up Arms and upon which We were induced to joyn with them from which We have not hitherto declined and We trust through Gods grace never shall We remember That when the King with a multitude of Armed men demanded but a small number in comparison of those now secluded by you of the Members of Parliament It was deemed such an horrid violation of their Priviledges and an act so injurious and destructive to the good of the Kingdom as had not then any precedent or parallel And of what nature it was judged to be by a Parliament then free and full may appear by the Order of the House of Commons of January 3. 1641. When hearing but of a purpose in the King to seize upon some of their Members they Declared If any Person whatsoever shall offer to Arrest or Detain the Person of any Member of this House without first acquainting this House therewith and receiving further Order from this House That it is lawfull for such Member or any Person to assist him and to stand upon his or their Guard of Defence and to make resistance according to the Protestation taken to Defend the Priviledges of Parliament and by the Declaration of January 17. 1641. That the Arresting of any Member of Parliament by any Warrant whatsoever without a Legall proceeding against them and without consent of that House whereof such Person is a Member is against the Liberty of the Subject and a breach of Priviledge of Parliament And the Person which shall Arrest any of these Persons or any other Member of the Parliament is Declared a publick Enemy of the Common-wealth And this violation of their Priviledges was that which did occasion first a Guard and was afterwards one Reason of raising an Army But that an Army thus raised by their Authority and for their Preservation should now so far exceed that Act which was then esteemed without parallel could hardly have been imagined by us had not our eyes been Witnesses of it And although both Houses of Parliament who are joyntly together with the King intrusted with the Supream Authority of the Kingdom saw cause to take up Armes for their own Defence against the attempts made upon them by the King and his evil Councellours and for the Preservation of the Protestant Religion established which was then indangered by the growth of severall Errours and Innovations and for the securing of the Fundamentall Laws and Constitutions of the Kingdom which they apprehended then to be undermined by severall illegall incroachments Yet this cannot be pleaded as any justification or precedent for you who in reference to the Power of Magistracy are but private persons to usurp an Authority over King and Parliament and to intermeddle with affairs which belong not to you For the Laws of God Nature and Nations together with the Dictates of Reason and the common consent of all Casuists allow that to those which are intrusted with managing the Supream Authority of a State or Kingdom which they do not allow to a multitude of private persons though they have strength in their hands to effect it And moreover although the Parliament thus took up Arms for the defence of their Persons and Priviledges and the Preservation of Religion Laws and Liberties Yet was it not their intention thereby to do violence to the Person of the King or devest him of his Regall Authority and what of right belongeth to him as appears by their many Declarations in that behalf Much lesse was it their purpose to subvert and overthrow the whole frame and fundamentall constitution of the Government of the Kingdbm or to give power and authority to any persons whatsoever so to do And therefore we apprehend our selves obliged thus to appear for the maintenance of our Religion Laws and Liberties together with the Constitution Power and Priviledges of Parliament and the setled Government of the Kingdom both on the one hand against all Malignant Counsells and Designes for the introduction of an Arbitrary and Tyrannical power in the King and on the other hand against all irregular licentious proceedings of private Persons tending to the subversion of them and to the introduction of Anarchy Confusion Prophanesse and Irreligion And we are the more strongly engaged thus to adhere firmly to these our former just Principles by reason of the severall Oaths and Covenants generally taken throughout the Kingdom as by the Protestation of May 5. 1641. wherein we do in the presence of Almighty God promise vow and protest according to the duty of our Allegiance to maintain and defend with our lives power and estates His Majesties Royall Person Honour and Estate and the Power and Priviledges of Parliament As also by the Vow and Covenant wherein the Lords and Commons have declared that there had been a treacherous and horrid design to surprize the Cities of London and Westminster with the Suburbs and by Arms to force the Parliament And finding by constant experience that many wayes of force and treachery are continually attempted c. Required That all that are true-hearted and lovers of their Country should binde themselves each to other in that sacred Vow and Covenant wherein we declare our abhorring and detesting the said wicked and treacherous designe and that we would according to our power and vocation oppose and resist the same and all other of the like nature And likewise by the Solemn League and Covenant for the Reformation and defence of Religion the Honour and Happinesse of the King the Peace and Safety of the Kingdomes c. Wherein we have Covenanted That we will sincerely really and constantly in our severall Vocations endeavour to preserve the Rights and Priviledges of the Parliaments and Preserve and Defend the Kings Majesties Person and Authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms that the World may bear witnesse with our Consciences of our Loyalty and that we have no thoughts or intentions to diminish His Majesties just power and greatnesse In all which obligations though the matter of them may be in part of Civil concernment yet the bond and tye of an Oath and Covenant is Religious sacred and inviolable Which though some may esteem no more then an Almanack out of date yet we look upon it as the Oath of GOD in whose Name we have sworn and who will certainly require it at our hands We know with what a jealous eye and severe hand the LORD avenged the quarrel of his Covenant made by Zedekiah to the King of Babylon though extorted from him and prejudiciall to him Shall he prosper saith God shall he escape that doth such things Or shall he break the Covenant and be delivered As I live saith the Lord seeing he despised the Oath by breaking the Covenant when so he had given his hand he shall not escape Therefore thus saith the Lord God As I live surely mine Oath that he hath despised and my Covenant that he hath broken even
God suffers men to prosper in sinfull courses Wise Solomon tels us from his own experience that there be somtimes just men to whom it happeneth according to the work of the wicked again There be wicked men to whom it happeneth according to the work of the righteous There is a just man that perisheth in his righteousnesse and there is a wicked man that prelongeth his life in his wickednesse But because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily shall therefore the heart of the sonnes of men be fully set in them to do evil God forbid And therfore the Providence of God which is so often pleaded in justification of your wayes is no safe rule to walk by especially in such acts as the Word of God condems God doth not approve the practise of whatsoever his Providence doth permit When David in the cave had an opportunity to destroy Saul who was then in actuall pursuance of him for his life Davids men make use of such an Argument from Providence Behold say they the day of which the Lord said unto thee Behold I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand that thou mayest do to him as it shall seem good unto thee but David neither durst himself nor would permit his men to make use thereof but saith The Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my Master the Lords Annointed to stretch forth my hand against him Again when David found Saul sleeping in his Trench behold a Providence might Abishai have said God saith he hath delivered thine enemy into thine hand this day now therefore let me smite him c. No saith David Destroy him not for who can stretch forth his hand against the Lords Anointed and be guiltless But if to follow Providence had bin a sufficient warrant David should have taken another course In summe if this be a good warrant nothing can be a sin for nothing can come to passe at all unlesse the permissive Providence of God afford an opportunity Nor is it safe to be guided by Impulses of Spirit or pretended impressions on your hearts without or against the rule of Gods written Word For by this means the temptations of Satan and the motions of Gods spirit will be put in equall ballance And we desire you likewise to consider whether any History sacred or profane recordeth any example of an impulse of spirit falling upon Multitudes of Persons at the same time putting them all at once upon performances contrary to morrall Precepts as also whether such Persons who are acted by an impulse of spirit can Command others who want it nay who do not so much as pretend to have it to do that unto which themselves pretend to be so incited We know that it is the duty of Christians to try such instigations by the Word of God and examine how well they agree thereunto that they may accordingly judge whether it be the voice of God or the voice of Satan and of their own corrupt hearts that prompteth them To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this Word it is because there is no light in them The Apostle Peter directs the Jews to whom he wrote to adhere to the word written as to a more sure word of Prophesie By the same Rule whereby we must try the spirits we must also try the impulses of spirit otherwise we do exceedngly strengthen the divils hands against our own souls and tempt him to tempt us If beyond all this you plead Necessity of doing thus least what you pretend as a glorious work might else miscarry and therefore venture on these wayes which are by your selves confessed to be irregular and not justifiable We answer that no necessity can oblige a man to sinne God stands not in need of our sin to carry on his own work Will ye speak wickedly for God and talk deceitfully for him saith Job And yet this Plea of necessity is of the lesse weight in your case because we fear the ends you aim at are no more justifiable then the means you use and the necessity pleaded is either meerly pretended or at least contracted by your own miscarriages But if at any time a Precept of God may be dispensed with upon a Necessity Yet we suppose your selves will grant That this necessity must be Absolute Present and Clear not Doubtful Uncertain and Conjectural as that which is alledged in your case must needs be it being discerned onely by your selves and your own party It is most apparent to us that there was of late no necessity at all of these your irregular practices the Parliament being till forced by you ful and free acting what was Covenanted for and if we mistake not what was agreed upon long before by the Parliaments of both Kingdoms Besides you have engaged your selves by an Oath to preserve his Majesties person and the Priviledges of Parliament and this is most clear That no Necessity can justifie Perjury or dispence with lawful Oaths That dreadful flying Roll being ready to seise upon him that sweareth falsly by the Name of God An example of which severe judgement from God for the violation of an Oath you haue in Saul who though he did out of a good intention in his zeal to the children of Israel slay the Gibeonites a people formerly accursed and who had fallaciously procured a Covenant from Joshua above two hundred years before yet for Sauls breaking of that Covenant was the whole Kingdom of Israel and his posterity in particular most severely punished by God We do therefore upon the whole matter seriously beseech you as in the sight of God to recede from these evil wayes and contain your selves within your own bounds to learn John Baptists Lesson for Soldiers Do violence to no man or put no man in fear neither accuse any man falsly and be content with your wages But if you persist in these wayes behold you have sinned against the Lord and be sure your sin will finde you out and take heed lest when the hand of God shall overtake you and turn the wheel upon you you be found to suffer both as evil doers and as busie-bodies in other mens matters And when you shall thus return to your duty as we shall have cause to blesse God for it so we shall not need to fear those threatnings which some of us have received we say not from your selves yet from Messengers directed as they informed us immediately from your selves to some of us That if we persist to stir up the people to Sedition for so it seems our bewailing your sins before the Lord is interpreted and Soldiers do us a mischief we may thank our selves That if there follow another War you will give quarter to none that stands against you That you will spare neither man woman nor childe English or Sranger But if these our Exhortations prevail not we have discharged
A serious and Faithfull REPRESENTATION Of the Judgements of MINISTERS OF THE GOSPEL Within the PROVINCE of LONDON Contained In a Letter from them to the General and his Councell of War Delivered to his EXCELLENCE by some of the Subscribers Ian. 18 1649. Proverbs 24. 11 12. If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death and those that are ready to be slain If thou sayest Behold we know it not doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it and he that keepeth thy soul doth not he know it and shall not he render to every man according to his works Printed at London and Re-printed at Edinburgh by Evan Tyler Printer to the Kings most Excellent Majestie 1649. A LETTER From Ministers of the Gospel within the Province of LONDON whose Names are Subscribed Delivered to His Excellency by some of the Subscribers January 18. 1649. With desire to have it communicated to the Generall Councell of the ARMY May it please your Excellency with those of your Councell WHereas of late divers Applications have been made as well in writing as by verball Messages inviting the Ministers of London or some of them to meet with the Officers of the Army in their consultations about matters of Religion We Ministers of the Gospel within the Province of London hold it our Dutie as then to refuse any such meeting as was proposed so now to give your Lordship and your Councell the Reasons of that Refusall least by our silence we should seem to be wanting in that ingenuity and Candor which becomes all but especially the Ministers of Jesus Christ And understanding that some of our Brethren at one Conference before your Lordship and some of your Councell a and at another with some of your chief Officers b have already manifested their dislike both of your late Actions towards many of the Worthy Members of the Honourable House of Commons and what likewise you have published in your late Remonstrance and Declaration as your intention for setling the Affairs of the Kingdom as we were informed by some of them and willed thus to signifie We thought fit hereby to manifest our Concurrence with those our Reverend Brethern Humbly desiring That while we use that Plainnesse and Freedom which becometh the Abassadors of Christ this our performance may not be misinterpreted either as a transgressing the Law of Christian meeknesse or an exceeding the Bounds of Ministeriall liberty We being commanded to cry aloud and to lift up our voices as Trumpets to shew the People their Transgressions and the house of Jacob their sins Had a Conference been desired with us onely to have given you resolution whether the wayes wherein at the present you are walking are agreeable to the Word of God which Case indeed had been sutable for private persons to have propounded and for Ministers of the Gospel to have resolved We should most willingly and freely have delivered our Judgements as our forementioned Brethren have done concerning these your practises and have given you this our Advice grounded upon Scripture Namely That in stead of proceeding further in such unwarrantable courses you should have testified your timely and godly sorrow for what so clearly against the direct Rule of the Word you have already acted And if onely for the clearing of this Case a Conference had been desired It was from the first professed that we should be ready and willing to meet where and with whomsoever to assert and maintain our Judgemnet therein But as if the justnesse of your way were already granted by us We were onely invited to contribute our assistance in prosecution of what you had undertaken which we conceive to be out of your Sphere And for us to have joyned in any consultation of this nature would have made us accessary unto them guilty of the evill which is in them and even partakers of other mens sinnes contrary to the Apostles rule who bids us abstain even from all appearance of evill and have no fellowship with the unfruitfull works of darknesse but reprove them rather It is already sufficiently known besides all former miscarriages what Attempts of late have been put in practice against lawfull Authority Especially by your late Remonstrance and Declaration published in opposition to the proceedings of Parliament As also by seizing and imprisoning the Kings person without the knowledge and consent of Parliament and by that late unparalled violence offered to the Members of it forcibly hindering above one hundred of them if we mistake not the number from sitting in Parliament Imprisoning many of their Persons though many of them are known to us to be men of eminent Worth and Intergrity and who have given most ample Testimony of their reall Affections to the good of the Kingdom and besides all this there is an intent of Framing and contriving a new module aswell of the Laws and Government of the Kingdom as of the Constitution of a new kinde of Representative as you call it in stead of this and all future Parliaments and this to be Subscribed throughout the Kingdom under the notion of an Agreement of the People as is Declared in your late Remonstrance of November 16. 1648. page 67. All which practices we cannot but judge to be manifestly opposite to the lawfull Authority of those Magistrates which God hath set over us and to the Duty and Obedience which by the Lawes of God and Man and by our manifold Oathes and Covenants we stand obliged to render to them And therefore we judge it our Duty rather to testifie our utter dislike and detestation then to give any though but implicite and interpretative approbation of them We remember the advice of Solomon Fear thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change And that of Paul Withdraw from every Brother that walketh * disorderly and not according to the Traditions which you have received of us Of which this is one Put them in minde to be subject to Principalities and Powers and to obey Magistrates And Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers for there is no power but of God the Powers that be are Ordained of God whosoever therefore resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation The fear of God therefore whose Ordinance is violated when Magistracy is opposed makes us afraid of medling with those who without any colour of Legall Authority meerly upon the presumption of Strength shall attempt such Changes as these are Aâ—â— We cannot but be deeply affected with grief and astonishment to see that an Army raised by Authority of Parliament for the preservation of the Priviledges thereof and of our Religion Laws and Liberties should contrary to their Trust and many Ingagements do that which tends to the manifest subversion of them all We have not forgotten those declared Grounds and Principles upon which the Parliament first took
it will I recompense upon his own head We dare not therefore when we have lift up our hands to the most High God by the violation of a more righteous Oath provoke the wrath of the LORD against us who is the searcher of all hearts and to whom we must give an Accompt at the Great Day Instead therefore of joyning in Consultation with you We do earnestly intreat you in the name of our Lord and Master Jesus Christ whose Ambassadors we are That you would commune with your own hearts Consider the evil of your present wayes and turn from them Remember from whence you are fallen and repent and do your first works You were once honourable and precious in the eyes of us and others of Gods servants while you kept in Gods way and within your own spheare you had our hearts our help and our Prayers for successe therein But alas you have eclipsed your own glory and brought a Cloud over all your excellencies You are now walking in by-paths of your own wherein we dare not say The blessing of the Lord be upon you We blesse you in the name of the Lord nor bid you God speed lest we be partakers of your evil deeds Instead of preserving the Truth and purity of Religion and the Worship of God we fear you are opening a door to desperate and damnable Errors and Heresies against the Truth of God and to many licentious and wicked practises against the worship and ways of God How is Religion made to stink by reason of your mis-carriages and like to become a scorn and a reproach in all the Christian world How are the faces of Gods faithfull servants covered with shame and their hearts filled with sorrow and grief 〈◊〉 thereof How is the Golden Cord of Government broken in sunder the Honour and Authority of Magistracy laid in the dust How hath the Parliament which sustained the force and opposition of professed Enemies for many years been made contemptible and torn in pieces by professed friends in one day You cannot but know how fully and frequently Gods Word commandeth and inforceth obedience submission to Magistrates forbidding also and condemning and that under pain of damnation such practises as these of yours are As likewise what severe threatnings and exemplary judgements from God have been denounced against and inflicted on the Contemners and Opposers of this his Ordinance You know what a Brand the Apostle Iude sets upon those that despise dominion and speak evil of Dignities Wo unto them saith he for they have gone in the way of Cain and run greedily after the errour of Balaam for a reward and perished in the gain-saying of Corah You know the sad examples of Corah Dathan and Abiram in their mutinous Rebellion Levelling design against Magistracy and Ministry in the Persons of Moses and Aaron You take too much upon you said they to Moses and Aaron Seeing all the Congregation are holy Wherefore then lift you up your selves above the Congregation of the Lord Which Moses fears not to call A gathering together against the Lord and warnes the people to avoid their company Depart from the tents of these wicked men and touch nothing of theirs least ye be consumed in all their sins After which the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up with all that appertained to them And yet there were in that Rebellion a considerable number of eminent men two hundred and fifty Princes of the Assembly famous in the Congregation men of Renown And consonant to the tenour of the Scriptures herein hath alway been the constant judgement and doctrine of Protestant Divines both at home and abroad with whose judgements we do fully concur disclaiming detesting and abhorring the wicked and bloody Tenents and Practises of Jesuits the worst of Papists concerning the opposing of lawfull Magistrates by private Persons and the murthering of Kings by any though under the most specious and colourable pretences Which Jesuiticall Principles and Counsels we fear may have too great a concurrence with if not an influence upon these late transactions Now we desire you seriously and as in the sight of God to examine your own hearts and ways and to deal with your selves as sometimes Nathan did with David Put case some other party of men in the Kingdom whose principles had not been concurrent with yours should have attempted acts of such a nature as those that you have performed as seising the Kings Person and removing him from place to place without and against his and the Parliaments consent would it not have been judged by you an intolerable contempt both of his and their authority Put case they and their confederates had attempted the removall of the Parliaments Guards secured or inhibited a great number of their Members contrived and promoted new Modules of their own destructive to the being both of this and all other Parliaments with other acts of the like nature we appeal to your own consciences what clamours and accusations against them would from your selves have proceeded And if in other Persons you would condemn the Fact the Lord grant you hearts to see who are the men Was it once a crime of the higstest nature to endeavour the subversion of the fundamentall Laws of the Kingdom to disswade the calling or perswade the dissolution of Parliaments to countenance Arminians or connive at Papists and can it be now commendable to contrive the subversion of the whole Laws and Government of the Kingdom all at once and instead of a few errours to allow as we fear some amongst you indeavour a totall impunity and universall Toleration of all Religions Be not deceived God is not mocked He knows how frequently you condemn that as a great crime in others which you would have accounted a vertue in your selves But God who is no respecter of Persons alloweth no such rule Those who knowing the judgement of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death not onely do the same things but have pleasure in or consent with them that do them in judging another condemn themselves And thinkest thou this O man that judgest them which do such things and doest the same that thou shalt escape the judgement of God No surely we are sure the Judgement of God is according to truth against them which commit such things Who will render to every man according to his deeds For there is no respect of persons with God We desire that you would not be too confident on former Successes If God have made you prosper while you were in His way this can be no warrant for you to walk in wayes of your own and promise your selves Successe therein Nay if through Gods permission for reasons best known to himself you have had or may have Successe in an evil way yet is it no justification thereof nor incouragement to proceed therein Yea you know that it is one of the greatest Judgements when