THE CAUSE of GOD And of these NATIONS Sought out and drawn forth from the Rubbish of the Lusts and Interests of Men and lifted up into sight and view for all the upright in heart to follow it Wherein is shewed What our Cause was What opportunity we had for it How miserably it has been deserted What was the Cause of that desertion The spiritual Judgment that is already upon the Desertors With a Word of encouragement to all the faithful and persevering friends of it Isa 59.19 When the Enemy shall come in like a flood the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a Standard against him London Printed Anno Dom. 1659. To all the Honest-hearted of the Land who though through weaknesse they have staggered yet have not wickedly departed from the Cause of God and the Nation GOD hath pardoned your sins You have had your temptations and weaknesses and God hath chastend and afflicted you for them You have borne your shame you have turned away from God rejoyced in a thing of nought Therefore God hath withdrawn from you his presence and blessing and your Renown is much perished You have minded the enriching of your selves the making your Families and Names Great Therefore hath God set up a greatness over you to afflict you You would be so wise and so in the fashion of the World and of the Nations so afraid of the meanness of Christ and of the Spirit that I think ye have had enough of a Lordly Spirit and yet in the name of Christ too bringing you under God hath payd you in your own Coine Ye would ride upon horses and upon the swift therefore they that have pursued you have been swift Glorifie God in his Judgements Confesse him and sanctifie his Name Are ye willing to be delivered Or do ye affect bondage still Will ye be boared for perpetual slaves Will ye yet accept of the Government of Christ Are ye weary and heavy laden Will ye put into a good harbour The Lord opens his Arms to you He waits that he may be gracious He hath hid love under all this dispensation These winds and waves have been but to waft you over into his own Bosome It is one of his Ordinances In the world you shall have tribulation But he is wherever he was and the Cause is and lives All ye that are the Natural children of it Come own your Mother Jerusalem which is above is free which is the Mother of us all and ye are free and nothing can inthral you no Bonds no Yokes no Temptations no allurements can hold you in that that is unrighteous Ye can not rest till ye come to your own Land till ye see the New Heavens and the New Earth wherein Righteousness dwells Of whatsoever Kindred Nation Tribe or Tongue ye are no Form can or shall imprison you long or hold the truth in unrighteousness I know ye have your several Lights and discernings gradually differing But ye are one and agree perfectly in the true Ground and Reason of your life Ye would have Truth and Righteousnesse take place that is Ye would have Christ reign For Truth and Righteousnesse are but so many Names of Him and he would have ye happy and free every way free in your Persons free in your Estates free inwardly free outwardly for the Earth is his as well as Heaven He made it and that not in Vain He made it to be inhabited Sin and unrighteousness hath desolated it The fruit of the Earth shall be excellent and comely when the Branch of the Lord is beautiful and glorious for his escaped Remnant He hath married you and calls you by Name You are the true English race those that are against you are strangers and forreigners Aliens from their own Countrey Therefore when I call you English-men it is as much as if I call'd you Israelites Ye are but a Remnant yet ye are the seed and hopes of the Land God hath winnowed and sifted the Nation those that were not of you are fallen off from you It is your advantage that you know them you shall not want their Numbers nor need you fear their Multitude for the whole Multitudes that gather against you shall be as the Dream of a night Vision God is arisen to judge them ye shall need to do nothing against them but to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. Their Mighty men are fallen their strength is perished the anointing is ceased and departed from them Your Cause is risen I feel it is risen The Witnesses thereof begin to stand upon their feet The Interest of this short discourse is First to awaken you and to point out unto you the Cause of all our Breakin gs since that signal Witness given from Heaven to our Cause There was much Darkness wrath foolishness selfishness mingled with our zeal Love Righteousness in the managing of the Cause which was to be pared and pruned off burnt up and separated from us and the fire hath seized upon it There was also a mixt multitude with us as there was with Israel when they came up from Egypt who had not a stedfast Spirit nor a right aim Children in whom was no faith which were to be made manifest and to be knockt off These their buits have caught them and they are at their journeys end they will be left hehind and that is not the worst that awaits them While yon had to deal with the open and declared Enemy ye were still successful against them but these false brethren have betrayed you and your Cause Trust them no more nor that Spirit It is your great advantage that you now know the depths of Satan you have seen Satan transforming himself into an Angel of light the Man of sin working in all deceiveablenesse of unrighteousnesse in praying preaching weeping c. You cannot be cousened any more with these Where the Life the Seed the Nature is it will recover it self and this Discourse may be serviceable to awaken and call it forth out of that Caprivity wherein it lyes but where is only the Notion the Form the Profession it will wither away more and more Let all that are the Children of this Cause hear this Voice and obey this Call to come out of Babylon and partake no longer in her sins as they would not partake in her Plagues A second aym of this Discourse is to enlarge our apprehensions in the just Extent and Dimensions of our Cause which is not to be restrained or limited by the scant Models of any private thoughts but is to be learned and received from the heavenly patterne as God is pleas'd to let it down and shew it unto us Hence all those Designs will be found too short or narrow of those that would rest in forming these Nations meerely into a Common-wealth or that bound the Work by Civil or Spiritual liberties as they are commonly apprehended The Cause of God in its latitude and adaequate extent is
the bringing of all things in Earth to answer the minde of God as is done in Heaven A thing not done at once nor presently but by degrees nor to be perfected but by the appearance of Jesus Christ as he lets down the spiritual knowledge and revelation of himself unto us in the opening of the Scriptures We are to be preparing and occupying our Measures and Talents till he come and put the finishing hand to Crown his own work 3. To direct us in the Way of serving this Cause That we go not forth headily and rashly presumptuously and self-confidently in our own wit will wisdom or rage there hath been too much of this but humbly waiting upon God watching and looking up to him what door he opens what way he leads what means he puts into our hands and not to be troubled if we cannot see to the end of our way distinctly but from step to step If we be brought to an obedient following of him our way shall be as the encreasing light growing to perfect day This was the way God perswaded the Parliament unto at first we had never else taken down Bishops not being provided of a Discipline in their room but God carryed us over this Objection then And so this was the way the Army professed themselves to be lead in and they prospered wonderfully Those were the days of innocency and simplicity though much weakness and childishness and God may upbraid us with that time as once he did Israel Jer. 2. I remember thee the kindness of thy youth in the day of thy espousals when thou followedst me in a Land that was not sowed When thou knewest not how thou shouldst live but hadst every meal from Heaven Israel was holinesse to the Lord c. And this is a great thing we have Covenanted and engaged to the Lord. It is no new thing ye are exhorted to but the Vowes of God are upon us The Lord hath had livery and seizin of us we have lived upon him and he hath found us in a Desert Land and hath borne us upon Eagles wings and why should it not be so again To conclude let us consider what a Name and a Praise we began to be made in the Earth What people were like England a People saved by the Lord Shall we begin in the Spirit and seek to be made perfect in the flesh Shall we that have been assisted and carryed forth to assert the Cause of God against the corrupt usurpations of the World when they had so long prescription a King of ancient Descent that had such a fouundation of the National Constitution the Laws an Army to stand upon the Spirit of the world in its vigour to maintain and uphold them Shall we that did not then shrink but wrought our Cause through the fire and through Seas of blood shall we now after we have conquered all these real difficulties be afraid of a thing of nought of the shaddows of our own unbelieving fears that have no foundation or bottome of reason or righteousnesse or consent or constitution to urge themselves upon us Where is the King of whose frown ye should be afraid Where 's his Power Where 's his Army What is become of the Great men and Mighty men Who shall hurt you if ye be followers of that that is good If any be stept up into their places and shall offer to oppose the Canse of God ye need not wish for weaker Adversaries for they will be self-condemned They stand upon a Bogg which will swallow them up having no righteous foundation And for your Comfort let me add this one Word The World ye are to grapple with hath lost a great strength of late It s very Heart-strings are broke This I must say for Him that is gone It was He that bare up this old ruinous Frame which in likelihood had fallen before this if His Parts His Courage His Religion had not supported it Whether He did well or ill in it judge ye Indeed it broke him at length and he fainted under the weight of it but He was a strong Buttresse to it when it was sinking in the time of the little Assembly The Law and the Clergy had then crackt if he had not put thereto his shoulder I am not against the Honest Interest of the Ministery or Law if that Interest be publique if it be the Interest of Righteousnesse and of the Spirit I call them old and rotten in the corrupt State of them wherein at present they stand But I say while that Prop of them lasted there was no attempting against them for God had given him to be a prolonging of days unto them And as he that stood in the way did lett the revealing of the Man of sin till he was taken out of the way so the Spirit of God in his poor Witnesses had not full play against this old and corrupt State of things while that Great Spirit acted the Defence of them A Word to the Reader to remove Prejudice MY ayme is to give my witnesse against the Present Apostacy whether this Generation will hear or whether they will forbear I have believed therefore have I spoken These things are not ministred but with some Faith that God will appear and revive this Cause and his poor people and as I know not which way so I am not Solicitous I would be loath to blow the Coals of another Intestine War But better our Peace be interrupted then Truth perish which is more our Life than the blood that runs in our Veynes I know it must be not by Might nor Power but by the Spirit that our deliverance is wrought whether in War or Peace I should hope the present Vsurpations should be too much self-condemned in the Practisers of them to bear a quarrel and that if we knew once but how to Value our Cause and the ground we are upon our Opposites would quickly rebate their Courage seeing the day is so farre risen I am not against Monarchy as an unlawful Government we find it owned of God and honoured to be a Type of the Reign of Christ but I am upon this Dilemma withall the Promoters of it here Either we did well and were guided by a divine hand in taking it down or not If not why do we not ask the World mercy and restore the old Family again If we were directed by God to remove it let us see the same divine hand leading to the restoring it else What a scandal is it to our Cause to build again the things we destroyed That God leads us not to it appears 1. Because his people consent not in it and Governments for the forme of them are to be founded upon Consent The people that adhered and are yet faithful to this Cause have not onely their Interest among others but Paramount to the rest of the Nation 2. Our Condition calls not for unnecessary charge Taxes lye heavy on the Commoners The poor of the
and idle persons therein entertained and maintained upon the charge of the poor exhausted Commoners justice as much delayed as before the Lawyers as Corrupt and Exorbitant Those Bawbles as once they were deem'd and styled and ridiculous formalities of State again introduced as vain and excessive Feastings and as superstitious and Idolatrous Funerals as in the darkest times in all these things as if we should professe to glory in our shame The election of Members to sit in Parliament as Corruptly negotiated and sollicited as in the Kings time Armies modelled and imployed not for maintaining of the Cause of God and the Nations save onely in name and title but indeed and in truth to maintain those that have Usurpt the Dispose of us and it and all our Liberties A Council receiving paye for work the Nation never set them upon When others would serve gratis Nehemiah did not so nor the former Council of State though they had their faults In a word all things running again in the old Channel and not onely King Lords and Bishops set up again under new appellations but even the old Names and Powers claym'd and contended for as to the two first The Negative Voyce and the Militia it self not excepted two main branches of the late Quarrel and if these succeed to the desire of some as if we look to humane probabilities there may be too much Cause of fear when we consider what attempts were made and what means were used the last Parliament to have made a King we must have Bishops too if the old Proverb which was no doubt the result of a deliberate consideration and inspection into the Nature of the two Interests No Bishop no King do hold good While these things have bin doing the hand of God hath bin upon our Bodies our Cattel our Trading What strange and New diseases have swept away whole Families and Townes almost of late years So as we could not avoid taking notice of an intimation of Divine Displeasure therein Unnatural and intemperate seasons a plague among our Horses wherein perhaps we have too much confided Our Merchants break and run away daily Our Ships lost and taken to incredible numbers Our Men the strength of our Nation sent to digg their graves with their swords in forreign Countries and disagreeing Climats whither they are prest forth against their Consent a thing that would not have bin put up formerly and the Poor of the Land increasing wonderfully upon us whole Families ready to starve for want of Trade and Imployment whilst that which would maintain many Thousands is lavisht I may say imbezeld to keep up the Port of a few new rais'd great Ones at an unnecessary height Where these things may End or whereto they are directed in the Intentions of many that drive them on the Lord alone knows but it is much and with too much ground or appearance of likelyhood suspected to be with an eye to bring-in the old Family assoon as they have made all things ready which by that time all is said that these Designers are able to alleadge of the Commodiousnesse thereof to put us out of fear of any more Warrs and Changes and to save the Charge of maintaining Armies to keep out that Title I fear the Nation may have too strong a Temptation unto And then what will become I say not of King's and Bishops Lands which many of the Gentry and Sould'ers have swallowed down it were the lesse matter if the disgorging of them were the worst consequence but what would become of the Estates and Libert'es not to say the Lives of all honest men that have adhered to this Cause Nay what would become of the Cause of God and Religion which we have bin contending for against Popery and profanenesse let every indifferent person Judge Though the truth is setting these consequences aside if there were a Necessity of a King again I must professe I should think it more righteous yea more honourable for our principles and our Cause to take a branch of the old Family that hath not forfeited his Right by actual hostility against us than to set up any other Family in that place so little grudge have I against that expulsed Family though I think whosoever pretends to be their Friend and should wish them restored to that Office and Dignity in this Day wherein God seems to be overthrowing designedly the throne of kingdoms consults neither theirs nor the Nations peace But which is the Misery of all the rest There are not wanting that endeavour to perswade us that though these symptomes of death are upon us yet we are well and upon an excellent constitution What would ye have May ye not be as good as ye will say they and that this is our Cause we fought for Which is so true as that the Calves were Israel's Gods that brought them up out of the land of Aegypt As if the setting up a few men that seemed sometime zealous for the Cause were the triumphing of the Cause when the body of the Adherents languish God knowes whether in this I do enviously detract from the Merits of any His late Highnesse or others that rose with him who deserved eminently in their day And None was more joy'd to see the power come into His hands then those that have since had so much cause to bewail the ill use of it But to take it ill of us that we cannot dance and sing in these circumstances is such an unreasonablenesse as is amazing Wonder not that men that have been free should think it irksom to be in bondage That those that have purchased their liberty at such a Rate should be willing to enjoy it That those Court Trinkets and Fopperies those chargeable Bawbles and Vanities being once cast out are not without regret and anguish received and taken in again No No we cannot so easily take upon us all the Blood that hath been shed in this Quarrell we cannot state the cause upon a Person or a Family or the individuall circumstances of Hic Nunc Tyranny is Tyranny and Oppression is Oppression be it excercised by whomsoever and superfluity and luxury are worse in this Generation than in the former daies A liberty there is I grant to say what you will against the old Court the High Commission the Star-Chamber the waies of the Bishops and former Tyrants and persecutors and to professe and practise any thing that touches not present Corruptions but shall we have liberty to witnesse against the same Evills in new dresses * May Sir Henry Vane freely propound a Healing Q. A. No If he do he must for an answer be sent to Carisbrook Castle May Col. Okey Lt. Gen. Ludlow and other faithful Officers in the Army freely remonstrate against incroaching Tyranny No they must then be cashier'd and sent to the Tower May Mr. Cardel freely preach against a formal Ministry and Worship No He must then leave his Benefice in Lumbard-street May Mr.
birth it should not have gone back again For when God will work who can lett therefore sure that was not the time and therefore we are guilty of no such A postacy as you charge us nor his late Highnesse of turrning his back upon the Designs of Heaven Ans The Kingdom of God was not onely at the Door and come to the Birth but it is born into the World and is among us though as a Kingdome of Patience Know ye not what our Saviour said of himself and of his Kingdom Luk. 17.25 It shall indeed come as irresistably as the light and as generally and it shall be as evident and conspicuous as the light but first must he suffer many things and be rejected of this Generation It is no Argument that the time is not because men reject the Kingdom The Kingdom hath its time to suffer as well as triumph to suffer before it triumph The Son of Man must be betrayed before he be inthroned but woe unto that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed though it be the fulfilling of the Counsell of God So the Kingdom must be rejected of this Generation What Generation why mark who put the Question unto our Saviour vers 20. The Pharisees the strictest Sect of Religious persons among the Jews the Generation we have been describing in the foregoing Discourse The Kingdom of God could not be rejected if it did not make its appearance All men court Christ at a distance and court the Kingdom of God in the Notion in the Prophecy of it they do not reject it there but when it comes not coming in their way with observation and outward shew they reject it coming not in the wise in the mighty in the noble in the learned but Christ riding on an Asse coming in Fishermen in the people that knew not the Law this was the Offence and is the Offence at this day I have heard with my ears in the time of the little Assembly some of that Assembly say into whose hands perhaps this may come I pray the Lord they may consider it and repent for they are now of another mind That if they did not think and believe there were some better and greater thing at the bottom in the design of Providence calling them together then meerly to go upon an outward settlement they would not continue at that work a day longer such convictions and awakenings of the Kingdom of God its being at hand were upon some Spirits that do now steer another Course But to return To what uncomfortable and dangerous waies and policies this disobedience did subject his late Highnesse is lamentable to consider sometimes to court this party sometimes that now with the Cavaliers then with the Presbyterians Then when they galled him turn to his old friends and speak kindly to tender consciences living upon the wrack all his daies which made him in all probability seek his peace in forreign designs with the noise and reputation thereof to drown the noise of Conscience at home which was still gnawing at the Root Then Anti-Christ must be conquered and the Spanish power that upholds him Until at last these continuall strivings and fightings within brought him down into his Grave The Lord knows I mention not this to bring up a blot upon his Memory nor to insult over his Ashes He that shall do so considers not that He was set forth unto us as a Mirrour of humane frailty Therefore be not high minded but fear and that it was not his personall ambition or other Evils but our sins in association together that both gave him up to that temptation and us to that subjection wherein certainly he was equally unhappy with us to be the Person that should take away that liberty that He had been imployed to purchase for us and to have all this ruine befall us under his hand As for his sin it is to God but the use of these things is to us and upon no other account do I repeat them CHAP. VI. A farther and more full Character of that Spirit in many great Pretenders that knew not our Cause nor indeed served it but serv'd themselvs of it And a witnesse against them BUt why do I speak of the Cause of God when most of us are ignorant of it and far from righteousnesse as the Prophet speaks The Cause of God is a divine thing and as the day of God Who may abide it Is it our ease our peace our liberty our promotion our pleasures our Interests Nothing lesse The Cause of God is that which searches and tryes and burns up all these is an enemy to all these in that carnall and dark way of understanding possessing and injoying of them which men imagine The Cause of God is that indeed which hath health pleasure deliverance and salvation in it for every Creature rightly understood and truly advanced and subjected unto but of all that we have done God may justly say Did ye it at all to Me Did ye take away the Bishops at all to me No ye did it to your selves and ye have feasted your selves with their flesh their lands their revenues Yea their power and Jurisdiction so far as for shame ye may ye do joyfully exercise over your Brethren When ye took off the King's head did ye do it at all to me No It was to your selves that ye might be absolute and supream your selves And hath not the Event shewed it When ye abolished the House of Lords did ye it at all to me Are ye not mad to set it up again So that why do we inquire after particulars wherein we have gone astray when we have gone astray from the womb from our first birth and setting forth in this Cause we have acted from a gentile principle from self preservation for self ends and advantages from stomach and revenge because we suffered and were eclipsed by the former powers Now the Wrath of man works not the Righteousnesse of God the Apostle tels us we were never subjected to God in those Rods that were upon us we could not lay down our lives and take them up again as Christ we fullfil'd our own lust and were set to save our own lives in all we did This is far from the righteousnesse of God And this may be infer'd not only from the State we wrought in which was dark and legal and fleshly as that of old Israel but from those Characters of wavering uneavennesse and uncertainty which accompanied all our Actings Hence we were for the King and against the King for treating and then for breaking off for carrying on the Cause and now for carrying it back thus bringing upon our selves all the blood that hath bin shed in the Land both on the one side and one the other whereas the righteousnesse of God is a steady thing is not yea and nay puls not down to set up the same again The righteousness of God judges things in their root and principle be
they in whomsoever not in person or appearance disliking the same thing in this person and countenancing it in another If ye desire to see your sin This is thy sin O England All our thoughts all our wayes all our motions all our imaginations have bin are will be found before the Righteous God in this Day of his clear Judgment that is coming upon thee evil onely evil and that continually thou canst not turn thee to any one of them to find the least comfort and satisfaction of a good and righteous working and operation in them for How can an evil tree bring forth good fruit or a bitter fountain send forth sweet water Thy fountain is bitter thy root is rottennesse This I must testifie against thee from the Lord. Not but that thou hast done Gods work and fullfil'd and executed his pleasure upon Kings Nobles Bishops and all the slain and poyled of the Land Thou hast dressed the Lord's sacrifice but thou hast done it in thine own spirit and so art no better then Jeroboam then John then Nebuchadnezar and art accountable for all that thou hast done And God hath now taken thee in the snare of thy own heart and hath spread thy filthynesse thy unrighteousnesse thy ambition thy partiality thy hypocrisie in the sight of the Sun Thou art returned with the Dog to the vomit and with the Sow to the wallowing in the mire Thou hast corrupted thy self and art become abominable Judah hath justified Samaria Thy sins are as Scarlet they are of a double dye to the sins of the former generation which God hath cast out before thy face Thou sawest the Judgments of God on them for the wayes of pride unjustice oppression which thou walkest in and wast the Rod in his hand the Instrument of his vengeance upon them shalt thou therefore escape O! I dread to think what a sad reckoning this Generation hath to make I can see no glimpse of Comfort for us in any promise or prophecy or example or record in Scripture unlesse God powre out a spirit of grace and supplication a spirit of deep contrition and humiliation upon us but our Carcases must fall in the wildernesse as Israel's did Loruhamah and Loammi must be named upon us Israel shall be as Ethiopia and the bringing up of the Phlistins from Caphtor and the Assyrians from Kir shall be of as sacred memory as our Victories and successes the successes of the great Turk as holy things as all our deliverances I say unlesse God make us ashamed not onely of our sins but of our selves and of the spirit and root we have growen upon and acted from in all this I speak not now to natural men I know God judges every one by the light and law that they are under but I speak to the Saints of England that would be thought and call'd so many moral men have done bravely and faithfully and those that have corrupted in those principles having profest no higher shall be judged no deeper But you that say Ye see you that have discern'd and cryed up a Cause of God not civil liberties onely as men but a Cause of God in civil liberties all for God for the glory of God for the Kingdome of God I say you shall be judged out of your own mouths Is this the Cause of God Is this the Kingdome of God You in the Council you in the Army Is this the Cause of God now your turn is served Moral men shall onely be judged for their work not prosecuting the Cause but letting it fall but you shall be judged for no better a spirit unless you judge your selves I say there is no hope for you unlesse a spirit of judgment and burning arise up within you and cleanse your blood and filthynesse from you And ye shall pay not onely for your spirit but for that guilt also wherein ye are in Common with others for not prosecuting but letting fall this Cause when so far carryed on though darkly and blindly by you and in the letter For the same evil made you desist namely self-Interest that made you manage it in unrighteousnesse For be it known unto you The Cause of God is amongst us and shall go on and is carrying on through all these dark Meanders and Intricacies whilst you sleep on your down Pillows and stretch your selves upon your beds of Ivory and the next advance of it will be the routing of you Except God awaken you to meet him by speedy Repentance God will glorifie himself in his Judgments on you as upon the Cavaleirs before you Therefore trust not in vain Visions and cry not The Temple of the Lord. Is there any truth mercy and justice in the Land Are not the necessities of the poor as great as ever are not the oppressions as many is not pride luxury and profannesse as rife are not the Courts of Justice as corrupt Is not the spirit of God restrained and persecured Is Christ in the Throne Will ye call this a Reformation that ye are made Kings and Princes No! the Lord will not own it This is your work and your Cause it is none of his and God will make you know one day ye had power to have reformed these things but used it not forsooth because you would have offended this great man and tother useful Interest ye must have broak with a broken shatter'd World which will not be able to afford you the least shelter in the day when God shall visit you God will carry on his own Cause if we had never a tongue in the Parliament to plead it nor never a pen in the Nation to contend for is but what will become of you I know not How God will do it I know not but by his own appearing It is the day of His Power the day of the Spirit that is to have its turn next not Man's day but God's not Man's spirit but God's and whom He will use as his Instruments I know not if any of this Generation it must be by a Regeneration of them new moulding new framing new spiriting new principling of them The new wine must have new bottles but I see little towards any such thing in any of you Yet I believe God hath a remnant among you whom He will lead on to farther things but it will be with weeping and supplications with great brokennesse of heart and poverty of spirit with self-judging and self-abhorring and then what revenge will ye take of your selves what restitution will ye make to the Nation what right will ye do to all men even to your enemies Then will ye throw away your Idols of Gold and Silver to the Moles and to the Bats Then the lofty looks shall be humbled and the haughtinesse of man shall be laid low and the Lord alone exalted in that day Till the Spirit be thus powred forth from on high I look for no salvation to be wrought but the people shall labour in the fire
for very vanity If it be not in this spirit in vain is all the tugging of our friends in Parliament though I would not discourage any honest and righteous spirit to be holding up the bucklers against oppression and slavery upon an honest account Yet I fear me nay I see and I see with joy that the day is gone down upon the head of man in his highest Activity wherein he boasts himself The Princes of Zoan are become fools through our laying too much stresse on them It is another spirit that must bring salvation a spirit that is true indeed that was never false a spirit that cannot lye nor deceive that cannot be corrupted A spirit that hath overcome the World And I hope this spirit is taking the work into his own hand in this day CHAP. VII Containing a brief Recapitulation of some principal Heads and the Conclusion of the whole TO sum up all briefly and clear up more distinctly what hath bin in general hinted Whosoever is able rightly to discern past affaires will see there was a double Cause set on foot amongst us viz. the Cause of God and the Cause of these Nations which most have had some notion of but few have adequately described or rightly distinguished them only have admitted the Interest of Spiritual as well as Civil liberties But certainly the Cause of God must needs be higher larger of nearer concerr of greater consequence than the Cause of the Nation though that be great as the Soul is more noble than the body and the Creator to be preferred before the Creature The Cause of God like the Heavens waters with its dew cherishes with its influence embraces in its Arms and bosome the Natural Rights and Liberties of men as its Earth and Spouse in a subserviency and usefulness to the illustration of its own bounty and glory The Heavens are independent on the Earth not so the Earth on the Heavens The Cause of God needs not us but we receive all our vigor and blessing from it 2. As there were two Causes so there were two people or sorts of men that were drawn forth to serve them some upon a Natural and Civil account only having a just resentment of the languishing state of their Civil and Natural Rights and Liberties and others upon a higher account as being sensible of the sad condidition we were in as to spirituall affairs by the Ecclesiastical Taskmasters 3. These 2 Causes and their Adherents went hand in hand together in a joynt socious way the cause of God the cause of the Nation The People of God were concerned in both Causes and contributed to both not only their lives and fortunes as we call them in common with the Nation but besides and above them their Faith their Prayers their Comforts their Experiences all their Interest in God and in the Promises for the promoting of both and this not only out of love to themselves and their own particular concerns but in love to the Nation and in duty and faithfulness to God whereby the Cause of the Nation in some sense became to them the Cause of God though always the distinction and subordination preserved The Cause of God consists of two parts the one outward and visible such as is the object of the Natural Man's discerning viz. Freedom from outward violence and persecution in the externall exercise of Religion and the worship and service of God which because of things that relate to God may in a large sense be called the Cause of God but in respect of the Subjects of these Liberties which are all Men or every Nation of men they are but Natural Rights such as every sort of Men and Religions whether true or false do challenge and expect for every Nation will walk in the Name of their God This part of the Cause of God is but as the outward Court which the Gentiles may come into and tread down and is such an Interest as may be playd fast or loose withall by the Owners if they hold it only on the tearms of a Natural Right according as its makes with or against their Ruling worldly Interest or Concerns whether it be profit or honour as hath been too too manifest in these days which hath made so many go back from those Principles in this kind which once they abetted and contended for The other part of the Cause of God is wholly spiritual and so invisible to that Eye that is only natural though ever so enlightned even in the Letter of the Scripture it self and is exprest by the Apostle to consist in the deliverance of the whole Creation from the bondage of Corruption into the glorious liberty of the Children of God It is the delivering up all to God the subjecting of all to him which is the true liberty of the creature and this delivering up to God is not to Him as the head of the first Creation exercising his Rule by natural Light or Principles but as the Head of the New Creation by Christ risen from the dead exercising a far higher and better Rule in the New Creature which though it have for its Subject Matter the same things that are found in the Rule of the Natural or Moral Conscience viz. All External righteousness Religion and worship yet it hath them upon another account that is on other grounds and to other ends and over and besides them it subjects the Mind in all its operations in these to the Law of the Spirit of Life which is in Christ Jesus whereby the Creature is brought forth in newness of operation with Christ not seeking its own glory but the glory of its Head as Christ seeks the glory of his Father And this true spiritual and glorious liberty where it is brought forth in any soul is such an interest as cannot be disposed of or parted with by its possessor or made to serve but disposes of all things in that soul to the service of the Lord seeking alwaies to do the things that please Him not being able to do any thing against the Truth but for the Truth Thus those whom the Son makes free are free indeed and abide in the house for ever and never prove false nor turn their backs upon God or that that is his interest and glory Every other Spirit is corruptible and the Rule and Law of its walking is uncertain and variable may be turned this way or that way as worldly Interest or advantage swayes but though every man be a lyar yet God is true and cannot deny himself and so are they true that are thus born of him and become one Spirit with him by the spiritual slaying and crucifying of that life in them which is subject to chaxges and may be corrupted bribed and bought off from its Allegiance Had all that took upon them the defence of our Cause been of this Spirit we should never have had cause to have complained of the betraying and deserting of it But
that there were some of this Spirit under all the several degrees of light and discerning in this Cause I do verily believe who were therefore accepted of God and blessed in their Deed and in Christ were the blessing of the whole and are many of them at rest whither they arrived some sayling through the Sea of their own blood spilt in the High places of the field others spent and wore out themselves in Counsels leaving the Remnant of their despised and afflicted Brethren to suffer the indignation of an Apostate world and to be sad spectators of the havock and shipwrack of a blessed Cause ready to enter the Haven of its publick obtaining and triumph While this Spirit was up in our Counsels and Armies God never withdrew from them for God was the Father of it and it is his own Child and he cannot deny himself to this Spirit which is become a fool in it self and seeks all its wisdom and dirction from him therefore he cannot he may not be wanting to it When in the management of the most outward Affairs viz. our Martial Affairs the Army or those that had the conduct thereof own'd this Spirit they never were without Counsel nor without Signal ownings and testimonys of acceptance from God When they said They knew not their way but from step to step when they had done one thing they knew not what was next neve were they guided in so safe and successful a path the Promise being to the bliud that have thus made themselves blind for the Kingdom of Heavens sake that have resigned their way and the leading of them to the Lord that The will lead the blind by a way that they knew not He will make darkness light crooked waies streight and not forsake them But when some thought they had been children and fools long enough and had a lust to be wise and saw that unless they were so God did not make hast enough to give them that which it may be he would have given nay certainly will give his people in his own time Rule and headship over the world and that with a clear evidence and demonstration in the Conscience of the world it self of the indubitablenesse of their right and title thereunto and their fitness alone separate from all other men to exercise this dominion But I say they would have it in their own time and by their own way would ravish and usurp the blessing and I could wish it were but so as Jacob did and that no worse might come of it though that was bad enough He got the blessing with a present curse and a great deal of sorrow But here is the very splitting and loosing of our Cause so far as in them was to expose it but that indeed it cannot be lost being the Cause of God and the whole world is his and the Earth and all things must give up their dead Whosoever and whatsoever hath swallowed it up must render it again That 's the comfort of it which therefore incourages me to hope it may not be in vain to close with a word of Exhortation to all that are faithful whether in Parliament or Army or abroad in the Nation or in any of these three Nations wheresoever these may find them That they would not give up their hope that they would not despond concerning our good Cause Joseph is yet alive the Cause lives still though under many gashes and stabs yet it is alive being of an eternal nature it cannot dye The Cause of God the right of God and of his Son Jesus Christ cannot be extinguished Therefore I beseech you prepare your selves to serve it contend vigorously for it It will shew it self to you and that shortly I am perswaded and that not to suffer any more Maintain it a while it will be able to maintain you I say All you that are born of it and born into it that have suckt its milk that are Natural to this Cause and it natural to you Go on to seek the peace and welfare of it It will reward you all Perhaps you may discern it some of you in one light some in another gradually differing as you may read before is allowed Let that make no difference at all among you Some it may be are exercised in the rights of men others in the rights of Christians some more in the Letter others more in the Spirit The more outward not opposing that to the inward work and Kingdom God accepts of the one as well as of the other All did not bring the same offering to the Tabernacle but some Badgers skins while others brought silk and gold c. The lower is in order to the higher the outward to the inward and is in some sense the preservation of the inward Therefore I say ye are all one womans children Jerusalem that is above which is free stand fast in your Liberties If any of your Brethren be at present found in opposition they will they must be brought over to you it cannot be avoided and those that seemed sometime friends but were not but servants of Mammoni you have an ease and freedom by the removall of them for they were but a clog unto you and for them you have lost you shall have double come forth to you even from whence you least of all expected yea Nations shall flow in unto you Be but true to God you shall never want strength if all the Armies in Heavou and all the Interest of God in the Earth be able to carry you out you shall not fall nor shall your Cause fall Only be sample and be not too wise to look before hand as those whose way is in themselves but as he that was brought down to God's foot that righteous man so be ye waiting truly upon him in a Resignedness of mind following him as his Providence opens the way to you designing nothing of your selves and you shall see God will shew you what to do yea how you shall recover this Cause again for All things are possible to him and it lives to him now and he will make good what you do and his glory shall be your rereward when He goes before you and who dares fall upon that Rear And all this pittiful poor dark worldly stuff which hath been built upon that precious foundation which God hath layd in this Nation in the hearts of his people and in the works of his providence shall crumble and moulder away like dirt and melt like wax before the fire of this righteous Appearing and arising of God in his poor broken Remnant Amen Hallelujah Wherefore serve the Lord without sollicitousnesse for your labovr shall not be in vain Believe so shall ye be established The words are few and the Counsel is short but heed it well and lay it to heart It is of greater Moment then ye may be presently aware of I will not say Heaven and Earth shall passe away before they shall be unfulfilled but it may be ye may find the Lord hath said so I think I may say It is the Counsel of God unto you for your good which first or last must and shall take place and that ere long too FINIS