christ according to their Consciences however differing in judgment from the Doctrine Worship or Discipline publickly held forth is not intended in this Article nay its clear cut out but the forcing of the Consciences of all such as shall differ in judgment from that which it holds forth as the Publick Profession which quite overthrows Liberty of Conscience And it is worthy the observation that the Clauses viz. However differing in judgment from the Doctrine Worship or Discipline publickly held forth and according to their Consciences are wholly left out of this sixth Article of your Address it is the whole matter and words of the first and second Article of your Settlement aforesaid unto which these Clauses of the third have relation Which undenyably manifests that as there is not a word of Conscience in this your new Cause and profession of Religion so that it proceeds from the Spirit not that which fought for but that which fought against and hath murthered Liberty of Conscience And further that the good old Cause is changed and that the hand hath done it which engaged against it Fourthly The fourth Exception is that whereas in your Settlement Article 3. ye say shall not be restrained from viz. such as profess Faith in God by Jesus Christ but shall be protected in the profession of their faith and exercise of Religion according to their Consciences in any place except such as shall be set apart for the Publick Worship where we provide not for them except they have leave This Article of your Address runs it thus shall not be restrained from viz. All persons who profess faith in God the Father and in Jesus Christ c. their profession but have due encouragement and equal protection that is to say such only shall so have as are of the same Profession as is therein publickly held forth which indeed is no encouragement at all nor Protection of Liberty of Conscience but a meer delusion as seeming to hold forth that which it contains not neither doth it intend for as I said before in the former exception the Provisions viz. However differing in judgment from the Doctrine c. Publickly held forth c. And according to their Consciences and the Provision mentioned in this Exception viz. In any place c. Except such as shall be set apart for the Publick
whatsoever is in the Laws for Liberty of Conscience Are ye awakened yet Do ye yet see where ye are and how ye have shut out and barred the door against Liberty of Conscience Seventhly to add no more the seventh exception is that ye do at all therein meddle with Conscience as to the things of God things Spiritual or Evangelical which as I have proved out of your own mouths quite changes the Cause and layes the foundation of what ye call a free State or Common-wealth in the thraldome of Conscience Thus much by way of exception to this sixth Article of your Address upon comparing it with the third Article under the ninth general Head of your Settlement concerning Religion I shall now give you in your own words what your selves have said of your said Settlement to the Nation in your Declaration thereunto annext and so conclude this my second instance out of which it is taken to prove by which I have fully proved out of your own mouths that this sixt Article quite changeth the Cause from what it was to that which it was against Your words in your said Declaration to your said Settlement Pag. 28 29. follow We shall not otherwise commend it say ye of your Settlement than to say it contains the best and most hopeful foundations for the Peace and future well government of this Nation that we can devise or think on within the line of humane Power and such wherein all the people interested in the Land that have not particular interests of advantage and power over others divided from that which is common and Publick are indifferently and equally provided for And we call the consciences of all that read or hear it to witness whether we have therein provided or propounded any thing of advantage to our selves in any capacity above others or ought but what is as good for one as for another And therefore as we doubt not but the Parliament being now freed from the obstructing and perverting Counsels of such Members by many of whom a corrupt complyance with the Kings interest hath been driven on and all Settlement otherwise hath hitherto hindred those remaining worthy Patriots will for the main allow thereof and give their Seal of Approbation thereto So we desire and hope that all good people of England whose heart God shall make sensible of their and our common concernment therein and of the usefulness and suitableness thereof to the Publick ends it holds forth will cordially embrace it and by subscription declare their concurrence and according thereto when it shall be tendred to them as is directed therein wherein if it shall please God we shall find a good reception of it wiih the people of the Nation or the well affected therein we shall rejoyce at the hoped good to the Conmon-wealth which thorow Gods mercy may redound therefrom and that God hath vouchsafed thereby to make us instrumental for any good Settlement to this poor distressed Country as he hath formerly made us for the avoyding of evil But if God shall in his righteous Judgment towards this Land suffer the people to be so blinded as not to see this their own common good and freedome endeavoured to be provided for therein or any be so deluded to their own and the Publick prejudice as to make opposition thereto whereby the effect of it be hindred we have yet by the preparation and tender of it discharged our consciences to God and duty to our native country in our utmost endeavours for a Settlement to the best of our understandings unto a just Publick interest and hope we shall be acquitted before God and good men from the blame of any further troubles distractions or miseries to the Kingdome which may arise thorow the neglect or rejection thereof or opposition thereto Words truly serious and deep than which I need say no more in this matter for your convincement and which will be a witness against you for ever except ye repent Having thus treated of the matter of the said sixth Article of your Address I shall enquire a little concerning the language of it whose language it is The language of your solemn declarations c. it is not as hath been made manifest The language of the Good Old Cause it is not as hath been abundantly proved The Language of Liberty of Conscience it is not for it restraineth it and where Conscience is restrained it cannot be said to be at Liberty The Language of a Free-Sate it is not for where Conscience thus suffers the persons or outward man is not free and indeed it is the person or outward man that suffers in the restriction of Conscience for Conscience cannot be touched by an outward Power but the vessel in which it is And so the right of freedom of Conscience is a civil Right and a civil Right it is to have the freedome of Conscience And where this Liberty is abridged by a State that State is not free For according to the received Axiome a free mind and a free speech and a Free State go together and weere the two former are wanting the later is not nor doth it call such a people happy But on the contrary saith it faelix cui libera gens libera mens libera lingua or a happy people where there is a free Nation or State a free mind or Conscience a free speech or profession and where all professions are excluded but one and Provision made onely for that one Profession how can there be said to be a Weale Common or a Common-Wealth The Language of Christian Religion the faith of Gods Elect it is not for that never sought to enforce it self as I have said otherwise then by commending it self to that of God in every mans Conscience And the Apostles said to the Chief Priests and Rulers who commanded them to speak no more in that name who spake in the Temple in that name against the worships thereof and for that cause were sent to Prison and stockt and whipt whether it be better to obey God or Man judge ye And the Lord saith for as much as this people draw near me with their mouth and with their lips do honour me and their feare towards me is taught by the precepts of men therefore I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people even a marvellious work and a wonder the wisdom of their wise men shall perish and the understanding of their prudent shall be hid your Case at this Day The Language of Nature of Humanity it is not For what man ever hated cast out of protection his own flesh And they that were without natural affection were such as liked not to retain God in their knowledge therefore God gave them up to a reprobate mind And Liberty of Conscience is a natural Right as said your late General to the Parliament September 12. 1654. And so to force Conscience is all one as to force nature that is to
prosper the Lord hath spoken it If ye start aside once more farewel ye have confest against your selves and your representation is witness against you Deliverance shall arise from another place but ye and your house shall perish I say is not this word of the Lord beginning to be fulfilled upon you who took not warning when from the Lord God as it was told you it was a warning to you all yea that ye should have blotted out the name of Amalek i.e. the Principle that is against Liberty of Conscience from under Heaven yea that ye should not forget it yea that ye should remember Amalck i. e. the soul murthering and Conscience binding Clergy-man and what he did unto you by the way when ye were come out of Egypt how he met you by the way and smote the hindermost of you even all the feeble behind you when ye were faint and weary and he feared not God and that therefore ye should blot out the name of Amalek from under Heaven For at the moving of the Lord that was wrote also Amalek the first of the Nations that warred against Israel when they were come out of Egypt whose latter end shall be that he perish for ever as Balaam said when his eyes were open Cain Adams first born in the transgression who slew his Brother about Religion because his offering was accepted and it was different but Cains was not Cain the fugitive and vagabond who is cursed from the Earth which opened her mouth to receive his Brothers blood from his hand the principle that is against Liberty of Conscience to be blotted out from under Heaven ye shall not forget it saith the Lord But ye have forgot it and instead thereof endeavoured to record its name which God will blot out and remember what Amalek did though ye have forgot it when the Lord required the contrary so ye have disobeyed the Commandement of the Lord therefore the Kingdome is rent from you and is given to a neighbour of yours that is better than you And have broken the Covenant of the wife of your youth therefore will I Judge you saith the Lord as women that break wedlock and shed blood are judged and I will give your blood in fury and jealousie for a short work is the Lord making in the Earth yet a remnant of you shall return even a remnant unto the mighty God and the Consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness The day is at hand the Lord hath spoken it And though Agag the King of Amalek whom Saul and the People contrary to the commandment of the Lord have spared alive may come delicately to Samuel the Prophet of the Lord who said to Saul thus saith the Lord of Hosts I remember that which Amalek did to Israel how he laid wait for him in the way when he came up from Egypt now go and smite Amalek and utterly destroy all that they have and spare them not but slay both man and woman infant and suckling Oxe and Sheep Camel and Ass and though Agag may say surely the bitterness of Death is past yet Samuel shall say as thy sword hath made women Childless so shall thy Mother be Childless among women And Samuel shall hew Agag in peeces before the Lord even in Gilgal he that can receive it let him receive it Ah my Friends wherewithal shall I bewail you How shall I lament you How soon are ye revolted How soon are ye backslidden and started aside How soon hath darkness overspread you and night covered you How soon are your feet stuck fast again in the mire The honesty that stirred in you how soon is iâ— plunged again into the Pit Cryed ye not lately to the Lord in the day of your Distress Said ye not what ye would do if he would once more deliver you And hath he not been gratious to you at the voyce of your cry When he heard it did he not deliver you And when he had delivered you did he not warn you as aforesaid for I was moved of him and from his mouth I spake and a witness I am for him for ever yea that ye should bring forth fruit meet for Repentance Were ye not told that this was your day your day of Tryal from the Lord wherein he was trying ye and proving you to see whether there was an heart in you to do according to all that he had said even that ye would fear him and keep all his Commandements alwayes that it might be well with you your children after you forever And that for that cause he had once more overthrown your enemies and in the thing wherein they dealt proudly had shewn himself above them and put the power of these Nations into your hands to try you and prove you and to see whether ye would do as ye spake yea that it was your Hour of Tryal wherein the Lord was trying you to see whether being delivered and having power in your hands ye would stand by and secure the Cause and your selves And are the dawnings of your day so soon closed into Night Are ye so soon tryed and found too light Are these your fruits meet for Repentance which must be repeneed of if ever it be well with you Are ye rose so early and corrupted all your doings Are ye delivered to commit such an abhomination as this Ah foolish people and unwise of the Rock that begat you how soon are ye unmindful And how have ye forgotten God that formed you And lightly esteemed the Rock of your Salvation they sang his praise they soon forgat his works they waited not on his Counsel they forgat God their Saviour which had done great things in Egypt wondrous works in the Land of Ham and terrible things by the Red Sea Many times did he deliver them but they provoked him with their Counsel and were brought low for their iniquity nevertheless he regarded their affliction when he heard their cry and he remembred for them his Covenant and repented according to the multitude of his mercies He made them also to be pittyed of all those that carryed them Captives and had regard unto his name that it might not be polluted among the Heathen I say Oh my Friends How shall I lament you Wherewithal shall I bewail you Truly I bear a burthen of grief for you and the weight thereof is heavy Oh that my head were water and mine eyes a Fountain of Tears that I might weep day and night for you because of the day that I see is coming upon you except ye Repent My love was alwayes dear to you with you I travailed as a Fellow Member and otherwise through the Difficulties ye met with from your first march to Windsor to the late Interruption wherein I bare not the least part of the burthen as there be among you can witness In the late Interruption I was not but was against it for this Reason among others because I foresaw it being shewn me