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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

they desired to take shame to themselves and that they were now as ever equally endeared to the good Old Cause and utter enemies to all Tyranny and Oppression c. but that they would have gone on to endeavour with all their might to have brought things to that perfection and state they were in when the forementioned presence and glory of the Lord was with and upon us to wit either to the choyce of the same or other persons of that honest spirit and principle who were formerly turned out of the Little Parliament who have not since defiled their Garments with the late Apostacy or if they have have repented publickly for the same the departing from and rejecting of which spirit and principle by the then and now builders was the onely chief Cause of the Lords so withdrawing his presence from their Councels and Forces since that time In order to which several faithful friends to the Cause in discharge of their consciences and duty as they then apprehended to serve the Lord in that present juncture of affairs did draw up and by the hands of Major Mallery Lieutenant Collonel Pinchin Captain Cust and others present to Lieutenant General Fleetwood and the General Council of Officers a paper called the Good Old Cause Stated which holds forth that the Army themselves did formerly declare for and approve of that very spirit and principle and such persons to be in Power as is before mentioned and therein was desired Now whether it was that the spirit of the Army which was so deeply drenched and as it were over head and ears in the late Apostacy like old Bottles could not bear the new wine to wit the self-denying spirit in the forementioned persons turned out of the Little Parliament and in others like them that was the reason they were not called again or what the matter was but to be sure if they and the people who called you had been right and clear in their understandings or had had a true hint or taste upon their spirits of that Blessed Excellent Lively Spirit that shall execute the Justice and Righteousness that shall be when the Law shall go forth of Zion and our Lord Jesus Christ and his Saints shall reign in Righteousness Isa 32.1 They would have walked in that matter less by sence and more by faith have trusted God and never called you But so it came to pass that through the darkness and short-sightedness of some of the Friends of the Cause and according to their desires you were called together again to take your former Power as being in the outward appearance the onely visible Legall Authority in the Nation The best expedient to root out the Monarchicall Protectorall Government To raise * Indeed you were very good at raising money and Soldiers to secure your selves and at going to Feasts prepared out of the Orphans money by the carnal vain Magistrates of the City to bribe and blinde you that you might not search into and purge out the foolish apish corrupt practices and oppressive Customs that are amongst them and from framing the Government of the City in the way of a Commonwealth as you had declared the Government of the Nation to be And at voting the continuance of Tythes and therewith your wicked Ordinance for trebble dammages at raising Enemies to the Cause under Collonel Thomson to ballance and put a check upon the faithfull Friends thereof at perpetuating your selves as before by filling up your House with new Members at owning corrupt Interests and preferring corrupt persons into places of Trust contrary to your own Votes and Declarations at discountenancing the business of the friends of the Cause to the countenance of the enemies thereof at dealing deceitfully with the Army and Friends of the Cause as backward to reform the Law as also to divolve the Trust lately in your hand over into the hands of faithful men as formerly you were and as ready to do the same yea worse things then in the severall foregoing Particulars is charged against you But as for the Cause of Christ according to the true intent and spirit of it the Just Civil and Religious Liberties of the good People and providing Persons of a more excellent spirit for Government to promote and bring this forth you understood it not nor laid it to heart no more then the Army and therefore very unmeet to be continued but dissolved as formerly Money And to prevent future War and Bloudshed Maintain the Good Old Cause the Liberties and Freedoms of the good people in the things of God relating to the Conscience until such time as a better Moddel of Government should be found out so that here was your then Second call and Standing by all which it is probable you might apprehend the Lord did own you notwithstanding you retained the same spirit as before and that during the time of your more then six years dismission from your former Power had onely been putting you as formerly Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon to eat grass with the Beasts of the Field Dan. 4.25 or made you as ordinary men that so you might the better understand and know that the most High ruled in the Kingdoms of men and gave them to whomsoever he would thereby to humble and make you better Now seeing you were once more brought together into the Power not called thither by Malignants Presbyterians or the late new Court Party who profess to remain in that spirit but by some of the faithfull Friends of the Cause and the Army who as they say though honest men think otherwise are returned from their Apostacy to do the forementioned good things till such time onely as a better Moddel was found out who in case you answer'd not what you were called for had also the same power to take from you again what they had so committed to you you should not have been high minded but feared and been looking about you and considering whether the same or a worse spirit had not been in you now then formerly and have taken heed of doing the same or worse things that so caused the Friends of the Cause and the Army to complain of you and so greatly desire your Dissolution and a New Representative to come in your places For if during the time of your almost seven years Dismission from your former Power you had only been like unto Nebuchadnezars stump Dan. 4.15 rooting in the earth and bound as it were about with iron and brass and had not repented and broken off your former sins and evils charged upon you by the Army and others and grown better by the shame and affliction of being so laid aside but still remained as at your first Dissolution you could not honestly expect that the Friends of the Cause who called you onely to do those good things which the Army pretendedly dissolved you for not doing of would take it well at your hands or bear you herein because the former glory and

Protectoral Beast-like foundation in himself and family were frustrated and came to nothing the Lords faithful people rejoyce the old Protector so called is greatly troubled grows faint his heart as it were falls flat and he dyes I do the rather mention these things that you may the better remember the several steps of providence preceding your second coming into power The light the delight of their eyes the breath of their Nostrils their Moses David great Mordecay and Elijah or rather the most Famous Renowned Prince of their Apostate Congregation who was gotten so far on of his journey towards Zion yet by himself and them through unbelief and a self-seeking self-exalting spirit made their great Captain to return back again into Babylon being thus taken away and therein their head as it were struck from of their shoulders the remaining body of the Apostates to wit the late Council Army Independent Cleargy Tryers and Vniversity men c. either not seeing or rather being ashamed it should be known they saw this their sin of Apostacy from the Cause of Christ and how the presence of the Lord was departed from them upon that account instead of acknowledging the same and returning into the way from whence they had so treacherously and wickedly departed and was the cause of all this evil that was upon them and the Nation they go on like so many blinde Bayards or as a people besotted in their former evil wayes and to mend the matter or lick themselves whole again they set up Richard Cromwel the eldest son of that family upon his deceased Fathers Throne thereby endeavouring what in them lay to confirm and establish the aforesaid Tyrannycal oppressive Power which they had exercised in the life time of his Father who to establish himself more strongly therein he calls a Parliament chosen by the whole bulk or spirit of the Nation as did his father before him without any respect had to those good qualifications which you not being so honest to provide for in the Act of a New Representative you were about in the time of your former sitting was charged upon you as one of the great crimes that it seems would have been committed by you for which they pretended you were dissolved These persons so chosen come together some of whom were friends to a Commonwealth Government in opposition to that of a Single person yet most of these as was in his Fathers Parliaments very short of that * Your unwillingness to divolve your trust over to persons of Honour and Integrity who were well affected to Religion and the Interest of the Nation for the further carrying on of the Cause of Christ was another of the pretended Reasons why the Army first dissolved you and yet afterward as here may be seen they did worse themselves excellent lively spirit for Government and bringing forth of Righteousness which the dispensation that is upon us calls for from Rulers in this our day and these three Nations so that no great good could be expected from them had they not been overvoted by the greater pary that were of a contrary spirit to them The other part of the House which were very much the greater number consisted of persons tainted with both the Old and New Court Interest who like Simeon and Levi brethren in iniquity would alwayes be sure to joyn together against the Commonwealths men and others to hinder whatever tended to advance that interest or way of Government and did strike at the dethroning of their own and of these the Old * Your not endeavouring in the time of your first sitting to keep out Presbyters Neuters and Masignants from coming into Power was another of the pretended Reasons why the Army dissolved you yet therein also as may be seen they did the same themselves I mention these things not to excuse you or in the least to make divisions but that the poor people of God and the Nation may the better see and know how likely they are to be ruined and undone between the Army and you Oh that ever men who have profest to be the Army of the Lamb and such professing men as many of you would be looked upon to be should ever deal so treacherously with the Cause of God and his people as you have done Malignant Neutral and Presbyterian spirit were predominant who endeavoured covertly all they could to bring things to run in the old Malignant Channel and to be laying bonds upon the consciences as well as upon the bodies of the Lords people called Sectaries as also if they had been suffered to go on would have disbanded if not the whole Army yet at least have purged out all therein whom they had judged to have been such factious seditious persons as Sir Arthur Haselrig who then pretended to be a more faithful friend to the honest frinds of the Cause then in this time of your second sitting he hath proved to be and others very well know Things going on in this manner and the Brass Iron and Clay of this Toe of the Image or Horne of the Beast mixing and agreeing no better together and the pretended honest part of the Army so likely to be cast out and as it were undone if things went on so they consult together and conclude that there was nothing would preserve themselves and the honest Interest but the dissolution of that Parliament in order to which they rendezvouz together in their arms the night before in several places of the City and about White-hall Richard Cromwell the then Protector Coll. Goff Com. Gen. Whaly and others of the Army who closed with this corrupt party of that Parliament at the same time endeavouring all they could to draw away a party or all engaged with the other to stand by them fearing that their Kingdom would also be struck at or diminished by this business the pretended honest part of the Army prevail and send to the aforesaid Richard Cromwell a pretended legal Authority desiring him by his power to dissolve that Parliament who sore against his will answered their desire therein whereby they apprehended they were Legally Dissolved This great overturning dispensation being thus brought about the Lords faithful people and all others that may truly be said were friends of the Cause did greatly concurr with and approve of what was done by the Army in procuring the Dissolution of that wretched Parliament and did bless the Lord for the same and likewise desired and greatly pressed after the Dissolution of the Protectoral Government also as that which they formerly in the King and now again so lately in the Protector so called had the too sad experience was Tyrannical and Oppressive and altogether inconsistent with the well being of the people of these Nations and were not without some hopes The Army having but a little before Declared to the world They could not but bewail their great failings and turnings aside and wherein soever they had back-slidden

A Faithfull Searching HOME WORD 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 Rocks 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 twice Dead plucked up by the Roots Is now presented to the Officers of the Army as another Looking-Glass wherein they may plainly see how wofully 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 and have done the same yea worse things themselves then for which the late King was Beheaded and they pretendedly Dissolved the late Old Parliament a first and second time and have been Pharaoh Edom and Moab-like the onely main Hinderers of the Lords Faithfull People from going to Zion which hath so pulled down the late and present Judgements which have been and yet are lying upon these Nations Together with another 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 the better know how to chuse the Good refuse 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 Isa 24.16 From the utmost parts of the Earth have we heard Songs even Glory to the Righteous But I said My leanness my leanness woe unto me the Treacherous Dealers to wit the late Old Parliament have dealt treacherously Yea the Treacherous Dealers viz. the Officers of the Army have dealt very treacherously Printed in the first Year of the Army 's endeavouring to deal treacherously with the Faithful Friends of the Cause a second time after their first and second Dissolution of the late long Parliament 1659. A Faithful Searching Home Word intended for the view of the remaining Members of the former Long Parliament in the time of their late Second Sitting at VVestminster shewing the Reasonableness and Justness of their first Dissolution as also the dangerous Rocks they formerly split upon that so they might learn to beware for the future c. YOu may remember when in the day of your former sitting as the Peoples Representors and a faithful Party among you were according to their then light going on in the Lords work taking away the Tyrannical Antichristian heavy Yokes which the King and his Prelates laid upon the Bodies and Consciences of the good people of this Nation and also the Army together with your selves gave them hopes that you would endeavour to take away all the remaining Oppressions that then were or in the future should be found lying upon them and would bring forth Righteousness to them as by many Declarations may appear which was then hath been all along yet is and in every Generation for time to come but above all when the Kingdom of Jesus Christ shall most visibly appear and be set up in the world will be the Cause of God and his People that by the good Providence of the Lord as also through the many Prayers Petitions and Strivings of the honest Party in the Nation Army and among your Selves to and with the Lord and You and against the common enemy very great and wonderful things were successively one time after another brought about and done amongst us towards the ease of the people viz. the late King brought to Justice and other great ones with him his Monarchy House of Lords together with his own and the aforesaid Tyranny of his Lords Spiritual and Temporal so called and of other corrupt persons with much of the Oppression then lying upon us taken away How the Lord blest you with success in your Councels and Forces both by Land and Sea and you also had the love and prayers of the good people and what a terrour of you was upon the Enemy both at home and abroad whilest some who were faithful among You and the honest part of the Army were in the zealous prosecution of these things and afterwards declared for the Destruction of Antichrist and the Advancement of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and appeared to be growing up into the Light Spirit and were doing the things relating and leading thereunto you very well know The Enemy being every where totally subdued and the three Nations of England Scotland and Ireland with all the Territories thereunto belonging in our hands the Dutch Fleet also beaten at sea and they thereby almost brought as it were upon their knees in the doing whereof the appearances and salvation of the Lord with and about his poor unworthy people were so very wonderful and glorious that the faith and expectations of many or most of them who went along with him to that day especially towards the latter end whrlest these things were doing were very much raised and that from Scripture grounds to be eying the Promises and Prophesies relating to the Deliverance of Zion The Destruction of Babylon and Antichrist The Call of the Jews The Advancement of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ all which shall certainly be fulfilled in the latter dayes Among other see the following Scriptures First The deliverance of Zion Psal 48. Psal 69.35 36. Psal 87.5 Psal 102.13 to 22. Psal 132.13 to the end Isa 2.2 3 4. Isa 4.5 6. Isa 33.20 Isa 35.9 10. Isa 46.13 Isa 51.3 5. to 11. Isa 52. Isa 60. Isa 62.4 8 9 11 12. Isa 65.19 21. to 25. Micha 4.2 3 4 10. to 13. Obadiah verse 17 18 21. Zeph. 3.13 15 17. to 20. Zech. 2.7 to 13. Zech. 8.3 to 8. Zech. 9.15 16. Zech. 12.2 3 4. to 9. Secondly The Destruction of Babylon and Antichrist Isa 47. Jer. 50. Jer. 51.2 Thess 2.8 9 10. compared with Rev. 18. Thirdly The Call of the Jews Jer. 23.3 7 8. Jer. 30.3 10 11. Jer. 31.8 9 11 12.23.28 Ezek. 36.24 to the end Ezek. 37.21 22. Amos 9.14 15. Zeph. 3.19 20. Isa 66.20 to the end Fourthly The Kingdom of Christ Psal 72.1 8. to 17. Isa 9.6 7. Isa 32.1 Jer. 23.5 6. Jer. 30.9 Jer. 33.15 16. Ezek. 37.24 25. Dan. 7.13 14 27. Obadiah verse 21. Zech. 9.9 10. Zech. 14.9 Luke 1.32 33. Luke 22.29 30. John 18.37 1 Tim. 6.14 15. Rev. 2.26 27. Rev. 11.15 Rev. 19.13 14 15 16. Ezek. 21.27 And that these Scriptures shall certainly be fulfilled see Jer. 33 20 21 25 26. compared with

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

he As the effect of that memorable Year 1648. was to lay the foundation of bringing Delinquents to punishment so it was of the Change of the Government although it be true if we had time to speak the carriages of some in Trust in most eminent Trust was such as would have frustrated to us the hopes of all our undertakings had not God miraculously prevented I mean by that closure that would have beèn endeavoured with the King whereby we should have put into his hand all that Cause and Interest we had opposed and had nothing to have secured us but a little piece of paper c. Which clearly confirms what I have said that the Lord blest us with success in our Councils and Forces as there was a sincere spirit acting for the Cause and Interest of Christ in that day and no otherwise his free grace onely excepted For when you were dissolved and the Little Parliament called there was a greater presence of God with them a terrour upon the enemy both at home and abroad especially upon the Lawyers National Clergy and all other corrupt Interests as also the hearts of most of the true friends to the Cause more rejoycing then in the time of your sitting But I let that pass and shall in the next place in some measure discover the mystery of iniquity that lay in the bottom and was working in Transactions after you were dissolved wherein lies the corrupt fountain or spring though unseen by most people from whence the late Apostacy had its rise which so caused the forementioned presence of the Lord to depart from our Councills and Forces and exposed us to the reproach and scorn of our enemies both at home and abroad and also occasioned the late distractions and divisions as between the true so the true and false professours amongst us and is as it were the pin and hinge on which all the confusion and dark apprehensions of things have had their dependance and moving from that time to this very day and is as follows For after you were dissolved and the Little Parliament were about to be chosen besides what was spoken to your selves and was desired of you by the General and Officers of the Army to wit That you would divolve your trust over to Persons of Honour and Integrity that were well known men well affected to Religion and the Interest of the Nation c. He also declared in the presence of Major Gen. Lambert Sir Gilbert Pickering Major Gen. Harrison Mr. Cradock Mr. Lockyer and others who were in a private consultation about that choice That if there were one man more faithful to the Saints and more suited to the work then another and that had not been left behinde in former dispensatious by the blessing of God he should be chosen and that Relations and all others not thus qualified should be rejected and that from this Scripture which was then mentioned by the party to whom these words were spoken to wit Hosea 11.12 Ephraim compasseth me about with lies and the House of Israel with deceit but Judah yet ruleth with God and is faithful with the Saints The first part of which Scripture he and his Officers applied to you in the forementioned Speech to the Little Parliament page 38. of that Book viz. That like Ephraim and Israel you had compassed God about with lies and deceit to wit with your Fastings and Thanksgivings and other exercises yet did not do the good you were call'd for which they had all cause to lament of but the Little Parliament were called by God to be faithfull with the Saints who were somewhat instrumentall in their Call and to be just ruling in the fear of God c. Which principle was more publickly though hypocritically declared by them in that Speech page 41. of the forementioned Book sayes he to them I confess I did never look to see such a day as this it may be nor you when Jesus Christ shall be so * If Christ indeed be King of Nations as well as of Saints as surely he is and as the Officers of the Army have both here and elsewhere acknowledged him to be and the Little Parliament was called to act upon his foundation and to do all things in his Name upon an avowed account as their Judge King and Law-giver as these their words import And the Lord by his eminent presence with and refreshing the spirits of such as were faithful among them as also rejoycing the hearts of his faithful people and striking a terror upon the enemy whilest they were sitting and endeavoured to be acting according to that blessed spirit and principle gave testimony thereunto and the Spirit of the Lord and his faithful people grieved and his presence as also their prayers withdrawn and the Nation almost ruined since they were rejected and the Lord so wonderfully overturned and blasted the designs of whatever had enmity to and was set up after it and seems by those his overturning dispensations not to be pleased till those who have dealt thus treacherously return to the real practice of this their declared principle and to own that Spirit they have so rejected Then whosoever it is that shall be either laying or building upon any other foundation or be promoting any persons into power on this side of it though never so refined do set down short of what the Lord in that day had brought us unto and are in the apostacy still and must be overturned as well as your selves and all others that have gone before them own'd as he is this day and in this world Jesus Christ is owned this day by you all and you own him by your willingness in appearing here and you manifest this as far as poor creatures can to be a day of the power of Christ by your willingness I know you remember that Scripture Psal 110.3 The people shall be willing in the day of thy power God doth manifest it to be a day of the power of Jesus Christ Having through so much Blood and Trials as have been upon these Nations made this to be one of the great Issues thereof to have a People called to the Supreme Authority upon such an avowed account God hath owned his Son by this and you by your willingness do own Jesus Christ c. I confess I did never look to see such a sight as this We have not allowed our selves in the Choice of one person of whom we had not this good hope that there was faith in Jesus Christ and love to all the Saints and thus God hath owned you and by your comming together have you owned him c. And towards the latter end of that Speech Book page 43. he further saith unto them Truly seeing things are so that you are at the edge of the Promises and Prophesies at least if there were neither promise for this nor prophesie you are to be coveting after the best things endeavouring after the best things and

and preserve the honest Interest and taking away all the remaining * Among other Acts and Votes that past whilst this honest Party fat they prevailed for the passing of these four hereafter mentioned First for abolishing and taking away the Court of Chancery wherein was depending 23000. Causes some of them having lain there five some ten some twenty some thirty years and more to the utter undoing of many Families The second Vote for a New Body or Moddel of the Law then and now so greatly desired by good people which your not doing of was one other reason of your Dissolution A third Vote the taking away the Power of Patrons to make Presentations to Church Livings The fourth was that Innocent Negative Vote of not agreeing with the report of the Committee for Tythes touching what they offered as the best way to eject ignorant prophane and scandalous Ministers upon which presently followed the Dissolution of the House See a Book written by L. D. otherwise Mr Barhone then a member of that House sold at the Crown in Popes head Alley and worthy your taking notice of oppressions lying upon the bodies and Consciences both of them and others not onely the same but a greater presence and glory was with and upon our Councils and Forces our terrour upon the Enemy both at home and abroad and the hearts of most of the true Friends to the Cause of Christ and the Commonwealth more rejoycing then in the time of your first sitting yea the very Nations were angry and began to be wondering and looking after the things that were coming upon them as they shall more eminently be and do when the Spirit of Life from God shall enter into the Lords faithful people to revive that spirit which in these persons was afterwards as it were trampled upon cast out and crucified according to Rev. 11.11 18. So also the Lawyers Clergy and all other corrupt Interests to wit the Adonijah false spirit of Magistracy and Ministry in these Nations were almost at their wits end for fear their Corruption Bribery Dilatory proceedings in Law suits Double Fees Taking Fees from both parties c. A Coercive power over their Brethren Consciences Tythes of all kinds Power of haling their Parishioners before Magistrates Casting them into Prisons Seizing upon their Goods and Forcing them to pay treble Dammages for non-payment of Tythes and great Riches they gain'd upon this account would cease and be utterly taken away and were ready to faint and cry out as the more wicked Children of their dear Lady Mother Mystery Babylon the great Whore and mother of Harlots and abominations of the earth both in the Magistracy and Ministry thereof shall certainly and more eminently do in the latter dayes according to Revel 18. And seeing no other way to help themselves By their Emissaries and Agents such as Whitlock * And it may too truly be suspected that the same dark lanthorn spirit and most of the same persons are now at work with some of the Grandees of the Army as in the time of your first Dissolution labouring as for life to keep such faithful men from coming into power as will suffer no custom or practice though never so specious in the outward pretence that is Oppressive and without warrant in Scripture to lie upon the Bodies or Consciences of the Lords people Which forementioned persons and others of that spirit have been and are the great Incendiaries as was formerly Strafford Cottington Canterbury Wren and others in their day and I am very much out of the way if they leave not off but persist in this wicked underhand opposing the work of the Lord that the wrath and judgement of God and his people will break forth against them as against the former St. Johns Lisle As also Philip Nye afterwards Metropolitane Tryer at White Hall Deane Owen Doctor Tho. Goodwin so called and others they repair to the then General and some of his Officers and to a Corrupt party in that Little Parliament pack'd beforehand for such a purpose crying out as it were for help which General c. were as willing to receive and hearken to them as they to come for that the aforesaid honest Party in the House did also strike at their self-seeking and corrupt Interests and were labouring to bring the great Officers to serve the State which was so impoverished a Year without pay as also would render them very cheap and have their persons no further in admiration then as they honoured the Lord and their sincerity to the Cause and Interest of Christ appeared Wherefore the forementioned corrupt persons being so well agreed their Case also being alike desperate and knowing right well they could expect no better at their hands being thus greatly afraid as they are to this day according to Isa 41.6 7. They helped every one his neighbor and each corrupt Interest said to his Brother Be of good courage So the corrupt Lawyer encouraged the Clergy-man the Clergy-man the eminent Vniversity man the eminent University man the corrupt self-seeking General and his Officers the General and his Officers with the former the corrupt Party in that Little Parliament who upon a first day Heathen-like called Sunday on which they usually pretend to worship God and compass him about with lies an evill they so complained of in you they held Cabals at Whitchall and the Cockpit to consult the Dissolution of the Little Parliament which being fully agreed and concluded upon the Plot was so laid between them that Sydenham Montague Pickering Strickland Lawrence Clark and others of the corrupt Party must get together betimes the next morning into the House two hours sooner then usually without the honest Parties knowledge and before they could get together and move a resigning or translating their pretended Power to the General that so his after Power and Government might appear with the greater face of Legality and be accepted of by the good people but as early as it was this their wicked Motion met with opposition from the friends of the Cause of Christ who came in unexpectedly upon them insomuch that the Corrupt Party durst not hazard to put the forementioned Motion to the Vote but without either Vote or Adjournment to any other place or time they with their Speaker in all haste go away to White-Hall to deliver up their pretended Power to the General leaving a considerable number of the honest Party behinde them in the House who in a little time after were by that Tyrant and Traytor both to God and Man Coll. Goff and Lieu. Collonel White since drowned coming from Mardike and Musqueteers they brought who are alwayes ready for any villany they are put upon turn'd out of the House thereby thinking and endeavouring so to fasten the Image of their corrupt Interests and therewith all the remaining oppressions lying both upon the Bodies and Consciences of the Lords People with nails that it should not be moved and

presence of the Lord that was with the Councels and Forces of this Nation is by reason of the late and present Apostacy almost clean departed and we as it were upon our last legs and do well understand some of them at least who are more clear-sighted that it is not barely the name of a Commonwealth Government and a people of a low dull spirit and understanding exercised therein who like so many heavy listless horses put into their gears must either draw or be whipt to it as most of you were in the time of your first Sitting and to the day of your late dissolution But the Righteousness and Justice thereof executed and brought forth with an excellent lively fresh spirit by an humble gracious willing people who have the concernments and wellfare of the Nation upon their hearts more then their own and are tender unto and faithful with all the Saints anointed thereunto by the Lords Spirit which once the Army so greatly pretended to own that will save and exalt these sinking Nations and do see that thither we must come or we perish and therefore if you would not speedily put to your helping hand in this crisis of danger to bring this in but would from time to time as in the time of your first Sitting either continue your selves with your old spirit or not before your rising so provide as to keep out Cavaleers Neuters Presbyters and the late New Court Party from coming into Power for the future as there was very little likelihood you would so many among you having Apostatized from your former Acts Votes and Declarations and fell in with the Protectorall Government nay voted for Kingship again and therein dealt treacherously with the Cause of Jesus Christ and your own Principles as well as the Army you could not expect any other from them and the Army if their hearts were sincere and upright with God indeed as they lately pretended to be but that they would take care to do it themselves though as formerly a desperate disease had a desperate cure And it seems for this very cause among others it was that you were so lately dissolved a second time whereby it very plainly appears that your late call to the Power was not a dispensation from the Lord to manifest we went out of the way in your first dissolution but onely that the necessity and justness thereof might more plainly appear not onely to your selves but to the satisfaction of some friends of the Cause that could not otherwise be satisfied but by the late tryal of your spirits a second time As also that you might be instrumental as the righteous judgement of the Lord upon them to take away the Power Government Splendor and Greatness of that family which was so hypocritically unrighteously and wickedly raised up upon your and the honest part of the little Parliaments ruines though in the outward pretence and shew for better ends and this your work being done to be removed again as before that so a second trial might be upon the spirits of the Army to see whether according to their former and late pretences they would indeed be so honest having so greatly mist it hitherto * The Lord hath one time after another since the Army rejected their profest spirit and principles in casting out the honest part of the Little Parliament as upon Pharaoh of old who would not let Israel go to Canaan Exod. Chap. 7. to Chap. 12. so blasted their designs and thereby plagued and brought them down as they are necessitated for their own preservation to send unto and call upon the faithful Remnant as did Pharaoh to Moses to pray for advise with and come into their assistance as if he would force them to let them go and doubtless will never let them rest till they acknowledge their iniquity and return to walk with more refinedness according to their former honest Principles and thereby Pharaoh-like hindered the Lords faithfull people from going to Zion as to bring in better and more suitable persons then your selves whom they had so greatly complained of into the Government of the Nation to carry on with life and power the blessed Cause and Work of the Lord for the future which both you and they notwithstanding your many high professions have so greatly opposed and dealt treacherously withal I might have been more large in comparing your spirit and actions in your late second Sitting with the forementioned Particulars charged upon you by the Officers of the Army as the grounds and reasons of your first Dissolution and have shewn more fully wherein you were rather worse then in the time of your first Sitting but it being more properly the Armies work to do it for their further vindication who have in the Generall done something therein already in their Plea they set forth for your late Dissolution I shall leave it to them or to some other persons who were more upon the place and could better observe you then my self who had little heart to come where you were upon the forementioned account and shall conclude with I hope a Seasonable Word by way of Counsel and Proposal to the Officers of the Army themselves of whom the true Friends of the Cause have to this day too great reason to say having had such sad and woful experience of their Adulteries from their former honest principles neighings and going a whoring after the accursed thing to wit the Monarchical Tyrannical Power Pomp and Greatness and their great lewdness and abominations therein committed yea greater then for which the late King was beheaded and they also pretended to dissolve you a first and second time and yet like the Whore Prov. 30.20 wipe their mouths as if they had done no wckiedness But are now as ever equally endeared to the Good Old Cause and utter enemies to all Tyranny and Oppression when as the Lord and his people yea the carnal people of the Nation knows it is not so As the Lord concerning Jerusalem of old Jer. 13.27 O Army Army will you not be honest sincere upright deny your self-Interest and Greatness and he in reality what you have so greatly profest Will you not return from whence you are fallen and so truly be said to repent must you needs ruine the Nation by your continuing to go on in your Apostacy and Wickedness will you not be clean when shall it once be A Seasonable Word by way of Counsel and Proposal to the Officers of the Armies of England Scotland and Ireland YOu may by reading over the foregoing Word to the Remaining Members of the Long Parliament lately sitting at Westminster whom you have now dissolved a second time as it concerns you so to do take notice of almost all the most considerable circumstances relating to the Blessed Cause and Work of Christ that you and the good people of this Nation have been so long engaged in and upon what account it was that the Lord so

the ease of the people you turned them out on purpose to hinder them from bringing what they had so voted and were going on to do unto perfection And after this illegally and dishonestly imprisoned and banished some of the aforesaid honest Members of the Little Parliament and others of the faithful friends of the Cause without any thing laid to their charge seeing the face of an accuser or bringing them to a legal Tryal which is worse then was done in the Kings dayes As also sent Alderman Chiverton then Lord Major now one of your Commissioners for the City Militia and Alderman Robbinson the then Sheriff two reputed Malignants with their Malignant City Marshals the acquaintance and confederates of the late Mall Cutpurse and her Crew to hale others of the forementioned friends of the Cause from their Meeting-place in Colemanstreet when they were seeking the Lord and pleading for his Righteous Cause and witnessing against your Apostacy from it and to cast them in prisons to make them give over and afterward set the then Chief Justice Glyn one of the Eleven Members formerly impeached by your selves of Treason as also Alderman Tichborne and others of your now new Council of Safety and Commissioners of the Militia to try and pass Sentence upon them who though the Jury had cleared them yet to satisfie your lust and please you for their own advantage they illegally laid Fines upon * viz. Cornet Day and John Clark two of them and kept them in Newgate above half a year after at great charges and when the judgements and overturning dispensations of the Lord came upon you and took away the light of your Eyes breath of your Nostrils and struck your head from off your Shoulders and they durst keep them no longer they turned them out saying nothing unto them which wicked action among other things of this kinde that might be mentioned declares plainly That the Cause even among your selves as well as among the Old Parliament was almost in every thing going to the ground yea the Cause of the people of God a despised thing with you Likewise unrighteously decimated the Estates of the Cavaleers when by your carnal unbelieveing selfish Act of Oblivion they would not be drawn to your Interest As also carryed it in so insolent high and arbitrary a manner that almost no Lawyer durst plead in a Cause against you for fear of being cast into prison Revived and upheld Monopolyes so greatly complained of in the late Kings dayes not onely in Merchandise and other things but also upon the Scriptures so that some Bibles were not to be had without paying ten or eighteen pence a piece more then they were formerly sold for Suppressed the printing Presses against all who wrote in vindication of that Blessed Cause and those good Principles you once so highly pretended to own and assert and against your Judas = like Treachery and Back-sliding from them and is another evil that your selves formerly * See Book called the Looking-glass page 19.20 complained of in the Old Parliament also stood by and abetted your Kingling or Humble Petition and Advice Parliament Mostly made up of Sons Kindred Servants and Sallary-men to trappan and like so many evening Wolves ravening the prey cunningly to steal upon and take away one whole years rent from the people for all such new houses as they had built within ten miles round the City of London upon new Foundations to the almost if not altogether ruine and undoing of many of them the better to uphold your new Court Pride Pomp and Luxury which persons of a self-denying sincere honest publick spirit would greatly abhor to do All which with many other evil practises of yours relating to the late and present abhord Apostacy that might be mentioned which I leave to the lately dissolved Members of the Old Parliament for the lessening their evil if compared with yours to make a more full discovery of it plainly appears that not onely in every one of those particulars which you have so charged upon them as the reasons of their first and second Dissolution but also then for which you fought with brought to Justice and beheaded the late King you have by far done worse your selves and therein overpassed the deeds of the wicked which treacherous dealing of yours with wickedly departing from Judas-like betraying and as it were crucifying and keeping down in the grave that blessed Cause of Christ his faithful people and those good Principles you once so greatly pretended to own thereby standing in the way and hindering the faithful Friends of the Cause from going to Zion is the chief cause of all those losses miseries disappointments and judgements which hath been from the Lord upon you and the Nation as upon Pharaoh of old who would not let Israel go to Canaan from that time to this very day and hath occasioned the enemy both at home and abroad as also the Carnal Episcopal Atheisticall Apprentices of the City of London whom the Lord for the malignity and opposition of their spirits to his Cause and People hath so many times disappointed and subdued as the people of his curse to misapprehend and say it is onely because the Government by King and Bishops is taken away with other blinde stuff of that nature and that it will never be well until they be restored again thereby casting dirt upon and as much as in them lies making null and void all those wonderfull and glorious Appearances Deliverances and Victories which the Lord from time to time hath shewen and given to his People both against them and it as if all had been onely by Chance Fortune or Common Providences or as among Papists Turks and Heathens and to threaten once more to put it to the trial whether it be not so and how far the Lord may make use of them as his Rod to rebuke and scourge you and all your Cycophant Addressors who have sided with abetted and not witnessed against your wickedness as also the poor Nation may likewise suffer in the common calamity for your sakes together with their own iniquities and opposition of their spirits to the Cause and People of God the Lord who will not be mocked nor dealt treacherously withal by you as you have mocked and dealt treacherously with his people onely knows For how can you rationally or honestly expect any other but that a consumption and destruction from the Almighty is determined and will unavoidably come upon you unless you speedily and thorowly repent and return from your Apostacy And yet too too much is it to be feared that notwithstanding this as also all the wholesome advice admonition and reproof that by speaking writing printing and therein line upon line that from time to time hath in all singleness and plainness been laid before you in order thereunto you lay it not to heart nor intend to act according to it no more then the Old Parliament did the Counsel and Advice

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