justice love riches advantage to all Kingdomes afford a universall benefit The beasts of the field have shadow under it and the fowles of the heaven dwell in the boughs thereof all flesh feed of it All sorts of men receive protection from it those that labour and toil as beasts in the earth they enjoy their wealth and safety under it and those that fly in the aire of wisedome learning they make their nests of honour and preferment in it and all live upon it Or the beasts men of earthy and civill employment Fowles of heaven men of religious and heavenly employment all have their peace in this Tree But behold a watcher and an holy one came downe from heaven This watcher is the watchman of Israel that keeps us and looks to us while we sleep or that thiefe that comes in the night secretly stealing in upon us while we see him not and a holy one though a thiefe and in the night breaking downe the house yet a holy Child Jesus a holy Lamb and we may know who he is he came down from heaven T is the coming of Christ from heaven that doth this He cryed aloud and said thus Hew down the tree and cut off his branches shake off his leaves and scatter his fruit let the beasts get away from under it and the fowles from his branches Here 's harsh cruel doings from one that comes from heaven Cryes aloud t is not the still voice and nothing but destruction Hew down the tree lay the ax to the root cut down all government dominion King Parliament with all power order cut off the branches of lawes offices places Scatter the fruit let there be no safety peace getting of estates Let the beasts get from under it and the fowles from the branches let the inhabitants be scattered let wealth be removed let honour and preferments cease Neverthelesse leave the stump of the roots in the earth with a band of iron and brasse in the tender grasse of the field and let it be wet with the dew of heaven and let his portion be with the beasts in the grasse of the earth let his heart be changed from man and a beasts heart be given unto him and let seven times passe over him There is not utter destruction though the glory honour riches peace of the Kingdome be cut down yet it remaines in the stump and is sure there There 's nothing left but the stump of the roots in the earth some life in the lowest people and that bound down yet safe kept by a band of iron and brasse by the power of the sword In the tender grasse of the field in the wide field not in a setled built City rather a wildernesse amongst some weake tender spirits some smal blades of grasse that are grown up And wet with the dew of heaven lying open to heaven in the night of darknesse expecting continual dews of favours and providence T is a desolate and poore condition though it hath a blessing in it they that are gathered into the City of God live better Let his portion be with the beasts let him eate grasse as the ex It is not the condition of one man onely but of the whole tree the spirit of dominion in the Kingdome is changed from man to beast driven from men Man is a wise lordly creature that exercises dominion by wisedome and understanding and is invested with majesty which is honoured and reverenced by others The new man is the Lord from heaven living in the light and understanding of God and of excellent goodnesse and righteousnesse and is therefore honoured because he is the true and great Lord of al and doth good to al exercising righteousnesse in wisedome to al such a heart now appears not amongst us in no sort of men but a beasts heart rage violence fiercenesse exercise of force one to another compulsion driving in herds not wisedome to compose al into one body These eate grasse as oxen live as oxen a laborious traveling painful life without any setled rest And eate grasse All flesh is grasse the highest and best men feed upon what providence daily brings forâ—h to them and that of a fleshly fading dying nature Not upon the living bread that comes down from heaven not upon the fatted Calfe killed and offered up not on meat rosted by the everlasting fire not eating the spice nor drinking the wine of the Spirit and this till seven times passe over thee Till the compleat measure of Gods justice passe over which I would gladly restrain to seven yeares This is the state of this miserable Kingdome The intent of God in this which is sure and decreed and the demand by the word of the holy one T is required and shall be effected That the living may know First That the most high ruleth in the Kingdome of men God will make you all know that himselfe the most high not a minister or angel of his not a vicegerent not a civil Magistrate only but the high God the highest glory of God ruleth not only over but in the Kingdome of men This beastly ignorant man knows not but you must know it though you oppose it and would uphold an earthly Kingdome in which men may rule without God no the Lord himselfe and his most high excellency shall rule and be known to rule Secondly And giveth it to whomsoever he will He rules not in an abstracted sense without us but he gives it to whom he pleases will bestow it upon men administer this Kingdome in his highest glory in men And in bestowing of it will not be bound to any person or family as King nor to any society or company of men as Parliament nor to any form or custome of men but when he pleaseth will pull down some and exalt others will not be fixt upon this or that person or thing but walke up and down with it at his pleasure And thirdly setteth up over it the basest of men will not leave till he set the bottome upon the top advanced the basest mean common sort of men men of basest account of lowest smallest worth not renownd either for honour riches learning wisdome or any other excellency but set up men of base ignoble birth base spirits c. over it These three things hath the majesty of God written out clearly in these times the most high ruleth in this Kingdome and first gave it to the King but he did not know the Lord that gave him his dominion power and glory nor govern his People in the goodnes strength and light of GOD but served and pleased himselfe by it and so abused that rule and authority that God gave to tyranny covetuousnesse oppression and to self-pleasure and honour for this the Lord blasted his Majesty cursed his government rent his Kingdome and fild it with troubles and distractions and forced him against his will to call a Parliament which was virtually or in a kinde a resignation of his
A second view of the Army REMONSTRANCE OR Justice done to the Armie Wherein Their Principles are new model'd brought out of obscurity into clearer light BY Which the Army and the whole Kingdome are under the conduct of the Spirit of God led out of a Wildernesse to the view of a Canaan Dedicated To the Generall and the Councel of War By William Sedgwick In the place where it was said unto them Ye are not my people there it shall be said unto them ye are the sons of the living God Hose 1. 10. LONDON Printed for H. Hils and G. Calvert and are to be sold at his house over against S. Thomases Hospitall in Southwark and at the Black Spread-Eagle at the West end of Pauls neare Ludgate M.DC.XLIX TO His Excellency Thomas Lord Fairfax GENERALL Of the Parliaments Forces AND To the Generall Councell of Warre I Have done Justice upon you because I saw evill in you There is a holy One likewise in you I must doe him Justice too I have smitten you and not you onely but the Judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheeke It pleases me to bruise him and him as much to be bruised t is his advantage and therefore he freely submits himselfe to be chastised Ephraim is my dear son a pleasant childe For since I spake against him I doe earnestly remember him still Therefore my bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy upon him saith the Lord. It grieves me to see you as a Woman with childe big with justice righteousnesse reformation c. and know not how or which way to be delivered Here is an arm stretched out to you that will gently leade them that are with young and guide the blind into a way they know not You have high and great designs but are imprison'd in the darknesse of flesh that you cannot get out into a clear and strait way My intent is to open the two-leav'd gates and free you I have opened the left already and so turned aside that dark and evill spirit that lay in your way shal now unfold the right which brings you into light and so makes crooked places strait for you c. You are upon the execution of justice I would not have you goe blindly passionately and rashly upon it but accept this anointing of God prepared for you which will fill you with wisedome and righteousnesse Ascend this Throne of majesty first that is here set up for you Arise from the common and darke nature of man into the holy nature of God and then you will be able to judge suffer this holy child Jesus to come forth and then goe on in the name of God Reade it and if you see a little truth in it reade it againe the light is dim but t is a morning and growing light and wil shine more and more untill perfect day This I dare challenge of you from that great and publique trust that is committed to you in which we have all a deepe share from those high and weighty affaires that you are upon of such mighty concernment to the glory of God and the good of his people from that ingenuity and freenesse that you have professed to receive advise from all and to give satisfaction to all and especially upon the authority of him whose name I here declare and set up that you will not sleight what is offered to you and lay it aside unconsidered but that you will give it due hearing And if in any thing you dissent from it I may know it and either receive or give satisfaction or if it be doubtfull to you I may have opportunity to clear it or if these things appeare true as I believe they will but yet at a distance from you that I may by removing that out of the way that hinders you from fellowship with them bring you into the power and possession of them And to this end I am and would be more Yours W. Sedgwick Justice done to the Army REMONSTRANCE I Told you when I was administring Justice upon your Remonstrance that it was a mixt thing of good and evill that the Lord was in it but hid under so much filth that we could not discerne him You are Sion but not perfect and therefore we must wash away your filth and purge away your bloud by the spirit of judgement and the spirit of burning The Lord is amongst us and sits as a refiner and purifier of silver he is set to it close and will make it his constant businesse and doe it hotly sharply even the silver the sons of Levi the people of God must passe thorow this sire and therefore Who may abide the day of his coming and who may stand when he appeareth Many cannot stand before it but are overturnd into a beastly ditch of rage fretting and foolish passion this is a bastard spirit that cannot endure chastisement But others doe stand in peace and quietnesse there we see the spirit and strength of the Son who willingly suffers chastisement knowing that he is chosen in the furnace and that by it he is made partaker of Gods holinesse purified from humane holinesse which is at best but filthinesse into the divine holinesse And to such I apply that of Solomon As the fining pot for silver and the furnace for gold so is a man to his praise The fining pot and furnace are for the best mettals and t is for their praise that they may be brought forth in a more noble forme and fitted to receive some excellent impression Now therefore having cast you into the fire and taken away your drosse wee shall hold you forth with a beautiful stamp of the majesty of God upon you That vail of an uncleane spirit being rent away we now behold your face shining with the glory of God upon you Now we have taken away the scum and cast it into the fire we may safely eate of the meat having done justice upon the fleshly worldly part we must doe justice to the heavenly and holy part The Remonstrance of it selfe is as the earth without form and void there is a face on it but t is deep and darknesse is upon it But the spirit of God moving or brooding upon the face of the Waters brings forth a new creation which is blessed and good The Kingdomes of the earth and the way of Gods dealing with them in these last times are describ'd in Nebuchadnezzar and his Vision Dan. 4. A Kingdome is a great tree growing out of the earth unto a great strength and height reaching unto heaven and the sight thereof unto the ends of the earth it grows out of the people and receives its life and nourishment from the lowest element the inferiour people but arises up to such a height as touches heaven i. e. comes near the heavenly glory the Kingdome of heaven or Christ This tree hath fair leaves and much fruit meat for all it brings forth honour order peace
that is committed to the people it s the power of the sword and that in a military way If I give a man my sword I make him my Lord and give him my life so did the Parliamâ—nt in committing the sword to the people submitted themselves to them And with it they have declared that they would live and dye with those they have so entrusted T is as much as to say we give our lives to your command our prosperity and being is onely in you we must live only upon you Now t is reason that those that give life should give lawes too and them upon whom we depend for our being we must depend upon them likewise for out rule so that the Parliament have made the Army the Lords protectours of themselves and of the right and interest of England which while it stands is the chiefe power What makes a publique person above a private but that he hath the civill sword in his hand to administer justice Now the military sword is sharper it s a trust more absolute and independent more exercisd by will and lesse subject so the formes of law and therefore they that have it are much more Lords over those that are subject to it and so the Army more superiour to the Parliament then they to others This I know will seeme strange to many and is not cleare to the Army it selfe that the Parliament should become a subordinate and inferiour and they a higher and supreme power But God hath made it so and that as you see according to the reason and actions of men And let men consider but the actings of Parliament and Army they shall finde the same thing expressed in deeds which is a sensible and experimentall discovery of truth Since these warres we know the maine businesse of the Parliament hath beene to serve the Army to gather borrow and assesse monies for them and to provide them necessaries some things of government have passed from them but in a low weake in considerable way and in them they have beene up and down high and low this way and that way as they received impression from the Army It s true this hath not been spoken expresly but implicitly and darkely it hath and the Parliament have felt it really therefore you must be content to beare this yoke You have endeavoured to acquit your selves of it but cannot You have already lost your authority when you turnd England into a camp and set up martiall power when God leades them to restore it as he did you to give it you shall have it and not till then Fourthly This Army are truly the people of England and have the nature and power of the whole in them 1. They are of a popular stature men of the common and ordinary rank of people most of them of trades and husbandry with a small mixture of the Gentry which are the body and strength of the Kingdome and in whom the common interest most lies 2. They are the heart and life of the people men in whom appeares strong and lively affections for publique good manifested in their great labours and hazarding their lives so often for the Kingdome by which they have merited the honour to be accounted the very breast and strength of England and to have in them the soule and life of the nation 3. They did accept the appeale of the Parliament and answer their call of the people to judge and accepting of it its reason they should have it if others either are senselesse and cannot judge or sluggish and cowardly and will not through feare adventure or entangled with principles of slavery or engaged by particular and self-respects to a malignant party and so oppose them yet they seeing and apprehending the danger of the Common-wealth hearing the call of the Parliament and being valiant for the truth to steppe up upon this throne of judicature offered to them they are unquestionably to be entitled the people of England 4. To this may be added the concurrence of the affections prayers councels pens and purses of the honest spirits in the Kingdome who have at some time or other seald to them and contributed their best helpe to them Although it may be since many through darknesse weaknesse temptations divisions petty and inferiour factions have been distasted at them and withdrawn themselves from them But these earthly and carnall distractions arising partly from the Armies miscarriages and weaknesse partly from others passions cannot obliterate and blot out the many subscriptions of their names in heaven to and for the Army in their prayers and speakings especially in their distresse And after these mists are blowne away God will leade people backe to their owne hearty and earnest desires of a blessing upon the Army as on those in whom their lives and the life and safety of religion and liberty lay which are enrolled in heaven and so shew them though they are divided below they are one in the highest best and most generall actings of their spirits 5. This Army in their generall carriage towards the people have by their tendernesse of them care of preserving them forbearing to plunder and spoile them though absolutely in their power have shewd that they have a publique spirit and that the peace and good of the nation lives in them And although they be not so absolute and perfect in this but that there be some sad examples of violence and wrong by many ill members amongst them yet they have generally through the excellency of comand and the good spirit of God guiding of them so behaved themselves that the people every where have witnessed their great approbation of them as saviours or preservers of them by joy in their presence and teares at their departure T is true the Army hath of late for their iniquities by the judgement of God upon their miscarriage layne under the curse of many people and under a blacke and thicke cloud of wrath But former kindnesse will be remembred and God will give them greater honour and acceptance and let us know they are our selves and as we have said the people of England having publique spirits and minding the good of every person in England as their owne So that they are rightly and truly the people not in a grosse heape or in a heavy dull body but in a selected choice way They are the people in virtue spirit and power gatherd up into heart and union and so most able and fit for the worke they have in hand The people in grosse being a monster an unweildy rude bulke of no use but here they are gathered together into one pure excellent life and so usefull and active for their good and safety The cleare understanding of this will be a great meanes to compose the dis-affections of people to them and to draw their hearts to them in love being themselves formd by God into this body and that now their interest lies as truly in the Army as
as we have made it If we set up an earthly and fleshly form it will corrupt and turn enemy to us that exalt it except we set up God and set up in all the powder of God and all in the power of God or all quickned with the Spirit of God And being the hoast of God and having all fulnes of the Spirit or being attended with al the divine perfections we can and shall spread forth in the fruits of righteousnes And establish righteousnes in persons and things living righteousnes This is your true state and the first and least of it and lesse then this is not your righteousnes I cant speak or think lesse of you he that thinks or speaks less then this or contrary to this be it Satan in you or others blasphemes the tabernacle of God them that dwel in heaven This is your own life and all below it are fancies dreams and lies Babylon and confusion keeping holding Zion from her glory T is a blessed face of God and the light of his countenance shining upon you and I know there is another face which is the same in you that answers to this and though it hath bin vaild awhile the brightnes and power of this will scatter that mist and call forth its own self and likenes in you to imbrace this Righteousnes looks down from heaven here upon you we might question whether it would be received or no whether it would not be judged a fancy a conceit but that we know also Truth springs out of the earth the same spirit hath been acting a long while in you though under and in the earth buried under flesh but now wil come forth and answer to this or say t is â—râ—th and make it truth in the performance You wil not say this is righteous in God he may do al this it is proper for him but not for us No righteousnes and peace have kissed each other you are râ—conciled to this righteousnes the partition wall is broken down of two made one new man and so you cannot but receive and rejoyce in it mercy here meets with truth in your brests The heavens powr down righteousnes and the earth opens and salvation springs forth together The Lord is come down yea the heavens all the host of them al the stars of righteousnes and the same truth arises out of you and these together are salvation God out of you works but in weaknes in trouble so do you out of God both together bring forth salvation I shall I know meet with this objection from your selves and others that this will be true but not yet and that it is farre otherwise with you for the present t is that you expect but t is not yet manifested To this I answer That this truth is eternall and there is no moment wherein you can say t is not t is he that was is and is to come That therefore it is darknes that denies it or that 's a deepe pit that saies t is not here doe not abide in such darknesse of hel where eternall truth will not be admitted That as it alwayes hath been so it now is brought forth borne into the world the childe is born I have been long travelling for him and now lay him amongst you it is true it is in the Stable amongst beasts Swadled and lying in a Manger in a very meane and contemptible condition but I shall own him and nurse him and so will you I hope it is your own God and Saviour though wrapped up in flesh and in the midst of a beastly crue yet smiling in your face offered to you yea arising up in you And he whom you have sought for is now come into his Temple you have long conceiv'd him and travelled too to bring him forth and now Behold thy King cometh riding upon an asse receive him and say This is the Lord we have waited for him If you can yet say these things are brought forth in you but not in us we cannot owne them in power you may we are yet in the flesh t is your light not ours we live not in this glory nor can act in it we must goe our way No t is yours as well as mine and not mine as distinct from you but mine in you and with you for we have but one life one spirit and if it breake forth first in me t is for your sakes T is not a personall or private spirit but the Spirit of God and of all the Saints t is the life and soule of the Army and therefore you cannot be strangers to it sure so soone as you see it you will say this is our portion our rock our strength But if you are in the flesh and this glory be not suffered to act in you What 's the reason of it Who lets Is it not the man of sin If it be so then you confesse your selves guilty of what I have formerly written for this man of sinne is not a limb or member but a compleat man and so hath all sinne in him where flesh is it is a body of sinne having all iniquity weav'd together into one vail pride hypocrisy self-seeking enmity against God and all in the highest way of sinne whose coming it after the working of Satan with all power and signes and lying wonders and with all deceivablenesse of unrighteousnesse T is no lesse then Satan though with all power and signes of praying seeking God justice and lying wonders wonderfull great things but lying because separated from the eternall truth with all deceivablenesse of unrighteousnesse I know none righteous but God and all waies beside are to deceive And if this spirit be in you it is not idle it comes forth this bloud runs in the veines of al your actions the Lord said it of you long ago Ezech. 21.24 Yee have made your iniquity to be remembred in that your transgressions are discovered so that in all your doings your sins doe appeare And thou prophane wicked Prince of Israel whose day is come when iniquity shall have an end This filth lies not still but comes forth in all your actions and fils them with darknesse weaknesse confusion instability but an end it come of sinne and that wicked Prince is cast out I am pacified towards you fury is not in me I have no more to accuse you of If you now object as I doubt you will your being in the flesh your weaknesse inability to manage these high and great waies the sense of your unworthinesse and sinfulnesse obscuring this glory Observe this 1. You now are the accusers I have done I have nothing to say against you I appear'd in fury and jealousie against you and by that fire have purified you and burnt up that drosse that was in you it s all cast into the bottome of the sea I remember it no more it s under my feet I am above it and now I am justifying and you are accusing