have the same sense of the purity of the Faith of the Gospel and that the share which I have of the evil you suffer and of the injury you do the cause of Christ makes me to speak in this manner and to conjure you in his name to forbear a little your passions Neverthelesse you may examine whether that which I tell you is truth and the things which I desire are not conformable to the will which he hath revealed unto us If you believe that Rom. 12. We are all members one of another as his Spirit doth assure us you will finde that I have reason to complain of the wrong you do unto me If the hand is hurt the head may complain of it and if the head suffereth the heart may groane 1 Cor. 17.26,27 If one member suffereth all the members suffer with it Now ye are the body of Christ and members in particular Wherefore if you believe that all those which boast to appertain unto Christ ought to be affected with his cause you will finde that I am bound in christian Charity to advertize you of the wrong you do unto him by working mischief one against another And although I should not onely be hated but also persecuted of my brethren yet I would not hold my peace because Gods cause is concerned herein and the rights of him who hath given his life for a ransome both for yon and me If you seek his Kingdome you may know that the desires I have and the supplications I make in his name do not proceed from the spirit of darknesse nor from the heart of an enemy Perhaps you will say that you have good and excellent men enough who have told you all these things before and greater too and in better language Well then in Gods name if it be so then you are oblieged the more to hearken unto them and to make some reflexion upon the fervent desires of so many good and honest people that do seek to God for your peace and Re-union And verily if the spirits of Prophets have been subject unto the Prophets you are oblieged much more to yield something unto the prayers of your Brethren that suffer and groan for your divisions And if charity doth hold the principall place in your hearts then are you bound to make them to rejoyce again and to comfort them by your Re-union which will lift up their hearts and voice to heaven in holy exaltations and make them shed many thousand tears of joy and sing praises unto God Do you not know that your Creator would have pardoned a great City full of abomination for ten righteous men onely if they could have been found therein And if your Saviour commands you to forgive your brethren not onely seven times but seventy times seven times Shall we that are taught in his School and would fain be his Disciples exercize our revenge upon many millions of poor innocent Christians that suffer and groan for our dissentions Do ye not know Brethren that the blood of the righteous is precious before God and do you not fear that that wherewith you now colour the Seas shall rise up one day in judgement together with the cries of so many Widowes and Orphans which you make if you continue Remember my dear Brethren that we shall shortly see him come in his glory with his holy Angels and then be ashamed and confounded to see his wounds open still and his members murthered by the blowes we give him How can ye hope or imagine that coming before him covered with the blood of his children he should go forth to meet you to imbrace you to set the Crown upon your heads and to make you sit down upon the throne with him for these brave atchievments Do you think he will receive your excuses and approve of these proceedings of yours against his people Do you not understand what he saith to those that shall presume to argue the case with him in the day of Judgement That whatsoever they have done to one of his little ones they have done unto him And can you say unto him that it was his glory and the advancement of his Kingdome you sought with the blood of your Brethren Do you think he will not know that it was nothing else but your own selfishnesse and proper Interests ye have sought at such a rate If he should deal with you as you deal with him in his members could you well bear his Indignation Remember dear brethren how many a time you have offended this good and righteous King and how many great wickednesses he forgives you every day Doth he not teach us to ask of him forgivenesse for our offences even as we forgive them that have offended against us Think upon the Imprecations which we draw upon our heads if we be not minded to forgive one another the offences which we imagine we have received It may be if you would examine the first occasions of the disgust and ill will which you have conceived one against the other with some sparks of love you would finde more of innocency and mischance then of ill will You know well Sirs that in great consultations consisting of many severall heads the wisest and best advice is not alwayes the strongest and and that many times a man cannot bring to passe what a whole Nation desires it may be you did as well on the one as on the other side that what you had never an intention to do and perhaps could not do what you had a minde to do Oh if we could but hearken a little to and practice that just Commandement which the Lord hath commanded us in the third Chapter of the first Epistle of his well-beloved Disciple Vers 11. For this is the message that you heard from the beginning that we should love one another Verse 12. Not as Cain who was was of the wicked one and slew his brother Verse 14. We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren He that loveth not his brother ahideth in death Verse 15. Whosoever hateth his Brother is a murderer and ye know that no murderer hath eternall life abiding in him Verse 16. Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren Verse 23. And this is his Cemmandement that we should believe on the Name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another as he gave us Commandement Chap. 4. Verse 20. If a man say I love God and hateth his Brother he is a liar For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen Verse 21. And this Commandment have we from him that he who loveth God Love his brother also Hearken also to what his Apostle animated by his holy Spirit saith in the 1 Corinth Chap. 6. Verse 5. I speak it to your shame Is it so
A Christian and Brotherly EXHORTATION TO PEACE Directed unto the Soverain States of ENGLAND and the United Provinces of the NETHERLANDS And to the People of both NATIONS Translated out of the French Copie sent by a Lover of Peace from beyond Sea LONDON Printed for Richard Wodenothe in Leaden-hall-street To The Illustrious Sovereign States of ENGLAND and the United Provinces of the NETHERLANDS And to the People of both the said NATIONS I Could wish my Lords and beloved Brethren that my tongue might be untied and loosed to as good a purpose for your Peace and Reconciliation as that in time past was of a dumb man for the saving of his Father Though I am not affected with the same naturall fright and amazement as that was which did untie his tongue in an instant Yet I dare assure you that the affection which I bear for your Peace and Reconciliation is no lesse then that of a childe for the life of his Father And this is that which doth obliege me to conjure you to consider whether those differences of yours can be pleasing unto him that hath freed you from the captivity and Kingdome of death and darknesse into which you were plunged and hath gathered you unto his holy Jerusalem received you into his Covenant united you unto himself and his with an everlasting and indissoluble bond or whether it be not contrary unto his will Do you believe that he hath gathered you together and united you with those whom he hath enlightened and to whom he caused the light of the Gospel to shine that you should unite your selves afterward with them that follow after the Beast that have given up their Kingdome unto it and are yet under the power of death and darknesse If you be alive what communion can you have with the dead and with those that make war with the Spouse and with the truth of him that hath raised you by his Spirit of life Can you believe that he hath delivered you from the hand of the Babylonians that you should re-unite your selves again with them Or that he made you go out of Babylon that you should make peace with those that maintain the Crimes and uphold the Dominion thereof Are you not of those to whom the Lord hath said Apoc. 12. Go out from Babylon my people Are you not of those that have received the Testimony of the Witnesses which their King hath slain and whom the Lord hath raised to shew unto you his will How can you then unite your selves and make peace with those that accuse them and make war against them Remember you not the violence and cruelties they have exercised against you and yours in the preceding age to bring you into subjection and bondage Have you forgotten the Army which they called the Invincible which they had designed for your destruction Are they not the very same who seeing that they could not prevail against you by open force and remembring that a short truce of twelve years failed but a very little of having undone you conceived that a deceitful peace would make an end of you and that according to the advice which sometimes Balaam gave unto Balaak of uniting himself with the children of Israel to divide them from God and to provoke his anger and jealousie against them it would be a means to bring their design to passe Do you believe that it is for your good and not much rather for their own Interest that they have sued for a peace with you which is so deceitfull Are you still so blinde as not to see that they minde nothing else but how they may divide you from your Brethren and ancient Allies Have they not been your enemies by hindering you to entertain more advantagious confederacies And you may sufficiently understand by the good offices which they perform unto you at this present what their thoughts have been towards you when they have sought peace at your hands Oh if you could but have hearkened unto the advice which was given you concerning it a little before you came to a conclusion you would now be at peace with your Brethren and would be perhaps far from those troublesome Neighbours which do so often disturbe you How much blood and treasure would you have spared Your people which have been but languishing all this while in regard of the flourishing condition they were in heretofore would as yet possesse a glorious prosperity And you also Sirs who do lend them your hands do you not consider the good offices which they do unto those who peradventure have most contributed to maintain them in a good part of their Estates which have been shaken Do you not know that they are of those who do not think themselves obliegd to keep faith unto you and that they cannot suffer any of their subjects to make profession of your Religion without putting them to cruell deaths Can you hope that when they shall see their advantages and the occasion of advancing their affairs they will deal with you otherwise then they have dealt with your fathers and at this present do deal with your brethren notwithstanding all the benefit and advantages they have received from them By what Policy can you be united unto those which do think you to be Gods enemies and are perswaded that he doth command them to make war against you and would be content with the losse of Kingdomes and millions of men to have you all utterly rooted out with all those of your Religion How can you give assistance for the taking of Places even the strongest upon your Borders and thus insensibly to weaken and to block up your selves Do you not think that they may turn about and make peace with your Neighbours Do you not know that thousands of Babylonians do most pasâ—ionately desire it and that already many do endeavour on all sides to bring them to a Re-union to the end that they may fall upon you promising to themselves nothing else then to divide the spoil which they will get of you and of your brethren Do you not perceive that there be many discontented and interesâ—ed amongst you which do yet pant and long after Monarchie Can you be ignorant that the Interest of Kings doth obliege them to give them all possible assistance and do you not call to minde the hatred which you have brought upon you and the jealousies which you give to all and which have drawn upon you mighty enemies You know but too well that there be many of yours which do not yield unto your Government but by power and constraint that your Ecclesiastical Politick and Military States do consist of ill-affected persons that are full of discontents and emulation which do wait only but for an opportunity that they may safely discover themselves Do you not remember both of you that there be still some Princes that had the Supream Power over you which will never be forgotten by them Remember therefore that upon the
our eyes from these things Christians and think on these honours on these glories and on these everlasting riches which do wait for us and cannot fail us What if we our selves be so earthly minded that we cannot refrain our affections from these base and unworthy things which we are to leave behinde us Think you that the great King of Kings hath not Treasury and honours enough in this World to fill and enrich you therewith hath he not Indies and hidden Treasures yea Kingdomes to give unto you when he pleaseth Is it not upon these things that you should rather make your Assignations for your Indempnities then upon the blood and lives of his people Do you not know that all the Kings and Princes of the Earth are to come to bend their knees before him and that he promiseth unto his people Empires and Kingdomes Oh if we did but well ponder these things we would not be so eager to cut one anothers throats and to make so great a breach into the holy City for things of nought perhaps you would not have gone half so far in the design which it seems you have to destroy one another When he shall open your eyes and make you know the wrong which you have done unto him He will make you sigh for it and then perhaps you will present your selves before the breach which you your selves have made against those which do lead you thereunto and that wait for nothing else but to come to assault the holy City and your good Mother after the beach is made You that do justifie all your proceedings before men and endeavour to perswade them that you have not acted any thing but by the righteous and just motions of the Spirit of God How do ye think that the true Christians can be perswaded of these things when they see that you will have no peace with those whom the Lord hath also enlightened with his knowledge received into his Covenant and amongst whom he causeth also to shine the light of the Gospel Can you imagine that those who have suspended their Judgements all this while and would see first the carrying on of your proceedings before they would condemn you when they see that you have no peace nor communion with the Saints will entertain any favourable thoughts on your behalf Do you not well know that there be but two sorts of people in the world and that those which are not sealed with the Seal of God have taken the mark of the Beast and worship the Dragon Faith doth assure you that you are written in the Book of the Lamb Charity also obliegeth you to believe the same of those who have followed him who have done like your selves who are gone forth out of Babylon to enter into the spirituall Jerusalem who are members of the same body who have the same Faith the same Law the same Rule with you who follow the same truth and who have been till hitherto your brethren and vvith vvhom you have been enrolled under the same Standard promising to stand for the same cause and the service of the same King who follovv the Lamb who have followed him even unto death who maintain his rights against his enemies who are quickened and cherished with the same Spirit who sing and publish his praises who love and adore him and seek his Kingdome who are hated and persecuted for the same cause as you are Why then do ye not unite your selves to follovv your King vvho comes to deliver you and to give you the possession of the Kingdome After all this if we be resolved not to recede at all from our Interests and that we cannot compose our differences between our selves by the vvay of some friendly Mediations of our Brethren as the Lord doth command us at least let us not decline such a thing vvhich the fiercest enemies refuse not in the heat of a Siege for lesse weighty reasons then these are for vvhich vve do invite you in the name of Jesus Christ to make a cessation of Armes to the end that your distractions may be appeased though it vvere but for a fevv years or for some moneths during which you vvill finde well-beloved Brethren that the great King of Peace vvill open your eyes touch your hearts vvith sweet affections and restore unto you holy exaltations and rejoycings in the Lord. Do you not see the confusion vvhich begins to be spread over Babylon and instead of making use of this for the advancement of his Kingdome it seemes you are a friend of the fall of that whore and that you would fain delay it and advance the desolation of Jerusalem and fill the Holy City with troubles Devoure you not anothers flesh and make your enemies believe that he also made you drunk with the Wine of astonishment Do you not hear the joyfull shoutings and the cries of Blasphemies which the Babylonians do already send forth O that the world would but well consider the things which the Lord is about to do and whereunto he will employ us for the execution whereof he hath put these mighty Armies into your hands to employ them against his enemies and to exercise his vengeance in his Judgements against those who have slain his Witnesses destroyed his Saints and made his Inheritance desolate and who condemn you to Hell usurp his Rights and hinder the approach of his Kingdom and who conspire your Extirpation and thraldome Should you not give care to the Commandements which he layeth upon you to exercise Vengeance and to render unto them double for the mischiefs they have done unto you Do you not fear that he will one day call you to an account for that power he hath given you to be avenged of his enemies instead whereof you were so blinde and wretched as to lend them your hands and to dis-unite your selves one from another to be united unto them Certainly if you will be united unto the well-wishers and Protectors of Babylon you must needs expect these tvvo things to ensue Either she and her King vvill be Conquerours over the holy Jerusalem or she vvill be overvvhelmed by the Judgements of God If she doth remain victorious behold you are reduced again to the spiritual Captivity from whence you are gone forth But if she is subdued you must fell the plagues wherewith she is threatened and drink of her cup. How can you then be united and make peace with those who do uphold her who have given up to her their power and who do learn her blasphemies and adhere unto them against your brethren Let us hearken to the advice which the Lord herein gives us touching the fall of this great Whore and of the abolition of her King Apoc. 18.19 Let us then separate our selves from these Babylonians as the people of God from Corah and his companions left we perish with them We are come to the end of the war and to the valley of Josaphat to the day of