cursing dividing and so are in the Kingdome of darknesse and the Devill This is your judgement all the evill that you bring forth is within you t is your owne though you will fix it upon another if it were not in you you would not could not produce it And why beholdest thou the mote in thy brothers eye but considerest not the beame that is in thine owne eye c. The evils that you charge the King and his party with though great in your narrow mindes are but motes in the account of God your smalnesse aggravates them his largenesse lessens them He that counts the nations as a drop of a bucket and dust of the ballance counts these miscarriages that are amongst the nations a very small matter easily blowes away that which you silly creatures lift at as mountaines toile and sweat at it to bring forth ruine from it T is but a mote to a godly heart easily forgiven and a mote in the eye hindring sight the King and his party many of them saw no better thought they ought to defend their right against us that rebeld And now it s a more in the eye indeed it vexes them they are afflicted for it under the hand of God and that 's your cruelty You persecute him whom the Lord hath finitten and talke to the griefe of those whom God hath wounded But you have a beame in your eye Your sinnes are greater being aggravated by many mercies much light that others have not enjoyed your sinne is a beame your religion strength upon which you leane and lay so much weight that 's become an iniquity and a beame in your eye that you cannot distinguish any thing nor discerne good from evill but are starke blinde you cannot see your brethren but judge them enemies and enemies are not fit judges and if you could see them brethren you would not judg them as you doe you cannot see to pull out the mote to take away the evill and leave the eye but you are pulling out the eye the eye of the Kingdome one that is the apple of Gods eye of whom he fares Touch it not not the eye onely but the head and so the whole body taking away the eye that you may leade the body whether you please Having taken this power of judging out of your hands and shewd your sinne and shame in presuming upon it We shall now consider some grounds you lay downe why the King is not to be received againe to peace nor restored to his office and dignity And we shall in the view of them see how much your injustice is against God and your selves in that where you professe for justice First You insist upon this pag. 24. God hath given him so clearly in your hands to doe justice and afterward God hath given a double judgement against him c. And elsewhere you pag. 5. to set forth Gods favour to you you say God makes hast to judgement and hath appeared as a severe avenger T is true God hath judged the King againe and againe and dealt very severely with Him He is the greatest sufferer in the Kingdome having lost His Crowne Honour Family Liberty Revenue c. And you thrive increase in wealth honour live better now then ever are Lords where you come and you add misery to misery and affliction to affliction Is this justice or malice Hath God judged twice And why will you not submit to his judgement Why will you take it out of Gods hand Doth not God know how to doe it Is he not severe enough You say he is severe Doth he want wisedome to secure himselfe and his people He knowes not how to make all sure you must mend it When did God chasten or judge man and then give him to men to chasten againe Or when did Gods people fall upon punishing after God had done it Is God weary of afflicting and repents him of the evill or remisse in executing his judgement that you would have men take it into their hands Know foolish men your plea is your condemnation and what you bring as your strength shewes your rebellion and unsubjection to the judgement of God Secondly You argue pag. 24. No remorse appearing proportionable to the offence if that could be seene you should regard it with a proportionable tendernesse towards him Herein you destroy and deny that free mercy of God upon which you have lived a long while and manifest that your profession of the Gospell was indeed but in letter not in power if it had you would as freely forgive as God for Christs sake forgave you And give freely as you have received freely Where the love of God and the Gospell comes in power it transformes and changes the person into its owne glory and makes a Christian be indeed to others what God is to him and in him You requiring proportionable remorse for the offence and then will give proportionable regard how legall and humane is this God forgives and shewes mercy that men may repent he loves first before we can love but you must receive good before you can give and will see repentance before grace and that in the severest way of merit Such sure will be the way of God to you yea such it is and your hearts are dry and utterly void of the riches of divine mercy and you live upon your workes duties experience victories and such empty huskes and not upon the love of God or else you would not bring forth such wretched harsh flinty stuffe as this is Then you say There is no change of heart no repentance no free nor full yeilding to all the parts of publique and religious interest you know not the heart nor can you judge of the Kings principles they are too high for you you know not your owne hearts and therefore not his you expect he should turne not to God but to your forme of religion and government and cannot count any thing a change but yeilding to your way which if he should he should but be seven times more the Child of the Devill T is true the King hardly parts with his right and unwilling to commit the government wholly into others hands but he hath done it though in weaknesse and darknesse in a smoke but for you to quench this smoking flax is not the spirit of Christ he is in a doubting condition 'tweene willingnesse to yeild and a feare of wronging himselfe his posterity and others by his grants t is a hard case and deserves bowels of pity and is pitied by the bowels of the mercy of God though you deale harshly with him It s a hard thing to part with honour and greatnesse it s easier far to seeke and get it then leave it and if you could remember how God got ground in our hearts when he came to change us how we disputed every inch never yeilded to the Lord but by constraint you would accept of the Kings compliance But remember the
Justice upon the Armie REMONSTRANCE OR A rebuke of that evill spirit that leads them in their Counsels and Actions With A Discovery of the contrariety and enmity in their waies to the good spirit and minde of God Dedicated To the Generall and the Councel of War By William Sedgwick But they shall proceed no further for their folly shall be manifest to all men 2 Tim. 3.9 LONDON Printed for Henry Hils and are to be sold over against S. Thomases Hospitall in Southwark and for Giles Calvert 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 YoV drive furiously over the necks of King and Parliament Lawes Covenants Loyalty Priviledge and no humane thing can stand before you You are now fac'd by the majesty and light of God while you are asleepe in a darke night of earthly affaires You have appeald to God in your second Declaration but did not expect so suddaine an answer T is eternall and almighty truth that must and will prevaile if you come into it 't will save you if you turne from it you forsake your owne mercy if you oppose it you dash your selves in pieces you cannot goe from it or besides it but into the darknesse of hell The Lord is here Oâ—braiding your unbeliefe but mourning over his Jerusalem with love to your persons but with fierce anger against your practises I would you had those lively and fresh evidences of your personall and everlasting good in your owne breasts as I have your eternall state is sure t is your present wandrings that are here condemned Blindnesse hath happened to you in part and this is the time of casting you away you will have a time of being received againe you are now broken off through unbeliefe you will be graffed in againe T is your fall now you shall have a restoring you will wonder to behold so much goodnesse to your enemies and so much severity to you Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisedome and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgements and his wares past finding out I have reproved you sharply or cuttingly its proper for you With vengeance to save you and to pull you as fire-brands out of the fire your condition requires it Gentlenesse is abusd mercy despisd you have a long time trampled upon kindnesse and obstinately refused the word of the Lord You must remember my Sermon to you at Windsor upon that Text. Overturne overturne overturne t is Scripture still and that word lives in and upon you Salt-marsh his message quickly followed it Depart from the tents of these unrighteous men he lives still And Mr Pinnels admonition from the Lord following that These and other testimonies against you have beene slighted and disobeyed your sinnes grow greater and the anger of God hotter against you your reprieve is not your salvation you are growne to a height of confidence and presumption upon your successes your necks are as iron and your brows brasse and you walke uncontroulable in your way triumphing as the onely Princes in the earth as fit to sway the Scepter of England and all nations as the onely righteous honourable people in the world the great Lords of the Land Therefore it pleases me to powre contempt upon you to be shod with scorne and indignation and so trample upon Princes as morter Except I should deale thus with you you would not be sensible of what I say being hardned against mercy and having done all you have done against love Prosperity â—â—ayes fooles and therefore the rod is sit for their backs I know my dealing is just and righteous to such as you are being as Thâ—l 3.18 19. Enemies to the Crosse of Christ seeming friends to his Gospell Ministry and Kingdome but enemies to his crosse You hate to thinke that those faire beginnings of your peace and deliverance should come to end in shame and death you cannot thinke of leaving your hopes of outward glory and lying down quietly to let the world trample upon you This you count folly Whose end is destruction Destruction you practise t is your worke t is your end you cant not see beyond it and you are hastening to it it is the center to which you tend and therefore I cannot but shew it you that you may stop your course before the pit shut her mouth upon you Whose God is their belly Your saith understanding and God is sunke into your bellies and your rule your strength your confidence is onely in sensuall and brutish things your raisd spirits into the things of God are buried in an inferior region of grosse dull carnall affaires and except I should peirce deepe your slow bellies would not finde eares Indeed you are so lost and drownd in sensible things of the world and so eager in seeking for those things your belly your carnall affections require of you that I doubt you will be deafe to what I say Whose glory is in their shame You are full of glory in your great things that you have done wonderfull things a mighty presence of God But in summe what is it You have torne a poore sinfull Kingdome in pieces You have executed wrath upon your Brethren Friends and Country-men You have laid desolate your Father the King the Parliament your Mother your owne Country this is your glory to be executioners Assyria the rod of my anger What a crowne is this Have you restrored blessed healed comforted saved any No you have but plunged the Kingdome and your selves into a pit of darknesse and confusion When the things of God are proposd to you to suffer for others to love enemies to doe good to all to blesse all you glory in your shame and say you serve the Lord in this and there be lower as wel as higher dispensations You are indeed servants of God so was Nebuchadnezzar so is the Devil and you do the work of God but t is base drudgery t is his strange worke to be instruments of his vengeance and t is a lower dispensation indeed to dispense curses not blessings to be below in hell exercisd in the wrath of God not above in heaven in the glory and love of God and for sons heires so you would be thought to take pleasure in such mean employment is vile and unworthy Who minde earthly things this is another property of yours your minds are now captiv'd to the earth deepe in the lower parts of the earth in the belly and foundations of the earth pleading the earthly cause of earthly people or digging caves and holes in the earth to secure an earthly peace to your selves It s high time to withstand you and to rebuke this destroying Angel for t is not men onely that suffer from your violence but the Lord your sword goes so deep That it peirces thorow his soule also You are gone so farre in dissolving
the powers of the world and that you are called to break them in peices And therefore it becomes you you know to be steeld with stoutnesse and resolution to trample upon all authorities that stand up against that justice of God that acts you The priviledge of Parliament is a poore corrupted thing to that extraordinary presence of God that goes with you and those high undertakings that you have in hand for the publique good and the eternall salvation of the people You should do as you have done breake through these spider-webs of priviledge and freedome of Parliament and immediatly goe through all to that glorious worke of yours and not suppresse your owne principles to court the world into a deceived opinion of tender regard to them Indeed the priviledge and freedome of Parliament is gon and lost long agoe and you doe but fancy one for a new and true priviledge and freedome doth not yet appeare to you neither can you owne them In the next part of your preamble you tell us the reasons of your present declaring your selves because things are brought to the utmost crisis of danger T is true this but you make a very ill use of it There is two in the Kingdome the holy one our life peace union agreement c. whom you have not seene yet and a wicked one which is wrath malice death revenge c. These two are now conflicting together The holy one would establish love bearing one with another forgiving one another selfe-deniall c. The destroyer would continue mischeifs warres accusations cruelties c. The contention growes sharpe and the evill one making his utmost and last resistance Now we that see the power of truth and love are at rest being assured that the righteous Lord is above all But here you come with your wofull feares and say which cals upon every man to contribute what helpe be can Doe not you know yet that vaine is the helpe of man You and all men come to offer helpe but it is to a wicked world to bring fuell to the fire of wrath for feare misery and destruction should cease raging Cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils A proud and empty thing and cease you foolish men from blowing the coales of division amongst us And seeing no effectuall helpe from else where appeare your curse is not to see when good comes Wee see salvation is nigh them that fear him that glory may dwell in cur land God a present helpe in the time of trouble You are blinde and cannot see the Lord our effectuall Saviour An enemy would make this sense of your words Warre is your life and seeing peace ready to come and no effectuall helpe appeares to lengthen out misery and destroy the Treaty you will doe it And now you give us the ground of your undertaking thâ—s worke Conscience and duty to God and men obliges you sleighty passe over this which should be fully cleared and the reason is you are not upon a sound foundation nor dare you come to a strict examination of your owne ground but are hurried on blindly upon weake passions of feare jealousy necessity c. without any sound bottome This likewise I observe from your words here and from some conference with some of you that you know not which of these two to take for your principle God or man but are in a luke-warme condition neither hot nor cold neither hot enough in the spirit of God to doe all things in a divine way nor so cold as to submit to the lawes of men In discourse with some of you against your proceedings that they were contrary to the royall law the Will and Way of our Father Which is To doe good to them that hate us and persecute us to forgive our enemies to overcome evill with good to conquer by esuffering and love They have professed that in these things they act as men in a civill respect which in you that own your selves to be godly spiritual men and to have the power of godlinesse is great impiety For you in your affaires openly and professedly to decline the perfect way of Christ and goe to the wayes of the Heathen to lay aside exclude and thrust out the heavenly man and his light that you may please your selves in the darknesse of men You do fully manifest not being Christian divine holy in all things that truly you are so in nothing and so your religion is vaine Or that you are fallen from God to man You begun in the spirit and end in the flesh and so Christ is of none effect at all for he that doth not doe all things in the power of God he doth nothing in it You forget that speech of Saint Paul You walke as men are you not carnall When we say if you will walke as men you must submit to your Governours live under humane Laws and be subject to them then you fly from such ordinary things to an extraordinary call as Phineas to be carried by the mighty power and presence of God that you in all things are as the Israelites in the wilderness to have a Pillar of Cloud by day and Fire by night to goe before you Thus you halt between two opinions and gad about to change your way and are true to nothing neither God nor man but become as those Beasts in the Revelations that have many heads and crowns upon them your waies are beastly cruel absurd monstrous with many heads yet you 'l be crown'd with the most glorious titles of the presence of God the people of God the cause of God Therefore know this though you would shuffle up your ground work Conscience and duty to God and men you shall not For a conscience guided by the wisdom power of God scornes such base and unworthy waies as you walk in those men that you think are far below you scorn to lift up themselves above theit superiours and to Lord it over King and Parliament as you doe nor dare continue in armâ—s against command of God and men and uphold a company of vile and wicked wrecches only for their own safety to the wasting and destroying of their Country Now you begin another part of your preamble wherein you say that that rule of Salus populi suprema lex is of all others most apt to be abused You have all pretended to this maxim but have miserably abused it and the people too a company of deceivers and mountebanks that talk of curing saving delivering but all wast spoyle and destroy the people We shall ere long see that Suprema lex that law of love the mercy and goodnesse of the most high God is onely Salus populi the salvation of the People of England its misse-applyed so long as any man assumes it to himselfe And here for two or three pages you are trimming your way to seek love as the Prophet saith you put an excellent dresse upon your work and daub
upon the example of Christ is abhord by you If Christ had been led by this principle when he saw his enemies engaged against him to seeke his life to have sought their life to secure his own he had not shewed himselfe to be the Sonne of God and you in this declare your selves not to be the Sonnes of God It 's no justice lesse piety to take away anothers life to save our owne that 's the way of God to lay down his life for others and that 's a wicked life that requires other mens lives to maintain it that cannot stand but by others fall Now let us consider the reasons of the insecurity of the publike interest in this accomodation you give many and may give many more considering how much wrath God hath let out upon the world and all parts of it to destroy it 't is the easiest thing now that can be to finde out wayes of ruine but hard to finde wayes of peace and though we must confesse you very quick-sighted in discovering of dangers and very sensible of evil yet we wil not admire it as any excellent piece of policy but judge it as the effect of a fearful and self-condemning spirit In the first place you fall downe into the observation of past times and challenge story for an instance c. page 27. There is I know a good use of story but in you it is a dul and heterogene ous thing and a looking back for strength declining your owne principles which you have professed new light the Kingdome of Christ to be carried on by the Spirit and power of God and those things will not you know subject themselves to the weaknesse and darknes of former ages you know you have a light of truth and justice that no age can paralel that your waies are beyond all example why doe you then disturb the dead and challenge them to testify in these affairs that they are ignorant of Or why doe you seek the living amongst the dead and depart from the living God to dead Idols to relieve you Then you bring forth many evill surmisings as how apt Princes are to break such accommodations and how easy t is for them page 29. and in proving these you are as a bird wandring from her nest you have forgotten your resting place and being in a darke wildernesse you are pursued by fear and wrath on every side I will not follow you in you wanderings but give you sight of your condition in these few observations First You looke upon all past passages and present actions in this Kingdome in the darknesse of man not in the light of God in the weaknesse instability and unfaithfulnesse of wicked man not in the strength stability and faithfulnesse of a righteous God If you would see the peace of God in this agreement though covered with rags you would rejoyce in it and blesse it and if you saw God bringing down wicked powers and preventing of them in an evil course you would rest in the worke of the Lord and know God that hath done it is faithfull and wil doe it still If you saw the justice of God against tyranny and oppression you would know that justice is eternal and will for ever secure us or if you saw God give us these concessions and grants from the King God disposing his heart by fear or love and could say 't is the Lord that doth it you might think he will continue them to us or if he take them away 't is to give us better If you did see the heart of the King is in the hand of the Lord and 't is by him he yeelds to what he yeelds you would rest in it that the same hand will cause him to doe more or if you saw God hath taken the King into his power and so the whole Nation that God hath taken his great Reign the power of God is come forth to sway the Scepter then you would conclude that Satan shall not misleade the King to be treacherous and false to us But you behold things as they are in the wicked one and there you finde nothing but curses feares troubles and it 's best for you that you might by that be led to the Lord But for the present you see things onely in a carnall eye and not with a spiritual and so with an evil eye which is the reason you cannot see your rock the goodnesse of God Secondly You doe declare by your fears and expresly by words that those things that the Parliament now obtains of the King in the way you behold them that they are forced things not naturall but violent and so not durable that they are unjust and oppressing and so not lasting for if you could looke upon them as naturall or right and just you had reason to think they were lasting for God is the protector of just things and stand firm against all the power of hel and if they were so in you and them or as far as they are so all things that appeare against them will be dasht in pieces Justice being an invincible Rock but you are extreame sensible of their going back againe to the King from whence they came and returning to their originall If you did indeed believe that the originall of power were in the People these grants would rest with you and if there be any more behinde you might be perswaded they would freely follow these you have already for things naturally or by the appointment of God run to their center But it seems you finde no peace in these and complain of the danger you are in of losing of them which shews those things have no good bottome or foundation in you And know this that these violent courses that you are upon of disclaiming and renouncing all dependance on the King or accord with him and an utter rejection expulsion and deposure either of his whole race and all that claim it upon the same account of right or at least of his particular Person and execution of justice upon him page 28. wil not secure what you have got but rather it is the way to lose them and set up Princes in a higher way then ever for all things being by force compelled from their nature that force being removed they returne with the greater earnestnesse and nothing that is violent can be perpetuall Besides Hee that will save his life shall lose it especially when it is going and men use wicked waies to uphold their tottering state then it goes as wee say with a vengeance and that is your condition God sayes in your hearts and consciences your standing is corrupt and ungodly and he hath a quarrel against it and it must fall The rumour of your fall In respect of your present greatnesse sounds in your bosomes and it is that which puts you upon these courses to save your selves which will hasten your fall Thirdly Your deep sense that you have of the Kings recovering what
afraid We know none can hurt us having Salvation for wals and bulwarkes and can and doe live in the face of hell death Devils and not be disturbed yea seeke no other protection then the arme of God They are the sinners in Sion that are afraid We that are the people of God dwell in that mountaine where there is no hurtfull thing Our City gates stand open night and day and we feare no surprizes no designes can betray us we are not troubled to shut our gates to keepe out death evill flyes from us we need no black designs against our enemies to save our selves we do declare against all that walk in a way contrary to this That their wisdom is not from above not pure so not peaceable but is earthly carnally sensuall and devilish In this perplexed state you are in is seene your judgement is begun you have left God and he hath left you to these tormenting feares this is the wrath that was threatned upon you you are seeking selfe-safety t is your businesse therefore you uphold your Army to preserve the lives of the godly party and safety flyes from you God lookes every way upon you with sadnesse and wrath t is your wickednesse to thinke of or speake of safety in a worldly state you have beene taught otherwise and know you shall never have it you thinke you may use the meanes no all meanes are wicked that have an end contrary to the revealed will of God and this hath beene told your hearts that there 's no peace but in God This is a generall distemper and that which your friends are guilty of extreamly but T is the spirit of hondage to feare and not of love and a sound minde This passion sets you on work and therefore your businesse must needs be base and vile to act for ones selfe in any kinde is evill and un-christian but to aft for selfe-safety is so meane and poore a thing as it must needs produce most vile and absurd actions It is of all affections the unworthiest a deepe pit and causes blacke horrid and foule things I 'le shew you a little that rest and peace which we enjoy that security which you have turned your backes upon in refusing the Lord and for want of it are groping in these darke waves of yours First I feare no party nor interest because I love all I am reconciled to all and all are reconciled to me I have enmity to none but the son of perdition I oppose nothing but destruction and therfore nothing opposes me T is enmity begets insecurity and while men live in the flesh and in enmity to any party or interest in a privace divided and selfe good there will be perpetuall wars and strife except that particular should quite ruine all other parts and live alone which the universall must not will not suffer for the admitting a part to eate up and devoure others were to destroy the whole which is God and such a minde in any part doth not onely fight with another part but against the whole and so every faction of men striving to make themselves absolute do directly warre against God who is love peace and a generall good gives being to all and cherishes all and therefore in such opposition of fellow members and of God the God of peace and union there can be no peace nor securicy But we being enlarged into the largenesse of God and comprehending all things in our bosomes by the divine spirit are at rest with all and delight in all for we know nothing but what 's in our hearts Kings Nobles are much beloved because they are in us of us one with us we being Kings and Lords by the anointing of God Secondly We inherit all things having overcome we are free the Sons of God and all things are given unto us are our owne for our use the greatest as well as the least and therefore feare nothing being Lords of all To be in a state apprehensive of danger is to be a servant and while servants are quarrelling one with another beating one another their Lord is absent and they are in danger one of another This is the condition of all the world and of you in the Army and therefore are farre from Lordship true spirituall reigning yea hell deaths destruction it selfe is ours and doth us service In our great houses there are vessels of honour and of dishonour both usefull and profitable Captivity is become our captive death is become life confusion hath its beauty they are all excellent as wee in our house dispose of them and enjoy them our interest is publique extends to all and all are our interest Thirdly We live in heaven peace is in our wals and plenty in our palaces that word is performed to us They shall see evill no more wee know no evill in our Paradise not eating of the forbidden fruit all is good in all we see a smiling bright sweet face of majesty Wee live upon Mount Zion and it is large enough to receive our souls bodies estates lives families all is taken within the Gates of the Holy City and this City reaches all over the earth Here we enjoy all things all persons all actions we never goe out of it but live in the peace and safety of it continually And here there is no more curse nor death sorrow and sighing flee from us God wipes all tears from our eyes and enjoying this and all in this in truth and power we need no defence no safety but our owne rocke Our house which is from heaven Fourthly I feare nothing in the world because Greater is he that is in us then he that is in the world I have overcome the world it is at my feet I trample upon it If you finde any world in me you shall doe me right to afflict it break it Let it suffer t is righteous it should I would have no worldly thing that lives out of God have rest it s against my life and principle and by this I doe overcome it and shall never be troubled for the losse of it for I would have no inheritance no life or being but in the eternall world The world I know it is a poore shadow a fading thing and is onely terrible in the darke there 's nothing in it but it is more excellently and mightily in us in God Men Kings Emperours as they are in an earthly state we know they are wormes that shall dye mortals and trouble they may themselves not us They are not worthy of a caution to them that live above them or take heed Have they power so have we everlasting power and either theirs is one with ours or infinitely short of it you shew your selves weake and under them when you feare them Have they policy wisedome we have treasures either theirs is ours or else we can make fooles of them if they act not in our light we are and can when we will goe beyond them
you if you repent not but for the present occasion t is said there they shall be Truce-breakers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against accommodation no treaty no agreement Or breakers of Covenant and then it followes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Accusers and at this you are exquisite Thirdly That Covenants being the strength of humane societies and so great bulwarks of the world degenerated or apostasied Religion is the great engine of Gods wrath appointed to breake them downe Solemne Oaths and Covenants are able to hold most mens consciences but men heightned by Religion into the forms of the spirit doing things by immediate direction from God carrying a glorious presence of God before them affirming that they are called by God to doe some speciall worke in the world these can easily mount above the highest forts of Oaths and trample them under foot presently Men that have tasted of these high things and begin to make them serviceable to worldly ends they are such cunning pick-locks that they can finde a way through all dores to come to the treasures of power and authority A people that have had a savour of heavenly things in a fleshly way turne them loose into the world and they 'l teare it up by the roots they are whetted for destructions such as are spoken of Ezek. 21.31 Brutish men skilfull to destroy such wicked spirits are now abroad that are brutish spare not the holiest nor honourablest things Kings Lords Ministers Scriptures Ordinances Oaths Covenants lay all waste and yet in the greatest brutishinesse skilfull though there be the most sensuall and beastly confusion yet they shall doe it artificially skilfully say t is for God justice religion c. and that they doe it by the power of Christ and the spirit of God in religious zeale c. and so exact that they will not be knowne from builders restorers reformers But the holy good wise mercifull spirit of the living God the Father of mercies will in his owne light condemne this uncleane spirit and drive him out of the land Having cleared your way to what you have to propose you give us your apprehensions of the remedy page 60. your first is to lay aside this evil and dangerous Treaty This is a strange remedy against civil warres to lay aside treating Then you require that the Kings demands be rejected especially that of his restitution to London This is very terrible to you that the King should recover any strength no keepe him downe as long as you can let him not rise how far is this from the power of godlines oracting in the power of God a poore pusillanimous cowardly worldly policy you dare not thinke of the King getting any power for then you know you durst not deale with him not barely in the power of God but he a prisoner and you free having an Army at your command you dare accuse him if he were in power you would shrinke out of the Kingdome whereas if you lived in the power of God you might trample upon Thrones if he were wicked pul him from his greatest glory and binde him in chains Secondly you would have that bargaining proposition laid aside and would have all justice done immediatly from the judiciall power of the Kingdome the Parliament and not by grant from the King you doe the King a courtesy in that and this being done you wish moderation and mercy not as long as there be any apprehension of fear there 's little mercy from fearful enemies mercy is in Breasts that are strong and mighty But page 62. you come to the marrow of the businesse to propound high things that sha1l reach us peace with God and quiet amongst men There was never such a mocking of God since the world stood for men that have professed Christ our peace so long as you have done should now tall from that atonement which you only talked of had not in power to offer up to God the bloud of men the bloud of men already in affliction the bloud of their enemies and that upon such principles to secure themselves to obtain and keep self-advantages 't is such a sacrifice as was never yet by the darkest heathens invented if you had covertly sought revenge upon him c. you had had some equals and examples for your fact but to doe the same thing in feare and revenge to remove an adversary and boldly impudently to bring it to God as a sacrifice to appease his displeasure and expiate sin is an unparalel'd wickednes and a project as foolishly contriv'd to quiet the people by taking away a Prince beloved of his people indeer'd to them by his sufferings whose government though ful of weaknes was far better then those that succed him a Prince strong in the affection of his Subjects and forain alliance and then when he is in a yeelding way to peace to give satisfaction to his Subjects yea when he is upon an agreement then to seeke the removal of him by death or deposure against the desires of the bodie of the Kingdome and of their representatives in Parliament upon the foul and black designs of a few unbelieving people that this should be a way to quiet the Kingdome it 's as far from policy as the other is from piety But to your Proposals first you propound That that capitall and grand author of our troubles the Person of the King may be brought to justice for the treason blood c. Two things we wil consider First Your Justice Secondly The person upon whom 't is to be administred First 'T is not justice that you desire it appears so to your blinde and deceived hearts but in the face of God it appears farre otherwise To tel you that justice must be done by law and that no law takes hold of the King will not convince you though to others it wil manifest that you that pretend to contend for the laws are the greatest violaters of them But the searcher of hearts will deale otherwise with you and shew you what 's within you and discover the falshood and injustice of your spirits First Know this for you have felt it that God hath a controversy with you that though you have done many things for him yet you are not perfect but there is some wicked thing to be purged out of you which is your glorying in that fleshly way in which you are God hath called you out of it and you have refused him and sunke down deeper into it blessing add strengthning your selves in it being unwilling to strip your selves naked of those carnal1 helps and advantages that you were engaged to or to suffer a losse of those glorious favours that you have received that you might have better but loving this present evil world and despising the Spirit of God and refusing his safety alone and to rest and live under his wings abhorring to cease acting in the flesh and to be perfected by sufferings You have by this joyned your selves
to the prince of darknesse departed from God to the God of this world by which Satan hath betrayed you spoyled all your glory gotten those good things God gave you into his possession and imployes them against the Lord and takes the poor people of God captive to serve in the foule and base waies of the world and the Lord now comes for justice against this spirituall wickednesse in places you have dealt against small petty corruptions and have seen them executed but now the devil hath corrupted all your gifts and graces and spilt the bloud of Christ who was a babe in you and brought great spirituall mischiefs upon you death wrath trouble absence of God deprived you of your freedome with God c. now God cals for justice against this destroyer of such precious beginnings of godlinesse and creates trouble in your spirit for want of it but this cunning serpent beguiles you and sets up a shadow of an enemy a King without as an object to your justice to save himselfe and all his villany from the justice of God within Poor beguild wretches you are not yet acquainted with his wiles you are turned out of the righteous way and will never finde peace till you come to see all those evils in your selves in truth which are in shew and shadow in the King and when the sword of the Spirit which cuts inwardly is turned against those enemies of God you will doe justice indeed Secondly This way of acting in you for justice is great apostacy for a company of men that have been led up into such high things of God to live in God and doe all things in the Spirit of God now to fall down into the way of heathens to lay the weight of their spirits upon so poor a thing as moral justice and to daunce after the example or take for their guide and rule the blinde actings of Gentiles that lived in the world without God and onely sought an outward freedome and to prostitute the Spirit of God to such Common and prophane things is exceeding unworthy of the profession of a Christian and a going back from Canaan to Aegypt Thirdly Your Justice is but a bare name or a heathen covering borrowed from men to hide your shame your malice unbeliefe feare and such like monstrous lusts which you know you are not free from and though you would not see you shall see and the world shall see too that you are as other men are and take up the lees and dregs of the world cunning waies to remove adversaries to take away those that stand in your way and paint them over with the names of justice security to the publique interest and so act them in the face of the Sunne Take but this instance hundreds of the Kings party the basest and worst of them who have borne armes for the King are yet admitted into your Army joyned with you in engagements because it is for your advantage end the strengthning your selves to let goe the principal and punish inferiour instruments say you is not just And so spare inferiours to serve us and punish great ones to secure our selves of them it is great injustice It is an old deceit of justice to lay hold of small offendors and let goe the great ones that is grosse and common but to accept the small ones into alliance favour and service because we want their bodies and to seeke the ruine of great ones because we would have their honours places and estates is a new wickednesse a path not trodden in before high flying and gallant cruelty spare rogues slaves to doe slavish worke men of no conscience worth nor honesty and strike at a Prince standing for his interest engaged by conscience and honour This is your justice Now for the King against whom you goe in ful cry I have this to say to check your violent course First That he had and hath a true lawful right in the Kingdome and to the Kingdome as good as any man hath to any thing he possesses his crown revenue and dignity is as righteously his birth-right and inheritance as anothers house or land and he that denies this is wilfully blinde As he hath a right to his Crown and Subjects so it is his Peoples right to have a King I confesse it my birth-right to have relation to a King to live under a great Monarch and if I am denyed it I am denyed my native right and so my pleasure of honouring and serving him and receiving honour from him and many and great profits comming by him And he having a right to his Crown and his People a right to him it was as just for him and his party to stand for their right as for any other party to uphold theirs It is true his interest and Parliaments and Peoples were all in the darke and none could distinctly divide one from another or clearly judge which is which and so ordained by God for the fall of them as they stood in a worldly way It is true the King abused his interest and power and in the exercise of it transgressed against GOD and his People And it is as true when the Parliament came to plead their right they were to seeke and did in contending for it sinne against GOD and the King so that both have a right both have some reason to contend for their right but both have erred in maintaining their rights And therefore the King is not free from sinne alone nor guilty alone nor his party The Parliament not free alone nor guilty alone but each side have some good and evill mingled together you nor they perfectly righteous all have transgressed and gone out of the way and therefore t is pride and partiality in you to say he is guilty of all the bloud rapine c. No all are guilty We must say There it none righteous no not one You may say he was first guilty or most guilty because he is first and greatest and so hath suffered first most but to clear your selves as pure only condemn others as guilty onely is pride and uncharitablenesse and all proceedings upon this ground are acts of hostility and a continued prosecution of the old difference Thirdly I say that the King in his present state is more righteous then you he now suffers and acts and is in his present way the most just in the Kingdome First He hath confessd his errour though you wickedly urge it against him and though it be in weaknesse yet the Lord is tender of him in it He hath expresly own'd his sinne and the Parliament implicitly in yeilding to treat with him and shewing a readinesse to receive him to favour T is in their hearts that they were rash violent and too captious and ready to take advantages against the King being spurd on by some carnall and smister ends and so farre as they incline to acknowledge their errours they are in a way to pardon Onely