lost the glory of Pastors by preaching Christ and pretending for Christ and following the world and seeking Self so they must redeem their ancient honor by signal services Let love be even to Enemies and let the reducing of those that go astray be with that real sincere affection as they Preach Saint Iohn did his back-sliding outlaw given in trust to a Pastor or Bishop Let them be Fathers of the Church and brethren in Christ let them be eyes to the blind and teachers to them that are slow of heart let them be diligent and faithful in their places preaching in season and out of season looking at their duty more then the reward for by the vertual Succession or publike Designation they own the charge of the Lord is upon them and they pluck a wo upon themselves if they preach not the Gospel Lord dispel from their minds the rudiments of the world the superstitious reasonings of the flesh and all carnal Ordinances and give them the Evidence of thy Spirit that by thy Power they may be instrumental in this our day of high expectation to draw much people to the Lord. Holy Father give us Magistrates as of old men full of wisdom and of the fear of the Lord men of courage and despising riches let them make Thee their strength not trusting to their knowledge knowing that in case of a Kingdom appointed to ruine by God wise Councels and fair occasions avail not but are by a secret over-ruling Providence wholly inverted nor to their courage riches or power for the same reasons Let them not undertake War for Ambition nor as all Christian Princes and States of late have done engage in Oathes in policy and for stratagems let their leagues be kept inviolably the priviledge of Nations is above that of private persons let their Laws be not onely in the letter but the practise also the Indexes of pure Iustice let their Government be such a sweet mixture of Iustice and Mercy that may declare they seek Reformation not destruction the Glory of God not the benefiting of Self let them hear before they determine determine before they execute and yet execute so that Righteousness may be preserved free from the scandal not onely of false Iustice but also of too late Iustice Banish from the hearts of all such as thou shalt call to places of Judicature every affection that is dissonant to the purity of Christian Profession Let not form destroy the essence of Justice O Lord look upon all those that have power wisdom and riches whereby being eminent in their Generations they are rendred useful for thy glory that they may all of them improve the Talents that they have received to the end for which they were principally given And Father let thy many promises of building up Sion sending down the New Jerusalem setling the people in peace making them all of one heart and mind be fulfilled to us in this our day Many beleeve it is the great work of thy Glory reserved for thy Call of thine own people Lord hasten that time shorten the evil dayes for thine Elects sake and stir up all hearts in their respective places so to act as the vigor of all Christian vertues may be so apparent that all eyes may see the brightness of thy glory the perfect image of the Father shining forth in the conversations of the children Let all our emulations be holy tending onely to incite and stir up desires of more affectionate duties and services to the eternal Majesty not seeking after principally loose and accustomed liberty but laying such a due restraint upon all inordinate walkings that even propension to transgression may be chastised nay strangled in the heart before it grows to action Let the gifts of the mind in our Commonwealth have the first place then the excellencies of the body and let those of the world have the last as the lowest in the Sphear of Christian Politicks Let thy Kingdom even of thy Son the one eternal immortal invisible infinite Prince the Prince of Peace come let his Spirit so rule and raign in the hearts of the sons of men that his will may be so done of us here as it is in heaven that thou and thy Name may be glorified by all flesh even so be it O Lord. Amen Amen So prayes CHARLS GEORGE COCK Student of Christian Law Of the Society of the Inner-Temple now resident in Norwich FINIS Postscript As I find this VVork accepted I shall enlarge Isaiah 62. vers 1. For Sions sake I will not hold my tongue and for Ierusalems sake I will not rest untill the Righteousness thereof break forth as the light and the salvation thereof be as a burning Lamp Vers 6. and 7. Ye that are the Lords Remembrancers keep not silence and give him no rest untill he repair and set up Ierusalem the praise of the Earth
English-Law OR A Summary Survey of the Houshold of God on Earth And that both before and under the Law And that both of Moses and the Lord Jesus Historically opening the Purity and Apostacy of Believers in the Successions of Ages to this present Together with an Essay of Christian Government Under the Regiment of our Lord and King the one Immortal Invisible Infinite Eternal Universal Prince the Prince of Peace Emmanuel Isaiah 1. 24 25 26 27 28. Ah I will ease me of my enemies and avenge me of mine Adversaries I will turn my hand upon thee and purge thy dross and take away thy Tinne And I will restore thy Judges as at the first and thy Councellors as at the beginning afterwards thou shalt be called the City of Righteousness the faithful City Zion shall be redeemed with Judgement they that return of her with Righteousness The destruction of the Transgressors and of the sinners shall be together and they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed Isai 2. 3. and 5. Come ye let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord c. and 5. Come let us walk in the light of the Lord. Only by faith â— G. sculp London Printed by Robert White for T. G. and Francis Tyton and are to be sold at the Three Daggers neer the Inner-Temple-Gate 1651. To the Family of God over the whole Earth but more especially to them of the Houshold of Faith in the Commonwealth of England ALL who hold the Christian Faith do beleeve that as the world had a beginning and was a created substance so it shall perish and come to an end or be changed we seem not only to be on the last foot of time in this our Generation but having stood 1650. years upon it we have many thoughts of heart-longings for the glorious appearing of the Son of God Many expect him visibly to raign here on Earth in person and that he shall be glorified even where he was crucified Others look for a Kingdome of Righteousness a wonderful light of Truth to be manifested glorious out-breaking glympses and appearances of the infinite wisdom the brightness and evidence of which shall scatter all those clouds and dispell all those Exhalations which have mis-led us in the walkings of Christianity the false Prophets Clouds without rain and Fires without heat which have appeared amongst us A people in this Nation hath had as great testimonies of this as any people extant on the Earth The Power of the Almighty hath visibly appeared here these many years scattering of Truths and revealing hard sayings and giving to understand things that were hid for many Generations though according to the wisdom of the Father he hath dispensed divers gifts and that there is much of controversie among us yet if all be really for Christ and the increase of his Kingdom what matters it Let but all this move and incourage each in his place faithfully to labour in the Vineyard of the Lord. The Master is expected how he will come le ts not wrangle about nor with whom Let 's all high and low as we profess to expect his coming so prepare for it Assuredly he will then come to us in his glory or take us to his glory Therefore all you that in sincerity profess Christianity rowze up your selves listen to the call of the Lord He hath call'd afar off in Germany he hath call'd at home both here and in England and Scotland hear his voyce prepare to meet the Lord your glory Hitherto Christians have been the shame of Christianity and Gospellers the scandal of the Gospel There was a fatall and general Apostacy faln upon her who called her self the Spouse of Christ she as Aholah Aholibah played the Harlot and though she here with us in England promised to return yet she kept her Darlings still if she parted with the Assyrian Adulterer she kept the Syrian God will have no mixture with Idols England hath long desired a thorow Reformation Let no man boggle at the work if another desires more then as some of you did 20. or 30. years since why may not God have revealed this to him and closed thine eyes now as well as he revealed his will formerly to thee and shut the eyes of others Heretofore God put mean men only upon the work here and there one now he hath put many and great men upon the work and what ever spurs they have yet Christian if they drive on Gods design lay thy hand on thy mouth and only admire how God brings things to pass what he intends Some men are so rational they can see nothing of providence reason devours Religion and they are afraid lest they should happily find or be found of God in a way they expected not they wholly trust to reason and will see and feel or they will not beleeve Others are meerly sensual and in the muddiness of their temper follow sense only because reason is so various as many opinions as men even in things not above us This is the main basis of Atheisme shun this Scylla and that Charybdis and understand All Gods wayes are not only prudential but providential and God assuredly speaks both ways He that improves providence to Lust Error and Transgression against the evident revealed will of God is like him that because he hears of Election sins at liberty which is a mark of Rejection He that in doubtful things in streights for God his glory his Truth and Laws the purity of Righteousness in simplicity eyes God with constant and fervent prayers walking humbly and watchfully over himself and all that partake with him spying what leads and misleads and searching all interests casts all away all but that of the Lord and his Righteousness Surely he is like him that hearing of Election and not knowing who it is yet beleeving not only the truth of it but blessings appertaining to it saith I will seek if happily I may find I will knock because of the promise and such are assured to enter life eternal Now all you that have in your eye the expectation of the glorious appearance of the Lord Christ in your several stations Parliament Princes and Nobles Army Judges Officers Magistrates Rich men Citizens high and low Rich and poor one with another despise not my weakness inability unworthiness eye not my life past or present but look to what I say and as you find it bearing the mark and character of fervent truth accept it if you doubt labor satisfaction privately if you spy an error rebuke or inform me with Christian wisdom and sobriety my zeal for Gods cause not self-confidence hath put me forth to the work and I shall willingly learn and bless-God that makes me know his will yea though by my failings so it may work to the encrease of his glory and propagation of truth Amen So be it And first give me leave to speak a word to you that have at present the Supremacy of Power
persecution was not the way to eradicate Christianity and the very heathen Emperor Julian the Apostate whose heart knew horror for it as Christs politiquest and greatest enemy sheathes the sword and works by poyson but not to the body he hinders meetings under pretext of Treasons against the State and for publique safety sets up Schools of Idolatry and forces the Christian children to be there trained or els their parents dye as Traytors Now no longer Martyrs this quailes many a courage and was a great trouble and affliction to the Church but they overcome God by prayer here was the first tryal and therefore need of the greater strength They stood in the first rankes of the bataile of the Lord Christ and they were by him fitted accordingly for the combat they under went fear of death which to us is most terrible was to them unconverted frequent and therefore contemned thus was courage by example given to them should follow there is alwaies a mystery in providence secretly fitting all things to that end the Lord determines and works still for the good of his people and this preparation I take to be against the cruelty of the second beast which was to afflict the Church after the first beast the Roman Emperors was taken away the Apostles led the dance and the holy Disciples and Martyrs of all sorts followed after and that with the same faith and constancy though through variety of Torments and the persecutions were so violent that one of the learned amongst the Ancient Pastors of Gods Church Records there was but one day in all the daies of the year which had not been defiled with the death of at least five thousand Witnesses to the truth of Christs Gospel under the ten persecutions of the heathen Emperors and this is notorious that the worst Emperors were Christians greatest enemies seldome so much the zeal for the Gods as envy at godliness and coveteousness of riches the Christians goods filling anew the empty treasury exhausted by intemperancy of the Emperors or covetize of the Courtiers who were as they ever will be like graves never satisfied and is it not strange that a crucified God witnessed by the meanest of men fishermen should be thus followed and should break forth so gloriously amid flames and furies of all sorts yea every thing that was projected to over-throw it the demolishing of the outward Temples the burnings of Scriptures made but more pure though more secret meetings otherwhere and made them get the word into their hearts and memories for it is wonderful what labor the ancient and primitive Christians took in getting the Apostles writings by heart where it could never be extinguished but they should reap a greater light by it and thus God tried his Church purged and purified it by sufferings for three hundred years and not a Bishop so called of Rome or Pastor of the Church there in all that space but either suffered persecution or died Martyrs yet even amongst those Emperors persecutors God left himself not without witness and which is most notable in the worst man and cruellest to Christians Maximinus who at last glorified the God of the Christians and by new laws gave them immunities and privilidges above other men who before were thought worse then brute beasts Trajan Antoninus and others by providence in his mercy moderated and slacked of their fury to believers but never acknowledged him as this man did though he might back-slide but this is notorious that the Pagans alwaies believed God hated or the Gods hated the Christians because they saw them afflicted judgeing eternal love still by temporal favour and now to shew and evidence his power in that also and to convince the Enemies of this truth he not only gives a respite a cessation of miseries and afflictions but to shew his power all one the suddain by unexpected waies raises up contemned Christians to Thrones and Scepters and all the grand ones of the world are but the rewards of religious purity to the true God and now the poor banished soul ship-wrackt and lost as it were is brought to a haven of rest now Churches built now who so glorious as the greatest sufferers and in these daies of tranquillity the sence of present joy did more then counterpoise the sufferings past the poor Bishops are now the Emperors fathers endowed with livings and if fame lye not The Romane Bishop stole what Constantine never gave but the Decree was not unsealed till a long time after and this is Constantines pretended donation but sure it is Constantine did highly honor all the worthy ministers of all the Churches in whom the Vertue Piety and Doctrine of Jesus our Saviour was exemplar and now there is a new face of the world and surely the Christians now think themselves very happy their Emperor a Christian the power glory riches and honor of the world theirs now peace now plenty ensue and what can their hearts desire that they enjoy not The Dragon the persecutor is now gone and what doth reason suggest Now they will serve God gloriously before the service was mean and contemptible scorned by heathens in private and secret in a private house nay Barn Stable Cave or Grot any where so they might but serve him at all to live and praise him was all they looked for they were in Aegypt in bondage before the whips of the Task-masters were upon their shoulders or at best but in the wilderness but now they enjoyed Canaan the land of rest now build the Temple hew the stones lay the foundations and erect not only chambers or lodgings for the Priests and Levites but the Singers the Porters and all the train of due and orderly service and hearts were willing to the work and then purse and hand was ready and now all on a suddain the whole world is turned Christian and all the provinces of the Romane Empire crouch under the Standard of the Cross and the highest Purple adores the woaven Coat of our Saviour and now the Pagan according to his principles worships the rising Sun Thrive Christian and I am a Christian but otherwise adue Christ and God and all But they might go far who had such excellent leaders when their Emperor and Princes shewed in their exemplary life the power of Godliness so that the difference was evident betwixt the sincerity of Christianity and the vanity of Idolatry for it s reported of the Emperor Constantine that he was not so much a Conqueror of his enemies through the power of faith as of himself all passions subjugated to the rule of his Saviour he eat to live and lived to magnifie his Saviour and knowing he could never attain the height of that perfection which his Saviour had and he aspired not unto yet as he had commanded so he imitated and made him his rule and his pattern his recreations were divine Contemplations and his private discourses betwixt God and his soul were as Paradise to his soul
of the day in the wisdom and power of mans strength did the Lord give such a signall Victory as being wisely followed and improved the Kings party were never able to make head again but their severall parties in the severall Counties were partly by the Scot keeping them on work by diversions The English Generall neither Winter nor Summer gave any stop till England had but two Armies the mercinary so called of Scots and the other of English And the King Oxford now only left unto him was enforced to try his then last shift namely to betake himself to the Scot having a strong Army before Newark thereby to engage a quarrel as is more then evident to all by whom he is presently upon the surrender of the place carried back to New-Castle and they wisely finding the difficulties attending them in case they should carry him personally into Scotland upon a Treaty deliver him up to the English and what was altogether unexpected return into their own Land what engagements to a return I know not And now the Presbyterian party so called fly high indeed and urge execution to the highest of the settlement of their own Interest having no other publick enemy bandy against their brethren in the Lords War the generality of the English was for them the so called Independents being esteemed by the many as the Christians of old actors of all impurities and their fry of Confederates the Sectaries but as so many legions of Divels sent into the world to give a stop to the erection of the glorious Kingdom of the Lord Christ Jesus and sure some in their zeal would have thought they had done God good service to have killed them I can in my private thoughts compare their condition to none better then that of the Israelites when they had the Sea before them and an Army behind them and were in the wilderness I know the passion of many a soul when after all their travails for Liberty from the yoak so called of the Bishops Tyranny they found themselves ground to powder under the Milstone of the Presbyters Rigidity and all this for conscience sake for the Presbyter began according to the old Rule with Church work and that was and ever will be long work especially where men take it upon them without the Lord the builder builds in vain From this the Commonwealth being still as over-burthened as before the distastes were great against the present Governors still as before the galled back seeks ease let the plaister cover or saddle be not only gilt but gold This opens a way to the oppressed for the righteous and just ends of the undertaking of this war being held forth that the ends of the Covenant as looking at Gods glory the peoples good and the just Rights of the King were not ever intended to be denyed but the pretended ends namely thereby to ensnare the consciences of men by self-ended glosses or the banishing their persons and confiscation of their goods not for neglect of civil obedience but not conforming to the opinion of others when as yet it was professed that grace was the free gift of God that the rules of prudence or earnall policy had no ground in Gods Word if prudence only might rule why not the Popes and Bishops as well as the Presbyters and to enforce conscience with the Sword of the Scot was as evil as the Mace of a German These and the like matters dispersed abroad and especially in the Army some Regiments rowze and head and notwithstanding all possible endeavors of the Parliament both at London and in the Counties the whole Army is fixed and both with life and Armes meet at the Rendezvouz and engage to prosecute the just ends of Liberty or to obtain the just Liberty of the people and hereabout the name of Levellers first arose part of the Army actually seize the Kings person at Holmby and now the active Grandees of the ruling party so called Presbyterian are accused of high Treason The King is under the custody of the Army and all means endeavoured I beleeve to make him instrumentall to the ends propounded to themselves how far their Treaty proceeded or what obligations were on either side were and are to me private I can take them to be but politick Transactions with respects to their mutuall respective or particular Interests and no further carried on but that either party had their safeguard their way and place of retreat But to proceed there was much spoken now of the Scots return and many agitations a great body was enforced to attend the King And he of a politique head was much catching and drawing and it is likely that his great knowledge where he met with true conscience not equally gifted he must prevail for prevention of which and other evils he I beleeve by stratagem and over-reach was brought to carry himself into the Isle of Wight where five hundred could do more then ten thousand otherwhere but see this brings greater preplexities for many now wearied with war and its effects of all sorts or so pretending taking advantage of the Armies opposing of disbanding cry out there can be no peace while there is an Army and though it is truth they were not a meer mercinary Army but raised by Parliament under the notion of engagement as free men for their own just Rights Yet it was plain their Interest was now grown wholly into the Army and that experience shewed there could be no just settlement while the Sword was unsheathed That they intended nothing but to take away property and introduce confusion and were Levellers haters of all Justice so that now the Souldier was enforced to stand upon his own guard London was opposite her Trade was decayed her Assessments great and all places filled with complaints The weaker party in Parliament being sedulous and crying up the Common good got not only many hearts but had enwoven many strong dependants into principal places of Trust and Office both at Sea and Land so that all that the mighty men could do was only to plot but they could not bring to effect The Army was before much admired for complying with the King and who so high against them as the Presbyter O they treated indeed it was the success however carried they maligned sure I am they opposed not the thing for they acted higher in it then ever did the other but to prepare for the work about the eleventh of June 1647. The London Apprentices so called made the foulest breach unto the Liberty of England that ever was forcing away the Speaker and all partaking with the Interest of the Army and the residue of the Members to testifie their contrivance of the fact choose a new Speaker and declare them at Windsor the head-Quarters of the Army whither the Speaker and divers Parliament men were fled or retired a meer Juncto as the Parliament of Westminster and the Assembly at Oxford had before mutually declared
Transubstantiation not Consubstantiation for they agreed the whole Law was as it is devolved into Form and Practise the pure streams of Justice were as they fell from the fountain of Divine and Moral Reason drawn by Art into private Cisterns of Profit and Honour But they durst not undertake the VVork I desired then considering my many occasions That they would but impart something to me to help me in my so great attempt I talked with some Attorneys to the same purpose and from two men I received two Papers shewing the abuse of dammage clear and suing out the Cap. utlagats the most ordinary matters I then addressed my self to some men eminent in Honor and places of Trust discovered my minde we argued I saw they were convinced of the truth of the thing and were resolved were the Law altered they should submit yea even to what I then and here propounded But they would have no hand in it they had no time they had spent their Studies in the present Law and to change was a new work Some advised me to leave off these thoughts and fall to Practise they would warrant me I should get as much as any of them After long delayes consulting my own strength and seeing Judges Serjeants Councellors Attorneys Solicitors and All confessed Alteration necessary delayes evident Justice incertain Equity more ruining then undoing Common Law I did partly out of the sence of the unjustness and wickedness of the Law but principally that I might be out of the lash of a credit Ruining frown leave all Practise whatsoever as I had formerly left the most and did consult which way to take to open in the most Christian way the Evils of the Apostate State and Commonwealth and how to offer an expedient sutable to the condition of the people wedded to Laws and Customs called their own This is that which the Lord put me upon I have avoided to my utmost all bitterness and just occasion of offence to any either Powers or persons And to any man shall require a further account of the hope that is in me concerning matter of Conscience or of the matter of Law and the Reasons herein offered so it be with Christian meekness and zeal for the Truth according to my knowledge I shall freely discover my self and yield I hope a satisfactory answer For I assert there is nothing here laid down in any kind as to the civil Regiment not warranted by the present so called Law-books of England I restrain not my self to the so called Year-Books For the scantness of my time I could have wished more and more abilities and that both natural and experimental but you must take it as it is onely an Essay for a Settlement of a Christian Commonwealth I leave the Work to such as Providence shall cull out of the many present Worthies of Englands Labourers Me thinks England labours like a woman in sore pangs of Travel crying out to be delivered I pray God none of the Midwives Juno like set cross-legg'd in the Temple of honor profit power or the like O that every one could banish all interests and all Relatious for Christs sake I know abundance that will allow this project of Resolving this Nation into County Jurisdictions their spirits will be immediatly fancying places to themselves friends kindred c. for the moddle holds forth a due satisfaction even to carnal Interests The opposition will arise from the great interest of the City of London and the Supream Judicatures but it is clear their interest may thus be continued to a just proportion Now they ruine Government within themselves and destroy the whole Nation besides let them live but let not England perish for the Lords sake you that are our Physitians remember your promises when you undertook the Cure Then you stroaked the wound gently you asked nothing till the cure were perfected but our wound is open still more wayes to discourage the poor impoverished subject then ever Take but the many fruitless Acts for poor prisoners into consideration and the forceing an Affidavit of the Engagement notwithstanding a Certificate of the Commissioners can we not easily determine the Reason it cannot be zeal for Justice but the Clerks Fee upon the Oath our hearts are hot in pursuit after the world while our lips breath forth expressions of the new birth Assuredly Englands Allarms to War will not cease till the sins cease You that are in Authority like valiant Chieftains must not onely speak couragiously but Act rigorously you and your just Acts and Ordinances are slighted and contemned First by your selves our Trustees they are not duly transmitted to the Counties then by our selves your Trustees they or some of them deal with them as they list each one interprets as his interest leads Let these things be represented to you and what is done nothing Nay come up to London waite and attend till you be weary the justness of your Cause gives not the quicker dispatch yea I have heard that some spoken to to hasten matters agreed on have been told their haste should cause their tarriance or words to that effect These are sad Symptoms to such Melancholy spirits as mine of renewed Judgements I shall say no more But leaving the whole Work to the Lord address my self to seek his face and pray unto THe Lord our God the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and of all the faithful the Almighty Jehovah the Father of our Lord Iesus and in him both of Jew and Gentile That he will please to open the eyes of all called Christians and give them hearts to understand his wayes that they may see and perceive the evil of their doings that the precisest professors may see that from their evil walkings the Enemy takes advantage and causes many Professors to fall off vainely thinking all are wholly hypocritical because of some mens failings Let those O Lord who have some beginnings of resenting their duty to seek thy face not give any occasion to thy Enemies the profane-hearted yet among thy people to transgress with more boldness because of their Liberties Yea give the loose Professors to consider that their evident unchristian walkings cause the open Enemies of our blessed Saviour to blaspheme even Jew and Gentile for what people walk so contrary to their profession as the so called Christian Father I pray discover to them that claim to be called thy Clergy as at least indeed set apart for more excellent and eminent services in Word and Doctrine that their lives must be the best Interpreter of their words their conversations of their Exhortations and Perswasions To Preach Love and live in Enmity to Preach Obedience and be Refractory if not Rebellious is not Christs way O let them all see even from the highest to the lowest that its Error evident hath caused Truth to be distrusted and their words contemned Righteousness and Truth carry a Majesty which Satan fears Convince them therefore that as they have