of this Cause will pour out so abundantly of his spirit upon his people attending on him in righteous wayes and will also so move their hearts to choose persons bearing his Image into the Magistracy that a more glorious product may spring up out of this then at first we can expect to the setting up of the Lord himselfe as chiefe Judge and Lawgiver amongst us And unto this the wisedome and honesty of the persons now in power May have an opportunity eminently to come into discovery For in this case and upon the grounds already layed the very persons now in power are they unto whose lot it would fall to set about this preparatory work and by their orders and directions to dispose the whole Body and bring them into the meetest capacity to effect the same The most natural way for which would seem to be by a General Council or Convention of faithful honest and discerning men chosen for that purpose by the free consent of the whole Body of adherents to this Cause in the several parts of the Nations and observing the time and place of meeting appointed to them with other circumstances concerning their Election by order from the present Ruling Power but considered as General of the Army Which Convention is not properly to exercise the Legislative Power but only to debate freely and agree upon the particulars that by way of fundmental Constitutions shall be laid and inviolably observed as the conditions upon which the whole body so represented doth consent to cast it selfe into a Civil and Politique Incorporation and under the visible forme and administration of Government therein declared and to be by each individual member of the Body subscribed in testimony of his or their particular consent given thereunto Which conditions so agreed and amongst them an Act of Oblivion for one will be without danger of being broken or departed from considering of what it is they are the conditions and the nature of the Convention wherin they are made which is of the people represented in their highest state of Soveraignty as they have the sword in their hands unsubjected unto the rules of Civil Government but what themselves orderly assembled for that purpose doe think fit to make And the sword upon these conditions subjecting it self to the Supreme Judicature thus to be set up how suddenly might harmony righteousness love peace and safety unto the whole Body follow hereupon as the happy fruit of such a settlemeut if the Lord have yet any delight to be amongst us And this once put in a way and declared for by the General and Army as that which they are clearly convinced in the sight of God is their duty to bring about and which they engage accordingly to see done How firmly and freely would this oblige the hearts and persons the counsels purses the affections and prayers with all that is in the power of this whole party to do in way of assistance and strenthning the hands of those now in power whatever straights and difficulties they may meet with in the maintenance of the publique safety and peace This then being the state of our present affairs and differences let it be acknowledged on all hands and let all be convinced that are concerned that there is not only a possibility but a probability yea a compelling necessity of a firm union in this great Body the setting of which in joynt and tune againe by a spirit of meekness and feare of the Lord is the work of the present day and will prove the onely remedy under God to uphold and carry on this blessed cause and worke of the Lord in the three Nations that is already come thus far onwards in its progresse to its desired and expected end of bringing in Christ the Desire of all Nations as the chiefe Ruler amongst us Now unto this re-uniting work let there be a readinesse in all the dissenting parts from the highest to the lowest by cheerfully coming forth to one another in a spirit of self-denial and love in stead of war and wrath and to cast down themselves before the Lord who is the Father of all their spirits in self-abasement and humiliation for the mutual offence they have been in for some time past one unto another and great provocation unto God and reproach unto his most glorious name who expected to have been served by them with reverence and godly fear for our God is a consuming fire And as an inducement unto this Let us assure our selves the meanes of effecting it will not prove so difficult as other things that have been brought about in the late war if the minds and spirits of all concerned were once well and duely prepared hereunto by a kindly work of self-denial and self-abasement set home by the spirit of the Lord upon their consciences which if he please he may doe we know not how soon Nay if we shall behold with a discerning eye the inside of that work which God hath been doing amongst us the three years last past it would seem chiefly to have been his aime to bring his people into such a frame as this is For in this tract of time there hath been as we may say a great silence in Heaven as if God were pleased to stand still and be as a looker on to see what his people would be in their latter end and what work they would make of it if left to their own wisedome and Politick contrivances And as God hath had the silent part so men and that good men too have had the active and busie part and have like themselves made a great sound and noise like the shout of a King in a mighty Hoast which whilst it hath been a sound onely and no more hath not done much hurt as yet but the feare and jealousie thereby caused hath put the whole Body out of frame and made them apt to fall into great confusions and disorder And if there be thus arisen a general dissent and disagreement of parts which is not nor ought to be accounted the lesse considerable because it lies hid and kept in under a patient silence why should there not be as general a confession and acknowledgement of what each may find themselves overtaken in and cannot but judge themselves faulty for This kinde of vent being much better then to have it break out in flames of a forward and untimely wrathful spirit which never works the righteousnesse of God Especially since what hath been done amongst us may probably have been more the effect of temptation then the product of any malicious designe and this sort of temptation is very common and incident to men in power how good soever they may be to be overtaken in and thereupon doe sudden and unadvised actions which the Lord pardons and over rules for the best evidently making appear that it is the work of the weak and fleshly part which his own people carry about with them too much
A Healing Question propounded and resolved upon occasion of the late publique and seasonable Call to Humiliation in order to love and union amongst the honest party and with a desire to apply Balsome to the wound before it become incurable THE Question propounded is What possibility doth yet remain all things considered of reconciling and uniting the dissenting judgments of honest men within the three Nations who still pretend to agree in the spirit justice and reason of the same good cause and what are the means to effect this Answ. If it be taken for granted as on the Magistrates part from the ground inviting the people of England and Wales to a solemn day of Fasting and Humiliation may not be dispaired of that all the dissenting parties agree still in the spirit and reason of the same righteous cause the resolution seems very cleer in the affirmative arguing not onely for a possibility but a great probability hereof nay a necessity daily approaching neerer and neerer to compell it if any or all of the dissenting parties intend or desire to be safe from the danger of the common enemy who is not out of work though at present much out of sight and observation The grounds of this are briefly these First the cause hath still the same goodness in it as ever and is or ought to be as much in the hearts of al good people that have adhered to it It is not lesse to be valued now then when neither blood nor treasure were thought too dear to carry it on and hold it up from sinking and hath the same Omnipotent God whose great Name is concerned in it as well as his peoples outward safety and wellfare Who knows also how to give a revival to it when secondary instruments and visible means fail or prove deceitful Secondly The Persons concerned and engaged in this Cause are still the same as before with the advantage of being more tried more enured to danger and hardship and more endeared to one another by their various and great experiences as well of their own hearts as their fellow-Brethrens These are the same still in heart and desire after the same thing which is that being freed out of the hands of their enemies they may serve the Lord without feare in holinesse and righteousnesse all the daies of their life As they have had this great good finally in their aims if Declarations to men and Appeals to God signifie any thing so as a requisite to attain this they did with great cheerfulnes unanimity draw out themselves to the utmost in the maintenance of a war when all other meanes first essayed proved ineffectual In the management of this war it pleased God the righteous Judge who was appealed to in the controversie so to bless the Council and Forces of the persons concerned and engaged in this cause as in the end to make them absolute and compleat Conquerors over their common Enemy And by this meanes they had added unto the naturall right which was in them before and so declared by their Representatives in Parliament assembled the right of Conquest for the strengthening of their just claim to be governed by National Councils and successive Representatives of their own election and setting up This they once thought they had been in possession of when it was ratified as it were in the blood of the last King But of late a great interruption having happened unto them in their former expectations and instead thereof something rising up that seems rather accommodated to the private and selfish interest of a particular part in comparison then truly adequate to the common good and concern of the whole Body engaged in this Cause Hence it is that this compacted body is now falling assunder into many dissenting parts a thing unforeseen nor unhoped for by the common Enemy all along as their last relief and if these breaches be not timely healed and the offences before they take too deep root removed they will certainly work more to the advantage of our common Enemy then any of their own unwearied endeavours dangerous contrivances in forreign parts put altogether A serious discussion and sober enlarging upon these grounds will quickly give an insight into the state of the Question and naturally tend to a plain and familiar resolution thereof That which is first to be opened is the nature and goodnes of the Cause which had it not carried in it its own evidence would scarce have found so many of the people of God adherers to it within the Three Nations contributing either their counsels their purses their bodily pains or their affections and prayers as a combined strength without which the military force alone would have been little available to subdue the common Enemy and restore to this whole body their just naturall Rights in civil things and true freedome in matters of conscience The two last mentioned particulars rightly stated will evidence sufficiently the nature and goodnesse of this Cause For the first of these that is to say the Natural right which the whole party of Honest men adhering to this Cause are by successe of their Arms restored unto fortified in and may claime as their undeniable priviledge that righteously cannot be taken from them nor they debarred from bringing into exercise It lies in this They are to have and enjoy the freedome by way of dutifull compliance and condiscention from all the parts and members of this society to set up meet persons in the place of Supreme Judicature and Authority amongst them whereby they may have the use and benefit of the choicest light and wisedome of the Nation that they are capable to call forth for the Rule and Government under which they will live and through the orderly exercise of such measure of wisedome and counsel as the Lord in this way shall please to give unto them to shape and forme all subordinate actings and administrations of Rule and Government so as shall best answer the publique welfare and safety of the whole This in substance is the right and freedome contained in the nature and goodnesse of the cause wherein the Honest party have been engaged For in this all the particulars of our civill right and freedome are comprehended conserved in and derived from their proper root In which whilst they grow they will ever thrive flourish and increase whereas on the contrary if there be never so many fair branches of liberty planted on the root of a private and selfish interest they will not long prosper but must within a little time wither and degenerate into the nature of that whereinto they are planted And hence indeed sprung the evil of that Government which rose in and with the Norman Conquest The root and bottome upon which it stood was not publique interest but the private lust and will of the Conqueror who by force of armes did at first detein the right and freedome which was and is due to the whole body
of the people For whose safety and good government it self is ordained by God not for the particular benefit of the Rulers as a distinct and private interest of their own which yet for the most part is not onely preferred before the common good but upheld in opposition thereunto And as at first the Conqueror did by violence and force deny this freedome to the people which was their natural right and priviledge so he and his Successors all along lay as bars and impediments to the true National interest and publique good in the very National Councils and Assemblies themselves which were constituted in such a manner as most served for the upholding of the private interest of their Families And this being challenged by them as their Prerogative was found by the people assembled in Parliament most unrighteous burdensome and destructive to their liberty And when they once perceived that by this Engine all their just rights were like to be destroyed especially being backed as it was with the power of the Militia which the late King for that purpose had assumed into his hands and would not upon the peoples application to him in Parliament part with into the hands of that great Councill who were best to be entrusted with the Nations safety this was the ground of the quarrell upon a civil account between the King and his party and the whole body of adherents to the cause of the peoples true liberty whereof this short touch hath been given and shall suffice for the opening of the first Branch of this Cause The second branch which remaines briefly to be handled is that which also upon the grounds of natural right is to be laid claim unto but distinguishes it self from the former as it respects a more heavenly and excellent object wherein the freedome is to be exercised and enjoyed that is to say matters of Religion or that concern the service and worship of God Unto this freedome the Nations of the World have right and title by the purchase of Christs blood who by vertue of his death and resurrection is become the sole Lord and Ruler in and over the conscience for to this end Christ died rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living and that every one might give an account of himself in all matters of Gods worship unto God and Christ alone as their own Master unto whom they stand or fall in judgement and are not in these things to be oppressed or brought before the Judgment-seats of men For why shouldest thou set at nought thy Brother in matters of his Faith and conscience and herein intrude into the proper office of Christ since we are all to stand before the Judgment-seat of Christ whether Governours or governed and by his decision onely are capable of being declared with certainty to be in the right or in the wrong By vertue then of this Supream Law sealed and confirmed in the blood of Christ unto all men whose souls he challenges a propriety in to bring under his inward rule in the service and worship of God it is that all Magistrates are to fear and forbear intermedling with giving rule or imposing in those matters They are to content themselves with what is plain in their commission as ordained of God to be his Minister unto men for good whilest they approve themselves the doeâ—s of that which is good in the sight of men and whereof earthâ—y and worldly Judicatures are capable to make a cleare and perfect judgement In which case the Magistrate is to be for praise and protection to them In like manner he is to be a Minister of terrour and revenge to those that doe evill in matters of outward practice converse and dealings in the things of this life between man and man for the cause whereof the judicatures of men are appointed and set up But to exceed these limits as it is not safe nor warrantable for the Magistrate in that he who is higher then the highest regards and will shew himself displeased at it so neither is it good for the people who hereby are nourished up in biting devouring wrathfull spirit one against another and are found transgressors of that Royal law which forbids us to doe that unto another which we would not have them do unto us were we in their condition This freedome then is of high concern to be had and enjoy as well for the Magistrates sake as for the peoples â—ommon good and it consists as hath been said in the Magistrates forbearing to put forth the power of rule and coercion in things that God hath exempted out of his Commission So that all care requisite for the peoples obtaining this may be exercised with great ease if it be taken in its proper season and that this restraint be laid upon the Supreme Power before it be erected as a fundamental Constitution among others upon which the free consent of the people is given to have the persons brought into the exercise of Suprem Authority over them and on their behalf and if besides as a further confirmation hereunto it be acknowledged be the voluntary act of the ruling Power when once brought into a capacity of acting legislatively that herein they are bound up and judge it their duty so to be both in reference to God the Institutor of Mâ—gistracy and in reference to the whole Body by whom they are entrusted this great blessing will hereâ—y be so well provided for that we shall have no cause to feare as it may be ordered By this meanes a great part of the outward exercise of Antichristian Tyranny and bondage will be plucked up by the very roots which till some such course be held in it will be alwayes apt to renew and sprout out afresh under some new forme or refined appearances as by late yeares experience we have been taught For since the fall of the Bishops and persecuting Presbyteries the same spirit is apt to arise in the next sort of Clergy that can get the ear of the Magistrate and pretend to the keeping and ruling the conscience of the Governors Although this spirit and practice hath been all along decried by the faithful adherents to this Cause as a most sore oppression and insufferable yoke of bondage most unrighteously kept up over the consciences of the people and therefore judged by them most needfull to be taken out of the way And in this matter the present Governors have been willing very eminently to give their Testimony in their publique Declarations however in practice there is much of grievance yet found among us though more in probability from the officiousnesse of subordinate Ministers then any clear purpose or designe of the chief in power Having thus shewed what the true freedom is in both the Branches of it that shines forth in the righteous Cause wherein the good people of these Nations have so deeply engaged It will not be improper in the next place to