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
ever it did in King or Parliament and will too be a guide to leade the Army into waies of common good and will enlarge their principles to a generall love of all and a desire of making all happy as themselves The Fifth and last particular is very considerable and is that which the evill spirit of darknesse hath obscured from the Army and the Kingdome and by it denied them the comfort and us the benefit of their being and that is this That the Army are the People gathered and united into a most excellent and divine forme Or an Army is a singular Ordinance of God appointed for speciall purposes and at this time raisd by God as most fit for those noble honourable and difficult works he hath now in hand For the clearing of this I would have considered That Army is a peculiar Ordinance of God wherein he hath a speciall delight and appropriates it to himselfe as a power that hath more neare relation to him and more immediate dependance upon him in which he will most visibly shew himself therfore chuses so often to be cald the LORD OF HOASTS And though they have a very dark and black out-side being the instruments of his wrath so they have a very sweet and precious in-side when God brings forth his owne name upon them and discover them to be his As the blackest afflictions have in them the choicest mercies the crosse of Christ hath glory in it and privation it selfe obtaines the honour to be a cause and to bring in new and more excellent formes so an Army that in the outside sounds dread and terrour yet hath riches treasured up in it which when we see we shall not fly from it but rejoice to have it neare us and to goe into it for subsistence 1. When God brought forth the first creation he cast them into this mould an Army and so laid the foundation of all his works in the camp Gen. 2.1 When he had finished the heaven and the earth and all the host of them In this posture hath he put all things not onely the stars above who fight in their order march in their course but the very locusts goe forth by bands The reason is that they might all quietly serve him under the protection of an Army and that if they be infested with any adverse power they might have force to retreat to In this military wisedome hath the Lord of Hoasts made and established the world 2. When God expresses his presence with his people in the world he manifests himselfe to be in a military state I will encamp about my house Pitch his tents about them so in a second middle or angelicall state he is an Army while he preserves us he gathers his Ministers about us in a body an Army 3. When he comes in his last and great glory he brings his hoasts with him and comes as a Generall and Lord of Hoasts thousands of thousands attending upon him all his Saints and Angels so that wherever the Lord appeares it is in this state either in the reare or lowest in the body or midst in the van or highest t is in this order the creatures a camp the Church militant a camp the Saints in glory a camp or host likewise In the providence of God in the world God hath made great use of Armies First They have beene the parents of all the Empires and Kingdomes of the world all the present Common-wealths upon earth must owne the sword to be their originall and confesse that from it they had their beginnings and t is rationall for an Army hath in it all government and all parts of government order justice c. in highest and noblest virtue and majesty Secondly As all Kingdomes come out of an Army so are much cherished and upheld by the same most Kingdomes flourishing while their military virtues are kept bright and cleare by use and quickly languish when the sword is wholly laid aside The presence of the sword keeping off destruction from them Thirdly As Kingdomes are begotten and nourished by Armies so doe they againe resolve into them as into their first principles And when by strength of wickednesse civill societies are disturbd they naturally retire to a military as unto their owne Father for safety for they have a peculiar majesty severity activity and masculine vertue or force to uphold a state against such evils as are in the world which no power besides hath And therefore Armies are not such hideous evils as some imagine but are beautifull glorious and exceeding profitable societies not onely scourges but saviours and protectors they have motherly bowels as well as iron hands and so in Gods raising and supporting this Army there is a most perfect wisedome of God casting his people into this form is very seasonable and proper for us at this time For we are at this time become a wildernesse the pale of civill power being broken down and men let loose to furious and beastly lusts such as would leade them to inhume and brutill villanies were there not this curb in their mouths nor could any man promise himself security in what he hath but that God is a wall about us in this Army And wise men wil easily see if sense of some present suffering or adhering to another side or party did not blind them that the violent and exorbitant lusts of men in this age is no way to be restrained but by this sharpe bit an Army T is true t is our wickednesse hath brought us to it but seeing it is so t is mercy in God to put himselfe and people into such a posture for our defence And this is the minde of God1 formerly decalred not onely to breake nations but to rule them also with an iron scepter 2. The worke that God hath now in hand is not an earthy fixt thing but he is upon motion marching of us out of Egyptian darknesse and bondage into a Canaan of rest and happinesse and therefore t is proper for him to gird up himselfe to contract himselfe from a vast body of a Kingdome into a narrower compasse into a few spirits in an active body such as an Army is loose and free from the clogge of old formes and customes to act lively his pleasure and to follow him into those new waies and pathes of truth and liberty that he shall lead them and because this work is attended upon with difficulties and through a wildernesse full of wild beasts and enemies on all sides it s his great wisedom to Arme himselfe and to imploy men skilfull at the sword as well as at the truel to build Jerusalem with weapons in their hands our great dangers requiring it And we know the beginings of God's great works of good to his people have been by Armies as their deliverance out of Egypt and Babilon in the same part doth he walk still and therefore doth he now in his last appearing gather his hoast about
in the roots of the earth the people Hence it is that bodies politique Kingdomes have their severall ages of childhood youth firme or full age and old age as well as the body of man and one as well as the other lies under this sentence Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt returne at best they are but the people dresd or set out with some outward honour and therefore they must returne to mingle themselves with dust of common men Againe We know honor est in honorante honour is in him that honoureth its seate and subject is in him that gives it and therefore in the people who doe by their breath create any man honourable or great and their breath is the life of all greatnesse and honour it being but an empty Idol a dead image if not quickened by the affections of the people T is they indeed or God ordering their spirits that make men honourable if they give him not respect meanes tribute honour their greatnesse dies at heart and becomes a heavy burden and a curse and therefore t is very naturall for it to come downe to its owne originall from whence it came and doth by that recover it selfe for as the people receive it into them so they will quickly send it forth againe with greater power and with encrease This course of things hath its method from the minde and will of God who hath said He will set over it the basest of men Dan. 4. He raiseth the poore out of the dust and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill That he may set him with Princes of his people Psal 113. The Lord hath said he will exalt some and pull downe others Scatter the proud in the imagination of their hearts put downe the mighty from their seats and exalt them of low degree Luk. 1. T is a great sport and pleasure the Lord takes to set up and pull downe to bring great things to nothing and to exalt nothing to be all things its excellent justice to poure contempt upon Princes to tread upon them as morter to bring them under as the basest vilest creatures and to poure riches honour and greatnesse upon meane and base men is as excellent love and goodnesse This he hath said he will doe and this he doth doe and t is his prerogative This too is taken out of a higher copy the way of the Son of God who is in the form of God in the highest heaven and from thence descends into a low state of a servant to be borne of a woman to be a carpenters Son to be with people of no account to descend into the lower parts of the earth to make his grave with the wicked to descend into hell and from thence to ascend againe far above all heavens T is the great God the king of kings looks down amongst men of low degree and is content to have his foundation in the dust and so arise that he might fill all things and take up the lowest into the highest and be the highest in the lowest and so comprehend all things in one glory that he might fil lownesse with majesty and majesty with lownesse that ther might be a perfect agreement tween the greatest God and the porest man Thus we see the second thing manifested That this passing of power from the Parliament or any higher or Politique body into the lower or naturall of the People is rationall orderly and and according to the originall rule and measure of all things which is the minde and way of God Thirdly the people so rais'd and cal'd up are the supreme power or superiour to all others even to them that begat them the Parliament 1. The Parliament call as is manifest in their Declarations to judge saying let the People judge they appeale to them and so they have subjected themselves to the people and t is but reason they should judge for the people themselves have in themselves the truest and purest light of judging which is reason and the most exact sence of their rights and of good and evill respecting their liberty and safety and those principles in them of discerning men and things relating to publique weale or woe are more clere more incorrupted then they are in men rais'd by them into place and office especially when all high places are poluted by the divell and the mindes of men grow worse by preferments and honours as t is manifest they do in these times of defection wherein scarce any man in place either Parliament or else where retaines his integrity and the Parliament it selfe is one heap of selfe seeking they being generally bias'd both on the one side and the other with places advantages offices perticular interests so not fit to be the judges of publique and common right Therefore t is reason that God should call up the people who though they be rude despicable and unlearned yet have a plain and honest sâ—nse in them of good and evill and they are now set up to be judges of the affaires of the kingdom by God and by the Parliament as his hand 2. As they are higher being made judges and appeald unto so they are the stronger and more able to doe justice and defend themselves then any instituted power in all representatives there is some weaknesse being but figurative They are indeed very elegant beautiful and stately administrations of justice but have not that inward sufficiency and fundamental stable strength that is in the people And being but formes of government we have found them as in this Parliament trifling about punctilio's of honour circumstances and points of priviledge and prerogative and not gone down-right to the root of the matter which lightnesse of spirit is not a proper remedy for the huge bulke of wickednesse that hath gotten into this Kingdom nor able to stand against the height pride of injustice enthornd in the nation would be a whole age more in purging out these evill humours in their dull formall and customary way of proceeding which is wholly unsatisfactory to the justice of God Yea iniquity grew upon them and appeard in such an overflowing malignity and in persons of such eminency that they feard to meddle with it or feard they should be swallowed up with it and therefore sought the people to stand up and doe that which they could not whose weight and strength is only able to cast out the wicked spirit that had universally possesd it selfe of all parts of the Kingdome especially the superiour parts And the people thus authorizd and empowerd by the sword and inflamed with wrath and zeale against their adversaries have with much difficulty along while contested with these evils and at last got the better of them which would have long agoe as t is most evident have swallowed up the Parliament and by this t is evident this of the people is the stronger power Thirdly There is a third consideration proper for this which is the power
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