company to follow you you will I hope be so good natur'd as to abide with them or stay for them till they come to your light for you are not so melancholick as cholerick nor have you so good a Cause Conscience in your present contests as to live alone with it But tell us whither you would have us to withdraw whether into our own souls to minde a more inward and spiritual work or into our families callings and congregations to attend the worship of God in a private way and to leave Government and outward National work to them that are ingaged in it But I fear you rather invite us into Wales to joyn with you there or to raise a party here in England to begin another War and if this be your minde I shall onely in telling you why the Lords people cannot joyn with you take my leave of you I. First We were urg'd and prick'd on to the former War by a necessity of a being for the spirit of the King and Bishops were such that we could not live with a Liberty of our Consciences under their Government Now having obtain'd this though it be with great expence of Blood and Treasure yea of many of our outward Rights and Liberties yet we had rather sit down quietly in this Freedom with safety than hazard this and all we have left us by a New War II. Secondly War is a violent and desperate medicine to be applied onely in case of necessity upon incurable Enemies whose spirits are set at such a distance from and enmity to the light of Godliness it self that they are beyond the reach of conviction such beasts are fit for the sword who never felt nor knew any power but outward force But for brethren that have been and are enlightned and become subject to the leadings of conscience though they be fallen into a temptation and snare the remedy for such is not carnal but spiritual and that is Light to be administred with patience and long-suffering to the conscience and that too so long as there is any spark of life or any sence at all of the fear of the Lord left in them being by it capable of reproof and instruction they should be attended upon with suteable means in love and mercy If all means of this kinde should prove ineffectual and that they should go on to sin wilfully after they have received the knowledge of the truth yet an outward Sword would be improper they being prepar'd and reserv'd for a greater punishment a certain fearful looking for of judgement and fiery indignation Heb. 10.26 27. But I believe you cannot think that our Governors are gone so far back into obstinate and wilful Wickedness for those things about which you differ are disputable things and remote from Godliness propounded and prosecuted with much carnal zeal and offensive weakness And therefore it cannot be interpreted Wilful Ignorance not to be convinc'd but Weakness And alas do not we see they are in a continual hurry tossed with dangers striving all they can for life which occasions passions that darken the minde Their spirits must needs be disturbed and distempered with a multitude of worldly perplexing Cares and therefore 't is no wonder they take in or give forth no more light or that their spirits and way is dark and misty From a State so sick as ours is so dangerously shaken cannot be expected any acts of cleer Judgment nor any progress in the work of Reformation And now while their Enemies are plotting Mischief and watching for Advantage and all they can do is little enough to preserve our Safety for us in this season to impose our own Opinions upon them and to withdraw from them and threaten them with Division and War for not following them is very unseasonable and unbrotherly and weakens their hands that should be strengthned for our Defence Thirdly We do see that in all reason a New War amongst our selves would open a way for the common Enemy to destroy both parties 't is well if all united can subsist against them But our Divisions are their great hope and the life of their Cause the onely thing that supports their spirits and hardens them in opposition You complain in your Paper That they are offended and that stumbling-blocks are laid in their way But its evident That nothing keeps them at such a distance from us and conviction as our differences amongst our selves which gives them hopes of recovering all and those hopes uphold pride and enmity Therefore to war upon our Brethren were to take their work out of their hands and to betray that remnant that is left us to the sword first then to their malice Fourthly We are indeed weary of War and do finde that it is at best but a sad carnal thing For though this War was undertaken with some Honesty and Simplicity against a Malignant and Oppressing Enemy yet we see no cause of glorying or boasting of it for we finde the Sword is a devouring thing it wastes Treasure impoverishes a Nation and loads it with Taxes We complain of Taxes 't is not the fault of Governors but the nature of the Sword is such it hath a great Mouth and must be fed or worse and to begin New War would multiply Taxes as we multiply Armies and Forces War devours our Priviledges Rights and Freedoms 't is Iron that breaks all into pieces 't is rough and hard and will tear down Councils Laws Governments Property and Freedom 'T is not the men that use it but the nature of the Sword and its ministry is to tread down all things before it and those that are exercis'd in it must either obey its commands and follow its rules or else the Sword it self will go from them or be taken from them and be imploy'd against them This the Sword hath done amongst us and they that draw it again will certainly waste what is left us of Right and Property and leave us quite destitute War wastes the peace and quiet of mens mindes and fills them with Fury For Every battel of the Warrior is with confused noise and garments rolled in blood Isa 9.5 Blood strangely stains the nature of man makes him bruitish uncivil unsubject to Law and Authority and fills the mindes of men with sounds and voices of Confusion and Division of Fire and of Wrath which makes men tumultuous proud cruel and imperious Men after a War are an unquiet Sea apt to be moved upon every discontent to War again And this Blood rouls and tumbles in your Fancies that you know not how to settle to a quiet life but long to be in action again Although there was a Righteousness and Justice in our late War against our Enemies yet it was not so pure a work but if we look back upon it we may see cause of Repentance both from the nature of the work and from the subject upon whom it was administred War when it is a Dispensation
Well-wishers to your Souls everlasting Happiness though we must with equal Pity and Detestation Declare against your Designs and Way A WORD for GOD. THe wise God that teacheth the fowls of Heaven to know their appointed times who directs his peoples work in Truth hath we hope Ier. 8.7 directed us after a long time of silence and carnest seeking the Lord to express and declare what we sinde in our consciences touching the transaction of this season and though some may think as we our selves have been tempted to think That this is a time wherein the prudent should hold his peace it being such an evil time that men are made Offenders yea Traytors for Words yet considring how the Lords Remembrancers should not keep silence Ier. 20.9 and fearing that if we should altogether hold our peace at such a time as this as Mordecai said to Hester Deliverance would come another way Isa 62.6 and we could expect no share in the inlargement of Gods people or safety in the day of trouble Hest 4.14 Withal sinding how Self would prompt us like Issachar to see that rest is good and outward prosperity pleasant Gen. 49. â—5 and how the same temptations which we sinde and fear many of our dear Brethren to be under have set upon some of us as to have mens persons in admiration because of advantage and by good words fair speeches and promises to be deceived and drawn away in simplicity Inde 16 especially by the example of some eminent in en like Peter insomuch that many Barnaba's are carried away with their dissimulation Rom. 16 18. and aswel Ministers as Military men willing to serve the King for his work and wages 2 Sam. 15.7 However seeing every man must give an accompt unto God for himself we have examined what particular duty was incumbent upon us Gal. 2.13 and how in faithfulness towards God and meekness towards Men 2 Chron 4.23 we should perform the same Moreover considering how the Saints did formerly bear their testimony not loving their lives unto the death and by the blood of the Lamb and their testimony did overcome Rom. 14.12 and how God did heretofore stir up some of his people both in England and Scotland to bear witness to the Truth and ways of God Rev. 12 7. against the ways and wickedness of Men as a Forlorn-hope though they were in comparison but a few Numb 14.6 7 8 9. like Joshua and Caleb two of twelve or li the two Witnesses a small yet suffcient number Observing also That there are present Truths and every work being beautiful in its season Rev. 11 3. as in the begining of the late Wars was the witnessing against the Book of Common Prayer Surplice Cross in Baptism 2 Pet. 1 12. and other Ceremonies being Superstitious things imposed by the Bishops and against Ship-Money Monopolies c Civil things imposed formerly by the King All which were afterwards declared protested and covenanted against which Protestation and Covenant are fresh in the memories and pressing the Consciences of some of us even unto this day besides the Engagement and the several Acts of Parliament made against Monarchy or Kingly Government All which now seem to be forgotten or neglected And those that spake or writ in defence of such things as the Parliament Army and the Godly people in the three Nations approved asserted and purchased at a dear rate are now accounted Fanatick Fools Disturbers of Civil State and Intermedlers in things that concern them not under which notion many suffer Imprisonment and other tryals as Evil-doers from those men who now build what they did once destroy and justifie what they did once condemn Aug. 1. 1650. p. 11 12 Witness their own Writings particularly The Declaratio of the Officers and Soldiers of the English Army whereof the Lord Cromwel was General The words whereof are as followeth We are perswaded in our Consciences That the late King and His Monarchy was one of the ten Horns of the Beast spoken of Rev. 17.13 c. And that we were called forth by the Lord to be instrumental to bring about that which was our continual prayer unto God viz. The destruction of Antichrist and the deliverance of his Church and people And upon this single accompt we ingaged not knowing the deep Policies of worldly States-men and have ever since hazarded our lives in the high places of the field where we have seen many wonders of the Lord against all the Opposers of the work of Iesus Christ whom we have all along seen going with us and making our way plain before us And having these things singly in our eye namely The destruction of Antichrist The advancement of the Kingdom of Christ The deliverance of his Church and the establishment thereof in the use of his Ordinances in Purity according to his Word and the just Civil Liberties of English mem These with many other expressions both in the Declaration and several other Papers of the Army Letters of the General cited both in the Declaration of the Members of several Churches and Petitions of the three Colonels Sanders Okey Allured besides several other Papers which might be instanced in which we leave to all unbyassed men to consider and compare with actions done by the sarne men since that time But in pursuance of our duty to God our fellow Members and Countrey-men as we are Christians having a right to the things of Christ and as we are men having a right to our Native Priviledges We do Declare our real Apprehensions and Consciences which to the great grief of some of us we have so long concealed waiting if God might by his providence alter our mindes I. That the Sins and present condition of this Nation holds paralel in many things with the old Israelites after the mighty wonders of God shewed unto them in their great deliverance out of Egypt For instance Psal 106.13 They and we have soon forgot God our Savior and the great works which he did we have not set our hearts aright and our Spirits have not been stedfast with God but have gone back and dealt treacherously Psa 78.9.10 and turned aside like a deceitful Bowe and not trusting to his salvation have provoked the Lord to anger with our invention Ps 106.28 29. so that men have dominion over our bodies and over our cattel at their pleasure 〈…〉 37. And we are in great distress for this is a day of trouble and of blasphemy for the children are come to the birth and there is not strength to bring forth II. That blessed Cause and those noble Principles propounded and prosecuted by the old Parliament and the Good people of this Nation in the maintaining of which God did miraculously appear are now altogether laid aside and lost and another Cause and Interest quite contrary as we conceive espoused and maintained for then the Advancement of
Christs Kingdom the Extirpation of Popery and Popish Innovations the Priviledges of Parliament the Liberty of the Subjects and an equal Distribution of Justice were declared and fought for and Tyranny Oppression Injustice Arbitrariness Destroying the Priviledges of Parliaments we declared and engaged against But how far some men have now receded from and acted contrarily to the dishonor of God Scandal of Religion great grief of many faithful men and the strengthning of the wicked in their principles and justifying their practices we leave to the consideration of all those that are sober and wise III. Moreover the unadvised and unwarrantable changing of the Government and a swearing thereunto doth as we judge put a Necessity upon the chief Undertaker thereof to overthrow the very foundation of a Commonwealth and to maintain the things comprized in the said Instrument whether right or wrong And to turn the very edge and dint of his Sword against the faces and bowels of such as should or shall declare their Consciences contrary thereunto IV. As a consequence and fruit of this Forbidden Tree many of the choice Servants of God and Faithful of the Nation some Gentlemen Ministers of the Gospel Soldiers c. are imprisoned without knowing their Accusers or having so much as was granted by the Heathens to the Apostles or the benefit of a fair and publick trial according to the Fundamental Laws of this Nation V. Under pretence of Necessity still to continue the heavy Burthens of Taxes Art 27. â—â— 30. Customs Excize c. upon the Nation without yea contrary to the consent of the People represented in Parliament and contrary to their own Instrument VI. Notwithstanding all the fair pretences and promises of Reformation yet what abominable and horrible Impieties Injustice and Oppression are there couched and covered under this new Form from the head to the tail as the Prophet saith treading in the footsteps of their predecessors witness the receiving of the Honors Profits Customs Benefits Tenths and First-fruits coming in formerly to the Crown the Exalting of Sons Servants Friends and Favorites though some of them known to be wicked men to the highest places and greatest preferments which the good Rulers of old as Gideon Nehemiah and others did not do because of the fear of the Lord the bondage which was heavy upon the people Witness also the Unreasonableness of the Army to have so many Officers which might easily be reduced to a lesser number and both Officers and Soldiers for many years to receive their pay even in a time of Peace when the poor Peasants or Tenants who pay but Ten shillings Rent per Annum do pay out of their Penury to maintain them in their Pomp and Luxury VII We cannot without grief mention the sad eftects of the secret Design of Hispaniola to the loss of so many mens Lives Expence of so much Blood and Treasure and the indangering of this Commonwealth by Invasion as also thereby rendring us a scorn and a snuff to all the Nations round about Lastly We do Declare and publish to all from our very hearts and souls That those of us that hand any hand in joyning with the Parliament and Army heretofore had no other Designs against the late King or his party save as they were Enemies to the Lord Christ his Kingdom and people hinderers of his work and Oppressors of the Nation and that it never came into our hearts to think or intend the pulling down of one Person to set up another or one Unrighteous Power to permit another but as we aymed primarily at the Glory of God so likewise at the general good of the Nation and particular benefit and just Liberty of every man And it grieves us that any just cause is given them to stumble at Professors or complain that they are deprived of their Freedom and several ways more oppressed than in the days of the wickedst Kings We do also believe in our hearts That though the wors t things are not without Gods permission and providence yet that this Government is not of Gods Approbation or taken up by his counsel or according to his Word and therefore we do utterly disclaim having any hand or heart in it And for the Contrivers and Undertakers thereof we suspect and judge them to be great Transgressors therein and so much the more because they are Professors of Religion Declarers Engagers and Fighters against the very things they now practice And it is most evident to us that they thereby build again what before they did destroy and in so doing they render Themselves the Cause Religion Name and People of God abominable to Heathens Papists and profane Enemies which is a grief to our souls to consider We do also detest the practices of these men in imprisoning the Saints of God for their Consciences and Testimony and just men who stand for Moral and just Principles and the Freedom of the Nation and people and their breaking of Parliaments to effect their own Designs We do also from our souls witness against their new Modeling of Ministers as Antichristian and keeping up of Parishes and Tythes as Popish Innovations and we disclaim all Adherents to owning of or joyning with these men in their ways and do withdraw 2 Tim. 3. and desire all the Lords people to withdraw from these men as those that are guilty of the Sins of the Latter days Matth. 24. and that have left following the Lord and that Gods people should avoid their sin lest they partake with them in their plagues Thus concluding our Testimony we subscribe our Names hereunto William Jones John Morgan John Thomas Evan Jones John Philips Thomas Jones John Beevan Thomas Lewis Gabriel Lewis Howel Thomas Thomas Philips Willliam Howels William Waters Howel John John Price Meredith Philips William Jenkins Thomas Prosser Jenkin Grissith Howel Williams Thomas Williams Richard Howel Watkin Price William Powel Thomas Powel Lewis Williams Lewis Reece Reece John Howel Reece Richard John Richard Price John David David Morgan Morgan William Morgan Robert John William Lewis David Thomas Edwards Reece John Jenkin Jones William Jones Ienkin Rosser Rice Rosser Nicholas Griffiths Lewelin Beevan Iames Powel Mirick Morgan Evan Meredith William Jones Meredith Rees William Edward Richard Roberts Lewis David Morgan Iohn Richard Thomas Meredith William Wilkin Rice William watkin Reece David Watkin David David William William Philips Iohn Williams Henry Thomas Iohn Iones Iohn Farmer Henry Meredith Trehern Morgan Richard David Evan Iohn Edward Evan. Thomas Evan. David Evan. Howel Waters Ienkin Waters Iohn Howel Philip David Rice Richard Edward Matthews Watkin Richard Thomas Evan. Lewelin Ienkin. Ienkin William Thomas William Evan Lewelin Iohn Lewis William waters Morgan David Iohn David David Walter Reece Iones Philip Iones Iervice Iones Edward Ienkins Watkin Ienkins David Thomas Rice Iones Evan Iohn David William Henry Williams Iohn Bedward Thomas Tunman Robert Tunman Roger Grissith Thomas Morgan William Price David Davies David
Angel refreshed who feeds him twice v. 5 6 7. and 't was such miraculous food that he walked forty days and forty nights in the strength of that meat ver 8. and so came to Horeb the mount of God He hath left Israel and so by the help of Angels being extraordinarily assisted he arrives at Gods mount and waits upon God there where at first he declar'd his Covenant with his people by giving them his righteous Law Such a man so assisted in such a way you cannot think it an injury to you to be set by him though you meet with a reproof there While he was here in a Cave the word of the Lord came to him What dost thou here Elijah This is not thy place thou art not in thy work thy Ministry is hot thy Spirit active but I intended it to be imploy'd in and with Israel not against them to keep alive that little good that is in them not to separate from them and destroy them Elijah answers and to save himself from the reproof says I have been very jealous for the Lord God of Hosts That what he had done was for the Lord God and that in great zeal he had left them that left the Lord Why should he continue any longer with the children of Israel His heart was for God for they have forsaken thy Covenant not onely broken their own Covenants but thine too Thrown down thine Altars The Name of Christ and his Cause lies as it Were buried They have killed thy Prophets and Ministers for their Testimony and I I onely am left He thought there was none true because none of his temper and none in Israel because none in his cave And they seek my life to take it away I must leave them or dye I can't live amongst them ver 10. Then God calls him forth of his private hole his Cave into which he was retired and from his melancholick jealous narrow fearful Spirit where he could see nothing but himself and his own dark apprehensions to consider God in his several ways and dispensations ver 11. Go forth and stand upon the mount before the Lâ—rd And to discover to him of what Spirit he is shews him himself and what things or spirits work or act before God and yet God not in them A great and strong wind rends the mountain and breaks the rocks in pieces after the wind an earthquake more terrible then the wind and after that a fire more fierce than the earthquake He expected to finde God in these but could not therefore of each 't is said God was not in the wind nor in the earthquake nor in the fire He had been exercis'd in such kinde of Dispensations which did either threaten or execute fierce wrath but men were not converted by such violent and terrible works At this he was troubled and thinks that Israel in refusing such mighty things had for ever refus'd the Lord himself but he was mistaken if he so thought for God was not in these things Neither was he himself moved by either of these till the fourth came which was a still small voice He looked upon the other but finding not God there his very nature retired from them being boystrous and violent But as soon as the still small voice came which was humane and gentle of his own nature heard best and understood best within at home in his very heart this was one with him and presently he wraps his face in his mantle and goes forth and stood in the entring in of the cave This still small voice onely had power upon his heart to draw it forth from it self to God All men good and bad that are turn'd aside from God by any kinde of Lust or Passion run into some secret dark Den where they lie Now all Legal blustring Ministry's may for a while affect or affright but draw not the creature out from himself where he is lodg'd till God sends a still small voice into his heart which is the word in thy heart and mouth This doth a little convince Elijah That God was another thing than he for the present apprehended him and therefore asham'd of himselft he wraps his face in his mantle and yields to go forth to God but is not yet fully convinc'd of his error When men are strong and high in their spirits wherein they think they are for God 't is hard to convince them That their Zeal is not for God but for their own Ministry and way for their own Lives and Honors When God had moved him a little nearer to himself he falls upon him again What doest thou here Elijah or What hast thou to do here Thou art an Israelite one with them of the same nature hast sin in thee as well as they and they righteousness as thou hast Why doest thou separate from them and become an Enemy to them He stands stiffly for his way that it was Zeal for God saying the same words that he said before ver 14 A consident and froward Spirit God finding him so sixt in this angry way as not to be instructed by the sight of God he leads him forth into a work suitable to his minde he was full of wrath and therefore God imploys him in a way wherein he might give him vent If nothing will please thee but to plague Israel my people for their sins Elijah shall bring it forth but not administer it by his own hand Go on thy way to Damascus anoint Hazael king of Syria what a terrible malignant and cruel enemy to poor Israel this Hazael proved is afterward declar'd 2 King 8.12 Yet his name signifies visions of God or seeing of God he might have his strength from the same ground that Elijah had Seeing what God had done to Israel and how Israel had sinn'd against God and that seeing upon this God had forsaken Israel from this his Sword might he whetted against Israel And this is the first-born of Elijah his fiery Spirit ver 16. And Iehu shalt thou anoint to be King over Israel a man terrible enough against Idolatry against Ahab Iezebel and the Prophets of Baal but constant to himself so his name signifies and so he was though a great Zelot against the corruption in Court and in the Prophets and that according to the Word of the Lord yet he had an eye to his own Honor And this was Elijah his second Son and doubtless there was much of self in Elijah I have been very zealous I I onely am left and they seek my life His third command was Elisha shalt thou anoint Prophet in thy room The meaning was this this Spirit of Elijah was of too violent a temper and therefore like Iohn it must decrease he must give over to another to Elisha the salvation of God so his name signifies And 't is the best of this Spirit it spends its fierceness and is at last being weary of it self willing to resign to him whose nature is
transactions they are these Animad I. That in the truest love of my heart to them that are imprison'd yea in the same love I have to my self I have thought that while their spirits are thus acted 't is better for them to be in a Prison than upon the Throne to be under Restraint than in Action Animad II. That our Governors had much the better of the Prisoners in meekness moderation and long-suffering from what I have observ'd In their desires of agreement slowness to wrath tenderness in inflicting restraint seeking of peace after they were restrain'd as if they would not touch a hair of their heads onely binde their hands from doing mischief Animad III. That the Prisoners were more fierce and did more injury to our Governors than our Governors to them so that our Goevrnors are indeed the sufferers for how small a thing is a gentle outward restraint But tongues are swords and when sharpned with Zeal furbush'd with Scriptures Praying Preaching they cut deep into Name and Spirit for publick persons to be sentenc'd and condemn'd in the name of God in publick Assemblies as thieves oppressors perjur'd persons hypocrites apostates If it be but in passion and discontent 't is a cross but if there be any thing of the truth or righteousness of Man in it or the displeasure of God 't would be a sore crucifying to any private person and must be much more to persons in authority Government and publick Safety suffering with them There is an Objection in your former Article which is a branch of this subject They are imprison'd say you for declaring their Consciences concerning which I shall barely propound these Questions Quest I. Whether there be in any of these wordly things an act of pure Conscience Or whether the subject matter being outward things as Government Power c. Conscience be not at least mix'd with Interest Faction and Passion Quest II. Whether there be not reason to judge according to the rate that Conscience now goes at that the Protector is bound to keep Peace and prevent a War by the law of Conscience to preserve other mens lives as well as by the law of Nature to save his own Quest III. Suppose one Conscience hath a minde to keep Peace another hath a minde to make War which of these should we that are indifferent people count the best Conscience Quest IV. If in matters of publick Concernment the Consciences of publick persons and private persons justle which of them do you think should take place Quest V. If two Consciences cross each other in their motions whether that which hath most light and strength and is most pure should not yield to that which is darker and weaker Quest VI. Whether then the Subscribers who profess Conscience onely and stand in the single right of Conscience ought not to yield to the Conscience of Governors cumber'd with reason of State publick Affairs I dare not engage too far in this point of Conscience nor be too serious in it therefore have I thus slightly pass'd it over The fifth Article says Vnder pretence of Necessity still to continue the heavy burthens of Taxes Customs Excise c. Animad I. An Army is necessary till there be a Government establish'd by the declar'd consent of the People and that voluntary Animad II. 'T is probable such an establish'd Government were it never so firmly united yet would not as the state of Affairs are at this time be without a standing Army though well im prov'd and reduc'd Animad III. 'T is the original and great Quarrel twixt us and the King who should have the Militia and we have prevail'd and got the Sword into honest mens hands he that designs the overthrow of the Army gives the whole Cause back to the Cavalier and opens a way for him to return to his power and malice 't was force not law or reason which subdued him and it must be force not law or reason that still subjects him Animad IV. He that propounds a Power to stand now without an Army requires from another what he would not do himself he doth but declare against the Sword that he might get it into his hands and this is the meaning I think of this Paper to tell us of Peace to perswade others to lay down the Sword that they may take it up Animad V. An Army is as necessary to preserve the Subscribers as any sort of people they being as much obnoxious to the malignity and rage of the people as any others and would first feel the wane of a Guard Animad VI. If an Army be necessary Pay is necessary and so Taxes Customs c. But indeed 'T is not Saint-like to complain of Taxes or to resist them 'T is the cry of the Malignant and of the poor Neuter Taxes Excize c. and they may be pitied for alas they lose their Religion and yet pay for our Liberty to maintain that which is grievous to them but we that once would have given half of our Estates for half that Freedom that we now enjoy for our souls in the things of God now to complain shews either no love the freedom of our souls less or our money more I think 't is visible that our Governors impose no more than is necessary and that they strain and stretch things to the utmost being unwilling to exceed the lowest rate of Taxes and that they really pinch themselves to save the people The sixth Article says Notwithstanding the fair pretences and promises of Reformation yet what abominable and horrible Impieties Injustice and Oppression c. I could wish you did but see how ill it becomes Saints to bestow their Rhethorick upon Sin to set it forth in its bravery and how ill it becomes Sin to wear such gay clothes of high language from your mouthes And how sin is cherish'd in being led forth into open view by the hand of her best friend Enmity and enmity 'twixt brethren and that you knew that the pure and good spirit of love that covers sin that buries it in inward sorrow or in Christ his grave or draws forth grace and mercy to wash it away that 's the spirit that is sins onely enemy These great Epithites and Strains being misplac'd I doubt they are also unjust passionate and affected speech of others evils are commonly inordinate and injurious The particulars are I. First Receiving the Honors Profits Customs Benefits c. coming in formerly to the Crown If this be abominable and horrible it s very common I believe there is scarce a Gentleman of the Subscribers or any other person of quality but receives either Honor or Profit that formerly belong'd to the Crown For both the Honor and Profits are shar'd generally amongst all sorts Fee-farm Rents and other Lands the Honor and Power of all Committees over the people to sequester to levy money to dispose livings are of the Crown II. Secondly Tenths and First-fruits 'T is the continuing things
and spurn against those that are next us But if the Subscribers or any others do think that it is the design of the Protector Himself or Himself and Council to carry us back again into Egypt into a Land of tyranny and oppression or persecution and to make himself and posterity Lords over us there I will not perswade your charity to think otherwise There is it may be so great a breach and we have conceiv'd such dismal apprehensions one of another that there is no talking of love But we may suppose that we have not quite lost our reason though we have our faith and love do then but use your reason and you cannot think that the Protector can be so weak as to attempt such a design or so strong as to effect it if he should aim at it For if he would carry us back to Egypt his way were to heal Egypt and to restore the old malignants as the proper Supporters of Royalty and Greatness and instruments of suppressing us and our principles of Liberty One while all the cry of jealousie was He favor'd Malignants that Malignants got up again but His late acts against them take away this doubt and tell us the breach 'twixt them and him can never be heal'd neither can we in reason think that ever they should trust him or he them For though they do love outward pomp and tyranny and persecution the companions of it yet they could not but hate it in him who is as they think a Destroyer and Persecutor of them and their way neither can he expect any thing from them but all the revenge an inraged enemy can plot or act therefore if he looks back to Egypt he meets with a Red sea which lately devour'd Pharaoh and his host the same sea of blood waits to receive him if he return If his way to Egypt be block'd up so that he must resolve to cleave to Israel as his onely hopes Can he think then that Israel will turn Egyptians Or do we think that he can debauch the honest party so as to blot out of their souls all principles of Religion and Liberty and to make them slaves to his lusts of Pride and Tyranny Can he think to lull asleep all those lively awakenings of Courage and Zeal for Liberty which move so highly amongst us or to perswade that Day of Light that hath overspread mens mindes as to outward Freedom to retire again and to lie down in darkness that he might tyrannize over us unseen and unfelt can he or you think that besides Dissenters that hate the appearance and shew of Tyranny there are not thousands that abhor to bear the Yoke of Slavery from any much less from him a Brother and if they did not see and feel or hope for at least an honesty and uprightness in him would both desert and oppose him If he should meet with some few weak hearted Mungrels that would flatter his Greatness and fall before it yet should he but discover a Heart to depart from principles of Liberty to Tyranny not onely Passion and Discontent but the very heart life and spirit of Truth and Honesty in the whole party would with scorn reject him Therefore be is ingaged and hedg'd in that if he should have a lust after Ambition he knows not which way to have it or how to compass it without apparent ruine to his very standing and being which is upon the Foundation of honest men and honest things take him off from that bottom he is the nakedest poorest wretch in the world and the most subject to scorn and contempt and this so evident that he cannot but see it Neither can I think it hardly possible for the Protector and they that joyn with him knowingly and wilfully to desert that Religion and Cause that hath been laid into their hearts by a deep work upon their Souls long before these times in which they have been bred born and form'd by a continual work of God upon them for which they have often adventured their Lives Names Estates and all that they had A Cause and Work that is as natural to them as their lives yea now their very life and being they having been brought forth with it to what they are having no other hopes of subsistance in the earth but in it and with it They may stagger and wander in much darkness shortness and insufficiency they may have passions and temptations but that they should of a sudden raze out of their souls all impressions made by God upon them and the deep ingagements of their spirits to this work and in a sit forsake all and espouse another interest cannot without much prejudice be received Or should I conclude mans heart so deceitful and false as to do this yet I must then doubt that the very Religion and the state in which we are when the eminentest and strongest pillars fail is not what we have thought it but that it likewise will corrupt and turn to rottenness and all these appearings of Light and operations of God will be utterly lost in Apostasie and that we shall run back into Darkness and Profaneness or Confusion I confess I cannot in reason admit the one without sad apprehensions of the other But then I consider also that this Work begun amongst us is not so much carried on by an inward Spring of Grace but upon the Wheels of Providence drawing or driving men on into ways and paths that their own light neither did nor could direct them into and therefore it depends not upon the stedfastness and truth of mens spirits they having the least share in it but they and the Work have been carried on upon Engines of Providence so far beyond mens knowledge that if their hearts should fail they know not which way to go back they are caught in such a net and so involved in and with the Work that they must live and die in it and cannot think how or where to live out of it which might help to ease us of the pain of jealousie which troubles us and unite all our hearts and spirits to do the utmost we can to maintain what we have got for we are gone too far to retreat we must think of going forward but backward we cannot go Your second Witness or Article begins thus That blessed Cause and those noble Principles propounded and prosecuted by the old Parliament c. are now wholly laid aside c. and another quite contrary espoused c. I confess I cannot but wonder why you should bless the old Parliament except it be to ourse our new Government and why you should bless them and ourse these I do as much wonder when I know they were much more opposite to your way than these are Neither did the old Parliament ever propound or prosecute the destroying of Parishes taking away Tythes or overthrowing of Ministers which are your Cause now against the present Government as you express in the close of
your Paper sure these men are apter for such Work than the old Parliament And why you should so magnifie any thing that is past as to call it Blessed I know not I confess I never yet saw any thing in agitation that could make all parties happy and blessed surely nothing is truly blessed but that wherein all good men may finde rest It may be you plate much of you happiness in a Parliament for in this Article you plead for the Priviledges of Parliaments if you do not many others do think it the onely Cure of our Distemper and therefore I shall freely give you my thoughts of Parliaments A Parliament is a Constitution in which there is some Reason and Equity and of late it hath been very benign to Liberty and Religion for which we may remember it with Honor but I fear it hath been made an Idol by many of us and exalted above its place for which it hath been miserably blasted and curs'd render'd a vain and unprofitable thing subjected to scorn and contempt having lost its Union Majesty and Wisdom The Considerations that I have long had concerning a Parliament are these I. First A Parliament is a Body whereof the King is the head and therefore 't was called his Parliament because form'd and call'd by him at his own pleasure for his own ends and 't was his Interest which he much pleaded for in the beginning of these times a Free Parliament for had they been Free in their Debates and Votes he and all his had been undoubtedly safe For the Parliament did zealously and heartily intend the advancing of him and making him a great Prince and ingaged and protested to it however they were afterward forc'd from their own Protestations but not by any natural motion of their own but by an over-powering hand A Parliament is the Interest of the King and a King as much the Interest of a Parliament II. Secondly A Parliament is a wordly earthly Constitution consisting of worldly Matter Gentlemen of Estates and chosen by People in the capacity onely of possessing so much Land without any respect at all had in Electors or Elected to any Character of Grace or Anointing and therefore 't is the Interest of the World not of the Saints a part of the fourth Monarchy not of the fifth the strength of the Kingdoms of this world not of the Kingdom of Christ form'd by custom in the Darkness and Enmity of the world not in the Light and Wisdom of Christ III. Thirdly The Parliament had it had its Priviledges viz. Freedom for all its Members to Debate and Vote would never have removed any thing of King Lords or Bishops they had all stood to this day had not the Parliament been forc'd by the People We may talk of Priviledges of Parliament but alas who doth not see that we did make bold with their Priviledges by driving some out and driving some on beyond their reason to what we and the People affected and this so grosly that though it might be a shame to do it 't is more a shame to deny it or to seem now to plead for the standing of Parliaments and Priviledges when common sense or ingenuity will tell us we have forc'd and violated them at our pleasures from the beginning IV. Fourthly We cannot in reason expect a Free Parliament at this time because the People are not fit to have a free choice of Members or at least not fit in the sence of the Subscribers for generally the spirit of the Nation at this time is complaining of Sects and Divisions in Religion and jealous that the Anabaptist will get the upper hand and pull down both Magistracy and Ministry therefore we cannot but think give them Freedom to chuse they would pitch upon sober wisemen that should stop this inundation of Innovations in Church and State Therefore you cannot have a Free Parliament except you admit the People to a Free Choice which is the foundation of a Free Parliament which indeed neither the Subscribers nor any rational honest man can admit for the greater number of the People of the Nation are either Malignant and opposing Reformation or lately offended at it or Neutral and sottishly mindless of any thing but their profit all these must be concluded unfit to be the root of that power that must carry on the great Work begun and secure honest men and honest things And should we restrain the Election to honest men for which there is no Law yet they also are for the present unfit for choice being divided into Sects and Parties and so not competent judges of mens ability to govern but will over value their Friends and undervalue their Enemies chuse an unworthy man because of our own party and refuse a worthy man because opposite to us so that the Foundation of a Parliament would be laid though chosen by the best men not onely in bitter strife and enmity but in unrighteousness and partiality and what fruit can we expect but jangling and cavelling from the root of blinde and unjust Contention But alas a Free Choice is out of use amongst us for the custom hath been either to awe the People out of their choice by greatness or to cheat them of it by canvasing and importunities and so either some great men or busie factious men have made Parliament-men in most places and the People in whom we would place the original power over our Lives Liberties and Religion are such fools or beasts as to be thus driven in their Election If we should have a Parliament at this time I should fear it would be like that Beast spoken of Rev. 13. 1 2. which did rise out of the sea so the People or Nation is at this time a multitude of confused Tongues Languages and Voices carried this way and that way by the breath and spirits of men And the Beast was like a leopard full of spots of several and different colours and of a monstrous shape the lower parts the feet as a bear the upper parts the mouth as a lion such would a Parliament be They might roar as lions speak high things big words some of them others be fierce and cruel as a bear but yet a beast not of wisdom meekness or love to heal our Distractions for the fury and wrathful spirits of the People can blow up no better a Representative than a fierce and raging Parliament And should this Parliament assemble and sit and assume the Royal power into their hands will the Dragon if I may alude to the Army give them his Power his Seat and his great Authority An Army we have and must have and 't is now Supreme can we then think that they that have the Sword in their hands be they the Subscribers or any other will be so time as to suffer themselves to be voted Traitors by such a Lions mouth and to be laid hold on by such a Bears paws and not remove them For there is no