Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	judgement_n	lord_n	sin_n	3,017	5	4.8345	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A74924	A Faithfull searching home vvord, intended for the view of the remaining members of the former old Parliament in the time of their late second sitting at Westminster. Shewing the reasonableness and justness of their first dissolution, as also the dangerous rock they formerly split upon, that so they might learn to beware for the future: But being a second time dissolved upon the like account, as so many fruitless trees twic dead plucked up by the roots. It is now presented to the officers of the army as another looking-glass wherein they may plainly see, how woefully they also have dissembled, dealt treacherously, deceitfully and wickedly both with God and man, in having so greatly apostatized from, rejected, trodden under foot, persecuted, Judas-like betrayed, and as it were crucified and kept down in the grave (as the soldiers formerly did Christ) that blessed cause and those good principles, they once so highly pretended to own ... Together with an other seasonable word by way of counsel and proposal to the aforesaid officers of the armies of England, Scotland, and Ireland. All which, is also to be seen, and read of all men loving righteousness, that thereby they may (with the army) better know how to chuse the good, refute the evil, and rightly steer their course, and bend their spirits in the future, for the exaltation of Christ, his cause, and interest, and against all the apostacy and treachery, though never so refined, that may further appear in this gloomy, dark, overturning day.		1659 (1659)	Wing F285; Thomason E774_1; ESTC R207286	59,601	45

else remain in the hardness wickedness and opposition of their hearts and spirits thereunto had you not declined but as was said before kept growing up in your then light as also in the frame of your spirits and actions towards that perfection that shall be in the Lords faithful People when the Righteousness of Zion shall go forth as brightness and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth and he make Jerusalem a praise in the Earth Isa 62.1 6 7. which is our duty not onely to be praying for but pressing after as well as after that perfection of light and holiness in the inward man that shall be in that day or at the Resurrection of the dead Saints when our Lord Jesus Christ shall come and all the Saints with him Zech. 4.5 comp 1 Cor. 15.23 Rev. 20.4 and how we were growing up into this Righteousness and the People according to Hosea 14.7 began to return from their oppression revive as the corn and grow as the vine and this glorious Presence and Salvation was dawning and breaking in upon us when the honest spirit which you have so rejected was encouraged and acting in the Authority of this Nation as hath been already mentioned you very well know But our too sad experience tells us that the Lord hath now cause rather to complain and say according to Isa 1.4.21 22 23. Ah sinful Nation a people laden with iniquity a seed of evil doers children that are corrupters they have forsaken the Lord they have provoked the Holy One of Israel How is the faithfull City become an Harlot it was full of judgement righteousness lodged in it but now murtherers Thy silver is become dross thy wine mixt with water thy Princes are rebellious and companions of thieves every one loveth gifts and followeth after rewards they judge not the fatherless neither doth the cause of the widdow come unto them and upon this account we have cause to lament and complain according to Lam. 2.15 16. All our enemies have opened their months against us they hiss and gnash their teeth they say we have swallowed them up certainly this is the day that we looked for we have found we have seen it comp with Job Chap. 29. Chap. 30. and this is the very state and condition that the Cause and people of God and the Nation which had once a beauty and glory upon them is brought into at this day by reason of your Apostacy Now in regard it is thus with you and the poor Nation for your sakes as it is and things are under so ill sense abroad to use your own words to the Old Parliament and the issue like to be the further displeasure and judgements of the Lord against you the dissatisfaction and sadning the hearts of his faithful people and putting all things into greater Confusion if you continue to steer your course as formerly which so far as I can yet see or hear you are resolved to do though the Cause Your selves and the Nation perish and although you therein so carry it as to give the Lord and his Faithfull People just cause to say of you as of Ephraim of old Hosea 4.17 The Army is joyned to Idols let them alone Yet considering on the other hand that he likewise calls to such a back-sliding people as you are to return unto him and upon their return hath graciously promised he will heal their back-sliding and love them freely Jer. 3.22 comp Hos 14.4 And not knowing though you have gone on so long in the hardness of your hearts but he may yet pour out a spirit of grace and supplication upon you and give you to look upon his Cause and Faithfull Remnant whom you have so rejected and as it were Pierced and Crucified and to mourn and be in bitterness for the same as one is in bitterness for his first-born as also to return to the real practice of your forementioned honest Principles it being better with you then then now and to cause Judgement so visibly to return unto Righteousness as that all the upright in heart may follow it and be encouraged to venture their Lives with you as formerly against the Common Enemy which as things now stand they cannot but be very unwilling to do And likewise having though I have so searched to the quick and spoken plainly a desire to be merciful as my heavenly Father is merciful and to be instrumental so far as he shall assist to pluck you out of this deep ditch you have plunged your selves into and that whether you will hear or whether you will forbear you may be left without excuse As also that I may discharge my love and duty towards the Blessed Cause of Christ the Saints and the Land of my Nativity I shall in all sincerity and faithfulness lay before you what according to my present Light and Vnderstanding will if any thing recover the forementioned Cause the Saints Your selves and this almost ruined Nation out of that sad and perishing condition that by reason of your Apostacy and treacherous dealing with your former honest principles they are brought into and will engage the forementioned Glorious Presence and Salvation of the Lord to be with and about us as in former dayes in order to which though in and of my self I am very unworthy and unable to advise in a business of so high and weighty a concernment as this is I counsel and propose as followeth First endeavour to be humbled for repent of and to turn from every particular personal sin and iniquity that you have been in the committing of for if you or I or any other regard iniquity in our hearts or wilfully live in the practise of any known sin the Lord will not hear our prayers nor accept of any thing we do for him wherein his Name and Glory is concerned Psal 66.18 Prov. 15.8 9. Isa 1.11 to 20. Therefore if there be any such thing as false musters or Dead pay or wherein soever wrong hath been done or sin committed do so no more As also restore back to those of whom you have bought Debenters at cheap rates somewhat proportionable to your great gains thereby if they be living and if dead then to the Widdows Children or Kindred related to them that are left behinde them As also to be sure to promise nothing to any for the future either of a publick or private nature but what is in the power of your hand to do and have a real intention thorowly and speedily to perform and herein be growing up into that holy frame mentioned Zeph. 3.13 The Remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity nor speak lies neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouths c. And what I say to you in this particular I say to my self and to all others fearing the Lord for the People whom the Lord will delight to use in his Work must be a sincere upright self-denying holy people therefore let us not hide our

1.17 to 20. 5. These persons thus called together having more light faith and communion with God then formerly they had in the work of the latter dayes and that they are called unto as I conceive they have and laying Jesus Christ the Foundation on which they intend to Build as also consulting with and managing all their Affairs according to the Scriptures as is their judgement founded upon the same Deut. 17 18 19 20. Deut. 4.6 7 8. 2 Tim. 3.16 and not onely theirs but of most of the Friends of the Cause as also assented to by your selves and all the Great Lawyers and all others present at the * Sir Thomas Widdrington having presented your Protector with a Robe afterwards delivered him a Bible and among other expressions said It is a Book of Books and besides other things it conteins in it both Precepts and Examples for good Government Alexander so highly valued the Books of his Master Aristotle and other great Princes other Books that they have laid them every night under their Pillows these are all but Legends and Romances to this one Book a Book to be had alwayes in remembrance I finde it said in part of this Book which I shall desire to read and it is this Deut 17.18 19 20. And it shall be when he sitteth upon the Throne of his Kingdom that he shall write a Copy of this Law in a Book out of that which is before the Priestt and Levites and it shall be with him and he shall read therein all the dayes of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord his God and to keep all the words of this Law and those statutes to do them that his heart be not lifted up above his Brothren and that he turn not aside from the Commandment to the right hand or to the left to the end he may prolong his dayes in his Kingdom he and his Children in the midst of Israel In which words you acknowledge that the Scriptures ought to be the foundation of both the Government and Laws of this Nation which though after this you decline from and therein adde Apostacy to Apostacy yet do justifie all others that shall go on therein and proceed according to Scripture Quualifications for the choice of Rulers according to Exod. 18.21 Hosea 11.12 Speech made by Sir Thomas Widdrington then Speaker of your Petition and Advice Parliament at the second Inauguration of your late General in the Protectorall Government is the duty of all Gods Magistrates to do Having also the concernments and welfare of the Nation upon their hearts more then their own will I hope whilest they are Sitting carry it so self-denyingly graciously and uprightly and with such tenderness towards all fearing the Lord esteeming none because of this or that judgement further then their sincerity and faithfulness to the Cause and Interest of Christ appears and will endeavour to do all things both at home and in other Nations so for the honour of him who is their and our Judge King and Lawgiver as also your own and the Nations real good and likewise with the approbation and consent of the faithful Friends of the Cause to carefully provide for the future well Government of the Nation by the hands of other faithfull Persons against they rise as you will have no occasion if your hearts be sincere and upright with God indeed and have grace to deny your selves to maintain any enmity in your spirits towards them so as to despise reject and turn them out as you did before but will rather encourage rejoyce in and bless God for them And whatsoever your politique shifts and devices may be to avoid it hither you must come at last for without this be done let the foundation you lay as to future Governments and the Persons you call to build thereon in the outward appearance be never so pure or so much for Christ yet it is and you will finde it so but a false Conception a Bed too short a Covering too narrow a Plaister that though it may skin over will not thorowly heal the wound that your Apostacy and treacherous dealing with your Principles hath made upon you for the first foremenoned Cause of the Lords displeasure against you must be taken away or else no sound cure can be expected neither indeed would such as are faithful had they a true understanding of things and did seriously weigh and consider what hath been already and might further be said in this business dare to come in and assist you till this work were done for fear lest the House that in the simplicity of their hearts they would be building should fall upon their heads and the Lords thus dealing with you is no other then according to the usual method he goes in in matters of this nature Prov. 28.13 He that covereth his sin shall not prosper but he that confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall have mercy Remember what became of Cain who retain'd his wicked spirit after he slew his Brother Abel Gen. 4. to verse 14. Of the Ongregation of Israel who out of such a spirit as you are acted by would have stoned Caleb and Joshua for opposing their going back into Egypt and pressing them to go on the Canaan Numb 14.23.32.43 Of Corah Dathan and Abiram and the two hundred and fifty famous renowned Princes of the Congregation and the people joyning with them in opposing the spirit of the Lord in Moses and Aaron upon the account with the former and how all these remaining in the wickedness of their spirits in opposition to the spirit of the work of the Lord in his little Remnant in that day must not prosper but their Carkasses fall in the wilderness dye of the Plague fall before their enemy the ground open and swallow Korah and his company up alive Numbers 16.2.31 32. Josephs Brethren who out of the wickedness and enmity of their spirits towards him cunningly endeavoured all they could to make him away and sold him into Egypt must lay aside their enmity and own and acknowledge their iniquity therein to him and beg pardon for the same or else no peace or prosperity for them could be expected Gen. 50.17 to 21. Ephraim and Israel having committed whoredom Begot strange Children Revolted from and Dealt treacherously against the Lord as you have done and the Lord having rebuked them and threatned that they should fall in their iniquity that he would be as a moth and rottenness to them as he hath hitherto been to you yet they went on and the Text sayes would not frame their doings to turn unto their God because the spirit of whoredoms was in the midst of them as it is with you but instead of returning to the Lord in a right manner as to the very thing wherein they had displeased him It is said When Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah saw his wound then went Ephraim to the Assyrian and sent to King Jareb as you have

on in the hardness wichedness and slavish fearfulness of your hearts and spirits and through the advice and perswasion of Philip Nye Tho. Goodwin Dean Owen so called and the forementioned Ineendiaries upon carnal politique considerations be still upholding carnal Interests and the Old Corrupt Oppressive Customs and Practises relating either to Magistracy or Ministery that hath no warrant in Scripture which hath brought all the divisions confusion and miseries upon the Nation and the better to carry on this your wicked design shall continue in your rejecting the true spirit of your forementioned honest Principles in those faithfull Persons turn'd out of the Little Parliament and in others with them who as was said before are spirited and principled if any to bring forth good to the Nation and shall rather proceed to moddel your future Councels with Malignants Neuters Presbyters or unconverted Apostate Protectorians such as Tichbern Lawrence Strickland Whitleck Clark and others of that spirit be it known unto you you are Apostates still though the form you come under in the outward appearance be never so specious and the Protestations and Declarations you make and set forth be never so glorious and taking upon the people and the faithful Friends of the Cause if they intend to retain their former integrity and faithfulness both to the Lord and it cannot dare not own or touch with you but according to Numb 16.21.26 must separate and stand at a distance from you as before lest they be consumed in all your sins And although by your more refined Machevilian Devices and the many Professors yea Pastors and Members of Churches you may gain thereby to your Interest as also by the strength of your Armies and Navies you may think to bear up and to stout it out a little longer against the Lord his Cause and his faithful Remnant and the very spirit of your former honest Principles yet know that when you have done all you possibly can do to uphold your selves therein the spirit of the Lord in his forementioned faithful Remnant as it hath already begun to do will according to Isa 28.17 further overflow and look into your hidling place and see your sin as if written in your foreheads and to have a lye in your right hand and so will go on to abhor and blow upon you and by degrees will bring you down as your old and late Protectors with their Parliaments and the late Old Parliament and so shall you become as a shameful spewing a by-word and a reproach not onely in our own but the Nations round about us If God be God as surely he is and Righteousness be Righteousness and the Scriptures are the dictates of his Blessed Spirit and he ever had a glorious Cause on foot in England leading us out of Babylonish and Antichristian Bondage towards that glorious freedom and liberty that the Saints who have the first fruits of the Spirit and the whole creation groans travelleth in pain for and waits to be delivered into and shall eminently be when Zion shall fully be delivered Antichrist destroyed the Jews called and our Lord Jesus Christ and his Saints according to Isa 32.1 2. shall Reign and Rule in Righteousness in the world all which as is mentioned in pag. 2. of this Book shall certainly be fulfilled in the latter dayes it must be so unless the Lord be more merciful to you then ordinarily he is to others that have sinned against and back-slidden from him as you have done which you have no reason to expect he being so much concern'd for the recovery of his Name and Glory to do some eminent remarkable thing against such a perfidious hypocritically Apostate professing Generation as you have been and are that thereby he not onely may keep the feet of his faithful witness-bearing people from slipping and encourage them to fear and trust in him for the future but that also all others may hear and fear and do no more so wickedly And that the Common Enemy may not have the least encouragement from what I have said to believe that now all shall be their own and that the Lords lifted up hand against you is in order thereunto I further declare my present apprehensions are that although the Lord may make use of them as his Rod to rebuke and scourge you not onely for not bringing forth that good but also contrary to your Declarations doing worse things your selves then for which you sought with and beheaded their King as also cast out and banished his Posterity yet the Lord hath a people in this Nation whom he hitherto hath kept and I trust will keep faithful to the end to his Blessed Cause and those good Principles you have so treacherously departed from whom he will by his Almighty Power and Providence so preserve out of their hands that they shall never be able to overcome or have their wills upon them but they shall go on in the power of his Spirit Isa 59 19. and Mal. 4.2 3. with life power and an undaunted spirit in that blessed Work and Cause that for some years together hath with such wonderful success been carried on against them Neither do I see in the midst of all the confusions distractions fears and straits you are encompassed with the least ground to believe that the Lord will cast away the Cause and Interest of his Son to make way for a carnal Man and that wicked Generation whom he hath so many times subdued as the people of his Curse to bear Rule in this Nation and therein send us back to Egypt or Babylon any more but rather is thereby removing that which stands in the way and hinders his faithful people from going to Zion Wherefore if the Lord hath so punisht you a professing People who in the outward shew may be said to be the green tree and caused you thus to fall before the spirit of his Cause and faithful people and so to disappoint and bring to nought all that you contrive and act against them then how shall they who are a wicked Generation who should they prosper would set up wickedness by a Law and may truly be termed the dry tree be able to prevail against them And if you who by your profession are called a righteous people scarcely be saved where shall they who may be said to be the ungodly and sinners appear The present dispensations that are upon you gives not the least ground to believe that they shall bear rule any more therefore let them set their hearts at rest Surely the Lord would never give his people that light faith and communion with himself and such tastes of sweetness in their spirits in that Communion in the discovery Isa 33.17 18. of the glory that according to the Promises and Prophesies is to be revealed in the latter dayes and so much love to his Cause and Work that hath been formerly and is yet on foot though not so visible as once it was leading thereunto and so owned their Testimony against you in bringing you down for opposing of them or shewen us all these things as the wife of Manoah said to him Judges 13.23 if he intended to cast them away or deliver them up either into your or the common enemies hand Would the Lord who stiles himself a faithfull promise Covenant keeping God and that cannot lye ever bid his people Isa 62.6 7. not to keep silence and give him no rest till he establish and make Jerusalem a praise in the earth if he did not really intend to do so or have begun to put on the Saints Beautiful Garments and to make them a praise in the earth not for their righteousness or Goodness but for his own Names sake As also plagued Israel of Old for not pressing forward but endeavouring to go back to Egypt and will not he who hath a fulness of the spirit and love to his work and all power in his hand to do it and hath already laid the Foundation of Zions welfare carry it on and lay the top-stone also Surely he will And the Rage and Tumults of the Carnal Apprentices and others at this day for the bringing in Charles Stuart and saying They will lose their lives every one of them rather then they will have such men to Rule as will take away the corrupt Customs and Practices that are among them is an eminent hint to me that the very Day of the setting Christ and his Saints upon his holy Hill of Zion is at hand yea so upon us that none can put it off and being so fully satisfied in my Spirit it is so I shall conclude with the following Scriptures Esther 6.13 And Zeresh Hamans wife and his wise-men said unto him If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews before whom thou hast begun to fall thou shalt not prevail against him but shalt surely fall before him Psal 2. Why do the Heathen rage and the People imagine a vain thing The Kings of the Earth set themselves and the Rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his Anointed saying Let us break their Bonds assunder c. THE END

The Fifth Monarchy or Kingdom of Christ in Opposition to the Beasts Sold at the Crown in Popeshead Alley Letter wherein are five of the Particulars of your Charge See that Book page 22. First They complain of your evil mannagement of the Affairs that were under your hand 2. That the then dangerous remedy of dissolving you was not used till all other ways had been by the Army assayed and by you rejected 3. That after four years expectation from you since the change of the Government to wit from Kingship to a Commonwealth they found no * Was it not so again in this your second sitting Indeed you were very expert in laying Burthens and Taxes upon the people But what Righteousness and Justice did you bring forth Or what yokes lying either upon the Consciences or Bodies of the good people did you take away Or what hath the Officers of the Army who thus complain of you and dissolved you for not doing these good things done herein to this very day but strive to advance and settle themselves performance by you of those good things that tended to the settlement of the Commonwealth in Peace and Righteousness 4. They say They were abundantly satisfied from the long experience they had of you that as you were then constituted you were so far from being the Instruments of perfecting the Work of the Lord that the whole Cause was in great danger to perish under your hands for which there hath been so vast an expence of Blood and Treasure and therefore after seeking the face of God and taking counsel with one another it was generally apprehended that the onely way left to preserve the Cause was to prevent your sitting by a speedy dissolving you and laying the Government upon the shoulders of such men as might hopefully give the People the fruit of all their Labour and Blood and encourage good men to be still willing to hazard their lives against the Common Enemy which as things then stood many had little heart to do 5. That it was in their hearts to seek those good things in such a way as that you might have had the honour of it but you had not then a heart to incline to the Motion made in order thereunto but rather endeavoured a hasty inconsiderate passing of an Act for a New Representative though the General and Officers at a meeting with many of your Members did abundantly demonstrate the evident danger of it yet did you the next day so earnestly and precipitantly persist in it as necessitated them to put you to that suddain dissolution Thus far the Letter They also say in the Speech by way of charge against you see page 29 30 31. of the forementioned Book wherein are twelve Particulars 1. That when the General and the Officers of the Army came from Worcester they expected that you having such a History to look back unto a God that appeared for you so eminently so visibly the mercies that God had shewed the expectations that were in the hearts of all good men would have prompted you that were in Authority to have done those good things which might by honest men have been judged a Return fit for such a God and worthy of such Mercies and a discharge of duty to those for whom all these Mercies had been shewed to wit the true interest of the three Nations And likewise say They came fully bent in their hearts and thoughts to desire and use all fair and lawful means they could with you to have had the Nation reap the fruit of all that Blood and Treasure that had been expended in this Cause and had many thirstings in their spirits to finde out wayes and means wherein they might be any wayes instrumental to help it forward and that they did from time to time solicite you to that purpose and when they saw nothing could be done they reminded you by a Petition but had no return at all all the satisfaction they could get from you was but a few words And finding the People * It hath since appear'd that the Armies strivings and thirstings to have had the Nation better'd by all the expence of Blood and Treasure hath onely been to greaten and enrich themselves and studying how to get the peoples money to be upheld therein whereby they are looked upon as cheating self-seeking unfruitfull persons as well as your selves neither of you both having either honour or repute but are a stink unto all honest men do bring down judgements upon the Nation put all things into confusion yet neither they nor you the honesty or goodness to lay these things to heart to this very day but Lambert Disbrow Berry-like go on to advance your selves though the Nation perish dissatisfied in every corner and bringing home to their doors the Non-performance of those things that had been promised and were of due to be performed judging themselves concern'd they say they endevoured as became honest Men to keep up the Reputation of honest men in the world it seems you would not and therefore had divers times endeavoured to obtain a Meeting with divers of your Members and in those Meetings did in all faithfulness and sincerity beseech you that you would be mindeful of your duty and of the discharge of your Trust to God and man and that they had at the least ten or twelve Meetings begging and beseeching you that of your own accords you would do those good things that had been promised that so it might appear you did not do them by any suggestion from the Army but of your own ingenuities that so you might have the reputation and good opinion of the people to the utmost also declared plainly to you that the Issue of not doing those good things would be the judgement and displeasure of God against you the dissatisfaction of the people and the putting things into confusion yet they could not prevail with you and that you laid them not to heart 2. That you would not hear of a New Representative till such time as the Army came to their close considerations what to do and then you began to take it to heart and seem'd exceeding willing to put it on but not with that integrity and caution as would have saved the Cause and Interest that you and they had been so long engaged in and that your intendment and design in all you did at that time was onely to recruit the House the better to perpetuate your selves several of the Officers having divers times been spoken to by you to give way thereto which was so unreasonable a thing as they not onely had a perpetual aversation to but did abominate the thoughts of and alwayes declared their dissatisfaction with and judgements against it 3. That though you were unwilling to hear of a * It was just thus with you in your second sitting for though you seem'd exceeding willing to hear of Proposalls from the Friends of the Cause in order

judgement that for the saving of the Cause there was an absolute necessity to pass upon you and also how most of the good people in the Army Navy and Churches c. in the three Nations did both approve of and rejoyce therein And to say the truth there was but very few compared with the others who might then truly be said were Friends to the Cause that were dissatisfied whose dissatisfactions were not meerly because you were dissolved and the other chosen in your stead for they also complain'd of you and desired a New Representative as well as others but that it was done in such a manner as in their then apprehensions not onely made way for the General to take the Power himself but also tended to pluck up by the very roots the old way of chusing Rulers by the whole Bulk or Body of the people which they called and formerly was so the Legall Foundations which was then in their judgements and still is of some of them who understand no better how to follow the Lord in his overturning dispensations the onely legal and best way for the choice of Rulers So that all things considered setting aside the forementioned dissatisfactions of some which was onely as to the manner but not to the matter of your being dissolved which signifies little or nothing at all as to the clearing of you it plainly appears that for your unfaithfulness in and unfitness for your stewardship and not thoroughly improving the Talent which was then committed to you for God and his People you were both by his Providence and their Approbation and Consent justly laid aside Insomuch that if the now true friends of the Cause had either Light and suitable thereunto a sincere upright courageous single and lively Spirit for Christ and Righteousness as they ought to have and as the Saints shall have when the Law shall go forth of Zion to follow the Lord in his Overturning dispensations who as he hath formerly and in our Day so hath promised for the future safely to lead his People on in his work in wayes they have not gone with their feet Isa 41.2 And to bring the blinde by a way they know not and lead them in paths that they have not known c. Isa 42.16 Would lay aside the excrementitious outside shell or notion of things relating to a further carrying on of the Cause in its purity to wit the spirit of the Nation or whole body of the People which the Lord by a continued series of providential Dispensations because of the malignity of their spirits against his Cause and People hath one time after another cast out and witnessed against and on the other hand would look into the very spirit kernel and substance of things relating thereunto to wit the spirit of the good People who have gone on with the Lord in his work to this very day who desired consented and approved of your being then laid aside you were really clearly deservedly and justly cast out and to say the truth had not from that time to the very day of your second Call nor have not now the least ●●ght to sit again upon the former account which I am perswaded the Lord in due time will make manifest notwithstanding through the short-sightedness though I trust simplicity of some friends who desired and were instrumental therein you might be called to sit a second time and possibly by your selves it is apprehended that there we went out of the way at first and therefore must there begin again But if I know any thing of the minde of God as I trust through his Grace I do by the observations that I have made of his footsteps in the carrying on of his work hitherto amongst us you are all mistaken and I know you will finde it so which I doubt not but clearly to manifest in that which follows For although we had many Deliverances and Victories and the Lord eminently blest us with success and our dread was upon our Enemies both at home and abroad whilest you were sitting especially towards the latter end yet be it known unto you it was not purely for your sakes considered as you were a Parliament in the Bulk but as there was a sincere single honest spirit according to their then light acting for Christ his Cause and Interest in some among You in the Army and also in the Nation which I conceive will be granted by every discerning person who was upon the place and made observation of things and which the late General Cromwell and his then Officers do also acknowledge in the forementioned Speech to the Little Parliament Page 27. of that Book in the following words Sayes he After divers turnings of Affairs it pleased God much about the midst of the War to winnow the Forces of this Nation and to put them into the hands of men of other Principles then those that did engage at the first c. Those strange windings and turnings of Providence those very great appearances of God in crossing the designs of men to wit Hollis Stapleton and the men of that spirit among you and in the Army that he might raise up a contemptible company of men not verst in Military Affairs nor having much natural propencity to them through the owning a * If the General and Officers of the Army had kept close to the practice of this honest Principle those Officers he hath left behinde him and their pretended faithful brethren lately imprisoned in Scotland had not been served such a Monckish treacherous trick as now they are but they that deal treacherously with their Principles as also stand by and assist whilest their Brethren are imprisoned for their faithfulness thereunto it is just with the Lord to suffer or appoint others to deal treacherously with them Principle of Godlines which so soon as it came to be owned and the state of Affairs put upon that foot of Account how God blest them and all their undertakings by the raising up of that most improbable despicable contemptible means for that we must for ever own you very well known c. He goes on Page 27 28. The issues of those successes that God was pleased to give this Nation were very great things brought about besides the Dints that were upon those Nations and places where they were carried on even in the Civil Affairs to the bringing Offenders to Justice the state of this Government to the Name at least of a Commonwealth the searching and sifting of all Places and Persons the King removed and brought to Justice and many great ones with him The House of Commons the Representative of the People of England winnowed sifted and brought to a handful c. All which great things were instrumentally brought forth by the honest Party after the many strivings and contendings with a Malignant Rigid Presbyterian Neutral Corrupt Party among you as the then General and Officers also confess in Page 28. of that Book Sayes

iniquities but rather say to the Lord according to Job 34.32 That which I see not teach thou me if I have done iniquity I will do no more Secondly Be also humbled for repent of suppress and put away for the time to come All the Pride of Apparel c. Luxury Gaming and whatever else is sinful and of an evil report that is committed in your Families by your selves Wives Children Servants and Relations according to Job 11.13 14. comp with Chap. 22.23 If thou prepare thine heart and stretch out thine hand towards him if iniquity be in thy hand put it far away and let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles c. And endeavour all you can for the future to get such as fear the Lord to attend upon you for it is not onely your duty but declared Principle to the Little Parliament so to do See page 43. of the forementioned Book Let not their failings infirmities and too many times neglect of duty hinder you from doing yours if you can get them there is little good to be expected from you whoever you are though your knowledge and profession be never so high whilest you are careless and slight in this particular Thirdly Be also deeply humbled for and repent of your forementioned great Apostacy from rejecting of treacherous dealing with the Cause of Jesus Christ and your forementioned honest Principles and all your persecuting Imprisoning and Banishing of your Brethren for their faithfulness thereunto and for all other your great evils and miscarriages therein committed whereby the Name of the Lord and the Profession of the Gospel hath been and is so much reproached and dishonoured and his Blessed Cause and Work so greatly stopped and hindered The hearts of his faithful people grieved and hath brought so much poverty and misery upon this Nation and return in the sincerity and uprightness of your hearts to revive and promote the aforesaid Blessed Cause and those good Principles from whence you have so greatly departed and resolve in the strength of the Lord to return no more to folly And that this your repentance and thorow returning may so appear to all the faithful Friends of the Cause as to put them past all doubts and fears of your deceiving them any more for the time to come First Cast off the Counsel of St. Johns Lisle Whitlock Philip Nye Tho. Goodwin Dean Owen so called and all other the like Incendaries the Heads of the corrupt Lawyers and Clergy unless you finde they have really and thorowly repented of their great evil in being so instrumental to help turn and keep your then General and you aside into these crooked paths after the first Dissolution of the Old and choice and turning out of the Little Parliament as also see them singly and sincerely pressing you to come up to the practise of your former Declarations and to the owning of that spirit those principles and persons which you once so greatly seemed to own but afterwards through the enmity of your spirits and their wicked Counsel and Advice as greatly and wickedly rejected For if they remain as they were Owen c. according to Lam. 2.14 Are the Prophets that have seen vain and foolish things for you and have not discovered your iniquity to turn away the judgements that are fallen upon you but have and do see for you false burthens and causes of banishment Secondly Send by way of intreaty it being your duty so to do according to Matth. 5.24.25 having so greatly wronged them for those faithfull persons whom you have so rejected and turned out of the Little Parliament whose Garments have not since been defiled with the late and present Apostacy or if they have are known to have throughly repented of the same with others of that publick spirit to come unto you who if any in the Nation yea I may say in the world will the Lord assisting bring forth the good things promised and have been so long expected for the good of the Nation And when you have so done Thirdly Acknowledge your great sin and iniquity to them First for rejecting and casting them out of your hearts and afterwards out of that Little Parliament on purpose to hinder them from doing that good for the people which you pretendedly dissolved the Old Parliament for not doing of and called them to do which were no other then what you will finde the true friends of the Cause will neither give you nor any other that for the future may come into the Government of the Nation rest do what you can to uphold your own and other carnal Interests in opposition thereunto yea the Lord no rest till they do obtain And when you have in the singleness of your hearts thus acknowledged your iniquity to them and desired mercy for the same as Gen. 50.16 to 20. Josephs Brethren did to him I hope they will have so much both of the spirit of the Father of the Prodigal though brought to your Husks and of the spirit of Joseph to his Brethren as to be willing to go forth in their spirits to meet this in you and weepingly to joy and rejoyce over you as also to pardon and pass by all the wrongs and injuries that you have done unto them and therein to the Cause of God and his people But if this be not in your hearts to do they must remain where they are keeping the same distance from you as before lest they go before they are sent and so come off with loss and disappointments in their own spirits as to you as my self and others have done since you so deceivingly Declared that you were now as ever equally endeared to the good Old Cause c. when it was not so Fourthly With the Advice and Consent of the faithfull friends of the Cause both in City and Countrey it being usurpation in you and acting arbitrarily to do any thing without them Deliver up with limitations not to impose upon the consciences of any in matters of Faith and Worship and in all things else that are against the safety of the Whole the Power Authority and Government of the Nation into their hands for by what hath been said both by you my self and others in this and other Papers and keeping close to the spirit of them under Christ their right it is and take heed of mixing them as in the time of their first Sitting with persons of a contrary spirit and principle on purpose to hinder them from doing the good they are called to do and thereby designedly and wickedly give your selves a second feigned necessity of turning them out and setting up another Single Person or Protector upon their ruines as you did before but rather encourage and strengthen them all you can in the bringing forth this good and suppressing the evil for that it is onely the bringing forth of righteousness and breaking off all yokes of oppression that will save and exalt this sinking Nation Prov. 14.34 Isa