faithfulnesse Of ev'rie Soule And suffer not vaine jars Among your selves to multiply contention Lest you thereby both make these present wars To bring forth an incurable dissention And hinder as you have already done That Work which God among you hath begun Such differences obstructions have begot Retarding Peace But doubtlesse for the same To your great Senate there belongeth not An imputation of the smallest blame Nor were it faultie though it could be said And proved too that some among them now Their weightie consultations had betrai'd And to your Foes their secrets daily show Nor ought they to be blamed though you see A Spider sent among them for an Ant A Butterfly or Hornet for a Bee Or those that wit or honestie do want For such when they are found they still cast from them With as much forwardnesse as doth become them But they they only do deserve the blame Of all those falshoods which these Lands disease Those brainlesse fellowes who had so small shame And little grace to make their choice of these Those falsly termed free-men who for porredge Would sell their birth-right and who to uphold Their lawfull freedomes have not so much courage As to maintaine them though they see they could They whom a pettie Justice by the nose May lead to what absurdities he pleases And make them think he favour to them showes When he their losse and slaveries increases These and their fellow Burgers have undone you Their slavishnes hath brought these plagues upon you These to the House of Commons sent that Rabble Of Runawayes and Traytours which betrai'd Your liberties as much as they wereable And on their heads the bloud is justly laid For what you suffer These were first unjust In sending in to be their Deputies In stead of men Pride Avarice and Lust Oppression Folly Fraud and Vanities These having neither honestie nor wit Nor care to make a prudent choice of those To whom so great a Trust they should commit Some persons for the publike service chose So like themselves that wonder it is none To see so many do as they have done For such a choice they passed that unlesse Some prudent Boroughs and some wiser Shires Had made elections with more warinesse And sent brave spirits forth to ballance these You had been quite undone and you and yours Of all the Christian world had been the scorne Perpetuall Bond-slaves to malignant Pow'rs And hated of your children yet unborne For ever therefore let that providence Which so provided for you be renown'd And let there be a blessed difference On them and on their seed for ever found To honour them and mark them out from those Who to the publike welfare now are foes And let your Burgers and Free-holders learn In time to come how much how neare it may The publike and their private weale concern To be advis'd on whom their trust they lay For what is more unsafe or more unwise Then to commit as manie times they do Their goods their persons liberties and lives Yea and the meanes of their salvations too To their disposures whom they rather fear Then well affect of whom no good they know Of whose corruptions frequently they hear Of whose injustice sinsible they grow Whose worths are their revenue and whose wait Is meere formalitie or nev'r-a-whit What can be more absurd then to suppose They are the wisest men in all the Shire And fit'st for publike service to be chose Who wisest in their own opinions are Who come uncall'd and shuffle out their choice By suit and friends or having got perchance The overplus of one poore single voice With much ado their purpose to advance Or what a greater indiscretion showes Then to elect for Giver of your Lawes A fellow that nor Law nor Gospell knowes Nor difference 'twixt a good and evill cause And till that day pursued no other course But hunting hawking or else somwhat worse What more dishonourable can be thought Then to your Court and Senate most supreme For which the worthiest persons should be sought To send a foole or knave to sit with them Whose reverend presence should not be polluted With such companions or what one thing may A truer signe of madnesse be reputed Then thus to foole their dignitie away For since they cannot their debates decide But by most Voices what else will ensue If manie places be with such suppli'd But those events which all the Land will rue When worst designes are by the most promoted And reason shall by noise be over-voted There never was a time in which you ought To be more carefull of your choice then now If you recruit your House For men are taught By this long Parliament so well to know Each others minde each others interest And inclination that unlesse you see The number wanting in due time increast And made compleat by men that worthie be You will be as assuredly undone As if the King had tyranniz'd nay more For to oppresse you there had been but one But then you shall perhaps have many a score And therefore as you here fore-warned are In your elections use more prudent care Thy Letters of Advice ere while directed To those in whom the choice of these doth lie Have partly signifi'd what was effected And what events will still ensue thereby While such are chosen And what Caveats ought To be observed that a better choice May be hereafter and that men be sought Who wit and conscience have aswell as voice For these defects breed vip'rous wormes within The verie bowells of the Parliament More dangerous then outward foes have bin And if the Members wanting be not sent With better heed then heretofore you tooke For peace embracing truth in vain you looke Let therefore those true Patriots which are left Put forth a strong endeavour to compleat Their wasted number e're they are bereft Of power and meanes themselves to re-beget Into a perfect bodie And let none By fallacies delude you with a feare It may not now as legally be done As when the Members first convented were For that they are lawfull Parliament Although the King be absent 't is confest Ev'n by the King In whom now to prevent Their being so the power doth not consist Nor ever did of right while cause you know Why SALVS POPVLI should have it so Believe it whosoever shall pretend This Parliament hath not a legall power Her bodie to recruit is no true friend Nor fit to be a Councellour of your For seeing they have power to make a Seale It were a great absurditie to dreame They had not legally a power aswell To use as make it And if you in them Allow an use thereof that private men The benefit of justice might obtain It should much rather be allowed then In things which to the Publike-right pertaine And most especially in all affaires Concerning their own being and repaires If really a Parliament they be As without peradventure they are One Then
for furth'ring vanitie Till he and they into perdition fall Like Sheep or Bullocks slaught'red in their stall This hath so steel'd him that he can abide To heare a foolish-Gallant him deride And taking up his Poem grin and say Come let us heare what novelties we may Collect from this New-Prophet and behold What future things are here by him fore-told This makes him bold and resolute for you Who for himselfe doth bashfully pursue The meanest favour while you seeme to see Another who thereof may worthier be And therefore now this one time him regard For your owne sakes though never afterward Be warie that this VOICE you truly heed Before to any censure you proceed Condemning it or him by whom it came Lest your your selves incurre the greatest blame And thereupon this also may ensue That thousands for that censure censure you When they perceive that you a course have run Whereby you are dishonour'd and undone And to this end of those who cause have bin Of all your present Plagues and of that sin Which brought them on you that two-horned-Beast Beware of yea be warie that no Priest Of either side make void what this VOICE tels By their prejudicating it Or els By showes of Learning or fain'd Holinesse Make you beleeve that this way to expresse Divine concernments Or for Saints to use The Muses language some way doth abuse Their Sanctitie Or that this way of Preaching Is Heath'nish and a Pagan-straine of teaching For though most Poets were long time ago And yet are Priests of Lust and Drunkennesse They from their first beginning were not so But men inspir'd divinely to expresse The will of GOD and by their holy Songs To rouze up that affection in the heart Which to the Love of Pietie belongs And to incline it to the better-part At this our Author aimes and to restore That Gift to what it hath been heretofore His Muses consecrates and shewes the way That others if it please them follow may Permit not then the rigidnesse of those Who think Divinitie confin'd to prose And Verse ordain'd at first for nothing els But carnall fancies foolish charms and spels Oh! suffer none of those who have beside Their ignorance much envie and much pride Your judgements to pervert divert your eyes Or fill your eares with vanities and lies To keep off your attention from this VOICE By juggling with Formalities and noyse Both to the prolongation of your woe And losse of good effects which thence may flow For if this VOICE be welcome to your eare The blessed way of Peace it shall prepare And by the Charmings of this new-tun'd Song The rage of War shall be allaid e're long That wicked Spirit shall be charmed downe By whom the seeds of discords have beene sowne The Hags and Furies that have danced here No longer to affright you shall appeare But all the sacred vertues and the graces Shall beautifie your Desolated-places If you contemne this VOICE what e're you deem Of that it speaketh or what e're he seem Who now proclaimes it GOD shall spread the same In spight of all detractions to your shame And to the honour of that Instrument By whom it comes yea as a Monument Ev'n you and yours who sleight it shall preserve it From being lost your closets shall reserve it To bear a Testimoniall of your crimes And your impenitence to future times Or for a warning to some age to come Or to exalt GODS Justice in your doome The least of which will yeeld a rich returne For all his paines though you his labour scorne Should you despise these counsels it will shew So plainly those events which must ensue That he shall neither value those respects The world affords nor care for her neglects But your sad doomes bewailing shall desire That he and his may speedily retire To that safe resting-place wherein are found Sure shelters from those plagues that will abound And where he never more shall feel or heare The scornes of pride the rage of malice feare Or labour as he hath done heretofore To make a White-man of a Blackamoore But yet he hopes and yet a while expects Some other and more suitable effects To his desires which if they should succeed Accordingly will bring him or his seed To see forth of these Fires that Phanix rise Which is the chiefe desire of all their eyes Who love Ierusalem And with this hope His heart he comforting here makes a stop And signifies that He who doth preferre This VOICE is your despis'd REMEMBRANCER GEO. WITHER A Postscript BE pleas'd to know that though our Author gives In these four Canto's fretting Corosives He taketh no contentment in your smart But studies to perform that Leaches part Who rather seekes his patients life to save Then how to flatter him into his grave If you with patience let this Plaister lie The next that he intendeth to apply Shall be a Balsome which will cure and ease And if you be not verie hard to please Give proofe what ever knaves and fooles pretend Why ev'ry honest man should be his friend The Contents of the severall Canto's contained in this Volumne The Contents of the first Canto First here is to your view prefer'd When where and how this VOICE was heard What kind of Muzings were the ground What worlds and wonders may be found Within our selves what safe-Retreats From those oppressions frands and baits Which are without how little feare Of Terrours which affright us here How plainly there a man may see The villanies that acted be For private ends with publike showes How generall the mischiefe growes Why to acquaint you with this VOICE GOD by so meane a man makes choice Then shewes how our grand-hopes deceive us And prayes his aid that must relieve us The Contents of the second Canto This Canto's Preface being done The VOICE to these effects goes on Tells how unworthy we are yet For Peace desired how unfit How vain how harmfull Treaties be Till both Sides in one Third agree And laying by ignoble ends Vse likely meanes of being Friends Shewes that the Peace which most pursue Will be nor permanent nor true Then that some Cures may be appli'd Declares which Parts are putrifi'd Which must be purg'd without delay Or cauteriz'd or cut away If we will e're it be too late Recure this weake this dying State The Contents of the third Canto Here whether you be pleas'd or no This Author maketh bold to show That Portion of his private wrongs Whose knowledge and redresse belongs To Publike Justice that her eye May through his wounds her own espie The VOCE then speakes again and schooles In Him all other froward-Fooles Who with impatiâ—ncie do vent Their private wrongs or discontent As if their Trifles could be heard When Kingdomes cannot â—â—ndâ— regard It sheweâ— our Senate blamplesse are Of those Distractions raging here And where the Fault and Fountatine lies From whence our present plagues arise The Contents of the
wondrous Orb The Eye of Contemplation may survay Sights which no Bounds or Shaddowes do disturb There may be seene the meanes which doth disclose Though not the Essence of Eternall-things So much at least as ev'ry notion showes From whence beleefe of their true Being springs There may the Soule that hideous Downefall see Which leadeth to the brinck of Desperation There may that Entrance plainly viewed be Which guideth to a blessed Exaltation And there the Spirit to our knowledge brings The Good and Ill of all created things For hitherto I never heard of ought In Heav'n or Earth but I perceiv'd it there Yea many Novelties from thence are brought Which have no Being any other where It is indeed another WORLD within The World without me and I thither go When I to loath externall things begin And doubtfull am what in this World to do I sometime there have entertainments had Like those which may in Paradise be found Sometime againe 't is like a Chaos made Wherein deluding Fancies do abound Sometime the Light of Heav'n there seems to dwell And other while it is as dark as Hell Within our selves as GOD vouchsafes his grace That Blisse and that true happinesse is found Which men seek after in that Time and Place Which have not much relation to this ROVND I being thither guided by that Light Which faileth none there found out an abode Quite out of hearing and beyond the sight Of those distractions which I saw abroad There found I out a Resting place to hide me From scorne of Fooles and from the Strife of tongues From their despight who slander and deride me From private mischiefes and from publike wrongs From all the menaces my eares have heard From all the perils which my heart hâ—th fear'd There I with sportive sleightings did peruse That which their malice who these times do flatter Have spewed forth against my blamelesse Muse In lumps of scurrill base and witlesse matter And am content to let the OVRS alone Though loud they snarle and bawle because I find Those Beasts are by their Masters seized on And do but bark according to their kind Though not their wit their malice might perhaps Deserve a Rating and I could have flung them A Bone that would have broke or gagg'd their chaps Or throwne the Wild-fires of my Brain among them But they in vaine shall bark in vaine they raile To scratch the Scabs I scorne to foule my naile For I in that Retirement seem'd no more By such decrepit Malice to be hurt Than is a well compacted Rockie-shore On which the Billows cast up Foame and durt There shewne I was the high prerogatives The priviledges of my Second-birth And from what noble Root my Soule derives Her Pedigree though she be cloath'd with earth And could I still when I from Contemplation Returne to Act retaine in me that height Of Spirit and the reall estimation Of that wherein at those times I delight I never more an earthly hope should cherish Or prize the honours of the Beasts that perish There on a Throne above the world I sate Beholding with disdaine Terrestriall things The fruitlesse love of Mortals and their hate The Tyrannies of Subjects and of Kings There I beheld without those perturbations Which vexed me abroad how Pride and Folly Support each other by their combinations In wicked projects and in works unholy There spi'd I by what secret Links and Ties The cursed-Counsell which deludes the King And that false-pack which in our bosome lies Their dark Designes together closely bring And why so many moneths in vain are spent Their treacheries and treasons to prevent There can I sit obscur'd and spie what ends Are closely follow'd by the Politician Who seemingly the common-common-Cause befriends That he may ruine it without suspition There I descrie what avarice what frauds What spight and what hypocrisie doth lurk In many whom the publike-Voice applauds As faithfull men in carrying on the Work Without distemper there I think upon Their pride and envie who had rather see Three Kingdomes universally undone Then wained from their wilfulnesse to be Because I know GODS Worke will be effected In spight of what their madnesse hath projected There without breach of Patience I can heed How impudently some have sought to seem Of eminent desert who are indeed More worthy of contempt then of esteem How quaintly other-some can mischief do And then by policie and frauds contrive To purchase thanks and pay and favour too For that which rather should a halter have Yea there without offence I notice take How zealously Malignants are befriended How sleight account of their deserts we make Who have with life and goods the State defended And with what confidence we still confide On those that will be true to neither side There likewise without wrath I view and heare How senslesse many who are counted wise Both of advantages and dangers are Which ev'ry day appear before our eyes How needlesse good Advice by some is thought Till 't is too late how to prevent a Wound They lose a life and to be thriftie thought How they to save a groat mispend a pound How desp'rately they somtime take a Fall To scape a Slip how other while to save Some Rotten-Members they adventure all Which we by Grace or Natures Charters have All this in my Retirements I can see Yet nothing vexeth or affâ—igheth me For therewithall such meanes appear to show That both the good Endeavours of our Friends And all the Counterminings of the Foe Shall work out that at last which GOD intends And that if we contented can become To beare our Burthens but a little longer His Grace will render them lesse troublesome Or make us to sustaine them daily stronger Wherewith well pleas'd I totally resign'd My Will to his And by that Resignation Delightfull Calmes within my heart did finde So freeing me from former perturbation That all within and all without me kept Such silence as if all the world had slept As at high Midnight in a Desert Vale Or'e-hung and bordred by a Double-Hill On which there blowes not any whistling-gale Down which there flowes not any murm'ring Rill Near which nor Bird doth sing nor Beast doth play Through which no Travailer doth ever passe By which there growes no rusling leafe or spray In which no noise of Creature ever was Such seem'd that Calme which then I did possesse Or deeper if it might a deeper be And that the Silence which I now expresse May not prove empty both to You and Me In this Retreat from ev'ry other noise As from a farre to me there came a VOICE A VOICE there came From whence I will not say Judge yet to whom I shall report the same For if you mark the sense conceive you may Aswell as I from whom and whence it came So still a VOICE it was that with mine Eare I heard it not nor made it such a noise As that which our corporeall sence
doth hear Nor was it an articulated VOICE But such a VOICE as when the Spirit brings A Message down from GOD and to the heart Doth whisper those intelligible-things Which words do but imperfectly impart Or such a VOICE as from GODS written Word The Genuine sense well heeded may afford And yet it spake so plainly and did shew Those Informations which I gain'd thereby In ev'ry Circumstance to be so true That of no branch thereof misdoubt have I. Thus it began Thou Off-spring of the earth Whom Providence designed in this Nation To have thy temp'rall Being and thy Birth In this Dâ—gree and in this Generation Suppose not that in any worth of thine There could a merit or a motive be Which might Eternall-Providence incline To cast so gracious an aspect on thee As to descend so low as to thy heart The knowledge of his pleasure to impart For from thy Childhood he thy thoughts hath seen Heard all thy words observed all thy waies Can tell how vaine thy youthfull years have been And how thou hast defil'd thy elder-daies He knowes thy seeming vertues imperfections He saw what evill secretly thou didst And made thee likewise feel by due corrections That he beheld what from the world thou hidst The Folly Fraud and falshood of thy heart The vices and the vainnesse of thy tongue How false to others and thy selfe thou art How slow to good how swift in doing wrong He truly knowes and findes thee apt to do No dutie but what he compells thee to And he observed though thy guilt he smothers That thou to whom he better things hath taught Art in those Crimes as deeply di'd as others Who on this Isle these present Plagues have brought Observ'd he hath how fondly thou hast striven With Wordlings in their lusts to have a share Although to thee experiments were given What empty and pernitious things they are Yea with some indignation he discerned That madly thou didst many times partake In provocations whereof thou hadst warned This Land even those thou vowedst to forsake And that with greedinesse thou hast pursud'd Those vanities that ought to be eschew'd Although thy heart inform'd thee long agoo By an indubitable information That all the services thou couldst bestow Vpon the Minions of this Generation Should nothing profit thee Thou nerethelesse Forgetting what was counsell'd and resolved Didst fawne on some of them in thy distresse And hadst no doubt thereby thy selfe involved Within those Nets which at their Boords are spred But that GOD did permit them to contemn Thy honest Muses who a plot had laid Into those vertues to have flatter'd them Which they regard not otherwise that Course Which nothing better'd them had made thee worse When thou hadst in thy Poems vice reproved He search'd thy heart and saw it was not then Meere love to vertue whereby thou wert moved Or that thou hadst lesse guilt then other men Somtime that fickle bubble Reputation Sometime that hope which thy vaine Fancie gives thee Sometime applauses sometimes indignation Into a just reproofe of sinners drives thee Some other by-respects oft wrought upon Thy heart to rouze up in thee an indeavour In things that seemed worthy to be done But thy performances proceeded never From that true love and that sincere affection Which thou didst owe to Him and his perfection And for these things their mouths wide op'ned be Who seek to turn thy glory to thy shame Those witlesse Railers are let loose on thee Whom in thy Measures thou didst scorn to name For this thou sufferest by the sharp despights Of open-sinners and much more by farre Through those malicious and proud Hypocrites Who kindled first and still foment this warre For this thou who for others couldst espie Conceal'd events hast oft so blinded been In matters of thine own that what thine eye Seem'd fixed on thy wit hath over-seen Till to thy mind they through those meanes were brought By which each Foole and ev'ry child is taught For this wert thou deservedly depriv'd Of blessings which thou els mightst have enjoy'd And for that cause hast worthily surviv'd To see thy hopes with other mens destroy'd For this thou with the first hast plundred bin For this thou both by Friends and Foes art torn For this where thou hadst hopes respects to win Instead of honour thou reproach hast born For this thy best endeavours have been crost By them whose power could els no spite have done thee For this those paines and those designes are lost Which otherwise had greaâ— advantage won thee And but that whom GOD loves he leaveth never For this rejected thou hadst been for ever Yet such is his compassion that his love Still seeks to reingage thee by his graces Beholding thee with favour from above In wants in suffrings in all times and places According to thy trust in him reposed When thy Remembrances did first appeare As with a wall of brasse he thee inclosed From those who at thy Muse inraged were The Prelates and the Nobles who conspired To ruine thee and thereto did comply Obtain'd no power to act what they desired Though open to their fury thou didst lie Although some suffred then for milder lines By Stygmatizings Banishment and Fines When thou wert grasped in that Dragons pawes Who sought thy spoil GOD strangely charm'd his rage He from devouring thee restrain'd his Jawes Even while he rav'd and storm'd at thy presage Yea whereas thou didst imprecate on those Who should malitiously thy lines defame And without penitence their Truth oppose A Publike Marke to brand them for the same Ev'n so it came to passe For scarcely one Of those Oppressers are at this day free From having those just Censures undergone By which the publike-Foes now marked be And to the chief of them this mark GOD gave That He with shame went headlesse to his grave In all the changes of this toylsome life He kept thee with an honest Reputation He was thy comfort still in times of griefe In dangers he hath been thy preservation He sav'd thee from the furioust Pestilence That ever in this Clymate did appear And hitherto hath by his Providence Secur'd thee from the Sword yet raging here Now when they lack who surfeted of late When Bread with men more worthie groweth scant Yea though the Foe hath spoiled thy estate He keepes thy family from pinching want And makes thee hopefull whatsoere betide That he for thee and thine will still provide Moreover when thy patience was nigh tir'd When thy estate the world did most despise GOD gave thee that which most thy heart desir'd And of all things terrestriall most hath priz'd He likewise hath preserv'd thee to behold Those things in thine own life-time verifide Which seem'd as dreames when first by thee fore-told Which fooles did sleight and wiser men deride And not thus only was he pleas'd to do But now hath also call'd thee to prepare The Way of Peace and to reveale unto These British Isles
times First made carv'd Images of Wood and Stone Perhaps but meerly for Commemoration Of some deceased Worthy and at last Improv'd it into sottish adoration So Those on whom the Government was plac'd By prudent Counsell Base men by degrees So idolized and with flatteries So long in servile manner bow'd their knees To their Self-will that first to tyrannize The peoples blockishnesse and basenesse brought them Yea how to be Oppressors they first taught them And when Kings saw the peoples foolishnesse Did make themselves beleeve that their owne Creature Had therein an inherent awfulnesse Advancing it above the humane nature They quickly from that folly and that feare Advantages assumed to improve Their pow'rs It made them greater to appeare And in a more Majestick Orb to move The slavish gestures and the servile phrase Long us'd in Court did thereto so much add That he who like a man declares his cause Is judg'd unmannerly or somwhat mad Nay to that height the Royall claime is brought That none but Slaves are now true Subjects thought A Parliament you have which you obtained When you were most desirous to have had it You thereunto a priviledge have gained Which now more fixt than formerly hath made it The House of Peeres is of a party cleared Whom leaning to your Common-Foe you doubted Whose power you felt whose policie you feared And whom long since some gladly would have outed Yet had Corruption over-fill'd it so With honour'd Titles worne without deserts And with so many raised from below To sit on Princely Seats with Slavish-hearts That when your troubles well-nigh cur'd you thought Far greater mischieves were upon you brought Your House of Commons though when first convented It fill'd you with a hopefull expectation Hath ev'ry way so truly represented The Common Constitution of this Nation That little hitherto hath been effected To mitigate your Feares or settle Peace According to the issue you expected But ev'ry day your sorrowes more increase So great an inundation of confusion Is broken in upon you that in vaine You hope or labour for a good conclusion Till GOD himselfe make up the Breach againe And you with more sincerity confesse Your Guilt your Weaknesse and your Foolishnesse Betwixt You and your King there is of late A cursed Fire broke forth whose raging flame Each others ruine threatens like to that Which from Abimelech and Shechem came So damnable a Spirit of Contention Is conjur'd up that his designes are brought Past all those remedies and that prevention Which by the wit of mortalls can be wrought So madly you each other do oppose That ev'ry one consults and acts in vaine What one reares up another overthrowes What one destroyes another builds again And nothing is the vulgar expectation But ruine if not utter Desolation For crying-sins do gen'rally prevaile The Rules of Order quite aside are laid The prudence of the Counsellour doth faile The honestest-Designes are most gain-said The Grossest Falshood soonest is believ'd His cause best speedes who aimes at basest-ends The worst-Transgressour shall be soon'st repriev'd The veriest Knave shall find the Lordliest friends And when Foundations thus are overthrowne What can the Righteous do what likely hope Have Husbandmen when all is over-growne With Briars and Thornes to reap a thriftie crop Or what can by a Parliament be done Where all are with Corruption over-grown With Warlike Forces too now strongly arm'd You do appear and Martiall men abound As though each Township Bee-hive-like had swarm'd And Horse and Armes sprung daily from the ground But what have these availed in regard Of expectation Nay how multiplide Are these afflictions rather which you fear'd By their dissensions insolence or pride Your Treasures Stocks Fields they have nigh wasted Their avaritions fury to allay Yet as if they had Pharoah's kine out-fasted So greedie and so hungrie still are they That all the plenties of your peacefull years Will hardly quench that vast desire of theirs Want of sincerenesse in your chiefe Commanders Too much ambition much respect of friends Most men that hear this know these are no slanders Fraud Envie Cowardice or private-ends And gen'rally defect of Discipline Or to be plaine want of that honestie Which these Forth-breakings of the Wrath-divine Hath now required in your Soulderie Have set licentiousnesse so much at large And made most Officers presume upon Such loosnesse and so slackly to discharge Their duties that you likely are to run By your owne Forces as the matter goes Not much lesse hazard than by open Foes Your Common men this will disparage none Among you Martialists that blamelesse are Have not in misdemeanours been out-gone By many who the States opposers were They cheat rob lye curse sweare blaspheme and rore They equally oppresse both Friend and Foe They plunder scoffe insult game drink and whore And ev'rie day corrupt each other so That if this plague continue but a while You and your King so many Rogues will arme That throughout ev'rie Township of this I le This curse brood of Lice will crawle and swarme Till they have quite devoured those that fed them And pine in that starv'd Body which first bred them For though the highest honours temporarie On Souldiers are conferred whose true worth Whose vertues in employments militarie With an illustrious candor shineth forth Though they who to defend their Countries cause Themselves to death and dangers do expose Observing duly GODS and Natures Lawes Not only to their friends but to their foes Though these deserve all honours no expression Is full enough to make an illustration Of their ignoble and their base condition Who triumph in their Countries desolation And as the raskall sort of Tinkers do Pretend to mend one hole and then make two For these foure yeares of Discord have so changed The gentlenesse already of this Nation And men and women are fo far estranged From civill to a barb'rous inclination They are so prone to mutinous disorders So forward in all mischievous projections So little mov'd with robberies or murthers And so insensible of good Affections That they whom you have arm'd for your defence Will shortly ruine you unlesse preventions Be interposed by that Providence Which frustates diabolicall intentions And therefore now Conditions are propounded On which a Restauration may be grounded Yea now when Med'cines that most soveraigne were At other times have multiply'd diseases When all your Policies quite routed are To intervene a Timely-Mercie pleases Now that your Armies King and Parliaments Which were your hopefulst meanes of preservation Are made by Sin imperfect Instruments And leave these Iles almost in desperation Thou shalt once more to dis-respective men A Herald-extraordinarie be And carrie them conditions once agen Whereby they from these troubles may be free And that those Angels which now smite these Lands From Desolation may with-hold their hands Now then for Overtures of Peace provide Silence thy Trumpets let thy Drums be still Furle up thy Colours lay Commands
weather Else up and down still wrestlesly are borne And by these foolish Fires ev'n as you see By shining-vapours rising in the night Mis-led from safe high-waies poore people be To fall in Pits and Ponds by their false light So these and other have by their delusions Brought on these Nations mischieves and confusions And these confusions not alone befall The Civill State but have disord'red so Your Discipline Ecclesiasticall That Church affaires are out of order too Each one sets up their private Idoll there That man contends for this this man for that Some would have new things some for old things are Some would have somthing but they know not what Some care not what they have and some there be That would have nothing which might them confine In doing or believing but live free In ev'rie thing a perfect Libertine And most in such a posture do appeare As if the Towre of Babell raising were Some to no Congregation will repaire In which their duties are extemporarie As if because some call vaine bablings praier No man possest that guift in ordinarie Some do abhorre Set-Formes as if they thought The Spirit whereby they were first indighted Dispis'd the words which by it selfe were taught If more then once though with true zeale recited Some care not how GODS Fields are over-grown With Briars and Thornes some others are so strict That for his Vineyards they no place will owne But those from whence all weeds and stones are pickt As if they for a Church allowed not What hath a scarre a wrinkle or a spot A Militarie-Church was well exprest In ancient Hieroglyphicke by the Moone To shew that when her light was at the best And when her brightest glorie she puts on Some shadowes or some Waynings will declare That in this world she hath not her perfection And that the Sun from whom her beauties are Conveigheth light unto her by reflection Somtime that Sun doth hide his face away Lest men ascribe to Her what is His due Somtime her proper motions her convey Too high or els too farre beyond the view Of private-spirits And somtime from sight Earths Globe and somtime Clouds obscure her light Which many not consid'ring are offended Without a cause and indiscreetly marre That Beauty which to polish they pretended And 'twixt her Members raise intestine warre Some Weeds and Corne are in the blade so like That many Weeders have deceived bin And oftentimes good corne away do pick And make the crop at harvest very thin A spotlesse Church or perfect Disciplines Go seek at None-such For they are not found In any place between the Tropick-Lines Or any where upon this earthly Round Though some have shaped modells in their braine Of that whereto they never shall attaine On speculations these have doted so Which their own Fancies forme that they have lost The Body of Religion and let go That Forme thereof which must enshrine the Ghost And he who being in the flesh believes The soule of Worship can retained be Or known without a Forme himselfe deceives Yea others with himselfe deceiveth he And wanders restlesse in perpetuall motion In quest of empty-shades and to pursue Each flitting dreame and ev'ry changing Notion Which comes within his intellectuall view Till Pride upon his Fantasie begets High thoughts of his own light and in his brest Stirres up and kindles those distemper'd heats That keep the mind and body without rest And then perchance he to a meteor growes Which Fooles to be a Starre a while suppose But if you mark such well their new-borne-blaze Is quickly out and you shall see ere long Some Evills follow whereof they were Cause As well as Signes And take you this among Your Notes that when your Marches furious be Like Jehu's in Religions reformation And so pursu'd as if you said Come see Our zeale for GOD that but for ostentation Or for your own advancements you become So zealous and that when you execute GOD's mandates Jehu-like you for the same Shall tast of his false zeale the bitter-fruit That other men may learn his will to do For his owne sake and with due meeknesse too No few disosters had prevented bin If in the Worke now doing you had learn'd With whether part 't was fittest to begin Which might in GOD's own works have been descern'd For though this World in worth inferiour be To Man and though the Body be below The soule in value yet created He The meanest of these first And that may show How men should work For had Man been created Before the World or had the Soule been made Before the Body where had they been seated To exercise the Faculties they had Though noblest works should first be thought upon Sometime a meaner work should first be done A Common-wealths blest being doth depend Vpon the Church the Churches Reformation You therefore principally should intend And yet your zeale may merit commendation Though to reforme the Civill-government You first begin and waive a while the other If there shall happen some such accident As hinders the reforming both together Else peradventure while you are contriving Your Forme of Discipline there may begin A mischiefe not alone of Peace depriving But of a Countrey to professe it in And so with you it hath almost succeeded Because this freedome was not timely heeded For had you tim'd and ordered aright The Civill-Part and therewith brought along The Church-Affaires as by degrees you might The Work had prov'd lesse grievous and more strong Or had true Prudencie directed Zeale First to reforme some things pertaining to The safe well-being of the Common-weale Both had not been at once distracted so And yet in this the wisdome of the State Deserves no check but rather that Defection Throughout the Land which doth irregulate The Works in hand and keep them from perfection By multipli'd Obstructions and sometime By streightning and necessitating them For such is your corruption and your folly So false and hypocriticall you are So brutishly profane and so unholy Though you Religious-Nations would appeare That had your temp'rall grievances been eas'd And all those Priviledges been secur'd For which to be at cost you yet are pleas'd And many Deaths and dangers have endur'd Most would have hazarded nor life nor limb Nor Goods nor paines the Church to vindicate From her enthralments but to sink or swim Had left her in a deplorable state And therefore GOD permitted the pursuit Of Counsells which have brought forth bitter fruit Ev'n as a Worldling who hath spent his dayes In carnall Pleasures and hath partner bin With lewd Companions in their wicked wayes And in the practice of each crying sin When he doth feele the stroke of some disease Portending Death and that the self-same houre Those horrours on his conscience also seize Which threaten Soule and Body to devoure Desire of Life and fearfulnesse to die Distracts him so that heat once for aid Both from Physitians and Divines doth crie And having
this Parliament so highly priz'd You in your former love are growing slack This your Diana is by some despis'd Of your Distractions her the cause you make On her you laid the burthen and the blame As if due care she wanted or fore-sight When disadvantage or dishonour came By ill successe in counsell or in fight And murmured as if your hearts had said That by your Parliament you were betrai'd Such is your folly madnesse I might say That some among you so your selves expresse As if you thought it much advantage may The Publike Cause to bring her faithfulnesse Or prudence into question For you heare Collect report and have dispersed so All scandalls and dis-trusts which malice reare And daily give such credence thereunto That you who seeme to be unfained Friends Vnto this Parliament have thereby done Those mischieves to it which the Foe intends And will destroy it if this course you run Yea this your folly will more weaken it Then all your cunning Adversaries wit For this imprudencie will by degrees Your bones unsinnew and your joynts untie By this you both their hands and hearts will leese Who in your Quarrell vow'd to live and die What Devill then hath tempted you in this To sin against your soules and blinds you so That you observe not whose design it is Which you now further and whose work you do The honour of that Senate is the power And life thereof and on the life of that Dependeth ev'ry Priviledge of your Belonging to your temporall estate And peradventure some way doth extend That being to concern which hath no end It is your duty therefore to discerne And labour the defence of that which may Your being and well-being so concerne And to that purpose there is much to say For though it be your strongest Creature-guard Against Oppressors yet you can expect No safer Tutelage to be confer'd Thereby then what a Creature may effect It labours your protection but alas The worke is great and through much opposition And manie difficulties they must passe To bring this Land into a safe condition For to restore you to your peace agen 'T is now a work for GOD and not for men You heed their failings but you heed not yet Nor fullie can conceive how hard a worke They have to do nor how they are beset With enemies nor what obstructions lurke In these proceedings which make show to be Without a rub to them who stand a aloof And have not opportunitie to see What stops may rise before they come to proofe Their own infirmities as they are men And which you ought to wink at may perchance In this great enterprize be now and then Occasions of no little hinderance For who but GOD alone can perfect be Or who is fit for such a work but he The haynous sins and manie obdurations Of that great Bodie whom they represent And of those froward and divided Nations Which are concerned in their Government Give being unto many sev'rall things And actions whence oft-times an accident Vnlooked for or some hid mischiefe springs Which humane policie cannot prevent When Israel sinneth Benjamin that hath A wicked cause their Brethren down shall smite To expiate the just avengers wrath Before the cause prevailes that is upright Whilst in the camp an Achan doth remain These Counsell and your Souldiers fight in vain Though Moses govern'd you though Josuah were Call'd up to be your Armies Generall And Davids Worthies now revived here To be your Colonells events would fall Below your hopes whilst unrepented sin Is wilfully conniv'd at For that made Your Parliaments unprosprous that hath been Chiefe cause of all their failings they have had And then beside this hindrance and this bar To their successe they have a powerfull foe Opposing them as well by force of war As by what fraud and tyrannie can do And that their Faith and stoutnesse may appear A muster of their foes I give you here Their Generall in chiefe is ANTICHRIST And he the main Battalia now commands Which of those armed Locusts doth consist On whose Activitie his Empire stands Lievtenant-Generall is he that strives A conquest of your Liberties to make And counts it one of his Prerogatives As he shall please your goods to give and take He leads the Van in which with him appeares Those Princes and those Nobles who still are And were at first the wicked Councellers Who did encourage him unto this war And he of broken Courtiers up hath made And of some beggar'd Lords all this Brigade The Major-Generall who bringeth on The right wing of this Armie is the Prince Of broken fortunes who still falls upon The Carriages and Baggage that from thence He may recruit His ragged Regiments Beside those lousie and those tatter'd fellowes Late pressed for him out of Beggers Rents And freed from the prisons and the gallowes Were patch'd up out of Bankrupts cast-Commanders Cashier'd Bandettees Fellowes of the pot Debauched Players Tapsters Gamesters Panders With such as in a drunken fit were got To beare them companie And these are they Who first made plunder seem a lawfull prey The left wing by Pope would be ordered is A stately Prelate and one for whose sake Though he the Triple-crown is like to misse The war now rais'd did first beginning take He heads a Partie of as desp'rate mates As e're drew sword and manie of them be Both disciplin'd to make Assasinates And readie for it when their time they see Among these march some prudent-seeming men Some that more honestie then wealth do want Some wittie fellowes but not one for ten Of those that are extreamlie ignorant The openly prophane the closelie vitious The Papists Atheists and the Superstitious The Rear is brought up by a Libertine That is for anie Doctrine or opinion For any Government or Discipline For Protestant for Brownist for Arminian Or anie thing he pleases And he gives This libertie so far as they are able To make it good to all whom he receives Into his Troopes which are innumerable For all that would their wicked lusts fulfill All they who Law and Order do contemn All they that are ambitious of their will Ev'n all of these unite themselves to him And in his quarters manie women too Are found who not a little mischiefe do These Forces both asunder and united Have so obstructed and so manie waies This Parliament opposed and dispighted In all their consultations and assaies They have by sleight of wit by strength of hand By Treacheries by Treaties and by Spies Abroad and here at home by Sea and Land By Protestations Promises and Lies And by a thousand other tricks beside Pursu'd such meanes and courses to distract Affright discourage weaken or divide And frustrate what they shall advise oract That 't is no wonder you have sped no better But rather that the mischieves are no greater For if beside the disadvantages Which have occurred to this Parliament By open enemies you now
without Remedies And injure Strangers by their Franchises But also by mis-usage of their Grants And by their Pow'r do many times oppresse The poorest of their owne Inhabitants Enslaving them by wrongs without redresse For of those profits which conferred were As well their needy members to sustaine As decently that port and charge to beare Which to those Corporations do pertaine Most part is swallowed by a private purse Or spent in Feastings which is somewhat worse And when so bad a Corporation growes As to oppresse a Stranger or their owne He that their tyranny then undergoes Is irrecoverably overthrowne For to a Body-politike belongs No Soule And if no Soule what Conscience then And if no Conscience how can it of wrongs Be sensible when it had wronged men It doth consist of many and can raise The larger Bribe the sooner find a friend Or search out by what persons or what wayes It may him whom it profecures offend And which is worst when other enemies Time slaies This is a Foe that never dies Let therefore all your Bodies-Politike Lament their sins apart lest GOD destroy Those Priviledges which without desert And to the wrong of others they enjoy Among the rest let ev'rie Academ Lament apart till they are purged from Their great corruptions lest from out of them Your bane as from a poison'd Fountaine come For their pollutions one maine cause have bin Of all your present mischiefest yea from thence Proceeded not alone much of that sin Which hath desil'd these Isles But that offence And those divisions also which of late Have almost ruined both Church and State For there through want of prudent Government Good principles and pious education Your youth which were for knowledge thither sent Lost civill manners wit and reputation Thence was it that your Clergie-men became Such Roarers and such Tosse-pots as they were Their Life and Doctrine growne so much to blame Was first corrupted and perverted there There they were taught to fawne and flatter well For their preferment and how to become Fit Priests for Ahab Baal and … abel Or Pimps and Panders for the Whore of Româ—s GOD grant that for their sins they so may mourne That they to GOD and GOD to them may turne Let your Assembly of Divines â—â—part Repent and mourne themselves examining What aimes what hopes what purposes what heart And what desires they to their meetings bring Let them consider whether none advances Traditions of their owne to be received And to be practis'd as Gods Ordinances Which are in truth not such to be believed Let them examine whether they do carrie A due respect to Christian-Liberty If they inforce those things as necessary Of which there is no true necessity And whether they have not removed hence What might have edifi'd without offence Let it be heeded whether they have care As CHRIST himselfe and his Apostles had What things the people and the times can beare E're they impose them lest they make them mad Instead of right reforming Let them trie Their spirits well and search if there be none Who dare pretend divine Authority For that which GOD commands not to be done Let search be made if any Discipline Hath been projected for a private end Or to advance a politike Designe Which needlesly weak Christians might offend Or which may causlesse jealousies increase Inlarge your troubles or deferre your Peace Let all their Brethren of the Clergie too In every Faction seriously repent And mourn apart This let them chiesly do Who look'd one way while they another went Let them consider whether they pretend not Great diligence and zeale to bring to passe That just and pious work which they intend not So much as that which therewith cover'd was Let them examine also if the while They cozen others others will not seek With falshoods their Deceivers to beguile And to requite their practice with the like Till all these Kingdoms and these Churches rue The pathes and vanities which they pursne For as they had designes upon the State Their aimes to further so have others had Designes on them whereby they have of late To wicked purposes advantage made Some to the Presbyterian-side adhere Some to your Independents But with those Who busiest in partaking do appeare Another Faction secretly doth close Which parts it selfe among them and thereby Spies out the strength and weaknesses of either Foments their quarrellings and doth comply As friend to one side yet is true to neither But covertly by means of those two Factions Increaseth publike dangers and distractions These by this craft have made the zeale of those On either side whose purposes are good The Kingdomes peace unheeded to oppose With such as openly the same withstood So that if Envie Avarice and Pride Whence sprung that Aconite that Clergic-bane Which hath your Clergie lately giddifi'd Shall not by penitence away be tane Your quarrells will perpetuated be And neither Church nor State nor Corporation Nor Families be from divisions free Now therefore in a true humiliation Let ev'ry one of them prepare his heart For his transgressions to lament apart Your Militarie-Men apart must mourne Aswell as these And therefore that they may With true compunction from their wayes returne Let them to heart their many failings lay Let your Commanders mourne for all those harmes Which have been suffred under their Commands By their neglecting of that Law of Armes Whereon the honour of a Souldier stands Let them bewaile the plunders rapes and murthers The Breaches of Lawes-morall and Divine The violences riots and disorders Commited tho of Di c And for their Avarice and their Ambition Whereby they do prolong your sad condition Let them not thinke that none so worthie are To be advis'd withall or of esteeme For Souldiery as they that boast and sweare Or arrogate to be what they but seem Let them not think they better may confide In Officers who have not so much braine To keep their legs from slaggering aside Then in a Souldier of a sober-straine Or that this War had e're the worse went on Had all been countenanc'd in their Command Who for the worke-sake ventur'd thereupon And did aswell as others understand The moderne-Discipline and therewith too Knew what the Greeks and Romans use to do Let them repent their treacherous complying With your professed foes their favour-showing To men suspected and their grace-denying Where beâ—ter trust and more respect was owing Let them be sorrie that the faithfulnesse Or at the least the prudence which they wanted Made publike charge and dangers to increase By Passes and Protections lightly granted And let their hearts of adamant and steel Be prick'd with such remorse and penitence That in themselves a loathing they may feel Of their inhumane spoiles and insolence Committed in that Countrey which hath bred them And on their friends who payed arm'd fed them Moreover let the Gentrie of the land Bewaile their many vanities apart The duties of their