render this Nation so happy at home and so formidable abroad Who would not rather be the Turnkay of such a Parliament then the Speaker in this The present condition is intolerable neither safe nor comely Have you not purged your selves and been purged by one or other til you are a shadow rather then a substance and is this our Honour Happinesse Freedome or the glory priviledge and interest of our English Parliament For the second your aime ends method and manner of actings Was there ever such a thought in those that elected you to be Parliament men that you should destroy King kingly Government Did you declare any such thing when you rais'd your Army oh look over your own Declarations Remonstrances Protestations Covenants Orders Ordinances If there was just cause which few that feare God will say and not one of a thousand do believe to remove the person yet what had the office done Kingly government is of divine institution no other unlesse in subordination to that commanded or commended to us you have made triall of your own wayes you see how suddenly they came to nothing and how speedily they are likely to bring us to worse then nothing Remember the vast disbursements of this Nation The loanes upon publique faith the Free-will offerings the taxes assessments the excise the Customes the Crowne Church Lands would they not very neere have purchased such a Kingdome Was it ever intended to exhaust these treasures and alienate these lands to no other purpose but to build an imaginary Babel or if you will A Castle in the aire is this to make a glorious King and Kingdome c. In the Name and Feare of God and for the Lords sake remember from whence you are falne and do your first works Setle a free and full Parliament free both in choice votes without factious bandings in the choice or force upon their actings Let us hear of no oaths to binde up mens consciences It is dangerous dallying with a consuming fire everlasting burning others have found it you will finde it if timely repentance prevent not Our condition is not yet desperate nor yours not ours For I do verily believe our miseries may be improved to such advantages and our tryalls to such experiences as may render us the wiser for this folly the calmer for these Hiricanes for ever hereafter For yours though good intentions will never justifie evill actions nor can ignorance excuse totally yet in as much as it may be suppos'd that you have but attempted to try experiments which failing in you are sorry for I doubt not but that both with God and man you may finde that mercy that you can implore and be the objects of pittie rather then punishment yea was the government well setled as formerly your experiences may fit you for employments and none so likely to be faithfull and serviceable They that are Conscious of by-past wandrings must needs be Cautious to avoyd and the best Counsellors to prevent them ever after Wherefore let my Counsell be acceptable Feare the Lord and the King repent of the former seditions and medle no more with them least destruction come upon you and us at unawares and misery like an armed man As for the Citie our great and once famous Metrapolis Can you without sorrow remember those sad tumults begun in you if not rais'd and countenane't by you What fruit have you now of those storms of which you have cause to be asham'd or do you not read your sin in your punishment Have not you your selves judg'd them your very Tormentors that you cryed up as your only Patrons and Protectors Have you not found that an obstruction to your Estates Freedomes Tradings yea Consciences which you sometimes with animated and armed tumults maintain'd magnified yea almost adored I shall exasperate no further but advise if there be any piety any power to prevaile with God or interest improvable with men in a peaceable and sober way declare your dislikes of former exorbitancies That confessing forsaking and redressing your former faults you may finde mercy proportionable to your miseries a seasonable healing of your selfe-destroying errors I shall not charge blood upon you and God of his infinite mercy never lay that to your charge which hath been shed within your walls and jurisdictions Wherein you have at least contracted so much guilt as to stand by look on while men devoured him that was more righteous then themselves stand not thus halting betwixt two opinions if God be God worship him and if Monarchy be your aime declare for it The same courage with a better Conscience will build that up to your honour and safety which your inconsiderate wantonnesse hath to your great prejudice demolished The decree is not I hope pass'd upon you but that your conviction and conversion to pietie and loyaltie may yet speak you in the ages to come a Citie of Righteousnesse and a faithfull Citie Ponder the text well and the discourse upon it Feare the Lord and the King least a destruction from the Lord come upon you at unaware and an irrecoverable ruine be your Reward Now Souldiers a word to you I know it is dangerous medling with edg tools but a good Conscience is an iron sinew and a brow of brasse You have been esteemed as a righteous Armie Some say your prayers and teares prevail'd more then your strength or valour and I acknowledge it while you did pursue the Good old Cause for The King and his great Councell the Parliament your undertakings were honourable your valour incomparable and your victories not to be paraleld But after you deserted that contrary to your solemne appeals and protestations you destroyd him whose glory and safety you pretended to fight for how have you been restlesse in your spirits seduced in your judgements and carried headlong into most dangerous and desperate undertakings After the Kings death you leveld them that had rais'd you and exercis'd that obstructing and dissolving facultie upon them who had taught you to doe it before to their fellow-members You set up a single person whose onely right was might title power what you were in so doing let that petition sign'd by Alured Okey Saunders and others tell you Nay let your own papers of recantation tell you after you had pulld downe the Protector and dissolv'd a Free and an ingenuous Parliament that you were deluded deceiv'd mis-led yea bewitch'd it is your owne expression c. and how was it with you when you obstructed That Remnant that your selves set up and undertook to pull down whatever displeased you and to set up the imaginary idolls of your own fancies which yet proved formlesse and senslesse vanities I know the greatest part of the Northerne Army disclamed this last act but are you not all at this time unsetled in your resolutions tost to and fro with uncertaine and unconstant purposes There is a center which you have forsaken and expect no rest till you find it again For the King and his great Councill the Parliament let that be your word and your work for ever Your words may spare your swords the labour make it your request who dares deny it fear not a concurrence of City and Country this is the way to repaire our breaches to delude the devices of our close and implacable enemies to render you for ever a famous and faithfull Army to procure you those Arrears which otherwise with justice you cannot demand nor without cruelty exact This will be the best service you ever performed the most acceptable to God and your Country This will be the only remedy against your fears and the only course to procure love To conclude An honourable retreat in a case of disadvantage is the highest point of military prudence Come off now at last with credit declare for God in the unity of your spirits and piety of your conversations for tke King and his great Councill the Parliament in your addresses and valiant undertakings It is safer and more honourable to make a King then to be all Kings You have been Gods rod to correct this kingdome be now his staffe to uphold it from ruine that the God working wonders may be admired in the passages of his providence while he employes the same instruments to kill and to make alive that the Nations may say this is the Lords doing and it is wonderfull in our eyes To which God immortall eternall and infinite I ascribe the honour and return the praise of these undertakings humbly presenting my Petition and entring my appeale My God my God thou that hast made my heart and knowest it and art well acquainted with the revolutions and windings of it unto thee do I come If I have aim'd at man or made the son of man my confidence if I have been courted by any but constrain'd by thee if preferment hath been my hopes or I have sought my selfe in this designe levell my life with the grave and lay mine honour in the dust but if the advancement of thy glory and the kingdomes safety if the peace of our Sion and prosperity of our Jerusalem If the prevention of our inevitable ruines and the restoring of our just and happy liberties have been and are my desires in this worke let thy blessings O Lord be upon it and prosper it as thine own as for thy servant preserve him in thy goodnesse and let him not be ashamed because he hath a respect to thy Commandement Amen Amen FINIS
A CHANGLING NO COMPANY FOR Lovers of Loyaltie OR The Subjects Lesson in Poynt of Sacred Submission to and humble Complyance with God and the KING Wherein Confusion is reduced to Order misery to Mercy Reproach and shame to Freedom and Honour Returne return O Shulamite Returne returne Cant. 6. ult In those dayes when there was no King in Israel every man did that which was good in his own eyes Judg. 17.6 LONDON Printed by M. Simmons for Thomas Parkhurst and are to be sold at the three Crowns at the lower end of Cheapside 1660. To the Clergy of England Beloved THe last and great temptation is over You have been set in a late Declaration I will not say like our great Master upon a pinacle of the temple but like the Swine-herd of Stow upon Lincoln minster and all the remaining husks for the mast is gone long since you shall have and injoy if c. Is it not sad to consider that you are not only a covering to their eyes that are filled with robbery but that they should by the tender of toyes and tristes which yet are not theirs to give allure you into that confederacy which may not only wound your consciences but stain your profession with such a blot and dishonour as shall never be washed out Honest Mephibosheths resignation is a much better resolution Let them take all so that my Lord the King may but return in peace How neer have you been to suffer by divers factions and yet your lives and interests are maintained perhaps that you might live to vindicate that which you helpt to destroy Remember O remember Curse ye Meroz yea curse bitterly c. Now consider how are the mighty fallen Your words were more powerfull then the Souldiers swords you foresaw not the event it seems you were no true prophets and are now sorrowfull Oh if you had known God grant your ignorance may excuse you would never have cried down the King as a Tyrant to the ruine of him his family and kingly government Well you have still the same weapons and the good old cause the King and the Parliament laid before you pray for it plead for it but curse no body no not your enemies persecuters and slanderers that if it be the will of God there may be a returning of our wandrings and a healing of our errors in the procuring of which you may assure your selves of the constant and fervent desires and prayers of A true friend to truth and Peace W. H. TO THE READER GOod thoughts are the best company in bad times and holy meditations are not only a cure but a cordiall for a fainting soul under heavy destractions Sacred writ in the perusal of which we ought with care and reverence to be conversant as it is of divine inspiration so is it also of infallible consolation direction In the which you may be pleased to observe it is pleasant in the observation That the most horrid confusions have produced happy conclusions the most distracted Queries have return'd satisfied with most gracious Answers The Jewes being told plainly by Peter that they denyed the holy one and the just and desired a murtherer to be given to them were pricked in their hearts wounded with the sense and covered with the shame of their bloody act amazed cry out Men and brethren what shall we doe Their extremitie is Gods opportunity his mercy prevents the excesse of their misery their fainting question hath a soul reviving answer Repent and be baptised c. and you shall receive the gilt c. for the promise is to you your children c The Gaoler trembling at the earthquake every joynt of him being out of frame to see the foundation of his prison shaken more captivated now at the enlargment of his prisoners then they were when put in the dungeon and their feet made fast in the stocks feeling the terrors and seeing the wonders of the Lord cryes out Sirs what shall I do to be saved He that had kept them sure must now be secured by them or perish yet his doubtfull question had a faithful answer Believe thou shalt be saved c Saul afterwards Paul at first a persecutor at last a Preacher at first a vessel wherein was no pleasure but at last a chosen vessell and a vessell of honour stopt in the hight of his speed disrob'd of his authority dismounted in the heate of his violence confounded with the appearance of Gods glory and his own shame before so impudent that he durst do any thing now so humble that he will learne his duty cryes Lord what wouldst thou have me to doe God who had cast him downe that he might raise him up made him blind for a time that he might see better for ever after leaves him not where he laid him but raising up his soule with a most propitious answer as his body with a powerfull word bids him arise Go into the City and it shall be told him c. It is needlesse to tell you what condition this nation is in we are not distracted but distraction not confounded but confusion it self God and man may justly joyn in that sad complaint and solemn appeale Hear O Heavens and hearken O Earth I have nourished brought up children and they have rebelled against me A sinful nation a nation laden with iniquity a seed of the wicked and corrupt children may be the just and grand character of our nation and as our sin so our shame is increased as our rebellion and impiety so our desolation and miseries are multiplyed Hence it is that the head is sick and the heart is heavy that from the head to the foot there is nothing but swellings and sores full of corruption such as not only have not but seeme as though they cannot be wrapt bound up or mollified with oyl Is not the daughter of Sion like a cottage in a vineyard homely lonesome set up a little for necessity but neither furnisht for delight nor ornament like a lodge in a Garden of Cucumbers solitary whose furniture is scarce so much as a table a stool a bed and a candlestick or like a besieged City never more punctually verified then in our age the Vision is so plaine that he that runs may read it Are not the foundations of our government out of order hath not God overturn'd overturn'd overturn'd it have we not had what nation can say the like in few years a King and no King a Parliament and no Parliament a Protector no Protector a Committee of safety and no Committee of safety an Army and no Army and have we not now a strange kind of Synecdocicall power wherein a part no part challenges the principle and yet are not able to maintain the interest Are we not run into those straits that we cannot march on retreat nor stand stillwith safety are we not if I may intermingle a jest with serious truths in Tarletons
end in its own evill What bloody beginnings though with intentions of reforming church and state ever brought forth happy conclusions unlesse a miracle of mercy the effect of true and lively repentance did create life out of death light out of darknesse and good out of evill And now I have toucht upon that center to which all the lines of my discourse tend and in which they rest Repentance and godly sorrow for our grand transgressions and impieties against God and disloyalties against our King is the only haven into which the weather-beaten ship of this common-wealth of England must be put if she that hath been so long afflicted and tossed with tempests would ever find safety or comfort We have sought the Lord stretcht out our hands made many and long prayers and God hath not heard us why our hands are full of blood we have fasted and humbled our selves and yet the alseeing eye of God takes no notice of it alas the reason is evident we have fasted to strife debate to strike with the fist of wickednes Oh that every wise man in this nation would seriously lay to heart the saying of that wise woman 2 Sam. 14.14 We must all dy we are all as water spilt upon the ground which cannot be gathered up again Neither doth God when he executes justice spare any persons yet he hath appointed means that he that is cast out may not be utterly expelled I cannot look at the miseries of our dayes without grief of heart and sorrow of mind I cannot remember the dayes of by-past slaughter nor eye our present distractions but I must wish with Jeremy that my head was full of water and mine eyes a fountaine of tears that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people Did David beg of God to deliver him from blood-guiltinesse with so much earnestnesse for one mans blood and are we senslesse of the blood of thousands slain in these uncivill civill wars the price of whose blood is confusion and misery nay which is worse after a tryall of our own wayes which we see to be evill and to have no lesse then a nationall death and destruction for their issue yet we repent not to give glory to God Oh England England hath not God given thee a time of repentance and thou hast not repented what dost thou expect but that God should cast thee into a bed of sorrow and punish thy vain presumtions with unsufferable torments If what hath been delivered in the doctrinal part of the text be truth and he deservs to be ston'd for blasphemy that denyes it thou hast erred and hast been deceived God hath hitherto pitied thy wandrings lookt upon thee as sheep scattered upon the mountains without a shepherd Oh return return O Shulamite seek the Lord by repentance and fear and your King with submission and reverence Remember the oath of God your most solemne nationall covenant the pursuance of that was the Good Cause but since we broke Covenant with God in falsifying evading colouring and covering of oaths swearing falsly methinks God hath sworn in his wrath that we shall never enter into rest in government we have had none and in consciences I fear but little now by a deep humiliation and an acknowledgment of your sins committed against God and man repent and return and fear the Lord and his goodnesse in these latter dayes But what is said to all few take notice of as relating to themselves I must therefore more particularly apply my discourse to the Parliament City and Army To the Parliament Gentlemen you look upon your selves as the Keepers of our Libertie for your own soules sake consider seriously how you have kept it and what a libertie we are brought to is it not just such another as that which God proclaimed against rebellious Israel Jer. 34.17 A libertie to the sword to the pestilence and to the famine Such a libertie as is likely to make us a terrour an astonishment to the whole world I am for my own part a man of many bodily infirmities I know not what a day may bring forth in order to my dissolution let me be arraigned before the severest of your Commissioners for a malignant rather then at the barre of Gods justice for an hypocrite I have ever been I blesse God a plain spirited man and such you must expect and suffer me to be If you be not able to beare my speech your friend your familiar what will you doe when God shall reprove you and set all in order before you Two things you owe an account of to God and to the Country First of the authoritie by vertue of which you act and secondly of the aime end yea of the manner and method of your actings For the first many thousands in England do deny that ever they intrusted you in any such authoritie as you assume For my part I doe look upon you as the Remnant of a venerable Parliament in order to which I have been ready to vindicate in what I might your proceedings not as the best that may or such as ought to be for ever our rule or guide but such as necessitie hath impos'd upon us for a time till better might be established in order to which I took heinously the last defection and rebellion of the Soldery against you did declare to the receivers of the tax that I would pay no tax towards the armies maintenance When some of Lamberts Officers lay at my house in their march into the North I did expostulate the Case with them told them how hainously the Country took it c. To which they made this answer The Country had no Cause to take ill the dissolving of this Parliament for it was their Parliament not the Countries setled by them not by the Country and to do their work not the Countries This they did say and besides giving of you hateful and ridiculous names did render you the objects of contempt and scorne but you have pardoned them and I shall be silent I beseech you examine your Call and Commission to the exercise of this authoritie We are a free people and you your selves have declar'd That it is Tyranny and Treason for any to impose upon us in poynt of government but by the legal and just choice of the people For the power that you have I professe I doe not envie it to you I rather pittie you You stand in all mens apprehensions upon slippery places It is not for the honour nor safety of these Nations to submit to such a decimation in State-matters That scarce the tenth part of a Parliament should passe for a Free and Full Parliament look upon your selves you that have seen the Majestie of a full Parliament in the dayes of Monarchy some of you have not when assembled in the House and tell me if you look like such an Honorable Assembly as that used to be That should