love their Brethren doing to all as they would be done unto and in this is the whole duty of Man comprehended 3. Seeing God hath shewed unto man what is good Mic. 6. 8. and then especially unto Kings the Lord's Lieutenants who with their great Council in Parliament are 1. to do justly 2. love mercy 3. and to walk humbly with God This will be 1. when the Romish Whore is by Act of Parliament abolished out of this Land not in destroying the lives of the Papists that transgress not the Laws but live peaceably as loyal Subjects to the Government in all Civil things as well as other Perswasions but to destroy all Popish Abominations out of Protestant Churches 2. In loving Mercy when the King's Majesty with his Parliament shall make an Act That no Protestant or any other living peaceably of what Nation soever they are shall not be imprisoned for Conscience sake in things spiritual especially in the matter of Tithes considering how many are daily cast into Prison because they cannot in conscience pay them for these Reasons 1. Because Tithe was an heave Offering under the Law abolished by Christ who was the end of the Ceremonial Law for Righteousness to all that believe The Priesthood being changed so of necessity the Law Heb. 7. 2dly Tithes were never payable but in the Land of Canaan so never commanded of the Gentile Churches 3. Tithes were not paid by any Christians for eight hundred years after Christ as antient Writers say and then Pope Pascalis appointed Tithes should be paid to his Priests Therefore in paying Tithes Christ is denied to be faithfull in his House as Moses was to appoint a Ministry and not their Wages and the Pope made equal with Christ in giving Laws to his Church O that your Honours would find out a way to remedy this great evil and take off this yoke from the necks of all Protestant Subjects seeing Solomon saith To punish the Just is not good c. Prov. 17. 26. Then the 3d thing God requires is That both King Parliament and all the King's Christian Subjects walk humbly with God and this will be when they shall worship him in Spirit and in Truth according to his directions in his last Will and Testament That so Christ Jesus may in all things spiritual reign in his Church which was and is the true foundation of all promised Peace to the Lord's People As for example under the Law So long as Israel worshipped the Lord as he commanded them by his Servant Moses in Ministry Ordinances Time and Order God promised that they should dwell in the Land in confident safety Lev. 25. And when all Israel's Males went three times a Year to Jerusalem to worship and left none to guard their Dwellings but very aged Men and young Children the Lord was a Wall of Fire about them Zech. 2. in making their enemies to be at peace with them And so long as the primitive Christians feared the Lord and worshipped him as Christ Jesus had appointed in his Testament the Churches had rest throughout all Judea Galile and Samaria And thus when the Lord giveth quietness who can make trouble but when be hideth his face for the reasons aforesaid who can behold him whether it be done against a Nation or a Man only Thus I have discharged my humble duty first unto his Majesty and next unto your Honours and lastly to all the Nation though the unfittest of many in a work of this nature beseeching your Honours not to despise it coming from so unworthy an Instrument but remember that there were many wise Men in the City Abel for renown termed a Mother in Israel who despised not a Womans Counsel when it was for the preservation of that City and this of a whole Nation if God so bless it And because the Work your Honours are herein moved to do is but what the Lord commandeth to be done though great and glorious in removing all Popish Rubbish out of Protestant Churches that a throrow-Reformation may be made that so the Anger of the Lord may be turned from this Nation Therefore let not ten to two discourage you who have God's Promise on your side that the Whore must be made desolate that the Canaanites or Popish Walls are strong and that your Opposers are powerful as Giants Neither let the opposition of the Tobiass s and Sanballats of the Times hinder the Work seeing God opened the King of Assyria's heart to strengthen the hand of the Lord's People in the figurative Work of the Lord's Building And what hath the Lord done less on the heart of his Majesty and we are bound to believe it is real that hath encouraged your Honours to take care of the Protestant Religion and what care can be like that to cleanse it from all Popish Inventions either in the Ministry or Service or any other thing whatsoever in Worship which is not found agreeable to the Rules of Christ's Testament which God hath appointed in the Work of Reformation from Antichrist's Apostacy the Golden Reed of God's Word to measure the Spiritual Altars Temple and Worshippers therein For so long as the forbidden thing hid in the Camp of Israel remained in Achan's Tent Israel could not stand before their Enemies how then shall this Nation so long as the forbidden thing of Popish Abominations is retained in the Camp or Tents of Protestant Churches stand before their Enemies which the Doctrine of the Gospel forbiddeth all Christians not to taste touch or handle in Worship The neglect of this glorious Work commanded of God in not making the Romish Whore utterly desolate in the Nation hath been the chief cause God is angry with us in not only suffering so many Plots to be contrived to the utter ruine thereof because there is still retained so many Popish Abominations in Ministry and Traditions as aforesaid the Fire of which hath kindled in the Bosom of Protestant Churches at this day all the Contentions in Religion to the dividing Protestants one from the other into so many diversities of opinions Also it hath given strong confidence to the Papists to believe that such Protestants as can without scruple of conscience adhere to and imbrace again so many Popish Abominations in Worship which they once vomited up shall in God's just Judgment be made either by fraud or by force to imbrace all the rest of the Popish Abominations which our former Governours abolished to wit the Lord Abbots Cardinals Jesuits Friers and all other Reliques expelled with them seeing the Meat is not worse than the Broth that so the head and tail of that beastly Clergy may be joyned together when they are united to their younger Brethren the Arch and Lord Bishops as the Proverb is Birds of a feather will not rest in their motion till they come together and then the deadly wound of the Beast will be again healed to the Scorpion-like tormenting Plague Rev. 9. of all true Protestants if the King
Ahab walking in their Counsels in Worship contrary to the Law of God given by the hand of Moses for which the Lord threatned to make them desolate how shall such Protestants believe any other that worship God by a Ministry of Man's making with many Popish Inventions also but for it God will still vex this Land with all Adversity as by woful experience is seen this day and if we be not warned in the end the Lord may justly make this Land desolate as when no means would cause Israel to return to the Lord 's true Worship the Land did spue them out 4. Because the Lord's People of old by Covenant made between him and them were his espoused Wife and he their Husband and the fellowship and communion they spiritually had together was as in a Bed of Love so long as she as an obedient Wife yielded obedience in all things that appertained to his Worship and to no others Commands and Directions either in Ministry Ordinances Time or Order but when Judah did defile her self with the Babylonish Inventions in Worship the Babylonians were said to come in to her into the Bed of Love Ezek. 23. 17. for which God threatned them as a Woman that brake Wedlock to give them into the hands of the Babylonians her Lovers Even so under the Gospel the Lord's People by the Covenant of the Gospel are espoused or married to one Husband Christ Jesus who is the Head of the Body his Church and so long as she obeys the Commands of her Lord the only Arch-Bishop and Pastor of his Flock she is said in the performance of his holy Ordinances to have fellowship together with him as in a Bed of Love But when those Protestants that so account of themselves that they are the Lord's People by Covenant and Christ their Head and Husband do yeeld obedience to the Commands of Popes Prelats or any other mortal men in the Worship of God she as an Harlot is said with Antichrist to take their fill of Love together as in a Bed Prov. 7. 18. Now if no honest Man will endure that his Wife should yield obedience in Marriage-duties to another Man because Jealousie is as the Rage of a Man that he will not spare in the day of his Anger how then shall the Lord because Marriage is honourable and the Bed undefiled but Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge so that the Lord will not spare in the day of his Anger O that these things might be well minded by all good Protestants Now Right Honourable and Noble Patriots seeing for the Evils aforesaid first for the King's Majesty together with the Parliament's neglect to obey the Commands of God in making the Whore to wit of Rome desolate in abolishing all and every thing that hath but the smell scent or taste of Popery either in Place of Trust in the Nation or in Place and Office with their Traditions in Worship set up by former Kings by Law of oversight in Protestant Churches for which the Lord is angry not only with the King and your Honours but also with the whole Nation And for the doing of this glorious Work that there be no erring on the right hand nor on the left I humbly beg leave to lay before your Honours these three Observations 1. The wise God hath given the King's Majesty together with his Honourable Council most perfect Directions in this his Work of Reformation about the Worship of God by example of the Godly Kings of Judah who had no power by their Civil or Kingly Authority to add to or diminish from the Worship of God but to remember the Law of Moses as a most perfect Direction for all things in Worship so that when any King by the counsel of false Prophets and Teachers together or in his own heart did devise or set up in Worship to God or to the worship of Idols any thing either by way of a false Ministry or Altars or Sacrifice or any other thing aforesaid contrary to God's Law the Godly Kings of Judah Asa Jehosaphat Hezekiah and Josiah by the Command of God did demolish it and destroy it out of their Dominions and did call the Lord's People by all loving means to the Service and Worship of God according as it was found written in the Law of Moses And thus they were as God had promised Kings should be Nursing Fathers not such Nurses to give the Lord's Children Milk the sincere doctrine of his Word as is the Ministers work the Breasts of his Church for Consolation but as Nurses that look after with care to defend and preserve the Church from all enemies at home or abroad that Dragon-like are ready to devour her Children which the Church in her painful Ministry and Preaching travelleth in pain till Christ be formed in them begotten by the seed of the immortal Word that so as the Psalmist Prophet and others say this and that Man was born in her Psal 87. Isa 66. Rev. 12. Gal. 4. And this is still the duty of Christian Kings under the Gospel not to add or diminish but to preserve the Church while she followeth her Head and Husband CHRIST in all his Directions in Worship and to demolish all Images and false Inventions and Traditions set up by other Kings in Worship to God that so the Romish Whore may be made desolate and the Anger of the Lord turned away from this Nation as it was when the good Kings of Judah did the same work from that Nation For what a shame is it to see in the Cathedrals in England how the Clergy bow and cringe themselves to a wooden Altar Papist-like 2. There is no King nor other mortal Man hath power over the Conscience of any of his Subjects in spiritual things as saith the Apostle we have no dominion over your Faith Therefore when Joshua conquered part of Canaan and the Nations became tributary to Israel as their Subjects and Servants they forced them not to be of their Religion because they and all Kings should know that it is a work belonging to God only to perswade Japhet or the Gentiles to dwell in the Tents of Shem so that to force any man after that persecuting manner as do the Pope and his Prelats to worship before they have faith or be born again is to force blind men to the Kingdom they see not and to make a Church of Hypocrites bringing men into a snare even to their Condemnation to devour that which is holy and after that saith Solomon they must with sorrow enough make enquiry what they have done Therefore the work of Kings is only to take off all the yoke of Popish Bondage so that their Subjects may be free seeing saith the Prophet every Nation will walk in the name of his God that so Protestants as true Christians may walk in the Name of the Lord their God whose Name is his Law the Gospel that so as Christians they may do their duty to God and
with your Honours be not the Physicians in God's hand to prevent it Now Right Honourable if something of this nature be not done for preventing the shedding of innocent Blood that if the Papists within us should rise or their Accomplices invade us from without the King's Majesty with your Honours would be pleased to make an Act that all Protestants now as was granted to the Jews in the days of K. Ahasuerus may without offence stand in their own defence in the preservation of the lives of themselves and their families in what manner your Honours shall think fit And this by God's Blessing will break the hearts of all Popish Plotters in their wicked designs who for madness instead of destroying Protestants like the enemies of Jehoshaphat will destroy one another O â—herefore that his Majesty with your Honours would remember to follow the Example of that wise and good King Solomon who first built the Lord's House before he built his own And K. David was grieved that himself should dwell in an House of Cedar when the Ark of God remained under Curtains Nehemiah could have no joy tho the Kings Cupbearer to see the City of Jerusalem lie waste If then the King's Majesty with your Honours would imitate these worthy Patrio's herein in seeking first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness then all smaller things of Temporal Deliverances and outward Benefits shall be added Which God will still make good to all true Protestants if they prefer the Heavenly Jerusalem before their chiefest joy Psal 137. as was made good to Israel of old who were a Nation in the midst of Idolatrous Nations as the true Churches of God are now Holy Nations in the midst of the Nations And so long as Christians now as God's People of old do faithfully walk wiâ—h God in his true Faith and Worship they are said to dwell alone in respect of their Faith and Worship among the Nations Num. 34. 24. The want of these things now amongst Protestant Churches is proved by holy Scripture to be the same cause God is testifying to us as to Judah of old I have forsaken my House I have left my Heritage I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hands of her enemies Read Jer. 12 13. If there be not a speedy turning to the streight path of the Lord in executing Judgment and seeketh the Truth Jer. 5. 1. The deep sense of which may with the Prophet Jeremiah cause every true Christian to say O that my head were water and eyes a fountain of tears to weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people and that he had in the Wilderness a lodging-place that he might not behold the Sins bounding or the Judgments coming on the Land O then before it be too late that the King's Majesty with your Honours and also the whole Nation would lay these things to heart Seeing how unwilling the Lord is to destroy this Nation not only by discovering the Plots but also the Cause why God suffers them Now shall a Trumpet be blown in the City and the people not be warned Or is there any evil in a City to wit of punishment and I have not done it saith the Lord Hos 3. 6. Be wise therefore O ye Kings be instructed ye Judges of the Earth kiss the Son lest he be angry and ye erish from the way For he is the Prince of the Kings of the Earth who can only crown you with Glory which the Lord in his Mercy will bestow as he hath promised on all that love him and keep his Commandments Your Honours humble Servant in all Christian Duties THO. WALL